Monthly digest

Monthly Digest

Overview

Produce a concise monthly financial digest covering income, expenses, savings rate, notable transactions, spending anomalies, and month-over-month trends. Designed to be a quick "state of your finances" snapshot.

Wilson Tools Used

• spending_summary — category-level spending totals for the month
• transaction_search — find largest transactions and income entries
• anomaly_detect — flag unusual spending patterns or amounts

Workflow

1. Determine the target month (default: previous calendar month).
2. Use spending_summary to get category totals for the month.
3. Use spending_summary for the prior month to calculate month-over-month changes.
4. Use transaction_search to find:
   • Top 5 largest expenses
   • All income transactions
   • Any new vendors (first-time transactions)
5. Use anomaly_detect to flag:
   • Unusual amounts (significantly above category average)
   • New recurring charges
   • Missing expected recurring charges
6. Compile the digest using the template below.
7. Display the digest and optionally export as Markdown.

Digest Template

# Monthly Digest — [Month Year]

## Key Numbers
| Metric | Amount | vs. Last Month |
|--------|--------|----------------|
| Total Income | $X,XXX | +/-XX% |
| Total Expenses | $X,XXX | +/-XX% |
| Net (Income - Expenses) | $X,XXX | — |
| Savings Rate | XX% | +/-X pts |

## Spending by Category
| Category | Amount | % of Total | vs. Last Month |
|----------|--------|------------|----------------|
| ... | ... | ... | ... |

## Top 5 Expenses
1. [Description] — $XXX on [Date]
2. ...

## Anomalies & Alerts
- [flag icon] [Description of anomaly]

## New This Month
- First time seeing: [vendor name]

Without Wilson

To create a monthly digest manually:

1. Export the month's transactions from your bank as CSV.
2. Open in Google Sheets and add a Category column if missing.
3. Key numbers:

   Total Income:   =SUMIFS(Amount, Amount, ">0", Date, ">="&DATE(2025,3,1), Date, "<="&DATE(2025,3,31))
   Total Expenses: =ABS(SUMIFS(Amount, Amount, "<0", Date, ">="&DATE(2025,3,1), Date, "<="&DATE(2025,3,31)))
   Savings Rate:   =(Income - Expenses) / Income * 100
   

4. Category breakdown: Create a pivot table grouped by Category, summing Amount.
5. Top expenses: Sort by Amount ascending, take the first 5 rows.
6. Month-over-month: Keep last month's totals in a separate tab and calculate =(ThisMonth - LastMonth) / LastMonth * 100 for each category.
7. Anomaly detection (manual): Calculate the average and standard deviation per category over the last 6 months. Flag any category where this month's spending exceeds the average + 2 standard deviations.

Important Notes

• The digest defaults to the previous calendar month. Ask for a specific month if needed.
• Savings rate is calculated as (income - expenses) / income. If income is zero, savings rate is shown as N/A.
• Anomaly detection uses a rolling 6-month window. New users with less history will see fewer anomaly flags.
• The digest does not include transfers between your own accounts (e.g., savings transfers) in the income/expense totals.