Smart Expense Tracker

Project Overview

Smart Expense Tracker is a desktop application designed to help users manage personal finances by tracking income, expenses, and budgets. Built as part of a university course project, it provides a user-friendly interface for authenticated users to record financial transactions, edit records, view summaries, monitor recent activity, and receive budget alerts. The application ensures data integrity through robust validation, secure user authentication, and persistent storage in a MySQL database. All core features, including user management, transaction tracking, budget management, and alerts, are fully implemented, with a polished dark-themed UI.

Features

Implemented Features

• User Authentication:
  • Login system with username and password validation.
  • Passwords are masked (displayed as ****) in the profile view for security.
  • Session management to track logged-in users across application pages.
• Dashboard:
  • Displays a welcome message with the logged-in user’s username.
  • Shows financial summaries: total income, total expenses, and current balance.
  • Lists up to three recent transactions (mixed income and expense records) with details like amount, category/source, and date.
  • Displays budget alerts for categories where expenses exceed set budgets.
• Income Management:
  • Add, edit, and delete income records with amount, source (selected via dropdown from IncomeSource enum), and description.
  • View all incomes in a table with columns for ID, amount, source, date, description, and action buttons (Edit/Delete).
  • Real-time table updates after adding, editing, or deleting records.
• Expense Management:
  • Add, edit, and delete expenses with amount, category (selected via dropdown from ExpenseCategory enum), and description.
  • View all expenses in a table with columns for ID, amount, category, date, description, and action buttons.
  • Real-time table updates after modifications.
• Budget Management:
  • Add, edit, and delete budgets with amount, category (via ExpenseCategory enum), and period (Weekly/Monthly via BudgetPeriod enum).
  • View all budgets in a table with columns for ID, amount, category, period, and action buttons.
  • Real-time table updates after modifications.
• Budget Alerts:
  • Real-time notifications on the dashboard when expenses exceed budget limits for a category (e.g., “Budget exceeded for Food (MONTHLY): ₹8,000/₹5,000”).
• Profile Management:
  • View and update user details (username and password) with validation.
  • Secure password input using a password field.
• Logging:
  • Comprehensive logging of user actions (e.g., login, adding/editing/deleting transactions) and errors to logs.log using a custom logger.
• UI Design:
  • Dark-themed interface with consistent styling (Roboto font, #2B2D42 background, #206dc5 buttons).
  • Responsive layout with tables, forms, dropdowns, and navigation buttons across all pages.
  • Error messages displayed in the UI for user feedback.
  • Clear form buttons to reset input fields.

Planned Features

• Data Visualization:
  • Charts (e.g., pie chart for expense categories, line chart for spending trends).
• User Settings:
  • Configurable currency (currently fixed to ₹).
  • Theme toggling (dark/light modes).
• Enhanced Validation:
  • Disable action buttons when form fields are empty.
  • Confirmation dialogs for delete actions.
• Reporting:
  • Export financial summaries as PDF or CSV.

Technologies

• Java 21: Core programming language for application logic.
• JavaFX: Framework for building the graphical user interface.
• JDBC: Database connectivity for MySQL integration.
• MySQL: Relational database for persistent storage of users, incomes, expenses, and budgets.
• Maven: Build tool for dependency management and project configuration.
• Custom Logger: Logs actions and errors to logs/ for debugging and auditing.

Project Structure

Smart-Expense-Tracker/
├── src/
│   ├── main/
│   │   ├── java/com/bengregory/expensetracker/
│   │   │   ├── controller/
│   │   │   │   ├── DashboardController.java
│   │   │   │   ├── AddBudgetController.java
│   │   │   │   ├── AddIncomeController.java
│   │   │   │   ├── AddExpenseController.java
│   │   │   │   ├── ProfileController.java
│   │   │   │   ├── LoginController.java
│   │   │   │   ├── RegisterController.java
│   │   │   ├── dao/
│   │   │   │   ├── UserDAO.java
│   │   │   │   ├── IncomeDAO.java
│   │   │   │   ├── ExpenseDAO.java
│   │   │   │   ├── BudgetDAO.java
│   │   │   ├── model/
│   │   │   │   ├── User.java
│   │   │   │   ├── Income.java
│   │   │   │   ├── Expense.java
│   │   │   │   ├── Budget.java
│   │   │   ├── service/
│   │   │   │   ├── UserService.java
│   │   │   │   ├── IncomeService.java
│   │   │   │   ├── ExpenseService.java
│   │   │   │   ├── BudgetService.java
│   │   │   ├── util/
│   │   │   │   ├── CustomLogger.java
│   │   │   │   ├── DatabaseConnection.java
│   │   │   │   ├── SessionManager.java
│   │   │   │   ├── PasswordUtil.java
│   │   │   │   ├── ValidationUtil.java
│   │   │   │   ├── InvalidInputException.java
│   │   │   │   ├── DatabaseException.java
│   │   ├── resources/com/bengregory/expensetracker/view/
│   │   │   ├── dashboard.fxml
│   │   │   ├── add_income.fxml
│   │   │   ├── add_expense.fxml
│   │   │   ├── add_budget.fxml
│   │   │   ├── profile.fxml
│   │   │   ├── login.fxml
│   │   │   ├── register.fxml
│   │   │   ├── styles.css
│   ├── test/
│   │   ├── java/com/bengregory/expensetracker/
│   │   │   ├── dao/
│   │   │   │   ├── UserDAOTest.java
│   │   │   │   ├── IncomeDAOTest.java
│   │   │   │   ├── ExpenseDAOTest.java
│   │   │   │   ├── BudgetDAOTest.java
│   │   │   ├── util/
│   │   │   │   ├── DatabaseConnectionTest.java
├── pom.xml
├── README.md

Data Flow Diagram

Setup Instructions

1. Prerequisites:

   • Java 21 JDK
   • MySQL Server
   • Maven
   • IDE (e.g., IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse)
   • Scene Builder (for editing FXML files)

2. Clone Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/BenGJ10/Smart-Expense-Tracker.git
   cd Smart-Expense-Tracker

3. Database Setup:

   • Start MySQL server (e.g., brew services start mysql on macOS).
   • Create a database named expense_tracker_db.
   • Execute the following SQL to create tables:

     CREATE TABLE users (
         id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
         username VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
         password VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL
     );
     
     CREATE TABLE incomes (
         id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
         user_id INT,
         amount DOUBLE NOT NULL,
         source VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
         date DATETIME NOT NULL,
         description VARCHAR(255),
         FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id)
     );
     
     CREATE TABLE expenses (
         id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
         user_id INT,
         amount DOUBLE NOT NULL,
         category VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
         date DATETIME NOT NULL,
         description VARCHAR(255),
         FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id)
     );
     
     CREATE TABLE budgets (
         id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
         user_id INT,
         category VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
         amount DOUBLE NOT NULL,
         period VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
         date DATE NOT NULL,
         FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id)
     );

4. Configure Database:

   • Create db.properties in src/main/resources/ with MySQL credentials:

     db.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/expense_tracker_db
     db.username=your_username
     db.password=your_password

5. Build and Run:

   mvn clean install
   mvn javafx:run

6. Usage:

   • Register a new user or log in with an existing username and password.
   • Navigate to the dashboard to view financial summaries, recent transactions, and budget alerts.
   • Use “Add Income,” “Add Expense,” or “Add Budget” to manage records with dropdowns for sources, categories, and periods.
   • Edit or delete records directly from tables using action buttons.
   • View or update user details in the profile page.
   • Check budget alerts on the dashboard for overspending.
   • Review logs.log for action and error logs.

Screenshots

Below are screenshots showcasing the application’s key interfaces and features.

Current Status

• Fully Implemented:
  • User authentication, session management, and profile updates.
  • Income, expense, and budget management with add, edit, and delete functionality.
  • Real-time table updates in all management screens.
  • Dashboard with financial summaries, recent transactions, and budget alerts.
  • Robust error handling, input validation, and logging.
  • Dark-themed, responsive UI with dropdowns for enums (IncomeSource, ExpenseCategory, BudgetPeriod).
• Demo Video: Available at docs/demo.mp4, showcasing the application and code walkthrough.
• Testing: Basic unit tests for DAOs (UserDAOTest, IncomeDAOTest, ExpenseDAOTest, BudgetDAOTest).
• Documentation: Updated README with setup, usage, and screenshots.

Next Steps

• Add data visualization (charts for expense categories and trends).
• Implement user settings for currency and theme selection.
• Enhance UI with validation (disable buttons for empty fields) and delete confirmation dialogs.
• Develop export functionality for financial reports.
• Expand unit tests for controllers and services.
• Write a detailed user guide and project report for submission.

Contributers

• Ben Gregory John GitHub | LinkedIn

• Jerome Philip John GitHub | LinkedIn

• Md Aquib Raza GitHub