Enhanced forwarded email processing for expenses
| Feature | Public preview | General availability online |
|---|---|---|
| Enhanced forwarded email processing for expenses |  May 2026 | June 2026 |
Business value
Forwarding receipt emails is a fast and familiar way for employees to submit expense documentation, but handling them manually can create extra work for both expense users and finance teams. The expanded email-to-expense functionality means Continia Expense Management can now automatically process forwarded emails, identify relevant expense data, and either create a new expense, or attach the documentation to an existing matching expense. All of which significantly improves expense management workflows.
This new functionality reduces manual handling, improves documentation quality, and helps users submit expenses from a tool they already use every day (their email client). It also supports more advanced expense scenarios, such as submitting expenses on behalf of another user, creating expense reports from forwarded emails, and splitting multiple receipts into separate expenses. The result is a smoother expense process with fewer duplicate expenses, less manual follow-up, and better support for users who work across companies or delegate their expense submissions.
Feature details
Here's how the process works: An expense-related email is forwarded to Continia Expense Management, where the body of the email is converted to a PDF and scanned, along with any files included in or attached to the email. Continia then uses the scanned expense information (for example, amount, currency, date) to determine the next step, such as creating a new expense or adding the information to an existing matching expense.
The expanded email-to-expense functionality includes:
- Automatically creating expenses If no matching expense is found, Continia creates a new expense and attaches the forwarded email, including any attached files, as expense documentation. The user is notified and can complete or review the expense in the Continia Expense Portal or the Continia Expense App.
- Automatically matching to existing expenses If Continia finds an existing expense with the same amount, currency, and date, the forwarded email is attached to that expense instead of creating a duplicate. This is especially useful when a receipt is forwarded after an expense or credit card transaction already exists.
- Support for users with access to multiple companies If no matching expense is found and the user has access to more than one company, Continia replies to the forwarded email and asks the user to select the correct company. After the company is selected, the expense is created under the appropriate company.
- Support for email aliases Users can forward expenses from a personal or secondary email address if the address has been registered as an alias in the Continia Expense Portal. If the sender address is not recognized, Continia replies with guidance so the user or administrator can resolve the issue.
- Submitting expenses on behalf of another user
Delegated users can forward an expense email on behalf of another expense user by adding a delegation tag in the email, for example
[#user@example.com]. Continia creates or updates the expense under the delegated user’s account and confirms the result to the relevant parties. Delegation must be configured in advance. - Using tags to control processing
Users can include one processing tag per email to determine how Continia handles the forwarded content:
[Report]extracts the attached files or embedded expenses and creates or matches expenses, then moves them into an expense report.[Split]extracts the attached files or embedded expenses and creates or matches them as separate expenses.[#name@example.com]is used for delegation, when submitting expenses on behalf of another user.
- Email-based feedback and troubleshooting Continia replies to forwarded emails to confirm what happened or explain why the email could not be processed. Typical scenarios include successful expense creation, successful matching, missing user registration, missing delegation setup, or multiple delegation tags in the same email.
For consistency, forwarded emails are stored as PDFs, accessible via the Expense App, Expense Portal, and Business Central. The AI Receipt Scanner then processes the PDFs and extracts key information to help users create and complete expenses faster.
For more information, see Submitting expenses by forwarding an email