How to Find Old Digital Purchases

Got any courses you bought but never finished (or even started)? I know I do. 

So instead of feeling guilty and overwhelmed, let’s do something about it together. Here are the four steps (and bonus info) to

1. Find purchases on your credit card or bank statement
2. Find how to log in by searching your email
3. Track the info (Airtable, Sheets/Excel, Docs/Word, etc.)
4. Schedule time to do the course or use the template, download, etc.

Check out the Organize My Digital Purchases Workshop (coming soon) to watch me find my old purchases, get more step-by-step instructions how to do this on your own, and get ready-made templates in Airtable and Sheets/Excel.

Step 1: Find Purchases on Your Credit Card or Bank Statement

One of the easiest places to start with is to follow the money. What things did you pay for? Let’s start with those. 

For me, these purchases are the ones that give me the most guilt. While I feel anxious about any course I don’t do, I feel even worse about the ones I actually paid money for, even if it’s only $7. We’ll get to paid courses that I got for free or were in a bundle later. 

Hopefully you have a second and separate bank account or credit card that you use for business. If not, please please please do that. It’s so important that you keep your business finances and personal finances separate.

If you don’t have a budgeting tool, start with your bank statement or credit card statement.

I keep my budget in YNAB (You Need a Budget), so for me it was easier to filter out my purchases for my business, Technically Eclectic, and then export them into a .csv file. I’m just going to start with the things I bought this past year. I can always expand to previous years later. But it’s good to start small so I don’t overwhelm myself.

Once I had it in a spreadsheet, I cleaned up the columns a little, applied filtering to the top row, and then sorted it by Payee. Now I can see all the recurring charges (subscriptions) vs one-time purchases.

Now that I know what I bought and who I bought it from, the next step is to find the login info so I can start making a list of all the things I bought.

Step 2: Find How to Log In By Searching Your Email

The next step is to take your purchases above and figure out (1) exactly what you bought and (2) how to log in. 

Recommendation: Pick one person and purchase. 1. ONE. Just one. Breathe.

Open your email. (If you have more than one possible email you used to sign up for the course, you may have to repeat this process.)

First: Find What You Bought

For my tracking sheet, I want to know what I bought. I can see the price on my statement but that always doesn’t tell me the name of the product I purchased.

A good way to start is to search for that person’s name plus the word invoice or receipt. However, sometimes it helps to also narrow down by date.

For example, I see I purchased something from Sage Grayson on September 6th. But credit cards are sometimes delayed a day or two, so I’ll want to search a day or two on either side of that date. Here are some searches I can do in my email:

• Sage Grayson Invoice
• Sage Grayson Receipt
• Sage Grayson after:2024/9/4 before:2024/9/8

If you don’t see anything, perhaps use less keywords (just Sage or just Grayson, not both words) or check another email.

Also, if all else fails, find that person online and email them. Explain you made a purchase (for [amount] on [date]) and ask if they can help you find what it is you bought. We’re all people here, and chances are we’re friendly and willing to help a person out. (And hopefully they reply.)

Second: Find How to Log In

Depending on what platform the person you bought from is using to host their products, the login info might be in the invoice or receipt. Sometimes, though, you may have to go searching. Almost always, the login info is sent within a day or two of purchase.

Here are some searches to try, based on my example above:

• Sage Grayson “Welcome to” (make sure to use the quotation marks so that the exact phrase is found)
• Sage Grayson Login
• Sage Grayson Password

Some other search terms I like to use to find logins in general: (make sure to use the quotes)

• “Access details”
• “You’ve been granted access to”
• “Login with your email”
• “Purchase confirmation”

People also include login links in general email footers and on their website.

Also try going to a person’s website. Look for a link to access courses or purchases. Most sign-in portals have a link to use if you forgot your password.

Bonus: Search a Person by their Email Address.

Especially for freebies, another tactic I find successful is to find a person I’ve subscribed to and go all the way back to their first email. Usually the first email I ever receive from a person is the lead magnet they sent me for signing up on their list in the first place.

In Gmail on a desktop or laptop, hover over the person’s name, then hover over their email address. You’ll get a button to copy the email.

In Gmail on your phone, open the email. Long press on the three dots to the right of their email to open the ability to copy their email address. (One tap opens the traditional menu. You have to press and hold for a few seconds to get the extra menu.) (This is also a nice, easy way to unsubscribe.)

Now you can use that email to paste into the search bar to find all the emails from that person. Keep scrolling until you get to that very first email.

Step 3: Track the Info (Airtable, Sheets/Excel, Docs/Word, etc.)

So, yeah, you could take time to find all the logins of all the people you ever bought something from. And someday you will.

But what’s really value added? Making lists or learning the info?

Take a moment since you just finished researching all this info on this one purchase to add it to your tracker. 

It’s okay if it’s just one line. Do the course, mark it complete, then move on to the next one.

If you want, you can enter partial info (business owner, date purchased, price) of other purchases. But don’t bog yourself down researching all the logins to all the courses and then trying to DO all the courses at once. 

One at a time. 

In your tracker, I recommend having some of the following columns. Pick and choose which ones work for you:

• Product name (because you want to know what you bought)
• Creator / business name (because one owner can sell multiple products that you buy on multiple dates for multiple prices that you finish on different dates. It’s okay if they all share login info, etc.)
• Product type (if you want to differentiate between courses, printables, ebooks, etc.)
• Date bought (if you want to be able to sort and filter on old vs new)
• Amount paid (an extra way to keep track of expenses)
• Topic (if you want to be able to group or search later by themes like SEO, social media, email marketing, blogging, etc.)
• Why bought (leave yourself a note of what problem you bought this course in order to solve.)
• Start date (when did you start learning the info)
• Status (if you want to track To Do, In progress, or Done. Can also call the column Done and use a check box)
• Login URL (where do you go to access the courses?)
• Login (I recommend using a utility like LastPass or 1Password or KeePass, not keeping logins here. But if you don’t use one of those, this is the next best thing. Just be careful.)
• Password (I recommend using a utility like LastPass or 1Password or KeePass, not keeping passwords here. But if you don’t use one of those, this is the next best thing. Just be careful.)
• Bundle or Summit name (in case you want to be able to group/filter on things you picked up from the same bundle or summit)
• Link to folder (Do you have a folder in your Google Drive/Dropbox/One Drive where you’re keeping downloads from the course, notes, etc.?)
• Attachments (this is more for printables, eBooks, etc. than it is for courses. Attach it here instead of saving it in your online folders.)
• Affiliate info (put info here if you’re an affiliate for something)
• Notes (I always like having a Notes column for just random things I think of)

Here’s a screenshot of my tracker beginnings in Airtable in grid form: 

What I also love about Airtable is the ability to look at in other formats, like a Trello or Kanban board, cards, calendars, etc.

Check out the Organize My Digital Purchases Workshop (coming soon) if you’d like to see me do my process on my own accounts, get more step-by-step instructions to do this on your own, and use ready-made templates in Sheets and Airtable.

Schedule time to do the course

I don’t know about you, but I have all these good intentions but struggle to find the time. 

The main problem is that as a mom working full time, the time I find to sit down at the computer is usually the time I need to be working on a task. It’s hard to sit down to the computer to watch a video or do a course.

I usually have better success treating course videos like a podcast and listening to them on the go. Of course, my phone is more mobile but sometimes it’s hard to get the course loaded up. One of the best parts about having a tracker is that I have a link that I can tap to open it on my phone.

Also many of the course platforms out there also have their own app. 

(Bonus for any courses you purchase from creators using Kajabi…there’s only one login and then you can access anything else you’ve ever bought using their app. I also find videos on Skool and Heartbeat easy to listen to while I walk, drive, do chores, etc.)

Summary

That was a lot, but it can be boiled down to four steps, some of them optional:

1. Find purchases on your credit card or bank statement
2. Find what you bought and how to log in. (Bonus search terms for all your “purchases” even freebies or bundle offerings)
3. Put the info in your tracker (Airtable, Sheets/Excel, Docs/Word, etc.)
4. Schedule time to do the course.

Really, the only important two tasks are finding the info and doing the course. 

You invested the money, now invest the time to make it worthwhile.

Make it easy for yourself to listen to the videos or read the lesson by finding ways to crossover between your computer and your phone. Plan ahead when you can watch the video, whether they’re 5 minutes or over an hour (which you’ll probably watch in chunks).

Stay focused on one course at a time. Trying to do multiple courses at once is more likely to lead to burnout or the lack of ability to finish any course.

If you have any other tips or search terms you use to find emails, let me know! You can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Check out the Organize My Digital Purchases Workshop (coming soon) if you’d like to see me do my process on my own accounts, get more step-by-step instructions to do this on your own, and use ready-made templates in Sheets and Airtable.