Creating a Financial Dashboard with API‑Driven Data from Stripe and Plaid

Most logistics companies track revenue in their invoicing tool and expenses in their bank statement. A unified financial dashboard closes the visibility gap, and modern fintech APIs make it surprisingly easy.

Connecting to Stripe for Revenue

Stripe's Node.js SDK is developer‑friendly. We fetch daily aggregated revenue using `stripe.balanceTransactions.list()` and parse the `available_on` date to align with our invoice cycles. The data lands in a chart that plots revenue over time, broken down by payment method (ACH vs. card).

Using Plaid to Pull Bank Transactions

Plaid's Transactions API requires a bit more setup—you'll need a Plaid account and an access token from a linked bank account. Once connected, calling `/transactions/sync` returns categorized transactions. We filter for "Fleet Maintenance" and "Fuel" merchants to automatically populate our expense dashboard.

Merging the Data in a Dashboard

The final dashboard uses a server‑side Node.js route that fetches both APIs, merges the data by date, and returns a single JSON object. On the frontend, a Tremor `AreaChart` shows revenue vs. expenses by month, and a `DonutChart` breaks expenses into categories. The owner can see their net margin at a glance.

Security Considerations

Never call Plaid or Stripe from the client. All sensitive keys live on your server. We use Next.js API routes with session‑based authentication to ensure only the authorized business owner can view their financial data.