Documentation/ Uploading documents/ Documents arriving by email
Documents arriving by email
Connect a mailbox and whatever lands in it processes itself. It is the route that asks least of you day to day, and the one that raises most questions while you are setting it up.
Account › Email Connections
On this page
What you need
- The administrator role. Without it the screen shows an access denied notice.
- One mailbox at a time. To connect another, remove the current one.
- A mailbox with IMAP access, or a Microsoft account.
Connecting email is not available during a free trial. You need a live plan for it.
Microsoft mailboxes: connect by permission
Microsoft no longer lets email be connected with a password. For Outlook and Microsoft 365 mailboxes, use the Connect with Microsoft button: you sign in on Microsoft's own site and grant the permission there, the same way the Dropbox connection works.
Two things to know about that permission:
- It expires within a few minutes. Do the whole thing in one go; leave it too long and you have to authorise it again.
- You have to accept it. If you decline on Microsoft's page, the mailbox is not connected.
A mailbox that was set up with a password before the change can be repaired the same way, with Reconnect with Microsoft.
If your Dijit.app session happens to drop while you are away granting the permission, the screen says so and asks you to sign in again; there is nothing to repeat on Microsoft's side.
Gmail and everything else
These connect over IMAP with a username and password:
- Press the new connection button.
- Pick the provider: the server settings fill themselves in.
- Type the email address and the password.
- Set the folder to watch and the document type.
- Test the connection before you save.
- Save.
| Provider | Server | Port | Encryption |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gmail | imap.gmail.com | 993 | Yes |
| Manual | You type it in | 993 by default | Yes |
The IMAP username is normally the same as the email address, and the screen says so. It only differs on set-ups that keep the username and the address apart.
With Gmail, the mailbox's ordinary password does not work. You have to generate an app password and use that. It is the number one reason a connection fails.
An app password is a key the mail provider creates so that an outside program can reach the mailbox. You create it in that account's own security settings, not in Dijit.app, and it normally requires two-step verification to be switched on.
When you edit an existing connection the password field comes up empty: leaving it blank keeps the one already saved.
The folder and the document type
A connection watches one particular folder in the mailbox, not the whole thing. The inbox by default, but you can name any other.
A folder of its own is what we would advise: set a rule in the mail that moves what matters into it, and then only what should reach Dijit.app does. Watching the whole inbox means every attachment that arrives gets processed.
The document type is set on the connection: everything that comes in through it is processed as that type, whether purchase invoices, expenses, delivery notes or sales invoices.
Testing the connection
The test button checks the credentials before you save. It needs the server, the username and the password filled in; if one is missing it tells you.
It is the step not to skip: a connection saved with the wrong password simply brings nothing in, and you find out days later.
When the mailbox is checked
The automatic check runs once a day, at 06:00, and only looks at the last day's email. It is not continuous.
To process something now there is Sync Now, which checks the mailbox there and then. When it finishes it tells you how many emails it found and how many documents it processed.
Two behaviours worth knowing:
- If there are more emails left to process, the application says so and you just press again: it carries on where it stopped.
- If a sync is already running, another will not start. Wait.
If you hit your plan's document limit, the sync stops and says so outright.
The connection's status
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| OK | The last sync worked. |
| Error | The last sync failed. Check the credentials. |
| Never synced | It has never run. |
Next to the status sits the date of the last sync. That is the figure that gives away a broken connection: if it has not moved for days, something is wrong.
A connection can be switched off without deleting it, to stop it for a while and keep its settings.
Things that come up
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| You cannot open the screen | The user is not an administrator. | Ask the account administrator. |
| An Outlook mailbox will not connect with its password | Microsoft no longer allows it. | Use Connect with Microsoft, or Reconnect with Microsoft on an existing one. |
| The Microsoft authorisation expired | The permission only lasts a few minutes. | Start the connection again and finish it in one go. |
| The test fails with Gmail | You are using the mailbox's ordinary password. | Generate an app password and use that. |
| It will not let you connect a second mailbox | Only one account at a time is allowed. | Remove the current one, or use folders and rules inside the same mailbox. |
| An invoice arrived and is not there | The automatic check is daily, at 06:00. | Press Sync Now. |
| The sync does not bring older email | The automatic run only looks at the last day. | Use the manual sync, which carries on where it stopped. |
| Attachments you do not want are being processed | The whole inbox is being watched. | Make a dedicated folder and a rule in the mail. |
| The sync stops | You reached your plan's document limit. | Move up a plan. |