A centralized financial-management system for understanding, managing and planning personal finances.
Completed · Active Refinement
PHP 8.1 · MySQL · Bootstrap 5 · JavaScript · Financial Modelling · AI-Assisted Development
The Challenge
Personal financial information can become fragmented across bank accounts, credit products, loans, investments, budgets and individual spreadsheets or applications.
The challenge isn’t simply recording transactions. A useful financial-management system needs to connect those transactions to the larger financial picture:
Accounts → Transactions → Budget → Debt → Investments → Net Worth
PFH was created to bring those elements together in one structured system.
The Solution
Personal Finance Hub is a custom web application designed to provide a centralized view of personal finances.
The system combines account management, transaction tracking, budgeting, debt management and investments within a common data model.
The objective is to move beyond simply answering “Where did my money go?” and toward being able to answer “Where am I financially, how did I get here, and where am I going?”
The underlying data is structured so information entered once can contribute to multiple areas of the application.
Account Management
PFH provides a centralized view of financial accounts and their current balances. Accounts can represent different types of financial resources and obligations, providing the foundation for transaction tracking and overall financial reporting.
Transaction Management
Transactions form the core activity within PFH. Income and expenses can be recorded and associated with the appropriate account and financial category.
Transaction information becomes the foundation for budgeting, reporting and financial analysis. The goal is to avoid entering the same financial information repeatedly in different parts of the system.
Budgeting
PFH provides budgeting tools that allow planned spending to be compared against actual financial activity.
The system connects transaction activity to budget categories, turning the budget from a static list of targets into something connected to real financial activity.
Debt Management
Loans, mortgages and other debt obligations can be tracked independently within PFH. Debt information can include outstanding amount, payment information and associated financial details.
Where an automatic payment is associated with a debt, the system can use that payment information to reduce the outstanding balance. The underlying calculation distinguishes the amount applied to principal from interest where applicable.
Investment Management
PFH includes a dedicated investment area for tracking investment holdings.
- Investment name
- Units held
- Current price/value
- Average cost
- Cost basis
- Current value
- Gain/loss
- Investment history
The system can calculate current investment value based on holdings and current pricing information.
Investment Analysis
PFH separates the amount invested from the current value of those holdings, providing the foundation for determining investment performance rather than simply reporting a balance.
Future development can expand this area into more detailed contribution, performance and return analysis.
Financial Overview
Because accounts, transactions, debt, budgeting and investments exist within the same application, PFH can provide a broader view of the financial position.
Instead of examining each financial area independently, the system can bring the information together to provide a more useful overall picture.
Data Model
The underlying database provides the structure connecting the different financial components.
Accounts → Transactions → Categories / Budgets
Separate relationships connect accounts and transactions with Debt and Investments. This structured approach allows information collected in one area to support calculations and reporting elsewhere.
Technical Architecture
PFH is a custom PHP/MySQL web application designed for conventional shared hosting.
- Application: PHP 8.1
- Database: MySQL
- Interface: Bootstrap 5 / HTML / CSS / JavaScript
- Hosting: GoDaddy Shared Hosting / cPanel
- Development: AI-assisted iterative development
User Browser → Web Application → PHP Application Layer → MySQL Database
Development Process
Problem Definition → Financial Model → Database Design → Application Architecture → Feature Development → Testing → Refinement → Integration → Ongoing Development
Financial software requires particular attention to relationships between data because an apparently small change can affect balances, budgets, debt calculations or reporting elsewhere in the application.
AI-Assisted Development
- Database design
- PHP development
- SQL
- Debugging
- Interface development
- Financial calculations
- Data-model analysis
- Feature planning
- Testing
- Troubleshooting
- Refinement
AI accelerated implementation and problem solving, while logic and design decisions remain under human direction.
Current Status
PFH has reached a functional completed version and is actively being used and refined. The core budgeting, account, transaction, debt and investment functionality is operational, while additional improvements can be added as the needs arise and application evolves.