Edit: This approach works perfectly after the transaction clears.
Hmmm. I just got an Amazon Store Card (the synchrony one) for this purpose. But did they change the behavior? I’m seeing the most recent purchase in the “activity” section online as just having a description of AMAZON MARKETPLACE SEATTLE WA. Have you noticed if this still loads the item in the description for you?
EDIT: Perhaps the fact that the transaction is “pending” matters?
My most recent Amazon Store Card transaction is from 6/3, and here is the description it brought in:
“Amazon Retail Seattle Wa. Diapers Size 0, 128 Count - PA”
Great, thank you! I’m hoping then it’s just a function of it being a “Pending” transaction and it’ll show up in the final version. I also partially paid with the sign-up credit so maybe that interfered with this one purchase.
Once the transaction posts and it feeds into Tiller, hopefully it will bring the description in. For illustration, here are all my recent Amazon transactions feeding through the Store Card. I use my Chase Amazon card only for Whole Foods purchases so I can code those as Groceries via AutoCat, and then all the Synchrony Amazon card transactions get coded as Amazon (and then I will manually update some to other categories based on the description).
Amazon Retail Seattle Wa. Diapers Size 0, 128 Count - PA
Amazon Retail Seattle Wa. Apple Earpods Headphones with Shipping and Tax
Amazon Marketplace Seattle Wa. Paprma 12" X 20" Plastic Produ Shipping and Tax
Amazon Retail Seattle Wa. Belkin Rockstar 5-jack Multi H Shipping and Tax
Amazon Retail Seattle Wa. Nalgene Hdpe Wide Mouth Bpa-fr
Amazon Retail Seattle Wa. Hydro Flask Accessory Medium S Shipping and Tax
Amazon Retail Seattle Wa. Toysmith Mini Beamo 16" Flying Shipping and Tax
Amazon Marketplace Seattle Wa. Squatchi Shoe Sizer for Baby Shipping and Tax
Amazon Marketplace Seattle Wa. Bapronbaby Rainbow Watercolor
Thanks so much! That would be so worth it to have the transactions labeled automatically like that. I really hope it works for me as well.
I just thought I’d come back and verify that this does, indeed, still work. Once the transactions finally moved from “pending” to complete it had the item description right there in the description of the charge.
This will be really handy, combined with the Amazon Day delivery option!
My only issue is that this card is odd, it’s not a real credit card. They said it won’t have an expiration date nor a CVC code, it’s only for use at Amazon. That’s all fine, but I’d like for my wife to be able to use it as well and it remains to be seen if that will be possible. It does allow me to add authorized users though, so I’m hoping if I add her she can somehow make it a payment method on Amazon.
Okay, it’s not the best UI design, but it turns out I was easily able to add the card to my wife’s account after adding her as an authorized user.
I just had to go to her payment methods and choose to add a credit card. I got tripped up because it looked like that form was going to require an expiration date and CVC code. But once I entered in the Amazon Store Card number the web form changed and it removed those options and said my card didn’t have either. I added her name, and since she’s an authorized user it seemed to go through fine.
Thanks so much, @Caroleen , for the suggestion! I didn’t know about Amazon Store Cards or that they worked this way but this will be so nice.
Sorry, one more follow up to say this card was sooooo worth it. It’s been working great so far. I have to be sure to only do single purchases, but with Prime and Amazon Delivery Day that’s not been an issue.
I did want to see what happens if I combine orders that I know are in the same category. Does it list one of the items in the description or just nothing?
That’s great! I discovered this myself by total accident when one of my clients happened to have the Amazon store card – I hadn’t even heard of it but I was amazed by what her Tiller sheet was bringing in and had to figure out how and why it was working this way for her!
My experience is that with multiple items, they just all get listed in the description one after the other (but under one line item). Bundling like purchases together (e.g. all your pet food in one order) could make it easier to do faster categorization so you’d only have one pet food line item instead of five different ones. But then it’s more work on the purchasing end of things to be sure you’re bundling things correctly. You could also use the splitting tool, but then you’re back to needing to look up the prices of the various items, so you’re only one step ahead of the previous set up so this isn’t super helpful. I think putting the effort into purchasing in bundles and the categorizing the bundle is going to be the easiest overall to get this level of precision in your data.
Are you able to see the description data from the Amazon Store Card in Tiller? I just signed up for one due to wanting this feature and my first transactions feeding through are not showing any data in the Descriptions column. The transaction has settled on the Synchrony/Amazon website. Not sure if I need to do anything else to make this work.
Hmmm, I’m not sure why it’s not working for you. I definitely see the description. Here are my most recent purchases. Keep in mind that you’ll run out of room if you buy multiple items. I combine this with Amazon Delivery Day and basically buy one thing at a time and get it shipped bundled together on one day. Makes it easier to classify.
Amazon Marketplace Seattle Wa. Casoman 3/8" Drive Impact Sock
Amazon Marketplace Seattle Wa. Koozer Pack of 12 M5x10mm Stee
Amazon Marketplace Seattle Wa. Teyssor 140mm 160mm 180mm 203m
I do remember at the beginning, when I was looking at the synchrony site, I wasn’t sure it would show up in the description on Tiller (the description doesn’t show up on pending charges on the Synchrony site). But once I waited for it to show up in Tiller it does start displaying the items in the description.
Thanks, I figured out the problem. It works.
@rachellii24 I wanted to answer you in this thread instead to not confuse with the other Amazon processes.
Your question: Does it always show the items individually? Could you possibly show what it looks like on your end with multiple items if they don’t appear individually?
Each item gets individually listed in the Description; however each purchase is processed as one line item. So if you check out your cart with one item, you’ll get one line item in Tiller with the description of that one item, e.g.:
“Amazon Retail Seattle Wa. Disney: Winnie the Pooh Colour”
Whereas if you check out with multiple items in your cart, you’ll still get one line item in Tiller, but all the items will appear in the Description, e.g.:
“Amazon Marketplace Seattle Wa. Janod Magnetibook 83 Pc Magnet Oxo Good Grips Mini All Purpos Infantino Lil’ Nibbles Texture Blue Orange Games Battle Sheep Infantino Lil’ Nibbles Texture”
What I try to do is check out one item at a time, or do a cart of related items. Amazon will still ship them together if you order them close together in time, so you’ll only get one box, but you’ll get multiple line items in Tiller so you can more easily categorize them. Or you can use the Amazon Day delivery feature for a similar result.
This little trick has really made it a lot easier for me to go through our Amazon transactions. Thanks again.
So glad to hear that!
Is having an Amazon credit card the only way to get to see the description of purchases?
There are other workflows to add the data in later, but the Synchrony card is the only one I have seen that actually pulls the data right in with each transaction.