expense-tracker

Skill: Expense Tracker

Provides the missing half of the financial-health skill. Every solopreneur can see their revenue (invoices); almost none track their expenses systematically. Without expenses, you can't calculate profit margin, effective hourly rate, or whether a project is actually worth taking.

Data Location

All expenses stored in: data/1-Projets/expenses/

• One file per month: expenses-YYYY-MM.md
• Annual summary auto-generated: expenses-YYYY-summary.md
• Template: references/expense-template.md

Expense Categories

Category	What Goes Here	Tax-Deductible (FR)
Software & Tools	SaaS subscriptions, plugins, licenses	✅ 100%
Hardware	Computer, peripherals, phone (pro use)	✅ Pro-rated
Home Office	Desk, chair, office supplies	✅ Pro-rated
Marketing	Ads, sponsorships, design assets	✅ 100%
Professional Services	Accountant, lawyer, consultant fees	✅ 100%
Education	Courses, books, conferences	✅ 100%
Travel & Transport	Client meetings, coworking commute	✅ With receipts
Meals & Entertainment	Client meals (with business purpose)	✅ 50-75%
Coworking / Office	Desk rental, office space	✅ 100%
Subcontractors	Freelancers hired for project delivery	✅ 100%
Banking & Finance	Stripe fees, bank charges, FX costs	✅ 100%
Insurance	Professional liability, health (self-employed)	✅
Other	Anything not covered above	Verify with accountant

Logging Process

Quick Log (Single Expense)

When the user says "log expense [amount] for [description]":

1. Parse amount, category (infer if not stated), description, date (default: today)
2. Check if current month file exists at data/1-Projets/expenses/expenses-YYYY-MM.md
3. If not, create from references/expense-template.md
4. Append to the correct category table
5. Update the monthly subtotals
6. Confirm: "Logged €[X] under [Category]. Monthly [Category] total: €[Y]"

Bulk Log (Multiple Expenses)

When the user pastes a list, CSV, or statement:

1. Parse each line for: amount, description, date
2. Auto-categorize using the category table above (ask if ambiguous)
3. Group by month if the list spans multiple months
4. Present a categorized summary before saving: "I found 14 expenses totaling €847. Does this look right?"
5. Save all confirmed expenses to the correct monthly files

Recurring Expense Setup

For monthly subscriptions (most software):

1. Create an entry in data/2-Domaines/recurring-expenses.json
2. Auto-log at month start based on this file
3. Alert when a recurring expense hasn't been confirmed (card may have been declined)

Monthly Summary Generation

At any time, or when called by financial-health or weekly-review:

# Expense Summary — [Month Year]

## By Category

| Category | Budget | Actual | vs Budget |
|----------|--------|--------|-----------|
| Software & Tools | [X] | [Y] | [diff] |
| Professional Services | [X] | [Y] | [diff] |
| Marketing | [X] | [Y] | [diff] |
| Education | [X] | [Y] | [diff] |
| Other | [X] | [Y] | [diff] |
| **TOTAL** | **[X]** | **[Y]** | **[diff]** |

## Notable Expenses
[Any single expense >€200 listed individually]

## vs Last Month
- Total expenses: [X] vs [Y] last month ([+/-Z%])
- Biggest increase: [Category] (+[X])
- Biggest decrease: [Category] (-[X])

Profitability Calculation

When called with "am I profitable" or from financial-health:

Revenue (paid invoices):     €[X]
Total Expenses:              €[Y]
─────────────────────────────────
Net Profit:                  €[Z]
Profit Margin:               [Z/X × 100]%
Effective Hourly Rate:       €[Z / hours worked]

Status: [🟢 Healthy / 🟡 Thin / 🔴 Burning Cash]

Profit margin benchmarks for solopreneurs:

• 🟢 Healthy: >50% (this is achievable; expenses should be low)
• 🟡 Thin: 30–50% (review software stack and subcontractor costs)
• 🔴 Burning cash: <30% (requires immediate action)

Tax Preparation Mode

At year-end or on demand:

1. Generate annual expense summary by category
2. Flag non-deductible items (personal expenses accidentally logged)
3. Calculate estimated deductible total
4. Export as data/4-Archives/tax-[year]/expense-report.md

French micro-entrepreneur note: Actual expense deduction works differently under micro-entrepreneur regime (flat abatement applies instead). This export is most useful for freelancers with régime réel or EIRL/SASU structures.

Budget Tracking

Set monthly budgets in data/2-Domaines/expense-budgets.json:

{
  "software_tools": 200,
  "marketing": 150,
  "education": 100,
  "professional_services": 200,
  "other": 100
}

Alert when any category exceeds 90% of budget mid-month.

Integration Points

• financial-health: Provides expense totals for P&L calculation — this skill is what finally makes profit margin computable
• weekly-review: Contributes weekly expense snapshot
• invoice-generator: Reads subcontractor expenses for project margin calculation
• pricing-strategy: Uses annual expense total for minimum rate calculation (Step 2)
• project-management: Per-project expense logging (subcontractors, tools purchased for a client)

References

• references/expense-template.md: Monthly expense file format
• references/recurring-expenses-schema.md: Recurring expense configuration
• references/tax-categories-fr.md: French deductibility guide with CGI references