I used a self-hosted app to track all my receipts and it’s shockingly good

In case you’ve ever tried to maintain monitor of your receipts, you know the way rapidly it turns into a large number. Some are paper, some digital, and a few are screenshots that you simply’ll overlook about in your telephone’s gallery. I’ve tried every thing to get a deal with on them. India-specific cash administration apps. Expensify. Google Sheets. I even constructed a bit of Notion template to manually monitor my receipts. And whereas every of them labored properly sufficient for some time, all of them broke down in the identical few methods. Both they have been too clunky to make use of every day, didn’t play good with completely different file varieties, have been too difficult for members of the family to make use of, or locked helpful options behind subscriptions I didn’t wish to pay for. However it wasn’t till I attempted a self-hosted device known as Receipt Wrangler that I discovered a system that lastly made sense.

I’ll be sincere. I wasn’t anticipating a lot once I stumbled upon the app’s Github web page. The outline is minimal, the documentation isn’t precisely welcoming, and there’s no flashy pitch video or subscription mannequin making an attempt to upsell me. Nevertheless, putting in Receipt Wrangler isn’t as difficult as it would look. The documentation may appear intimidating at first, however in contrast to many open-source initiatives, the developer has executed a strong job detailing practically each a part of the set up course of. I had it up and working utilizing Docker on my Synology NAS inside minutes.

First impressions are every thing and Receipt Wrangler does a really convincing job proper from the get go. Not solely did it work, it labored higher than most paid options I’ve tried. It’s quick. It’s versatile. And most significantly, it offers me a number of very intuitive methods to handle my knowledge. It hasn’t simply grow to be my private receipt tracker; I’ve set it up for my household, too. And that’s the true litmus take a look at for any self-hosted device.

Receipt Wrangler places the obvious use circumstances entrance and middle. You possibly can arrange a dashboard and even a number of dashboards with widgets displaying quantities you owe to somebody or are owed. You’ll additionally see latest receipts proper up entrance. Fairly easy. It’s value declaring that Receipt Wrangler isn’t the prettiest app round. There aren’t any flashy graphics or onboarding tooltips. However after 5 minutes contained in the dashboard, you don’t miss any of that. Every little thing’s the place you count on it to be. Click on a receipt, view the small print, and begin tagging or modifying instantly. It’s constructed round velocity and readability.

The true magic, after all, is in the way it handles receipt enter. You possibly can rename receipts, tag them, group them, and search. If a file has embedded textual content, the app indexes it. If it doesn’t, you possibly can manually enter the information by means of one of the vital frictionless types I’ve used shortly. And this issues greater than it sounds. As a result of it allows you to construct a constant, searchable archive that doesn’t rely on bizarre folder buildings or convoluted filenames. That frictionless interface additionally performs an enormous function in making the app stick.

Google Sheets, for all its flexibility, actually began to point out its limits once I put it by means of the identical type of workflow. A spreadsheet simply isn’t made for coming into lengthy lists of knowledge on the go. I attempted constructing linked folders and matching add dates with financial institution transactions, however that strategy fell aside quick. If I forgot to log one thing, it vanished into the ether. If I scanned a receipt however didn’t rename it, I’d waste ten minutes later making an attempt to recollect what it was. Receipt Wrangler fixes that by placing every thing in a single place, with metadata you possibly can really use.

Elsewhere, tagging would possibly sound like a fundamental characteristic, however it’s grow to be my favourite method to type info throughout self-hosted instruments, whether or not it’s notes, photographs, or receipts. It’s what turned me from an informal person into somebody who now depends on Receipt Wrangler full time. I began tagging receipts by retailer, class, and goal. So when it’s time to ship invoices to the chartered accountant on the finish of the month, I don’t should dig by means of emails or financial institution statements. I simply filter by “Workplace” and month, and every thing is correct there, even when the filename is nonsense. It’s made submitting month-to-month invoices nearly boring, in a great way.

In fact, Receipt Wrangler isn’t the one device with tagging assist. However most different apps don’t do it in a method that matches naturally in my workflow. Expensify, for instance, allows you to tag however is targeted on reimbursements and group reporting. Shoeboxed forces you into their preset classes. Receipt Wrangler allows you to make your personal. Need to tag each bill out of your freelance gigs? It might probably do it. Desire a tag for “Reimbursed” and one other for “Pending”? That works too. You possibly can type out your archive of receipts nonetheless you need with out working round a pre-defined system.