An AI-built dashboard for a summer of card receipts
Every purchase on a program card ends up as a receipt in a form. At the end of the summer, someone has to explain where the money went. I built a dashboard with AI that answers it.
The problem
Pre-College staff paid for meals, excursions and supplies with program cards and logged each receipt in a form. The data was all there, but it was one long list.
The office needed to know what the money was spent on, in which session, and which receipts broke the rules, before the budget closed.
What I did
- 01
Sort every receipt
With AI, I placed each receipt into one spend category from its vendor and the purpose typed on the form, and split direct program spend from operational and admin spend.
- 02
Write the rules down
A meal only counts as an excursion meal when the wording points off campus. A staff or team meal goes to its own category. The rules sit on the page, so anyone can check them.
- 03
Check the meal cap
Per-person cost is the receipt total divided by the headcount on the form, tax and tip included, compared with the cap for that meal type.
- 04
Map spend to the calendar
Purchase dates are mapped to the program sessions, so each session shows its own spend mix.
- 05
Flag what needs a person
Receipts over the cap, possible duplicates and receipts with thin wording are flagged for a human read. The AI sorts, and people make the final call.
- 06
Let the reviewer correct it
A reviewer can change a category in place and download the corrections, and can group by vendor, card owner or residence director.
What happened
The office got one view of the whole summer's card spend, with every number traceable to its receipt. The reconciliation became a review of flagged rows instead of a read through every line.
- Let AI do the sorting, and show the rules so people can check it.
- Flag the uncertain rows. Don't hide them.