As a financial advisor for nearly 15 years, Erin Lozano became good at seeing patterns in the numbers she crunched. Overspending on clothes … again? Check for overspending in other areas. Spending more on luxury items than on educational entertainment for the kids? Budgets and values may need realignment.

These “life layer” patterns of personal finance emerged as Lozano organized her clients’ finances and taught them how to track and plan on their own, usually a three- to 12-month process.

Her online personal finance tool offers the same process while removing “the ‘me’ factor,” said Lozano, now chief operating officer of Santa Barbara-based Green Sherpa. The company unveiled a beta version of its software this summer.

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