---
title: "Configuring the Mailbox for Administrators - Payhawk Help Center"
slug: "configuring-the-payhawk-mailbox"
description: "Set up the group Mailbox in Payhawk: add the email addresses that forward invoices, choose who gets notified, and give an entity its own Mailbox address."
updated: 2026-10-27T15:50:05Z
published: 2026-10-27T15:50:05Z
canonical: "payhawk.com/configuring-the-payhawk-mailbox"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://payhawk.com/help/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Configuring the Mailbox

The Mailbox works on a group level and provides one unique centralized email address for receiving forwarded invoices. By default, the group Mailbox covers every entity in the group, and Group Administrators can take entities out of it so that they use their own Mailbox.

## Benefits

- Save time and effort by fast-forwarding the process for expense approval over a couple of clicks.
- Avoid the weary and burdensome manual download of payment documents and their upload to your personal Payhawk account, attaching them to the expense that's been made.

## Configuring the Mailbox for the group

To configure the Mailbox:

1. In the [Payhawk Web Portal](https://portal.payhawk.com), on the **Group dashboard**, go to **Settings** > **Mailbox**.
2. Click on **+ Add an email address** and enter the email address from which you’ll forward documents, for example, [invoices@yourcompany.com](mailto:invoices@yourcompany.com).

The addresses you add here are your approved (whitelisted) senders: Payhawk accepts forwarded documents only from these addresses.
3. Payhawk has automatically generated a unique email address for your company to which documents will be forwarded to.

![Group Mailbox settings with the Mailbox address and Connected to 6 of 6 entities under it.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Adm%3AMailbox/Mailbox_group_settings_connected_entities_20261021_ai.png)

> [!WARNING]
> To set up automatic forwarding, follow the instructions described in [forwarding invoices from Gmail](/help/forwarding-invoices-to-the-receipts-mailbox-on-gmail) and [forwarding invoices from Outlook](/help/forwarding-invoices-to-the-receipts-mailbox-on-outlook). Other configurations aren’t recommended and can cause unexpected issues.

## Mailbox notifications

For every email address you add to the Mailbox, you also select who handles the invoices sent to it. You can select individual users, a role, or a combination of both.

If you select a role, every user with that role is notified about every invoice that arrives at that address, not only the invoices they forwarded themselves. For example, if you select **Employee**, all employees in the group receive a notification for each invoice sent to the address. During configuration, Payhawk will show a warning and ask you to confirm before saving.

![Confirmation message warning that everyone with the selected role will be notified for every invoice sent to the Mailbox address.](https://storage.googleapis.com/payhawk-cdn/Adm%3AMailbox/Mailbox_role_notification_confirmation_20260917_ai.png)

> [!TIP]
> To keep the volume of notifications down, select only the users who need to handle these invoices, or select a role with few members.

## Giving an entity its own Mailbox

By default, the group Mailbox covers every entity in the group. As a Group Administrator, you can take entities out of the group Mailbox. Each excluded entity gets its own Mailbox address and approved senders, and invoices sent to the group address stop going to this entity’s Mailbox.

To give entities their own Mailbox:

1. In the [Payhawk Web Portal](https://portal.payhawk.com), on the **Group dashboard**, go to **Settings** > **Mailbox**.
2. Under the Mailbox address, click on **Connected to X of Y entities**.

![Group Mailbox address with the link Connected to 4 of 6 entities under it.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Adm%3AMailbox/Mailbox_group_connected_entities_20261020_ai.png)
3. In the **Entities using this mailbox** panel, clear the checkbox of each entity that needs its own Mailbox. All entities are selected by default.

![Entities using this mailbox panel with some entities cleared and the Save button.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Adm%3AMailbox/Mailbox_entities_using_this_mailbox_20261020_ai.png)
4. Click on **Save**.

As a result, each excluded entity gets its own Mailbox address. You can see it in the entity's **Settings** > **Mailbox**, together with the note **This entity has its own mailbox**.

![Entity Mailbox settings with the note This entity has its own mailbox and the entity own Mailbox address.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Adm%3AMailbox/Mailbox_entity_own_mailbox_20261020_ai.png)

To return an entity to the group Mailbox, select its checkbox again in the **Entities using this mailbox** panel and click on **Save**. The entity's own address is switched off but kept, and any email sent to it bounces until you exclude the entity again.

## Useful resources

- [Overview of the Mailbox](/help/overview-of-the-mailbox)
- [Forwarding invoices to the Mailbox on Gmail](/help/forwarding-invoices-to-the-receipts-mailbox-on-gmail)
- [Forwarding invoices to the Mailbox on Outlook](/help/forwarding-invoices-to-the-receipts-mailbox-on-outlook)