Automated expense and receipt capture from emails

Purpose

1.1. Automatedly capture, extract, and organize receipts and expense documents received via business email, directly streamlining financial admin for architectural design firms.
1.2. Automates data entry, document indexing, and attachment-to-ledger reconciliation for expense claims, vendor invoices, and project purchasing.
1.3. Automate forwarding structured data or PDF copies to bookkeeping, accounting, or ERP systems, reducing manual input errors, saving time, and securing audit trails.
1.4. Supports compliance by auto-storing and categorizing receipts for regulatory and tax requirements.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. New incoming email in monitored mailbox with attachment(s) or containing keywords such as "invoice", "receipt", "purchase", "bill", "expense".
2.2. Scheduled workflow trigger (e.g., run every hour) to scan mailbox for unreconciled receipts.
2.3. Manual trigger via user forwarding email to pre-set automation address.
2.4. Integration with expense app or mobile receipt capture tool uploading to central email account.

Platform Variants

3.1. Gmail
• Feature/Setting: Watch for "new attachment" using Gmail API; configure filter for sender/domain and keywords. Sample API: `users.messages.list` with `q="has:attachment invoice OR receipt"`.
3.2. Outlook 365
• Feature/Setting: Use "When a new email arrives (V3)" in Microsoft Graph; set up rules in Outlook settings with attachment filter.
3.3. Zoho Mail
• Feature/Setting: Configure IMAP fetch using Zoho Mail API; automate parse and forward to finance workflow.
3.4. IMAP/POP3 Servers
• Feature/Setting: IMAP listener for "unread with attachment"; automate attachment download and mark-as-read.
3.5. Xero
• Feature/Setting: Use “Create Receipt” or “Create Bill” API to inject parsed expense.
3.6. QuickBooks Online
• Feature/Setting: “Upload Receipt” endpoint; automate field mapping and attachment upload.
3.7. FreshBooks
• Feature/Setting: Automate “Expense Receipt Upload” with API function for image or PDF.
3.8. Expensify
• Feature/Setting: Auto-Forward Email to Expensify’s unique receipt email; automate line-item creation.
3.9. SAP Concur
• Feature/Setting: Use Concur's “Quick Expense” API; configure user email-to-expense mapping.
3.10. Dropbox
• Feature/Setting: Automate saving attachments to categorized folders using Dropbox API; organize by project/client.
3.11. Google Drive
• Feature/Setting: Automate upload to folder with OCR enabled on PDFs/images; metadata tagging.
3.12. OneDrive
• Feature/Setting: Automate file sync directly to designated expense folder; set document retention policy.
3.13. HubSpot
• Feature/Setting: Automatedly attach expense PDFs to deal records using the “Upload file” function.
3.14. Slack
• Feature/Setting: Post notification and receipt preview to #finance channel automatically.
3.15. Monday.com
• Feature/Setting: Automate creation of new row/item when expense email parsed; attachments linked.
3.16. Airtable
• Feature/Setting: Automate population of expense base with parsed email data & attachment field.
3.17. Notion
• Feature/Setting: Automate new “Expense” database entry using Notion’s API with file upload.
3.18. Salesforce
• Feature/Setting: Automate custom object creation “Receipt”; map fields and attach source document.
3.19. Pleo
• Feature/Setting: Automate “Submit Expense” REST endpoint with email attachment as receipt.
3.20. Sage
• Feature/Setting: Automate expense line creation via “UploadReceiptImage” API function; match to supplier.

Benefits

4.1. Automates expense reporting and improves accuracy by automated data extraction.
4.2. Reduces time spent on manual administrative work—streamlined receipt lifecycle.
4.3. Enables real-time budget tracking with automated importing into finance tools.
4.4. Enhances compliance and audit management with automated secure archiving.
4.5. Promotes scalable admin support for growing architectural design teams through automation.