File the receipts in your inbox into Zoho Books

The receipts arrive by email: software subscriptions, travel, the office supplier. Getting each one into Zoho Books as an expense, with the PDF attached, is the job that piles up until month end. In this recipe the agent reads the receipts in your inbox, checks what is already in Books, and records the rest as expenses with their receipts attached. You approve each one.

What you need

• Zoho Books, and the mail account your receipts arrive at, set up in XataWorks. Bring your Zoho apps into XataWorks does both for Zoho Mail; any other account works too.

1. Open Books and Mail in one chat

Open Zoho Books in the chat’s browser panel, and Mail (View ▸ Mail ▸ All Mail) in the same chat, so the agent can reach both.

2. Find what is missing

Find the receipts and invoices from suppliers in my mail for September, including PDF attachments. Compare them with the expenses already in Zoho Books for September, and list the ones that aren’t there yet, with date, vendor and amount.

The agent reads the messages and the text of their PDF, Word and Excel attachments. Mail asks before each step the agent takes in it, reads included. Answering Allow tools that only read on your mail covers the rest of this chat. Reading Books never asks.

3. Record them, with their receipts

Record those as expenses in Zoho Books, each with its receipt attached. Use Software for subscriptions and Travel for flights and hotels, and ask me about anything else.

Recording an expense posts to your books at once, so XataWorks asks you about each one, showing the account, vendor, amount and receipt, unless you have chosen to allow even consequential changes on Books. Each expense arrives in Zoho Books with its receipt attached.

4. Make it a weekly habit

Ask the agent to schedule step 2 in this chat every Monday morning for the week just gone. The list of missing receipts is waiting for you, and you choose what to record.

Where this recipe stops

• Only the words in a receipt. The agent reads text, so a scanned receipt or a photo has nothing to read; it is listed for you to enter.
• Expenses, not payments. The agent records expenses and attaches receipts. It never edits, deletes or voids anything in Zoho Books, and paying a bill stays in Books.
• Receipts up to 10 MB. A larger file, or one Zoho doesn’t accept, leaves the expense recorded and tells you to attach the receipt in Books.

Read more

• Mail: what an agent can do with your mail, and what it asks.
• Approvals and permissions: why some changes ask every time.