An AI-powered WordPress plugin for managing inventory, sales, expenses and business performance with intelligent business insights and recommendations.

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Team Information

Team Name

CSE4104-7B-T03 — Stack Builders

Section

7B

Team Members

Name	ID	Role
Imran Kabir	11230121102	Group Leader
Sajal Biswas	11230121114	Team Member
Borhan Kabir	11230121126	Team Member
Neeaj Morshed	11230121117	Team Member

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Project Description

The SaaS in Business Management System is a WordPress-based business management plugin developed as a semester project for the CSE4104 course.

The system is designed to help small and medium-sized businesses manage important day-to-day operations from a centralised dashboard.

The plugin combines inventory management, sales tracking, expense management, business performance monitoring and AI-assisted business analysis.

The objective is to reduce manual work, improve data organisation and provide business owners with useful information for better decision-making.

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Core Features

The system includes the following major features:

• User authentication and profile management
• Business management dashboard
• Inventory and stock management
• Product management
• Low-stock detection
• Sales management
• Automatic stock adjustment after sales
• Expense management
• Business performance monitoring
• REST API integration
• AI business analysis
• AI-generated recommendations
• AI report management
• Secure AI configuration
• Responsive WordPress admin interface
• Input validation and error handling

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Technology Stack

Platform

• WordPress

Backend

• PHP
• WordPress Plugin API
• WordPress REST API

Frontend

• HTML5
• CSS3
• JavaScript

Database

• MySQL
• WordPress $wpdb

AI Integration

• Google Gemini API

Development and Testing

• Visual Studio Code
• Postman
• Git
• GitHub

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System Architecture

The application follows a modular architecture:

User
  ↓
WordPress Admin Interface
  ↓
Frontend JavaScript
  ↓
WordPress REST API
  ↓
Service / Business Logic Layer
  ↓
Model / Database Layer
  ↓
MySQL Database

For AI functionality:

Business Data
     ↓
WordPress Backend
     ↓
AI Service
     ↓
Google Gemini API
     ↓
AI Response
     ↓
Response Validation
     ↓
Business Insights / Recommendations
     ↓
Dashboard

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Repository Structure

The current project is organised into the following major components:

saas-in-business-management-system/
│
├── admin/
├── api/
├── assets/
├── database/
├── design/
├── diagrams/
├── documentation/
├── includes/
├── middleware/
├── models/
├── services/
│
├── index.php
├── saas-business-management.php
├── uninstall.php
└── README.md

Folder Description

admin/

Contains the WordPress administration interface and functionality for the business management dashboard.

The admin area handles interfaces for features such as:

• Dashboard
• Inventory
• Sales
• Expenses
• AI insights
• Profile
• Settings

api/

Contains the WordPress REST API implementation used to connect application functionality with the backend.

The APIs support major modules such as:

• Authentication
• User/profile
• Inventory
• Sales
• Expenses
• AI functionality

assets/

Contains frontend resources used by the plugin, including:

• CSS
• JavaScript
• Images and other interface assets

database/

Contains database-related resources and database structure information.

The system stores information related to:

• Business/user profiles
• Products
• Inventory
• Sales
• Sale items
• Expenses
• AI reports

includes/

Contains the main plugin classes and supporting functionality required to initialise and operate the plugin.

middleware/

Contains authentication, permission and security-related middleware.

models/

Contains the application's data models and database interaction logic.

services/

Contains business logic for the main application modules.

design/

Contains project design resources.

diagrams/

Contains system diagrams such as:

• System architecture
• Activity diagram
• User flow
• AI workflow
• Database/ER diagrams

documentation/

Contains academic and technical project documentation.

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Database Design

The plugin uses MySQL through the WordPress database layer.

The database supports the following major entities:

1. Business/User Profile
2. Products/Inventory
3. Sales
4. Sale Items
5. Expenses
6. AI Reports

The implementation uses the WordPress database prefix dynamically instead of assuming the prefix is always wp_.

The database design includes:

• Primary keys
• Appropriate indexes
• Data relationships
• Appropriate data types
• Created/updated timestamps
• Business/user ownership

The plugin is designed to initialise the required database structure during plugin activation.

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Authentication and Security

The system uses WordPress authentication mechanisms rather than maintaining a separate plain-text password system.

Security measures include:

• Secure password handling
• Authentication checks
• Permission and capability checks
• REST API permission callbacks
• Input sanitisation
• Input validation
• Output escaping
• Prepared SQL queries
• Secure error handling
• Protected API endpoints

Sensitive credentials such as AI API keys should not be exposed through frontend JavaScript.

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Inventory Management

The Inventory module provides functionality for:

• Adding products
• Viewing products
• Updating products
• Deleting products
• Searching products
• Product categories
• SKU management
• Selling price
• Cost price
• Stock quantity
• Low-stock threshold
• Low-stock detection

Business/user ownership is used to prevent users from accessing another user's business information.

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Sales Management

The Sales module provides:

• Create sale
• View sales
• View individual sale
• Product selection
• Sale items
• Quantity management
• Unit price
• Subtotal calculation
• Total calculation
• Sale date

When a valid sale is recorded, the system can update the corresponding inventory quantity.

Important financial calculations are performed on the backend rather than relying only on frontend values.

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Expense Management

The Expense module provides:

• Add expense
• View expenses
• Update expense
• Delete expense
• Expense categories
• Expense amount
• Description
• Expense date
• Business/user ownership

Expense information is also used when calculating business performance and preparing information for AI analysis.

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Business Dashboard

The dashboard provides a central view of important business information.

Dashboard information includes:

• Total sales
• Total expenses
• Total products
• Low-stock products
• Recent sales
• Recent expenses
• Sales summary
• Expense summary
• Inventory summary

Dashboard information is intended to be generated from actual application/database data rather than hardcoded business statistics.

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REST API

The plugin uses the WordPress REST API.

Base Namespace

/wp-json/saas-bms/v1/

Authentication

POST /register
POST /login
POST /logout
GET  /profile
PUT  /profile

Inventory

GET    /inventory
GET    /inventory/{id}
POST   /inventory
PUT    /inventory/{id}
DELETE /inventory/{id}

Sales

GET  /sales
GET  /sales/{id}
POST /sales

Expenses

GET    /expenses
GET    /expenses/{id}
POST   /expenses
PUT    /expenses/{id}
DELETE /expenses/{id}

AI

POST /ai/analyze
POST /ai/recommendation
GET  /ai/reports

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AI Integration

Google Gemini is used as the selected AI platform for the project.

The purpose of AI integration is to analyse actual business information and provide useful decision-support information.

The AI module is designed to analyse:

• Sales performance
• Expense patterns
• Inventory status
• Product performance

The expected AI outputs include:

• Business performance summaries
• Sales insights
• Expense insights
• Inventory recommendations
• Potential business risks
• Actionable recommendations

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AI Workflow

Sales + Expenses + Inventory
            ↓
     Business Data Layer
            ↓
      WordPress Backend
            ↓
       Prompt Creation
            ↓
        Gemini API
            ↓
        AI Response
            ↓
    Response Validation
            ↓
      AI Report Storage
            ↓
       AI Insights Page

The Gemini API key is handled by the backend and should never be exposed directly to frontend JavaScript.

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Prompt Engineering

A structured prompt strategy is used to help the AI produce business-focused responses.

Example System Prompt

You are an AI business management assistant.

Analyse the provided business information and generate clear,
practical and easy-to-understand business insights.

Focus on sales, expenses, inventory, product performance,
business risks and actionable recommendations.

Do not invent information that is not supported by the
provided business data.

Expected Output

The AI is expected to provide:

1. Business performance summary
2. Sales observations
3. Expense observations
4. Inventory concerns
5. Business risks
6. Actionable recommendations

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Error Handling

The system is designed to handle common application errors such as:

• Missing required fields
• Invalid data
• Invalid product IDs
• Invalid quantities
• Insufficient inventory
• Authentication failures
• Unauthorised requests
• Database errors
• Invalid API requests
• AI API errors
• Empty AI responses
• Network failures
• AI service timeouts

Meaningful error responses are returned instead of allowing errors to crash the entire application.

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Development Roadmap

Week	Major Module	Deliverables
Week 06	Frontend Development	UI implementation and dashboard design
Week 07	Backend Development	Database setup and API implementation
Week 08	AI Integration	Gemini integration and recommendation features
Week 09	Feature Completion	Finalisation of core business modules
Week 10	Testing and Debugging	System testing, bug fixing and optimisation
Week 11	Deployment	Final documentation and deployment

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Team Task Distribution

Team Member	Responsibilities
Imran Kabir (Group Leader)	Project coordination, backend development, AI integration and deployment
Sajal Biswas	Frontend development and dashboard implementation
Borhan Kabir	Database design, API development and AI data processing
Neeaj Morshed	UI/UX design, testing, debugging and documentation

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Current Development Status

Completed / Implemented

• Project proposal
• Team information
• Project structure
• System architecture
• Activity diagram
• User flow design
• Wireframes/UI planning
• Database architecture
• WordPress plugin foundation
• Authentication architecture
• Inventory module
• Sales module
• Expense module
• Dashboard backend/data layer
• REST API structure
• AI integration architecture
• Plugin source uploaded to GitHub

Currently Being Tested / Improved

• Gemini API connectivity
• AI analysis generation
• AI recommendation generation
• AI error handling
• Frontend/backend integration
• Complete functional testing
• Security testing
• Final deployment

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Installation

1. Download or prepare the plugin ZIP.
2. Log in to the WordPress administration dashboard.
3. Go to Plugins → Add New Plugin.
4. Select Upload Plugin.
5. Upload the plugin ZIP file.
6. Click Install Now.
7. Activate the plugin.
8. Open SaaS Business Management from the WordPress admin menu.
9. Configure the required settings.
10. Configure the Gemini API if AI functionality is required.

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Project Progress

The project has progressed from the initial planning and system-design stages into functional plugin development.

The core business-management modules have been implemented, while AI integration, testing, debugging and final deployment are continuing.

The project will continue to be improved during the remaining development phases.

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References

1. WordPress Developer Documentation
   https://developer.wordpress.org/

2. Google Gemini API Documentation
   https://ai.google.dev/

3. Pressman, R. S., & Maxim, B. R.
   Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach, 9th Edition, McGraw-Hill Education, 2019.

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Academic Project

This project is being developed as part of the CSE4104 course by:

CSE4104-7B-T03 — Stack Builders