How to Import Bank Statements by Email

How It Works

Every Bankflow account has a private import address that looks like something@mail.bankflow.app. Forward a statement email there and its attachment lands in your email inbox inside Bankflow, ready to import. There's nothing to download and upload again. Once it works, a filter in your mail app can forward each month's statement for you.

Bankflow never signs in to your mailbox. It only sees the emails you choose to forward.

Step 1: Copy Your Import Address

Click Add files and open Forward by email instead at the foot of the screen. Your addresses are listed there, each with a copy button. They are also under Settings, Email in, Your addresses.

The first address, marked Any file, is the one to use for statements. Bankflow sorts what it's sent, as Add files does. If you use Documents or Commissions, two more addresses are listed under it: one with +docs, which always reads what it's sent as a document, and one with +commissions, which always reads it as a carrier commission statement.

If the addresses ever leak, generate new ones from Settings with the refresh button beside them. The old addresses stop working immediately.

Step 2: Approve Your Senders

Only mail from approved senders is accepted. Anything else is discarded without being stored, so a stranger who learns your address can't put files in your account. Your own verified account email is always approved.

If you forward statements yourself from your own address, you're already set. If your mail app's forwarding rule sends mail on from the bank's address, or you forward from another mailbox, add that address under Settings, Email in, Approved senders. You can add either:

• a full address, such as statements@bank.com, or
• a whole domain, such as @bank.com. A domain entry also covers its subdomains, so alerts.bank.com is included. Banks often send from several subdomains, and one entry covers them all.

You don't have to guess the address. Under Approved senders, Turned away recently lists the senders whose mail reached your import address in the last 30 days and was discarded, with the subject and time of the last one. Approve any of them in one click, by address or by whole domain. The discarded mail itself wasn't kept, so forward the statement again once its sender is approved.

Step 3: Forward a Statement

Forward one statement email with its attachment to your import address. It appears in the Inbox view of Email import within a few moments, and in Files under Waiting, showing the subject, the attachment's file name, and a preview of the email.

Select the emails you want and import them. When there are a lot, group the inbox By sender or By statement and import a whole group at once, or import everything that's waiting. Emails you don't want can be skipped, and skipped emails can be restored to the inbox later. A single waiting file can also be imported or skipped from its row in Files.

Imported emails move to the Imported view. From there on, the statement goes through the same pipeline as an uploaded file: see importing statements. Statements that arrive by email also show up in the notifications panel, so a teammate sees them too.

Step 4: Automate It

Set up a forwarding filter

Forwarding everything to Bankflow would flood your inbox there and copy your one-time codes to us, so forward only the emails that match your statements. In Gmail, Outlook, or any mail app with filters, create a rule that matches the exact address your bank sends statements from (often different from its alerts address) and requires an attachment, then forwards to your import address.

When you add a forwarding address, Gmail and other providers send a confirmation email to it. Bankflow catches that email and shows the code or activation link at the top of the Email import tab under Confirm email forwarding, so you can finish setup without leaving the page.

Skip the review step

By default, forwarded statements wait in the inbox until you import them. To import a sender's statements automatically, turn on Auto import on its group in the inbox. Anything from that sender already waiting is imported straight away, and new mail imports as it arrives.

You can see and remove auto-import rules under Settings, Email in, Advanced. Adding a sender there also approves it, because auto-import only ever runs for approved senders.

One email per batch

If you'd like an email when forwarded statements finish processing, turn on Import confirmation emails under Settings, Notifications. A batch of forwards is told as one email: the first statement starts a ten-minute wait, the rest join it, and one message says what each bank's statements added. A single forward still gets its own receipt.

Sending Mail Straight to a Workflow

A workflow can claim forwarded mail by sender and subject. Matching mail is then parsed straight away and delivered wherever the workflow sends its results, instead of waiting in the inbox. The inbox tells you which workflow is importing a sender's mail.

A workflow set to read invoices and receipts also accepts forwarded photos, so you can email a picture of a receipt from your phone and have it land in Documents.

Common Problems

A forwarded email never appeared. Check that the address it came from is on your approved senders list, or look for it under Turned away recently. Mail from an unapproved sender is discarded, not stored, so it can't be recovered later. Approve the sender and forward it again.

An attachment needs a password. Enter the PDF's password on its row and unlock it. Saving the password in Settings means next month's statement opens on its own.

An import failed. Use Retry on its row. If it fails again, find it in Files under Failed to see the reason.

Statements are waiting and won't import. If you're out of credits, forwarded statements are kept and a banner says how many are waiting. Top up or upgrade, then import them.

I forwarded the same statement twice. Bankflow keeps one pending copy of each file, so a second forward won't create a second import.

Next Step

Once statements arrive on their own, learn how to review one, or set up a workflow to send the results on to a drive or your own system.