Many of you will have seen my Emails Receipts in Monzo thread where I’ve been working on a project which introduces Flux like receipts but for online shops!
I wanted to start a new thread talking about improvements or “wishes” I had for the API or the app, in respect to receipts and the service.
Receipt Wishes
Update the receipt footer to include the client name
I wish that we could update the receipt footer to include a customisable string. I think it’s fair and important to highlight that it’s come from a developer using the API - but given the sharability of this feature I wish I could include the service’s name.
This could be the OAuth client name (configured via the “Clients” section via the Developer Playground), or a string that can be included on each receipt as a new (optional) field.
Let top-level item descriptions wrap onto multiple lines
This capability already seems to be supported on Android, so perhaps is something that is just within the iOS app.
It would be nice if long item descriptions could wrap onto multiple lines (perhaps with a 2-3 line limit to prevent massive descriptions)/
Let us add receipts to credit transactions, and direct debits
Currently receipts are restricted to only being included on card transactions, while this makes sense for Flux and similar - I think a lot of value could be delivered it we were also allowed to add receipts to credit transactions and direct debits.
This could include giving information about your power or water usage, or including your payslip details on payday. It could also give context to refunds.
Let us override the merchant information at the top of receipts
According to the documentation there is a “merchant” object, but from my testing this doesn’t actually do anything. This could be an app or API issue (an intention that was never fulfilled).
The value from this comes from merchants such as Deliveroo where the merchant information could be the name of the actual restaurant as opposed to just being Deliveroo.
Introduce a "detail" view when I tap on an item in a receipt
This should show the full item description, all sub items, and should open the door for us to provide extra information about the item.
I view a world where we could tap on a food item and see nutritional information. I could see a link to open the product in browser, if it’s an Asda receipt. I could see information when I brought it last, some stats if it’s a recurring purchase, price over time, etc.
This is obviously a much bigger ask, but has a lot of potential down the line if built in a modular and API controllable way.
Let us add a small image to the top or bottom of receipts
This could be about 100px tall and the width of the device (~375px minus padding) with some rounded corners. This image would be optional, the placement could be at the top or bottom of the receipt (API controlled) and when tapped on can open a URL.
Why? This could be used to show promotions, advertisements, loyalty schemes, and more. It unlocks a lot of potential from developers.
{
"buttons": [
{
"location": "top",
"url": "https://google.com/",
"imageUrl": "https://path/to/image"
}
]
}
(Poor example, but you get the point…)
App Wishes
A small receipt icon should appear on transactions that contain a detailed receipt.
Searching for receipts (using the receipts button) should return transactions with receipts, not just ones that contain attachments.
Users should be able to search by receipt contents. If I search for “McFlurry” I want to see those Uber Eats orders where I had a McDelivery!
When I split a transaction which contains a receipt - they should be able to see the receipt!
Split the Bill using Receipt
The interaction on this definitely needs some thought but I wish I could split the bill but using the detailed receipt view.
This would allow me to break down that massive Uber Eats order and assign each food item to a different person. This could be through a drag and drop interaction.
Consider: How do you split platter style items where it comes up as say £15 but that was for two people?
Some inspiration:
https://dribbble.com/shots/5157465-Collaborative-Bill-Splitting
https://dribbble.com/shots/6715975-Drag-and-Drop-Items-Animation
Random Bug
The iOS client adds ?monzo_action=external to feed item URLs irrespective of whether the URL already contains a URL parameter. So if the URL is “google.com?query=test” then it becomes “google.com?query=test?monzo_action=external” which isn’t correct.
I’ve got a number of bigger/other ideas, but a handful of these seemed more achievable if somebody was to own and push forward some improvements!
For now I’ll continue to implement workaround on top of workaround to deliver value to the people!
Mods: If this is better placed in Developers due to some of the API references then feel free to move. This seemed like the best place to me!
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