Expense Management System Final Year Project

• Secure admin login in this final year project
• Role-based admin access
• Admin sidebar layout
• Admin dashboard
• View aggregated user metrics
• View expense analytics
• View activity analytics
• Manage all users
• List all users
• View user details
• Update user fields
• Update user name
• Update verified flag
• Update active status
• Delete user account
• Cascade related user data where applicable
• View per-user expenses
• Manage global expenses
• View all expenses across the system
• View expense detail
• Edit expense records using PATCH
• Delete expenses when needed
• Receipt audit management
• View uploaded receipt list
• Remove receipt attachment from an expense
• Manage groups
• List all groups
• View member count
• View expense count
• View group detail
• Update group metadata
• Delete group where needed
• Delete group expense where needed
• Manage global categories
• View category usage
• Add categories
• Edit categories
• Delete categories safely when not referenced
• Manage budgets
• View budget records
• Delete budgets where appropriate
• Access verification-oriented views
• View summary reports
• Monitor system-level expense activity
• Maintain operational control over users, categories, groups, budgets, receipts, and expenses

• User registration in this final year project
• Email OTP verification
• Gmail SMTP support when configured
• User login
• JWT-based user session
• Forgot password using OTP
• Reset password using OTP
• Resend verification OTP
• View profile
• Update profile details
• Change password
• Optional avatar upload
• Create personal expenses
• View expense list
• Search expenses
• Filter expenses
• Paginate expense records
• View expense detail page
• Edit expenses
• Delete expenses
• Add expense notes
• Select payment method
• Select category
• Select expense date
• Upload receipt images
• Manage default system categories
• Create custom user categories
• View category usage statistics
• Create monthly budgets
• Create category-level budgets
• Track spending against budget
• View dashboard summary metrics
• View spending trends
• Generate reports by period
• View daily reports
• View weekly reports
• View monthly reports
• View category-wise reports
• View budget vs actual report
• Create groups
• Manage group members
• Add group expenses
• Split expenses equally where supported
• View group balances
• View group detail
• Group owner can update group information
• View in-app notifications
• Use landing page and polished user interface
• Confirm destructive actions before deletion

• Full-stack MERN architecture in this final year project
• MongoDB database
• Mongoose schemas
• Express.js REST API
• React SPA using Vite
• React Router navigation
• Tailwind CSS v4 styling
• JWT authentication
• bcrypt password hashing
• express-validator validation
• Multer file upload support
• Receipt upload storage
• Nodemailer SMTP support
• Email OTP verification
• Forgot password and reset password workflow
• Personal expense CRUD
• Shared expense tracking
• Group expense splitting
• Budget tracking
• Category management
• User-specific custom categories
• System default categories
• Admin and user role-based access
• Admin analytics dashboard
• Admin verification and report views
• In-app notification data
• Search, filters, and pagination
• Safe category delete where not referenced
• Database seed support
• Demo users, admin, expenses, budgets, categories, and group split data
• Production build support
• Local development support using Node.js and MongoDB

Technology Used

Step 1: Copy environment file

Copy the server environment template:

copy server\.env.example server\.env

For macOS/Linux:

cp server/.env.example server/.env

Step 2: Configure environment variables

Open server/.env and update the required values:

PORT=5000
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/expense-management-system
JWT_SECRET=your_long_random_secret
JWT_EXPIRES_IN=7d
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173
SMTP_HOST=your_smtp_host
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=your_smtp_email
SMTP_PASS=your_smtp_app_password
[email protected]
ADMIN_PASSWORD=Admin@123

SMTP configuration is optional for development. If Gmail SMTP is used, an app password should be used instead of the normal Gmail password.

Step 3: Install dependencies

From the project root:

npm run install:all

Or install server and client separately:

cd server && npm install
cd ../client && npm install

Step 4: Start MongoDB

Make sure MongoDB is running locally or update MONGODB_URI with a valid MongoDB Atlas connection string.

Step 5: Seed the database

From the project root:

npm run seed

The seed command creates the admin user, default categories, demo users, sample expenses, budgets, and a group with split expense.

Step 6: Start the API

From the project root:

npm run dev:server

Or from the server folder:

npm run dev

Default API URL:

http://localhost:5000

Step 7: Start the React client

From the project root:

npm run dev:client

Or from the client folder:

npm run dev

Default frontend URL:

http://localhost:5173

Production Build

For server:

cd server && npm start

For client:

cd client && npm run build

The production build output is generated in:

client/dist

Application URLs

These credentials apply after running npm run seed, unless admin values are overridden in server/.env.

Admin Login

Demo User Login

Security note: Change all default passwords before any public or production deployment.