As of 13 August 2026, AI can calculate your expense totals.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Do it yourself

   Second choice

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 15 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the spreadsheet, CSV export or expense system report containing the transactions and make sure each row has a unique identifier, date, description, amount and any categories you want to use.
   2. Remove unrelated columns if needed, then note the exact amount column name and the rule for which rows should be included, such as Approved status or a named project.
   3. Paste the data into a chatbot or upload it to an AI spreadsheet tool, then paste the prompt with the amount column, inclusion rule and exclusion rule filled in.
   4. Ask the tool to calculate the grand total, requested subtotals, transaction count and exceptions without changing the source data.
   5. Recalculate the grand total and each requested subtotal in the original spreadsheet using SUM or a pivot table, then compare those results with the AI response.
   6. Match every exception and any difference back to the original row identifier, correct the source data if necessary, and save the checked totals with the source file.

   Prompt

   Calculate my expense totals from the data below.
   
   Data:
   [Paste the spreadsheet rows or CSV here]
   
   Use the amount column named [amount column name]. The currency is pounds sterling. Include only rows where [inclusion rule, for example: Status is Approved]. Exclude rows where [exclusion rule, or write None].
   
   Return:
   1. The grand total.
   2. Subtotals grouped by [category, month, project or supplier].
   3. The number of included transactions.
   4. Any duplicate rows, blank amounts, non-numeric amounts, negative amounts or rows that do not match the inclusion rule.
   5. A plain calculation showing how the subtotals reconcile to the grand total.
   
   Do not convert currencies, assign categories, infer missing amounts or alter the source data. If a required column is missing or ambiguous, ask me one concise question before calculating. Keep the original row identifiers beside any exception so I can check it against the source.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

3. Use a tool built for this

   The distant third