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Email receipts and bills

by Intuit • Image Alt Text 350
Image Alt Text Updated 8/5/2026 02:16

Learn how to email your expense receipts and bills to get them into QuickBooks Online.

Forward images of your expense receipts and bills toQuickBooks. We’ll extract info like dates and amounts to populate the transaction. Then you can edit the receipt, add it to an account, or match it to an existing transaction in the Receipts (Take me there) menu.

You’ll also have the receipt on file for tax time.

Tip: If you'd like your employees to upload and submit their receipts for expense claims, consider upgrading to QuickBooks Online Advanced. You can review their expense claims and record the transactions that match. This isn't included in your current subscription.

Note: There are two types of user views in QuickBooks Online. Make sure you’re on Business view so you can follow these steps.

Video transcript

[0:00] Receipt capture lets you capture images of receipts or bills and link them to expenses in QuickBooks, so you're always audit ready. Let's go over how you can capture and categorize your receipts from your mobile device, how to categorize in QuickBooks Online if you prefer, and how to set up a customized email address so you or your workers can email receipts directly to QuickBooks.

[0:24] To start, open the QuickBooks Online mobile app and tap Snap receipt. Fit the edges of your receipt paper inside the corners. A green box will display the coverage of your receipt. Hold steady. If you have an Android device, you may be able to capture multiple images on this screen. You can rotate or crop the photo, or take another if needed. When you're ready, select Use this photo.

[0:50] QuickBooks extracts the data from your receipt. You can see this by going to the menu, then navigating to Receipts, under the Frequently used section. If you don't see your receipt, pull down to refresh the screen. This can take a bit sometimes if the receipt image is dark or blurry. It's important to make sure the categories you select here are correct to keep your books accurate.

[1:14] Make any changes you need, then save it. Then, create the expense or match it to an existing expense, if one exists. Once you create your expense, your receipt will move to the Reviewed tab, and you'll see your expense in your books. You can also categorize your receipts on your computer, if you prefer. Just go to All apps, Accounting, and then Receipts.

[1:38] You'll see any receipts you snapped with your phone that you still need to review or match here. You can edit the receipt details, making sure the accounts and other details are correct. You can also upload receipts from your computer or Google Drive. If you want to have your workers email receipts so you can review them here, you can do that by setting up a custom email address in QuickBooks.

[2:04] Note that you must be an administrator to do this. Select Forward from email. Then, enter the name you would like to use for this address. Then select Next. Verify that your address looks good, then select Done. Select Manage forwarding email and toggle on for any users you want to give permission to forward receipts to this address. If you need to add a user, you can do so here.

[2:29] If you want more details on how to add users, there is a video at the end of this one. Users with permission can take pictures of their receipts and send them to your custom email address. Note they must send from the email address they use to sign into QuickBooks. They can attach multiple receipts to an email as long as each receipt is a separate image.

[2:51] You'll see all the receipts sent to that email address here, and you can review and categorize or match them. Now you're ready to manage your receipts using QuickBooks Online and the QuickBooks Online mobile app.

What you’ll need

  • An active QuickBooks Online subscription

  • Standard user permissions with Vendor access at a minimum, to send documents.

  • Photos of each receipt or bill you want to upload in PDF, JPEG, JPG, GIF, or PNG format.

  • A custom email forwarding address at @assist.intuit.com

You can only register one email per user for your company. You can change it as part of your Intuit information.

  1. Go to All apps A bunch of numbers and letters on a tile wall., then Accounting, then Receipts (Take me there).

  2. Select Forward from email.

  3. In the Enter email address field, create a customized email address. It will have @assist.intuit.com at the end.
    Note: If you want to update the email address later, go to the Your forwarding email section, then select Update. Enter a new email address and select Confirm change.

  4. When you're ready, select Next.

  5. Confirm that it's correct and then select Looks good.

  6. Select Done.

Note: If you use Gmail, you can automatically send incoming bills and receipts to the QuickBooks forwarding address you’ve created. If you have a Gmail address with a + sign in it, you may not be able to register your email address. Learn more on the Gmail help center.

You can give standard users permission to forward receipts. Here’s how.

  1. Go to All apps A bunch of numbers and letters on a tile wall., then Accounting, then Receipts (Take me there).

  2. Select Manage forwarding email.

  3. Turn on the toggle for each user you want to give permission to forward receipts and bills, then select Close.

Forward images of receipts and bills to QuickBooks

When you get your receipts and bills, take a picture of it and send it to us. Here’s how.

  1. Take a picture of your bill or receipt on your mobile device.
    Note: The photo's file type must be a pdf, jpeg, jpg, gif, or png.

  2. Make sure each image or file contains only one receipt.

  3. Email the image to your custom email address @assist.intuit.com. It may take a few minutes to send.
    Note: You can send multiple receipt images in one email. The email attachment's file size must be between 46KB to 20 MB.

We'll take care of the rest. QuickBooks automatically pulls dates, amounts, vendor, and last four digits of the credit card from the image.

Next steps

Review and categorize your uploaded documents in the Receipts tab. Add them to your accounts or match them to existing transactions.

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