Invoice processing automation

Vendor invoices arrive by email. That's just how it works — no matter how many procurement portals exist, most invoices still land as PDF attachments in someone's inbox. And that someone has to download them, open them, enter the data into your accounting system, and make sure nothing gets lost.

It's repetitive, error-prone, and easy to fall behind on.

The idea

Set up an address like invoices@yourdomain.com in EmailConnect. When an invoice email arrives, you get a webhook with the full message and attachments. Your automation takes it from there.

Vendor emails invoice to invoices@yourdomain.com
  → EmailConnect delivers webhook (with PDF attachment URL)
    → Your automation downloads the attachment
    → Extracts invoice data (manually, OCR, or AI — your choice)
    → Creates an entry in your accounting system
    → Notifies the right person for approval

The invoice goes from "sitting in an inbox" to "in the system and routed for approval" without anyone having to check a mailbox.

What EmailConnect handles

EmailConnect's job here is straightforward: receive the email, parse it into structured data, and deliver it via webhook. You get:

  • Sender info — who sent the invoice (vendor name and email)
  • Subject line — often contains the invoice number or reference
  • Email body — sometimes the invoice details are inline, not just in the attachment
  • Attachments — downloadable via URL, usually PDFs but sometimes images or spreadsheets

The attachment download URL is the key piece. Your automation can grab the PDF and process it however you want.

What happens on your side

How you extract data from the invoice PDF depends on your setup and volume:

Low volume (< 20/month): You might not need automatic extraction at all. Just having the invoice automatically appear in a shared channel or task board with the PDF attached — instead of buried in someone's inbox — is already a big improvement. Someone reviews and enters it manually, but at least nothing gets missed.

Medium volume: Use a document processing service (there are plenty) to extract invoice numbers, amounts, dates, and line items from the PDF. Feed that into your accounting tool via API.

High volume: Full automation with OCR/AI extraction, three-way matching against purchase orders, and automatic approval for recurring vendors under a certain threshold. This is a bigger build, but the webhook-based intake is the same.

In all cases, EmailConnect gets the invoice out of an inbox and into a system. What that system does with it is up to you.

Practical routing

Not all invoices need the same treatment. Your automation can route based on simple signals:

  • Known vendor? Match the sender email against your vendor list. Recurring vendors from known addresses can be fast-tracked.
  • Amount mentioned in the subject? Some vendors include the total in the email body. Use that to route high-value invoices for executive approval.
  • Department-specific addresses? Set up invoices-marketing@ and invoices-engineering@ if different departments handle their own procurement.

The audit trail

One underrated benefit: every invoice that comes through has a timestamp, a sender, and the original email preserved. If there's ever a dispute about when an invoice was received or what it said, you have the data. No digging through someone's inbox trying to find a three-month-old email.

Getting started

  1. Create your invoices address in EmailConnect
  2. Tell your vendors to send invoices there (or set up auto-forwarding from your current invoices inbox)
  3. Build the flow: receive webhook → download attachment → process → route for approval
  4. Start simple — even just forwarding invoices to a shared channel with the PDF attached is a win over a shared inbox

The goal isn't to build a full ERP overnight. It's to make sure invoices stop sitting in someone's inbox where they can be forgotten, and start flowing into a system where they're tracked and visible.