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How ApprovalMax Capture for QuickBooks Online processes emails and attachments

This article explains what happens in various scenarios — such as when Vendors send non-invoice files, general queries or emails with multiple attachments.

Updated over a month ago

When you forward documents to your ApprovalMax Capture email address, the system automatically validates and processes each attachment to create new Bill/Expense requests.

What happens if an email has no attachments?

If an email is sent to the ApprovalMax Capture inbox without any files attached, ApprovalMax cannot create a request.

  • The sender receives a failure notification stating:​

What happens if an email contains multiple attachments?

When an email includes multiple attachments (e.g. an invoice, terms and conditions, and a Vendor form), each attachment is treated independently.

ApprovalMax creates a separate draft/request for every valid file attached, regardless of whether it’s an invoice or not.

For non-invoice documents (such as vendor forms or Terms and Conditions), a request is still created, but ApprovalMax Capture won’t extract any data — the request will appear with empty fields:


If you need more control over how your email attachments are processed, you can use email tags; however, combining multiple attachments into a single request via email is not currently supported.

File validation rules

Before creating a request, ApprovalMax checks:

  • Allowed file types

    For QuickBooks Online connected Organisations, the following formats are accepted:
    ​.PDF, .JPG, .JPEG, .PNG, .BMP, .TIF, .TIFF

  • File size limit: 20 MB per file

If the attachment passes validation: a separate request is created.

If the attachment fails validation: no request is created.


How ApprovalMax Capture handles recognition

After validation, ApprovalMax Capture sends the file for OCR recognition.

Files sent for recognition are:

  • PDFs

  • Image formats (.JPG, .PNG, .BMP, .TIF, etc.)

If a file is not recognised (because it is not a PDF or image):

  • If the file is valid, a request is still created but because recognition is skipped, it remains in Drafts and is only visible to the email submitter.


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