Finance · Use case 32 of 40

Categorise expenses from a bank export

A practical way to use AI for this job in a small business, with a prompt you can copy.

The job: Categorise expenses from a bank export
Tool(s): ChatGPT (with file upload) or Excel/Google Sheets with AI
Time saved: 1-3 hours a month (estimate). My rough estimate, not a measured result.

The prompt

Here's a CSV of bank transactions: [upload]. Suggest a category for each from this list: [your categories]. Mark anything you're unsure of as 'CHECK'. Don't change amounts.

Replace everything in [square brackets] with your own details. Don't paste in anything you wouldn't want stored by the AI provider.

Steps

Export transactions (remove account numbers).
Upload and run the prompt.
Review every 'CHECK' row.
Use it to tidy up in your accounting software, or hand to your bookkeeper.

My verdict

Helpful, but your accounting software's bank rules may do this better. Try those first.

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