| name | finance-task-lifecycle |
| description | Finance task lifecycle management — auto-pay bill cleanup, payment-logged cluster clearing, and bill reminder task creation/cancellation rules. Use when agent says "bill paid", "auto-pay", "payment logged", "clear reminders", "cancel bill task", "finance cleanup", "bill already paid", "duplicate payment task", or handles any bill-payment task lifecycle.
|
Finance Task Lifecycle Skill
Canonical rules for creating, maintaining, and clearing bill-payment related tasks across the platform.
Core Principle
One payment event must clear ALL related reminder tasks. Bill payment tasks exist only to ensure a payment happens. Once it has happened (by auto-pay, manual payment, or confirmed log), every related task must close immediately.
Rule 1: Auto-Pay Cleanup (from {{PARENT_1}}, 2026-05-02)
When {{PARENT_1}} says a bill is on auto-pay:
- Cancel all existing bill-payment reminder tasks for that account
- Do NOT create future payment reminders for auto-pay bills
- Keep legitimate non-bill finance tasks active:
- SSI / benefits enrollment
- Medical bill tracking (manual, not auto-pay)
- Proof-of-income/residency gathering
- Credit monitoring / score actions
- Budget reviews and savings goals
Task types to cancel when auto-pay confirmed:
- "Pay [bill]" reminders
- "Due date" alerts
- Snowball/debt-payoff payment tasks
- Auto-pay confirmation tasks
- Any task whose ONLY purpose is reminding about a bill payment
Rule 2: Payment Logged = Clear Cluster (from {{PARENT_1}}, 2026-05-05)
When a payment is confirmed (any of these signals):
- {{PARENT_1}} says "I paid [bill]"
- A matching transaction appears in the budget ledger (
get_transactions)
- A payment confirmation email is detected
Immediately:
- Mark ALL matching human-facing reminder tasks for that payment done or cancelled
- Check for sibling/duplicate tasks on the same account — clear them all
- Do NOT leave any related reminder task open
Before serving a bill-payment task:
- Check
get_transactions for same-day payment evidence on that account
- Check task system for recently completed/cancelled sibling tasks on same account
- If payment already logged → mark task done, serve next task instead
Rule 3: Bill Reminder Creation Pattern
When creating a bill payment reminder:
add_task(
title: "Pay [bill name] — $[amount] due [date]",
category: "finance",
priority: "high",
assignee: "{{PARENT_1}}",
due_date: "[3 days before due date]",
notes: "Amount: $X. Account: [provider]. Due: [date]. Payment method: [manual/auto-pay].",
created_by: "[agent-name]",
surface: "human"
)
Only create for MANUAL payment bills. Auto-pay bills get no reminders.
Rule 4: Social Media Reply Tasks — Not Finance
Social media comment/reply work is NOT a finance task and should never appear in finance queues. If discovered, cancel or move off the human queue immediately.
Consuming Agents
| Agent | Usage |
|---|
finance-manager | Creates bill reminders, detects payments, cleans up on auto-pay confirmation |
task-coach | Validates before serving bill tasks, skips if payment already logged |
heartbeat | Email scan may detect payment confirmations → triggers cluster clear |
health-coach | Medical bill tracking (manual payments only) |
Anti-Patterns
- ❌ Keeping bill reminders open after payment is confirmed
- ❌ Creating reminders for auto-pay bills
- ❌ Re-serving a bill task that was just completed/cancelled in same cycle
- ❌ Leaving duplicate sibling tasks for the same payment event
- ❌ Treating all finance tasks as bill tasks (SSI, benefits, credit monitoring are NOT bill tasks)
