Do a small business's quarterly BAS books from bank, Stripe, PayPal and Wise statements with Claude Cowork

Posted

Aug 10, 2026 by Sridhar Katakam (@srikat)

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Last checked

Oct 19, 2026

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Method:

How we verify

Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.

Outcome

Sridhar Katakam used Claude Cowork to go through the statements and transactions from several bank accounts, Stripe, PayPal and Wise and prepare business expense and income spreadsheets. Their accountant reviewed them and said they were good enough that Katakam no longer needed the accountant's services for BAS and could file it themselves, a saving of about $530 AUD per quarter. The accountant also suggested having Claude do the same for the whole year, and said the fee for filing the income tax return would come down.

Agent

Claude Cowork

The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Turn my business statements into clean income and expense spreadsheets for my quarterly tax return.

Fill in before running:
- Statements or exports for each account (bank, payment apps): [ATTACH]
- The quarter's start and end dates: [DATES]
- My usual expense categories, if I have them: [DETAILS]

You're not my accountant or financial adviser. Show your working, label estimates as estimates, and tell me which points a professional or the official source should confirm.

Rules:
- Put every transaction in one sheet with date, source, description, amount and category.
- Separate business income, business expenses and personal or transfer items.
- Flag anything you can't categorise instead of guessing.
- Remove duplicates where the same payment appears in two accounts.
- Add a summary tab with totals per category.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.

Output: An income sheet, an expense sheet and a summary my accountant can review.

You'll know it worked when: my accountant signs off on the figures with few or no changes.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Turn my business statements into clean income and expense spreadsheets for my quarterly tax return.

Fill in before running:
- Statements or exports for each account (bank, payment apps): [ATTACH]
- The quarter's start and end dates: [DATES]
- My usual expense categories, if I have them: [DETAILS]

You're not my accountant or financial adviser. Show your working, label estimates as estimates, and tell me which points a professional or the official source should confirm.

Rules:
- Put every transaction in one sheet with date, source, description, amount and category.
- Separate business income, business expenses and personal or transfer items.
- Flag anything you can't categorise instead of guessing.
- Remove duplicates where the same payment appears in two accounts.
- Add a summary tab with totals per category.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.

Output: An income sheet, an expense sheet and a summary my accountant can review.

You'll know it worked when: my accountant signs off on the figures with few or no changes.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Turn my business statements into clean income and expense spreadsheets for my quarterly tax return.

Fill in before running:
- Statements or exports for each account (bank, payment apps): [ATTACH]
- The quarter's start and end dates: [DATES]
- My usual expense categories, if I have them: [DETAILS]

You're not my accountant or financial adviser. Show your working, label estimates as estimates, and tell me which points a professional or the official source should confirm.

Rules:
- Put every transaction in one sheet with date, source, description, amount and category.
- Separate business income, business expenses and personal or transfer items.
- Flag anything you can't categorise instead of guessing.
- Remove duplicates where the same payment appears in two accounts.
- Add a summary tab with totals per category.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.
- List any receipts I should keep for the larger expenses.

Output: An income sheet, an expense sheet and a summary my accountant can review.

You'll know it worked when: my accountant signs off on the figures with few or no changes.

Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.

Source

https://x.com/srikat/status/2086643189776253312