Expense Splitting App

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Features
• Technical Stack
• Installation and Setup
• Usage
• Contributing
• License
• Roadmap
• Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Expense Splitting App is a web application that allows groups of people, such as roommates or friends, to easily track and split expenses. It provides features for managing expenses, calculating balances, and facilitating payments between group members.

Features

• Group Creation: Users can create groups for different occasions (e.g., roommates, trips, dining out) and invite members to join.
• Expense Tracking: Users can add expenses to the group, categorize them, and split the costs among members.
• Receipt Scanning: Users can upload receipts, and the app will automatically parse the items and distribute the costs.
• Real-time Balances: The app calculates and displays the current balances between group members, making it easy to see who owes what.
• Payment Integration: Users can make payments directly through the app, and the system will automatically update the balances.
• Expense History: Users can view a detailed history of all expenses and payments within the group.
• Debt Simplification: The app includes an algorithm to automatically suggest the optimal payment paths to settle debts between group members.
• Notifications: Users receive push notifications for payment reminders and other important updates.

Technical Stack

• Frontend: React/React Native
• Backend: Python (Flask/Django) or Node.js
• Database: MySQL
• Payment Integration: Stripe or PayPal
• Receipt Parsing: Optical Character Recognition (OCR) API
• Notifications: Firebase Cloud Messaging or Twilio SMS

Installation

• Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/SplitItApp.git

• Follow the instructions in the respective directories to set up the frontend and backend:

  • Frontend Setup
  • Backend Setup

Usage

1. Register a new user account.
2. Create a new group or join an existing one.
3. Add expenses to the group, either manually or by uploading receipts.
4. View the current balances and make payments to settle debts.
5. Receive notifications for payment reminders and other important updates.

Contributing

We welcome contributions to the Expense Splitting App project. If you would like to contribute, please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch for your feature or bug fix.
3. Make your changes and commit them.
4. Push your branch to your forked repository.
5. Submit a pull request to the original repository.

Roadmap

• Implement machine learning-based expense categorization
• Integrate with popular calendar apps for event-based expense tracking
• Develop a mobile app for on-the-go expense tracking

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the open-source community for their contributions to the project.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.