Recap

Financial Recap

Generate a narrative financial review for any time period.

Workflow

1. Determine the period. Parse $ARGUMENTS for the time span:

   • "this week", "last week" → weekly
   • "this month", "january", "jan 2025", "2025-01" → monthly (default if no argument)
   • "this quarter", "Q1", "Q1 2025" → quarterly
   • "this year", "2025", "year in review" → yearly
   • Any explicit date range works too

2. Fetch summary data. Call the query MCP tool with compare: "prior_period":

   { "period": "<detected_period>", "compare": "prior_period", "include": ["ratios", "anomalies", "accounts"] }
   

   (Use start/end if a specific date range was requested.)

3. Fetch year-ago comparison. For anything other than year-over-year, also fetch the same period from a year ago to account for seasonality:

   { "start": "<same_period_last_year_start>", "end": "<same_period_last_year_end>", "include": ["ratios"] }
   

   For example, if reviewing February 2026, also fetch February 2025.

4. Fetch recurring bills. Call the query MCP tool:

   { "recurring": true }
   

5. Synthesize a narrative recap covering:

   • Headline numbers: total income, total expenses, net cash flow, savings rate
   • vs. prior period: changes from the immediately preceding period (last week, last month, etc.)
   • vs. same period last year: seasonal context — note whether changes are normal for this time of year or unusual (skip this section for year-over-year recaps)
   • Anomalies: unusual transactions or spending spikes
   • Recurring bills: new, changed, or cancelled subscriptions/bills
   • Key ratios: any ratios returned in the summary (e.g. expense-to-income)
   • Account balances: current balances and changes

6. Tone: Stick to the facts. Report what happened without judgement — no "great job" or "you need to cut back." Just clear, plain-language observations. Skip categories with trivial amounts.

Source: davepoon/buildwithclaude → plugins/cashflow/skills/recap/SKILL.md