Purchase Categorizer Helper (browser extension) · last updated 16 September 2026
Purchase Categorizer Helper is a private household tool. It has no accounts, no analytics, and no server operated by the developer. The extension sends data only to a backend that you run and that you explicitly pair it with, and to your own Monarch Money account.
When you press Retrieve orders on a retailer's order-history page, the extension reads the order information that is already visible to you in that signed-in session:
| Purchase history | Order dates, order identifiers, item names, quantities, unit and line prices, taxes, fees, tips and order totals. |
|---|---|
| How an order was paid | The tender type (for example “card”, a gift card, or store credit), the amount on each tender, and the last four digits of a card. A full card number, gift-card number or security code is never read or stored. |
| Your account email | The email address of the account you paired with is stored locally in the browser and shown in the extension's popup, so you can see which backend and identity the browser is paired as. |
| Page content | Order details are read from the text of the retailer's own pages. No other browsing activity, history or page is read. |
To one place: the backend URL you paired the extension with, over HTTPS, protected by Cloudflare Access. That backend is operated by you, on hardware you control.
Where an order can be matched to a transaction, the extension also uploads an itemised receipt to your own Monarch Money account, using the session already signed in to in your browser. No Monarch credential is read, stored or transmitted by the extension.
Nothing is sent to the developer or to any third party. There is no telemetry, no analytics and no advertising identifier.
Solely for the extension's single purpose: collecting your own retail order history and delivering it to your own personal finance backend, so that purchases can be itemised and categorised. Specifically, the data is:
The browser stores only what it needs to work: the paired backend URL, a pairing token, your paired email address, and per-browser scan state. Order contents are not retained in browser storage.
Order data lives in your own backend, for as long as you keep it. Because you run that backend, you can delete any or all of it at any time. Removing the extension removes everything it stored in the browser; to revoke its access, revoke the pairing token on your backend.
The extension is not directed at children and collects nothing from them.
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. The extension is distributed privately, so material changes are communicated directly to the people using it.
Questions about this policy or about data the extension handles: cvanaver@gmail.com.