# Categorize messy bank and card transactions to my chart of accounts

Sorts a raw transaction export into the right accounts, with confidence levels and a short list of items that need a human answer.

- Topic: Finance & Accounting
- Framework: Few-Shot
- Level: Standard
- Tags: Finance, Brainstorm, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/categorize-messy-bank-and-card-transactions-to-my-chart-of-accounts

## Prompt

```text
Help me categorize bank and credit card transactions for bookkeeping.

**Business type and what it sells:** [e.g. "two-location dental practice", "Shopify apparel store"]
**Chart of accounts (expense and income accounts I use):** [PASTE list]
**Transactions to categorize:** [PASTE export - date, description, amount]
**Rules I already follow:** [e.g. "software subscriptions under $500 go to Software", "owner's personal Amazon orders go to Owner Draws"]
**Accounting basis:** [cash / accrual]

For each transaction:
- Suggest the account, a cleaned-up payee name, and a confidence level (high / medium / low).
- Flag likely transfers between the business's own accounts, loan payments (split principal vs. interest as [NEED LOAN SCHEDULE]), owner draws or contributions, refunds, and sales tax collected - these are the usual miscategorizations.
- Flag possible personal expenses, duplicates, and anything over [AMOUNT] that might need to be capitalized.
- Do not guess on vague descriptions (e.g. "POS 4471", "Zelle J. Smith"). Mark them [ASK CLIENT].

Return:
1. A table: Date | Description | Cleaned payee | Suggested account | Confidence | Note.
2. A short list of questions for the business owner, grouped so they can answer in one pass.
3. Suggested bank rules I could set up in my accounting software for recurring payees.
```

## What to fill in

- e.g. "two-location dental practice", "Shopify apparel store"
- PASTE list
- PASTE export - date, description, amount
- cash / accrual
- NEED LOAN SCHEDULE
- AMOUNT
- ASK CLIENT

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.