Knowledge · mail
Automatically Filing Email Attachments: Invoices & Receipts Without Manual Work
How to automatically archive attachments from email inboxes: connect your inbox, choose folders – invoices and receipts land classified in the archive.
Automatically filing email attachments means: you connect your inbox once to your document filing system – from then on, incoming attachments like invoices, delivery notes and contracts are imported, read, classified and made searchable all by themselves. The most error-prone step of office organization, the manual saving and sorting, disappears completely.
Why manual filing fails
The majority of business documents arrive today as email attachments – invoices above all. The manual chain behind it is long and full of gaps: open the mail, save the attachment, name it sensibly, place it in the right folder, mark the mail as done. Every step can be skipped, and one is enough: the invoice gets stuck in a colleague's inbox and is missing from accounting at the end of the month. The problem scales with volume – the more receipts, the more certain something gets lost.
How the automatic import works
With email import in webRichtung documents, the setup runs in three steps:
- Connect the inbox and choose the relevant folders – one, several or all.
- Set a start date: From there, the historical import runs first, then the ongoing sync. You can extend the historical period retroactively later, without reconnecting the inbox.
- Done – new attachments now land in documents by themselves and go through the same processing as any other upload: read, classify, make searchable.
Two properties are important here: only attachments are imported, not mail texts as separate documents – this keeps the archive clean. And the mail context (sender, subject, received date) is retained as search and verification context: you can also find the invoice later via the sender.
Which inboxes are suitable
The biggest effects come from inboxes with a high share of receipts:
- accounting@ / invoice@ – the classic: supplier invoices flow fully automatically into the archive
- info@ – the catch-all where receipts otherwise get lost among inquiries
- incoming inboxes of individual departments – such as order confirmations in purchasing
The inboxes of your organization are managed centrally in core under Administration → Integrations: there they are connected via IMAP, with responsible parties and visibility per inbox. You then use the same inboxes in webRichtung mail for reading and replying – import and teamwork access the same connection.
From attachment to archived document
After the import, documents first land in the workspace and are processed: the platform reads each document, classifies it (e.g. as an invoice or contract) and makes it searchable by content, type, date and even amount. If it detects a deadline or a necessary task in the process, it prepares it and places it in your inbox for approval – a cancellation deadline sent by mail becomes a prepared reminder instead of a surprise.
For retention, documents offers a GoBD archive with Object Lock and periods of 6, 8 or 10 years; processing starts at 0.09 € per document (0.06 € in batch). You can find details about the setup in the documentation, the full picture in the article Connect inbox, file attachments automatically.
This article provides general information and does not replace legal or tax advice.
FAQ
How can I automatically file email attachments?
By connecting your inbox to a document module: you select the relevant folders and a start date – from then on, incoming attachments are automatically imported, read, classified and made searchable.
Are whole emails or just attachments imported?
With email import in webRichtung documents, only attachments are imported, not the mail texts as separate documents. However, the mail context – sender, subject, received date – is retained at the document as search and verification context.
Can I also process old emails retroactively?
Yes. When connecting, you set a start date from which the historical import runs; after that, the ongoing sync takes over. You can extend the historical period retroactively later, without reconnecting the inbox.
What does automatic document filing cost?
With webRichtung documents, processing starts at 0.09 euros per document (0.06 euros in batch). The account and users cost nothing; billing is by Pay per Use via a Credit balance.
Is automatic filing GoBD-compliant?
webRichtung documents offers a GoBD archive with Object Lock and retention over 6, 8 or 10 years. Whether your overall processes are GoBD-compliant also depends on your organization – clarify this with your tax advisor if in doubt.