Abstract
In today’s fast-paced lifestyle, most individuals face challenges in managing their
finances effectively. People often spend money without keeping proper records,
which results in overspending and poor savings. This project “Daily Expenses
Tracker” is developed to overcome this problem. It is a web-based application
where users can record their daily expenses, track lending and borrowing,
generate reports, and analyze financial activities.
The system is designed using PHP as the backend and MySQL as the database,
while the frontend is developed using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The project
provides a dashboard that allows users to view all their financial activities at a
glance. This application can be useful for individuals, students, or small-scale
businesses who want to control their financial flow.
Introduction
Managing money is an important aspect of personal and professional life. Many
people try to record their daily spending manually in notebooks, but it becomes
difficult to maintain such records consistently. A digital platform provides a better
way to store, manage, and analyze data.
The Daily Expenses Tracker Project helps users to:
Add and categorize expenses (like food, travel, shopping, bills, etc.).
Manage lending and borrowing details.
Get visual analysis of spending.
Generate reports of expenses and income.
This project is small but effective for personal use. It also demonstrates how PHP
and MySQL can be used together for developing a database-driven web
application.
Objectives
1. To create a simple and efficient system for recording and managing expenses.
2. To allow users to categorize their expenses for better analysis.
3. To manage lending and borrowing records in a proper way.
4. To generate reports and analysis in an understandable format.
5. To promote financial discipline among users by helping them track unnecessary
spending.
6. To demonstrate the use of open-source tools (PHP, MySQL, XAMPP) for
building real-life projects.
Scope of the Project
This project can be used by students, employees, and small-scale shopkeepers for
expense tracking.
It is designed as a single-user web application running on a local server (XAMPP).
It allows multiple modules such as Dashboard, Expenses, Lending, Analysis,
Report, and Settings.
Reports can be viewed daily, monthly, or yearly.
The project can be extended in the future to include:
Multi-user login system.
Mobile application.
Integration with online payment systems.
Cloud database hosting for remote access.
Tools and Technology Used
Frontend Technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Backend Technology: PHP (server-side scripting language)
Database: MySQL (Relational Database)
Server: Apache (via XAMPP)
IDE/Editor: Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, or Notepad++
Version Control (optional): GitHub
Hardware Requirements
Processor: Minimum Intel i3 or equivalent
RAM: 4 GB or higher
Hard Disk: At least 500 MB free space
System: Windows/Linux/MacOS with 32-bit or 64-bit support
Internet Connection: Required for browser updates and GitHub acces
Software Requirements
Operating System: Windows 7/8/10/11 or Linux
Server: XAMPP (includes Apache, MySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin)
Database Tool: MySQL / phpMyAdmin
Browser: Google Chrome / Mozilla Firefox / Microsoft Edge
Editor: VS Code, Sublime Text, Brackets, or Notepad++
Fact Finding Techniques
To design and develop this project, the following techniques were used:
Observation: Observed how people maintain expenses in notebooks or Excel
sheets.
Interviews: Discussed with students and working professionals about financial
record-keeping issues.
Questionnaire: Asked users about common expense categories and problems
they face.
Research: Analyzed existing applications like Money Manager, Walnut, and
Expense Tracker apps to understand useful features.
Feasibility Study
Operational Feasibility: The project is simple to operate. Anyone with basic
computer knowledge can use it.
Technical Feasibility: Can run easily on normal PC/Laptop with XAMPP server. No
high-end hardware required.
Economic Feasibility: Free and open-source software is used, so it is cost-effective.
Schedule Feasibility: This project can be developed within 1–2 months as it is a
small-scale application.
Advantages
Easy to use and user-friendly design.
Centralized data storage using MySQL database.
Can generate quick reports of income and expenses.
Helps users to control unnecessary spending.
Supports lending and borrowing management.
Free of cost and uses open-source tools.
Disadvantages
Limited to local server use (not a cloud-based system).
User needs to manually enter expenses; no automatic linking with bank accounts.
Not designed for large-scale businesses.
No mobile app integration in the basic version.
Security depends on local machine settings; no advanced authentication provided.
