Spending money is easy. Keeping track of how much money you spend, not so much.
Even if you're good at recording all your expenses in a financial program like Quicken, QuickBooks, or Xero, understanding your expenses and turning all of that transaction data into actionable insights can be more difficult.
But, as it turns out, AI can help make that process much easier. And you don't even have to be some sort of accountant or spreadsheet wizard. You just have to know how to ask the right questions (i.e., give the right prompts).
To make that process as easy as it can be, I've included 10 powerful AI prompts right here in this article, along with five additional prompts perfect for use at tax time. I'll also show you the fast way to get at your transaction data so you can use the AI to analyze it.
But first, let's look at five good reasons to better understand your expenses.
Here are five good reasons for using an AI to analyze your financial transactions.
Before you can analyze your data, you'll need to export it. Most financial tools like QuickBooks have a reports section. In that reports section, almost all will have a transaction detail report, which is literally a report of every transaction and all the details recorded.
Run that report for the period you want to analyze, then find the Export button. Export as either Excel or CSV and that will give you a data set you can import into the AI.
The easiest way to start is to just export one credit card account. But you can, for example, export each credit card account and name each file for the appropriate card. Then, when you ask the AI to import, you can either import one after the other and instruct the AI to keep track of which card is in use, or do the AI analysis on each report one at a time.
Do be aware you're giving the AI your personal data. But transaction reports don't export the card numbers, just that you have a pattern of watching British cozy mysteries instead of those blockbuster action flicks most people would expect.
Let's get started with some general prompts.
Prompt: "Here is a transaction detail report from my accounting software. Please list all the columns so I can verify the structure."
This helps make sure the AI is properly reading your exported file. I find that the AI tends to get lost if the name of the spreadsheet columns aren't in the first row. So if this prompt returns gibberish, tell the AI that the row containing column names contains fields like "transaction date".
It should be able to work from that point on.
Prompt: "Group all expenses by vendor and show me which vendors I spend the most money with."
This is a great way to find out where you're spending your money. Keep in mind that the AI may not know which column is a vendor name, so you might have to tell the AI, for example, that the column "name" is the name of the vendor you want to use for grouping.
Prompt: "Group expenses by accounting category or account name and show the total for each."
This gives you a big-picture view of how your spending is distributed across different expense types. But keep in mind that the AI may not quite understand what each category is, so you may need to provide definitions or tell it that certain vendors fall into certain categories.
A good follow-on prompt is "For each category, list the vendors you think are associated with each category." Then, if vendors are associated with the wrong category, correct the AI.
Prompt: "Summarize my monthly spending trends by category. Show how much I spend per category per month."
This helps you see and understand any seasonal spending patterns, identify recurring costs, and identify any cash flow behaviors you need to fix.
Prompt: "Which vendors have increased their prices over time? Show changes in average monthly charges per vendor."
This works, but not always. For example, I pay Google for three or four completely different services. So the AI might get confused lumping everything into Google. If it goes down the wrong path, you can tell it to ignore all Google expenses in this prompt, for example. Or you can instruct it on any special handling you want for such vendors.
Then, you can go back to those vendors and investigate the charges, renegotiate the fees, drop their services, or suck it up and live with the increases.
Prompt: "Which categories contain large one-time or annual expenses? Flag anything over $100 that only shows up once or twice."
This is a great way to find out if anyone did an automatic charge that you weren't expecting. I keep a pretty good eye on my online services and software licenses, but once in a while one will sneak through. This is a good way to get ahead of those expenses, or at least prevent them from being charged again.
Prompt: "Break down streaming, subscriptions, and internet service expenses. Group by vendor and show monthly totals."
This is a great way to see how you're spending on those recurring services. Just keep in mind you might have to tell it which vendors should be categorized into which categories.
To do this, use a prompt like "All expenses from Netflix and Britbox should be considered streaming, all expenses from Patreon and the Washington Post should be considered subscriptions, and all expenses from Pagely and GoDaddy and Comcast should be considered internet services."
Prompt: "Are there any duplicate transactions or likely errors? Highlight any identical amounts to the same vendor on the same day or any transactions that seem anomalous."
This helps catch duplicate charges, which can happen. The second part of the prompt is more interesting, though. Here, you're asking the AI to just see what it thinks and if it finds anything that seems weird or unusual and is worthy of your attention.
You can fine-tune that approach by prompting, "Are there any transactions or series of transactions that seem different or unusual or could indicate errors, fraudulent charges, or anything else I should pay special attention to? Please list those transactions item by item, along with your reasoning for including them in this list."
Prompt: "Compare this year's expenses to last year's, grouped by category. Show the percentage change."
Obviously, this depends on how many transactions you exported. If you want to do year-over-year spending analysis, be sure to set your starting date far enough back on your export to make that possible.
However, if you do this, you may want to prepend "For the last 12 months" or "For the year XXXX" (where XXXX is the year you want) to all the other prompts in this article to make sure the AI triangulates on just the period you're investigating.
Prompt: "Which vendors or categories could be cut or reduced? Flag anything underused, duplicated, or with growing costs."
Obviously, only you know what might be considered an overspend, but this is a good way to elevate the expenses that might fit into that classification so that you can see them and make good decisions.
And with that, let's look at some tax-related prompts.
Whether tax time is upon us or you're planning for your next year, these tax-related prompts can help you prepare, save money, and manage your taxes. Just keep in mind that AI's have a tendency to make stuff up, and that includes numbers. So don't directly use the AI's results in your tax returns. Instead, use them to guide your work -- but you do need to do the work.
Prompt: "Group all expenses by tax-deductible categories like insurance, education, office supplies, or charitable contributions."
This can help you identify expenses that might qualify as deductions. Be sure to tell the AI whether you're doing taxes as a business or as an individual because deduction categories are quite different.
Prompt: "Flag any personal expenses that may have been included accidentally in my business transactions."
This is a prompt that helps if you're preparing taxes or doing record keeping for a small business. It will help you easily identify any expenses that shouldn't be considered deductible expenses, or that you should discuss in more detail with your accountant.
Prompt: "Summarize all expenses that are potentially deductible as home office, utilities, internet, phone, and office supplies."
If you're a sole proprietor who files a Schedule C, or a small business owner, this can help you identify home office or work-from-home expenses that should be considered deductions. Prepares key figures for Schedule C or small business deductions with minimal effort.
Prompt: "List all charitable donations or contributions. Include dates and amounts."
Charitable contributions are often deductible. This prompt can help you quickly pull together donation records needed for itemized deduction filing.
Prompt: "Which vendors or transactions might require a 1099 to be issued? Group all payments to contractors or freelancers over $600."
This prompt helps you prepare for an IRS ruling where you need to provide 1099s when you issue smaller payments. Called the $600 rule, it's a way of the IRS tracking payments through PayPal, Venmo, and similar TPSOs (third-party settlement organizations).
Now, the good news is the IRS has postponed the actual $600 rule until 2026. The bad news is the threshold changes in 2024 and 2025. Using $600 in this prompt now, however, means you can identify all vendors or transactions where this reporting might be necessary.
I know. That last tip was a bit obscure. But it applies to most small businesses. Using an AI to help identify items associated with a reporting requirement that more and more of us will be required to comply with is a big part of how the AI can help save time.
Have you tried using ChatGPT or another AI tool to analyze your credit card or accounting transactions? What kinds of insights did you uncover?
Were there any prompts that worked especially well for you, or ones that didn't? Are there other types of financial reports you'd like to see AI help with? Let us know in the comments below.
