In TidyOne Personal, a receipt can become both an archived document and one or more reviewed expenses. When you assign the right category to each line, Budgets & Goals can include those expenses in the relevant monthly budget. The workflow is: create a budget, photograph or upload your receipt, review the AI suggestion, confirm it once, then compare the expense with your monthly limit.
Why saving only a picture of a receipt is not enough
A supermarket receipt often includes food, cleaning products and occasional household purchases. If you keep only the picture, you preserve evidence but cannot tell how much of your food budget the purchase used. If you assign the full amount to one category, the budget may give you an inaccurate view of your spending. And if you record the expense manually and later confirm AI analysis of the same receipt as another financial record, the same purchase may be counted twice.
This guide follows one receipt from the checkout to your monthly budget. It is written for the Personal workspace, rather than the nonprofit workflow with projects and funds. The example uses RON, although you can choose the receipt currency and budget currency in their respective forms. TidyOne matches budget expenses by both category and currency.
Before the first receipt: choose a category and currency
Switch to your Personal workspace and check your profile's primary currency. Open Budgets & Goals, select the Budgets tab and click + Budget (the current Romanian UI label is + Buget where translation has not yet been applied). The form has fields for a name, category, monthly limit and currency. For example, create “Groceries” using the exact category Alimente (Food), a limit of 800 RON and currency RON. Save it.
You can also create a broad budget with the “All expenses” category if you prefer one total for the current month. Do not add that broad budget to your category budgets as though they cover different money: they reflect overlapping views of the same transactions. Start with one meaningful category, and expand only when you have enough reliable data.
Step 1 — Photograph the receipt or upload its PDF
After shopping, you have two entry points. In My Money (currently titled Banii mei in Romanian), choose Scan receipt / invoice or the Romanian Scanează bon / factură button. Alternatively, open Documents / My Archive and choose an image/PDF or the take-photo action. Both lead to the upload workflow. There is no need to create a manual expense before analyzing this receipt.
Capture the whole receipt, including the merchant, date and grand total. Put it on a neutral surface and avoid shadows, folds and cropped edges around prices. For a long receipt, check after upload that both the individual amounts and total are readable. Keep the original for returns, warranties or other requirements that apply to your situation.
Step 2 — Request AI analysis and open the review
In My Archive, new documents may be shown as awaiting analysis. Choose Analyze with AI for the relevant receipt. If the result has already been prepared, choose Review and confirm. This opens TidyOne's document review form. AI attempts to read the merchant, date, currency, products or services and amounts, then proposes classifications.
An AI result is a suggestion, not a verified financial record. Faded, very long or angled receipts can produce missing product lines or confuse a subtotal with the grand total. Compare the proposal with the original image rather than confirming immediately, especially when the receipt includes discounts, returns or multiple tax rates.
Step 3 — Check the financial direction and every item
For a receipt that represents a genuine purchase, set Financial impact (Impact financiar) to Expense (Cheltuială). Confirm the currency, merchant and document date. Each proposed line has a name, amount, category and subcategory. Correct the lines against the receipt. Use + Add line (+ Adaugă linie) when an important item was missed.
Split mixed purchases into the categories they actually belong to. In a simple example, 111.50 RON belongs to Alimente (Food) and 37.20 RON to Alte cheltuieli (Other expenses). The verified total is 148.70 RON. If the receipt includes a discount, check whether the proposed figures already reflect it. Do not invent an unexplained adjustment just to force the total to match.
Before confirming, review the sum of the lines, currency and date. Confirm and save (✔ Confirmă și salvează) finalizes the classification and, with Expense selected, creates the financial records for the approved lines. If you are not ready, choose Later (Mai târziu). If the network is slow, avoid repeatedly clicking confirm; first check whether the document has already been processed.
Step 4 — Check the result in My Money
Open My Money, filter for Expenses and find the purchase by date, merchant or category. A single reviewed receipt can generate multiple financial lines when it includes multiple categories; that does not automatically mean the purchase has been duplicated. Add the amounts and compare them with the original receipt. A duplicate occurs when you recorded the same amount manually as well as through AI, or uploaded and processed the same receipt more than once.
If a figure is wrong, correct the relevant transaction before relying on your budget. For a purchase without a receipt, you can use + Expense (currently + Cheltuială) and optionally attach a proof document when you have one. Do not guess an amount merely because the receipt is missing: consult your payment history or another reliable record.
Step 5 — Follow the monthly budget progress
Return to Budgets & Goals and open the Budgets tab. The page calculates Personal expenses from the current calendar month, matching each budget's category and currency. Its card shows the amount spent, the limit and either remaining room or an over-limit amount. Reloading the page refreshes this comparison after you have confirmed a receipt.
The budget is a comparison of your planned limit with expenses recorded in TidyOne. It is not your bank-account balance and it does not reserve money in a bank account. If you keep records in several currencies, each budget matches transactions in its own currency; do not assume that EUR expenses are automatically converted into RON. An expense dated in the previous month will not increase this month's figure.
Worked example: one 148.70 RON receipt
Suppose you create an 800 RON monthly budget for the Food category, Alimente. Before today's shopping, you have already recorded 340 RON of food expenses this month. Your new receipt includes 111.50 RON of groceries and 37.20 RON of other products. After reviewing the AI proposal, you confirm the two lines under their appropriate categories.
| Transaction | Category | Amount | Included in Food budget? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earlier expenses | Alimente (Food) | 340.00 RON | Yes |
| Groceries on receipt | Alimente (Food) | 111.50 RON | Yes |
| Other items on receipt | Alte cheltuieli | 37.20 RON | No |
| Receipt total | All categories | 148.70 RON | Only the Food portion |
The Food budget now shows roughly 56.4% used. The other 37.20 RON belongs in your overall recorded expenses, but not in this category budget. If you also have an “All expenses” budget, that broad budget includes both portions of the receipt. When your figures differ, check the transaction date, currency, exact category and any duplicates before changing the budget.
Step 6 — Review the month and adjust your plan
Once a week, check the budget room remaining and identify purchases that still lack an archived document. Once a month, open Analysis & Savings for an overview of current-month spending. Compare what you actually recorded against what you planned. If you repeatedly exceed a category, examine whether the limit was realistic and which kinds of purchases caused the difference.
Do not delete genuine expenses to make the progress bar look better. Correct inaccurate records, keep real transactions and adjust next month's plan when you have enough information. You can use reminders for your weekly review, but TidyOne cannot include payments you have not entered or imported through supported workflows.
Troubleshooting: when the numbers do not match
| What you see | Possible cause | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Receipt in the archive, but not in My Money. | Review not confirmed, or No financial transaction was selected. | Document status and Financial impact selection. |
| Food budget has not changed. | Category or currency differs; date belongs to another month. | Exact category, budget currency and transaction date. |
| AI line total exceeds receipt total. | Missing discount, repeated subtotal or duplicate item. | Original image and every line before confirmation. |
| The purchase appears twice. | Manual entry plus AI confirmation for the same payment. | My Money records; keep one accurate representation. |
| AI cannot read a long receipt. | Cropped or blurred image, or insufficient readable detail. | Retake the photo or enter a verified expense manually. |
AI usage, privacy and limitations
AI analysis can consume your plan's remaining usage allowance. When no analyses remain or you prefer manual entry, you can archive the receipt and enter a verified expense in My Money. AI-proposed fields are not proof of purchase: the receipt or original document is your evidence. Review privacy rules before uploading files containing addresses, payment details or other personal information, and avoid uploading another person's details without an appropriate reason and legal basis.
You do not need to connect a bank or create a nonprofit project to use this workflow. TidyOne is an operational view based on the data you enter. Your actual account balance and payments must be checked separately through your bank; keep original receipts when you need them for warranties, refunds or applicable obligations.
Two-minute checklist after each purchase
Frequently asked questions
Can TidyOne split a receipt across several categories?
Yes. The AI review form supports separate lines with their own categories and subcategories. Review the result before confirmation. When multiple financial lines are saved, each category budget tracks only the lines assigned to that category.
Does AI analysis immediately create an expense?
Not just by analyzing the file. The workflow requires human review and confirmation. You can also classify a document without generating any financial transaction when that is appropriate.
What if I already entered the purchase manually?
Check My Money before confirming the receipt. Do not record the payment again. Keep the receipt in the archive without a second financial transaction, and check any available link between the evidence and existing record.
Why is the purchase missing from this month's budget?
Check that the transaction date belongs to the current month, the currencies match, and the category text matches the budget category. The Budgets page calculates recorded expenses from the current calendar month.
Does the budget show how much cash I have in my bank?
No. It shows the planned limit, recorded expenses and the difference between them. Check your actual bank balance separately; spending not recorded in TidyOne cannot be included in its calculation.
Must I use AI for every receipt?
No. You can record a verified purchase manually through My Money and attach evidence when available, which can be more practical for an unreadable receipt or when you prefer not to use AI.
Continue with Personal guides
Record a genuine purchase, review each line and check how it changes the current month's limit. Use the result as useful information, not as a verdict about your finances.