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. 

For more details, please refer to the Inbox FAQ. 

By default, Inbox is deactivated for all users; if you wish to activate it for your home company, please click on Request Activation:

Connecting corporate email accounts to VAT4U

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.

Company email accounts can be added by Administrators. To connect a company email account, click on the Inbox tab on the left-side menu and then on "Connect company email account":

Alternatively, just go to Home Company Settings → VAT4U Inbox → Connect account:

Administrators can allow other users to connect their user email accounts to VAT4U. If this option is disabled in the settings, users won’t be able to link their own corporate email accounts. 

Administrators can also specify allowed domains for user email connections:

Setting Default Addresses

In most cases, when something changes on the platform, we notify users—for example, when a claim is submitted or an email address is connected. By default, these transactional emails are sent from our system address (system@vat4u.com), which is typically a no-reply address, meaning recipients cannot respond directly.

However, if you integrate a company-level email address, all system-generated emails can now be sent from that address instead. This ensures that your communications come from your company's domain 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. 

By clicking on "Set Default Addresses," a menu will appear showing all the events that trigger email notifications, allowing you to select which email to use as the default sender for that specific notification:

Customization Settings

Administrators can customize their email appearance in VAT4U by adding a logo (max 150x90px), setting a brand-aligned background color, and editing the email outro and footer. The outro can include support messages, while the footer typically contains legal details with a customizable text color:

Signatures

You can import your email signature from your connected account. While you can’t edit the imported signature, you can still use it or create a new one.

If you add a new signature, you’ll have multiple options to choose from when composing emails.

Synchronization Settings

When you sync your external email account with VAT4U for the first time, emails will be retrieved and displayed based on your selected settings and labels. This process is read-only, meaning no changes will be made to your external email account—your emails will remain unchanged in your original inbox.

After the initial synchronization, VAT4U will automatically update your email data according to your preferences, ensuring you always have access to the latest information. You can customize these settings to control which emails are retrieved, such as filtering by specific labels or selecting a defined time range.

For added convenience, VAT4U allows you to send emails directly from your connected address, so any messages composed within the system will appear as if they were sent from your original email account.

Click Start Sync when you're ready to begin:

You can choose to sync emails from any label or limit synchronization to specific labels only.

Actions with emails

You have an option to automatically identify and link emails to VAT4U objects:

You can also manage your emails in VAT4U just like in your external email account. Actions you take here will also affect your external email account:

• Mark as read/unread
• Delete (if you delete an email in VAT4U, it will also be deleted in your external email account)

If needed, you can:

• Stop synchronization – Existing emails will remain in VAT4U, but new emails won’t sync.
• Disconnect an account – You won’t be able to send or receive emails through VAT4U.
• Remove an account – The email account will be permanently deleted from VAT4U.

Blocked Addresses

You can block specific email addresses in VAT4U to prevent receiving emails from them within the platform. To block an entire domain, use the format *@example.com. Simply type the email or domain, press Enter, and add multiple entries as needed:

This will not block emails in your external inbox—you will still receive them there—but they will no longer be visible in VAT4U. This can be useful for filtering out bank invoices, statements, or other senders unrelated to VAT recovery.

Connecting Your Personal Email Account

To link your email to VAT4U, go to Inbox and click on Connect Personal Email Account, and it will transfer you to the User Profile, where you'll find a list of email accounts you've already connected. If you haven’t linked an account yet, click the "Connect Account" button in the top right corner to add one.

You'll also see the connection date for each account. A blue dot next to an email account means it's connected, while a red dot indicates that the connection has been lost:

If users are added to a specific company and that company’s administrators have not enabled the option to add personal corporate email accounts, they will see the following message in the system and will not be able to connect their email:

The settings for adding a personal corporate email address are the same as those for adding a company email address. Users can link their email to different objects, block specific addresses, choose the sync start date, and manage other preferences to customize their email integration within VAT4U.

Inbox

The Inbox tab replicates your external email inbox, displaying all emails since the day of connection. Standard email management functions such as Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Outbox, Archive, Trash, and Failed are available.

Clicking on the connected email icon in the top right corner will display all linked email accounts, categorized as Google, Microsoft, or other providers. These accounts can be either private or corporate.

Opening an email allows you to read its content immediately. You can reply to the sender or use Reply All to include all recipients. Optionally, add or remove your email signature as needed.

Draft emails are stored until they are sent. You can access and edit them at any time before sending them.

Use Filters to filter emails by:

• Read or Unread status;
• Emails linked or not linked to objects in VAT4U.

Linking Emails to Objects

Emails can be linked to one of four objects: Expense (requires manual entry of the Expense ID; an error will appear for invalid IDs), Task, Claim, and Query (supports fuzzy search). 

To link a specific email to an object, simply hover over the email and click the Link icon:

To link an email:

• Type in the Expense ID (for Expense objects) or use the search bar for other objects.
• Enter a keyword (e.g., "company"), and VAT4U will display matching Tasks or Claims.
• Select the relevant object to link the email.
   

Under Manage VAT Claims, you can now see the claim linked to an email. There are two email icons:

• Blue icon – Indicates the total number of emails linked to the claim.
• Red icon – Represents an unread email.

A filter is available for this column, allowing you to view claims with or without emails:

When you open the claim, on the right side, you'll find the Emails tab. If it displays "1," it means there's one unread email:

Please note that emails synced to a claim are listed individually rather than grouped as conversations.

Once you expand an email, it will be marked as read automatically:

You can also compose emails from this tab, and they will be directly linked to the claim. Any replies to those emails will also be automatically linked to the same claim.

We currently have a similar functionality for queries. In the Queries tab, you can see if a query has emails, with indicators for total emails and unread emails, following the same logic as claims. 

From here, you can compose and send emails, and any emails sent will be automatically linked to the query as well.

Smart BCC

Smart BCC is a feature that allows users to automatically forward email content into VAT4U without linking their email account. It helps in tracking and storing email communication related to specific objects (claims, queries, tasks, expenses) in a structured way.

Each object (claim, query, task, expense) has a unique Smart BCC email address. If a user BCCs this address in an email, the content will automatically appear in VAT4U under the related object.

Users cannot send emails from Smart BCC addresses. Smart BCC only receives emails and links them to the correct object in the platform.

Who Can Use Smart BCC?
Smart BCC is strictly available only to users who:
✔ Are registered in VAT4U.
✔ Have the necessary access rights to the specific object (claim, task, etc.).

You can whitelist additional email addresses, but if an address isn’t on the list, emails won’t be processed and linked to the objects.

Automatic Expense Creation
Any email sent to the Smart BCC address specified in the settings below will automatically create an expense entry in the system, streamlining expense tracking:

Benefits of Smart BCC:
✔ No need to link personal email – Maintains privacy while ensuring emails are logged.
✔ Automatic email tracking – Reduces manual work by automatically associating emails with relevant claims/tasks.
✔ Efficient communication record-keeping – Users within VAT4U can see the full communication history related to an object.

How Does Smart BCC Handle Emails?

When an email is received, our platform checks if the sender’s email address is registered in the system. If the sender is not a registered user, the email is immediately rejected to prevent spam or unauthorized sharing.

If the sender is a registered VAT4U user, the system then checks whether they have access rights to the specific object. If they do have access, the email is stored inside the corresponding object in VAT4U. If they do not have access, the email is discarded for security reasons.

Global Company Email Account

Clicking on the Global company email address (smart BCC addresses) changes the left-side folder structure. Instead of the standard Inbox folders, you will see:

• Expenses
• Tasks
• VAT Claims
• Claim Queries

A global company email account is automatically generated for each company rather than being created by an administrator.