Personal Finance Tracker

A simple, mobile-friendly personal finance tracker that helps you log daily expenses, categorize them, and visualize spending patterns.

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📋 Features

Feature	Description
✅ Expense Entry	Web form to add expenses with category and payment mode
✅ Dashboard	Shows current month's expenses with filters and chart
✅ Maintenance Screen	Backup, restore, and purge expense data
✅ History Dashboard	View expense data from previous months
✅ JSON Storage	Uses expenses.json for current month and monthly backups
✅ Mobile Responsive	Works well on phones and desktops

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🧩 Technologies Used

Layer	Technology
Frontend	HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Backend	PHP (for form handling, backup, restore)
Data Storage	JSON files (expenses.json and monthly backups)
Charting	Chart.js
Hosting	Local or Shared Hosting (e.g., XAMPP, WAMP, cPanel)

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📁 File Structure

personal-finance-tracker/ │ ├── index.html # Expense Entry Form ├── dashboard.php # Current month dashboard ├── historyDashboard.php # View old expense data by month ├── expenses.json # Current month's expense data ├── api.php # Add expense logic ├── maintenance.php # Backup, restore, and purge ├── README.md # This file └── backups/ # Monthly backups stored here ├── Apr-2025.json ├── Mar-2025.json └── Feb-2025.json

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🚀 How to Run

Option 1: Local (XAMPP / WAMP)

1. Install XAMPP or WAMP
2. Place all files in htdocs/your-project-folder/
3. Start Apache server
4. Open in browser: http://localhost/your-project-folder/index.html

Option 2: Shared Hosting

1. Upload files to your public HTML folder
2. Ensure expenses.json is writable (chmod 644 or 755)
3. Access via http://yourdomain.com/your-folder/index.html

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📝 Expense Entry Form

Fields:

• Date: Date of expense
• Amount: Expense amount
• Payment Mode:
  • Credit Card
  • Debit Card
  • UPI
  • UPI CC
• Bank Name: Optional
• Expense Category (Dropdown):
  • Food & Beverages
  • Home Maintenance
  • Groceries
  • Fuel
  • Entertainment
  • Appliance
  • Misc
• Description: Short note on the expense

💡 The system automatically assigns a cr_dr_category:

• Debit Card / UPI → Expense from Savings
• Credit Card / UPI CC → Expense from Credit

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📊 Dashboard

• Shows only current month’s expenses
• Filters by:
  • Expense Category
  • Payment Mode
  • Source (Savings vs Credit)
• Visualizes:
  • Spending by Category
  • Spending by Source (Savings vs Credit)
• Dynamic total updates based on filters

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🔧 Maintenance Screen (maintenance.php)

Features:

• Backup Expense:
  • Saves expenses.json as Month-Year.json (e.g., May-2025.json)
  • Dropdown to choose month
• Purge Expense Data:
  • Clears current month’s data
  • Only allowed if a backup for the current month exists
  • Confirmation alert before purge
• Restore Backup:
  • Dropdown to restore from last 3 months (e.g., Apr-2025.json, Mar-2025.json)
  • Overwrites expenses.json with selected backup

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📜 History Dashboard (historyDashboard.php)

Features:

• Dropdown to select previous month backups
• Displays expense data from selected month
• Same filters and charts as dashboard:
  • Expense Category
  • Payment Mode
  • Source (Savings vs Credit)
• Dynamic total and chart updates based on selected month

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🛠️ Future Enhancements

🔐 Login System

• Add user authentication using PHP sessions or Firebase
• Store user-specific data in separate JSON files or database

💬 WhatsApp Integration (Free Option)

• Use Twilio WhatsApp API (trial available)
• Parse incoming messages like:
  2025-04-05, 250, UPI, PhonePe, Dinner, Food & Beverages
• Auto-assign cr_dr_category based on payment mode

📊 Export to CSV

• Add a button to export filtered data to CSV

📱 PWA Support

• Add manifest.json and service worker for offline use

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