{"id":53,"date":"2016-03-21T15:31:39","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T15:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gearmage.com\/blog\/?p=53"},"modified":"2026-02-05T22:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T22:52:09","slug":"emails-invoice-processing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gearmage.com\/blog\/emails-invoice-processing\/","title":{"rendered":"Download emails for invoice processing"},"content":{"rendered":"

When using invoice processing software, you might find it useful to download emails and email attachments to a folder in a specific format so the invoice processing software can pick them up.<\/p>\n

There are two paths to solving this today. One approach makes use of solutions that require you to have an email client installed (eg. Outlook) and requires a mail client license. Other approaches either lack direct email integration or require typically a multi-tenant cloud setup where your email information could be saved on cloud servers alongside other tenants requiring further security, privacy or other compliance assessments.<\/p>\n

Mail Attachment Downloader PRO Server<\/a> offers a sweet spot by offering flexible tooling for this purpose, letting you have full control of your email data while making it easy to customize it to your specific needs. As you read on, we’ll show how this product can do more than just saving attachments to a folder if your business needs it.<\/p>\n

Let’s consider the case where you receive many invoices\u00a0via\u00a0email with (or without) attachments that then need to be saved\u00a0for later consumption by invoice\u00a0processing software.<\/p>\n

Once the data is saved in a folder or a shared folder, you can either have the PRO Server save the invoice details into specific database fields<\/strong><\/a> OR run a custom script to hand it off<\/a> to your line-of-business application<\/strong>\u00a0OR have the invoice processing software monitor the folder<\/strong> and pick up the invoices and process them through the workflow. Also, the share could serve as a secondary backup for your invoices you’ve received.<\/p>\n

You can also configure the program to save not only the invoices, but the email text<\/strong>\u00a0or body<\/strong><\/a> as well very easily by just clicking on the ‘Save email text’ or ‘Save as .eml’ checkbox in the Rule filter screen (see below screenshots). This could come in handy if the invoice is in the body of the email<\/strong> itself (no attachment in the email, that is).<\/p>\n

Also, let’s say that the\u00a0\u00a0Subject \u00a0<\/strong>of that email is something like\u00a0“Your Invoice #853290 is ready<\/strong>“. And we want to store this attachment under the folder of the Invoice #<\/strong>\u00a0and use the filename that was sent prefixed by who it was From (from email address).<\/p>\n

We will use the\u00a0Mail Attachment Downloader PRO Server<\/a>\u00a0version prior to submitting the data to our\u00a0invoice processing software that enables a LOT\u00a0MORE\u00a0flexibility in how you want the attachment named \u00a0via a template mechanism as will be shown below.<\/p>\n

Create a Rule Filter<\/h2>\n

First,<\/strong> since the PRO Server version lets you create many filters, let’s create one filter for Invoices.<\/p>\n

Click on the Global Filters<\/strong> tab and the Add new filter button<\/strong> as shown below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Enter the Rule filter name <\/strong>as something meaningful, we’ve called it ‘Invoices<\/strong>‘ as shown below.<\/p>\n

Filter by SUBJECT<\/h2>\n

Second<\/strong>, since we want to only look at emails with a subject that contains the Invoice #, we need to add a filter to look for those emails. Click on the Add dropdown arrow\u00a0<\/strong>-> Filters\u00a0<\/strong>-> Header: Subject<\/strong> as shown below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since we know the format of the subject at-least has\u00a0“Invoice #<\/strong>” we are going to first include that.<\/p>\n

\"Subject<\/p>\n

Extract the Invoice # from the SUBJECT<\/h2>\n

Third<\/strong>, since we want to extract the Invoice # for further invoice processing.<\/p>\n

\u2192\u00a0PRO Server<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0also supports using the Extraction<\/strong>Wizard<\/strong><\/a> if you are not familiar with Regular Expressions<\/a>. Makes it a lot easier to configure extractions this way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Highly recommended<\/span> that you go read this blog entry instead of the below: https:\/\/gearmage.com\/blog\/extract-data-emails-attachments\/<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With this post we will explore extracting data for invoices<\/strong> from the email using regular expressions<\/strong>. In a future post, we can walk you through how to use the Extraction Wizard if needed.<\/p>\n

Since the Invoice # is in the Subject of the email, we will add a new extraction to the new rule we created as follows. Click on the Add dropdown<\/strong> -> Extractions<\/strong> -> Regex Extraction<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Extraction\"<\/p>\n

Rename the Extraction field to something meaningful like “{INVOICE_NUMBER}” as shown below and include a regular expression to extract text.<\/p>\n

\"Extract<\/p>\n