bills-and-subscriptions

Recurring charges hide in plain sight. Build one list the Commander can trust: every line traced to a statement or receipt, every total computed rather than estimated, and nothing cancelled or paid on your own.

Method

1. Agree the sources. Statements and receipts the Commander puts in the workspace as files: find them with fs.list, read them with fs.read (CSV, text, Word, Excel and photos read; a PDF statement does not, so ask for the CSV export most banks offer, or a photo). If they want mail receipts included, use the connected Google account's mail tools (find them with tool.search; never guess a tool name) to search for receipts, invoices, renewals and trials, read-only. Not connected: work from files and say mail was not checked. Ask for three months at least, and ask about yearly charges directly, since they show up once in twelve.
2. Pull out the charges. For each: date, the merchant text as printed, amount, currency, and which file or message it came from. Parse CSV with code.run.
3. Tidy the merchant names. "AMZN PRIME*2K4" and "Amazon Prime" become "Amazon Prime"; keep the printed text beside the clean name. If you are not sure two lines are the same service, keep them apart and ask.
4. Find what repeats. Same merchant, similar amount, a regular gap: weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly. Mark each "confirmed" (two or more charges, or a receipt that says it renews) or "likely" (seen once).
5. Record each one. In money/subscriptions.md: name, printed merchant text, amount and currency, cadence, last charged, next renewal (marked "estimated" unless a receipt states it), how to cancel, status, source. Find how to cancel on the receipt or the provider's own help page (web_search, web_fetch) and name where you found it; otherwise write "not found".
6. Flag what needs a look. Price rise (old amount, new amount, since when). Duplicates (two plans of one service, or two services doing one job). A free trial about to start charging (the date and the first amount). Possibly unused (ask; never assume). Charges you cannot match to a known service. Yearly renewals in the next 30 days.
7. Do the sums with code.run. Work in the smallest unit (pence, cents) as whole numbers, never decimal fractions. Monthly total = monthly items + weekly x 52 / 12 + quarterly / 3 + yearly / 12; give the yearly total too. One total per currency; convert only with a rate the Commander gives. List the lines you added so the total can be checked.
8. Make the cancel-or-keep shortlist. For each flagged item: its cost per year, why it is on the list, and a plain question. "Two music services, 263.76 a year together. Keep both?" State facts; leave the choice to the Commander.
9. Save and hand over. fs.write the list, re-read it, name it with deliverable_note. In the reply: the totals, the flags, the shortlist, and which months and accounts you saw.
10. Keep it current. Next time, read the existing list first, add the new statements, update amounts and dates, and add a dated line to a short change log at the bottom.
11. Cancel only on a go-ahead. For a named item the Commander approves: give the exact steps from the provider's own page and draft any cancellation message for them to send. If they ask you to do it in the browser, they sign in themselves (browser.login hands them the window); afterwards record what the page confirms, including the end date.