Real Agent Cases

Turn a year of bank statements into a business expense spreadsheet with Claude Cowork

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by Mike Moves (@MikeMoves)
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Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.

Outcome

Claude Cowork extracted and categorized business expenses from a year of statements across several accounts into a well-organized spreadsheet; after some back-and-forth the poster fixed a handful of items by hand.

Agent

Claude Cowork

Prompt Recreated prompt

The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.

Here's a task I'd like your help with. Read it all the way through before you start.

Goal: Find my business expenses in this year's bank statements and organize them into a categorized spreadsheet.

Check with me first: Which accounts are business, and are any personal?

What I'll give you:
- My bank statements for the year (all accounts)
- Any categories my accountant uses

Rules:
- Pull out business expenses and categorize them.
- Ask me about anything that could be personal or business.
- Don't change the original files.

Output: A spreadsheet of business expenses by category, plus a list of items to check.

If anything here is unclear or missing, ask me instead of guessing.

You'll know it worked when: I have a clean expense list ready for taxes, with only a few items to correct.

Try this in:

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Optional stronger version

Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.

Here's a task I'd like your help with. Read it all the way through before you start.

Goal: Find my business expenses in this year's bank statements and organize them into a categorized spreadsheet.

Quick check first: tell me if anything below is missing or unclear.

Inputs (fill in or confirm):
- Bank statements (all accounts)
- Which accounts are business
- Accountant's categories
- Personal transactions to exclude by default

Rules:
- Separate business from personal transactions; flag mixed ones.
- Use the accountant's categories.
- Keep date, payee, amount and statement reference.
- Summarize totals per category and month.
- Treat transfers between my own accounts as non-expenses.
- Note VAT or sales tax where shown.
- Add a column with your reason for business classification.

If you get stuck: If unsure, mark 'check'. If a login, CAPTCHA or two-step code appears, stop and ask me to handle it; never guess or store passwords.

Verify before you finish: Check totals against statements.

Output: Spreadsheet with summaries and check list.

Done when: business expenses are complete and categorized.

Source

https://x.com/MikeMoves/status/2036708713562513630

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