---
title: "Automatically Filing Email Attachments: Invoices & Receipts Without Manual Work"
description: "How to automatically archive attachments from email inboxes: connect your inbox, choose folders – invoices and receipts land classified in the archive."
type: "wissen"
product: "mail"
slug: "email-attachments-automatic-filing"
source_language: "de"
target_languages: ["de", "en", "es", "pl", "tr"]
published: "2026-06-10"
status: "publish"
faq_json: [{"q":"How can I automatically file email attachments?","a":"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."}, {"q":"Are whole emails or just attachments imported?","a":"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."}, {"q":"Can I also process old emails retroactively?","a":"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."}, {"q":"What does automatic document filing cost?","a":"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."}, {"q":"Is automatic filing GoBD-compliant?","a":"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."}]
language: "en"
source_id: "wissen/email-anhaenge-automatisch-ablegen"
source_hash: "0b70abafc2567e4179a55590e8172e05d5a117f6cae1f050b0a2d447de699b9d"
---

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:

1. **Connect the inbox** and choose the relevant **folders** – one, several or all.
2. **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.
3. **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](https://www.webrichtung.de/module/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](https://docs.webrichtung.de/documents/hochladen-und-import/), the full picture in the article [Connect inbox, file attachments automatically](/de/wissen/dokumente-per-email-importieren.html).

This article provides general information and does not replace legal or tax advice.