Auto-Forward Emails For Document Recording
Recording bills, receipts and statements from your suppliers, customers and bank by hand takes time. With email forwarding, you can send these documents to Receipt Bot automatically as soon as they arrive in your inbox.
Each business in Receipt Bot has a separate email inbox for each module, such as Purchases, Sales and Bank Statements. When you email or forward a document to one of these inboxes, Receipt Bot uploads it to that module and queues it for data extraction. Once extraction is complete, you can review the data and export it to your accounting software.
Receipt Bot reads both the email body and any attachments in a supported format (PDF, JPEG, PNG or JPG).
Note: Every forwarded document uses credits, so forward only bills, invoices, receipts and statements using filters.
This article covers:
- Your Receipt Bot email inboxes
- Add and Verify an Email Inbox in Gmail
- Apply filters for auto-forwarding
- Check your forwarded documents
- Forward past emails
- Limitations
Your Receipt Bot email inboxes
Each module has its own email inbox, and documents sent to an inbox are uploaded to that module. Every inbox follows the pattern:
[your business short name].[module]@receipt-bot.com
| Module | What to send | Example email inbox |
|---|---|---|
| Purchases | Supplier bills and receipts | abctraders.purchases@receipt-bot.com |
| Supplier Statement | Statements from suppliers | abctraders.supplierstatement@receipt-bot.com |
| Sales | Invoices you issue to customers | abctraders.sales@receipt-bot.com |
| Sales Ledger | Customer Ledger Report | abctraders.salesledger@receipt-bot.com |
| Bank Statements | Bank and card statements | abctraders.statements@receipt-bot.com |
| Other Documents | Non-accounting documents | abctraders.documents@receipt-bot.com |
These are example addresses for a business with the short name “abctraders”. Your email inboxes use your own business short name.
How to copy your email inbox from Receipt Bot
Option 1 – From the Dashboard:
- In the left menu, click ‘Dashboard’.
- Scroll to the ‘Key Bookkeeping Information’ tile.
- In the Email Inbox section, click the copy icon next to the module you need.
Option 2 – From the module:
- In the left menu, click the module you need (for example, ‘Purchases’ or ‘Bank Statements’).
- In the top-right toolbar, click ‘Upload’.
- In the upload window that opens, copy the address shown in the line “You can upload [Module] by emailing them to…”.
Add and Verify an Email Inbox in Gmail
Gmail must verify any external address before it forwards emails to it.
Note: You can follow the steps below to verify your business email inbox in Gmail. (Google Workspace users: if the option to add a forwarding address is missing, ask your administrator to enable external forwarding in the Google Admin Console.)
Step 1 – In Gmail, click the ‘Settings’ (gear) icon in the top right.
Step 2 – Click ‘See all settings’.
Step 3 – Click the ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ tab (shown as Forwarding on some accounts).
Step 4 – Click ‘Add a forwarding address’.
Step 5 – Enter your Receipt Bot email inbox (for example, abctraders.purchases@receipt-bot.com).
Step 6 – Click ‘Next’.
Step 7 – In the confirmation window, click ‘Proceed’.
Step 8 – Click ‘OK’. Google will send a verification link to your Receipt Bot inbox.
Step 9 – In a new browser tab, sign in to Receipt Bot.
Step 10 – From the business menu at the top left, select the business that owns the email inbox.
Step 11 – In the left menu, click ‘Document Management’.
Step 12 – Click the ‘Email Inbox’ tab.
Step 13 – Locate the email where Upload By is “forwarding-noreply@gmail.com” and the subject contains “(Gmail Forwarding Confirmation)”, then click the file icon to open it.
Step 14 – Click the verification link inside the email.
Step 15 – On the Google page that opens, click ‘Confirm’.
Step 16 – Your Receipt Bot Inbox email is now verified, and you can set up Filters and rules for auto-forwarding.
Apply filters for auto-forwarding
You can set up filters to send specific documents to each module (recommended), or forward every incoming email to a single inbox.
Option 1 – Forward specific emails using filters (recommended)
Filters keep personal and non-accounting emails out of Receipt Bot and route bills directly to the right module.
Note: Make sure Disable forwarding is selected on Gmail’s Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab before creating filters, or all incoming mail will be forwarded.
Step 1 – In Gmail, click ‘Show search options’ (the sliders icon on the right of the search box).
Step 2 – Enter your search criteria (for example, key suppliers in From, or keywords in Subject or Has the words).
Step 3 – Tick ‘Has attachment’.
Step 4 – Click ‘Create filter’.
Step 5 – Tick ‘Forward it to’ and select your verified Receipt Bot address.
Step 6 – (Optional) Tick ‘Apply the label’ and select a label such as “Receipt Bot” to track forwarded messages.
Step 7 – Click ‘Create filter’.
| Filter criteria | Forward to (example) |
|---|---|
| From: supplier addresses + Has the words: invoice OR bill + Has attachment. | abctraders.purchases@receipt-bot.com |
| From: bank address + Has the words: statement + Has attachment | abctraders.statements@receipt-bot.com |
| From: invoicing software address + Has attachment | abctraders.sales@receipt-bot.com |
- Search syntax: Type
ORin capital letters (e.g.invoice OR bill) so Gmail matches either word. - Sent sales invoices: Filters only apply to received emails. To record invoices you send out from your own email, add your Sales email inbox to the CC or BCC field.
Option 2 – Forward all incoming emails to one inbox
Blanket forwarding sends all incoming mail to a single Receipt Bot inbox.
Warning: Gmail allows only one address for blanket forwarding. Every email you receive is processed and uses credits, and all documents are uploaded directly to that single module.
Step 1 – In Gmail, click ‘Settings’ (gear) > ‘See all settings’ > ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ tab.
Step 2 – Under Forwarding, select ‘Forward a copy of incoming mail to’.
Step 3 – Select your verified Receipt Bot email inbox from the drop-down list.
Step 4 – Choose what Gmail does with the original email (e.g. keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox).
Step 5 – Scroll down and click ‘Save Changes’.
Forward past emails
Forwarding rules only apply to new emails received after setup. To import older documents:
- In Gmail, open the email with the document.
- Click ‘Forward’.
- In the To field, enter your module email inbox (for example, abctraders.purchases@receipt-bot.com).
- Click ‘Send’.
Limitations
- Download links are not followed: Receipt Bot reads direct attachments and email body text. It does not open external download links (like Dropbox links or “View invoice” web buttons).
- Supported file formats: PDF, JPEG, PNG, and JPG.
- File size limit: 256 MB per file.
- Password-protected files: Cannot be processed. Please remove the password before sending.
- Spam: Gmail never forwards emails in your Spam folder.
- Blanket forwarding limit: Gmail permits only one blanket forwarding address per account; use filters to forward across multiple modules.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I didn’t receive Google’s verification email. What should I check?
A: Check that you selected the correct business in Receipt Bot, as each business has its own inboxes. Verify the address syntax in Gmail (the Bank Statements inbox ends in statements@, not bankstatements@). If the verification email has not arrived after a few minutes, remove the address in Gmail and add it again.
Q: Do I need to verify every module inbox separately?
A: Yes. Each module has a unique address (for example, abctraders.purchases@receipt-bot.com vs abctraders.statements@receipt-bot.com), so Gmail requires each one to be verified individually.
Q: Why isn’t my forwarded email showing in Receipt Bot?
A: Check that the email was not sent to your Gmail Spam folder, as spam is not forwarded. Also confirm that the file is an attached PDF, JPEG, PNG, or JPG rather than an external web download link.
Q: What happens if I send a document to the wrong module inbox?
A: The document is uploaded to the module matching that email inbox address. If a document lands in the wrong module, you can delete it from that module or reclassify it from Document Management.
Q: Will forwarding use my credits?
A: Yes. Every forwarded document processed uses subscription credits. Use filters to ensure only receipts, bills, and statements are forwarded.
Q: How do I stop forwarding?
A: To stop blanket forwarding, go to Gmail Settings > See all settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP, select Disable forwarding, and click Save Changes. To stop a filter, open the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab in Gmail settings and click Delete next to the filter.
Related Articles
Upload documents for data extraction
Auto-export to accounting software
Review extracted purchase invoices in Receipt Bot
Review extracted sales invoices in Receipt Bot