---
name: expense-audit
description: "Audit business expenses: find subscription creep, duplicate vendors, unused tools, misclassified costs — turn QuickBooks or bank exports into actionable savings"
---

# Expense Audit Skill

## When to activate
- You want to find expenses you can cut or renegotiate
- Your costs feel high but you're not sure where the money goes
- Doing an annual review of all business subscriptions
- Preparing for a meeting with your accountant
- You've grown quickly and suspect some spending is no longer needed

## When NOT to use
- Auditing individual employee expenses (different process)
- Tax compliance reviews — use a licensed accountant
- Fraud investigation — involve a professional

## Instructions

### Subscription and software audit

```
Here are all the software/tool subscriptions I'm paying for:
[paste your list — name, monthly cost, what it does, how often you use it]

Which should I:
1. Cancel (not being used or duplicated)
2. Downgrade (paying for features I don't need)
3. Consolidate (two tools doing the same thing)
4. Renegotiate (paying too much, alternatives exist)
```

### Bank statement expense review

```
Here's my business bank statement for [month] [paste or describe categories]:

Categorise all expenses, identify:
1. Any recurring charges I might have forgotten about
2. Unusual or one-off items that need review
3. Any amounts that seem higher than expected
4. Potential misclassifications for tax purposes
```

### The "do I still need this?" checklist

```
I want to review every business expense over $100/month.
Here's my list: [paste]

For each one, ask me 3 questions to help me decide if I still need it,
then give me a recommendation: keep / cancel / review.
```

### Finding quick wins

```
My total monthly business expenses are $[X].
My revenue is $[Y].
My profit margin feels thin.

What categories of expenses should I look at first for quick savings?
What's a reasonable benchmark for [type of business] at my revenue level?
```

### Annual subscription reset

```
I want to do a full audit of everything my business pays for annually.
My accounts include: QuickBooks, Stripe, Slack, Google Workspace, [others]

Help me:
1. List every tool and its approximate cost
2. Identify free alternatives for anything I use minimally
3. Find anything I'm double-paying for
4. Prioritise what to cancel first
```

### Before a growth phase

```
I'm about to hire my first employee (cost: ~$[X]/month).
My current expenses are $[Y]/month, revenue $[Z]/month.

What expenses should I consider cutting or reducing to make room for this hire 
without hurting operations?
```

## Example

**You paste your last month's expenses:**
```
Shopify: $79
Canva Pro: $17
Adobe CC: $55
Mailchimp: $35
ConvertKit: $29 (trial)
Zoom: $15
Google Meet (free but paying for Google Workspace): $12
Slack: $0 (free tier)
Airtable: $24
Notion: $16
ClickUp: $10
Dropbox: $12
Google Drive (included in Workspace)
QuickBooks: $30
FreshBooks: $17 (old account, not using)
```

**Claude flags:**
- **Cancel immediately:** FreshBooks ($17) — not using, have QuickBooks
- **Cancel immediately:** ConvertKit ($29) — on trial, already paying Mailchimp
- **Consolidate:** Airtable + Notion + ClickUp — 3 project tools, pick one (~$30-34 savings)
- **Review:** Dropbox ($12) — you already have Google Drive included in Workspace
- **Review:** Adobe CC ($55) — if you only use Photoshop, could use Canva Pro instead
- **Total immediate savings: $46-80/month**

---

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