LedgerIt - Real-Time Expense Tracker

Project Overview

This LedgerIt is a cloud-native application that allows users to:

• Monitor and manage their expenses effectively.
• Visualize expense trends and category-wise comparisons through an interactive dashboard.
• Upload important receipts securely to prevent misplacement.
• Add expenses manually for accurate tracking.

The project leverages AWS services to ensure real-time data processing, secure storage, and scalable performance.

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Features

• Real-Time Expense Tracking: Process transaction data in real time using AWS Kinesis Data Streams and AWS Lambda.
• Analytics Dashboard: View insights such as expense trends and category comparisons via React-based visualizations.
• Secure Receipt Storage: Store receipts in Amazon S3 for safekeeping and accessibility.
• Manual Expense Entry: Add expenses manually to complement receipt uploads.

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Architecture Overview

The architecture includes:

• Data Generation: An EC2 instance generates synthetic transaction data and streams it to AWS Kinesis Data Streams.
• Data Processing: AWS Lambda processes raw data, transforms it, and stores it in Amazon RDS (PostgreSQL) and Amazon S3.
• Frontend and Backend: A React frontend and Flask backend hosted on AWS EC2 interact with the database and storage to display and manage user data.
• Monitoring and Security: AWS CloudWatch and IAM ensure reliability and security across the application.

Below is the architecture diagram for the application:

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Deployment Instructions

Follow these steps to deploy the application:

Prerequisites

• AWS account with necessary permissions for the following services:
  • Kinesis Data Streams
  • Kinesis Data Firehose
  • Lambda
  • S3
  • RDS (PostgreSQL)
  • Secrets Manager
  • EC2
• Python 3.9 or higher installed locally.
• Node.js 16 or higher installed locally.

Steps

1. Backend Deployment

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/cu-csci-4253-datacenter-fall-2024/finalproject-real-time-expense-tracker.git
   cd finalproject-real-time-expense-tracker
   

2. Set up the PostgreSQL database in Amazon RDS:
   • Run the SQL script StorageProcedureInsertToRDS.sql to create necessary tables.
3. Install backend dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Deploy the LambdaDataProcessing.py file as an AWS Lambda function:
   • Use the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI.
   • Assign IAM roles to Lambda with access to Secrets Manager, S3, and RDS.
5. Update the Flask backend (app.py) with your RDS and S3 configurations.
6. Host the backend on an EC2 instance and start the Flask service:

   python app.py

2. Frontend Deployment

1. Navigate to the React frontend directory:

   cd react_frontend

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Update the src/config.js file with API endpoints for the Flask backend.
4. Start the development server locally:

   npm start

5. For production deployment, build the app:

   npm run build

   Deploy the build files to an EC2 instance or S3 bucket with static website hosting enabled.

3. Data Generator Deployment

1. Deploy SimulatedBankDataGeneration.py on an EC2 instance to generate synthetic transaction data.
2. Configure the script with your Kinesis Data Stream name.
3. Run the script:

   python SimulatedBankDataGeneration.py

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Testing the Application

1. Access the frontend via the deployed URL or localhost during development.
2. Add test expenses manually or upload receipts using the UI.
3. Verify real-time expense updates and visualizations on the dashboard.
4. Monitor logs in AWS CloudWatch to ensure successful data processing.

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Additional Information

• AWS Services Used:
  • Kinesis Data Streams and Firehose
  • Lambda
  • RDS (PostgreSQL)
  • S3
  • Secrets Manager
  • CloudWatch
  • IAM
• Languages and Tools:
  • Backend: Flask (Python)
  • Frontend: React (JavaScript)
  • Data Generation: Python
  • Database: PostgreSQL

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Project Demo

Click here to watch the video.

Future Work

• Integrate Optical Character Recognition (OCR) using AWS Textract to automatically extract expense details from uploaded receipts.
• Develop a mobile app using React Native or Flutter for seamless access on the go.
• Enhance the analytics dashboard with customizable filters and trend predictions.

Stay Tuned ....