BudgetManager

A comprehensive .NET 8 ASP.NET Core MVC application for personal budget management with transaction tracking, budget planning, and financial reporting. Features a modern UI with dark mode, animated visualizations, and interactive dashboards.

Features

Core Features

• Transaction Management: Full CRUD operations for income and expenses
• Category Management: Organize transactions by customizable categories
• Account Tracking: Support for multiple accounts (checking, savings, credit cards)
• Monthly Budgets: Set and track spending limits per category
• Budget Pacing: Real-time tracking with "Safe to Spend Today" calculations

Import & Automation

• CSV Import: Bulk import transactions from bank exports
  • Duplicate detection using (Date, Amount, Description, Account)
  • Preview before confirmation
  • Auto-categorization using rules
• Categorization Rules: Priority-based rules to auto-categorize by description text

Reporting & Visualizations

• Budget vs Actual: Visual comparison with charts and tables
• Month over Month: Track spending trends across the year
• Top Expenses: Identify largest spending items
• Interactive Dashboard: Animated donut charts, daily spending trends, spending calendar heatmap, cash flow Sankey diagrams

Data Protection

• Lock Month: Prevent editing/deleting transactions in closed months
• Adjustment Transactions: Special transactions that bypass month locks
• Activity Log: Complete audit trail of all changes

UI/UX

• Dark Mode: Toggle between light and dark themes
• Animated Counters: Summary cards with number animations
• Gradient Cards: Modern design with hover effects
• Responsive Design: Works on desktop, tablet, and mobile

Technology Stack

• .NET 8 with ASP.NET Core MVC
• Entity Framework Core 8 with SQLite (cross-platform)
• ASP.NET Core Identity for authentication
• Bootstrap 5.3 with responsive design
• Chart.js 4.4 for charts and visualizations
• Google Charts for Sankey diagrams
• xUnit with Moq for testing

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• .NET 8 SDK
• No database server required (uses SQLite)

Local Development

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/stacios/BudgetApp.git
   cd BudgetApp

2. Run the application:

   cd src/BudgetManager.Web
   dotnet run

3. Open http://localhost:5000 in your browser

The database is created automatically with seed data on first run.

Default Demo User

• Email: demo@budgetmanager.com
• Password: Demo123!

Project Structure

BudgetManager/
├── src/
│   └── BudgetManager.Web/
│       ├── Controllers/          # MVC Controllers
│       ├── Data/                 # DbContext & Migrations
│       ├── Models/               # EF Core Entities
│       ├── Services/             # Business Logic
│       ├── ViewModels/           # View Models
│       ├── Views/                # Razor Views
│       └── wwwroot/              # CSS, JS, Static Files
├── tests/
│   └── BudgetManager.Tests/      # xUnit Tests
├── sample-data/
│   └── sample-transactions.csv   # Sample Import File
└── README.md

CSV Import Format

Column	Format	Required	Description
Date	MM/DD/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD	Yes	Transaction date
Description	Text	Yes	Transaction description
Amount	Decimal	Yes	Negative for expenses, positive for income
Category	Text	No	Category name (must match existing)

Example

Date,Description,Amount,Category
01/15/2026,Walmart Groceries,-85.42,Groceries
01/16/2026,Direct Deposit,2600.00,Income
01/17/2026,Netflix Subscription,-15.99,Subscriptions

Running Tests

cd tests/BudgetManager.Tests
dotnet test

License

MIT License