The Insights page is where ZhanPlan's AI does the analysis work for you. Instead of staring at transaction lists and asking 'what does this mean,' Insights surfaces the signals — patterns, anomalies, and opportunities — and tells you what to do about them.
What Insights Does
After you import bank statements and have a few months of data, ZhanPlan's AI analyzes your financial patterns and generates insight cards. Each card identifies something specific:
- A spending category that is trending higher than your average
- A merchant you are visiting more frequently than usual
- A month where your spending spike was unusual
- A subscription or recurring charge that appears more than once
- An opportunity to increase savings based on current cash flow
- A debt payoff opportunity if you have surplus cash flow
How to Read an Insight Card
Each insight card shows:
- The insight headline — a plain-English description of what was found
- Supporting data — specific numbers from your actual financial data
- Why it matters — the implication for your financial health
- What to do — a specific next step you can take
Insights are not alarming — they are informational. A card that says your Dining Out spending is 34% higher this month than your 3-month average is not a crisis warning. It is useful information that prompts a decision: is this a one-time thing (a birthday month) or a trend to address?
Marking Insights as Read
After reviewing an insight, click Mark as Read or the checkmark icon to dismiss it from your active view. Read insights are archived but not deleted — you can view them in the All Insights tab.
New insights appear each time you import new data and ZhanPlan finds new patterns to surface.
Refreshing Insights
Click the Refresh button at the top of the Insights page to regenerate insights from your current data. This is useful after you have made changes — imported a new month, updated your budget, or paid down a debt — and want to see updated analysis.
The 6-Month Spending Chart
The Insights page also shows a 6-month spending trend chart that visualizes your total spending each month. This chart provides the context that makes individual insight cards meaningful — you can see whether a spike in one month is part of a longer trend or an isolated event.
Who Can Use Insights
AI Insights is available on the Essential and Pro plans. On the free Starter plan, you will see an overview of what Insights does and a prompt to upgrade.
How much data does ZhanPlan need before generating insights?
Insights work best with 2-3 months of imported transactions. With one month, there is limited baseline to compare against. With 3 or more months, the AI can detect meaningful trends and patterns.
Can I request a specific type of insight?
Not directly — Insights are generated automatically based on your data. However, the AI chat (available on Pro) allows you to ask specific questions about your financial data and get personalized answers.
Are insights generated by a human or AI?
All insights are generated by AI based on patterns in your data. No human sees your financial data. The AI uses the same transaction categories, amounts, and dates you see on your dashboard.