Splitting a month of spending into categories tells you that "food" is high. When you actually try to cut back, though, it's more useful to know where the money goes. The coffee shop on the way to work, the convenience store around the corner, the supermarket you visit every weekend: each visit is small, but frequent visits add up. Your receipt spreadsheet already has a Store column, so a few formulas are enough to build a ranking.

1. Start with the receipt sheet

Use the spreadsheet from the receipt tool as it is: No. in column A, Date in B, Store in C and Total in D, on a sheet called Receipts. Delete the Total row at the bottom, or keep it outside the ranges below, so it isn't counted as a store.

The ranking groups rows by store name, so the same store has to be spelled exactly the same way every time. When you review the table, fix any store names marked in yellow against the receipt photo; it saves work here.

2. When branches split one store into several

If you want Starbucks Main St and Starbucks Airport counted together, add a short name column without the branch. Type Short name in E1, put this in E2 and fill down:

=IFERROR(LEFT(C2, FIND(" ", C2)-1), C2)

It keeps everything before the first space and leaves names without a space unchanged. That's wrong for chains whose name itself has a space, like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, which would be cut to Whole and Trader. After filling down, scan column E and fix those by hand. If you'd rather see each branch separately, skip this step and use column C instead.

3. Make a list of stores

Add a new sheet and name it By store. This method works in every version of Excel:

  1. Copy the names in column E (or C) of Receipts and paste them into A2 of By store.
  2. Select column A and choose Data → Remove Duplicates. Each name is now listed once.
  3. Type Store in A1, Total in B1, Visits in C1 and Average in D1.

In Microsoft 365, Excel 2021 or Google Sheets you can build the list with one formula in A2 instead: =UNIQUE(FILTER(Receipts!E2:E300, Receipts!E2:E300<>"")). A list made this way can't be reordered with the Sort button in step 5, so if you want to sort it, copy the list and use Paste Special → Values first.

4. Totals, visits and averages

Put these three formulas in row 2 of By store and fill down to the end of the list:

  • B2 total: =SUMIF(Receipts!E:E, A2, Receipts!D:D)
  • C2 visits: =COUNTIF(Receipts!E:E, A2)
  • D2 average per visit: =ROUND(B2/C2, 2)

If you skipped the short name column, change E:E to C:C. For a quick look at one chain without a helper column, use a wildcard: =SUMIF(Receipts!C:C, "Starbucks*", Receipts!D:D) adds up every store whose name starts with Starbucks.

To see each store's share of total spending, type Share in E1, put =B2/SUM(B:B) in E2 and click Home → Percent Style (%).

5. Sort from biggest to smallest

Click A1, open Data → Sort, sort by Total, order Largest to Smallest. The stores where you spent the most move to the top. Change the sort column to Visits to see where you go most often.

Each formula points at the store name in its own row, so sorting doesn't mix up the numbers. The two rankings tell different stories:

  • High total, few visits: supermarkets, doctors, furniture stores. These are planned, larger purchases; budgeting for them ahead works better than trying to cut them.
  • High total and many visits: coffee, convenience stores, takeout. These are habits. Even with a small average per visit, a large monthly total makes them the first place to look.

6. Limit it to a date range

If the file holds several months of receipts, you'll often want just this month. On By store, enter a start date in G1 and an end date in H1, then change the B2 formula to:

=SUMIFS(Receipts!D:D, Receipts!E:E, A2, Receipts!B:B, ">="&$G$1, Receipts!B:B, "<="&$H$1)

Do the same for visits: =COUNTIFS(Receipts!E:E, A2, Receipts!B:B, ">="&$G$1, Receipts!B:B, "<="&$H$1). The numbers update whenever you change the dates; just run the sort again. If nothing matches, check that your dates aren't stored as text; see Fixing Excel dates that show as numbers, text or the wrong day.

Summary

Make store names consistent (add a short name column if branches get in the way), list each store once, then use SUMIF for the total and COUNTIF for the number of visits and sort largest to smallest. Looking at the total ranking and the visit ranking side by side shows quickly where small amounts are adding up. To combine this with categories, see Summarize expenses by category and month with an Excel PivotTable, and for the full month-end routine, A 30-minute monthly expense review, step by step.