Automated invoice intake for software

Before You Begin

You need edit permission for software applications to manage the intake address and approved senders, and to approve invoices.
The application must already exist. See Getting Started with Software Applications.
Related article: Tracking Software Spend & Expenses.

How It Works

Each application in Expiration Reminder has its own unique invoice intake email address. When you — or your vendor — forward an invoice to that address, Expiration Reminder automatically reads the invoice and creates a spend entry on the Spend tab:

High-confidence invoices are recorded and marked Reconciled.
Lower-confidence or unreadable invoices are recorded, flagged Needs Review, and routed to the Invoices to Review inbox for manual confirmation.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Find the application's intake address

Open the application.
Click the Invoice Intake tab.
The Invoice Intake Address card displays the application's unique forwarding address. Click Copy to copy it to your clipboard.

Tip: You can also set up a forwarding rule in your own inbox so invoices from a vendor are automatically forwarded to this address.

Step 2: Add approved senders (allowlist)

To control which senders are accepted, add their email addresses to the Sender Allowlist. Only emails from listed addresses will be processed.

On the Invoice Intake tab, find the Sender Allowlist card.
Type a sender's email address and click Add Sender.

Senders appear in the list below. A sender that has been blocked for sending suspicious mail shows a Quarantined badge — click Unquarantine to allow them again, or the trash icon to remove them.

Step 3: Rotate the intake address (if needed)

If the intake address starts receiving spam or is otherwise compromised, you can generate a new one to replace it.

On the Invoice Intake tab, click Rotate Address.
Confirm the rotation. A new address is generated immediately and the old address stops accepting mail.

Step 4: Review captured invoices

In the left navigation, open Software → Invoices to Review.

The Invoices to Review inbox lists every automatically captured invoice that is still waiting for confirmation, across all applications. Each row displays the Application, Sender, Date, Amount, and a Confidence score — or a Parse Failed badge if the invoice could not be read.

For each row you can:

Click the eye icon to View the captured details.
Click the pencil icon to Edit the entry and correct anything.
Click the check icon to Approve the entry — this marks it Reconciled and removes it from the inbox.
Click the rotate icon to Re-parse the original invoice (available when the raw invoice was retained).

Note: When you approve an entry, or re-parse it to a high-confidence result, it is removed from the inbox and recorded as a confirmed spend entry on that application's Spend tab.

Tips & Best Practices

Add your vendors to the Sender Allowlist before forwarding any invoices, so that their emails are accepted by the intake address.
Review the Invoices to Review inbox regularly to ensure no invoices remain unconfirmed for extended periods.
If an invoice was parsed incorrectly, use Edit to correct the amount, date, or other fields rather than deleting the entry.

Troubleshooting

Issue: A forwarded invoice never appeared. Solution: Verify that you used the application's exact intake address, that the sender is on the Sender Allowlist, and that the sender is not quarantined. If the invoice was received but could not be read, it will still appear in Invoices to Review with a Parse Failed badge.
Issue: The Re-parse button is disabled. Solution: Re-parse is only available when the original invoice file has been retained — invoices are stored for 90 days — and you have edit permission for the application.
Issue: An entry is stuck in Needs Review. Solution: Open it from Invoices to Review, confirm the details, and click Approve.