Expense Summary & Categoriser
Drop in a raw, unsorted list of business expenses — bank exports, receipt scribbles, a mess of amounts and descriptions — and get back a professional expense summary that sorts every line into ATO-style deduction categories. Each category is subtotalled, shown as a percentage of total spend, and given a GST-credit estimate where GST likely applies. Unlike the Document Studio (which drafts blank expense templates), this works on your real numbers: it restates every figure, adds them up, shows the arithmetic, and ties the total back to your input so you can trust it. Built for Australian sole traders, contractors and small business owners doing their own books or prepping for the BAS and their accountant.
A bank export and a column of scribbled amounts are not a set of books. They are raw material, and the distance between the two is what leaves a lot of sole traders staring at a BAS deadline with nothing an accountant can read. Expense Summary & Categoriser closes that distance for A$19 one-off: paste your expense list, one line per item with a description and an amount, and every line comes back sorted into ATO-style deduction categories, each category subtotalled and set against your total spend as a percentage, with a GST-credit estimate on the spend where GST likely applies. Turnaround is around five minutes, and it lands as an on-page report with a Markdown download beside it.
Reconciling to your list rather than to a confident-sounding total
The standard failure of an AI-written financial document is a total that sounds authoritative and does not reconcile with the inputs. This report is built the other way around. Every figure you paste is restated, the additions are visible on the page, and the grand total ties back to your original list, so a number that looks wrong can be traced to the line that caused it instead of disappearing into a summary figure.
What it will not do is find anything you left out. There is no bank feed, no login to your accounting software and no connection to the ATO. The report sees your pasted list and nothing else. Completeness stays your side of the deal; the sorting, the subtotals and the maths are ours.
How the GST credit estimate is built
GST is kept separate rather than blended into the category totals. You state whether you are registered and whether your figures are GST-inclusive or GST-exclusive, and the estimate covering GST-applicable spend is presented apart from the subtotals so nothing is counted twice as you read down the page.
That figure is a preparation aid, not a lodgement. Whether a given expense genuinely carries a GST credit turns on the supplier, the tax invoice and your own circumstances. Treat the page as general information rather than tax advice, and have your registered tax or BAS agent look over it before anything is lodged.
Reading your own spend back to you
Underneath the numbers sits a short plain-English read on where the money actually goes, which categories dominate and which look out of proportion to the rest, plus three practical moves drawn from your own figures rather than a generic list. A subscription line that has quietly crept past your fuel spend is worth naming before your accountant names it for you. Two free AI revisions come with the report, which is generally enough to re-cut a bucket or two once you spot a line sitting somewhere it does not belong, with the subtotals, percentages and grand total recalculated to match.
What you get
- Every expense line sorted into ATO-style deduction categories
- Subtotals per category with % of total spend
- GST-credit estimate on GST-applicable spend, shown separately
- Grand total that ties back to your pasted figures with the maths shown
- Plain-English read on where your money goes plus 3 practical moves
- 2 free AI revisions included
Turnaround: ~5 minutes. Delivery: On-page report + Markdown download (print to PDF / paste to Word).
Frequently asked questions
I already run everything through Xero. Is there anything here for me?
Probably not much. This is a one-off A$19 document built from a list you paste in, with no bank feed and nothing carried over to the next quarter, so it earns its keep for the person doing their own books by hand rather than someone whose ledger is already live in software. If you want an ongoing ledger structure instead, the Bookkeeping Journal & Ledger is the better fit.
Half my descriptions are bank-feed gibberish. What happens to those lines?
Messy input is what this expects. Each line needs a description and an amount, and the more legible the description, the more confident the category. A genuinely ambiguous entry such as a bare "EFTPOS 4471" gets placed on the most reasonable reading available, and if that reading is wrong you can correct it with either of your two included revisions.
Do the categories bend to how my trade actually spends?
Within limits. The sorting stays inside ATO-style deduction categories so the framework remains recognisable to your accountant, but you can name your trade and ask for lines to be regrouped, and the subtotals, percentages and grand total are recalculated around the change.
Is the GST figure something I can put on a BAS?
No. It is an estimate calculated from the GST status you state and whether your amounts are inclusive or exclusive of GST, and it exists so you arrive at the lodgement or the accountant's appointment with sorted, subtotalled numbers. The lodgement itself stays with you or a registered agent.
Can I open it in Excel?
Not directly. Delivery is the report rendered on your order page plus a Markdown download, which prints to PDF or pastes into Word. There is no Excel or CSV file, so figures you want in a spreadsheet would need copying across yourself.