How do I configure ExpenseBot to track wedding expenses?

Tracking Wedding Expenses in ExpenseBot

ExpenseBot has a dedicated wedding flow that solves two problems generic expense trackers don't:

1. Category breakdown, not just a grand total. Couples don't argue about whether to spend on a wedding — they argue about what to cut. Five pre-built tags split the budget the way wedding planners do.
2. Who paid for what, without losing the category. You keep the category tag AND record the payer (Bride / Groom / Mom / Dad / Wedding Planner / or a custom label) in a separate Notes column, so budget totals still roll up cleanly.

Step 1 — Create the 5-tag bundle

1. Go to Settings → Manage Tags
2. Click ✨ Create a Tag with AI
3. Type something like: "wedding expenses — venue, florist, catering, photographer, dress, honeymoon"
4. The wizard detects wedding intent and offers to create five tags automatically:
   • Wedding – Attire — gown, tux, alterations, shoes, jewelry, hair, makeup
   • Wedding – Venue — venue rental, caterer, bar service, wedding cake, linens
   • Wedding – Vendors — photographer, videographer, DJ, band, florist, officiant, planner, transportation
   • Wedding – Stationery — invitations, save-the-dates, favors, bridesmaid/groomsmen gifts
   • Wedding – Honeymoon — flights, hotels, resorts, excursions, rental car
5. Hit Save to add the tags for future matching. Existing receipts are not changed automatically. Choose Tag existing expenses to open Review Expenses, select the rows you want, and apply the appropriate Wedding tag yourself.

Step 2 — Track who paid (pick whichever fits)

Option A — type it in the subject line (works for anyone):

When forwarding a receipt, add paidby:bride to the subject line. Accepted labels include bride, groom, mom, dad, or any custom text.

Subject: Fwd: florist invoice paidby:bride's family

ExpenseBot stamps "Paid by Bride's Family" into the Notes column (Column L). The category tag in Column K is untouched, so budget totals still roll up correctly.

Option B — add a verified forwarding email:

The account owner opens the Add emails flow in the Add Expenses section and adds the partner's, parent's, fiancé's, or planner's email (open the forwarding-email section). The sender receives a confirmation email; after they confirm, they can forward receipts to receipts@expensebot.ai and do not need a separate ExpenseBot account. Choose one of the actual labels — Bride, Groom, Mom, Dad, Wedding Planner, or Other. Use Other when you need a custom label such as "Bride's family" or "Groom's family"; those are not separate chips. Set it up once, with no subject-line typing required.

Connecting Gmail is optional. A connected Gmail account is scanned automatically, while a forwarding email only processes receipts that person actively forwards. Use forwarding when you want selected receipts without connecting their inbox.

⚠️ Explicit paidby: in the subject always works, on any receipt — it's a deliberate user command. Auto-attribution from a verified forwarding email fires when you have the wedding role active OR when the receipt resolves to a Wedding – tag, so a non-wedding user's Starbucks receipt forwarded from bride@gmail.com won't accidentally get "Paid by Bride" stamped on it.

Option C — uploading photos or PDFs: the upload window shows a one-tap "Who paid?" choice with a button for each person on your forwarding list. There's also a "Not shared" button for personal purchases — those stay in your sheet but are excluded from the who-paid split (the report lists them in a visible "excluded" footer).

Fixing attribution later: any receipt that lands without a payer shows as Unassigned. Open the Wedding Budget Report, click Preview, and expand "Review who paid" — Unassigned receipts are pinned to the top. Pick the right person from the dropdown (it saves to your sheet instantly), mark a row "Not shared," then click "Recalculate totals." And when three or more people are paying (say a parent chips in), a sides grouping option appears after Preview — assign each person to Bride's side / Groom's side and the reconciliation runs side-vs-side instead of person-vs-person.

Step 3 — Run your reports

Once you're tagged for wedding tracking, a dedicated report appears on My Reports → Create A Report:

• Wedding Budget Report — budget vs actuals by vendor category, with top vendors per tag, a deposit/final payment pairing (catches the same vendor charged twice — once for deposit, once for final balance), a monthly burn chart oriented around your wedding date, and a Paid-By split flagging who over- or under-paid vs the ratio you set (50/50, 60/40, etc.). Set your total wedding budget once and the report calculates remaining / % used on every run.

You can still run the generic tag-based reports anytime:

• Full budget by category: My Reports → Create Report → Report by Tag → select all five "Wedding –" tags
• Single category: Report by Tag → "Wedding – Vendors" (or any one category)
• Who paid what: Open the main sheet, filter Column L (Notes) for "Paid by Bride" / "Paid by Groom" / etc.

Why five categories instead of one?

One "Wedding" tag gives you "$43,000 spent" — useful for nobody. Five tags let you actually make trade-offs: "Can we spend less on flowers and more on the photographer?" We tested against 20+ wedding planning resources and found these five categories cover 95%+ of wedding receipts without ambiguity. Every vendor type belongs in exactly one bucket.

Why does Paid-By go in Notes, not in the tag?

Column K holds one tag per receipt. If "Bride" were a tag, every receipt tagged "Bride" would stop counting toward "Wedding – Attire" — breaking the budget view. Notes is additive: category + payer can both be true at the same time.

What if I already have a "Wedding" tag?

No problem. The wizard only creates tags you don't already have. Your existing tag keeps working alongside the new ones.

What if the AI misses a receipt?

Add TAG:Wedding – Venue (or any specific tag name) to the forwarding subject — this overrides AI matching. Useful for cash payments or receipts with generic merchant names.

Works for any life event

The same category-split approach works for:

• Home renovation — contractor, materials, appliances
• Baby expenses — nursery, medical, gear
• Moving costs — movers, storage, furniture
• Anniversary trip — hotel, restaurant, activity

For wedding-specific features (5-tag bundle, Paid-By attribution), the wizard only triggers when it detects wedding intent in your description.

Correct the wedding report and rerun

Use Review expenses to change a Wedding tag, vendor, amount, or Who paid value. Return to Wedding Budget Report and run Preview again. The updated preview recalculates vendor groups and the paid-by split; generate a new snapshot after corrections.