The Email Receiver (also known as Trusted Sender) is a feature in the eConnect platform that lets you receive and process invoices by email, part of Scan & Recognise. You configure a trusted email address or domain, and invoices sent from that address are automatically processed.

Many software packages use the Email Receiver as their primary connection method with eConnect. The platform generates a unique email address per organization. Your software sends invoices as attachments to that address and the platform processes them further, depending on the configured document type.

When creating an Email Receiver, the platform generates a unique email address. You share this address with your software vendor or enter it in your package. As soon as your software sends an invoice as an attachment to that address, the platform processes the invoice automatically. XML invoices are processed directly; PDF invoices are converted to e-invoice format (UBL) via IDR conversion.

Which processing takes place depends on the document type you have configured: draft invoice, sales invoice or purchase invoice.

When creating an Email Receiver, you choose a document type. This determines how the received invoice is processed.

The invoice is prepared as a draft on the platform. You can review the invoice and then manually send it to the recipient via Peppol. If you enable the option XML auto-send, valid XML invoices are sent automatically without manual intervention.

The invoice goes directly to the archive for administrative processing. This is suitable for situations where the invoice is already final and needs no further review before archiving.

The invoice is delivered as a purchase invoice to the recipient. If the invoice is already provided as UBL, the conversion is skipped. For PDF invoices, IDR conversion to e-invoice format takes place.

Navigation for new customers: after registration you land on the environment/account management view. The Email Receiver is not directly visible there. In the menu click Apps → Email receiver (Email Receiver) to open the overview. Under All you will see the automatically created receiver email address for your organization.

1. Log in to platform.econnect.eu.
2. Go to the Email Receiver app (under Apps in the left menu).
3. Click New sender (the orange button with the plus icon).
4. Configure the following fields:
   • Organization: select the organization for which you want to process invoices.
   • Invoice type: choose Draft invoice, Sales invoice or Purchase invoice.
   • Whitelist type: enter the email address or domain of the sender that is allowed to submit. One domain or email address can be whitelisted per Email Receiver.
   • Contact email address: the address where rejection notifications are sent.
5. Click Save. The platform generates a unique email address for this connection.
6. Activate the trusted sender. This can be done in two ways: manually change the status to "Active", or send an invitation to the sender. With an invitation, the sender receives an email with instructions about the generated address. On first use, the Email Receiver is automatically activated.
7. Share the generated email address with your software vendor or enter it in your package.

If an organization needs to receive invoices from multiple domains, create a separate Email Receiver address for each domain.

• Notification on receipt: you receive an email when an invoice has been submitted and processed.
• SSL/TLS requirement: only process emails sent through a secured connection.
• XML auto-send: valid XML invoices are sent automatically without manual review. Requires SSL/TLS to be enabled and the XML to be valid.
• Allowed document types: determine whether you accept only e-invoices (XML), only digital invoices (PDF), or both.
• Supplier recognition: configure which email field is used for supplier recognition. The default is the sender address, but for aliases or forwarding setups, you can choose a different field (for example Reply-To). The recognized address is also included in the XML delivered to your accounting system.
• Conversion for multiple organizations: administration detection / multiparty conversion. The IDR automatically determines which administration within the same account a PDF invoice is intended for, even when submitted via another organisation's email receiver. Requires Professional as a minimum (named separately in the contract), feature-pack option Allow multi party for IDR conversion (IDR Features tab), and the option on the email receiver. Default is the email-receiver organisation; on a better match the system places the invoice on the other administration. When in doubt, the default remains.

Note: A final invoice from your software may not be modified in terms of debtor and invoice lines after being received as a draft invoice in the eConnect platform. Only review the invoice for correctness and then send it.

A defective or inactive Email Receiver does not necessarily need to be fixed by creating a new Email Receiver. Often the Trusted Sender is not yet active or is misconfigured. When invoices are "not received", check these points first:

1. Email address copied correctly — check for typos in the generated …@trust.econnect.eu address you passed to the software package.
2. Email Receiver status Active — if the Trusted Sender is still on status "Created Draft", the Email Receiver is not yet active and cannot be used. In that case the sender receives a bounce (unless another active Email Receiver with a different contact email is configured).
3. Correct whitelist — check that the sender's email address or domain is correctly set in the Email Receiver whitelist.
4. Correct document type selected — with the wrong document type, invoices are processed incorrectly. Example: a Trusted Sender created with document type Purchase invoice processes invoices as purchase invoices instead of draft invoices. Creating a new Email Receiver with document type Draft invoice may have been chosen as a temporary workaround, but preferably correct the document type on the existing Email Receiver.

Example internal bounce log for an inactive Email Receiver: #11.INFO [...]: Bounce (bounce-id: ...) was sent to [invoicing@mailer.twinfield.com] successfully.

In addition to the Email Receiver, eConnect also offers a Quick Connect link via the email connector. This is a connection-key-based integration that is set up quickly through the Quick Connect UI in the platform. Note: although the name "Email connector" sounds like email submission, it works via connection keys, not via submitted emails.

The following packages are available via Quick Connect (Email connector):

Besides the standard Email connector, there are variants that transform the received document to a specific format (always SI 2.0, always BIS v3, always SI 1.2 or always SALES005 Invoice). The configuration is the same as the standard Email connector; eConnect handles delivery in the chosen format.

As a recipient you can create an Email connector to have invoices received by eConnect automatically forwarded to a specified email address. By default only the XML is included — no PDF or other attachments. This behaviour is controlled by the excludeAdditionalAttachments parameter:

• excludeAdditionalAttachments=true (default): extra attachments such as a PDF are not included.
• excludeAdditionalAttachments=false: the PDF and any other attachments are included as well.

On the standard Email connector this parameter is set to true. If you also want to receive the PDF, only Techsupport can change this. If you use the mailhook in the PSB and configure the connector yourself, you can set this parameter yourself.

This forwarding is a suitable alternative for a recipient who is not (yet) in Peppol but still wants to automatically retrieve the invoice data or the PDF document.

When invoices are sent by email to recipients not in Peppol, two separate mechanisms apply:

Notification email "New invoice received" (for recipients on the platform) contains no attachments -- no XML and no PDF. It is a notification only; the document remains on the platform. The recipient can disable this notification via their own user profile (see Notifications and alerts).

Documents in the send email are configured per customer account by a support agent. The choice determines which documents are included in the email when sending:

• XML only
• Primary PDF only (if available)
• Both XML and the primary PDF (if a PDF is available)

Whether the PDF inclusion option involves additional charges is determined by Sales; discuss this with the Sales team.

Recommended alternatives for recipients outside Peppol:

• Peppol registration of the recipient -- the most robust route; invoices then travel via Peppol instead of by email.
• Account on the platform -- the recipient creates an account and uses an Email connector to have received invoices automatically forwarded.

On rejection the Email Receiver sends an error message to the configured contact email address:

• No processable attachments: no invoice files recognised in the email.
• Whitelist block: the sender is not on the whitelist; no file is processed.
• SSL/TLS error: the email was not sent through a secured connection and is not processed.
• Invalid or unrecognised XML: error message with instructions about UBL validity and UTF-8 encoding. If the email also contains a PDF next to the XML, the PDF is still processed. The notification for the rejected XML cannot be suppressed in that case as long as the PDF is processed.

Tip for structural XML and PDF submission: if a supplier always submits both XML and PDF but only the PDF is desired, support can configure the Email Receiver for digital invoices (PDF) only. The XML is then no longer offered for validation and the related error message disappears. This is a configuration change by support, at the customer's request.

The Email Receiver classifies the attachments in an incoming email and determines which document is treated as the invoice and which as an attachment. eConnect checks each submitted document individually for attachment/invoice status. Documents are merged in submission order: the first document becomes the first page of the invoice, even if it is an attachment. As soon as a file is recognised as an attachment, all subsequent files in the same email are also treated as attachments.

When submitting multiple PDF files:

• One file recognised as invoice, others are other document types — the other documents in the same email are treated as attachments and by default added to the invoice.
• Multiple attachments recognised as invoice — the system cannot determine which other attachments belong to which invoice. The attachments are rejected and the sender receives an error message by email.

Excel/ODS/CSV attachment next to PDF invoice: the presence of an Excel attachment does not block processing of the PDF invoice, provided the file is in a supported format and not larger than 5 MB. Behaviour per scenario:

• Supported format + not larger than 5 MB (.xlsx, .ods, .csv) -- the file is added as a secondary attachment to the invoice (not sent to IDR); the PDF invoice is processed normally.
• Supported format + larger than 5 MB -- the entire email is rejected with a bounce email.
• Unsupported format (.xls, .doc, .docx) -- processing is not possible.

Supported MIME types: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet (.xlsx), application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet (.ods), text/csv (.csv). Not supported: application/msword (.doc), application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document (.docx), application/vnd.ms-excel (.xls). Implemented via EVCS-5805 and EVCS-5802.

Page rotation: pages are not rotated automatically. The customer is responsible for the correct orientation on submission.

Large attachments: a very large attachment is reduced so the PDF remains manageable.

Merging attachments: the platform offers the option to merge all attachments in an e-invoice into one PDF.

Generate PDF from XML: there is an option to automatically generate a PDF from the XML invoice. This can be combined with the merge functionality and set to: always, never, or only if no PDF exists yet.

Submitted PDF unchanged: eConnect only handles translation/processing and does not modify the submitted PDF file itself (a PDF can still be generated).

Want to know which integration methods are available for your software? View the integration methods overview.