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User Guide

Table of Contents

Introduction

BudgetBuddy is a desktop app for managing personal finances, optimized for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI). It offers the tracking of income and expenses of multiple accounts and even provides insights of your financial activities.

Quick Start

  1. Ensure that you have Java 11 or above installed.
  2. Down the latest version of budgetbuddy.jar from here.
  3. Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for your BudgetBuddy.
  4. Open a command terminal, cd into the folder you added the jar file to, and use the java -jar budgetbuddy.jar command to run the application.
  5. When the application is first run, BudgetBuddy will prompt the user to create a new account, prompting the user to add an account name and initial balance. Type the details in the terminal and press Enter to confirm.
  6. Subsequently, users may type the command into the terminal and press Enter to execute it. e.g. typing help and pressing Enter will prompt the help feature.
  7. Refer to the Features below for details of each command.

Features

[!NOTE] The following are notes about the command format:

Viewing help: help

Shows the instructions for using BudgetBuddy.

This command gives the list to search for commands, specific for each task. The commands help all and help acc covers the basic structure of all commands. Instructions for command-specific help will be provided in the help all and help acc accordingly.

Format: help

Adding a transaction: add

Adds a transaction into the transaction list of the specified account.

Parameters: Account Number, Transaction Type, Name, Amount, Date, Category

Format: add /a/ACCOUNT_NUMBER /t/TRANSACTION_TYPE /n/NAME /$/AMOUNT /d/DATE /c/CATEGORY

Example of usage:

Successful add feature output:


View transaction history: list

List the existing transactions. List feature includes options:

  1. All Transactions
  2. Past Week Transactions - list transactions from the past 7 days
  3. Past Month Transactions - list transactions from the past month
  4. Custom Date Transactions - list transactions between the specified dates(inclusive)
  5. Account Transactions - list all transactions in the specified account
  6. Category Transactions - list all transactions in the category type

Format: list

Example of usage:

List feature options:

Successful list feature (custom date) example:


Deleting a transaction: delete

Removes a transaction from transaction history.

Parameters: Transaction ID

Format: delete TRANSACTION_ID

Note:

Example of usage: delete 1

Successful delete feature example:

Edit a transaction: edit

Edits the details of an existing transaction.

Parameters: Transaction ID

Format: edit TRANSACTION_ID

Note:

Example of usage: edit 2

Successful edit feature example:

Search for a list of transactions matching the keyword.

Parameters: keyword

Format: search KEYWORD

Note:

Example of usage: search salary

Successful edit feature example:


Add an account: add-acc

Adds a new account with a specified initial balance.

Parameters: Account Name, Initial Balance

Format: add-acc /n/ACCOUNT_NAME /$/INITIAL_BALANCE

Note:

Example of Usage: add-acc /n/DBS Savings /$/10000

Successful add-acc feature output:


List all accounts: list-acc

List all the existing accounts.

Format: list-acc

Successful list-acc feature output:


Delete an account: delete-acc

Removes an account and removes all its transactions.

Parameters: Account Number.

Format: delete ACCOUNT_NUMBER

Note:

Example of usage: delete-acc 5431

Successful delete-acc feature output:


Edit an account: edit-acc

Edits the details of an existing account.

Parameters: Account Number

Format: edit-acc ACCOUNT_NUMBER

Note:

Example of usage: edit-acc 5431

Successful edit-acc feature output:


View transaction insights: insights

View the insights of all the transactions listed so far using a pie chart. Two pie charts are displayed, one for each type (i.e. income and expense). The pie charts show the percentage of total amount transferred in a particular category among all categories.

Format: insights

Exiting the program: bye

Exits BudgetBuddy.

Format: bye

Saving the data

BudgetBuddy data are saved in the hard disk automatically when the user exits the program. There is no need to save the data manually. The data will be loaded automatically when the user runs the program again.

Editing the data file

BudgetBuddy data are saved as two txt files [JAR file location]/data/accounts.txt and [JAR file location]/data/transactions.txt. Advanced users are welcome to update the data directly by editing the data files.

Caution!: If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, BudgetBuddy will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run. Hence, it is recommended to take a backup of the file before editing it.
Furthermore, certain edits can cause the BudgetBuddy to behave in unexpected ways (e.g., if a value entered is outside the acceptable range). Therefore, edit the data file only if you are confident that you can update it correctly.

FAQ

Q: How do I transfer my data to another Computer?

A: Install the app in the other computer and overwrite the empty data file it creates with the file that contains the data of your previous BudgetBuddy home folder.

Command Summary