Receipt

A command-line finance toolkit for recording, categorizing, and analyzing receipts and expenses. Track purchases, monitor spending trends, forecast budgets, set alerts, compare periods, and annotate tax-relevant items — all stored locally with timestamped history, full-text search, and multi-format export.

Commands

The following commands are available via receipt <command> [args]:

Finance Operations

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | record <input> | Record a receipt or purchase entry (e.g. "Lunch at cafe $12.50"). Called without args, shows recent record entries. | | categorize <input> | Categorize a spending item (e.g. "Office supplies — Q1 budget"). Called without args, shows recent categorize entries. | | balance <input> | Log a balance update or reconciliation note (e.g. "Monthly balance: $3,420"). Called without args, shows recent balance entries. | | trend <input> | Record a spending trend observation (e.g. "Groceries up 15% vs last month"). Called without args, shows recent trend entries. | | forecast <input> | Log a budget forecast (e.g. "Projected Q2 spend: $8,000"). Called without args, shows recent forecast entries. | | export-report <input> | Save an export/report note (e.g. "Monthly PDF sent to accountant"). Called without args, shows recent export-report entries. | | budget-check <input> | Record a budget check result (e.g. "Travel budget 78% used, $440 remaining"). Called without args, shows recent budget-check entries. | | summary <input> | Log a summary note (e.g. "Week 12 total: $327.50 across 14 transactions"). Called without args, shows recent summary entries. | | alert <input> | Record a spending alert (e.g. "Dining budget exceeded by $65"). Called without args, shows recent alert entries. | | history <input> | Log a history note. Called without args, shows recent history entries. | | compare <input> | Record a comparison note (e.g. "March vs February: +$200 on utilities"). Called without args, shows recent compare entries. | | tax-note <input> | Annotate a tax-relevant item (e.g. "Home office deduction — $150/mo"). Called without args, shows recent tax-note entries. |

Utility Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | stats | Show summary statistics — entry counts per category, total entries, data size, and earliest record timestamp. | | export <fmt> | Export all data in json, csv, or txt format. Output file saved to the data directory. | | search <term> | Full-text search across all log files (case-insensitive). | | recent | Show the 20 most recent activity entries from the global history log. | | status | Health check — version, data directory path, total entries, disk usage, last activity, and OK status. | | help | Display the full command reference. | | version | Print the current version (v2.0.0). |

Data Storage

All data is persisted locally in ~/.local/share/receipt/:

Per-command logs — Each command (record, categorize, balance, etc.) writes to its own .log file with YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM|<input> format.
Global history — Every action is also appended to history.log with MM-DD HH:MM <command>: <input> format for unified audit trail.
Export files — Generated exports are saved as export.json, export.csv, or export.txt in the same directory.

No external services, databases, or network connections are required. Everything runs locally via bash.

Requirements

Bash 4+ (uses local variables, set -euo pipefail)
Standard Unix utilities: date, wc, du, head, tail, grep, basename, cat
No root privileges needed
No external dependencies or package installs

When to Use

Logging daily purchases — Use record to capture receipts as they happen, building a searchable expense journal over time.
Organizing spending by category — Use categorize and budget-check to track how much goes to groceries, dining, transport, subscriptions, etc.
Monthly financial reviews — Use summary, compare, and trend to analyze spending patterns across periods.
Tax preparation — Use tax-note to flag deductible items throughout the year so they're easy to find at tax time.
Budget forecasting and alerts — Use forecast to project upcoming spend and alert to document when budgets are exceeded.

Examples

# Record a new receipt
receipt record "Grocery store — $67.30, weekly shopping"

# Categorize a purchase
receipt categorize "Amazon order $42.99 — Office Supplies"

# Check budget status
receipt budget-check "Food budget: $320 of $400 used, 8 days remaining"

# Log a spending trend
receipt trend "Utility bills trending 12% higher than same quarter last year"

# Add a tax note
receipt tax-note "Professional development course $299 — deductible education expense"

# Compare two months
receipt compare "April total $2,180 vs March $1,950 — +$230, mostly dining"

# View summary statistics
receipt stats

# Export all data as CSV
receipt export csv

# Search for all entries mentioning 'Amazon'
receipt search Amazon

# View recent activity
receipt recent

How It Works

Each command follows the same pattern:

With arguments — Timestamps the input, appends it to the command-specific log file, increments the entry count, and writes to the global history log.
Without arguments — Displays the 20 most recent entries from that command's log file.

The stats command aggregates counts across all log files. The export command iterates through all logs and produces a unified output in your chosen format. The search command performs a case-insensitive grep across every log file.