Smart Department Budget Management & Expense Analytics System

A full-stack web application designed to help academic departments efficiently plan, track, analyze, and audit their budgets and expenses in a structured, transparent, and role-controlled manner.

This system replaces manual spreadsheets with a centralized, secure, and analytics-driven platform.

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Overview

Academic departments often manage budgets across infrastructure, events, software, workshops, and student activities. Manual tracking leads to poor visibility, delayed approvals, and audit challenges.

This application provides:

• Structured budget planning
• Controlled expense management
• Role-based approvals
• Real-time analytics
• Audit-ready reporting

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Core Features

Authentication & Roles

• Secure JWT-based authentication
• Fixed roles:
  • Admin
  • HOD
  • Staff
• Role-based access control enforced at API level

Budget Management

• Create department budgets per category and year
• Planned vs allotted budget tracking
• Restricted creation (Admin, HOD only)

Expense Management

• Add expenses against budgets
• Hierarchical expenses (parent → sub-expenses)
• Expense approval workflow
• Staff expense requests
• Receipt upload (PDF / Image)

Receipts

• Cloud-based receipt storage
• Linked to individual expenses
• Upload permissions for all roles

Reports & Analytics

• Category-wise expense breakdown
• Monthly expense trends
• Budget vs spent vs remaining
• Downloadable reports:
  • PDF
  • Excel
• Role-restricted access (Admin, HOD)

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Tech Stack

Backend

• Node.js
• Express.js
• PostgreSQL (Neon)
• JWT Authentication
• Multer + Cloudinary (file uploads)
• PDFKit (PDF export)
• ExcelJS (Excel export)

Frontend (upcoming)

• React
• Charts & dashboards
• Role-based UI views

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Permissions Matrix

Action	Admin	HOD	Staff
Add budgets	Yes	Yes	No
Add expenses	Yes	Yes	No
Request expense	No	No	Yes
Approve expense	Yes	Yes	No
Upload receipts	Yes	Yes	Yes
View reports	Yes	Yes	No
Download PDF / Excel	Yes	Yes	No

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Project Structure (Backend)

server/ ├── src/ │ ├── controllers/ │ ├── routes/ │ ├── middleware/ │ ├── models/ │ ├── validations/ │ ├── lib/ │ └── server.js ├── prisma / sql scripts ├── .env └── package.json

Setup Instructions

1. Clone Repository

git clone cd server

2. Install Dependencies

3. Environment Variables

Create .env:

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Status

Backend: Completed & Production-Ready
Frontend: In Progress

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Use Cases

• Department budget planning
• Expense approvals
• Audit and accreditation (NBA / NAAC)
• Financial transparency
• Administrative reporting

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License

Academic / Educational Use