Meet FinanzSim: My Educational Financial Management Simulator
An AI-powered web app I built to help business students master financial concepts through hands-on simulation.
What Is FinanzSim?
FinanzSim is an interactive web-based simulator designed specifically for first-year Business Studies students. The application allows learners to experience the complexities of managing a company’s finances across multiple years, making strategic decisions and observing their real-time impact on key financial indicators.
Think of it as a sandbox where students can safely experiment with financial strategies, learn from their mistakes, and receive instant AI-generated feedback without any real-world consequences.
Objectives
I built FinanzSim with several clear goals in mind:
- Bridge Theory and Practice — Transform abstract financial formulas into tangible, interactive experiences that students can explore hands-on.
- Develop Strategic Thinking — Help students understand how decisions about pricing, costs, investments, and financing ripple through the entire financial structure of a business.
- Provide Instant Feedback — Leverage AI to deliver personalised, real-time analysis after each simulated year, as if they had a virtual professor by their side.
- Demystify Financial Ratios — Make complex metrics like ROA, ROE, liquidity ratios, and leverage accessible through visual dashboards and clear explanations.
- Encourage Experimentation — Create a risk-free environment where making mistakes is part of the learning journey.
How It Works
Getting Started
- Choose Your Timeframe — Select how many years you want to simulate (from 1 to 12 years).
- Start with Initial Capital — Your company begins with a treasury of 100,000 €.
Year-by-Year Management
For each simulated year, you’ll make key business decisions:
| Decision | Description |
|---|---|
| Units Sold | How many units of product you expect to sell |
| Unit Price | Your selling price per unit |
| Variable Costs | Cost per unit produced |
| Fixed Costs | Overheads that don’t change with production volume |
| New Investment | Capital expenditure on assets |
| New Loans | Additional debt financing |
| New Equity | Fresh capital injection |
| Collection Days | How long customers take to pay you |
| Payment Days | How long you take to pay suppliers |
Real-Time Financial Analysis
After submitting your decisions for each year, FinanzSim calculates and displays:
- Income Statement — Revenue, EBIT, EBT, Net Income
- Balance Sheet — Assets, Liabilities, Equity
- Break-Even Analysis — How many units you need to sell to cover costs
- Key Ratios — ROA, ROE, Leverage, Liquidity, Solvency
- Cash Flow — For NPV calculations
- Working Capital Cycle (PMM) — Storage, manufacturing, sales, and collection periods
AI-Powered Professor Feedback
Here’s where it gets interesting! After each year, an AI professor analyses your results and provides:
- Commentary on your financial performance
- Identification of potential risks
- Suggestions for improvement
- Comparison to typical business benchmarks
Final Executive Report
Once you complete all simulation years, you can generate a comprehensive executive report that includes:
- Full performance analysis across all periods
- Net Present Value (NPV) of your company
- AI-generated strategic summary and recommendations
- Visual charts showing business evolution
Tech Stack
I built FinanzSim using a modern, performant tech stack:
Frontend
| Technology | Purpose |
|---|---|
| React 19 | UI component library with hooks for state management |
| TypeScript | Type-safe development with enhanced IDE support |
| Recharts | Beautiful, responsive charts for data visualisation |
| Vite | Lightning-fast development server and build tool |
Backend & AI
| Technology | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare Workers | Serverless edge computing for the API |
| Cloudflare Pages | Global CDN deployment |
| Google Gemini API | AI-powered financial analysis and feedback generation |
Deployment
| Technology | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Wrangler | Cloudflare’s CLI for managing Workers and Pages |
| Git | Version control |
About the Project
FinanzSim is a research pet project developed in collaboration with the Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism at the University of Alcalá (UAH) in Spain.
The aim is to explore how AI-enhanced interactive simulations can improve financial literacy amongst university students, making complex concepts more approachable and engaging.
Disclaimer
This application is an educational simulator with no commercial purposes. The AI-generated analyses are orientative and do not constitute professional financial advice. I am not responsible for misuse of the information, errors in AI responses, or service availability.
Final Thoughts
Building FinanzSim has been an incredibly rewarding experience. Combining my passion for education technology with practical financial concepts has created something that I genuinely believe helps students learn.
If you’re a student, educator, or just curious about business finances, I’d love to hear your feedback!