Runs: Every evening

Log every receipt email in a spreadsheet

Order confirmations and receipts get copied into a Google Sheet with the shop, date and amount, so your spending adds itself up.

You do not need a budgeting app to see where money goes; you need the numbers in one place. Receipts already arrive by email, so this bot copies them into a sheet you can sort, filter and sum.

Make the sheet
Create a new Google Sheet called Receipts with the headers Date, From, Subject and Amount in the first row.
Open the script editor from the sheet
In the sheet, open Extensions → Apps Script. A script attached to this sheet opens in a new tab.

Paste the script

Replace the editor's contents with this:

function logReceipts() {
  const sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheets()[0];
  const label = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName('logged') || GmailApp.createLabel('logged');
  const threads = GmailApp.search('subject:(receipt OR order OR invoice) -label:logged newer_than:2d');
  for (const thread of threads) {
    const m = thread.getMessages()[0];
    const amount = (m.getPlainBody().match(/[$€£]\s?\d+[.,]\d{2}/) || [''])[0];
    sheet.appendRow([m.getDate(), m.getFrom(), m.getSubject(), amount]);
    thread.addLabel(label);
  }
}

Run it and allow access
Click Run, allow access, and check that recent receipts appear as rows.
Schedule it for each evening
Open Triggers, add a trigger for logReceipts, Time-driven, Day timer, 9 pm to 10 pm.

Paste this into Claude Code, Codex or any coding agent. The agent writes and sets up the automation, then tells you what to click.

Write a Google Apps Script bound to a Google Sheet that logs my receipt emails.

- Find receipt, order-confirmation and invoice emails from the last 2 days that don't carry the Gmail label "logged"; create the label if needed and add it after logging.
- For each one, append a row: date, shop name (not the raw sender address), subject, total amount and currency. Prefer the line labelled total over the first price in the email.
- Leave the amount blank rather than guessing when no total is found.
- Add a daily trigger for 9-10 pm and explain how to set it up from the sheet's Extensions menu.

You still need to

Sign in to Google and click Allow when the script first runs.
Check the first week of rows and tell the agent which shops it misread.

Things that trip people up

The by-hand version grabs the first price it sees, which is sometimes a single item instead of the total. Check the first few days.
Receipts from shops that send images instead of text won't have an amount.

Make the sheet

Open the script editor from the sheet

Paste the script

Run it and allow access

Schedule it for each evening

You still need to

Things that trip people up