7 ms·

This is helpful but if you're trying to reconcile credit card charges to purchase it's _maddening_. See, sometimes Amazon will take an order for a single item a

by zrail 5y ago

This is helpful but if you're trying to reconcile credit card charges to purchase it's _maddening_. See, sometimes Amazon will take an order for a single item and split it across two separate credit card charges. The only way that I've figured out how to accurately reconcile orders to charges is to crawl the invoice pages for every order and extract the charge information (this is not something I do often).

sk55 5y ago
There is regulation where e-commerce companies can only charge you after they have shipped the item. That may be why it’s appearing as separate charges.
- Godel_unicode 5y ago
  I'm aware of no such law in the US, are you in the EU?
  - AnssiH 5y ago
    I'm not the parent, but there is no such EU-wide regulation either, or if there is it is being commonly violated. Charging at order time is common at least in Finland. Many common payment methods do not support "delayed" charges so all methods are often handled the same way, instantly. I just saw this in SwedBank docs, though: https://developer.swedbankpay.com/payment-instruments/mobile-pay/capture https://developer.swedbankpay.com/payment-instruments/mobile... > When dealing in physical goods using two-phase payment instruments, all goods must be shipped before you capture the authorized amount. This is regulated in part by the Swedish Distance and Doorstep Sales Act, required in our terms and (for card payments) required by Visa and Mastercard. It says "in part", though, I didn't check what the Swedish law actually mandates.
  - jonahbenton 5y ago
    This practice stems from the merchant agreement contracts sellers have with credit card networks.
  - sk55 5y ago
    Looks like it's not a law, but a common policy from credit card companies. > However, many credit card issuers have policies against sellers charging a credit card account before shipment. Src: https://consumered.georgia.gov/ask-ed/2016-08-31/can-merchant-charge-my-credit-card-item-back-order https://consumered.georgia.gov/ask-ed/2016-08-31/can-merchan...
Chico75 5y ago
Yeah same, the only "good" way I found was using the amazon synchrony store card, it displays the item name alongside the charges, which makes it doable to find the related orders for purchase categorization
- patja 5y ago
  Plus the 5% kickback isn't too shabby.
jimktrains2 5y ago
I think Amazon charges when an item is shipped, so of it requires two shipments you get two charges. I could be wildly off though.
- zrail 5y ago
  Naw this was _one item_. One shipment. One package. It's the strangest thing.
evilpie 5y ago
At least the bank statement for an Amazon purchase contains an ID that can easily be linked to a purchase on the website. I have also seen the behaviour of multiple items in the same purchase being split across different transactions. I think this happens when the items are actually offered by non-Amazon sellers. I wish PayPal transactions would contain an ID that is somehow useable.
- zrail 5y ago
  Wait it does? I've never been able to reverse that ID.
  - evilpie 5y ago
    The memo starts with something like "123-0000000-1234567 Amazon.de". The corresponding link would be https://www.amazon.de/gp/css/summary/edit.html?orderID=123-0000000-1234567 https://www.amazon.de/gp/css/summary/edit.html?orderID=123-0...
    - zrail 5y ago
      Ah. US credit card transactions have an id that looks like a hash, presumably because card charge descriptors have such a short maximum length.
      - AnssiH 5y ago
        Same in Europe at least for VISA/MC, the parent probably used a non-card payment method.
YuriNiyazov 5y ago
I do this every few months. I managed to solve this by “constraint satisfaction” searching (do the credit cards charges and shipment combinations add up to the order total?) Took me a while, but it works well now. I am thinking of switching it to the crawler though.
beastie29a 5y ago
I use YNAB and this was always so daunting and the worst part of falling behind on reconciling imports. Then someone on r/ynab mentioned the transactions page: Account -> Your Transactions (used to be Account -> Your Payments -> Transactions) It was life changing in that I didn't have to waste time going through the purchases page trying to figure out how things were split. Wish target would do the same, it's worse with the they apply discounts.
- trvr 5y ago
  This is exactly the same process I went through. Life changing, right up until Amazon started taking 5 days to even ship an item to me.
- m8s 5y ago
  Another lifetime YNABer here. Great tip.
- hahajk 5y ago
  If I see a charge for 14.35, for example, I search my gmail for “14.35” and in the email click “order details.”
- rainbowzootsuit 5y ago
  https://www.amazon.com/cpe/yourpayments/transactions https://www.amazon.com/cpe/yourpayments/transactions Also YNAB user who found reconciling Amazon to be a total bane of my sanity. That's just straight bookmarked for me now.
- flakiness 5y ago
  Great tip! I'm using Tiller instead of YNAB but this is as useful!
manigandham 5y ago
Purchase every item in a separate order. There's no downside if you have Prime (for free shipping) and it makes reconciliation and customer service easier too. Unless you mean a single item/order was charged as two separate charges, which I've never heard of happening before. Did you change the order or shipping after placing it?
- op00to 5y ago
  The downside is an incredible amount of waste as each order could be packed separately. So much extra waste.
  - Fogest 5y ago
    They usually still combine it. If I have ordered something and then remember to order something else shortly later they still will often ship together anyway.
    - op00to 5y ago
      That’s funny! I was just talking to my wife about how I was frustrated that they don’t combine shipments here as I stared at 4 stupid Amazon envelopes on my porch! How can Amazon be so different from fulfillment center to fulfillment center!
      - syshum 5y ago
        The orders are not filled based on the order. You can have a single order in 5 different shippments, or 5 orders in a single shipment. how many shipments is largely governed by 1. What fulfillment center has the products you orders, not every fulfillment center has ever product all the time . 2. Your shipping preference, often times on a single order it will ask you if you want "fastest" shipping which can be shipping products from multiple fulfillment center, or "less trips" which may take longer so inventory can arrive the fulfillment center with the rest of your order 3. If it fulfilled by Amazon or Not... If you order 3 items only 1 of which is "fulfilled by Amazon" then it will come from 3 different places.
obelos 5y ago
This drove me crazy for the longest time, but I discovered there's a payments page[1] that lists each individual charge with a link to the order it's associated with. This has made reconciliation in YNAB much faster and reliable. 1. https://www.amazon.com/cpe/yourpayments/transactions https://www.amazon.com/cpe/yourpayments/transactions
temp0826 5y ago
Just choked because I worked at a (now defunct) startup that was solving this exact problem (though targeted at b2b with thousands/millions of transactions and many/unknown number of columns). There are a couple of products in this space but nothing consumer facing (read: cheap) afaik
sebzim4500 5y ago
Just out of interest, why are you doing this instead of e.g. just checking that the totals match up? Or is that also difficult?
- zrail 5y ago
  My overriding goal with my personal finance system is to have penny-accurate categorization so that I can make accurate predictions about future spending. Right now a significant portion of my family's spending runs through two Amazon accounts charging to the same credit card, which is problematic because I have to check both accounts transactions. I gave up awhile back and just dump everything into an Amazon category, which that leads to misleading projections.

by zrail 5y ago

sk55 5y ago

There is regulation where e-commerce companies can only charge you after they have shipped the item. That may be why it’s appearing as separate charges.

Godel_unicode 5y ago
I'm aware of no such law in the US, are you in the EU?
- AnssiH 5y ago
  I'm not the parent, but there is no such EU-wide regulation either, or if there is it is being commonly violated. Charging at order time is common at least in Finland. Many common payment methods do not support "delayed" charges so all methods are often handled the same way, instantly. I just saw this in SwedBank docs, though: https://developer.swedbankpay.com/payment-instruments/mobile-pay/capture https://developer.swedbankpay.com/payment-instruments/mobile... > When dealing in physical goods using two-phase payment instruments, all goods must be shipped before you capture the authorized amount. This is regulated in part by the Swedish Distance and Doorstep Sales Act, required in our terms and (for card payments) required by Visa and Mastercard. It says "in part", though, I didn't check what the Swedish law actually mandates.
- jonahbenton 5y ago
  This practice stems from the merchant agreement contracts sellers have with credit card networks.
- sk55 5y ago
  Looks like it's not a law, but a common policy from credit card companies. > However, many credit card issuers have policies against sellers charging a credit card account before shipment. Src: https://consumered.georgia.gov/ask-ed/2016-08-31/can-merchant-charge-my-credit-card-item-back-order https://consumered.georgia.gov/ask-ed/2016-08-31/can-merchan...

Chico75 5y ago

Yeah same, the only "good" way I found was using the amazon synchrony store card, it displays the item name alongside the charges, which makes it doable to find the related orders for purchase categorization

patja 5y ago
Plus the 5% kickback isn't too shabby.

jimktrains2 5y ago

I think Amazon charges when an item is shipped, so of it requires two shipments you get two charges. I could be wildly off though.

zrail 5y ago
Naw this was _one item_. One shipment. One package. It's the strangest thing.

evilpie 5y ago

At least the bank statement for an Amazon purchase contains an ID that can easily be linked to a purchase on the website. I have also seen the behaviour of multiple items in the same purchase being split across different transactions. I think this happens when the items are actually offered by non-Amazon sellers. I wish PayPal transactions would contain an ID that is somehow useable.

zrail 5y ago
Wait it does? I've never been able to reverse that ID.
- evilpie 5y ago
  The memo starts with something like "123-0000000-1234567 Amazon.de". The corresponding link would be https://www.amazon.de/gp/css/summary/edit.html?orderID=123-0000000-1234567 https://www.amazon.de/gp/css/summary/edit.html?orderID=123-0...
  - zrail 5y ago
    Ah. US credit card transactions have an id that looks like a hash, presumably because card charge descriptors have such a short maximum length.
    - AnssiH 5y ago
      Same in Europe at least for VISA/MC, the parent probably used a non-card payment method.

YuriNiyazov 5y ago

I do this every few months. I managed to solve this by “constraint satisfaction” searching (do the credit cards charges and shipment combinations add up to the order total?) Took me a while, but it works well now. I am thinking of switching it to the crawler though.

beastie29a 5y ago

I use YNAB and this was always so daunting and the worst part of falling behind on reconciling imports. Then someone on r/ynab mentioned the transactions page: Account -> Your Transactions (used to be Account -> Your Payments -> Transactions) It was life changing in that I didn't have to waste time going through the purchases page trying to figure out how things were split. Wish target would do the same, it's worse with the they apply discounts.

trvr 5y ago
This is exactly the same process I went through. Life changing, right up until Amazon started taking 5 days to even ship an item to me.
m8s 5y ago
Another lifetime YNABer here. Great tip.
hahajk 5y ago
If I see a charge for 14.35, for example, I search my gmail for “14.35” and in the email click “order details.”
rainbowzootsuit 5y ago
https://www.amazon.com/cpe/yourpayments/transactions https://www.amazon.com/cpe/yourpayments/transactions Also YNAB user who found reconciling Amazon to be a total bane of my sanity. That's just straight bookmarked for me now.
flakiness 5y ago
Great tip! I'm using Tiller instead of YNAB but this is as useful!

manigandham 5y ago

Purchase every item in a separate order. There's no downside if you have Prime (for free shipping) and it makes reconciliation and customer service easier too. Unless you mean a single item/order was charged as two separate charges, which I've never heard of happening before. Did you change the order or shipping after placing it?

op00to 5y ago
The downside is an incredible amount of waste as each order could be packed separately. So much extra waste.
- Fogest 5y ago
  They usually still combine it. If I have ordered something and then remember to order something else shortly later they still will often ship together anyway.
  - op00to 5y ago
    That’s funny! I was just talking to my wife about how I was frustrated that they don’t combine shipments here as I stared at 4 stupid Amazon envelopes on my porch! How can Amazon be so different from fulfillment center to fulfillment center!
    - syshum 5y ago
      The orders are not filled based on the order. You can have a single order in 5 different shippments, or 5 orders in a single shipment. how many shipments is largely governed by 1. What fulfillment center has the products you orders, not every fulfillment center has ever product all the time . 2. Your shipping preference, often times on a single order it will ask you if you want "fastest" shipping which can be shipping products from multiple fulfillment center, or "less trips" which may take longer so inventory can arrive the fulfillment center with the rest of your order 3. If it fulfilled by Amazon or Not... If you order 3 items only 1 of which is "fulfilled by Amazon" then it will come from 3 different places.

obelos 5y ago

This drove me crazy for the longest time, but I discovered there's a payments page[1] that lists each individual charge with a link to the order it's associated with. This has made reconciliation in YNAB much faster and reliable. 1. https://www.amazon.com/cpe/yourpayments/transactions https://www.amazon.com/cpe/yourpayments/transactions

temp0826 5y ago

Just choked because I worked at a (now defunct) startup that was solving this exact problem (though targeted at b2b with thousands/millions of transactions and many/unknown number of columns). There are a couple of products in this space but nothing consumer facing (read: cheap) afaik

sebzim4500 5y ago

Just out of interest, why are you doing this instead of e.g. just checking that the totals match up? Or is that also difficult?

zrail 5y ago
My overriding goal with my personal finance system is to have penny-accurate categorization so that I can make accurate predictions about future spending. Right now a significant portion of my family's spending runs through two Amazon accounts charging to the same credit card, which is problematic because I have to check both accounts transactions. I gave up awhile back and just dump everything into an Amazon category, which that leads to misleading projections.