Telegram Budget Bot

Your phone runs the household

Daily briefings, quick-add commands, photo OCR — all over Telegram.

The app is great, but most of the time you don't want to open an app — you want to tell something what happened and move on. The Telegram bot does that. Three jobs: daily briefings, quick-add commands, and photo-OCR receipt logging.

Daily briefings (morning / afternoon / evening)

Three messages a day, weekdays only. Configurable times in Profile.

→Morning (06:45) — today's schedule per kid, weather, open todos
→Afternoon (~15min before activity ends) — pickup reminders
→Evening (17:00) — tomorrow's preview so bedtime conversations are easier
→Friday evening swaps the preview for a 'have a great weekend' message

Quick-add commands

Type a slash command and the bot does the work — no app to open.

→/spent 250 PnP groceries — logs a shared expense with smart-matched category
→/shop milk, eggs, bread — adds three items to the shopping list
→/todo call dentist — adds to the family todo list
→/check milk — ticks off an item from the shopping list
→/budget — current-month spend vs budget snapshot
→/list — shows open shopping items
→/todos — shows open family todos
→/schedule, /schedule tomorrow, /schedule monday — see today / tomorrow / any day's schedule

Photo OCR — the killer feature

DM the bot any receipt photo. It runs OCR and replies with a confirmation card: 'Saw R342 at Pick n Pay. Log it as a shared expense?' with [✓ Log it] [✕ Cancel] buttons. One tap and it's in your budget.

Renewal & alert notifications

Budget alerts (category over 80% / 100%), renewal reminders (license, insurance, warranty), and bill due dates all also fire via Telegram in parallel with email.

What you can do with this

Logging at the till

Card just tapped at Checkers. Pull up Telegram, /spent 380 Checkers groceries, hit send. Done before the cashier hands over the slip.

School-run mornings

Bot pings you at 06:45 with the full day — wear, pack, activities. Forward the message to your partner. Skip the morning standoff.

Driveway-to-front-door receipt logging

DM the till slip photo. Bot replies with the OCR confirm card. Tap Log it. By the time you walk in the door it's recorded.

Common questions

Do I need to install a separate app?

Just Telegram (free on every platform). No HeyKit-specific app required for the quick-add path.

Can multiple family members use the same bot?

Yes — each family member connects their own Telegram chat to the same family. Each gets briefings; each can quick-add. The bot identifies which user is asking.

Is it secure?

Webhook auth uses a 256-bit secret token, and the bot only responds to chat IDs you've explicitly connected from inside the app. Telegram doesn't see your data; only the bot reads your messages.

Can I turn off the briefings?

Yes — toggle each message type independently in Profile → Telegram. Disconnect entirely with one tap.