# School Accounting ERP

This project is a comprehensive, enterprise-grade accounting and ERP system designed specifically for educational institutions, with a focus on the Ghanaian market. It provides a robust backend for managing all financial aspects of a school, from student billing to detailed financial reporting and auditing.

The system is built with a clear separation of concerns, ensuring that the core accounting engine remains reliable and independent, while allowing for intelligence and visualization layers to be built on top.

## Core Principles

*   **Accounting First:** The system is built around a solid, double-entry accounting engine, ensuring all financial data is accurate and balanced.
*   **Read-Only Insights:** The intelligence and dashboard layers are strictly read-only, ensuring they can never corrupt the core accounting data.
*   **Auditability:** A comprehensive audit trail logs every significant financial action, providing a complete and immutable history.
*   **Modularity:** The system is designed in phases, allowing for incremental development and deployment.

## Features (Phases 1-5)

The backend is functionally complete and provides the following features:

*   **Chart of Accounts:** A flexible and customizable chart of accounts to categorize all financial transactions.
*   **Student Management:** Manage student records and enrollment.
*   **Fee Structures:** Define complex fee structures and assign them to students.
*   **Invoicing:** Automatically generate and issue invoices to students.
*   **Payments:** Record and track student payments.
*   **Expense Management:** Manage vendors and track bills and bill payments.
*   **Journal Entries:** Manually create journal entries for adjustments and other accounting tasks.
*   **Financial Reporting:**
    *   **Trial Balance:** Ensure the books are always balanced.
    *   **Income Statement:** Track revenue, expenses, and profitability.
    *   **Balance Sheet:** Get a snapshot of the school's financial position.
    *   **Accounts Receivable (A/R) Aging:** Monitor outstanding invoices.
    *   **Accounts Payable (A/P) Aging:** Track outstanding bills.
*   **Financial Controls:**
    *   **Accounting Periods:** Close accounting periods to prevent unauthorized changes to historical data.
*   **Audit Trail:**
    *   **Comprehensive Logging:** Every key financial transaction is logged for full traceability.

## Technology Stack

*   **Backend:** PHP 8.x (Vanilla)
*   **Database:** MariaDB / MySQL
*   **Web Server:** Apache
*   **Frontend:** React (rendered client-side)

## Project Structure

```
├── api/                  # API endpoints
│   ├── reports/          # Financial report endpoints
│   └── ...
├── db/                   # Database scripts
│   ├── migrations/       # Database migration files
│   └── config.php        # Database connection configuration
├── includes/             # Helper functions and utilities
├── mail/                 # Email sending service
├── ai/                   # AI/ML integration hooks
├── dashboard/            # Frontend React application
│   ├── src/
│   └── ...
├── .htaccess             # Apache configuration
├── index.php             # Main application entry point (serves the dashboard)
└── README.md             # This file
```

## Setup and Installation

1.  **Environment:** Set up a standard LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack.
2.  **Database:**
    *   Create a new MySQL/MariaDB database.
    *   Update the credentials in `db/config.php`.
3.  **Migrations:** Run the database migrations located in the `db/migrations/` directory in sequential order to set up the database schema.
4.  **Web Server:** Configure Apache to use the project's root directory as the `DocumentRoot`.
5.  **Access:** Open the project URL in your browser. The `index.php` file will automatically load the React-based dashboard.

## API Endpoints

The core backend functionality is exposed via a series of PHP-based API endpoints in the `api/` directory. The frontend dashboard interacts with these endpoints to display data. Key endpoints include:

*   `/api/students_post.php`
*   `/api/invoices_post.php`
*   `/api/payments_post.php`
*   `/api/vendors_post.php`
*   `/api/bills_post.php`
*   `/api/reports/trial_balance.php`
*   `/api/reports/income_statement.php`
*   `/api/reports/balance_sheet.php`
*   `/api/reports/ar_aging.php`
*   `/api/reports/ap_aging.php`

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*This README provides a high-level overview. For detailed API specifications and implementation details, please refer to the source code.*