What is the tspoonlab Invoice Mailbox for, and how do you use it?
The tspoonlab Invoice Mailbox gives each Cost Centre its own email address for purchase invoices, so you don't have to upload them one by one. AI (Artificial Intelligence) reads each invoice, identifies the supplier, checks it's addressed to that Cost Centre and registers it there.
This article shows you how to create the Invoice Mailbox for a Cost Centre in tspoonlab. Your suppliers send their invoices to that email address, or you forward them yourself. You'll also see how to use "Invoice reception" to check how AI registers them.
The article also explains what to do when an email is set to "Needs review". You can confirm the recipient, delete the invoices that don't belong there, or resolve the supplier. Finally, you'll learn how to check the invoice created and mark its status.
This article is for purchasing, administration and accounting managers at restaurants and restaurant groups, and for managers who receive supplier invoices. To create the Invoice Mailbox, you need permission to edit the Cost Centre and the feature activated on your tspoonlab account.
📢 Important: the AI Invoice Mailbox has an extra cost and needs activating. To activate it on your tspoonlab account, ask our team through the built-in Support Chat.
For AI to register the invoices that reach the Invoice Mailbox, also check these requirements:
The suppliers who send you invoices are set up in tspoonlab.
Each invoice arrives as a PDF attached to the email.
How do you create the Invoice Mailbox for a Cost Centre in tspoonlab?
Creating the Invoice Mailbox for a Cost Centre in tspoonlab gives that Cost Centre its own email address, where your suppliers can send their invoices. Follow these steps from the tspoonlab top bar.
Open the "Invoice Mailbox" section of the Cost Centre
You set up the Invoice Mailbox in each Cost Centre's edit window, in the "Invoice Mailbox" section.
Check that the Cost Centre where you want to receive invoices appears under "Cost Centres" in the tspoonlab top bar.
Click "Cost Centres".
Select "Edit" from the dropdown.
In the "Cost Centre - Edit" window that opens, scroll to the bottom, past the "Sales", "Technical sheets" and "Ingredient" sections.
Expand the "Invoice Mailbox" section. If the Cost Centre doesn't have a mailbox yet, you'll see the message "No mailbox configured".
Create the Invoice Mailbox with a prefix
To create a Cost Centre's Invoice Mailbox in tspoonlab, you enter a prefix and click "Create mailbox". Once it's created, you can copy the mailbox address with a single click.
In the "Prefix" field, enter some text that helps you recognise the Invoice Mailbox, such as your restaurant's name.
Check the format of the mailbox address, shown just below the field. It's your prefix, followed by a security code (token) that tspoonlab generates automatically and the @invoices.tspoonlab.com domain. For example: [email protected].
Click "Create mailbox". You'll see the message "Mailbox updated". The "Invoice Mailbox" section now shows the "Mailbox address", the "Active" status, the prefix, the "Regenerate" and "Revoke" buttons, and the address "History".
Click the copy button to the right of the "Mailbox address" to copy the Invoice Mailbox address. You can then paste it straight into an email to your suppliers, without typing it out.
Click "Ok" to close the "Cost Centre - Edit" window. Your Invoice Mailbox is now active and ready to receive emails.
Share the mailbox address with your suppliers or forward your invoices
Every invoice that reaches the Invoice Mailbox address goes into tspoonlab and is associated with that mailbox's Cost Centre.
In the "Invoice Mailbox" section of the "Cost Centre - Edit" window, copy the "Mailbox address" with the copy button on its right.
Share the mailbox address with your suppliers so they send their invoices there.
Forward any invoice that reaches your usual inbox to the mailbox address, with the PDF attached.
Check "Invoice reception": every email that reaches the mailbox appears there, so you can see how AI has registered it.
💡 Tip: share the Invoice Mailbox address with your suppliers only. If you start receiving unwanted emails at that address, click "Regenerate" to get a new address, and send it to your suppliers.
How do you review the invoices that reach the Invoice Mailbox in "Invoice reception"?
"Invoice reception" in tspoonlab lists every email that has reached your Invoice Mailbox, with its status and the result of each invoice's registration.
Open "Invoice reception" and find the email
You'll find the "Invoice reception" option in the "Options" menu of the tspoonlab top bar.
Click "Options" in the top-right corner of the top bar, where your user name appears underneath.
Select "Invoice reception".
Find the email in the list of emails that have reached the Invoice Mailbox. To find it, you can:
Search for it by sender in the "Search by sender" box.
Filter by date with the "From" and "To" fields.
Filter by status from the three-dot menu (⋮), for example "Completed", "Needs review" or "Error".
Check the email details and the status of each invoice
When you click an email in "Invoice reception", tspoonlab shows who sent it, when it arrived and which Cost Centre it's associated with. It also shows the status of each attached invoice.
Click the email to open its details.
Review the email information:
In the header: the email status, the sender, the mailbox address, the date received and the "Download .eml" button.
In "Timeline": the text "Email associated with the centre", followed by the Cost Centre's name.
In "Attachments": each invoice in the email, with its status label and its buttons.
If the email is in "Needs review" status, shown in orange, check the attachment's label. AI needs you to review something before it creates the invoice, and the label tells you what to do:
"Recipient mismatch": confirm that the invoice is addressed to this Cost Centre with "Confirm recipient".
"Unidentified supplier": assign the supplier with "Resolve supplier".
Both cases are explained below, in the section on what to do if an Invoice Mailbox email is set to "Needs review".
Download the original email with all its attachments
The "Download .eml" button in "Invoice reception" downloads to your computer the original email that reached your tspoonlab Invoice Mailbox, with all its attachments.
Open the email in "Invoice reception".
Click "Download .eml" in the top-right corner of the email details. tspoonlab downloads the email as a .eml file, which you can open in your email client to see the message and all its attachments.
What do you do if an Invoice Mailbox email is set to "Needs review"?
An email in your tspoonlab Invoice Mailbox is set to "Needs review", in orange, when AI needs your confirmation before it creates the invoice. It needs to know that the invoice is addressed to that Cost Centre, or who the supplier is. While the email is in "Needs review", the invoice for that attachment isn't created.
Confirm the recipient of an invoice
When an invoice's recipient doesn't match the Invoice Mailbox's Cost Centre, the attachment shows the "Recipient mismatch" label. tspoonlab then asks you to confirm the recipient before it creates the invoice.
In "Attachments", find the invoice with the "Recipient mismatch" label. The "Confirm recipient" and "View document" buttons appear on its right.
Click "View document" to open the original invoice and check that it's addressed to this Cost Centre.
If the invoice is addressed to this Cost Centre, click "Confirm recipient".
Click "Yes" in the "Confirm recipient" window that opens. The window asks "Do you confirm this email was addressed to this centre? The attachment's invoice will be created."
Check the result. The attachment changes to "Processed", with the invoice number and supplier below its name. The email changes to "Completed", and tspoonlab has created the invoice in this Cost Centre.
If the invoice isn't addressed to this Cost Centre, don't confirm the recipient. Delete it with the checkboxes in "Attachments", as explained in "Confirm or delete one or more invoices with the checkboxes".
Confirm or delete one or more invoices with the checkboxes
Use the checkboxes in "Attachments", in the details of an "Invoice reception" email, to delete an invoice that isn't addressed to that Cost Centre. You can also use them to confirm the recipient of several invoices, or delete them, in one go.
Tick the checkbox to the left of each invoice you want to confirm or delete. To select all the invoices in the email, tick the top checkbox, above the list of attachments.
Look at the top right of "Attachments", where two buttons appear with the number of selected invoices in brackets:
"Confirm recipients": confirms that all the selected invoices are addressed to this Cost Centre, so tspoonlab creates them.
"Delete invoices": deletes the selected invoices, for example because they aren't addressed to this Cost Centre.
Click the button you need. If you confirm the recipients, the selected invoices change to "Processed" and tspoonlab creates them in this Cost Centre.
📢 Important: before you delete an invoice from the Invoice Mailbox, open it with "View document" and check that it isn't addressed to this Cost Centre. If the invoice belongs to another of your Cost Centres, ask the supplier to send it to that Cost Centre's Invoice Mailbox address.
Resolve the supplier of an unidentified invoice
When tspoonlab's AI can't identify an invoice's supplier, the attachment shows the "Unidentified supplier" label. The email is set to "Needs review". You can assign the supplier yourself from the email details, with the "Resolve supplier" button.
In "Attachments", click "Resolve supplier" next to the invoice with the "Unidentified supplier" label.
Type the supplier's name in the search box of the "Resolve supplier" window that opens, which shows your list of suppliers.
Select the supplier.
Click "Ok". You'll see the message "Supplier assigned", and AI finishes processing the invoice.
How do you check and validate an invoice created from the Invoice Mailbox?
When AI finishes processing an Invoice Mailbox invoice, the email in "Invoice reception" changes to "Completed" and the attachment appears as "Processed". The invoice is registered in tspoonlab with its number and supplier. From the processed attachment, you can view the invoice's history, open the invoice to review it and mark its status.
View the statuses the invoice has gone through
Each Invoice Mailbox invoice keeps a history in tspoonlab of the steps it has gone through. It runs from the moment the invoice reaches the mailbox until it's created.
In "Attachments", click the red arrow to the left of the invoice name.
Review the invoice history in the dropdown that opens, with the date, time and description of each step. For example, for an invoice whose recipient you've confirmed manually, the history shows these steps:
"Attachment submitted for analysis", followed by the file name.
"The invoice recipient does not match the centre".
"Recipient manually confirmed as the centre; proceeding to create the invoice".
"Invoice created", with the invoice number and the number of delivery notes associated with the invoice.
Open the invoice and mark its status
Use the "Open invoice" button on the processed attachment to open, in tspoonlab, the invoice created from the Invoice Mailbox. From there, you can check that it has been processed correctly and mark its status.
Check that the email is in "Completed" status and that the attachment appears as "Processed", with the invoice number and supplier. For example: "Invoice: FAC-26-9001 · Distri Gourmet".
Find the three buttons to the right of the processed attachment:
"Open invoice": opens the registered invoice so you can review it and mark its status.
"View supplier": opens the Supplier Page.
"View document": opens the original PDF of the invoice.
Click "Open invoice". The invoice's edit window opens, with the supplier's name in the header. In the example, the window is called "Distri Gourmet - Edit invoice".
Check that the invoice has been processed correctly:
In "Analysis result": the data AI has read, which is the invoice number and date, the supplier and the "Base", "VAT" (Value Added Tax) and "Amount" figures. You'll also see the delivery notes AI has identified in the invoice, in green with a tick.
In "Delivery notes": the delivery notes associated with the invoice, with their order, base, VAT and amount.
Review the status checkboxes, below the "Comment" field. tspoonlab always ticks "To review" by default on the invoices it creates from the Invoice Mailbox, so you can check that everything is correct. These are the status checkboxes:
"To review": the data doesn't match, or you haven't checked it yet.
"Validated": all the data is correct.
"Posted": you've already sent the invoice to accounting.
"Paid": you've already paid the invoice.
If everything is correct, untick "To review" and tick "Validated" and, if applicable, "Posted" or "Paid".
Click "Ok". The window closes and the invoice is saved in tspoonlab with the status you've marked.
If the email doesn't change to "Completed", check its status in the "Invoice reception" list. If it's in "Needs review", open the email and, depending on the attachment label, confirm the recipient or resolve the invoice's supplier. If it's in "Error", "No valid attachments" or "Rejected for security reasons", contact our team through the built-in Support Chat so we can look into it.
📌 Note: the Invoice Mailbox uses two similar labels with different meanings. In "Invoice reception", "Needs review" is an email status: AI needs you to confirm the recipient or the supplier before it creates the invoice. In the invoice window, "To review" is a status checkbox: the invoice has already been created and you need to check its data.
📌 Note: tspoonlab's AI associates the delivery notes it identifies in an invoice with that invoice. If a delivery note is missing, add it from the "Delivery note" field in the invoice's "Delivery notes" section. It works as in the manual reconciliation explained in Reconcile delivery notes with purchase invoices.
What statuses can an email have in "Invoice reception"?
Each email that reaches your tspoonlab Invoice Mailbox has a status. You can use it to filter the "Invoice reception" list from the three-dot menu (⋮). These are the possible statuses:
"Received"
"Processing"
"Partially processed"
"Completed"
"Needs review"
"No valid attachments"
"Rejected for security reasons"
"Error"
To see all the emails in the Invoice Mailbox again, select "All statuses" in the same menu.
As well as the email status, each attached invoice has its own label in "Attachments", for example "Processed", "Recipient mismatch" or "Unidentified supplier".
What happens if you regenerate or revoke the Invoice Mailbox?
If you regenerate or revoke a Cost Centre's Invoice Mailbox in tspoonlab, the current address stops receiving emails straight away. The "Regenerate" and "Revoke" buttons and the "History" are in the "Invoice Mailbox" section of the "Cost Centre - Edit" window:
"Regenerate": creates a new address for the Invoice Mailbox. The previous address stops receiving emails straight away, so invoices your suppliers send to the old address no longer reach tspoonlab.
"Revoke": deactivates the Invoice Mailbox. The address stops receiving emails straight away, and that Cost Centre no longer receives invoices by email.
"History": shows every address the Invoice Mailbox has used, with its status and its creation and revocation dates.
📢 Important: if you regenerate the Invoice Mailbox, send the new address to your suppliers as soon as you have it. Invoices they send to the previous address won't reach tspoonlab.
Can you use one Invoice Mailbox for several Cost Centres?
You can't share one tspoonlab Invoice Mailbox between several Cost Centres. Each Cost Centre has its own mailbox, and the invoices that reach an address are associated with that mailbox's Cost Centre. If you have several sites, repeat the mailbox creation steps in each Cost Centre. Then give each supplier the address of the site it invoices.
💡 Tip: use each site's name as the prefix, so you can see at a glance which Cost Centre each Invoice Mailbox belongs to.
Still need help? Click the built-in Support Chat in the bottom-right corner of your screen and our team will get back to you.