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Overview

The Smartbills add-in adds a pane to Outlook that uploads attachments, or whole emails, straight into Smartbills. It is aimed at the receipts and invoices that arrive by email and would otherwise need forwarding or downloading first.

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Requirements

  • Outlook desktop or Outlook on the web, supporting Mailbox API 1.15 or later
  • A Smartbills account belonging to at least one business
  • A connected Microsoft account, required to read email content
Connecting your Microsoft account is not optional for email uploads. Until it is connected the pane shows “Microsoft account connection required to upload emails”. Uploading files from your computer works without it, but uploading attachments or the email itself does not. Connect it from Settings in the pane.

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Install

The add-in is deployed by your organization rather than installed individually. An administrator uploads it through the Microsoft 365 admin centre under Settings > Integrated apps and assigns it to users or groups. It then appears in Outlook automatically. Once it appears, open the pane and sign in with your Smartbills account. If you belong to more than one business, choose which one to upload into.
The pane keeps its own business selection, independent of the web app. If uploads are landing in the wrong business, check the selector at the top of the pane.

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The two tabs

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Upload from an email

1

Open the email and the pane

Select the email containing the receipt or invoice, then open the Smartbills pane.
2

Choose what to upload

Attachments are listed with a selection count. Inline images are included, so a receipt embedded in the message body can be picked as well as an attached file.To capture the whole message rather than a single file, turn on Include entire email as .eml. This preserves the sender, subject, and body along with the attachments.
3

Set the details

Before uploading you can set a note, a category, an expense report, and a vendor, and mark it as a company expense if the business paid.Expense reports and vendors can be created here without leaving Outlook.
4

Upload

Select Upload. The files are sent and queued for reading, and the expenses appear in Smartbills shortly afterwards.

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Several emails at once

Selecting multiple emails in Outlook uploads all of them together, each as a .eml file. The pane confirms with “All selected emails will be uploaded as .eml files”.

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Already uploaded

If an email was uploaded before, the pane says so and offers View in Smartbills or Upload again anyway, so you can check rather than creating a duplicate.

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Upload files from your computer

Switch to Upload files and drag files into the pane or browse for them. The same note, category, expense report, vendor, and company expense options apply.

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File requirements

The add-in accepts HEIC and WebP and allows files up to 50 MB. The web app is stricter, at 5 MB and no HEIC. If a file is rejected in the browser, uploading it through Outlook may work.

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Settings

The pane has two settings:

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Troubleshooting

It is deployed centrally, so check with your IT administrator that it has been assigned to you. Confirm your Outlook build supports Mailbox API 1.15, then restart Outlook.
This is almost always the Microsoft account connection. Open Settings in the pane and connect it. Uploading files from your computer will keep working meanwhile.
The pane holds its own business selection. Change it at the top of the pane.
Check it against the limits above. The pane names the file and the reason, either an unsupported format, a size above 50 MB, or a file name over 255 characters.
Sign in again from the pane. Your Smartbills session is separate from your Outlook session and expires independently.

Add an expense

Upload methods in the web app

Email forwarding

Forward receipts without the add-in

AP inboxes

Let vendors email invoices directly

Mobile app

Capture receipts on your phone