Amazon and Walmart orders

A card charge tells you that Amazon took $47.23. It does not tell you that the $47.23 was printer ink, a birthday present and a bag of coffee — and if you are trying to work out where your money goes, that is the part you wanted.

Syncing a retailer fetches your orders and matches them to the transactions you already have, so the charge can show what was in it.

Where it lives

You read a retailer's orders on the Transactions page, in the Retail sync tab, and on each transaction they matched. Settings → Retail sync lists the retailers you can sync and any you already have orders from; a retailer SageFin cannot sync and you have nothing from is left out, there and in the tabs. Three are supported:

• Amazon — order history, matched down to the line items in an order.
• Walmart — orders matched to transactions.
• Costco — both warehouse receipts and costco.com orders. A warehouse receipt has a barcode rather than an order number, which is why a Costco row sometimes looks unlike the others.

How orders reach SageFin now

From SageFin Desktop, on your own computer. It is SageFin as a desktop app, with one thing a browser tab cannot do: it opens a retailer in its own window, you sign in there yourself, and it saves your orders pages and sends them to SageFin to be read. Your retailer sign-ins stay on your computer; SageFin never holds them. Download SageFin Desktop for Mac, Windows or Linux; its source is public, so you can read what it does before you run it.

• Walmart and Amazon sync from the app. Sync now in Settings → Retail sync opens your recent orders for you, slowly and one at a time, and after the first one the app repeats it once a day while it is running. Closing its window leaves it running, so the daily sync still happens; quit it from its menu bar or tray icon. If the retailer shows its robot check, turns the sync away, or asks you to sign in, the sync stops, shows you the window, and does not run again by itself until you press Sync now.
• Costco is not in the app yet.

Seeing your computers, and using more than one

Settings → Retail sync lists each computer you have connected, in any browser as well as in the app. For each it shows when the app last checked in with SageFin and what each retailer's last sync there came to: how many orders it read, or that the retailer turned it away, or that it met a sign-in page. So a sync that needs you shows up without opening the app on that computer.

Two things that list cannot know, and says so:

• Whether you are signed in to a retailer right now. The app learns that by loading a page, so "needed a sign-in" is as of the last sync, not this minute.
• Why a computer has gone quiet. One that is switched off and one where the app has been quit look the same: both are "last seen" some time ago.

With SageFin Desktop on more than one computer, only one syncs each retailer daily: whichever synced it last. When each retailer syncs by itself, on the same page, names that computer beside each retailer. If that computer stops running for about two days, another takes over by itself. Sync now works on any of them and makes that computer the one that syncs daily. And if a retailer turns a sync away on one computer, the daily sync stops on all of them until you press Sync now.

That sharing needs a recent SageFin Desktop on every computer. An old copy does not take part: it syncs on its own schedule whatever your other computers do, so a retailer can see two daily syncs where you meant one, and it is not told when a retailer has turned another computer away. The list marks such a computer as too old and says to update it. A copy that is newer than that, but older than SageFin now requires, stops syncing by itself until it is updated; Sync now on that computer still works.

One daily sync per retailer account, and each account's orders kept apart. If two of your computers are signed in to different accounts at a retailer, each account keeps its own daily sync, one being turned away does not stop the other, and their orders are listed as two logins and not mixed into one.

• Walmart says which account a page belongs to, so SageFin tells them apart by itself. It keeps only a scrambled form of the account's id, never the id.
• Amazon's pages do not say. If your computers are on different Amazon accounts, open SageFin Desktop on each, go to Settings → Retail sync, and under Amazon give the account a name ("Alex's Amazon"). Use the same name on every computer signed in to that account. With one Amazon account, leave it empty: nothing needs naming.

You can start a sync from that list without being at the computer. Request sync beside a retailer asks that computer to sync it. It is a request, which is why it is not called Sync now. The app picks the request up the next time it checks in, so the sync starts within a few minutes, not at once, and only if the app is running there; a request nobody picks up lapses after fifteen minutes. It runs the way the daily sync does: slowly, out of the way, and it stops if the retailer asks for a person.

The same list, and Request sync, are in the SageFin phone app under Settings → Retail sync, so you can see what a computer at home last did, and ask it to sync, from wherever you are.

So the button is only there when the daily sync could run on that computer. It is not offered until you have synced that retailer there once yourself and chosen to let the app sync it by itself, nor after a sync there met a sign-in page or the retailer turned one away. Those need you at the computer, and the list says which.

The app does this by checking in with SageFin every few minutes. It sends its version and, for each retailer, when its last sync ran, how it ended, and whether you have let it sync that retailer by itself. It sends nothing from a retailer's pages that way. What comes back is whether this computer may run the daily sync, and any sync you have asked it to start.

A second computer does not read your order history again. During a sync the app asks SageFin which of the orders it can see another of your computers has already read, and opens only the rest. It asks with a scrambled code for each order, made from the order number and its current state, not the order number itself, and nothing else from the page. An order that has changed since, such as one that was refunded, is read again. This only works between computers signed in to the same account at that retailer.

Choosing when a retailer syncs by itself

By default a retailer syncs again a day after its last sync finished, so the time drifts to whenever you last pressed Sync now. Settings → Retail sync has When each retailer syncs by itself, with a row for each retailer that says how often it syncs, on which of your computers, and when the next one is due. There you can set, for each retailer:

• About what time. Pick an hour, and the scheduled sync runs around then: the app looks once an hour, so it starts within the hour after. The hour is on the clock of the computer that does the syncing. Choose a time that computer is on; a sync that was due while it was off or asleep runs when it is next awake. A scheduled sync never starts within six hours of the last one, so a sync just before the hour does not run again that morning, and an evening Sync now leaves the next morning's in place.
• How often. Every day, every two or three days, or every week. Nothing more often than daily is offered: every sync loads the retailer's pages, and more of them make it likelier the retailer turns one away.

It is one setting per retailer, kept by SageFin, so it stays the same whichever of your computers does the syncing. Sync now and Request sync work at any time and do not move it. A change reaches the computer within a few minutes, the next time the app checks in.

The SageFin phone app shows the same thing under Settings → Retail sync: for each retailer, how often it syncs, on which computer, and when the next one is due. How often and About what time under each retailer change the same setting.

What each retailer's terms say

A retailer's terms of use are between you and the retailer, and they decide whether a tool may read your account for you. They differ, and you should know what each says before you use a sync.

The app asks before it does anything a retailer's terms prohibit. In SageFin Desktop, each retailer on Settings → Retail sync shows what its terms say, in the retailer's own words, with their date and a link. Where they prohibit it, saving your orders pages and syncing them are two choices that are off until you turn them on, and Sync now waits for them. Your choice is kept with the date of the terms it was about; if the retailer changes its terms, the app stops there and asks again. Choosing changes whether the app does this, never how: it is as slow, and stops as readily, either way.

Walmart's terms prohibit it. Walmart's terms of use, updated September 9, 2026, say you will not use "any robot, spider … or other manual or automatic device" to gather what its site shows, or "systematically download and store" it, without Walmart's written consent. SageFin Desktop's Walmart sync does both, for your own orders on your own account. Walmart may restrict an account for any reason, so using the sync is a risk you choose to take or not.

Amazon's terms allow it, on conditions the app meets. Amazon's terms, updated August 14, 2026, allow software that acts for you if it says what it is on every request, never imitates a person or answers a robot check, and stops when Amazon turns it away. SageFin Desktop's Amazon sync tells Amazon it is an agent, and stops the first time Amazon refuses it.

Costco's terms have not been read yet, which is one reason Costco is not in the app.

SageFin's servers and the browser extension no longer sync

Until October 2026, SageFin's servers synced retailers using a sign-in you pasted in, and a SageFin browser extension synced Amazon from your browser. Both have stopped. A server reading every member's retailer accounts from one address, holding their sign-ins, works for one household and not for many; and the extension's syncs ran in ways the retailers' newer terms do not allow. SageFin Desktop replaces both.

Everything they synced stays: orders, items, matches and splits. If Settings → Retail sync still lists a retailer login made the old way, Disconnect it so SageFin stops holding its sign-in. The extension now syncs nothing and says so; you can remove it from your browser.

Reconnecting a retailer the old way, by pasting a sign-in or setting up the extension, is no longer offered, so a login that says Needs reconnection will stay that way. Its orders are still there.

Disconnecting stops SageFin, not the retailer

Disconnect deletes SageFin's copy of the sign-in and stops syncing. Your orders, and the splits made from them, stay where they are.

What it cannot do is sign you out at the shop. SageFin never calls the retailer to end anything — it only forgets. So after disconnecting, the sign-in SageFin was using is still live there until the retailer expires it or you end it yourself, and the three retailers differ in what they let you do about that.

Amazon. Amazon publishes no way to end a single session — not for us, and not for you. Deregistering devices covers Kindle, Fire, Alexa and Fire TV, and does not reach a browser. The one documented lever is yours: Amazon's help says changing your password signs you out of Amazon apps and websites on every non-Kindle device.

Two things to know if you connected Amazon with a password rather than by pasting a session. SageFin held that password, so changing it settles both problems at once. And if you gave a two-factor secret, SageFin held that too — a password change does not touch it, and it keeps working until you turn two-factor off and on again at Amazon. Amazon also carries its "don't ask for a code on this browser" setting inside the session itself, so a session may skip your second factor, and Amazon publishes no way to list or clear trusted browsers.

Walmart. Walmart does not document a way to sign out other sessions, or to see what is signed in to your account — we looked through its help center and could not find one, which is not the same as there being none. Its advice for an account you are worried about is to change your password and delete saved payment methods, and it does not say whether that ends sessions already signed in.

Costco. Costco is the one case with a firm answer, and it is a mixed one. There is no way to revoke a Costco token — not for us, and not for you; only Costco's own operators can. But the token expires within 90 days of the last sync on its own, which is the longest life Costco's sign-in provider allows. Costco has no password login, so SageFin never held a Costco password.

If any of this matters to you, do it at the retailer before or after disconnecting — the order does not matter, because disconnecting changes nothing on their side.

If your household has more than one login for the same retailer, each is a separate sign-in with its own session. Disconnecting one stops SageFin using that one and leaves the others syncing, exactly as it says. But SageFin does not record which account at the retailer each login signs in to, so it cannot tell you whether ending one session would end another. If two of them sign in to the same account, changing that account's password will stop them both.

Syncing, and re-matching

Two different things, easy to confuse:

Sync now, in SageFin Desktop, goes out to the retailer and reads orders. It is slow on purpose: it opens one page at a time, a few seconds apart, the way a person would read them.

Re-match touches no retailer at all. It takes the orders already fetched and runs them against your transactions again, which is what you want after importing older transactions or fixing a date. It finishes in seconds.

If an order and a charge did not pair up, re-match first. Only sync again if the order itself is missing.

What is kept, and what is not

Order, receipt and item details are stored with your household's data — the amounts, what was in each order, and the dates. The privacy policy is the complete account of that.

SageFin Desktop keeps your retailer sign-ins on your computer, so SageFin holds none. A sign-in pasted in the old way is held encrypted until you disconnect it, and it never leaves in an export. If you download everything, your orders come with you and your retail connections do not — the same as a bank connection, and for the same reason: a session belongs to one signed-in browser at one moment, and could not be restored into a new account even if it traveled.

When an order will not match

The charge and the order have different amounts. A split shipment charges you per shipment while the order shows the whole basket. Re-match will not fix this; the two genuinely are different numbers.

The charge is older than the orders fetched. A sync reaches back a limited way. Orders from years ago will not appear.

It is a gift card, a subscription or a digital purchase. These often bill separately from any order, and there is nothing to match them to.