💰 Expense & Task Manager

A full-stack web application for managing shared group expenses and tasks — built collaboratively during a hackathon. It helps groups (roommates, trip companions, project teams) track who paid for what, automatically calculates who owes whom, and keeps shared tasks organized in one place.

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📖 Overview

Splitting group expenses and tracking shared responsibilities is a common pain point — this project solves it with a lightweight, no-database, instantly runnable web app. Add group members, log expenses, and the app calculates exactly who owes whom. A built-in task manager lets the group assign and track to-dos alongside the finances.

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✨ Features

• User Management — Add or remove group members on the fly
• Expense Tracking — Log expenses with a payer and a custom split between selected members
• Automatic Balance Calculation — Instantly see who owes whom and how much
• Visual Spending Chart — Bar chart breakdown of total spend per person (via Chart.js)
• Task Management — Assign tasks to members and mark them complete
• Reset Option — One-click clear to reset all data for a new session
• Responsive Dark UI — Clean dark-and-gold themed interface with smooth animations

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	Node.js, Express.js
Frontend	HTML5, CSS3, Vanilla JavaScript
Data Visualization	Chart.js
Data Storage	In-memory (no database required)
Cross-Origin Support	CORS

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📂 Project Structure

expense-task-manager/
├── server.js          # Express backend — API routes & in-memory data store
├── frontend.html       # Frontend UI — HTML, CSS, and client-side JS
└── README.md

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js installed on your machine

Installation & Setup

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/Sameer0726152/expense-task-manager.git
   cd expense-task-manager

2. Install dependencies

   npm install express cors

3. Start the backend server

   node server.js

   The server will run on http://localhost:5000

4. Launch the frontend Open frontend.html directly in your browser (double-click it, or use a Live Server extension).

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🔌 API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/add-user	Add a new user
GET	/users	Get all users
DELETE	/delete-user/:id	Remove a user and related data
POST	/add-expense	Add a new expense
GET	/expenses	Get all expenses
DELETE	/delete-expense/:id	Remove an expense
GET	/balances	Get calculated balances between users
POST	/add-task	Create a new task
GET	/tasks	Get all tasks
POST	/complete-task/:id	Mark a task as completed
POST	/clear	Reset all data

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🎯 How It Works

1. Add group members under Add User
2. Log an expense — select who paid, who's splitting it, and the amount
3. The Balances section auto-calculates exact amounts owed between members
4. The Expense Chart visualizes total spending per person
5. Assign tasks to members under the Tasks section and track completion

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🔮 Future Improvements

• Persistent storage with a database (MongoDB/PostgreSQL)
• User authentication
• Multi-currency support
• Settle-up history and payment tracking
• Mobile-responsive layout refinements

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🏆 Built At

This project was built during a hackathon as a rapid-prototyping exercise in full-stack development, with AI-assisted development used to accelerate implementation and debugging.

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