Project: Personal Finance Tracker (CLI)

Overview:

The Personal Finance Tracker is a command-line application designed to help users manage their personal finances by tracking income and expenses. It allows users to add transactions, categorize them, view summaries, and generate reports, providing a simple yet effective way to monitor financial activity.

Features:

Transaction Management:

Add income and expense transactions with details like date, amount, category, and description.

Categorize transactions using predefined and custom categories.

Store transaction data in a CSV file for persistence.

Reporting and Analysis:

View all transactions or filter them by date, category, or type.

Generate summaries of income and expenses for specific periods.

Generate category-wise spending reports.

Calculate and display the current balance.

User Interface:

Interactive command-line interface (CLI) for easy navigation and data entry.

Data Validation and Error Handling:

Validate user input to prevent errors.

Handle file I/O errors gracefully.

Phases:

Phase 1: Core Transaction Management (Basic Data Storage)

Goal: Implement the fundamental functionality for adding and viewing transactions, with basic file storage.

Tasks: Create a Transaction record to store transaction data. Implement methods to save and load transactions from a CSV file. Implement the "add transaction" command. Implement the "view transactions" command. Create a basic CLI for user interaction.

Deliverables: A functional CLI application that allows users to add and view transactions, with data persistence.

Phase 2: Enhanced Reporting and Summaries

Goal: Add basic reporting and summary features.

Tasks: Implement a "summary" command to display income and expense summaries. Calculate and display the current balance. Implement category-wise spending reports. Allow date filtering for viewing transactions.

Deliverables: Enhanced CLI application with summary and reporting capabilities.

Phase 3: Input Validation and Error Handling

Goal: Improve the robustness of the application with better error handling and input validation.

Tasks: Implement input validation for dates, amounts, and categories. Create custom exceptions for specific error scenarios. Implement comprehensive error handling for file I/O and user input. Allow the user to create, and delete categories.

Deliverables: A more robust and user-friendly CLI application with improved error handling.

Technologies Used: Java Maven (for build management)