In TidyOne Personal, AI Coach can explain your recorded income, expenses, budgets, savings goals, debts and upcoming due dates. You can also ask a precise question about an uploaded document. Useful answers start with correct records, a clearly defined period and verification against the source; AI Coach should not be treated as if it knows your live bank balance.
What AI Coach does and when to use it
A long list of purchases is useful, yet it may not show why one month felt more expensive than the previous one or whether there is room for savings after required repayments. AI Coach turns the records already available in TidyOne into a conversational explanation. You can request a comparison, an interpretation of budget pressure or a shortlist of spending adjustments. It cannot know transactions you have never recorded and must not invent prices, subscriptions or income.
The current Personal interface offers quick questions for This month vs last month, Budgets, Goals, Debts, Where can I save? and Ask documents. Their underlying prompts are currently in Romanian in parts of the interface, even where the broader website is localized. You may use a quick action or write a question in your preferred language. The answer is a suggestion or operational summary, not a direct change to your budget or regulated financial advice.
Before you begin: give AI reliable records
Switch to the Personal workspace. In My money, check your income, major expenses and transaction dates. A receipt still awaiting human confirmation may not yet be represented as a financial transaction. A purchase recorded manually and then recreated by confirming the same AI scan can inflate expenses. In Budgets & Goals, check the limits, categories, currencies and savings progress. In Debts and Reminders, review outstanding balances and due dates.
Decide which period you want to discuss. “Compare this month with last month and show category changes” is much more useful than “Why do I spend too much?” The current AI backend builds transaction context beginning on 1 January of the current calendar year and prepares individual monthly summaries. Do not assume it automatically reviews every preceding year, unimported bank statements or records from another account.
Step 1 — Set up your AI Profile without oversharing
Open TidyOne AI and choose AI Profile. The Personal form asks for your main goal, target amount, timeframe, spending concerns, categories you do not want to reduce, and your preferred coaching style. These six answers make a more useful starting point than a generic request to stop buying things. You can start without completing all of them, and you can edit or delete the profile later.
For example: “Build a 6,000 RON emergency fund over 12 months. I am concerned about food delivery and unused subscriptions. Do not reduce essential groceries, medicines or childcare. I prefer three small actions with measurable results.” There is no reason to type passwords, full bank card numbers, banking access codes, or another person's sensitive information into this profile. Only provide information you are comfortable using for this purpose.
Step 2 — Understand this month versus last month
Use the This month vs last month quick question or ask: “Compare recorded income and expenses this month with last month. Show the amounts by category, explain the main changes and list any missing data.” Ask for absolute differences before percentages. A category rising from 20 to 40 RON has doubled, but its 20 RON increase may matter less to the overall budget than a 400 RON change elsewhere.
Next, cross-check the answer in Analysis & Savings and the transaction list. The present Analysis page focuses on the current month and its comparison with the prior month; it does not contain a dedicated free-form date-range selector. If you need a historical year that is outside the available AI context, use your own source data and do not present the answer as a verified historical report.
Ask AI Coach to keep RON and EUR separate when both occur in your records. Adding the numbers without a specified exchange rate is not a meaningful financial total. If you need a conversion for your own planning, identify the exchange-rate date and source outside this workflow and make clear which amounts are converted estimates.
Step 3 — Find budgets approaching their limits
Choose Budgets or ask: “Which of my active budgets are approaching their limits? Show the amount spent in each budget's currency and flag any record I should verify.” AI Coach receives context about your active budgets and associated expenses. Open the relevant budget in TidyOne and compare its period, category, currency and limit, especially when a receipt was recently reclassified.
One high month is not necessarily a spending problem. Transport may rise because of a necessary trip, and a utility bill may vary seasonally. Ask AI to distinguish recurring spending, one-time items and possible categorization errors rather than labelling every increase wasteful. A realistic budget can allow exceptional months; you should not change its limit only to make an inaccurate graph look better.
Step 4 — Consider debts and due dates before planning savings
The Debts quick action can summarize active obligations and recorded due dates. A clearer follow-up is: “Based on my debt and reminder records, which payments are due soon, how much should remain available, and which missing dates or amounts must I confirm?” Compare the answer with your creditor's repayment schedule, contract and the reminder list. The app's view is an organizational aid, not proof that a bank debit has taken place.
A repayment recorded in Debts and a payment listed in My money can describe two aspects of the same obligation. Avoid adding a second expense merely because the same instalment appears in both modules. For contractual interest, fees, early repayment conditions or disputed charges, refer to the original agreement or the creditor rather than relying on an AI inference.
Step 5 — Turn suggestions into verifiable savings
Choose Where can I save? and request changes that respect the constraints in your saved profile. For instance: “Identify three adjustable spending patterns in my recorded expenses, cite the relevant categories and estimate a cautious monthly saving without cutting essentials.” Ask for one change to test over two weeks rather than a long list of restrictions you cannot realistically maintain.
Use the Goals quick action to examine your target and possible pace. If AI estimates that reducing an unused subscription could save 60 RON, that is a potential saving, not money already in your account. Verify actual expenses and your available balance at the end of the period. Only then add progress via + Savings in the goal interface. This action updates the in-app goal record; it does not make a bank transfer or automatically create a transaction. Keep money required for rent, invoices and upcoming repayments separate.
Step 6 — Ask about a specific document, not your entire archive
Upload a document to Documents and confirm that its filename and category are useful. Then choose Ask documents or explicitly ask: “Which expiry date appears on policy PA-2026-15? Name the file you consulted.” AI Coach initially ranks candidate documents using available metadata and your question. It can include up to five candidates in the context and consult at most two relevant original files for a question, when their format, size and access permit.
The conversation can display a Files consulted indicator after an answer. Open the original PDF in Documents to verify a critical amount, date or contractual clause. If two files have similar names, supply the issuer, date and document number. A response based on two files is not an audit of your whole archive. Avoid sending sensitive originals to the AI provider if you do not need this type of processing; manual document search remains available.
Practical prompts you can check against your records
| Task | Question to ask | How to check |
|---|---|---|
| Month comparison | Compare this month with last month by category and currency. Identify missing records. | Open My money and check dates. |
| Budgets | Which active budgets are near their limits, and which recorded expenses contributed? | Check budget period, currency and category. |
| Savings | Suggest three modest changes without cutting the essentials listed in my profile. | Review actual expenses and available cash. |
| Debts | Which due dates are approaching, and what information is missing? | Read contracts and reminders. |
| Document | What total appears in invoice FN248 from September 2026? Name the original file. | Open the original invoice. |
A strong question includes a period, currency, category or filename, and the shape of the answer you need: a short table, a cautious plan or a list of unverified assumptions. Tell AI Coach to say when something is missing. The quick actions are convenient starting points, but they should not replace checking the transaction and document records yourself.
Worked example: from a difficult month to a realistic plan
Fictional RON-only example: Ana recorded 5,200 RON of income in August. Her expenses are rent 1,500, groceries 1,150, transport 450, utilities 550, debt repayments 650, subscriptions 240 and other purchases 310. The entered expenses total 4,850 RON, leaving an apparent difference of 350 RON. However, an additional 180 RON invoice has not been recorded, and a supermarket receipt is still awaiting AI review. The 350 RON is not yet a safe amount to save.
| Item | Amount | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Recorded income | 5,200 RON | Check against available source records. |
| Recorded expenses | 4,850 RON | The repayment has been counted once. |
| Apparent difference | 350 RON | This is not a confirmed bank balance. |
| Omitted invoice | 180 RON | Confirm its date and whether it was paid. |
| Unconfirmed AI receipt | Unknown | Do not make up its amount. |
Ana reviews the receipt against the photo, verifies the omitted invoice and checks whether it was actually paid in the period. She asks AI Coach for three ways to adjust unused subscriptions and occasional orders without touching rent, essential groceries or repayments. She chooses to cancel one unused 60 RON subscription, then checks one month later whether the money actually remained available before updating her savings goal.
A responsible 15-minute AI Coach routine
Privacy, product limits and control of your profile
AI Coach uses the selected workspace's available context and your saved AI Profile. A finance summary does not grant direct access to every bank account. When you explicitly ask about uploaded documents, relevant original files may be sent to the AI provider to answer that question. If you do not want a sensitive file processed in this way, use the ordinary metadata search and open the document manually.
The recent chat is stored locally in your browser for display, while your AI Profile is stored separately in the application and can be deleted through the interface. Do not assume deleting the profile automatically removes all data from backups or the provider's systems. Consult the Privacy Policy, minimize sensitive information, and check Plan & Usage for your account's monthly AI Coach allowance. Document analysis and AI Coach questions are separate usage categories.
AI can misunderstand a category, overlook a relevant file, or respond using incomplete information. For investments, borrowing products, taxes, disputed contracts or consequential financial choices, use original documents and an appropriately qualified professional when necessary. AI Coach does not initiate payments, cancel subscriptions or guarantee that a suggestion will save you money.
Common problems and how to investigate them
An important purchase is missing from the answer
Check that the transaction was saved in Personal, has the correct date and was actually confirmed after AI scanning. If it belongs to a previous calendar year outside the prepared context, do not assume AI has included it.
Suggested savings look unrealistically high
Review fixed expenses, repayments, unrecorded invoices and available cash. Ask for a cautious scenario with explicit assumptions, and never count hypothetical reductions as money already saved.
AI cannot find the PDF you mean
Check that the file is correctly uploaded and accessible. Add its issuer, document number or date to your question. If no sufficiently relevant file is identified, find the original manually in Documents rather than trusting a guess.
The monthly usage limit appears
Open Plan & Usage. Continue organizing your records manually until the relevant allowance is available again or a suitable plan is chosen. Reuploading the same file is not a reliable fix for a quota issue.
Frequently asked questions
Does AI Coach see my live bank balance?
Not through the workflow described here. It receives data available in TidyOne and may lack transactions not recorded in the application. Verify your actual account balance with your bank.
Can it change a budget or transfer savings automatically?
This guide covers explanations and suggestions, not automated financial actions. Edit the budget and update the savings goal separately; any real money transfer happens outside this AI conversation.
Why does it ask for more information about a document?
Your question may be too broad or several files may match. Provide a date, issuer or document number, then check the original after receiving the answer.
Can I use AI Coach without completing the AI Profile?
Yes. A profile is optional. Your goals, constraints and preferred response style improve relevance, but you should not enter information you are uncomfortable using for AI analysis.
What happens after I reach the AI Coach limit?
The interface shows a usage-limit message and a link to Plan & Usage. Check your plan's actual allowance instead of assuming that every account receives the same number of questions.
Explore the other Personal guides
Update your transaction list, define a clear goal and ask AI Coach for the biggest differences between this month and last month. Compare its explanation with your source records before adjusting your budget.