BT
Budget Tracker Design
🔵 Stable🕐 updated 2026-07-19
🔷 SkillSpec L3
pm-cowork
Design a budget-vs-actuals tracker that stays alive past February — the category grain that matches real statements, the variance view that answers 'are we okay', the update ritual small enough to survive, and the honest handling of irregular expenses. Use when asked build me a budget spreadsheet, track team spend against budget, why do we always blow the budget invisibly, or design a household/project budget tracker. Produces the tracker structure, the variance logic, the irregulars ledger, and the monthly fifteen-minute ritual.
What to give it
▸The scope — household, team, or project budget; and the currency of pain ("we get surprised" vs "we can't approve spend" vs "the money just goes")
▸The spend sources — cards, invoices, payroll, reimbursements; categories must match how these report, or every update becomes archaeology
▸The budget numbers — from where (last year +X%? A plan? First-time guesses marked as guesses to be re-based at month 3)?
▸The irregulars — the annual/quarterly lumps (insurance, subscriptions ([subscription-audit](../subscription-audit/SKILL.md) finds them), taxes, conferences) — listed, because the design accrues them
✅ The bar it holds itself to
Every skill in this library self-verifies — these are this skill's own quality checks, straight from its definition.
✓Categories map 1:1-ish to how spend arrives — no receipt requires judgment to code
✓Both month and YTD variance are visible; YTD carries the verdict
✓Every known lump is accrued monthly in the ledger
✓Thresholds are set at attention-worthy levels per category
✓The ritual fits in 15 minutes and ends in one written sentence
⚠️ What it refuses to do
Do not build 40 categories — granularity that outruns the statements kills the tracker
Do not read only the current month — noise up, noise down, lesson: read YTD
Do not let annual bills be "surprises" — they have dates; accrue them
Do not alert on trivial variance — red must mean something or it means nothing
Do not skip the sentence — an updated tracker nobody reads is maintenance cosplay
Install
npx pm-claude-skills add --agent claude # or codex · cursor · gemini · hermes
# or one-line MCP (every skill, any client):
claude mcp add pm-skills -- npx -y pm-claude-skills-mcpRelated skills
🔌 Embed this skill
Drop this on your blog, docs, or site — it renders a "Run this skill" card:
<div data-pm-skill="budget-tracker-design"></div>
<script src="https://mohitagw15856.github.io/pm-claude-skills/embed.js" async></script>💬 Discussion
Budget Tracker Design is one of 750 open-source professional AI agent skills — all SkillSpec L3.
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