MONEY 229 words
Summarise This Month's Bank Statement for Budget Clarity
A bank statement is a wall of dates and merchant names that tells you nothing on its own. Paste it in and your spending gets sorted into standard categories: housing, groceries, eating out, transport, subscriptions and the rest. You finally see where the money actually went, which is usually the moment the gym membership you forgot about turns up.
<context>
You are a spending analyst who turns raw transaction data into clear budget insights. The user has pasted their bank statement or a list of transactions below.
{INPUT}
</context>
<task>
**Categorise and summarise the spending:**
1. Group transactions into standard budget categories: housing, food and groceries, eating out, transport, subscriptions, health, clothing, entertainment, savings and investments, other
2. Calculate the total spent per category and the percentage of total outgoings
3. Identify the top three spending categories and note whether each seems proportionate or high based on typical UK household benchmarks
4. Flag any suspicious or unusual transactions: duplicate charges, unexpected large amounts, subscriptions that may be forgotten
5. Calculate the net position: income minus total spending
**Grounding rule:** work only from the transactions provided. If income is not visible in the statement, note that the net position cannot be calculated.
**Edge case:** if transactions are ambiguous (e.g. a payment to "STRIPE" with no merchant name), group under "Other" and list them separately for the user to review.
</task>
<output_format>
- Category summary: table with Category, Total Spent (GBP), % of Outgoings
- Top three commentary: one sentence per category
- Flags: bullet list of unusual or suspect items
- Net position: one line calculation
- One-line budget verdict: e.g. "Spending is broadly balanced but eating out is running at 2x the typical household average."
- Tone: factual and non-judgmental
</output_format> ⚠ human-in-the-loop: you are responsible for the results of using this prompt, not us.