Common issues
- "I forwarded an email and nothing showed up." See Troubleshooting. Most often the attachment was inline HTML rather than a real attachment.
- "Some attachments were skipped." Tally processes up to 5 attachments per email. If the email has more, send the rest separately.
- "The vendor email is spammy and Tally extracted it as a real invoice." Reject the document — Tally won't remember it as a real charge.
- "I want to stop a vendor from auto-extracting." Set up a filter in your email client to NOT forward those emails. Tally only sees what you forward.
Forwarding rules
For recurring invoices (Stripe monthly, Adobe quarterly, your accountant's monthly bill, etc.), set up a forwarding rule in your email client:
Subject contains 'Stripe receipt' → forward to <your-Tally-address>From contains 'billing@adobe.com' → forward to <your-Tally-address>
Tally extracts the attachment from each forwarded email and creates a document. The email metadata (sender, subject, date) is preserved as part of the document's audit trail.
Getting your forwarding address
- Open Settings → Inbox.
- You'll see your unique Tally forwarding address. The exact address is shown in the Inbox panel; it's unique to your workspace and not guessable.
- Copy it.
- Set up forwarding from your work email (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) — either always-forward or on a per-message basis.
The address is unique to your workspace. Forwarding from a different email is fine; what matters is the destination address.
If you're a bookkeeper using Inbox for clients
Each client workspace has its own forwarding address. You can:
- Have the client set up forwarding to their own address.
- Or forward documents on the client's behalf from your own email — Tally treats them the same way.
When Tally drafts a vendor follow-up for a client, it shows up in your review queue (Bookkeeper Command Center → that client's drilldown). You approve or decline; the email goes out from the client's domain (configured in their Inbox settings).
Inbox Starter — the standalone product
If you want just the email-to-Bills pipeline without the rest of Tally, the standalone Inbox Starter plan covers it: forwarding address, extraction, optional QuickBooks push, audit trail. $29/month. Sign up at /inbox/signup.
Standalone Inbox is a separate account model — you don't get Tally's full memory layer or the Memory page. It's built for a buyer who wants automated email-to-Bills and nothing else.
Tally drafts vendor follow-up emails
When Tally flags an anomaly on a high-severity document (charge way outside this vendor's normal range, suspicious-looking invoice), she can draft a reply email to the vendor for your review. You see the draft, edit it if you want, and either approve-and-send or decline.
Same flow for W-9 requests on contractors who haven't returned their tax form, and for "I think we already paid this" responses to duplicate invoices.
This is opt-in — Tally never sends an email without your approval. Available on Pro and above.
What gets extracted
For each forwarded email:
- Attached PDF/image invoices are processed — vendor, amount, date, line items, category — same as a direct upload.
- Inline-only emails (no attachment) are skipped. Tally needs an attached document to extract from.
- Multi-attachment emails — up to 5 attachments per email are processed.
What's next
- Documents — review and approve
- How Tally learns — including how vendor follow-up drafts learn from your reviews
- Plans and billing — Inbox tier availability
- Troubleshooting
What you'll do
- Get your forwarding address.
- Forward invoices from your email and watch them appear.
- Use forwarding rules to automate the routing of recurring vendors.
- Let Tally draft vendor follow-up emails (anomaly replies, W-9 requests, payment confirmations).