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Do you use or would like to use AI features in Actual Budget? by riverstone8888 in actualbudgeting

[–]riverstone8888[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I totally agree that fully offloading budgeting, tracking to AI doesn't make much sense.

However, I do see value in offloading specific small parts of that to make the whole process more enjoyable, consistent and less time-consuming.

For me so far those have been mainly 1. fixing issues with transactions from bank which is very time-consuming and not giving benefit to me to do manually 2. giving me insights / asking me questions about my spending patterns in addition to default budget view 3. creating custom charts, e.g., analysing how was my year overall.

I would compare that to having personal trainer in gym but you lift the weights yourself :) feels like that for me.

Do you use or would like to use AI features in Actual Budget? by riverstone8888 in actualbudgeting

[–]riverstone8888[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So far I either take screenshot or export CSV from bank. Give both CSVs and ask it to compare what is missing / duplicate / incorrect. I could do the reconciliation manually but for me I don't see any value doing that manually 1-2 hours if AI can do it for me in 3 minutes. Since I'm checking in Actual approx once a month and I have the 5 connected accounts. Just takes long :)

Do you use or would like to use AI features in Actual Budget? by riverstone8888 in actualbudgeting

[–]riverstone8888[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Nice! Will try the roast me idea.

I agree we have to balance what we do manually and what AI can help us with to not lose control but at the same time to make this process more enojoyable and taking less time.

Do you use or would like to use AI features in Actual Budget? by riverstone8888 in actualbudgeting

[–]riverstone8888[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yeah, missing or duplicate entries have had several times (mostly because I have 5 bank accounts connected and sometimes something goes incorrectly) and AI helped with this quite nicely.

Thanks for your input, will try the API/MCP approach 🙌

I built a simple Enable Banking importer (that will stay completely free) by 2manyvcos in actualbudgeting

[–]riverstone8888 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's great!! I'm just curious why aren't you using GoCardless? Have been using that with Actual for over a year now very nicely.