Receipt examples

Contributors

Rob Manson
Leif Arne Storset

Real-World Examples

InternetRetailer's list of top 500 retail web sites may be useful in the receipt-collecting process.

Appears to apply to the USA only. Andy Mabbett 13:22, 31 Aug 2007 (PDT)

Bill / Invoice

Bills or Invoices are "yet to be paid" items.

Question: Perhaps these examples (yet to be provided) should be moved to a separate page as Bill/Invoice is quite different from Receipt.

With hResume, I've suggested that the subtle difference between actively seeking work and just presenting your resume be a case of including hlisting markup.

With bills vs invoices, it may turn out that the content found within would be identical, and it might just be a case of putting in a class flag to indicate whether the presented document has been paid for or not.

SignpostMarv 12:55, 21 Jul 2007 (PDT)

I think a class flag is a great idea, but I don't believe we have any samples for invoices. However, if we look at order review vs. order summary rather than invoices vs. receipts, the payment flag does become relevant in many of the sampled online stores.

How would such a flag be implemented?

<div class="hreceipt unpaid"/"hreceipt paid">...
<div class="hreceipt" title="paid">...</div>

Lastorset 14:55, 16 Aug 2007 (PDT)

Receipts

Receipts are post-purchase items.

Amazon

Example
contains:
- ~~email address~~ (could not find in examples)
- date of order
- order id
- shipments
  - shipping estimate
  - delivery estimate
  - shipping address
  - shipping speed
  - shipping preference (item grouping)
  - items
    - quantity
    - seller
    - price
    - item information
- payment
  - card type
  - last 5 digits
  - expiration date
  - billing address
  - subtotal
  - shipping and handling price
  - total before tax
  - tax
  - grand total
- ~~discount price~~ (could not find in examples)
Little semantic HTML of interest, except an anchor with id "payment-info"

Notes:

Supports multiple shipments.
Supports one seller per item.
Displays shipping and delivery estimate.
Offers item grouping preference.
Gift options.

Skype

Skype Phone

Shipping Address
date in dd/mm/yyyy format
Order number in nnnn-nnnnnnn-nnn format
Reference (was blank in example, presumed to appear on bank statement for this transaction)
Items
- Quantity
- Description
- Price
- Total
- VAT (tax) %
Payment
- subtotal ("total")
- shipping cost
- grand total ("total (gross)")
- total (VAT excluded)
- VAT (amount)
Chosen payment method: "Your payment method is: Credit card"
Legal blurb

Semantic HTML:

Order resume class="order-listing"
Each item class="row"
All totals rows class="totals-row" except grand total class="grandtotal-row"

Notes:

Displayed credit-card-statement reference (presumably).

Internet banking transaction receipts

Example 1

receipt number
date
time
receipt type (e.g. TRANSFER BETWEEN MY ACCOUNTS)
  transfer from
  transfer to
amount
description
information/comment

Digital product purchase receipts

Example 1 : Software

receipt title/type
order/receipt number
seller's details
  sold by (hCard candidate)
    org
    adr
  tax number (VAT in this example)
  tax id (Federal Tax ID)
buyer's details
  buyer (hCard candidate)
    name
    org
    street-address
    locality
    region
    postal-code
    country-name
    tel
    email
  credit card number (PAN truncated - with type)
item list
  product code
  name
  comments
  price
  delivery method
  quantity
  total in selected currency
  total in sellers currency
total (sum of item list totals)
processing fee
grand total (final amount charged)
information (caveats and tax info)
permalink

Example 2 : SSL certificate

receipt title/type
seller (hCard candidate)
  org
  street-address
  locality
  region
  postal-code
purchase information
  order id
  product name
  domain name
  validity period
  number of licenses
  card number (PAN truncated)
  amount (with selected currency)

Physical product purchase receipts

Example 1 : Computer hardware

receipt title/type
seller's name (hCard candidate)
seller's URL (hCard candidate)
invoice id
org govt reference (ABN - Australian Business Number)
date
seller details (hCard candidate)
  street-address
  locality
  region
  postal-code
buyer (hCard candidate)
  fn
  billing address
    street-address
    locality
    region
    postal-code
  delivery address
    street-address
    locality
    region
    postal-code
  phone
item list
  item
  description
  amount
  quantity
  product url
  total
delivery cost
total excluding tax
tax (GST - Goods and Service Tax)
total including tax

Service purchase receipts

Example 1 : Online subscription

seller's details (hCard candidate)
  org
  street-address
  locality
  region
  postal-code
  country-name
buyer's details (hCard candidate)
  fn
  street-address
  locality
  region
  postal-code
  phone
date
receipt id
item list
  product description
  quantity
  rate (per unit)
  price
sub total
amount paid
balance due
information
transaction id

Example 2 : Co-location

receipt title/type
sellers details (hCard candidate)
  org
  url
  phone
message
receipt number
date
amount
information

A1Books

Example

vendor
- name
- fax
date
order number
shipping address
billing address
items
- description
- list price
- sale price
- quantity
- amount
subtotal
shipping
total
- quantity
- amount
account information
- phone
- e-mail
payment
- method
- last four digits

No semantic HTML.

Notes:

Supports one seller per item.
Does not display tax.

Barnes&Noble

Example

date
shipping address
billing address
payment
- method
- last 4 digits
- exp. date
- charge
savings on shipping
order no.
delivery option
items
- description: title, author, ISBN, price
- qty
- gift options: wrap, message
- total price
shipment subtotal
shipping cost
tax
shipment total (seems to account for orders requiring multiple shipments)
order total

Semantic HTML:

receiptOrderNumbers
receiptOrderPlacedOn
orderInformation
- shippingAddress
- billingAddress
- paymentInformation
shippingSelections
showProducts
- reviewTable
  - qtyValuePosition
  - reviewGiftOptions
reviewTotalsDisplay
- reviewTotalsSummary
- reviewTotalsNote
- reviewTotalsBreakdown
reviewTotalsSummary
- reviewGrandTotal
reviewCreditCardCharged
review

The semantic class names found are a good start, although the "review" part appears to be context-specific (reviewing an order). Additionally, the implied hierarchy in names such as "reviewTotalsSummary" and "receiptOrderPlacedOn" is probably unnecessary for our purposes.

Notes:

Supports multiple shipments.
Gift options.
Explicitly stated credit-card charge.

Facebook

Example

purchase total
items (informal description of two items, including quantity)
recipient name
order id
billed-to name

No relevant semantic HTML.

Notes:

Quite minimal and informal receipt. Good example of how a microformat would preserve human readability and informal style while enabling machine reading.

Google Checkout

vendor address
shipping address
date
order id
items
- shipping status ("Not yet shipped", etc.)
- qty.
- description
- price
shipping cost
tax
total
order history (placed, received, charged, shipped) (web receipt only)
- credit-card statement reference (only after the charge has been made)
payment info (web receipt only)
- card type
- last 4 digits
- exp. date
- cardholder address
permalink

Semantic HTML:

taxRow
- taxIdentifier
- taxAmount
totalAmount

Notes:

Explicit seller address (one per order).
Current shipping status of each item.
E-mail receipt has permalink.
Order history (date placed, received, charged, shipped).
Displayed credit-card statement reference only after card was charged.

iTunes

iTunes e-mail receipt

billing address
order no.
receipt date
order total
card
- type
- last 4 digits
item
- item no.
- description (including link to write a review)
- unit price
subtotal
tax

No relevant semantic HTML.

Notes:

No quantity information.

Longs/FujiFilm

Longs/Fujifilm e-mail receipt

order no.
payment info
- method (COD, credit card, etc.)
customer address
pickup address
items
- name
- qty.
- description
- price
- line item subtotal
order items total
tax
order total

Semantic HTML:

payment-heading

Notes:

No order date; has pick-up date instead.
Has pickup address rather than shipping address.

Mobivox/PayPal

seller address
receipt id
date of order
items
- description
- item option (not quite sure what this is for)
- unit price
- qty
- total
subtotal
tax
total amount
payment info
- method
- last 4 digits
- charge
- appears on bill/statement as "MOBIVOXCORP"
buyer contact

Relevant semantic HTML:

order-summary
- cart
  - (unnamed tr)
    - item-name
    - item-total
    - item-option (not quite sure what this is for)
- subtotal
- totals-value
- totals-currency
- purchase-summary
  - summary-total
    - price-total
    - price-currency
funding-mix
- payment-type
- amount
- ccStatement
contact-information (contains hCard microformat)

This semantic HTML is the most complete and well-thought-out I've seen in this analysis. It even makes use of the fieldset element in forms, something I've never seen before.Lastorset 16:21, 25 Jul 2007 (PDT)

Microformats used:

hCard (non-compliant due to missing formatted name): buyer contact info

Notes:

Explicitly stated credit-card charge.
Displayed credit-card-statement reference.
Explicitly displayed seller address (one seller per order).

Symantec

Symantec e-mail reminder

buyer name
date
payment method
last 4 digits
appears on statement as "DR *Symantec"
items
- qty
- product name
- platform
- delivery method
- price
subtotal
grand total
permalink

No relevant semantic HTML

Notes:

As an e-mail "order reminder" rather than a receipt, this was slightly more informal than the other samples. As such there was
- no order id
- a permalink
"Delivery method" could be download or ship.

Analysis

Analysis of Bills

Analysis of Receipts

Analyzed using spreadsheet available at http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pAGYQr-yhoUh6sl5NaqEVZw. E-mail leifarne at storset dot net if you want edit permissions.

The analysis was performed on the following samples:

Amazon
Skype
A1Books
Barnes&Noble
Facebook
Google Checkout
iTunes
Longs/FujiFilm
Mobivox/PayPal
Symantec

Addresses

All receipts have hCard candidates (i. e. name and/or address) of at least one of these types:

buyer/customer
seller
shipping
billing
pickup

Shipping

These vendors supported multiple shipments:

Amazon.com
Barnes&Noble
- Also displayed shipment subtotals.

These displayed shipping method/speed:

Amazon.com
Barnes&Noble
Symantec

These displayed gift choices:

Amazon.com
Barnes&Noble

For most vendors, each item had the following information:

description
quantity
unit price
line total

Google Checkout additionally provided shipping status.

Payment information

Most vendors displayed:

payment method (credit card or COD, card type)
last 4 or 5 digits of credit card
expiration date of credit card

Some also displayed

reference on credit-card statement ("This order will appear as ABCD0001234 on your credit-card statement.")
the credit-card charge itself

Totals

Most displayed:

subtotal
shipping and handling cost (if applicable)
tax
grand total

Some also displayed:

total before tax
total quantity (only A1Books)

Marketplace

Most receipt formats are for one seller only. The following support different sellers:

A1Books: per item
Amazon.com: per item
Google Checkout: per receipt
PayPal: per receipt

Other properties

Almost all receipts had

order date
- Facebook had no date.
- Longs/FujiFilm had pick-up date instead.
order id
- Symantec did not mention order id.

Other interesting items:

permalink (on most e-mail receipts)
link to purchase history
order history (Google Checkout):
- placed
- received
- charged
- shipped

Conclusion

Central microformat principles are to "start as simple as possible" and use the Pareto principle. Accordingly, an 80/20 solution should focus on solving the critical few problems. One way of doing so is to look at the elements that are found in all or nearly all samples:

addresses (buyer/customer, seller, shipping, billing, pickup)
line item information (description, quantity, unit price)
payment method (with credit-card information, if applicable)
totals and charges (subtotal, shipping & handling, tax, grand total)
order date
order id

The following elements are more rarely seen:

multiple shipments
shipping details
gift options
credit-card-statement reference
seller information per item
permalink

Existing Practices

Listed below is an overview of existing patterns and practices found in the wild for bill and receipt data.

Summary of common patterns discovered

Open Financial Exchange

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OFX aka OFX

receipt-examples

Receipt examples

Contributors

Real-World Examples

Bill / Invoice

Receipts

Amazon

Skype

Skype Phone

Internet banking transaction receipts

Example 1

Digital product purchase receipts

Example 1 : Software

Example 2 : SSL certificate

Physical product purchase receipts

Example 1 : Computer hardware

Service purchase receipts

Example 1 : Online subscription

Example 2 : Co-location

A1Books

Barnes&Noble

Facebook

Google Checkout

iTunes

Longs/FujiFilm

Mobivox/PayPal

Symantec

Analysis

Analysis of Bills

Analysis of Receipts

Addresses

Shipping

Payment information

Totals

Marketplace

Other properties

Conclusion

Existing Practices

Summary of common patterns discovered

Other attempts to solve The Problem

Open Financial Exchange

Proposal

See Also

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