Expense Tracker

Know where your money goes. This skill logs your business expenses, categorizes them automatically, tracks spending against your budget, and flags when you're overspending in any category — so tax time is easy and budget surprises are rare.

Run it monthly for a full report, or log expenses on the fly throughout the month.

What You Get

• Expenses logged and categorized by type (software, marketing, travel, meals, etc.)
• Budget tracking with real-time remaining balance per category
• Overspending alerts when you approach or exceed budget limits
• Monthly expense report with totals, trends, and top categories
• Tax-ready categorization for easy handoff to your accountant
• Receipt/note attachment for each expense entry

Setup

Required

• Expense log — A CSV file, Google Sheet, or any structured list your agent can read and write to. Columns: date, description, amount, category, notes.

Optional (but recommended)

• Budget file — Monthly budget with limits per category (if not set, the agent will track without limits)
• Bank/card integration — connect to Plaid, bank CSV exports, or credit card statements for auto-import
• Receipt storage — folder for receipt photos/PDFs referenced by expense entries
• Delivery channel — Telegram/Discord for budget alerts and monthly reports

Configuration

Tell your agent:

1. Expense log location — file path or Google Sheet URL
2. Budget limits — monthly budget per category (e.g., Software: $200, Marketing: $500)
3. Categories — your expense categories (defaults: Software/SaaS, Marketing, Travel, Meals, Office, Professional Services, Education, Miscellaneous)
4. Alert threshold — when to warn about overspending (default: 80% of category budget)
5. Report schedule — when to generate monthly report (default: 1st of each month)
6. Currency — your currency (default: USD)
7. Tax categories — map your categories to tax deduction types if needed

How It Works

Step 1: Log Expenses

When user says "log an expense" or provides expense info:

• Parse: amount, description, date (default: today), category (auto-detect or ask)
• Auto-categorize based on description keywords:
  • "Slack", "Notion", "AWS", "subscription" → Software/SaaS
  • "Facebook ads", "Google ads", "sponsorship" → Marketing
  • "flight", "hotel", "Uber", "gas" → Travel
  • "lunch", "dinner", "coffee", "restaurant" → Meals
  • "office supplies", "desk", "monitor" → Office
  • "lawyer", "accountant", "consultant" → Professional Services
  • "course", "book", "conference" → Education
• Append to expense log with timestamp
• Show running total for the category this month

Step 2: Track Against Budget

For each category with a budget limit:

• Calculate: spent this month, remaining budget, percentage used
• If approaching threshold (80%): send a warning
• If exceeded: send an alert with amount over budget

Step 3: Generate Monthly Report

🧾 Expense Report — [Month Year]

💵 MONTHLY SUMMARY
Total spent: $[X] | Budget: $[X] | Remaining: $[X]
[X]% of total budget used

📊 BY CATEGORY
| Category           | Spent    | Budget   | Remaining | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software/SaaS      | $420     | $500     | $80       | 🟡 84% |
| Marketing          | $1,200   | $1,500   | $300      | 🟡 80% |
| Travel             | $350     | $400     | $50       | 🟡 88% |
| Meals              | $180     | $300     | $120      | 🟢 60% |
| Office             | $0       | $200     | $200      | 🟢 0%  |
| Professional Svcs  | $500     | $500     | $0        | 🔴 100%|
| Education          | $49      | $200     | $151      | 🟢 25% |
| Miscellaneous      | $75      | $100     | $25       | 🟡 75% |

⚠️ ALERTS
• Professional Services at 100% — $500 of $500 used
• Travel at 88% — only $50 remaining
• Software approaching limit — $80 remaining

📋 TOP EXPENSES THIS MONTH
1. Marketing consultant — $500 (Professional Svcs)
2. Facebook Ads — $600 (Marketing)
3. Google Ads — $400 (Marketing)
4. Flight to NYC — $280 (Travel)
5. Annual Notion plan — $120 (Software)

📈 TRENDS
• Spending is [up/down] [X]% vs last month
• Largest increase: [category] (+$[X])
• Under budget in [X] of [X] categories

Step 4: Deliver & Archive

• Send monthly report via configured channel
• Save to memory/expenses/YYYY-MM.md for historical reference
• Export expense data in CSV format for accountant if requested

Examples

User: "Log $49 for Notion annual plan"

Agent:

Logged: $49.00 — Notion annual plan Category: Software/SaaS (auto-detected) Software budget: $420 of $500 used (84%) — $80 remaining

User: "How am I doing on my budget this month?"

Agent runs the report and responds with the full monthly summary.

User: "Export my expenses for tax prep"

Agent: Exports a CSV with all expenses categorized by tax deduction type, ready for the accountant.

User: "Set up monthly expense reports on the 1st"

Agent: Configures cron for the 1st of each month at 9:00 AM, confirms:

"Monthly expense report scheduled for the 1st of each month. I'll summarize your spending, flag any overages, and send it to your Telegram."

Customization Ideas

• Receipt OCR — scan receipt photos and auto-extract amount, vendor, date
• Recurring expense tracking — auto-log subscriptions and recurring charges
• Multi-currency support — convert expenses in different currencies
• Profit & loss — combine with invoice tracker for a simple P&L statement
• Quarterly tax estimates — calculate estimated quarterly tax payments based on expenses
• Team expense approval — if you have employees, review and approve their expense submissions

Want More?

This skill handles expense logging and budget tracking. But if you want:

• Custom integrations — connect to QuickBooks, Wave, Plaid, or your bank for automatic transaction import
• Advanced automations — auto-categorize from bank feeds, generate P&L statements, calculate tax estimates
• Full system setup — identity, memory, security, and 5 custom automations built specifically for your workflow

DoctorClaw sets up complete OpenClaw systems for businesses:

• Guided Setup ($495) — 2-hour live walkthrough. Everything configured, integrated, and running by the end of the call.
• Done-For-You ($1,995) — 7-day custom build. 5 automations, 3 integrations, full security, 30-day support. You do nothing except answer a short intake form.

→ doctorclaw.ceo