Guide

How to automatically forward receipts from Gmail and Outlook

Most business receipts already arrive by email, so the easiest way to collect them is to stop moving them by hand. A filter in Gmail or a rule in Outlook can forward every receipt to one address the moment it lands. MonthEnd gives each business that address and files each receipt for you, then sends your accountant the month as a ZIP and a spreadsheet. Here is how to set up the forwarding, whichever address you send it to.

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Before you start: pick one destination address

Choose one address that will receive every receipt for the business: a mailbox you made for receipts, your bookkeeper's intake address or a receipt tool's forwarding address. If you run more than one business, use one address per business so receipts never mix.

Then open last month's card statement and find one real receipt email for each recurring charge. You will copy the exact From address from those emails. Vendors often send billing mail from a different address than their newsletters, so a real receipt beats a guess.

Gmail: confirm the address, then add filters

Gmail will only forward to an address that has confirmed it. Do this once:

1. On the web, open Settings → See all settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
2. Choose Add a forwarding address and enter your destination address.
3. Gmail sends a confirmation message to that address. Open its link, or paste its code back into Gmail, and confirm.
4. Leave the setting that forwards a copy of all incoming mail turned off. You only want receipts, and filters handle that.

Then create one filter per vendor, or one filter for several:

1. Go to Settings → Filters and Blocked Addresses → Create a new filter.
2. In From, paste the address a real receipt came from. Several vendors can share one filter: from:(notion.so OR stripe.com).
3. Create the filter, check Forward it to, and choose your destination address.
4. Leave Skip the Inbox off if you still want the receipt in Gmail.

A filter only acts on mail that arrives after you create it. For receipts already in your inbox, forward them by hand once.

Outlook: add a forwarding rule

1. In Outlook on the web, open Settings → Mail → Rules → Add new rule.
2. Give it a name such as “Receipts to accountant”.
3. Add a condition: From is the vendor, or the subject includes “invoice” or “receipt”.
4. Add the action Forward to and enter your destination address. Forward keeps a copy; avoid a rule that deletes the original.
5. Save the rule.

In Outlook for Windows or Mac, the same rule lives under File → Manage Rules & Alerts, or the Rules editor in settings. The condition and the forward action are the same. A work or school account may have outside forwarding turned off by its administrator; if forwarded receipts never arrive, ask them.

Filter on the sender, not just the word “receipt”

• Sender filters are precise. A From address copied from a real receipt catches that vendor's bills and little else.
• Subject-word filters are wide. “Invoice” and “receipt” also appear in marketing, shipping updates and replies. If you use them, pair them with a From condition for noisy vendors.
• Check once a month. When a new charge shows up on the card statement with no receipt, find its email and add that sender to a filter.

Receipts that don't arrive by email

• Links instead of files. Some vendors send a “view your invoice” link with no attachment. Open it and save the PDF, or use the vendor's billing page.
• Billing portals. If a vendor never emails receipts, turn on emailed invoices in its billing settings if it offers that, so the filter can catch them next month.
• Paper receipts. Photograph them the day you get them and email the photo to the same destination address.

Test it

Before you click Create filter in Gmail, run the search first: it should list that vendor's past receipts and nothing else. Then wait for the next receipt and check that it reached the destination. Gmail will not forward anything until the destination address is confirmed, which is the most common reason a new filter seems to do nothing.

Then let MonthEnd send the month

MonthEnd gives each business its own forwarding address, such as yourbusiness@usemonthend.com, to use as the destination in these filters. When Gmail or Outlook sends its forwarding confirmation, MonthEnd shows the link and code in your dashboard, which also has the Gmail and Outlook steps with your real address. Each forwarded receipt is kept in private storage and sorted by month, and you can fix the vendor, date or amount. If a Stripe or Paddle email has no file, MonthEnd tries to fetch the invoice. On your send day (the 1st by default, or any day from 1 to 28) your accountant gets the previous month: a short email, a ZIP and a CSV with one row per receipt, with a copy to you. Start a 14-day trial, no card needed to start, or read the month-end receipts checklist.

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