nicholasrae-expense-tracker_skill

Overview

This skill is a chat-based personal expense tracker that logs expenses from plain-language messages, categorizes them, tracks budgets, and generates spending reports. It lets users add or correct entries, check budget status, and request weekly or monthly summaries. The interface supports natural phrases like “I spent $45 at Costco” and command-style queries for detailed views.

How this skill works

The skill parses natural language to extract amount, vendor, date, category, and optional notes, then writes a ledger entry with an incrementing ID and ISO date. It auto-matches vendors to categories using keyword rules and context, prompts when ambiguous, and updates user budget data to trigger alerts at thresholds (80% and 100%). Reports and queries run against the ledger and budgets to produce summaries, itemized lists, and comparisons.

When to use it

• Log an expense quickly using plain language (e.g., “spent $12.50 at Chipotle”).
• Ask budget questions: “how's my budget looking?” or “how much have I spent this month?”.
• Generate reports: “weekly report”, “monthly report”, or compare months.
• Adjust budgets: “set my dining budget to $400” or check remaining budget for a category.
• Manage entries: recategorize, correct amounts, split purchases, or record refunds.

Best practices

• State amount and vendor clearly (e.g., “$45 at Target”) to avoid follow-up.
• Include context when needed for splitting or ambiguous vendors (e.g., “groceries and clothes” or “split 3 ways”).
• Confirm category suggestions when prompted to improve future auto-matching.
• Use commands for advanced queries: /add for manual entries, /spending for filtered views, /budget for month checks.
• Mention currency or conversion preference for foreign transactions; default is USD.

Example use cases

• Quick logging: “spent $5.50 at Starbucks yesterday” → logged and budget checked.
• Budget check: “how much is left in my dining budget?” → current month remaining shown with threshold emoji.
• Report: “weekly report” → category breakdown, top expenses, budget notes, week-over-week trend.
• Correction: “Actually that Costco trip was $52” → update recent entry amount and recalc budgets.
• Refunds and splits: “got reimbursed $45 from work” logs negative amount; “split $90 dinner with Jake” logs your share.