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AI assistant

Big Picture Money includes an optional AI assistant. AI is off by default — the app works fully without it. When you enable AI, you can chat about your finances in two places: the right panel for quick, in-context help, and the full-screen Chat page for longer analysis with history, charts, and tables.

Ways to chat​

SurfaceBest for
Chat (left navigation)Longer threads, spending analysis, inline charts and tables, conversation history
Right panelQuick questions while viewing a transaction or screen
Home inviteWhen AI is enabled, Home shows a full-width Chat about your finances invite at the top (above Action required) — type a question and press Enter or click send to open Chat with that conversation

Both the Chat page and right panel use the same conversations stored on your device. Messages sent in one place appear in the other.

What AI can do​

CapabilityDescription
ChatAsk questions about spending, accounts, and categories. Context can follow a selected transaction or the current screen.
Full-screen ChatDedicated Chat page with a conversation list, rich replies (links, charts, tables), and optional preview pane for linked transactions.
Help look-upsWhen you ask how a feature or report works, the assistant can search and open the same built-in Help articles you read in the Help window — it should not invent product rules.
Progress while workingProgress pills and a short detail line show readable tool names (for example List Transactions or Search Help) while the assistant gathers data or writes a reply.
Work logAfter a reply, expand Worked for … in the message footer to see which steps ran. The log is stored with the conversation on your device.
CopyA Copy control in the assistant message footer copies the reply as markdown (tables as markdown tables; charts as short placeholders).
StopWhile a reply is in progress, Send becomes Stop so you can interrupt. Your message stays; no partial assistant reply is added.
Proposed changesPropose edits to transactions (amount, date, payee, memo, and more), tags, categories, saved views, goals, budgets, review-queue and classic transfer actions, accounts, and appearance — always as a preview card you Apply or Dismiss.
Batch ApplyWhen several preview cards are pending in a thread, a thread-level control lists every change so you can apply them together after one consent.
Category suggestionsWhen the app cannot categorize a transaction with rules or merchant data, AI may suggest a category. You always confirm before anything changes.
GoalsDescribe a goal in Chat; the assistant previews evaluation and proposes create/update/delete. For custom JavaScript goals, it should use Help (the same goals articles you can open yourself) rather than inventing product rules.
Conversation historyPast threads are saved locally. Reopen, rename, archive, or delete them from Chat.
Generated titlesAfter your first exchange, the app suggests a short conversation title (without exact dollar amounts in the list by default). You can rename any title.

What AI does not do​

  • AI is not required to use Big Picture Money.
  • Nothing is sent to a cloud provider until you enable AI, choose a provider, and acknowledge the data disclosure.
  • The assistant cannot change your ledger, tags, goals, views, or saved reports without your explicit confirmation on a preview card (Apply).
  • Charts and tables in chat are built from your data through the app — not guessed numbers from the model.
  • There are no thumbs-up / thumbs-down (or other rating) buttons on replies — the app does not collect training feedback that way.
  • The assistant cannot unlock or lock your data file, change your passphrase, paste or rotate API keys, import a license, or run bank sync / paste bank-connect tokens. Those stay human-only in the app.
  • The assistant cannot assign a category to a Balance adjustment row (it may still propose safe field edits such as amount, date, or memo).

Reports and cash flow questions​

When you ask why expenses exceed income, or what a report includes, prefer answers grounded in Help. Spending and Income vs expense exclude transfers (including Credit Card Payment), linked transfer pairs, and Balance adjustment rows. Credit card purchases still count as spending when categorized as expenses. See View income vs expense and Transfers.

Categorization layers​

Even with AI enabled, most transactions are categorized without calling an LLM:

  1. Your rules and learned aliases
  2. Semantic similarity to descriptions you categorized before (always on, no API key)
  3. Shipped merchant recognition
  4. On-device classifier trained from your corrections
  5. LLM fallback only when earlier layers are uncertain

See Categorization for the full stack.

Getting started​

  1. Open Settings → AI assistant and turn on Enable AI.
  2. Click Refresh model list once to download suggested providers and models.
  3. Choose a cloud provider and a suggested model, then paste your API key — or choose local Ollama / OpenAI-compatible and fill Advanced.
  4. Acknowledge the data disclosure on first contextual use.
  5. Open Chat in the left navigation for full-screen conversations, or expand the right panel for quick help while browsing.

See Configure an AI provider for create API key, Custom…, and Advanced options.

Managed AI (a provider path operated through Big Picture Money) is planned as part of optional Connected Services and is coming soon. Until then, use a bring-your-own cloud key or local Ollama.

When AI is disabled​

  • Chat remains in the left navigation but shows a setup prompt linking to Settings.
  • The right panel shows transaction details only — no assistant block.
  • The Home chat invite is hidden.
  • No chat requests are sent and the LLM categorization layer does not run.