Merchant Name Normalisation

How It Works

• Extraction: We retrieve the merchant's name from the receipt text using advanced OCR technology.
• Matching: Using vector-based cosine similarity and Levenshtein distance algorithms, we match the merchant's name against an imported list of known merchants.
• Normalisation: The merchant name is standardised based on the matched entry in the known merchant list.
• Verification: The normalised name is verified for accuracy.

Set-Up

1. Contact Taggun

Reach out to [email protected] to enable this feature for your account.

This feature is available in all Verbose Data Extraction API Endpoints.

2. Implementation

To streamline this process, Taggun allows clients to set up merchant name normalisation using a predefined list of known merchant names.

1. Prepare a CSV file with a list of merchants including names.
2. Import the CSV file to API Endpoint: /api/account/v1/known-merchants/import
3. Initiate the import process. Note: This may take over a minute depending on the list size.
4. Be aware that this import will replace any existing merchants set up for your account.
5. After import, export the list from API Endpoint: /api/account/v1/known-merchants/export
6. Verify the accuracy of the merchant data, especially geographical coordinates.
7. Regularly update the merchant list to reflect any changes.

API Response

"merchantName": {
    "data": "Normalised Merchant Name"
  }

Use Cases

• Consistent Naming Across Branches: Different store branches may print varying merchant names. Taggun recognises them as the same merchant, ensuring cleaner data.
• Easier Expense Sorting: Standardized names make it simple to sort and categorize expenses from the same merchant, even if the receipt names differ.
• Fairer Loyalty Programs: By matching different name variations, customers earn the right loyalty points, regardless of the branch visited.

Best Practices

1. Regularly update your merchant list to maintain accuracy and coverage.
2. Combine Merchant Name Normalisation with location data for more comprehensive merchant identification.
3. Provide feedback to Taggun for continual improvement of the normalisation process.

Get Started

Reach out to us at [email protected] to get support with Taggun's Merchant Name Normalisation.