Development of a Student Expense Tracking System Using Optical Character Recognition

  • Muhammad Hairil Shaharudin
  • Ahmad Fadli Saad
  • Achmad Yani
  • Abdi Manaf
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36079/lamintang.ijai-01201.741
Keywords: Budget Management, Financial Literacy, OCR Technology, Student Expense Tracking, Usability Testing

Abstract

Personal financial literacy is a vital skill for university students, yet many struggle to track their daily expenses due to time constraints and low awareness. This study aims to design and develop a web-based Student Expense Tracking System using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to address this issue. The system allows users to automatically extract and record spending information from receipt images, reducing manual input and improving financial awareness. The development followed the Web Development Life Cycle (WDLC) using the Waterfall model, comprising planning, design, development, and testing phases. Visual Studio Code, Python 3, and Tesseract OCR were employed in system implementation. Wireframes and mockups guided the interface design, while backend development focused on data storage and OCR integration. Functionality testing showed a 100% pass rate across ten scenarios, validating the system's performance in image processing, budget management, and spending visualization. Usability testing using the Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ) with 30 participants yielded a mean score of 4.45 out of 5, indicating a high level of user satisfaction. The system scored highest on ease of use (4.6), visual design (4.7), and recommendation likelihood (4.8), confirming its intuitive interface and appeal. Slightly lower scores in user confidence (4.1) and data organization (4.2) point to opportunities for interface refinement and improved user guidance. This research concludes that OCR can effectively support financial tracking for students. Future enhancements with NLP and machine learning are recommended to automate expense categorization and improve analytical capabilities.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Muhammad Hairil Shaharudin

Computing Science Studies, College of Computing, Informatics and Media, Universiti Teknologi MARA. Perak Branch, Tapah Campus. Perak, Malaysia.

Ahmad Fadli Saad

Computing Science Studies, College of Computing, Informatics and Media, Universiti Teknologi MARA. Perak Branch, Tapah Campus. Perak, Malaysia.

Achmad Yani

Department of Industrial Engineering, Sekolah Tinggi Teknik Ar-Rahmah. Bintan, Indonesia.

Abdi Manaf

Department of Industrial Engineering, Sekolah Tinggi Teknik Ar-Rahmah. Bintan, Indonesia.

This is an open access article, licensed under CC-BY-SA

Creative Commons License
Published
        Views : 788
2025-06-28
    Downloads : 324
How to Cite
[1]
M. H. Shaharudin, A. F. Saad, A. Yani, and A. Manaf, “Development of a Student Expense Tracking System Using Optical Character Recognition”, International Journal of Artificial Intelligence, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1-10, Jun. 2025.
Issue
Vol 12 No 1: June 2025
Section
Articles

References

A. Abdulrahman and S. Varol, “A Review of Image Segmentation Using MATLAB Environment,” 8th International Symposium on Digital Forensics and Security (ISDFS), 2020.

S. Alwi, I. Zura, A. Hashim, and M. S. Ali, “Factors Affecting Savings Habits,” Global Business Research Journal, 2015. [Online]. Available: www.globalbizresearch.org. [Accessed: Jan. 3, 2025].

S. I. Ao, O. Castillo, C. Douglas, D. D. Feng, and J.-A. Lee, eds., Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists (IMECS 2014), vols. I–II, Hong Kong, 12–14 Mar. 2014.

Y. Perwej, S. A. Hannan, A. M. A. Mir Asif, and A. Mane, “An Overview and Applications of Optical Character Recognition,” Int. J. Adv. Res. Sci. Eng., vol. 3, no. 7, pp. 261–268, Jul. 2014.

B. Benchamardimath and R. S. Hegadi, “A Study on The Importance of Image Processing and Its Apllications,” presented at the NCRIET’14: National Conference on Recent Innovations in Engineering and Technology, Int. J. Res. Eng. Technol., vol. 3, no. 7, pp. 63–71, Apr. 2020.

A. J. Bowers, ed., Data Visualization, Dashboards, and Evidence Use in Schools: Data Collaborative Workshop Perspectives of Educators, Researchers, and Data Scientists, 1st ed., New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University, 2021, 460 pp. [Online]. Available: https: //files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED616742.pdf. [Accessed: Jan. 3, 2025].

A. Nurwulandari, “The Effect of Financial Literacy on Student Financial Management,” InfoSains Journal, [Online]. Available: https: //ejournal.seaninstitute.or.id/index.php/InfoSains /article/view/1849. [Accessed: Jan. 20, 2025].

L. Falahati, L. Paim, M. Ismail, S. Haron, et al., “Assessment of university students’ financial management skills and educational needs,” Afr. J. Bus. Manag., vol. 5, no. 15, pp. 6085–6091, Aug. 2011.

N. Asandimitra and A. Kautsar, “The influence of financial information, financial self‑efficacy, and emotional intelligence on financial management behavior of female lecturers in Indonesian universities,” Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews, vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 1112–1124, Jan. 2020.

M. F. Sabri, Pathways to financial success: Determinants of financial literacy and financial well-being among young adults, Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA, Jan. 2011.

M. Hamzah, A. Mansor, N. Shariff, and L. Othman, “The Impact of Financial Literacy on Saving Habits among Malaysian Youth: A Gender‑Based Analysis,” Int. J. Res. Innov. Soc. Sci., vol. 8, no. 8, pp. 4386–4395, Aug. 2024.

J. M. Abdul Kadir, A. Shoukat, N. Naghavi, and A. A. Jamaluddin, “Saving behavior in emerging country: The role of financial knowledge, peer influence and parent socialization,” Pakistan Bus. Rev., vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 629–640, Jan.–Mar. 2021.

D. S. Kumar, H. Sudin, J. Othman, and S. Salehuddin, “The Influence of Spending Behaviour Among University Students in Malaysia,” Asian J. Account. Finance, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 30–43, Sep. 2022.

OECD, Improving Financial Education Efficiency: OECD–Bank of Italy Symposium on Financial Literacy, Paris: OECD Publishing, Oct. 27, 2011.

R. Manju, “Trends in Spending and Money Management Practices among Students of Kerala,” International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies, vol. 3, no. 10, pp. 39–47, Oct. 2016. [Online]. Available: http: //ijrhss.org/papers/7.pdf. [Accessed: Jan. 3, 2025].

D. R. Adams, S. A. Meyers, dan R. S. Beidas, “The relationship between financial strain, perceived stress, psychological symptoms, and academic and social integration in undergraduate students,” Journal of American College Health, vol. 64, no. 5, pp. 362–370, Mar. 2016.

P. Białowolski, D. Węziak-Białowolska, dan E. McNeely, “The Role of Financial Fragility and Financial Control for Well-Being,” Social Indicators Research, vol. 155, no. 3, pp. 1137–1157, Feb. 2021.

S. R. Hegde, H. Gangatkar, P. V. G., H. M. B., dan S. M. Sudha, “Automated Expense Tracking with OCR: Enhancing Financial Management through Technology,” Int. Adv. Res. J. Sci., Eng. Technol., vol. 12, no. 1 2, 2025.

A. Lusardi, “Financial literacy and the need for financial education: evidence and implications,” Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, vol. 155, no. 1, pp. 1–8, Jan. 2019.

V. S. Venkatesh, C. John De Britto, P. Subhashini, dan K. Somasundaram, “Image Enhancement and Implementation of CLAHE Algorithm and Bilinear Interpolation,” Cybernetics and Systems, 2022.

T.-s. Wang, G. T. Kim, M. Kim, dan J. Jang, “Contrast Enhancement Based Preprocessing Process to Improve Deep Learning Object Task Performance and Results,” Applied Sciences, vol. 13, no. 19, art. no. 10760, Sep. 2023.

C.-J. Lin, Y.-C. Liu, dan C.-L. Lee, “Automatic Receipt Recognition System Based on Artificial Intelligence Technology,” Applied Sciences, vol. 12, no. 2, art. 853, Jan. 2022.

H. Ma and D. S. Doermann, “Gabor Filter Based Multi class Classifier for Scanned Document Images,” IEEE International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR), vol. 3, pp. 968–972, Sep. 2003.

A. Priya, S. Mishra, S. Raj, S. Mandal and S. Datta, “Online and offline character recognition: A survey,” 2016 International Conference on Communication and Signal Processing (ICCSP), Melmaruvathur, India, 2016.

N. You, L. Han, Y. Liu, D. Zhu, X. Zuo, dan W. Song, “Research on Wavelet Transform Modulus Maxima and OTSU in Edge Detection,” Applied Sciences, vol. 13, no. 7, art. 4454, Jul. 2023.

J. Jayanthi and P. U. Maheswari, “Comparative study: enhancing legibility of ancient Indian script images from diverse stone background structures using 34 different pre processing methods,” npj Heritage Science, vol. 12, art. 63, Feb. 2024.

M. T. Rasheed, D. Shi, dan H. Khan, “A comprehensive experiment-based review of low light image enhancement methods and benchmarking low light image quality assessment,” Signal Processing, vol. 204, art. 108821, Mar. 2023.

L. Burrows, “Budgeting apps: the best options for tracking your money on the go,” The Guardian, 9 Jan. 2021. [Online] Available: https: //www.theguardian.com/money /2021/jan/09/budgeting-apps-best-money-personal-finance-tools. [Accessed: Feb. 15, 2025].

N. Anantrasirichai and D. R. Bull, “Artificial intelligence in the creative industries: a review,” Artificial Intelligence Review, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 1–30, Jul. 2021.

Y. Waheed et al., “AI revolutionizing industries worldwide: a comprehensive overview of its diverse applications,” Hybrid Advances, vol. 7, art. 100277, Dec. 2024.

Y. K. Dwivedi, E. Ismagilova, D. L. Hughes, J. Carlson, R. Filieri, J. Jacobson, V. Jain, H. Karjaluoto, H. Kefi, A. S. Krishen, V. Kumar, M. M. Rahman, R. Raman, P. A. Rauschnabel, J. Rowley, J. Salo, G. A. Tran, dan Y. Wang, “Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research: Perspectives and research propositions,” International Journal of Information Management, vol. 59, art. no. 102168, Aug. 2021.

B. Cantwell, J. Delaney, W. Doyle, K. Rosinger, V. Sansone, D. Troutman, dan D. Xu, Paving the Path to Debt Free College, Institute for College Access & Success, Oakland, CA, Rep. ED630807, Apr. 2023.

Rosano, “OCR applications in legal and financial documents,” Fintelite AI, Apr. 5, 2024. [Online]. Available: https: //fintelite.ai/ocr-applications-in-legal-and-financial-documents/. [Accessed: Jan. 3, 2025].