Abstract: A system that facilitates providing of commercial offers is described. During operation, this system receives financial information associated with a user of financial software. Then, the system presents an icon corresponding to the commercial offer to the user. This commercial offer is targeted to the user based on a financial history of the user, which includes multiple transactions with multiple commercial establishments. Moreover, the icon exhibits animated behavior which can vary over time, and the user can pursue the commercial offer by interacting with the icon.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that times commercial offers made to a user. During operation, the system starts by receiving financial history data for the user, wherein the financial history data includes purchase records for a set of purchases. The system then identifies a subset of purchases in the set of purchases, wherein the subset of purchases are semantically linked to a set of predetermined subjects. Next, the system identifies timing patterns in the subset of purchases based on timing information associated with the subset of purchases. The system then presents one or more commercial offers to the user at specific times based on the identified timing patterns.