Email-to-Invoice Automation

Updated 31 October 2026

The endgame of invoice automation: vendors email their bills to a dedicated address, and drafts appear in REDA Financials — vendor matched, lines coded, high-confidence ones already created — while your team reviews instead of types. Here's the pipeline and the setup.

Getting there. Emailed bills land in the OCR Inbox tab — open the App Launcher (the grid icon at the top-left of any page) → REDA Financials AI → OCR Inbox to work the queue. Setting up the intake email address and the processing loop is an administrator task (Setup, plus the Operations tab — see Operations Scheduler).
Access you'll need. Working OCR items requires the Accounts Payable v2 permission set (AP clerks & managers) or Accounting Admin v2 (system administrators). The Accounting Controller v2, Accounts Receivable v2, and Read Only v2 sets can view items but not act on them.

Current main release: 1.62000

OCR and configurable prompts. Multi-attachment/XML extraction work, active ordered prompts and clearer party-exemption handling. Add three missing AI Prompt document types where necessary. Review preserved subscriber prompt text against the supplied defaults; keep customer customisations.

Release notes and cumulative changes · Detailed installation and upgrade steps

The pipeline, end to end

An email arrives with supported invoice attachments

Each attached PDF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF or WEBP file becomes a separate Pending item in the OCR Inbox. File extensions are case-insensitive. Attach the actual files: a download link or a picture pasted into the email body is not an attached invoice. An email containing only XML creates no intake item.

A structured XML companion belongs with one document

When an email contains exactly one supported document, its XML attachments are stored with that document and can be read together during extraction. With two or more supported documents, the XML files are not paired or attached to the inbox items. Send one invoice document and its XML per email when the XML must be used.

The vendor is matched and the queue is processed

A sender email matching a Contact can suggest the vendor Account. Extraction can also interpret a forwarded message. The OCR Document Processing loop picks up Pending items; a sufficiently confident result creates a draft Purchase Invoice, while other extracted items wait for human review. Check the suggested vendor, entity, lines and totals against the original file before posting.

Setting up the address (administrator, once)

An email service is the Salesforce address that receives documents for the package. The package upgrade supplies the handler, but it does not create your organisation’s service address, forwarding rule or allowed-sender policy. An administrator must configure and test those items. Existing customers should review the same settings, especially attachment conversion for XML.

Open the gear icon → Setup. In Quick Find, type Email Services and open it. If an OCR service already exists, open it and click Edit; otherwise click New Email Service.

Give the service a recognisable name, for example Financials Invoice Intake. In Apex Class, use the lookup to select the installed package handler refin.OCREmailHandler. This exact name is needed only for this administrator selection.

Set Accept Attachments to All. Enable Convert Text Attachments to Binary Attachments so XML files delivered as text attachments reach the intake handler alongside the PDF/image. Keep the original file extensions; renaming another format to .pdf does not convert it.

Review Accept Email From and your email-security settings with the administrator. Allow the intended vendor addresses/domains or the forwarding mailbox; apply the organisation’s policy rather than disabling controls simply to make a test pass. Select Active and click Save.

On the service detail page, click New Email Address if no address exists. Enter an address name, select an active Context User with the required Financials package licence and OCR access, review the address-level allowed senders, select Active, and save. Copy the Salesforce-generated address. A service and its address both need to be active.

Have your mail administrator create an optional friendly AP mailbox/forwarding rule to that generated address, preserving attachments. Do not publish the generated address on a public website. Assign a named AP colleague to review the queue and failures.

In a test org, send a representative vendor invoice PDF, then an image invoice, and then one invoice plus its XML. Open App Launcher → REDA Financials AI → OCR Inbox. Find each test by subject/source filename; confirm the number of items and the files stored on each one. Test approved senders through the actual forwarding route before sharing it with vendors.

Open App Launcher → REDA Financials Admin → Financial Admin Console → Operations. Expand OCR Document Processing and click Start if stopped. It checks the queue every 15 minutes; Run Now runs a single cycle. Confirm the test becomes an extracted item or draft invoice, then review the result. Resolve connection or permission errors before enabling normal intake.

The screenshot shows Salesforce Classic in English. It illustrates an unsaved Email Service edit with Accept Attachments = All and Convert Text Attachments to Binary Attachments selected. Save those settings in your own approved configuration; review allowed senders and the address/context user separately rather than copying a blank sender restriction.

For the Salesforce screen and attachment settings, see Salesforce — Define Email Services.

The OCR Document Processing card: Start enables the repeating queue processor; Run Now performs one cycle. Check the queue counters, then open the test item and inspect its files. The demo screen is in English.

The control loop for going hands-free

Start conservative: a high auto-create threshold routes almost everything through review; lower it as spot-checks stay clean.
Review auto-created drafts at posting — automation moved the typing, not the accountability.
Financials retains AI usage reporting. In 1.62000 the old custom document-cap enforcement is retired; provider billing, funding and service limits belong to your organisation’s provider account. Check the reporting period and the provider’s usage/billing view. See AI usage reporting and provider billing.

What each intake record preserves

Each supported invoice attachment creates its own intake record. XML companions add files to the same record only under the one-document rule above; they do not create extra invoice items.

What is preserved	What to check
Files	The original PDF/image, plus eligible XML companions, are stored on the intake record. Open its Files related list and compare the filenames with the message.
Sender and vendor	Sender Email, Sender Account and Vendor Match support identification. A contact match suggests an account; reviewers must still confirm it.
Email details	Subject and body are preserved within their field limits: 255 and 32,768 characters respectively. Forwarded-message analysis can update the identified original sender.
Source and receiving address	Source File identifies the document; Receiving Email identifies the service address used.
Starting state	Status Pending, operation Automation and document type Purchase Invoice. Processing and review update this state later.

Confirm receipt in the queue

Do not rely on an acknowledgement email as proof of intake. The installed handler returns a processing result to Salesforce; that is not a guarantee of a successful-delivery reply to the sender. Verify the OCR Inbox item, its attached files and its status. If nothing appears, check the service/address activation, allowed sender, forwarding route and attachment settings before resending. An XML-only message or unsupported attachment does not create an invoice item. Some legacy diagnostic wording still mentions “PDF”; the supported attachment list above describes the current email channel.

Examples at Meridian’s intake address

Message	Expected intake	Review
One vendor invoice PDF	One Pending item	Confirm vendor, entity and totals; the resulting invoice remains a draft.
One JPG invoice photo	One Pending item	A supported image can queue; poor legibility can still require a clearer copy.
One invoice PDF + its XML	One item with both files	Confirm the XML appears in Files and belongs to this invoice.
Two invoice PDFs + one XML	Two items; the XML is not paired	Ask for one document plus its XML per email when the XML is required.
Only XML	No intake item	Ask for the matching invoice PDF or supported image with the XML.

Common mistakes to avoid

Mistake	Consequence	What to do
Assuming “no reply” means no receipt	Resending can create duplicate intake items and additional provider processing	Search the OCR Inbox by subject/filename first.
Sending a link instead of a file	The handler has no supported attached document to queue	Attach the actual PDF/image; use one invoice plus XML per email.
Leaving text-to-binary conversion off	An XML delivered as a text attachment may not reach the document record	The administrator reviews Email Services and repeats a one-document-plus-XML test.
Sending every general AP email to intake	Statements and promotional attachments clutter the queue and can consume provider usage	Route vendor invoices deliberately and review Errors daily.

Where to go next

OCR Inbox & Document Queue — where the emails land.
Creating an Invoice from OCR — the review half.
Operations Scheduler — the loop's controls.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Email accepts attached PDF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF and WEBP files. This is separate from the manual invoice-form uploader, whose file picker currently offers PDF, JPG, JPEG and PNG.

No. Email intake needs a supported PDF or image. Send one invoice document and its XML together; with several documents, XML attachments are not paired.

The custom REDA document cap is retired in 1.62000. Intake is still counted for reporting; provider billing, funding and rate limits belong to your organisation’s account. Do not wait for a month reset to resolve an error.

Confirm the OCR Document Processing loop is started, allow its 15-minute cycle and inspect the actual job or document error if it does not progress. Receipt alone does not mean extraction completed.

Do not assume so. Confirm receipt and outcome in the OCR Inbox. Any sender notifications also depend on your Salesforce email-service configuration and mail route.

This channel creates Purchase Invoice intake records. Route vendor invoices here and review the extracted result; do not use it as a general correspondence or bank-statement mailbox.

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