VAT4U Inbox

The Inbox functionality in VAT4U seamlessly integrates your email system, allowing you to send and receive emails directly within the platform. You can easily link messages to Claims, Queries, Tasks, and Expenses, enabling communication with Vendors, Clients, or Tax Administrations without leaving VAT4U.
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This article covers activation, every way of connecting a mailbox (including shared/group mailboxes), all synchronisation and privacy settings, day-to-day use, Smart BCC, and what to do when a connection breaks.
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The Inbox is switched off by default for every Home company.

Three related modules are toggled separately by an administrator under Home Company Settings → VAT4U Inbox:

Tip: We recommend connecting corporate email accounts to VAT4U first, as they typically serve as the central point of communication between different parties, where most VAT-related correspondence is received.

You need to be a Home company administrator.

A security warning during sign-in is expected. VAT4U is in the process of completing official verification with Google and Microsoft. It is safe to continue.

The account then appears in the account list marked Ready to sync. Review the sync settings and press Start sync when you are happy with them - nothing is imported until you do.

Many VAT teams work out of a shared mailbox such as [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]. A shared mailbox usually has no password and no sign-in of its own - Microsoft blocks sign-in for it deliberately, and people reach it through their own account.
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VAT4U connects such a mailbox the same way: you authenticate with your own account, and VAT4U works on the shared mailbox on your behalf.

Shared mailbox connection is available for Microsoft/Office 365 accounts.

With Google, the mailbox that gets connected is always the account you sign in with, so Google Groups and Google collaborative inboxes cannot be connected this way.

Type the shared mailbox address, sign in as yourself. Getting this the wrong way round is the most common mistake: if you type your own address, your personal mailbox is connected instead of the shared one.
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On that page you also see every account you have already connected, with the date it was connected and its status:

Your administrator controls whether personal accounts are allowed at all (Allow user email accounts) and which email domains may be used (Allowed domains for user email connection). If the option is off, or your domain is not allowed, VAT4U tells you to contact your Home company administrator.
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You manage a personal account exactly like a company one: sync window, labels, blocked addresses, visibility, signatures and linking preferences are all yours.

By default VAT4U sends system notifications from [email protected], which is a no-reply address, meaning recipients cannot respond directly.
Once a company email account is connected, you can have those notifications go out from your own domain instead, rather than the VAT4U system email.
Additionally, you will be able to receive, reply, and manage all replies to these emails, keeping all correspondence within your organization in one place.

Exception: Forgot Password and Password Change emails are always sent from [email protected] and cannot use another address, for security reasons.
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Administrators can align outgoing email with the company's branding:

Under Home Company Settings → VAT4U Inbox → Email templates settings administrators can maintain reusable templates for the company and pick which one applies as the default. When composing in the Inbox you can choose whether the message is wrapped in the company email template or sent as plain content.

Found under the account's Signatures section. Signatures are appended to the end of outgoing messages.

Open an account in Email sync settings to configure it. Nothing is imported until you press Start sync.

The first sync reads only. VAT4U retrieves and displays messages according to your settings and labels, and leaves your external mailbox untouched. Afterwards VAT4U keeps your email up to date automatically, and you can send from the connected address so messages appear to come from your own account.

Choose the history window: today, past 3 days, past week, past month, past 3 months, past 6 months or past year. The matching date is shown next to each option.

Already synced? Change the window and click Retrieve more emails to pull older mail. Only messages not already in VAT4U are imported, so nothing is duplicated.

Filter by labels decides how much of the mailbox is synced:

Click Save labels to apply.

Label changes apply to future emails only. Messages already synced to your VAT4U Inbox stay where they are.

Default linked emails visibility controls what happens once a message from this account is linked to a VAT4U record:

Independently of this setting: emails from accounts connected through Home Company settings are visible to administrators of that company, and accounts connected under a user profile are private to that user until a message is linked.

Link emails to VAT4U objects - when enabled, VAT4U tries to identify the related record (invoice, claim, query and so on) and the contact person for each incoming message, and links it for you. Turn it off if you prefer to link everything by hand.

By default VAT4U does not touch your external mailbox. These three switches let actions in VAT4U mirror back:

Under Blocked addresses, add senders you do not want VAT4U to receive email from.

Typical uses: bank statements, newsletters, automated notifications and other senders irrelevant to VAT.

The Inbox mirrors your external mailbox, with the folders you expect:

Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items, Outbox, Archive, Deleted Items / Trash, plus your own labels and folders, and one VAT4U-specific folder:

Other essentials:

When an email carries an invoice or receipt, you can turn it into an expense without leaving the Inbox:

If an attachment has already been turned into an expense, VAT4U tells you rather than creating a duplicate.

You can link a message to four record types: Expense, Task, Claim and Query.

You can also unlink a message later.

Once linked, correspondence is visible from the record:

Smart BCC is a virtual mailbox hosted by VAT4U. It captures correspondence and documents without connecting any mailbox at all - useful when linking a personal account is not an option.

Activate it under Home Company Settings → VAT4U Inbox → Smart Bcc settings → Activate Smart Bcc module.

Each company gets an auto-generated Smart BCC address (administrators do not create it). Copy it from the settings page and put it in the Cc or Bcc field when you send or forward mail. The message then appears in VAT4U under the relevant object.

You can also use the per-object Smart BCC address.
​Each object (claim, query, task, expense) has a unique Smart BCC email address. If a user CCs or BCCs this address in an email, the content will automatically appear in VAT4U under the related object.

Smart BCC is receive-only - you cannot send from a Smart BCC address.

By default, emails from your own address are accepted and any Home company user can send to the Smart BCC address. To accept more senders, whitelist addresses or domains under Authorized Email Addresses. Mail from anything not whitelisted is not processed.

A second, dedicated address turns incoming mail into expenses: forward an invoice or receipt to it and VAT4U creates the expense automatically and assigns it to the right company.

It has its own Authorized Email Addresses list.

Clicking the global company Smart BCC address changes the folder list on the left. Instead of the standard mail folders you get the objects the mail belongs to:

No mailbox to connect, automatic tracking of object-related correspondence, and clean record-keeping for audits.

At the bottom of an account's settings:

Every account keeps an audit trail - click View activity logs. It records, with timestamp (UTC) and user:

You can search the log and filter it by user and date range.

If VAT4U cannot reach a mailbox for several consecutive sync runs, the account is flagged:

The usual causes, all of which are fixed by Reconnect:

What happens when I connect a company email account?

You can use it to send notifications, compose emails and manage communication from within VAT4U. Company administrators will also have access to connected company accounts.

What happens when I connect a user email account?

You can use it to send notifications, compose emails and manage communication from within VAT4U. Only you have access to it.

How does email account sync work?

Once syncing begins, conversations stay updated in both directions. Compose and read in the VAT4U Inbox or in your own email client - the messages appear in both.

What is Smart BCC?

A virtual mailbox hosted by VAT4U. It lets you BCC your dedicated Smart BCC address to make an email visible in the VAT4U Inbox, link any correspondence to Expenses, Claims, Tasks and other records, and forward an expense document to create a new Expense automatically. You can also whitelist external domains allowed to send to Smart BCC.

What happens when I link an email to an object in VAT4U?

The email becomes available directly from that object (an Expense, Claim or Query). Only users with access to the object can see it.

Can other users see my emails?

Emails from accounts connected via Home Company settings are visible to administrator users of your company. User accounts connected under your own profile are private to you - unless you link an email to an object, at which point it becomes visible to users with access to that object, according to the account's visibility setting.

Can I connect a mailbox that has no password, like a shared team mailbox?

Yes, for Microsoft/Office 365. Type the shared mailbox address, then choose Use another account at the Microsoft sign-in page and sign in with your own account, which must have Full Access to that mailbox (plus Send As or Send on Behalf to send from it). See Connecting a shared (group) mailbox.

Do I need to give VAT4U the shared mailbox's password? No. Shared mailboxes have no usable sign-in of their own. Access is always delegated through a user who already has permission on the mailbox.