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User Guide

Expense Expert is a desktop app for keeping track of your expenses, and managing your budget, optimized for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI) enhanced with a light-weight Graphical User Interface (GUI). If you can type fast, Expense Expert can get your expense management done faster than traditional GUI apps.

Table of Contents

Quick start

  1. Ensure you have Java 11 or above installed in your Computer.

  2. Download the latest expenseexpert.jar from here.

  3. Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for your Expense Expert.

  4. Double-click the file to start the app. The GUI similar to the below should appear in a few seconds.

  5. The data used here is for demonstration purposes. When you launch ExpenseExpert for the first time, it is not preloaded with any data.
    Ui

  6. Set up your intended budget by using the budget command.

  7. Type the command in the command box and press Enter to execute it. e.g. typing help and pressing Enter will open the help window.
    Some example commands you can try:

    • budget a/100: Sets a budget of $100 for the month.

    • list : Lists all the expenses you have recorded.

    • add d/Lunch at VivoCity a/12.95 c/Food t/2022-03-12 : Adds a new expense of a/12.95 for Lunch at Vivocity to your list of expenses

    • delete 3 : Deletes the 3rd expense shown in the expense list.

    • exit : Exits the app.

  8. Refer to the Features below for details of each command.

Breakdown of the UI

Ui

  1. Menu Bar: Facilitate quick access to the help window. Quiting of the application can also be done through the file drop-down option.
  2. Command Box: Allows the user to input commands.
  3. Budget Display Box: Displays the remaining budget.
  4. Result Box: Displays the results of the command that the user parsed.
  5. Expense List: List of expenses (can be all the expenses or filtered list if command had been passed).
  6. Person List: List of people who owe the user the said sum of money.

Features

Notes about the command format:

  • Words in UPPER_CASE are the parameters to be supplied by the user.
    e.g. in d/DESCRIPTION, DESCRIPTION is a parameter which can be used as d/Dinner at ECP.

  • Items in square brackets are optional.
    e.g d/DESCRIPTION [c/CATEGORY] can be used as d/Dinner at ECP c/Food or as d/Dinner at ECP.

  • Items in brackets means at least one of the components must be present.

  • e.g. (ft/DATE) (c/CATEGORY) can be used as ft/2022-03, ft/2022-03 c/Transport or c/Transport.

  • Parameters can be in any order.
    e.g. if the command specifies d/DESCRIPTION a/AMOUNT, a/AMOUNT d/DESCRIPTION is also acceptable.

  • If a parameter is expected only once in the command but is instead specified multiple times, only the last occurrence of the parameter will be taken.
    e.g. if you specify a/12.99 a/13.50, only a/13.50 will be taken.

  • Extraneous parameters for commands that do not take in parameters (such as help, list and exit) will be ignored.
    e.g. if the command specifies help 123, it will be interpreted as help.

Commands

Viewing help : help

Shows a help window explaining how to use each command, with a link to the user guide. It can also show the usage of a particular command.

Help

Format: help [COMMAND_NAME]

Adding an expense : add

Adds an expense to the list. Description and expense category provided must be in alphanumerical format, amount can only be positive number up to 2 decimal places and expense date must be in yyyy-MM-dd format. Description must be unique and different from all other expenses in Expense Expert. Expense category must be from a list of user-defined categories. If Expense category is undefined, it will default to the General Expense Category.

Format: add d/DESCRIPTION a/AMOUNT [c/EXPENSE_CATEGORY] t/EXPENSE_DATE

Examples:

  • add d/Dinner at Astons a/35 c/Food t/2022-03-22
  • add d/Groceries t/2022-03-23 a/50

This is the result of executing the command(s) above:

Add

Add

Deleting an expense : delete

Deletes the expense specified by the index from the list. Run list before executing the command to identify the index of the expense.

Format: delete INDEX

Examples:

  • delete 1

This is the result of executing the command(s) above:

Delete

Editing an expense : edit

Edits an existing expense in the list. You need to specify the index of the expense from the list and only the syntax of the fields you want to change together with the value you want to change to. You can specify one or more fields. Run list before executing the command to identify the index of the expense.

Format: edit INDEX (d/DESCRIPTION) (a/AMOUNT) (c/EXPENSE_CATEGORY) (t/EXPENSE_DATE)

Examples:

  • edit 1 a/40
  • edit 2 d/Groceries from Fairprice a/80

This is the result of executing the command(s) above:

Edit

Listing all expenses : list

Shows a list of all expenses recorded in Expense Expert.

Format: list

This is the result of executing the command(s) above:

List

Filtering expense(s): filter

Filters the expenses with the date or category provided. At least one of the fields in brackets need to be present. Date format must be provided in yyyy-MM-dd format or in yyyy-MM format. If date provided is in yyyy-MM format, the displayed will include all the results of that month.

Format: filter (ft/DATE) (c/CATEGORY)

Examples:

  • filter ft/2022-03-12
  • filter ft/2022-03
  • filter c/Transport
  • filter ft/2022-03 c/Transport

The expense list before executing the filter command looked as follows: Filter

Result of executingfilter ft/2022-03 is shown below:

Filter

Disclaimer : result may vary depending upon the existing data in ExpenseExpert.

Finding expense(s): find

Finds expense(s) with the stated keyword(s) in descriptors. If more than one keyword is provided, returns list of expenses with expense description that matches any of the keywords provided.

Format: find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

Examples:

  • find Cafe
  • find Cafe Grab

The expense list before executing the find command looked as follows: Filter

Result of executing find Cafe is shown below:

Find

Disclaimer : result may vary depending upon the existing data in ExpenseExpert.

Setting a monthly Budget: budget

Sets a budget for the month.

The add, delete and edit command affect the monthly budget to reflect the user's remaining budget. However, due to an incomplete implementation of the budget, transaction for every month are reflected in the current month's budget. This is going to be rectified in the future iterations.

Format: budget a/AMOUNT

Examples:

  • budget a/500

This is the result of executing the command(s) above:

Budget

Adding an Expense Category: addCat

Adds a user-defined expense category which can be used to categorise expenses.

Format: addCat c/EXPENSE_CATEGORY

Examples:

  • addCat c/transport

This is the result of executing the command(s) above:

AddCategory

Listing all Expense Categories: listCat

Shows a list of all expense categories recorded in Expense Expert.

Format: listCat

This is the result of executing the command(s) above:

ListCategory

The Following three commands facilitate the feature of managing the list of persons who owe you money.

This sections of commands does not make a difference to the budget set by the user, since the budget is only meant to keep track of the expenses, and the amount of money lent out does not have any role to play in it.

Adding a person who owes you money: person

Adds a person with the name who owes you the specific amount.

Format: person n/PERSON_NAME a/PERSON_AMOUNT

Examples:

  • person n/Alex a/100

This is the result of executing the command(s) above:

Person

Removing a person who has paid the owed money: paid

Removes a person at the index who has paid all the money they have owed.

Format: paid INDEX

Examples:

  • paid 1

This is the result of executing the command(s) above:

Paid

Updating the amount a person owes you: update

Updates the amount owed by a person at the index in the list to the amount parsed.

Format: update INDEX a/AMOUNT

Examples:

  • update 4 a/1000

This is the result of executing the command(s) above:

Update

Clearing the program data : clear

Deletes all data from Expense Expert.

Format: clear

This is the result of executing the command(s) above:

Clear

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Storage

Saving the data

Expense Expert data are saved in the hard disk automatically after any command that changes the data. There is no need to save manually.

Editing the data file

Expense Expert data are saved as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/expenseexpert.json. Advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing that data file.

❗ **Caution:** If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, Expense Expert will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run.

FAQ

Q: How can 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 Expense Expert home folder.

Q: Can I archive the data files?
A: At the moment, the application doesn't support archiving. It will be available in v2.0.

Command summary

Action Format, Examples
Getting help help
Adding an expense add d/DESCRIPTION a/AMOUNT [c/EXPENSE_CATEGORY] t/EXPENSE_DATE
Example: add d/Lunch at VivoCity a/12.95 c/Food t/2022-03-20
Deleting an expense delete INDEX
Example: delete 3
Editing an expense edit INDEX (d/DESCRIPTION) (a/AMOUNT) (c/EXPENSE_CATEGORY) (t/EXPENSE_DATE)
Example: edit 2 d/Lunch at Harbourfront Centre a/6.50
Listing all expenses list
Filtering expense(s) filter (ft/FILTER_DATE) (c/CATEGORY)
Example: filter ft/2022-03 c/Transport
Finding expense(s) find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]
Example: find Cafe Grab Basketball
Setting a monthly budget budget a/AMOUNT
Example: budget a/1000
Adding an expense category addCat c/EXPENSE_CATEGORY
Example: addCat c/transport
Listing all expense category listCat
Adding a person who owes you money person n/PERSON_NAME a/PERSON_AMOUNT
Example: person n/Alex a/50
Removing a person who paid the owed money paid INDEX
Example: paid 1
Updating the amount a person owes you update INDEX a/AMOUNT
Example: update 4 a/200
Clearing the program data clear
Exiting the program exit