---
title: "Overview of the Mailbox"
slug: "overview-of-the-mailbox"
description: "Understand how the Payhawk receipts mailbox works: capture invoices, forward receipts and manage attachments on the Payhawk spend management platform."
updated: 2026-10-21T11:00:57Z
published: 2026-10-21T11:00:57Z
canonical: "payhawk.com/overview-of-the-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.

# Overview of the Mailbox

You can directly forward invoices for paid or unpaid expenses, which you have received over the email, to the unique email address generated for your company such as **your.company@invoices.payhawk.com**.

For more information on how to set up your Mailbox, see [configuring the Mailbox](/help/configuring-the-payhawk-mailbox).

## Sending invoices for expenses

To submit an invoice, forward the received invoice to the unique email address generated by Payhawk for your company – **your.company@invoices.payhawk.com**. For example, if your company name is Digital Strategy, the email address will be digital.strategy@invoices.payhawk.com.

Payhawk will automatically identify the correct entity which matches this invoice and check whether it’s been paid or unpaid.

If your Group Administrator has given an entity its own Mailbox, send that entity's invoices to its own address instead. Invoices sent to the group address no longer go to that entity. You can find the entity's address on its **Settings** > **Mailbox** page. For more information, see the article on [configuring the Mailbox](/help/configuring-the-payhawk-mailbox).

- If the invoice is already paid, Payhawk will automatically match the document with the existing card transaction expense. You will only need to submit the expense.
- If the invoice is still unpaid, Payhawk will automatically create a new bill expense in the system. Payhawk's data extraction tool will automatically extract and fill in the bill data. Once reviewed, the bill will be due for payment by the authorized people at your company.

> [!TIP]
> Payhawk can automatically assign the bill owner in two cases:
> 
> - If the invoice includes a buyer contact, Payhawk sets that person as the bill owner and notifies them.
> - If Payhawk automatically matches the bill to a request, the request owner becomes the bill owner, and Payhawk notifies them.

## Verifying the successful processing of documents

For each expense document you send over to the Mailbox, Payhawk will automatically send you back a verification email in the same thread so that you have context and information about the submission status of the document.

> [!WARNING]
> If you don't receive the notifications in the thread, verify that the conversation mode for your email client is enabled. For more information, see the [Gmail](https://support.google.com/mail/answe%20r/5900?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop) or [Outlook 365 configuration guides](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-enable-thread-less-mode-disable-conversation-mode-87c9a132-aa9c-4dd5-8886-8b8551f8fbfe).

- If the expense document has been successfully matched to a paid expense, Payhawk will send you a success confirmation email in the thread. To view the expense details, click on the **View the expense** link in the email.

![Email notification from Payhawk about processing an existing expense submission.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Emp%3APersonal%20profile%3AReceipts%20Mailbox/mailbox_email_1.png)
- If the expense document has successfully created a new expense, Payhawk will send you a success confirmation email in the thread. To view the expense details, click on the **View the expense** link in the email. You'll also have a notification in your Payhawk account **Inbox** under the **All** tab.

![Email notification confirming creation of a new bank transfer expense for an employee.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Emp%3APersonal%20profile%3AReceipts%20Mailbox/mailbox_email_2.png)
- If the expense document has not been successfully matched to a paid expense, Payhawk will send you an email in the thread. Click on the **Go to your Inbox** link inside to go to the **Pending** tab of your Payhawk account **Inbox** and attach the expense document.

![Email notification from Payhawk regarding pending inbox action for an employee.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Emp%3APersonal%20profile%3AReceipts%20Mailbox/mailbox_email_3.png)
- If for some reason Payhawk cannot process the expense document, you'll receive a system message with an explanation whose template will vary depending on the email client you are using.

Possible [reasons for failed processing](/help/error-messages-from-the-receipts-mailbox) are unsuccessful [security checks of the sender's email](/help/security) or exceeding the allowed number of 40 attached expense documents. You need to contact your Payhawk Administrators, or address the issue and resend the expense document.

![Email delivery failure notification indicating address not found and attachment issues.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Navigation%20images%20Desi_20261009/mailbox_failure_email_20261009_ai.png)

- In the rare cases in which Payhawk has matched the document to the wrong expense, you can move the expense by switching to **Spend** and [using the **Move to another expense** functionality](/help/managing-receipts-and-invoices-in-the-portal).

## Viewing the history of Mailbox requests

To make sure your sent payment documents are all successfully handled, filter your **Inbox** requests:

1. Open the app switcher in the top-left corner and go to **Inbox**.
2. Click on **Add filter**.
3. Select **Request type** > **Mailbox requests**.

![Inbox with the Request type filter open and Mailbox requests selected.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Navigation%20images%20Desi_20261009/inbox_history_mailbox_requests_20261009_ai.png)

## Specifics

- The Mailbox can process up to 40 images or PDF documents sent as email attachments. Payhawk scans each attachment and processes only the ones which are valid expense documents. For example, if you send 5 attachments, but only one is an invoice, Payhawk picks up only that one.
- If there are no attachments, Payhawk will automatically parse the email body and create a document for you - for example, for your Uber receipts.

![Uber receipt email in Gmail, and the receipt document Payhawk created from the email body.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Navigation%20images%20Desi_20261009/mailbox_email_body_2_20261009_ai.png)

## Useful resources

- [Configuring the Payhawk Mailbox](/help/configuring-the-payhawk-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)