How to automatically forward email receipts (Gmail, Outlook, iCloud)

Ride-shares, online orders, subscriptions, flights and software: a growing share of what you buy never produces a paper receipt. The receipt arrives by email, lands between newsletters and delivery updates, and is out of sight by the end of the week.

Those are the receipts that go missing at tax time. Not because they were never sent, but because finding them means searching an inbox for "receipt" in April and hoping.

The fix takes about ten minutes, and you do it once: a rule in your email that sends receipts to one place the moment they arrive. This guide covers Gmail, Outlook and iCloud Mail, and what to put in the rule so it catches receipts without catching everything else.

Before you start: one address for receipts#

Forwarding needs a destination. It can be any address you keep records in: a separate mailbox you check at tax time, your bookkeeper's inbox, or a receipts app that reads what arrives.

In Bilbx, that is your own @bilbx.com address, under Email receipts in Settings in the app, or in the web portal's sidebar. Receipts forwarded there are scanned the way a photo would be: the shop, date, total and sales tax are read for you, and the original is kept. The steps below work the same whichever address you use.

Gmail: forward only your receipts#

Gmail forwards in two parts. First you add the address and confirm it; then a filter decides which emails go there. Both need Gmail in a browser on a computer: the Gmail app on a phone doesn't have these settings.

Part 1: add and confirm the forwarding address#

1. In Gmail, click Settings (top right), then See all settings.
2. Open the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab and click Add a forwarding address.
3. Enter your receipts address, then click Next, Proceed and OK.
4. Gmail emails a confirmation to that address. Enter the confirmation code in the Forwarding section and click Verify, or open the link in that email.

If the address is your Bilbx one, the confirmation arrives in Bilbx rather than in an inbox you can open. Bilbx picks it out and shows the code on the Email receipts page, ready to copy into Gmail.

Part 2: a filter that forwards receipts#

1. In the search box at the top of Gmail, click Show search options.
2. Describe what your receipts have in common. In Subject, for example, enter receipt OR invoice OR "order confirmation".
3. Click Create filter at the bottom of the search window.
4. Tick Forward it to, choose your receipts address, and click Create filter.

A filter only acts on emails that arrive after you create it. For receipts already in your inbox, forward the ones you need by hand (see below).

Outlook: a rule that forwards receipts#

These steps are for Outlook.com, Outlook on the web and the new Outlook for Windows, which share the same settings.

1. Select Settings, then Mail > Rules, and select Add rule.
2. Give the rule a name, such as Receipts.
3. Add a condition: for example, the subject includes receipt, or the email is from a shop you buy from regularly.
4. Add the action Forward to and enter your receipts address.
5. Select Save.

Outlook also offers Redirect to, which delivers the email as if it came straight from the shop, and Forward as attachment, which wraps the whole email inside a file. For Bilbx, choose Forward to: the email then arrives from you, and Bilbx reads it and its PDF or photo attachments directly. An email wrapped inside a file isn't opened.

iCloud Mail: a rule on iCloud.com#

iCloud Mail rules are set up on the iCloud website. The Mail app on an iPhone doesn't have them.

1. Go to icloud.com/mail and sign in.
2. Select the Settings button at the top of the Mailboxes list, then choose Settings.
3. Select Rules in the sidebar, then the Add button.
4. Name the rule. Under Message, choose which emails it applies to, such as ones from a shop or with receipt in the subject.
5. Under Action, choose to forward the email, and enter your receipts address.
6. Select Add.

A new rule can take up to 15 minutes to start working, and each rule forwards to one address. Leave Mail Forwarding, in the same settings, switched off: like Gmail's option, it forwards every email.

On your phone: forward one at a time#

For a receipt already in your inbox, or one a rule missed, open it in any mail app, tap Forward, and send it to your receipts address. Save the address as a contact so it fills in after a couple of letters.

What to put in the rule#

A rule is only as good as what it matches. Patterns that work:

• Subject words. Receipts usually say what they are: receipt, invoice, order confirmation. Avoid order on its own, which also matches shipping updates and sales.
• Senders you buy from regularly. A rule for a supplier, a ride-share or a subscription is precise. On its own it also forwards that sender's newsletters, so combine it with a subject word where you can.
• Start narrow. It's easier to add a sender when a receipt slips through than to clear out a month of forwarded promotions.

What Bilbx does with a forwarded receipt#

• Attachments are kept as sent. A PDF invoice stays that PDF, and a photo stays a photo. That is the original record.
• No attachment? The email becomes the receipt. Bilbx turns it into a PDF with the sender, date and subject at the top, like printing the email.
• Then it's scanned like any other receipt. The shop, date, total and sales tax are read for you.
• Mail from you goes straight in. Receipts forwarded from the email address you sign in with arrive without a second step. Add any other address you forward from under Allowed senders.
• Everything else waits in To review. Some forwarding methods deliver the email as if it came straight from the shop. Those wait until you approve them, and nothing is scanned while they wait. Choose Approve & always allow and that sender goes straight in from then on.
• Your address only receives. Bilbx never sends email from it. Each plan includes a monthly number of emails; see pricing.

Are emailed receipts good enough for the IRS?#

Electronic records can meet IRS requirements. Revenue Procedure 97-22 sets out the standard: a record kept electronically has to be accurate, legible and retrievable when the IRS asks for it. An emailed receipt or invoice is already electronic, which is why the same rules cover a photo of a paper receipt.

What matters is that you can still produce it later. The general period to keep records is 3 years from when you filed, and longer for some deductions. An inbox is a poor archive for that long: accounts get closed, full mailboxes get cleared out, and a work email address disappears when you change jobs. Forwarding each receipt to the place you keep records means the copy that counts isn't the one sitting in your inbox.

For which records to keep and when the clock starts, see how long to keep receipts for the IRS.