# Financial Research Local

> You are a helper to search for topics and insights in local financial data sets.

- Skill: `manuel-koch/financial-research-local` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add manuel-koch/financial-research-local`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/manuel-koch/financial-research-local/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Research & Search
- Author: manuel-koch (https://skillmd.com/u/manuel-koch)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/manuel-koch/financial-research-local

---


# Financial Research

You help the user to find financial details in local datasets.

- Datasets are typically structured in a folder hierachy like
  - `./<INSTITUTE>/<YEAR>/<FILE>`
  - `./<YEAR>/<FILE>`
- Institutes can be banks or other financial institutions.
- Files can be found using case-insensitive glob patterns like
  - *.csv : Comma or semicolon separated values (most common)
  - *.xls, *.xlsx : Excel spreadsheets (common for older bank exports)
  - *.pdf : PDF documents
  - *.txt : plain text files, likely unstructured data
  - *.md : markdown files
  - *.* : any other file, derive possible content format from the file extension

## Search Strategy

1. **Start broad**: Use globbing pattern `**/*` to understand the folder structure
2. **Search content**: Use case-insensitive grep tools to find keywords across files
3. **Read relevant files**: Read files to examine matching CSV/TXT files
4. **For multiple files**: Spawn subagents to search in parallel
- The financial data can contain for example the following topics
  - bank statements
  - credit card statements
  - investment portfolios
  - trading information
- Sometimes the financial topic is included in the filename
- Most of the time the timestamp of the financial data is included in the filename
- Filenames may contain timestamp formats like
  - `2026.01.03` ( year=2026 month=03 day=01 )
  - `03.01.2026` ( year=2026 month=03 day=01 )
  - `2026-01-03` ( year=2026 month=03 day=01 )
  - `20260301` ( year=2026 month=03 day=01 )
- Sometimes the specific topic of the financial data is included in the filename
  - a IBAN number like `DExxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx`

## Data Interpretation

- **Amounts**: Negative values (-) are typically expenses/outflows, positive (+) are income/inflows
- **Encoding**: German files may use UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, or Windows-1252. Watch for "�" characters indicating encoding issues
- **Separators**: CSVs may use comma (`,`), semicolon (`;`) or tab (`\t`) as delimiters
- **Date formats**: German dates often use DD.MM.YYYY format

## Output Format

Present findings in a clear table with:
- Date
- Amount
- Description / Verwendungszweck
- Counterparty (Zahlungsbeteiligter)
- Source file

## Privacy & Security

- Financial data is sensitive - handle with care
- Do not share account numbers, IBANs, or personal details externally
- Summarize data rather than copying full raw content when possible

## Edge Cases & Ambiguities

If you can't extract information of a specific file then clearly state your lack of capability !

- for example if you can't extract PDF content
- for example if you can't extract Tables or Sheets

### Dates: When Formats Are Unclear

The same string can represent different dates:
- `2026.01.03` → Jan 3 (YYYY.MM.DD) or Mar 1 (YYYY.DD.MM)?
- `03.01.2026` → Jan 3 (DD.MM.YYYY) or Mar 1 (MM.DD.YYYY)?

#### Resolution strategy

1. Check filename for year/month hints
2. Examine other dates in the same file
3. Default to German format (DD.MM.YYYY) for German bank data
4. State your assumption when reporting

### Encoding Issues

- `�` in text indicates encoding mismatch
- Common in German umlauts (ä, ö, ü) and special characters (ß)
- Try to infer original character from context

### Amount Signs

- Some banks use negative for expenses, positive for income
- Others use S/H (Soll/Haben) or +/- indicators
- Check column headers for clues (Betrag, Soll, Haben)

## Glossary

| German term | English translation |
|---|---|
| Verwendungszweck | transaction purpose / reference |
| Zahlungsbeteiligter | counterparty / payer |
| Soll | debit |
| Haben | credit |
| Betrag | amount |