Transaction Categorization and Ledger Review
Categorize bank and card transactions, flag duplicates and uncertain entries, and reconcile totals for bookkeeping review.
Before & after
Same prompt, same agent — the only difference is the skill.
I can help you categorize those transactions. The general approach is to look at the merchant name and transaction description and map them to the appropriate account codes. Some transactions are straightforward—like payroll goes to salary expense—but others might need judgment calls. You might have some recurring vendors that always go to the same category. It would help to set up a simple ruleset so you can reuse it consistently. You should probably watch out for duplicate transactions or transactions that seem like they don't belong. You might want to create a reference list of your main account codes and what types of expenses go there. Would you like me to suggest a chart of accounts structure, or do you already have your codes defined?
TRANSACTION CATEGORIZATION OUTPUT RULESET APPLIED → Chart of accounts: Standard SaaS startup structure (17 top-level codes) → Rules: 42 merchant rules + pattern matching for uncategorized items CLEAN CATEGORIZED LEDGER DATE | MERCHANT | AMOUNT | CATEGORY | FLAG 2026-07-15 | AWS Inc | $1,247.88 | 6200: Cloud Services | — 2026-07-15 | Stripe | $342.10 | 6201: Payment Processing | — 2026-07-14 | Office Depot | $89.22 | 6400: Office Supplies | — 2026-07-14 | Office Depot | $89.22 | 6400: Office Supplies | DUPLICATE? 2026-07-13 | John Smith | $500 | 6050: Contractor/Freelance | — 2026-07-13 | Unknown Card Charge | $56 | [UNCATEGORIZED] | UNKNOWN MERCHANT 2026-07-12 | Salesforce | $2,890 | 6310: Software Licenses | — FLAGGED ANOMALIES → Duplicate: Office Depot charge $89.22 appears twice (recommend manual review) → Unusual amount: $2,890 Salesforce (verified: annual license, on budget) → Unknown: $56 charge from card network (recommend contacting bank) → Potential personal: Coffee delivery $14.50 (flagged for review, not categorized) SUMMARY BY CATEGORY 6200 Cloud Services: $1,247.88 6201 Payment Processing: $342.10 6310 Software: $2,890 6050 Contractors: $500 6400 Office Supplies: $89.22 Uncategorized: $56 Personal (flagged): $14.50 OUTPUT: CSV ready for QuickBooks import; all categorization rules saved for next batch.
About this skill
Your bank export has vague merchant names, card payments that look like expenses, and repeated charges you cannot safely delete. This workflow maps transactions to your chart of accounts, preserves the source records, and separates supported classifications from entries that need evidence.
What it does
- Normalizes bank and card exports without losing original descriptions, amounts, IDs, or account sources.
- Applies existing account codes and approved vendor rules before proposing new mappings.
- Identifies transfers, card payments, refunds, processor settlements, and other transactions that can distort income or expenses.
- Flags repeated imports, possible duplicate charges, unusual amounts, and inconsistent recurring categories with specific reasons.
- Produces row-level explanations, confidence levels, and targeted questions for unresolved entries.
- Checks row counts and signed totals by source account and currency so missing rows and accidental deletions are visible.
What you get
A categorized review ledger, an exception queue, and a reusable set of proposed categorization rules. Every supplied transaction remains traceable to its source, with control totals and a clear distinction between category confidence and readiness to post.
Best for
Bookkeepers, controllers, and small business owners reviewing bank or card exports before updating their books or handing records to an accountant.
SKILL.md preview
---
name: transaction-categorization-and-ledger-review
description: Categorizes bank and card exports against an existing chart of accounts using evidence-ranked rules, transfer matching, duplicate screening, and source-total checks. Use when the user says "categorize these bank transactions", "clean up this card export", "map these charges to our chart of accounts", "my expenses keep getting double-counted", "find duplicate transactions", "why did this recurring charge change categories", or "prepare this ledger for my bookkeeper".
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# Transaction Categorization and Ledger Review
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