FinGuide - Think Smart Spend Smart

FinGuide is a personal finance management application designed to help users track income and expenses, understand spending patterns, and gain meaningful insights through analytics and AI-assisted suggestions.

The app focuses on clarity, visualization, and actionable insights, making personal finance easier to understand and manage.

Project Goals

• Make financial data easy to understand
• Encourage better spending habits
• Provide data-driven insights, not just raw numbers
• Keep the system extensible for future features

Features

Dashboard Overview

• Displays total income and total expenses across all time
• Shows current month income and expenses separately for better budgeting
• Clean, modern UI with intuitive financial cards

Expense Breakdown

• Category-wise expense distribution for the current month
• Interactive pie chart to visualize spending habits
• Helps users identify categories with the highest spending

Income vs Expense Trend

• Bar chart comparing income and expenses over time
• Supports flexible date ranges (not limited to a single month)
• Useful for tracking trends and identifying overspending periods

Recent Transactions

• Displays the most recent transactions at a glance
• Clearly differentiates income and expense entries
• Enables quick review of latest financial activity

AI Insights

• Generates smart financial suggestions based on user spending data
• Users can provide preferences (e.g., “I want to reduce entertainment spending”)
• AI responses are structured and actionable

Monthly Analytics

• Automatically detects the current month and year
• Calculates:
  • Monthly expense trend
  • Percentage change from the previous month
  • Weekday vs weekend spending behavior
  • Spending spikes and anomalies

Currency Support

• Each user has an associated currency code
• Currency is displayed consistently across dashboard and analytics views

Project Structure

├── backend/            # Flask API, Models, and Routes
├── frontend/           # Flutter Application
├── database/           # SQL Schemas and Migrations
└── README.md

Architecture Overview

Flutter App
|
|── REST API Calls
↓
Flask Backend
|
|── Analytics Services
|── Transaction Services
|── AI Insight Generator
↓
PostgreSQL Database

Analytics & Logic Highlights

• Date handling is month-aware and year-aware (no hardcoded inputs)
• Monthly analytics use:
  • First day of month → Last day of month
• Decimal-safe calculations to avoid floating-point inaccuracies
• Backend responses are JSON-structured and frontend-safe

Tech Stack

• Frontend: Flutter (Mobile/Web)
• Backend: Flask (Python)
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Authentication: JWT (JSON Web Tokens)

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Flutter SDK
• Python 3.x
• PostgreSQL

1. Clone the Repository

git clone git@github.com:sudeepSubedi01/FinGuide-APIE-Advanced-Camp.git
cd FinGuide-APIE-Advanced-Camp

2. Backend Setup (Flask)

cd backend
# Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
# Activate virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate    # Linux
venv\Scripts\activate       # Windows
# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

Environment Variables: Create a .env file in the /backend directory:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql+psycopg2://<username>:<password>@localhost:5432/finguide
JWT_SECRET_KEY=your_super_secret_key
GEMINI_API_KEY=your_key_here

Database Initialization:

# Ensure PostgreSQL is running and 'finguide' DB is created
flask db upgrade
# Or if using raw SQL:
psql -U <username> -d finguide -f database/schema.sql

Run Server:

flask run

Backend runs at: http://localhost:5000

3. Frontend Setup (Flutter)

Ensure your emulator is running or a device is connected.

# Navigate to /frontend folder
cd frontend
# Get dependencies
flutter pub get
# Run the flutter app
flutter run

Future Enhancements

• Budget limits per category
• Savings goals and progress tracking
• Export reports (PDF / CSV)
• Multi-currency conversion
• Notifications for unusual spending

App Screenshots

Register	Login	Profile

Dashboard Screen	Dashboard Graphs	Transaction History

Add Income	Add Expense	Categories List

Add Category	Insights	AI Insights