Classify expenses by category, department, and tax deductibility from transaction data
Automatically classify business expenses into accounting categories, assign department cost centers, and flag tax-deductible items from raw transaction data. This skill processes credit card statements, bank feeds, and expense reports to produce clean, categorized output suitable for bookkeeping, tax preparation, and spend analytics.
Receive Expense Data Accept transaction data as CSV, bank statement text, or structured records. Required fields: date, amount, and description or merchant name. Optional fields: card last four digits, employee name, department, receipt notes. Normalize date formats and currency to a consistent standard.
Parse Description and Merchant Extract the merchant name from the transaction descriptor, stripping out authorization codes, location suffixes, and card network prefixes. Map common merchant name variations to canonical names (e.g., "AMZN MKTP US" → "Amazon", "GOOGLE *GSUITE" → "Google Workspace"). Use the merchant category code (MCC) when available as a secondary signal.
Classify Expense Category Assign each transaction to a primary category based on merchant identity, MCC, description keywords, and amount patterns. Standard categories: Travel & Lodging, Meals & Entertainment, Software & SaaS, Office Supplies, Professional Services, Advertising, Utilities, Insurance, Shipping & Postage, Equipment, Training & Education, Miscellaneous.
Assign Department and Cost Center Route each expense to the appropriate department based on the cardholder, project codes in the description, or pre-configured rules. Apply default department assignments for known merchants (e.g., AWS charges → Engineering, HubSpot → Marketing).
Flag Tax-Deductible Items Mark expenses that qualify for tax deduction based on category and business purpose. Apply IRS rules for meals (50% deductible for business meals, 100% for company events), home office, vehicle mileage, and professional development. Flag items that need substantiation — receipts, business purpose memo, or attendee lists.
Generate Categorized Summary Output a categorized transaction list with totals by category, department, and tax status. Highlight any transactions that couldn't be confidently categorized (confidence < 80%) for manual review.
Provide transaction data in any tabular format. Specify any custom category mappings, department rules, or tax jurisdiction if not US federal.
Example prompt:
Categorize these November credit card transactions for our 15-person startup. We have Engineering, Marketing, and Operations departments. Flag tax-deductible items. Here's the CSV: [paste transactions]
Input (CSV):
date,amount,description,cardholder
2024-11-02,249.00,GITHUB TEAM PLAN,Sarah Chen
2024-11-03,1450.00,UNITED AIRLINES 0167823,Mike Torres
2024-11-03,189.50,MARRIOTT HOTEL CHI,Mike Torres
2024-11-05,42.67,UBER TRIP FKJE83,Mike Torres
2024-11-08,156.00,GOOGLE ADS 8834721,Lisa Park
2024-11-12,89.99,ZOOM VIDEO COMMS,Sarah Chen
2024-11-14,67.32,DOORDASH DASHER TIP,Operations
2024-11-18,4200.00,DELL TECHNOLOGIES,Sarah Chen
2024-11-22,350.00,COURSERA BUSINESS,Mike Torres
2024-11-25,23.45,STAPLES #1284,Operations
Output:
| Date | Amount | Merchant | Category | Department | Tax Deductible | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-11-02 | $249.00 | GitHub | Software & SaaS | Engineering | Yes (100%) | |
| 2024-11-03 | $1,450.00 | United Airlines | Travel & Lodging | Engineering | Yes (100%) | Business travel |
| 2024-11-03 | $189.50 | Marriott | Travel & Lodging | Engineering | Yes (100%) | Business travel |
| 2024-11-05 | $42.67 | Uber | Travel & Lodging | Engineering | Yes (100%) | Ground transport |
| 2024-11-08 | $156.00 | Google Ads | Advertising | Marketing | Yes (100%) | |
| 2024-11-12 | $89.99 | Zoom | Software & SaaS | Engineering | Yes (100%) | |
| 2024-11-14 | $67.32 | DoorDash | Meals & Entertainment | Operations | Yes (50%) | Needs business purpose memo |
| 2024-11-18 | $4,200.00 | Dell | Equipment | Engineering | Depreciation | Section 179 eligible |
| 2024-11-22 | $350.00 | Coursera | Training & Education | Engineering | Yes (100%) | |
| 2024-11-25 | $23.45 | Staples | Office Supplies | Operations | Yes (100%) |
Summary:
| Category | Total | % of Spend |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment | $4,200.00 | 61.5% |
| Travel & Lodging | $1,682.17 | 24.6% |
| Training & Education | $350.00 | 5.1% |
| Software & SaaS | $338.99 | 5.0% |
| Advertising | $156.00 | 2.3% |
| Meals & Entertainment | $67.32 | 1.0% |
| Office Supplies | $23.45 | 0.3% |
| Total | $6,817.93 | 100% |
Input: Review existing categorizations for accuracy.
Output — Correction Report:
| Date | Amount | Merchant | Current Category | Corrected Category | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-11-07 | $320.00 | WeWork | Office Supplies | Rent & Facilities | Co-working space is rent, not supplies |
| 2024-11-10 | $85.00 | Blue Apron | Office Supplies | Meals & Entertainment | Meal delivery service miscoded |
| 2024-11-16 | $599.00 | Adobe Creative | Training | Software & SaaS | Creative Cloud is a software subscription, not training |
| 2024-11-29 | $175.00 | Lyft Business | Miscellaneous | Travel & Lodging | Business ground transportation should be under travel |
Impact: Reclassifying these 4 transactions shifts $1,179.00 across categories, affecting department budgets and tax deduction calculations. The Adobe correction reduces the Training & Education deduction by $599 and increases the Software & SaaS deduction by the same amount.