Joshua Wang
Start a project
All work

04 Private independent project · 2026

Personal Finance & Admin Hub

A personal dashboard for money and household paperwork that stays on my own computer instead of in someone else's cloud.

Private project · public-safe case study

Status
Private · in progress
My role
Designed and built the whole system and its safety checks
Built with
Python · React · SQLite
Illustration of bank, receipt, warranty, car and subscription records linked to one local database, inside a locked boundary marked 'this computer only'
Fig. 04

The idea at a glance. There is no public screenshot, so this illustration stands in for one.

Keeping it on my own computer is the point, not a limitation. Testing only ever uses made-up data.

01 Problem

Why this exists

I wanted a useful record of my finances and household admin without putting sensitive information in yet another cloud account. Bank transactions, purchases, warranties, subscriptions, car records and documents still needed to connect.

Like a password manager that keeps everything on your own device, some software is safer because it runs locally. This started as a simple dashboard for Mauritian bank statements and is being rebuilt into a fuller app.

02 My part

What I built

  1. 01

    Imports bank statements and sorts transactions into categories automatically.

  2. 02

    Links records together: a purchase, its warranty, the receipt and the bank transaction.

  3. 03

    Added search across everything, plus backups that can be checked and restored.

  4. 04

    Kept my real financial data completely out of the code and the tests.

  5. 05

    Rebuilt the app step by step while keeping the original working version as a fallback.

03 Approach

How I approached it

Stay on my computer

No cloud account, no tracking, and my files stay under my control.

One piece at a time

Rebuild one section at a time and keep the old version working until the new one is ready.

Test with made-up data

Every automated test uses invented records, so real finances are never touched.

04 Result

Where it is now

A substantial personal admin hub with linked records, search, and safe backup and restore.

Limits, honestly

The code and data are private, so there's nothing public to show yet. Calendar export and reminders are still to come.

Next: Finish reminders and calendar export, then make a demo with made-up data so it can be shown safely.