Inspiration
Every home has a pile of bills and receipts: electricity, water, rent, building tax, groceries, cosmetics, clothes. They sit in phone galleries, WhatsApp chats and drawers. Finding one at tax time or for a loan takes hours, and small purchases quietly add up until the month's money is gone. I wanted one private place that tracks and organises all of it, saves time, and helps people notice unwanted spending early.
What it does
It is an AI Skill for UGREEN AI NAS that tracks and organises bills and receipts, and reminds you how much of your target amount is left for each spending category.
How we built it
built as a Skill in the UGOS Skill format, using the UGREEN Skill Developer Package.
- Input: the user drops bill and receipt files (photos, scans, PDFs) into a vault folder on the NAS.
- Reading: the Skill uses the NAS document and file capabilities to read each file and pick out the type, date, shop and amount.
- Organising: it renames the file and moves it into the right vault and folder (Personal, Family, Official or Roommates).
- Tracking: it adds each amount to its category total for the month and compares it with the target amount the user set.
- Reminders: it tells the user how much is left, warns when a category is nearly used up, and reports when it is over.
- Extras: on request it builds a proof pack, splits shared roommate bills, and writes a monthly summary.
Privacy by design: everything runs on the user's own UGREEN NAS, so bills are not sent to a cloud service. Each vault has its own access rules, so private items are not shown to others.
Challenges we ran into
Bills come in many layouts, languages and photo qualities, so reading them accurately is hard. Deciding the right category for a receipt, keeping each vault private, and handling unclear or duplicate receipts safely were the main design challenges. I also had to keep the Skill inside what the UGOS Skill tool really supports, so reminders appear when the Skill is run or asked, not as background alerts.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
A clear design with four separate vaults (Personal, Family, Official, Roommates), category spending targets with "how much is left" reminders, proof packs and roommate splits, all in one private Skill that a normal family can understand. It always asks for confirmation before renaming or moving files, never deletes anything, and gives no financial advice.
What we learned
Most people do not need financial advice. They need their papers in order and a gentle warning before a category runs out. Keeping the Skill focused on organising and tracking made the design simpler and safer, and writing every step so that it uses the real result of the step before it made the workflow much clearer.
What's next for BillKeeper:
Testing on a real UGREEN AI NAS, better reading of bills in more languages, phone reminders for due dates if the NAS supports them, and smarter automatic category detection.
Built With
- ai
- markdown
- nas
- skill
- ugos
- ugreen
