Mobile App Project

Personal Finance Tracker App

A mobile expense manager with automatic SMS transaction parsing, budgets, category insights and offline-first sync.

Intermediate6–8 weeksCSE · IT · MCA · BCAMobile App DevelopmentData Science & Analytics

Project overview

The app records income and expenses, categorises transactions automatically, tracks budgets per category, and can parse bank SMS alerts on Android to capture spending without manual entry. Everything works offline and syncs when a connection returns.

Offline-first synchronisation is the part that earns marks: deciding what happens when the same record is edited on two devices is a real engineering problem with several defensible answers.

Problem statement

Manual expense tracking fails because people stop entering transactions within a week. Bank apps show a statement but no categorisation, no budget, and no view across multiple accounts.

Proposed solution

Reduce entry friction by parsing bank SMS alerts into structured transactions with user confirmation, categorise using a keyword and merchant model that learns from corrections, and store everything locally first so the app is fully usable without a network.

Key features

  • Quick manual entry with recently used categories surfaced first
  • Bank SMS parsing into structured transactions, with confirmation
  • Automatic categorisation that learns from user corrections
  • Monthly budgets per category with progress indicators
  • Spending insights with month-on-month comparison
  • Recurring transaction detection for subscriptions
  • Offline-first storage with conflict-resolving sync
  • Encrypted local database and biometric app lock

Technology stack

Mobile

Flutter or React NativeSQLite / Drift / WatermelonDB

Backend

Firebase or SupabaseNode.js sync API

Intelligence

Rule-based categorisationNaive Bayes classifier for merchants

Security

Encrypted local storageBiometric authentication

System architecture

The flow below is what goes into your architecture diagram and the corresponding chapter of the report.

  1. Local database is the source of truth for the user interface
  2. SMS listener extracts amount, merchant and account from bank alert formats
  3. Categorisation applies rules first, then the learned classifier for unmatched merchants
  4. Sync engine pushes local changes and pulls remote ones with last-write-wins plus a conflict log
  5. Analytics layer aggregates locally so charts work without connectivity
  6. Security layer encrypts the local database and gates entry with biometrics

Expected output

  • Installable app that works fully offline
  • Automatic transaction capture from bank SMS alerts
  • Budget tracking with category-wise insight charts
  • Sync demonstration across two devices including a conflict case

Suitable branches, difficulty and duration

Suitable branches

Difficulty level

Intermediate. Comfortable for a team where at least one member has worked in this stack before.

Development duration

6–8 weeks including documentation, tested and ready to demonstrate. Milestones are planned around your review dates.

Documentation, review, demo and viva support

Documentation support

Abstract, problem statement, literature survey guidance, system architecture, ER and UML diagrams, module descriptions, test cases and screenshots — prepared in your department format.

Project review support

Delivery is split across your review calendar so review one has a design and plan, review two has working modules, and the final review has the integrated, tested system.

Demo support

A rehearsed demo path, seeded sample data, a reset script, and a recorded walkthrough kept as a backup in case something fails in the review room.

Viva preparation

A written question bank for this domain, a code walkthrough session, and practice at explaining each module in your own words — because the examiner will ask you.

Customisation options

Colleges reject duplicate topics, so most projects are adjusted before we start. These are the usual directions for this one.

  • Add shared household budgets with multiple contributors
  • Add bill reminders derived from recurring transaction detection
  • Add savings goals with projected completion dates
  • Add receipt capture with OCR for cash expenses
Talk to CodeLab69

Enquire about the Personal Finance Tracker App project

Send your branch, college and first review date. You will get confirmation of scope, what the customisation would look like, and a delivery plan mapped to your reviews.