💰 FincAI — Expense Tracker

Short overview

• Full-stack expense tracker (backend + frontend) for tracking income/expense, charts, and basic auth.

• Repo layout:

  • backend/ — Node/Express API and DB models
  • frontend/expense-tracker/ — Vite + React frontend (Tailwind, Recharts, react-icons)

• Purpose: Helps users manage personal finances, analyze spending trends, and maintain records efficiently.

• Target Users: Individuals or small businesses who want a simple and visual way to track expenses and income.

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⚡ Quick start (Windows)

1. Open two terminals.

Backend:

• npm install
• Check scripts in package.json then run the appropriate script:
  • npm run dev (if present) or
  • npm start / node server.js
• Ensure .env contains required variables (see backend/README.md).
• Tip: Test backend APIs first using Postman or curl to verify they are working before connecting the frontend.

Frontend:

• npm install

• npm run dev

• Open the URL shown by Vite (usually http://localhost:5173)

• Tip: Ensure the backend server is running and CORS is configured correctly for local development.

• Quick check: Open the browser console (F12 → Console) to see if any runtime errors appear when loading the frontend.

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🛠️ Where to look for problems

• Browser console — runtime errors stop rendering components.
• Dev server output (both terminals) — check for import errors, missing modules, or port conflicts.
• Network tab — verify API calls succeed (status 200) and data is returned correctly.
• Check package.json scripts — ensure you are running the correct dev scripts for frontend and backend.

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🔗 Links

• Backend README: ./backend/README.md
• Frontend README: ./frontend/expense-tracker/README.md

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🏗️ Backend — FincAI (Expense Tracker)

Overview

• Express API with controllers for auth, dashboard, income, expense.
• Mongoose models stored in models/.
• File uploads stored in uploads/ (local). See middleware/uploadMiddleware.js.
• Security: Uses JWT authentication to protect routes and ensure only authenticated users can access their own data.
• Scalability: Modular route structure allows adding new features easily (e.g., reports, analytics, or additional resources).

Prerequisites

• Node.js (16+)
• MongoDB (local or cloud)
• Optional: Postman for testing APIs

Environment (.env)

Provide these values in backend/.env (names below are typical — confirm in server.js / config/db.js):

• MONGO_URI or DB_URI — MongoDB connection string
• JWT_SECRET — secret for signing tokens
• PORT — server port (optional)
• Any cloud/upload credentials if used

Tip: Keep your .env file private and do not push it to GitHub.

Install & run (Windows)

cd c:\Users\praja\OneDrive\Desktop\FincAI\backend
npm install
npm run dev     # or npm start / node server.js