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Sort household receipts for taxes with Claude Cowork

WorkedEvidence: Described by posterPosted Last checked

Claude Cowork categorized household receipts into a spreadsheet for tax season in minutes instead of hours.

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Prompt

Recreated prompt

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What the prompt labels mean

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Look at this folder of household receipts. For each one extract vendor, date, and amount, categorize the expense, and flag anything that might be tax deductible. Create one clean spreadsheet I can send to my accountant. Do not invent deductions.

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ChatGPT Gemini Grok Claude

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Optional stronger version

Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.

Before you start, ask me 1–3 short questions about the details below and wait for my answers. Once I've answered, confirm the plan in one line and run the whole task start to finish.

Goal: Turn a receipts folder into a categorized spreadsheet for my accountant.

Questions to ask me first:
- Folder path and tax year?
- Categories you should use?
- Any deduction rules I already know?

Inputs (fill in or confirm):
- Folder: [PATH]
- Tax year: [YEAR]
- Categories: [LIST]
- Flag rule: [POTENTIALLY DEDUCTIBLE]

Rules:
- Read only the files I allow.
- Never invent a deduction category.
- Mark unsure rows for human review.
- Keep original filenames linked.

Checkpoint: After five receipts, show the row format for OK.

If you get stuck: If a receipt is unreadable, list it as needs scan.

Verify before you finish: Totals match the readable receipts; flags are conservative.

Output: One spreadsheet with vendor, date, amount, category, and flag.

Done when: I can forward the sheet to an accountant without a weekend of sorting.

AI tool

Claude Cowork

Outcome

Household receipts for medical visits, school supplies, repairs, and random purchases pile up for tax season. Gregory Scott Henson pointed Claude Cowork at a receipts folder to extract vendor, date, and amount, categorize expenses, and flag anything potentially tax deductible. The agent produced a clean spreadsheet meant to go straight to an accountant—work that used to take hours now takes minutes.

Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.

Source

Posted
by Gregory Scott Henson
Last checked
Method:
How we verify

https://www.indiehackers.com/post/claude-cowork-for-the-other-16-hours-756289413e

Context: Self-reported time savings; not tax advice. Shares Indie Hackers sourceUrl with other cases.

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