Bank statements and receipts

What this does

Keeping track of money means a lot of typing: every line of the bank statement, every bill from the shop. Flicx Sheet can read these for you and put them into a sheet. You only check what it read.

• A bank or card statement becomes a sheet with one row for each transaction, with the shop's name and a category filled in.
• A photo of a receipt or bill becomes one row in your expenses sheet, with the photo attached to the row.

The steps in this chapter are for a computer. On a phone, bills are read with the camera. See Scanning.

When credits are used

Reading a PDF or a picture is done by Flicx Companion, so it uses Companion credits. The rule on the screen is: PDFs and pictures: 1 credit a page.

• After reading, the screen tells you how many credits were used and how many are left.
• If the reading fails because the service is busy, that credit is not used.
• Checking, changing and saving the rows afterwards uses no credits.

Please noteA PDF is read one page at a time, and each page uses a credit as it is read. If your credits run out in the middle, the reading stops and no sheet is made, but the pages already read have used their credits. Before you start, make sure you have at least as many credits as the PDF has pages.

TipMost banks let you download a statement as Excel or CSV as well as PDF. That kind uses no credits, and nothing can be misread.

To see your credits or ask for more, see Credits.

Bring in a bank statement

First get the statement from your bank as a file: download it from net banking or the bank's app. A PDF, Excel or CSV file all work.

Where to find itTop bar›Utilities›Sheets from a file

1. Click Utilities in the bar across the top.
2. Click Sheets from a file.

1. Click the dashed box and choose the statement, or drag the file onto the box.
2. Note the line about credits before you choose a long PDF.

Many banks lock the statement PDF with a password. If yours is locked, the app says This PDF is locked and asks for the password. Type it and press Open. The password is used only to open that file and is never saved.

The app then reads the file. For a PDF it shows its progress, such as Reading page 2 of 5…. A table that runs over several pages is joined back into one.

If the statement is already in your Library, you can start from there instead: press the three dots on the file and choose Analyze into a sheet.

Check the rows before they are added

Nothing is put into a sheet yet. First the app shows you what it found, so you can check it.

1. Choose where the rows go. New sheet makes a sheet in the project you pick under In project, or in a New project. Add to a sheet puts the rows at the end of a sheet you already have.
2. Leave the tick on for each table you want. Remove the tick from any you do not want. Change the name in the box if you like.
3. Tidy as transactions is offered when a table looks like a statement, with dates and amounts. Leave it ticked to get neat expense columns. Remove the tick to keep the table exactly as the bank laid it out.
4. Look at the first rows. Compare a few dates and amounts with the statement itself. The line under them says how many more rows there are.
5. Press Make 1 sheet. If you chose Add to a sheet, the button reads Add it to the sheet.

When it is done, the app says how many sheets were made or how many rows were added. Press Open to go to the sheet.

Please noteOnly the first six rows are shown before the sheet is made. After it is made, open the sheet and compare its last row and its totals with the statement. A faint or scanned PDF can be misread, and a wrong figure in your accounts is worse than a missing one.

What Tidy as transactions does

Banks print statements in many different ways. Tidying puts every statement into the same simple shape, so you can add them up and compare months.

The categories are: Food & dining, Groceries, Shopping, Travel, Transport, Fuel, Bills & utilities, Rent, Health, Entertainment, Education, Transfers, Cash, Income, Fees & charges and Other.

The merchant and the category are guesses made from the bank's words. Correct any that are wrong by typing over them in the sheet.

When you add tidied rows to a sheet you already have, two things happen. Any of these columns that the sheet lacks are added to it. And a row that is already in the sheet, with the same date, amount and description, is not added a second time. So bringing in the same statement twice does not double your spending.

Turn a photo of a receipt into an expense

For a bill paid in cash there is no bank line. Take a photo of the bill and let the app read it.

The photo must be in your Library first. Upload it there, or take it with your phone. See Library and Scanning.

Where to find itTop bar›Library

1. In the Library, find the photo of the bill and press the three dots on it.
2. Choose Add as expense. This choice is shown for pictures only.

The Receipt window opens and says Reading the receipt…. In a moment the details are filled in for you.

1. The photo stays on the left, so you can compare.
2. Check each box against the photo: Merchant, Amount, Date, Category, Paid with and Description. Type over anything that is wrong.
3. Save to says which sheet the row goes to. Leave it as it is, or choose another sheet you can edit.
4. Press Save expense. It works only when there is an amount above zero and a date.

The app then says Saved to and the sheet's name, and that the photo is attached to the row. Press Done.

• A bill written by hand, or in Tamil, Hindi or another language, can be read too. The details are filled in English, and shop names are written in English letters.
• The amount filled in is the final total paid, including tax.
• If the picture is not a bill, the window says This doesn't look like a receipt. You can still fill in the boxes yourself.
• If you have no credits left, the window says so and leaves the boxes empty for you to fill in by hand.
• If the same expense is already in the sheet, with the same date, amount and description, it is not added again. The app says Already there.

Where your expenses are kept

Where to find itSheets›Finances›Expenses

Unless you choose another sheet, a receipt is saved in a sheet called Expenses, in a project called Finances. Both are made for you the first time they are needed.

The Expenses sheet has these columns: Date, Description, Merchant, Category, Amount, Type, Account, Source and Receipt. For a receipt, Type is Debit, Account holds what you typed in Paid with, Source says Receipt, and the Receipt column holds the photo.

If you save a receipt to another sheet, any of these columns that the sheet lacks are added to it.

Once your spending is in a sheet, you can do everything a sheet allows: filter by category, total a month, or ask Flicx Companion How much did we spend on groceries in June?. See Sort, filter and search and Flicx Companion.

Tips for a clear photo

The app can only read what the photo shows clearly. A good photo saves you from correcting mistakes.

• Lay the bill flat on a table. Smooth out folds and creases.
• Hold the phone straight above it, not at a slant.
• Get the whole bill in the picture, from the shop's name at the top to the total at the bottom.
• Use good light. Daylight near a window is best. Keep the shadow of your hand and phone off the bill.
• Use a plain, dark surface under a white bill, so its edges are easy to see.
• Hold still and let the camera focus before you take the picture. If the words look blurred to you, take it again.
• Photograph thermal paper bills soon. Their print fades in a few weeks.
• For a long bill, keep all of it in view, but come as close as you can so the words stay large.

Common questions

How many credits will my statement use? One for each page of a PDF, one for a picture, none for Excel or CSV.

The app says No tables found. Nothing in the file was laid out in rows and columns that it could read. Try the Excel or CSV statement from your bank instead.

There is no Tidy as transactions tick. It is offered only when the table has a date column and an amount, debit or credit column, and at least half the rows have a date and an amount. Make the sheet as it is, or try another file from the bank.

The category is wrong. Categories are guesses. Type the right one into the cell.

I brought in the same statement twice. If the rows were tidied and added to the same sheet, the repeats were left out. If you made a second new sheet, delete that sheet.

Is my statement password kept? No. It is used only to open that file and is never saved.

Where is the photo of my bill? It stays in your Library where it was, and a copy is attached to the row in the Receipt column.

Can I do this on my phone? A bill can be read with the phone's camera. See Scanning. The steps for statements in this chapter are for a computer.