Invoice Inbox

Invoice Inbox lets you forward supplier invoices to a dedicated email address. Brikly automatically receives the email, extracts the invoice data, matches line items to your ingredients, and creates invoice records - no manual upload needed.

How it works

1. Enable Invoice Inbox in your settings.
2. Copy your unique inbox address (e.g. your-business@invoices.brik.ly).
3. Forward supplier invoices to that address.
4. Review the automatically processed invoices in your invoice list.

Supplier email ──▶ your-business@invoices.brik.ly ──▶ AI Extraction ──▶ Matching ──▶ Invoice created

Behind the scenes, Brikly validates the email, uploads any attachments, runs the same AI extraction used for manual uploads, and auto-matches line items to your existing ingredients. You receive a notification when processing is complete.

Setting up

Enable the feature

1. Navigate to Invoices in the sidebar.
2. Click Inbox Settings.
3. Toggle Enable Invoice Inbox to on.
4. Click Save.

Copy your inbox address

Once enabled, your unique inbox email address is displayed on the settings page. It follows the format:

your-business-slug@invoices.brik.ly

Click the copy button next to the address to copy it to your clipboard.

Configure allowed senders (optional)

For added security, you can restrict which email addresses or domains are allowed to send invoices to your inbox.

Allowed sender domains - add domains (one per line) to only accept emails from those domains:

bidfood.co.uk
brakes.co.uk
tesco.com

Allowed sender emails - add specific email addresses for more precise control:

invoices@bidfood.co.uk
accounts@brakes.co.uk

tip

If both lists are empty, emails from any sender are accepted. If either list has entries, only matching senders are allowed. Start with no restrictions and tighten later once you know which suppliers send invoices regularly.

Forwarding invoices

Supported formats

Format	Extensions	Notes
PDF	.pdf	Best quality - especially PDFs with selectable text
PNG	.png	Screenshots from supplier portals
JPEG	.jpg, .jpeg	Photos of printed invoices
GIF	.gif	Supported but less common
WebP	.webp	Supported but less common

Maximum file size is 10 MB per attachment.

Ways to forward

Manual forwarding - forward individual invoice emails from your email client to your inbox address. This is the simplest way to get started.

Auto-forwarding rules - set up email rules so supplier invoices arrive automatically:

• Gmail: Settings → Filters → Create filter matching supplier addresses → Forward to your inbox address.
• Outlook: Rules → New rule → From specific senders → Forward to your inbox address.
• Apple Mail: Preferences → Rules → Add rule → Forward to your inbox address.

CC or BCC your suppliers - add your Brikly inbox address as an additional recipient with your suppliers so invoices arrive directly without any forwarding.

info

If an email has no file attachments but contains invoice content in the body (e.g. some suppliers send invoices as HTML tables), Brikly converts the email body into a PDF and processes it as an invoice.

What happens after forwarding

Validation

Brikly checks every incoming email:

• Is Invoice Inbox enabled for your account?
• Is the sender in your allowed list (if configured)?
• Is the sending rate within limits?

If any check fails, the email is logged as Rejected with a reason you can review in the email logs.

Extraction and matching

Each valid attachment is uploaded and queued for AI extraction - the same engine used for manual uploads. The AI reads the invoice and extracts the supplier name, invoice number, date, line items, quantities, prices, VAT, and totals. Line items are then automatically matched to your existing ingredients using the learning system.

Duplicate detection

If Brikly detects that an invoice has already been processed (e.g. you forwarded the same email twice), it flags the duplicate and does not create a second record.

Notification

You receive a notification when processing is complete - whether the invoice was created successfully, flagged as a duplicate, or encountered an error.

Monitoring email logs

Viewing the logs

1. Navigate to Invoices in the sidebar.
2. Click Email Logs (or use the link in Inbox Settings).

The logs page shows every email received by your inbox:

Column	Description
Date	When the email was received
From	The sender's email address
Subject	The email subject line
Attachments	Number of file attachments
Status	Current processing status
Invoices Created	Number of invoices generated from this email

Status meanings

Status	Meaning
Pending	Email received, waiting to be processed
Processing	AI extraction in progress
Completed	Invoices created successfully
Duplicate	Invoice already exists - no new record created
Rejected	Email failed validation (hover for the reason)
Failed	An error occurred during processing

Use the status filter at the top of the table to quickly find emails that need attention.

Common rejection reasons

Reason	What to do
Sender not in allowed list	Add the sender's email or domain in Inbox Settings
Email ingestion not enabled	Toggle the feature on in Inbox Settings
Rate limit exceeded	Wait for the limit to reset and resend

Rate limits

Your inbox accepts up to 20 emails per hour by default. This is more than enough for normal usage.

If you hit the limit:

• Additional emails within that hour are logged as Rejected.
• They are not lost - you can see them in the email logs.
• Resend after the rate-limit window resets.

Tips for best results

• Process a few invoices manually first for each new supplier - this helps the learning system build up patterns before you switch to inbox ingestion.
• Use auto-forwarding rules to reduce manual effort once you are confident the system handles your suppliers well.
• Use original PDFs whenever possible - they produce the most accurate extractions.
• Check the logs regularly during your first week to make sure everything is working as expected.
• Restrict senders if you want to prevent accidental processing of non-invoice emails.

Using Inbox alongside other methods

Invoice Inbox works alongside manual uploads and the Chrome extension. Invoices from all three methods appear in the same invoice list - there is no need to choose one method exclusively. Use whichever suits each situation:

Method	Best for
Manual upload	Quick one-off invoices you already have as files
Chrome extension	Capturing invoices directly from supplier portals
Invoice Inbox	Automating the flow for suppliers who email invoices regularly