Claude as Your CFO: The $10,200 Money Audit Prompt

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve opened my bank app, scrolled through a wall of charges and thought, “Wait, what is that?” Then I closed the app and forgot about it. Most of us do the same, and those small leaks add up to real money over a year.

So I stopped scrolling when I saw this post. A LinkedIn creator shared how Claude helped them find $10,200 a year in savings, and Claude never got access to their bank account or money. The author used one detailed prompt that turns Claude into a personal CFO. I love it because it’s a full step-by-step process, so you’re not just tossing a vague question at a chatbot.

Here’s how the original poster set it up, plus why each step matters.

📂 The Setup: Getting Your Data Ready

The creator stresses one thing first: don’t run this blindly. Prep your data and understand what you’re doing before you paste anything. Here’s the sequence they shared:

1. Go to every bank account app you use.
2. Download 12 months of transactions as CSV files.
3. Put the CSV files in a folder on your desktop.
4. Go to Claude and set it to Opus 5.5 on “High.”
5. Open the CSV files folder in Claude.
6. Paste the prompt below, with your own context added.

Why does this matter? Twelve months gives Claude enough history to catch yearly renewals, price increases and seasonal spending that a one-month snapshot would miss. CSV files are also plain data, so Claude can run real calculations on them instead of guessing from screenshots. And since you’re only sharing exports, Claude never touches your actual accounts.

🧠 The Prompt of the Day

This is the prompt the author shared, reproduced exactly as posted. The LinkedIn user mentioned they couldn’t fit the whole thing in the post, so it cuts off near the end.

“Be my CFO.

Goal: find every place I lose money, and tell me exactly what to cut, keep, switch or renegotiate, biggest money first.

Context: I attached the transaction exports (CSV) of every bank account and card I use. Each bank uses a different format, currency and date range. Some accounts may be for my business.

Work in 5 steps. Use code for every number: never estimate a total by reading.

STEP 1. Clean
Read every file. For each one, tell me: bank, account, currency, first and last date, number of transactions.
Put everything in one table: date, account, merchant (cleaned: “SQ *JOES COFFEE 4421” becomes “Joe’s Coffee”), amount, currency.
Find the money that only moves between my own accounts: transfers, savings, paying my card bill, currency conversions, refunds. Take it out of spending, so nothing counts twice. If I pay a card you don’t have the file for, tell me.
Group charges billed through Apple, Google, PayPal, Amazon or any other middleman by amount and day of the month, so each hidden subscription shows on its own line.

STEP 2. First look
Show me, for the whole period and per month: money in, money out, what’s left. Then my cost centers (housing, food, transport, software, subscriptions, insurance, fees, travel, business…) from biggest to smallest, and every recurring charge (weekly, monthly, yearly) with its price and when it renews next.

STEP 3. Ask me
Stop here and ask me 5 to 10 questions, with clickable options when you can. Only ask what changes your advice: where I live, my job, who I pay for, which accounts are business, what I’m saving for, and what each charge you can’t name is. Wait for my answers.

STEP 4. The audit, cost center by cost center, biggest first
For each cost center:

• What I spend per month and per year, and whether it’s going up.
• What’s normal for someone like me (my job, my country, my household), and how you know.
• Every merchant inside it, scored: KEEP, WATCH or CUT, with one line why.
• What I’d save per year if I act.

Then hunt for:

• Ghost subscriptions: things I pay for and probably forgot. Ask me if you’re not sure.
• Odd charges: the same charge twice, a price that went up, a free trial that turned paid, a charge after I cancelled, tiny test charges, merchants you can’t identify.
• Fees: bank, card, ATM, currency conversion, late fees, interest.
• Business, if I have…”

🔍 Why Each Step Works

I think the structure is what makes this prompt so strong. Each stage has a clear job, and they build on each other.

1. Clean the data first. Bank exports are messy. Merchant names look like “SQ *JOES COFFEE 4421,” and transfers between your own accounts can make spending look twice as big as it really is. Removing internal transfers and refunds keeps every number honest.
2. Unmask hidden subscriptions. Apple, Google, PayPal and Amazon bundle lots of charges under one name. Grouping them by amount and day of the month pulls each subscription out into the open.
3. Get the big picture. Money in, money out, what’s left, then cost centers from biggest to smallest. You’ll see where most of your money goes before Claude gives any advice.
4. Let Claude ask questions. This is my favorite part. Claude stops and asks 5 to 10 targeted questions about where you live, your job and what you’re saving for. Advice for a freelancer in Berlin shouldn’t look like advice for a family of four in Texas.
5. Run the audit. Every merchant gets scored KEEP, WATCH or CUT with a one-line reason, plus how much you’d save per year. Then Claude hunts for ghost subscriptions, double charges, sneaky price hikes, free trials that turned paid and fees you didn’t notice.

The line “Use code for every number: never estimate a total by reading” is a smart safeguard. AI models can slip on mental math, so making Claude calculate with code makes the totals far more trustworthy.

💡 Tips to Get the Most From It

Based on how the expert built this, here are a few practical ways to apply it:

• Include every account. The prompt flags card payments it can’t trace, so missing files will show up as gaps. Grab exports for all your cards and accounts.
• Answer Step 3 honestly. The quality of the audit depends on your context. Be specific about your household, your goals and any business expenses.
• Start with the biggest wins. The prompt sorts everything “biggest money first.” Tackle the top two or three items before worrying about a $3 app.
• Act on the CUT list right away. Cancel ghost subscriptions the same day. Then call providers on the “renegotiate” items, since insurance and phone plans often have room to move.
• Repeat it every quarter. Prices creep up and free trials sneak in. Running this audit a few times a year keeps the leaks from coming back.

🚀 Why I’m Excited About This

Personal finance tools usually sort your spending into neat categories and stop there. This approach goes further. It compares your spending to what’s normal for someone like you, explains its reasoning and tells you exactly what to do next. That’s the kind of analysis people pay advisors for.

It also shows how much better AI gets when you give it a clear process. The creator didn’t just say “analyze my spending.” They laid out five stages, built in a pause for questions and told Claude how to handle numbers. That’s a pattern worth borrowing for any big analysis task.

The prompt above is cut off at the business section, so check out the original LinkedIn post to see the full version and the author’s complete walkthrough. Then grab your CSVs and see how much you can save.