The short answer: make the folder in your email, then tell alfred_ once: “Move receipts and bills clients send me to the Client Receipts folder,” or one folder per client. Each matching email is moved as it arrives. At month end ask: “Which receipts did Harbor Bakery send this month, with amounts?”
Thirty clients, one inbox
You keep the books for thirty small businesses. Some use a receipt app. Most email you: a forwarded supplier bill, a phone photo of a hardware store receipt, “here’s the Costco run,” a PDF statement from the landlord.
They land between client questions, payroll reminders and tax notices. At month end you search each client’s name, open every email, and save each attachment. A receipt sent with the subject “quick question” gets missed until the client asks why the expense isn’t on the P&L.
The native ways, and where they stop
A filter on the client’s address. Moves everything from that client, including the questions you need to answer.
A filter on “receipt.” Misses “here’s the Costco run” and the photo with no subject.
A receipt app. Good for the clients who use it. The ones who email are why you’re reading this.
Set up the rule
- Connect the inbox clients send receipts to (Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook or Microsoft 365). Sign in with Google or Microsoft; your password stays with them.
- Make the folder you want them in (a label, in Gmail), one for everyone or one per client.
- Say the rule, by text or in the app: “Move receipts and bills clients send me to the Client Receipts folder, but leave emails that also ask me a question in the inbox.”
- alfred_ repeats it back. Check it, and it’s saved. See Email rules.
What month end looks like
You: which receipts did harbor bakery send this month, with amounts?
alfred_: Harbor Bakery sent 7 this month. Restaurant Depot, Oct 3, $412.18 (PDF). Costco, Oct 9, photo, amount not readable. Landlord statement, Oct 1, $3,200 (PDF). Four more from Restaurant Depot, Oct 12 to 27. Want the full list by email?
Illustrative exchange. The client and amounts are invented.
Where each step happens
- Inbox: receipts move as they arrive; questions stay where you’ll answer them.
- Desktop: rules live in Settings, Rules; change one there or by text (“also move bills from Sunrise Florist”).
- Month end: ask by text or in the app for each client’s list.
The honest caveat
A rule is judged on meaning, so check the folder the first week and tighten the rule if something you needed to answer got moved. alfred_ reads the email and PDF attachments; a blurry photo may not give an amount. It doesn’t post anything to your accounting software. alfred_ is a paid product; plans are on the pricing page.
