Auto-Summarizing Food Delivery Bills with WorkBuddy: A Beginner-Friendly Permission & Template Guide

I just saw a post on the Tencent Cloud Developer Community titled "Used WorkBuddy for Two Months," listing five pitfalls: Prompts were too vague, resulting in different outputs every day; connector login states expired, making features seem to vanish into thin air. I've been using WorkBuddy for about a month, which isn't long. My small stir-fry restaurant is busy enough that my feet barely touch the ground during the day, and after closing at night, I still have to calculate delivery platform commissions, subsidies, and refunds on my phone. My attitude is simple: don't bore me with model principles, just tell me which button to press.

My judgment is that whether WorkBuddy saves time depends not on how smart it is, but on whether you've locked down the "ledger location, permissions, and fixed task prompts" beforehand. The set below is what I just smoothed out over the last two days. It might not apply to everyone, but novices can follow these steps. My terminology might differ slightly from official updates, so adapt to your interface.

First, clearly define the folders WorkBuddy can access

Step 1: Open WorkBuddy and find "Folders" on the left. I created 2026 Delivery Ledger, with four subfolders underneath: 01 Meituan Exports, 02 Ele.me Exports, 03 Purchase Orders, and 04 Output. Here, "Folders" are the fixed locations WorkBuddy can read and write. Don't dump files on the desktop today and in Downloads tomorrow; otherwise, it will get lost looking for them later.

Step 2: Open "Security Center." I wrote about permissions before I started using WorkBuddy for accounting, and I'll say it again: don't turn off default switches, but tighten the scope. Go to "App Permissions," find WorkBuddy, and change the access scope to "Read/Write Specific Folders," checking only 2026 Delivery Ledger. For important files like 03 Purchase Orders, I set "Modification Requires Approval" separately. This means WorkBuddy can view them but cannot modify them directly; changes require my confirmation. I generally don't enable Full Access. If I encounter batch organization needs, I temporarily enable it and then switch back to default permissions immediately.

Step 3: Handle automatic synchronization. I posted a question last week saying auto-sync didn't seem to work. Later, I found out it wasn't WorkBuddy breaking; I had placed the Meituan export spreadsheet in the Downloads folder, which wasn't included in the sync folder. The path is: Open WorkBuddy → "Settings" → "Auto Sync" → Select 2026 Delivery Ledger → Enable Auto Sync → Click "Manual Sync Once." Wait until the status shows "Synced," then run the task. I check this every evening; it takes about ten seconds.

Use fixed Prompt templates, let it do only one thing at a time

A Prompt is the task instruction given to WorkBuddy. That post mentioned that vague Prompts for scheduled tasks cause failures, and I agree. Now, I only ask it to do one thing per day: summarize the day's delivery bills. For mode, I generally use Plan, where it lists steps first before executing; for simple checks, there's no need to open Craft, as Craft is more for complex documents and finished products, consuming credits faster.

My fixed template looks like this:

• Merge today's bills from 01 Meituan Exports and 02 Ele.me Exports, deduplicating by order number.
• Fixed output columns: Date, Platform, Order Count, Actual Revenue, Commission, Subsidies, Refunds, Net Income, Anomaly Notes.
• Do not modify original files; place results only in 04 Output.
• If an order number cannot be identified, list it separately; do not guess.
• Self-check before totaling: Does the sum of subtotals for each platform equal the total net income? If the difference exceeds 0.5 yuan, mark it in red.

The 0.5 yuan threshold is the error margin acceptable for my small shop, not a standard answer. I'm bad at math and rely entirely on my phone calculator for accounts, so having it self-check is crucial. Even if it says "Completed," I still open 04 Output to glance at the anomaly notes. Last week, a refund crossed days, and it didn't include it. I spotted it in the anomaly notes and manually added it to the next day.

If you want daily automation, my path is: WorkBuddy → "Automation" or "Scheduled Tasks" → New Task → Name it Daily Delivery Bill Summary → Set time to 23:30 → Paste the above template into the task content → Select 04 Output as the output folder → Click "Test Run" before saving. Do not enable scheduling directly; test it once first to ensure it doesn't include yesterday's files.

This setup is only for small shop owners managing themselves; don't deify it

My daily maintenance is simple. Every Friday, I check three things: Is auto-sync green? Is WorkBuddy's login state still valid? Are there any anomaly notes in 04 Output? On the last day of each month, I compress and archive the four folders for that month, placing them in the "Security Center" backup or copying them to another external hard drive. The post mentioned connector login expiration; I encountered this once too. The next day, the task didn't run, but logging into the platform account again fixed it.

Of course, my environment is a small shop where the boss calls the shots. If you have a store manager, accountant, and procurement staff, permissions need further splitting: Store manager only uploads export sheets, accountant approves purchase orders, boss views summary results, and WorkBuddy must not touch employee phone galleries or private chats. It doesn't automatically manage my business; it just takes over the repetitive labor I hate the most.

For your daily delivery bills, can the platforms export to a fixed folder automatically, or do you have to manually download and organize them?