Forward supplier invoices by email – and have them filed

Plenty of suppliers email their invoices instead of handing over a slip. With Pennies they don't need printing, photographing or downloading: forward them to your own Pennies email address and they're filed with your receipts.

Get your Pennies address

Every business on Pennies has its own address on in.penniesapp.com, for example acme-builders-k7m2qp@in.penniesapp.com. Send inbox to Pennies on WhatsApp, or open Email on your dashboard, to see yours with a copy button. Accountants get one address for the whole practice as well as each client's own address.

Set up Gmail once

1. In Gmail on a computer, open ⚙️ See all settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP → Add a forwarding address, and paste your Pennies address.
2. Gmail emails a confirmation code to that address. Pennies receives it and sends you the code on WhatsApp (it's also on the Email page) – paste it into Gmail and press Verify. You can leave Gmail's general forwarding switched off; the filter below does the work.
3. Search Gmail for your suppliers, for example from:(supplier.co.za OR accounts@another-supplier.co.za) has:attachment, open the search options and press Create filter.
4. Tick Forward it to, pick your Pennies address and press Create filter. New invoices from those suppliers now go to Pennies as they arrive. Edit the filter to add suppliers later.

Outlook and other email

In Outlook or Microsoft 365, add a rule: Settings → Mail → Rules → Add new rule, choose your suppliers under From, and Forward to your Pennies address. With any other email service, set up a forwarding rule or simply forward invoices by hand.

What Pennies does with each email

• Invoices – every PDF or photo attached is read like a WhatsApp receipt: supplier, date, amount, invoice number and VAT details, filed by month for your accountant.
• Statements – recognised and kept on their own list, so they never count as receipts or end up in claims or exports.
• Projects – if you've used that supplier on an open project, Pennies asks on WhatsApp whether to add the invoice to it. One tap and the project total and budget are up to date.
• Duplicates – the same PDF sent again in a reminder email isn't filed twice.
• Emails without an attachment – listed on your Email page, so you know to download a link-only invoice and send it in.

Pennies tells you what came in with one WhatsApp summary rather than a message per email, and you can see every email received on your dashboard. To stop a sender, send block name@sender.com on WhatsApp.

For accountants

Supplier invoices often go to the practice instead of the client. Forward them to your practice address and Pennies works out the client from who the invoice is billed to, the supplier's history or the sender you chose last time. Add +client before the @ to choose the client yourself. When Pennies can't tell, you pick the client from a list on WhatsApp or the dashboard – once per sender.