Any possibility of attaching an email receipt to a payment?
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it depends what format it is if the receipt attached to the email is jpg, gif, png, it will attach but if it is pdf it wonāt
(Thatās on Android version of the app)
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I take a screenshot of the receipt and add photo from library to payment.
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I think it needs careful consideration on how this is done. Although I like the idea of photographing receipts I would not want them to automatically go into my photo library.
I think it should be done via email. Monzo could have receipts@monzo.com alias set up for this purposes.
User would forward an email with receipt and Monzo should be able to automatically match it, various factors should make it quite definitive: by price, merchant name and lastly timedate stamp to a transaction. Failure rate should be really low, but it would be good to allow user to match it manually if thereās a need.
Degrading rich data in an email into bunch of pixels is absolutely barbaric.
Monzo can archive email for us and ideally, even allow us to print it when the need arises. Archiving an email also takes up less space than archiving a photo.
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The problem is getting the receipt data from the hardware/POI and passing it onto Monzo to store the data.
I expect the process might look like:
- POI registers payment and completes authorization
- POI creates digital image of receipt and associates to date / time (āReference Dataā) etc. (data needed to identify merchant and cardholder)
- Based on the card (Monzo) BIN the receipt image is transmitted to the Monzo end point, with the transaction Reference Data.
- Monzo associate image to specific transaction base Reference Data.
- Image appears on the Monzo app.
This is just one option i guess, and without knowing how Monzo technically fits together, there might be a better solution 
D.
Forgive me, this might be a really silly question! How useful/important is a method to archive your receipts in a context other than reference for business expenses?
Rather than receipts@, youād want something like receipts+{accountId}@ or receipts+{monzo.me-Id}@ or even {monzo.me-Id}+receipts@ (that way you could have multiple functions, all beginning with your monzo.me ID).
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Digital receipts can be used for refunds and returns, and have the same legal clout as a physical receipt.
Also, by moving to digital receipts it would empower hardware manufacturers to move away from bulky POS hardware to take card payments in stores.
So very useful.
For me, because of the limited number of categories available, and the lack of ability to split a transaction into multiple categories, I need to keep copies of receipts so that I can reconcile a transaction into my budgeting spreadsheet.
All makes sense, thanks! Potentially if we were to introduce a more effective way to ātagā transactions, the need to store receipts wouldnāt be as important in your case @uncle_fungus ? 
Depends how it was implemented. At the moment I need to be able to essentially break-down a transaction into several more fine-grained categories than the ones available. If I were able to click on a transaction and have a list of ātagsā along with their associated values then this might work.
Having a summary of tags as well as categories on the spending tab would potentially be helpful too.
Off topic, but if we could apply targets to tags that would be even better 
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Yeah, good point. It would allow us to send receipts from any email. Although creation of this alias could be point where many mistakes are made and stuff gets inadvertently sent to the wrong place.
I share grocery bills with flatmate. Rather than forwarding an email, ideally in the future, I will split the bill and attach receipt (from email preferably) in one slick move. I want to keep them for my records in general and at the same time - I want to stop caring about receipts in my email, as itās becoming single point of failure. If anyone ever deleted something on my account, it would be such a mess.
I also think it can enrich data that Monzo has about each transaction. Monzo could offer me insight how much I saved because I used vouchers, in general or per merchant. How much tax was on products I purchased. What was average price for a product. Iād love to get access to stuff like that, and itās not doable without full receipts stored on Monzoās side.
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@uncle_fungus if you donāt mind sharing, can you give some examples of the further level of granularity within a category that you are looking for? 
@Naji I agree with Avishai that a full receipt can unlock a lot of value, for example it could be a nice way to automatically receive and redeem item specific loyalty. A lot of coffee shops give stamps for coffee but not food, i.e. get a stamp when a āFlat Whiteā is purchased at a coffee shop but not when you buy a āBrownieā. Is that along the lines you were thinking around vouchers @Avishai or was it something else?
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Sure, one example would be splitting the groceries category to identify how much we as a family spend on food (i.e. not including toiletries, household items, medicine etc.).
Bills would be another one where my current strategy assigns a monthly target for each so I can see at a glance what the breakdown is. This is particularly important when budgeting for ad-hoc or yearly expenses which may come under ābillsā like house insurance. I know I need to assign x per month to that category and stick it in savings.
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No, I literally mean vouchers 
. For example, I usually buy around Ā£40 a week of stuff from Ocado. If Monzo could check my receipt, then it would be clear that I used voucher for Ā£3 and I also saved Ā£1.50 on buy one, get one free, but final price was Ā£40 (Ā£40 Monzo already knows, but clueless about Ā£4.50 saved).
While obviously Ā£3+Ā£1.5 is not āmoneyā for monzo, because I spent Ā£40 nonetheless, it could be shown on targets. In other words, Monzo could offer me insight, that I spent Ā£99 out of Ā£100 target for groceries, but vouchers&savings āhelped meā reduce targets by Ā£4.50, otherwise I would have gone over the target.
I have no patience to calculate it manually. I see other possibilities - t could give user some power to compare percentage savings between different stores, theoretically allowing me to buy āmoreā for less money. Itās quite debatable, because some prices are inflated, only to discount item later.
TL;DR version: if Monzo would parse receipts and pull vouchers/savings/discounts from receipts, it could be used to:
- Compare savings betwen shops
- Put more depth into targets
- Do some nice yearly stats (āDo you know that you saved Ā£89.99 with Ocado?ā)
- Maybe do some cross-customer stats, but could be a bit too intrusive ("Do you know that users pay about 5% less due to savings on their M&S shopping, but you managed to pay 7% less! Great job! We award you with āCheapskate
ā badge today!)
Hereās fragment of my Ocado receipt, they are quite detailed:
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Cheers @uncle_fungus, I wasnāt thinking about those ad-hoc purchases but it makes a lot of sense when budgeting, as does having categories such as āmedicineā or ātoiletriesā.
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That would be cool! Something I really like about Ocado if their money back / price match guarantee which automatically debits my account a few days later. It would also be awesome if this could happen in the offline world to as I still spend a lot thereā¦
Do you mean somewhat like a leaderboard? 
If it was anonymous it might be interesting, there could even be badges for 
addicts like me!
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Nah, Iām not really into gamification as such, and leaderboard would be quite complex for low value for users. 
That one was also about offering depth into your finances and spending by comparing you to average based on other users. In particular example I gave for M&S, you know you did more than average to try and find savings. Monzo effectively tells you that you did really well in paying less - thatās valuable insight.
If ānoteā would be that you saved only 1%, in comparison to 5% savings that average M&S customer did, it means you could put a bit more focus on spending habits and try to do more rationalised shopping. Insight: you are not utilising vouchers, offers and discounts like other users are.
Badge remark was ironic/sarcastic, I highly doubt Monzo would call users cheapskates. 
The insights would definitely be valuable and could kick me into being more aware of looking out for savings & vouchers. I find the tough part is whatās next and how do I go about finding ways to save as those that have managed to save 5% have?
Yup, I got that! 
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