# Spending Review

> Performs a comprehensive review of spending for a given period. Summarizes by category, compares to budgets, highlights anomalies, and provides actionable recommendations. Trigger when user says "review my spending", "how did I do this month", "spending report", or "where is my money going".

- Skill: `openaccountant/spending-review-2` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add openaccountant/spending-review-2`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/openaccountant/spending-review-2/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Docs & Writing
- Author: openaccountant (https://skillmd.com/u/openaccountant)
- Updated: 2026-09-21
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/openaccountant/spending-review-2

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# Spending Review

## Workflow

1. **Determine time period**: Default to current month; accept offset (e.g., "last month") or custom date range
2. **Get category breakdown**: Use `spending_summary` to get spending totals by category for the period
3. **Check budgets**: Use `budget_check` to compare actual spending against budgets (if set)
4. **Detect anomalies**: Use `anomaly_detect` to find unusual spending patterns or outliers
5. **Present findings**:
   - Category breakdown table with amounts and percentage of total
   - Top merchants by spend
   - Anomalies and unusual transactions
   - Trends vs previous period (month-over-month or period-over-period)
6. **Provide recommendations**: Actionable suggestions including areas to cut back, budget adjustments, and spending patterns to watch