Receipt Sloth: let Gemma file it, I'll get to it eventually

Description and use

Receipt Sloth automatically sorts receipt text files and emails using a local Gemma model via Ollama, producing dated folders, a CSV, and a monthly summary, while routing incomplete receipts to a review folder.

Problem

Users keep receipts in a folder of text files and emails but rarely file them, leading to clutter and lost expense data.

Outcome

The tool achieved 11/11 correct parsing on the frozen sample set and 10/11 on the holdout, with a fallback rules engine handling 5/6 cases. All 19 local model requests succeeded without failures.

Workflow

• Run the script with the "rules" engine for a dry run to preview destinations
• Run the script with the "gemma" engine to let local Gemma parse receipts
• The script copies each receipt to a dated folder named with merchant, date, total, and category
• If a receipt lacks a date or total, it is moved to "needs-review/"
• A CSV of all processed receipts and a monthly summary are written
• Duplicates are skipped and the original files are preserved unless overridden

Evidence

Receipt Sloth turns a folder of receipt text files and exported emails into something I can stop thinking about. It reads the merchant, date, total, and currency, picks a spending category, and copies each receipt into a dated folder with a readable name.

Source

Gemma runs locally through Ollama. The default keeps the originals. A dry run shows every destination before anything is written, duplicates are skipped, and missing dates or totals go into needs-review/.

Source

The original engines were frozen at commit 9c6fe3c before the first holdout score. Once the failures informed fixes, that set stopped being unseen.

Source