Expense Manager: A Comprehensive Web-Based Solution for Financial Tracking

Abstract

The Expense Manager is a user-friendly web-based application designed to help users efficiently manage and track their daily expenses. The primary goal is to simplify expense management by providing tools to record, organize, and analyze financial activities. The application\'s intuitive design ensures users can gain better control over their finances and maintain a clear understanding of their spending habits. The Expense Manager leverages modern frameworks such as Spring Boot for the back-end, Thymeleaf for server-side templating, and HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap for responsive front-end design to ensure efficiency and accessibility. MySQL is used as the database, with Maven and Tomcat enabling smooth application management and deployment. Key features include CRUD operations for managing expenses, detailed tabular summaries, customizable categories, filtering by year, month, and type, CSV export for offline records, and pagination for easy navigation of large datasets. The responsive design makes the application accessible across devices, supporting on-the-go expense tracking. The Expense Manager empowers users to make informed financial decisions. Its innovative features and reliable performance provide a comprehensive solution for simplifying and analyzing daily expense management.

Introduction

Overview:
The Expense Manager is a web-based application designed to help individuals and businesses track, categorize, and analyze daily expenses effectively. Built using Spring Boot (backend), Thymeleaf, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap (frontend), and MySQL (database), the platform allows CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete), data filtering, and CSV export for offline analysis. It supports real-time tracking, role-based access, and responsive design for accessibility across all devices.

Key Features:

• User-friendly interface with dynamic dashboards and visual reports.

• CRUD functionality for managing expense entries.

• Categorization and filtering by type, date, and month.

• CSV export for offline data access and integration with external tools.

• Responsive UI for seamless access via desktop, tablet, or mobile.

• Security via Spring Security, role-based access control, CSRF protection, and BCrypt encryption.

Technological Architecture:

• Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern for clean separation of concerns.

• Spring Boot + Thymeleaf: Efficient backend and dynamic frontend rendering.

• MySQL Database with JPA ORM and Flyway for migrations.

• Embedded Tomcat Server for deployment scalability.

• Agile methodology with CI/CD using Jenkins, and monitoring via ELK Stack and Prometheus.

Proposed Improvements:

• Integration of AI-driven insights for smarter budgeting.

• Addition of multi-user roles and enhanced analytics.

• Future support for cloud computing and horizontal scaling.

Comparison to Existing Systems:

Current tools like spreadsheets and basic mobile apps suffer from:

• Manual data entry and limited automation.

• Poor UI/UX and mobile-inaccessibility.

• Weak security, no role-based access, or data export features.

• Inadequate filtering and customization options for users.

Expense Manager overcomes these issues with structured data management, automation, and advanced filtering.

Literature Review Highlights:

• Kumar & Sharma (2017): Emphasized UI and secure storage.

• Gupta & Verma (2019): Showed how analytics improves decision-making.

• Mehta et al. (2020): Highlighted importance of encryption and access control.

• Das & Roy (2021): Demonstrated how mobile apps improve budgeting discipline.

• Rajan et al. (2022): Discussed CSV exports and data portability.

• Bansal & Kapoor (2023): Identified emerging tech like AI and blockchain in finance apps.

Design & Functionality:

• Users can sign up, log in, and securely access dashboards.

• Filter expenses by date, category, or custom parameters.

• Generate downloadable reports with visual insights.

• Flow Diagram and System Architecture ensure structured data flow and scalability.

Conclusion

In conclusion, The Expense Manager is a user-friendly and efficient tool designed for tracking, organizing, and analyzing financial transactions. By offering features such as expense filtering based on year, month, and category, it helps users monitor their spending patterns and make well-informed financial decisions. The ability to export expense data as a CSV file enhances the platform’s functionality, allowing users to save records for future reference, generate reports, or integrate them with other financial management tools. With secure MySQL database storage, the system ensures data accuracy and integrity while supporting CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete), giving users full control over their financial information.The Expense Manager streamlines financial tracking, making it a valuable solution for individuals and businesses seeking a structured and transparent approach to managing their expenses effectively.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Pasupuleti Rajesh, Moganti Datta Sai, Yatam Jnana Rama Narasimha, Kadali Mohan Satya Prasad, Andugula Naveen, Boddu Jaswanth Siva Sai Kumar, Gadhiraju TejVarma. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.