Capstone 01 — Personal Finance Tracker¶

Brief¶

Learn Your Way¶

Read	Build	Watch	Test	Review	Visualize	Try
—	This project	—	—	Flashcards	—	—

Build a CLI personal finance tracker that helps a user understand where their money goes.

Requirements¶

Core (must have)¶

Add transactions: Record income and expenses with a date, amount, description, and category.
Categorize spending: Assign categories (food, rent, transport, entertainment, etc.) to each transaction. Support custom categories.
Monthly summaries: Show total income, total spending, net savings, and a breakdown by category for any given month.
CSV import/export: Import transactions from a CSV file. Export all transactions to CSV.
Persistent storage: Transactions must survive between program runs. Choose your storage format (JSON, CSV, SQLite, etc.).

Stretch (pick at least one)¶

Budget alerts: Set a monthly budget per category. Warn the user when spending exceeds 80% or 100% of the budget.
Recurring transactions: Support monthly recurring items (e.g., rent, salary) that auto-generate entries.
Year-over-year comparison: Show how spending in a category this month compares to the same month last year.
Data visualization: Generate a simple bar chart or table of spending by category (use matplotlib or just ASCII art).

Constraints¶

Python 3.11+ with standard library. External packages only if a stretch goal requires them.
Must have a clear CLI interface (use input() prompts, argparse, or click/typer).
Must include tests for the core logic (not the CLI input/output layer).

Deliverables¶

Working application code
Tests (python -m pytest tests/)
Filled-out notes.md with your design decisions
A README.md in your project explaining how to install and run it

Architecture decisions are yours¶

There is no starter code. You decide: - How to organize your files and modules - How to store data - How to structure the CLI - How to handle errors - What to test and how

Fill out notes.md before you start coding.