What a receipt knows that your bank statement does not
A line on a bank or card statement holds three things: where you paid, the day, and the total. The receipt for the same purchase holds what made up that total: each item and its price, its size or weight where the store prints one, the tax, and anything the register took off. The statement can say you paid $58.77 at the grocer on a Saturday. Only the receipt can say that the eggs were $4.29, that the coffee bag now holds 10.5 ounces, and that the $12.99 storage bin can still go back. Keep only the total and those answers leave with the paper.
The short version
- A statement line is a store, a day and a total. A budgeting app that links to your bank receives that same line from the bank.
- A receipt adds each item and its price, the tax and any discount. Where the store prints them, it also holds the size or weight and the return terms.
- Three questions need the lines: whether a thing costs more than it did, where the money went inside one trip, and whether something can still go back.
- There are four ways to keep the lines: a box, a spreadsheet, a store's own purchase history where one exists, and an app that reads receipts. Each costs a different kind of time.
What one line of a statement holds
Here is an example. The store, the brands and every amount in this article are invented.
A household's card statement for October has this line:
10/03 THIMBLEBY MARKET $58.77
That is the whole record of the purchase: a name, a date and an amount. Some banks add a city, or a spending category of their own. A budgeting app that links to the account receives the same line. Whatever category it files the $58.77 under, all of it goes there, because the line does not say what was bought.
What the receipt holds beyond it
The receipt for the same purchase, also invented, reads like this:
| Line | Size or weight | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Eggs, large | 12 count | $4.29 |
| Whole milk | 1 gallon | $3.89 |
| Ground coffee, Brindle Roast | 10.5 oz | $7.99 |
| Bananas | 2.31 lb at $0.59 per lb | $1.36 |
| Chicken thighs | 3.12 lb at $2.49 per lb | $7.77 |
| Pasta sauce, 2 jars at $3.79 | 24 oz each | $7.58 |
| Dish soap | 19 oz | $3.49 |
| Storage bin with lid | 27 quart | $12.99 |
| Paper towels | 6 rolls | $8.99 |
| Store coupon, paper towels | $1.50 off | |
| Tax | $1.92 | |
| Total | $58.77 |
Reading down it, the receipt holds six kinds of fact that the statement line has no room for:
- Each item by name. Nine different things were bought.
- Size and weight. A dozen eggs, a 10.5 ounce bag of coffee, 3.12 pounds of chicken. Not every receipt prints the size of a packaged item. Where yours does not, the package does, and the size has to be noted by hand.
- The price of each line, and for weighed goods the price per pound. From a price and a size you can work out a unit price: these eggs come to about 36 cents each.
- The tax, and what it was charged on. In this example it is an invented 8 percent on the dish soap, the bin and the paper towels after the coupon.
- What the register took off. Here, a $1.50 store coupon.
- The return terms, when the store prints them. The foot of this receipt reads "Returns within 30 days with receipt."
Three questions only the lines can answer
Whether a thing costs more than it did
Two statement totals cannot be compared, because the two baskets were different. This household paid $71.20 at the same store on September 5 and $58.77 on October 3. Neither figure says anything about eggs.
Two receipts can be compared line by line. On the September receipt the same dozen eggs cost $3.79, so eggs went up 50 cents. The coffee is the quieter case. It was $7.99 on both receipts, but the September bag held 12 ounces and the October bag holds 10.5. Per ounce, the price went from 66.6 cents to 76.1 cents while the shelf price stood still. Only a record that keeps the size can show that. How to keep a grocery price book explains how to follow prices this way with a notebook or a spreadsheet.
Where the money went inside one trip
By the statement, this was a $58.77 trip to a grocer. By the receipt, $32.88 of it was food. The other $25.89, tax included, was dish soap, a storage bin and paper towels. A budget built from totals counts all $58.77 as groceries, and its grocery figure ends up higher than what the household spent on food.
Whether something can still go back
The storage bin cost $12.99 on October 3. Counting 30 days from that day, the last day to return it is November 2. To take it back you need to know that it was on this trip, what you paid for it, and when the window closes. The statement has the date of the trip and nothing about the bin. Stores count return days in their own ways, so ask the store when the exact day matters.
Two records of one invented purchase. The statement shows a single line: October 3, Thimbleby Market, $58.77. The receipt shows nine items, a coupon, the tax and the same total. A bar under them splits the $58.77 into $32.88 of food and $25.89 of dish soap, a storage bin and paper towels with tax. Notes on the receipt mark that the eggs were $4.29 against $3.79 a month earlier, and that the $12.99 storage bin can be returned until November 2.
The two records as a table
The statement line: 10/03, THIMBLEBY MARKET, $58.77.
| Line on the receipt | Size or weight | Price | Part of the bar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eggs large | 12 ct | $4.29 | Food |
| Whole milk | 1 gal | $3.89 | Food |
| Ground coffee | Brindle Roast 10.5 oz | $7.99 | Food |
| Bananas | 2.31 lb at $0.59 per lb | $1.36 | Food |
| Chicken thighs | 3.12 lb at $2.49 per lb | $7.77 | Food |
| Pasta sauce | 24 oz, 2 at $3.79 | $7.58 | Food |
| Dish soap | 19 oz | $3.49 | Things for the house |
| Storage bin with lid | 27 qt | $12.99 | Things for the house |
| Paper towels | 6 rolls | $8.99 | Things for the house |
| Store coupon | Paper towels | −$1.50 | Things for the house |
| Tax | $1.92 | Things for the house | |
| Food | 55.9 percent of the bar | $32.88 | |
| Things for the house | 44.1 percent of the bar | $25.89 | |
| Total | $58.77 |
Four ways to keep the lines
Each way below keeps what the statement drops. They differ in how much time they ask for, and in when they ask for it.
A box
Put every receipt in one box, or in one envelope per month. It costs a few seconds per receipt. The cost comes later: finding one receipt means going through the pile, and nothing can be added up without reading every slip again. Many receipts are printed on thermal paper, which fades, so a box is a poor home for anything you will need to read in a year.
A spreadsheet
Type one row per line: date, store, item, size, price, and a category of your own. Now the lines can be sorted, searched and summed. The cost is typing. As a rough estimate, the receipt above takes three or four minutes, and a household with five receipts a week should plan for about twenty minutes a week. That is our estimate and nothing more, so time your own receipts for a week before you commit to it.
The store's own purchase history
Some stores keep a list of what you bought when you use their loyalty account or order online, and some of those lists show every item. Where one exists it costs you no time, and it may already answer your question. Its limit is that it covers that one store, in that store's format.
An app that reads receipts
You photograph the receipt and the app writes the lines down. Several apps now do this. If you already use a budgeting app, check whether it can take in a receipt or an online order. The cost in time is the photo, plus checking the lines, because a reading of a crumpled or faded receipt can be wrong. The other cost is trust. Where the photo goes differs from app to app, so read that before you choose one.
Which one is enough
If your question is about one store, look for its purchase history first. If it is about what a handful of things cost over time, a price book in a notebook is enough. If it is about the whole household month, Budgeting without linking your bank compares five ways to run one, receipts among them.
Where Krataa fits, and where it does not
Krataa is the fourth way: an iPhone app, in beta, for one household at a time. You photograph a receipt, or share a screenshot or a PDF of an online order. Krataa asks once, after your first receipt is saved, whether to turn on automatic itemizing. If you say yes, each receipt you add is processed by a provider, which the app names on that screen before anything is sent, and Krataa lists each item and its price and files the receipt by store and date. It checks that the lines add up to the printed total, and marks any line it is not sure of for you to check. How Krataa itemizes a receipt describes each step.
Krataa does not connect to a bank, a store account or an inbox, so nothing arrives by itself: you add each receipt. Automatic itemizing can make mistakes, and you can correct only the lines Krataa marked as unsure, plus the store and the date. It counts return days only for stores whose return window it has on file. It does not track warranties, and it has no screen that shows the original photo, so keep the paper for anything you may need to prove. It runs on iPhone only, is built for the United States, and is not on the App Store today.