QuickBill

QuickBill is a cross-platform, terminal-based billing application written in C.

It supports admin and user logins, product management, bill generation, and maintains a history of transactions in the data/ folder.

Features

• Admin Login

  • Review bills
  • Change admin password
  • Edit billers

• User Login

  • Process customer bills
  • Automatically save bill details with date

• Billing

  • Prints professional receipt layout
  • Auto-increments bill/customer ID
  • Saves bills in data/ as MM_DD_YYYY.txt

• Product Management

  • Products loaded from data/products.csv
  • Supports discounts, GST, and net cost calculation

• Cross-Platform

  • Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows
  • Uses platform-specific getch() for hidden password entry

Project Structure

QuickBill/
├── build/               # Compiled object files (created locally, not in GitHub)
├── data/                # Data and runtime files
│   ├── products.csv     # Product list
│   ├── password.txt     # Login credentials
│   ├── cidupdate.txt    # Auto-generated bill counter
│   ├── MM_DD_YYYY.txt   # Auto-generated daily bills
├── src/                 # Source code
│   ├── main.c
│   ├── admin.c
│   ├── biller.c
│   ├── utils.c
│   └── quickbill.h
├── Makefile
├── README.md
└── .gitignore

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• macOS / Linux: gcc (or any C compiler), make
• Windows: MinGW or MSVC

Build

make

This will compile the source files and generate the executable:

./quickbill        # macOS / Linux
quickbill.exe      # Windows

Cleaning Build Files

make clean

This removes all compiled object files and the executable, keeping the workspace clean.

Why Makefile?

We use a Makefile to:

• Automate the compilation process.
• Ensure consistent build commands across platforms.
• Avoid manually typing long gcc commands.
• Allow easy rebuilds and cleanup (make, make clean).

Data Files

• data/password.txt - Stores credentials in username,password format.
• data/products.csv - Stores product list in CSV format.
• data/cidupdate.txt - Tracks the last bill/customer ID (auto-generated).
• data/MM_DD_YYYY.txt - Stores each day's bills (auto-generated).

Login Defaults

Role	Username	Password
Admin	admin	admin@123
User	1001	pass1
User	1002	pass2

Why This Project?

Originally started as a simple C-based billing system for learning purposes, QuickBill was first developed and completed by Chandu Venkata Naga Sai Saran Kumar Velpuri around 2022, with initial input from Wineel Wilson Dasari.

In 2025, Wineel revived, cleaned, and updated the project to make it:

• Cross-platform (macOS, Linux, Windows)
• Easier to build using a Makefile
• More organized with separate modules for admin, billing, and utilities
• Equipped with cleaner file handling and modern C practices

It now serves as both a learning project for beginners in C and a functional terminal-based billing system that can be adapted for small shops or educational use.

Future Improvements

Planned features and enhancements

• Security Enhancements

  • SHA-256 hashing for storing passwords instead of plain text
  • Role-based access control for different levels of users
  • Input validation to prevent malformed data entries

• Data Export & Reporting

  • Export bills to PDF
  • Export transactions to CSV
  • Summarized monthly/weekly reports

• Search & Filtering

  • Search bills by date, customer ID, or biller
  • Product filtering by name or category

• UI/UX Improvements

  • Colored and formatted console output
  • Menu navigation improvements
  • Optional graphical interface in the future

• Performance & Scalability

  • Use SQLite or MySQL as backend for large-scale deployments
  • Optimize file I/O for faster access

• Roadmap Ideas

  • Multi-language support
  • Cloud sync option for backup
  • Integration with barcode scanners
  • Configurable tax rates and currency formatting

License

This project is open-source and licensed under the MIT License.
See the LICENSE file for details.
Feel free to modify and improve upon it!

Authors

Initial Development (2022):

• Wineel Wilson Dasari and Chandu Venkata Naga Sai Saran Kumar Velpuri - Started the project together.
• Chandu completed the original working version.

Recent Updates (2025):

• Wineel updated and enhanced the project with improvements to code quality, cross-platform compatibility, Makefile integration, and file handling.