Using Tasker for tracking expenses, budget management

[Mike L]

Pocketables.com has a good wrote up on using variable splits. If the SMS is always the same format, parsing the transaction details should be relatively easy. If you post one of the messages (personal info edited out of course) I could give you a hand

[Rama Krishna Adepu]

A sample message is here

Transaction of Rs.4,453.09 made on TATA Credit Card XX1563 at NR SOUTHPARK BISTUPUR on 3 Jun 13

yes the message has a same format for all transactions.

I have a fair understanding on using variable split, 

but storing data in a variable is not enough, i need some reports like what is the total expense for this month, what is the total expense for grocerries etc.

[Rich D]

> A sample message is here
>
> Transaction of Rs.4,453.09 made on TATA Credit Card XX1563 at NR SOUTHPARK BISTUPUR on 3 Jun 13
>
> yes the message has a same format for all transactions.
> I have a fair understanding on using variable split, 
> but storing data in a variable is not enough, i need some reports like what is the total expense for this month, what is the total expense for grocerries etc.
>

A text message for every transaction.. That is a very handy feature. I wish my credit card offered that service. This sounds like a interesting project, I would be very interested to here how some of the programmers in the group would handle this. Having very little programming experience but some tasker experience this is how I would start to approach this..

I have found the 'List Files' action to be one of the most useful actions for data storage in certain situations.  It is very fast and efficient for sorting file names and with the current ability to have long and complex file names you simply use the file name as the data.  For example my first thought would be after splitting up the text message and figuring out what categories it should go in you would end up with something like this..

06-03-13_vehicle_fuel_2000
06-03-13_vehicle_maintenance_5000

So you would end up with a file name for every transaction that could be very easily sorted. For all transactions in June you could do a files list action with "06*" for a search criteria of for all vehicle transactions in June it would be "*06-*vehicle_*"

Of course the draw back is you need to pay attention to illegal  file names. You will note I removed the decimal point for the amount as this would couse a file name problem. The amounts are actually $20.00. And $50.00

This may not be the best approach, It is just where I would start....

Rich..

[TomL]

You are lucky to be able to get that kind of data.  I wish my credit cards offered that.

You get transaction data via SMS, you want to be able to store, filter, analyze and report on it.  I would use Tasker as a kind of information coordinator. Taskerr could react to each transaction SMS it receives and store it, like append it to a text file.

I would personally then use shell commands like awk to transform the data and store it in a sqlite3 database.  Once in sql, you can create whatever query you wish to filter, summarize and report on the data.

Another alternative for analysis is the Android package: octave together with droidplot:

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=octave+droidplot&c=apps

It's like having Matlab and gnuplot on your Android.

Tom

[Sultan Alkaabi]

did you find something ?

I'm searching for exact same, I would like to have one app which already integrate with tasker, better for graphic display. otherwise store information in txt is an option but it's not best. it will be just basic.

[Mangesh Patil]

I have created a profile that splits the SMS text content from the bank into Paid Amount & Payee Name. It stores this data in a variable & uploads it into a google spreadsheet for monthly expense tracking.

[Suliman Mahir]

Hi Mangesh!

Can you share with us how you managed to complete the task below! Sounds like an awesome tool to have!

Thanks in advance :)