Expenses

Build a personal expense tracking system for daily spending, shared costs, business expenses, and project budgets.

Security Scan

The skill's instructions, scope, and requirements align with a simple personal expense-tracking assistant; it is instruction-only and asks only to create and manage files under ~/expenses for entries and receipts.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description (personal expense tracking) match the SKILL.md content: logging expenses, shared splits, business/project tracking, receipts, and reports. No unrelated credentials, binaries, or install steps are requested.

Instruction Scope

Instructions are focused on expense entry, categorization, reporting, and receipt management. They explicitly instruct creating a workspace at ~/expenses and storing receipt files there — this is reasonable for the stated purpose but does mean the agent will write files to the user's home directory and may handle potentially sensitive receipt data.

Install Mechanism

There is no install spec and no code files — the skill is instruction-only, which minimizes execution/install risk (nothing will be downloaded or installed by the skill itself).

Credentials

The skill declares no environment variables, credentials, or config paths. All requested actions (file storage, categorization) are proportional to an expense-tracking use case.

Persistence & Privilege

always is false and the skill does not request persistent system-wide changes or access to other skills' configs. It may be invoked autonomously (platform default), but that is normal and not excessive here.

Assessment

This skill appears coherent and focused on expense tracking. Before installing, decide whether you are comfortable with the agent creating and managing a ~/expenses/ folder (it may store receipt images and notes that could contain personal or financial information). If you proceed: (1) ensure the folder permissions are appropriate, (2) avoid putting sensitive screenshots (bank login data, full statements) in the folder, (3) consider encrypting or storing receipts in a secure location if they contain PII, (4) back up data if needed, and (5) remember the skill can be invoked autonomously by default — if you want to restrict automatic runs, change the skill/agent settings. No scanner warnings were present (the skill is instruction-only), but lack of code does not remove the privacy consideration of storing receipts on disk.

Core Behavior

• User mentions spending money → offer to log expense
• Different contexts need different tracking → adapt to their use case
• Surface patterns when asked → where is money going?
• Create ~/expenses/ as workspace

Use Case Discovery

Ask how they'll use expense tracking:

• Personal spending: "where does my money go?"
• Shared costs: roommates, couples, group trips
• Business/freelance: billable expenses, tax deductions
• Work reimbursement: expenses to claim from employer
• Project budget: renovation, wedding, specific goal
• Travel: trip-specific spending

Expense Entry Basics

• Amount and currency
• Date
• What: brief description
• Category: food, transport, entertainment, etc.
• Payment method: cash, card, account (optional)
• Receipt photo if needed

Personal Spending

Track to understand patterns:

• Categories that matter to you
• Weekly/monthly totals by category
• Trends over time: spending more on dining out?
• No judgment — awareness is the goal

Shared Expenses

Track who paid, who owes:

• Expense + who paid + split between whom
• Running balance: who owes whom how much
• Settle up periodically: "I owe you €45"
• Handle unequal splits: 60/40, by item

Business Expenses

Track for billing or taxes:

• Client/project attribution
• Billable vs non-billable
• Receipt storage critical — link or embed
• Category for tax deduction type
• Mileage if applicable

Work Reimbursement

Track what employer owes you:

• Status: pending, submitted, reimbursed
• Submission date
• Receipt attached
• Reimbursement received date
• Monthly report generation

Project Budget

Track spending against a budget:

• Project: kitchen renovation, wedding, vacation
• Budget amount set upfront
• Running total vs budget: "€3,400 of €10,000 spent"
• Category breakdown within project
• Flag when approaching limit

Travel Expenses

Trip-specific tracking:

• All expenses tagged to trip
• Daily spending if relevant
• By category: lodging, food, activities, transport
• Currency conversion if international
• Per-person if group travel
• Post-trip summary

File Structure

~/expenses/
├── daily/
│   └── 2024-03.md
├── shared/
│   └── roommates.md
├── business/
│   └── 2024-q1.md
├── trips/
│   └── japan-2024.md
├── projects/
│   └── kitchen-reno.md
└── categories.md

Category System

• Keep categories broad: 10-15 max
• Common: food, transport, housing, utilities, entertainment, health, shopping
• Customize to what matters: "coffee" separate if tracking that
• Consistent naming — "restaurants" not sometimes "dining"

Entry Formats

Quick daily: "€45 groceries" Detailed: amount, date, category, description, receipt Shared: amount, paid by, split between, category Business: amount, client, category, receipt, billable

What To Surface

• "You've spent €X this month on dining"
• "Coffee spending up 40% vs last month"
• "John owes you €89 from shared expenses"
• "Kitchen project: €2,100 remaining in budget"
• "€450 in unreimbursed work expenses"

Progressive Enhancement

• Week 1: log expenses as they happen
• Week 2: add categories, see patterns
• Month 2: compare months, spot trends
• Ongoing: adjust categories to what's useful

Receipt Management

• Photo immediately — paper receipts fade
• Link to expense entry
• Store in expense folder or dedicated receipts folder
• Filename: date-vendor-amount.jpg
• Business expenses: retention period awareness

Reporting

• Monthly summary by category
• Trend comparison: this month vs last
• Shared: balance summary, settlement suggestion
• Business: quarterly for taxes
• Project: spend vs budget status

What NOT To Suggest

• Complex budgeting before spending is tracked
• Linking bank accounts — manual has value
• Obsessive categorization — broad categories work
• Guilt about spending — data, not judgment

Multi-Currency

• Log in currency spent
• Note exchange rate if tracking
• Convert for totals if needed
• Travel especially: mixed currencies normal

Integration Points

• Budget: expenses feed into budget tracking
• Invoices: billable expenses to clients
• Taxes: business expense categories
• Trips: travel-specific tracking