Expense manager

Expense Manager

Purpose

Use this skill to turn bank, credit-card, invoice, or free-text expense data into a structured accountant package. Classify each expense, estimate deductible portions, separate input VAT, flag missing documentation, and export CSV/JSON files suitable for accountant review and import into common Israeli bookkeeping systems.

Use it for:

• Osek Patur, Osek Murshe, company, and private-consumer tracking.
• Monthly expense cleanup before VAT or advance-payment review.
• Year-end accountant handoff.
• Duplicate, missing-invoice, and low-confidence review queues.
• Mapping expenses to an Israeli-style chart of accounts.

Do not use it for final filing, payroll, securities taxation, withholding-tax certification, or legal tax opinions.

Operating principles

1. Preserve source data. Never overwrite the original CSV, Excel export, PDF receipt list, or bank statement.
2. Normalize every row to date, vendor, amount, description, currency, receipt_number, and document_type.
3. Ask for the entity type only when missing: osek_patur, osek_murshe, company, or private_consumer.
4. Estimate treatment conservatively. Unknown, mixed, or undocumented expenses go to review.
5. Keep Israeli VAT and income-tax treatment separate. A cost can be income-tax deductible but carry no input VAT recovery, especially for Osek Patur.
6. Export both machine-readable files and a human review summary.
7. Add a warning whenever a rule depends on an indexed cap, professional judgment, or missing invoice evidence.

Required inputs

Minimum expense row:

date,vendor,amount,description
15/01/2026,Bezeq,234.00,Internet and phone for studio

Recommended row:

date,vendor,amount,currency,description,receipt_number,document_type,fx_rate_to_ils
15/01/2026,Bezeq,234.00,ILS,Internet and phone for studio,INV-8821,tax_invoice,1

Accepted date formats: DD/MM/YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD, DD/MM/YYYY, YYYY/MM/DD, and DD.MM.YYYY.

Accepted amount formats: ₪1,234.50, 1,234.50, 117, and (117).

Core classification rules

Category	Typical account code	Income-tax treatment	VAT treatment default	Documentation
Professional services	6700	100%	100% for eligible VAT registrants	Tax invoice, engagement context
Software/SaaS/hosting	6505	100%	100% when business-only	Invoice, subscription evidence
Marketing/advertising	6600	100%	100% when business-only	Campaign invoice or receipt
Dedicated office rent	6300	100%	100% when a valid tax invoice exists	Lease and invoices
Home office	6310	Dedicated-area percentage	Usually the same percentage, subject to review	Floor-area calculation
Vehicle	6400	45% default	Mixed-use limitation; default helper uses 66.67% of input VAT	Invoice; vehicle log for material amounts
Phone/internet	6510	80% default	Mixed-use limitation; helper uses 66.67% of input VAT	Tax invoice
Workplace refreshments	6555	80% default	80% helper default	Invoice; workplace context
Domestic hospitality	6620	0% default	0%	Receipt retained for audit only
Foreign guest hospitality	6625	Potentially 100% subject to documentation	Potentially 100% subject to invoice	Guest identity, country, purpose
Business travel abroad	6800	Potentially 100%, caps may apply	Depends on invoice and jurisdiction	Itinerary, purpose, receipts
Office supplies	6500	100%	100%	Invoice
Capital equipment	7800	Depreciate above threshold	VAT may be recoverable, subject to eligibility	Asset register and invoice
Client gifts	6630	Capped per recipient per year	Subject to invoice and eligibility	Recipient list
Fines/penalties	6990	0%	0%	Keep notice outside deduction
Personal expenses	9990	0%	0%	Exclude from business books

Treat all percentages as operational defaults for review. Require an accountant to confirm thresholds, caps, and final treatment before filing.

Entity decision tree

flowchart TD
    A[Start: expense data received] --> B{Entity type known?}
    B -- No --> C[Ask for entity type]
    B -- Yes --> D{Entity type}
    C --> D
    D -- Osek Patur --> E[No input VAT recovery; income-tax deduction still estimated]
    D -- Osek Murshe --> F[Estimate income-tax deduction and input VAT recovery]
    D -- Company --> G[Estimate corporate expense treatment and input VAT recovery]
    D -- Private consumer --> H[Classify spending only; set tax/VAT recovery to zero]
    E --> I[Flag missing receipts and uncertain categories]
    F --> I
    G --> I
    H --> I
    I --> J[Export accountant package]

Expense classification decision tree

flowchart TD
    A[Normalize row] --> B{Receipt or invoice present?}
    B -- No --> B1[Add missing_receipt warning]
    B -- Yes --> C
    B1 --> C{Business purpose clear?}
    C -- No --> C1[Set uncategorized_review]
    C -- Yes --> D{Is it personal, fine, or commuting?}
    D -- Yes --> E[Set 0% deductible]
    D -- No --> F{Is it vehicle, phone, internet, home office, hospitality, gift, or asset?}
    F -- Yes --> G[Apply special rule and add documentation flags]
    F -- No --> H{Business-only ordinary expense?}
    H -- Yes --> I[Set 100% ordinary deduction]
    H -- No --> C1
    G --> J[Compute VAT separately]
    I --> J
    E --> J
    C1 --> J
    J --> K[Write CSV, JSON summary, and review queue]

Concrete examples

Example 1: Osek Patur phone bill

Input:

date,vendor,amount,description
15/01/2026,Partner,234,Mobile phone and internet

Expected treatment:

• Category: phone_internet.
• Income-tax rate: 80% of the gross expense.
• VAT recovery: ₪0.00 because an Osek Patur cannot deduct input VAT.
• Review flag: missing tax invoice when no receipt number exists.

Example 2: Osek Murshe software subscription

Input:

date,vendor,amount,description,receipt_number
10/02/2026,GitHub,117,Private repository hosting for client projects,GH-1001

Expected treatment:

• Category: software_and_saas.
• Gross: ₪117.00, net: ₪99.15, input VAT: ₪17.85 when the invoice includes Israeli VAT at 18%.
• Deductible income-tax base: net amount after recoverable VAT.
• Accountant should confirm foreign-service VAT handling when the vendor invoice is not Israeli.

Example 3: Domestic client coffee

Input:

date,vendor,amount,description
21/03/2026,Aroma,58,Coffee with Israeli client

Expected treatment:

• Category: domestic_hospitality.
• Income-tax deduction: 0% by conservative default.
• VAT recovery: 0% by conservative default.
• Keep the receipt for audit trail, but exclude from deductible totals unless an accountant gives a documented exception.

Example 4: Home office electricity

Input:

date,vendor,amount,description
05/04/2026,Israel Electric Corporation,500,Home electricity used partly for dedicated office

Configuration:

--home-office-percent 12.5

Expected treatment:

• Category: home_office.
• Deductible rate: 12.5%.
• Attach floor-area calculation and evidence that the room is used regularly and materially for the business.

Example 5: Laptop purchase

Input:

date,vendor,amount,description,receipt_number
12/05/2026,KSP,5000,Laptop computer for design work,KSP-991

Expected treatment:

• Category: capital_equipment.
• Immediate income-tax deduction: ₪0.00 by default when above the immediate-expense threshold.
• Depreciation years: 3 by helper default.
• Add to asset register.

Accountant-ready output structure

The helper creates:

accountant-expense-package/
  README-accountant.md
  exports/
    expense-classification.csv
    import-mapping.json
  reports/
    accountant-summary.json
    sha256-manifest.txt
  source/
    original-import.csv
accountant-expense-package.zip

Use expense-classification.csv for row review and software import. Use accountant-summary.json for totals by category and account code. Use sha256-manifest.txt to prove that exported files were not silently changed after generation.

Common Israeli accounting software export guidance

Most Israeli tools accept CSV/Excel imports after field mapping. Prepare these fields:

Export field	Typical target meaning
date	Transaction/document date
vendor	Supplier name
receipt_number	Invoice/reference number
account_code	Expense card or chart-of-accounts code
amount_ils	Gross amount
reclaimable_vat_ils	Input VAT amount for eligible entities
deductible_amount_ils	Deductible expense estimate
review_flags	Rows that must be checked before import

Validate target-specific import templates before upload. Hashavshevet, Rivhit, Priority, iCount, Green Invoice, and spreadsheet-based accountant workflows often use different column names.

Edge cases

Foreign currency

Require fx_rate_to_ils. Convert the gross amount to ₪ first, then compute net, VAT, and deductible amount. For foreign invoices, confirm whether Israeli VAT exists. If no Israeli VAT invoice exists, set recoverable VAT to zero manually.

Credit-card refunds and negative rows

Keep refunds in the source audit trail. Convert negative rows to reversals in the accounting system instead of treating them as new expenses. Match refund rows to the original charge when possible.

Split expenses

Split mixed purchases into separate rows. Example: an office-supply invoice that includes groceries should become office_supplies and personal rows.

Missing invoice number

Flag missing_receipt. Do not remove the row. Keep it in the review queue and attach the invoice before import.

Supplier names in Hebrew and English

Match both languages. Keep the original vendor string in exports. Avoid changing supplier names during normalization.

Duplicate payments

Detect duplicates outside the helper by comparing date, amount, vendor, and receipt number. Send duplicate candidates to review rather than deleting automatically.

Installments

Classify each installment according to the original purchase. Keep the original invoice number in every installment row.

Cash expenses

Require receipt number and business purpose. Flag undocumented cash expenses.

Gifts

Track annual amount by recipient. The helper applies a per-row cap only; maintain recipient-level annual control separately.

Assets below threshold

The helper can expense small equipment immediately, but accountant policy may differ. Flag high-volume small assets for consistency review.

Anti-patterns

• Marking restaurant meals with Israeli clients as 80% deductible.
• Recovering input VAT for Osek Patur.
• Treating every laptop, camera, or desk as an immediate expense when the value exceeds the threshold.
• Importing rows with uncategorized_review into bookkeeping software.
• Dropping rows with missing invoices instead of keeping a review queue.
• Mixing personal groceries and office refreshments in one row.
• Using bank statement text as proof of invoice existence.
• Applying home-office percentage without a documented dedicated workspace calculation.
• Assuming all foreign SaaS charges include recoverable Israeli VAT.
• Editing source bank exports directly.

Troubleshooting quick guide

Symptom	Likely cause	Action
All rows become uncategorized_review	Column names or descriptions are too sparse	Map headers and enrich descriptions
VAT appears for Osek Patur	Wrong entity type	Set --entity-type osek_patur
Home office shows 0%	Missing percentage	Set --home-office-percent
Restaurant row is 0%	Domestic hospitality rule matched	Confirm if foreign guest exception applies
Laptop has no immediate deduction	Above threshold and treated as asset	Add to depreciation schedule
CSV opens with garbled Hebrew	Wrong encoding in spreadsheet tool	Use UTF-8 with BOM output

Production checklist

Before sending to an accountant:

• Confirm entity type and fiscal year.
• Confirm VAT status and whether the entity can recover input VAT.
• Ensure every material row has an invoice or receipt number.
• Review every blocker flag.
• Confirm home-office percentage and keep the calculation.
• Confirm vehicle VAT rate and keep vehicle-use evidence when material.
• Split mixed purchases.
• Reconcile totals to bank and credit-card statements.
• Confirm foreign-currency rates.
• Confirm current indexed caps and thresholds.
• Run the test suite after changing rules.
• Create the ZIP package and retain the SHA-256 manifest.

Commands

Classify a CSV:

python scripts/expense-manager-cli.py classify input.csv classified.csv --entity-type osek_murshe

Create a package:

python scripts/expense-manager-cli.py package input.csv ./out --package-name 2026-01-expenses --entity-type osek_murshe --home-office-percent 12.5

Classify one row:

python scripts/expense-manager-cli.py single --vendor Bezeq --amount 234 --date 15/01/2026 --description "Internet and phone"

Professional review notice

Treat outputs as preparatory work. Require a licensed accountant or tax adviser to approve final VAT reports, annual returns, depreciation schedules, and classification policies.