Your year in spending

Say you want to look back on a year of household money: where it went, how each quarter compared, and which costs crept up. Your AI can total 12 months of your transactions by category and by quarter, then compare the first half of the year with the second. If you haven't asked your AI for a report before, start with get any report by asking your AI.

How to do it

1. Tidy your categories first. A transaction with no category lands in one Uncategorized group, which hides where that money went. Your AI can find and count these transactions for you, then categorize them. For many at once, see recategorize many transactions at once. How categories work explains where categories come from. See clean up a year of transactions.
2. Ask for the year by category and quarter. Ask your AI for your spending by category for each quarter of the last 12 months.
3. Ask what grew. Ask which categories went up from the first six months to the last six.
4. Drill into a number. Ask what made up a total, such as "what made up Travel in the last quarter?", and your AI lists the transactions behind it.
5. Add money in. To see income next to spending for each month or quarter, ask for a cash flow report. See income vs expenses over time.
6. Check it on the web. Open Reports, choose Open on Spending, and pick the year with Custom range, or choose Last year for the previous calendar year. See the built-in web reports.

What you'll see

For the first prompt, your AI lists your categories with a total for each quarter, often as a table. A fixed bill such as rent shows the same total in every full quarter, and a one-off cost such as a trip shows only in the quarter it happened.

For the second, your AI compares the two halves and names the categories that went up, with the total for each half. A category with no spending in the first half shows up as new.

On the web, the Spending report lists every category you spent in, with its total, its share of all spending and its number of transactions. When the period just before your range has transactions, each category also shows its change against that period, which runs the same number of days.

For a shorter check-in each month, see a monthly money review.

Good to know

• Quarters follow the calendar. Your AI's reports group by January to March, April to June, and so on. If your 12 months don't start in January, April, July or October, the first and last quarters are partial.
• Transfers are left out by default. A transaction linked as a transfer, or categorized as Transfer, isn't counted as spending. When that removes rows, your AI is told how many and their total. A move between your accounts that isn't linked or categorized as a transfer still counts as spending. See transfers aren't spending.
• Refunds net out in your AI's totals. A category total adds money in and money out together, so a refund in the same category lowers it. The web Spending report counts money out only, so the two can differ.
• Currencies stay apart. When a category mixes currencies, your AI gets the exact total in each currency and a flag that the report mixes them. The response also carries a raw sum that adds the numbers as they are, so go by the per-currency figures. A category report for one ledger isn't converted. One across several ledgers adds them together in your display currency. See multiple currencies.
• The web totals one currency. The web report totals the ledger's currency only. Transactions in other currencies are left out, and a note names those currencies.
• Splits count differently. In your AI's category report, each piece of a split counts under its own category. On a set date range, the web Spending report counts the whole transaction under its main category.
• The ledger you're working in, unless you name others. A review covers the ledger you're working in. To review another ledger, name it. To review several together, name each one, and your AI adds their category totals together. Cash flow can also combine all your ledgers in one report. A demo ledger can't be combined with others. See run several businesses in one account.