Email Accounts

The Email Accounts page lets you connect Gmail or Outlook accounts to TaxLayer. Once connected, TaxLayer automatically pulls emails and extracts document attachments — invoices, receipts, and other financial documents — so they appear in your Documents list without any manual uploading.

How email sync works

When you connect an email account, TaxLayer:

• Accesses your mailbox via the provider's OAuth API (Gmail or Outlook)
• Scans emails within the configured sync window
• Extracts attachments that look like financial documents (PDFs, images, and common office formats)
• Pulls sender information, subject lines, and received dates for context
• Runs each attachment through the standard TaxLayer document processing pipeline — extraction, classification, client matching, and validation
• The processed documents appear in your Documents list
• Documents from email go through the same processing pipeline as manually uploaded files. They receive the same statuses (Looks Good, Needs Review, Blocking) and the same client matching logic applies.

What you see

Connected accounts are shown in a table:

If no accounts are connected, the page shows an empty state with a Connect email account button and a brief description.

Connect an email account

1. Click Connect email account (or Add Account) in the top right.
2. A dropdown appears. Select Gmail or Outlook.
3. Your browser redirects to the provider's OAuth authorisation page.
4. Sign in to the email account you want to connect and grant TaxLayer the requested permissions.
5. You are redirected back to TaxLayer. The account appears in the table with an active status.

TaxLayer uses OAuth to connect. Your email password is never stored by TaxLayer. Access is granted via a token issued by the email provider, which you can revoke at any time from your Google or

Microsoft account settings.

Sync settings

By default, TaxLayer syncs emails from the last 30 days when you first connect an account. You can change this for each account.

To adjust the sync window:

1. Find the account in the table.
2. Click the settings (gear) icon on the row, or find the sync settings option in the row actions.
3. The Sync Settings modal opens.

Under "How far back should we sync?", select one of the following:

• Last 7 days - Only the most recent week of emails
• Last 30 days (recommended) - The last month of emails — a good balance of completeness and speed
• Last 3 months - The last quarter of emails
• Last year - Up to 12 months of historical emails

Click Save.

Important: The sync window controls how far back TaxLayer looks when syncing. Extending the window after initial connection allows TaxLayer to retrieve older emails that were not included in previous syncs. However, very long windows (3 months, 1 year) may take significantly longer to process depending on the volume of emails in the account.

Sync an account manually

TaxLayer syncs connected accounts automatically on a schedule. To trigger a sync immediately:

• Sync one account: Click the Sync now button on the account row. The button shows a loading state while the sync runs. A "Synced" indicator appears briefly when complete.
• Sync all accounts: Click the Sync all button below the table to sync every active account at once.

Account statuses

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Delete an account

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1. ​Click the Actions menu on the account row.
2. ​Click Delete.
3. ​Confirm.

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You can also select multiple accounts using the row checkboxes and use Actions → Delete selected (n) to remove them in bulk.

Deleting an email account removes the connection from TaxLayer. Documents that were already extracted and processed from that account remain in your Documents list and are not deleted.

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Limitations

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Supported providers

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Only Gmail and Outlook are currently supported. IMAP, forwarding addresses, and other providers are not yet available.

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What is synced

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TaxLayer syncs email attachments (PDFs, images, and common document formats). Inline images embedded in email bodies are not currently extracted. Emails with no relevant attachments are ignored.

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Sync window

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Only emails within the selected sync window are retrieved. Emails older than the configured lookback period are not synced unless you extend the window and trigger a new sync. The maximum lookback is 1 year.

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Processing time

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Large mailboxes with many relevant attachments may take several minutes to fully process after a sync. Check the Documents list Processing tab after a sync to see documents that are still being analysed.

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Re-syncing

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Changing the sync window to a longer period and triggering a new sync will pull older emails that were not previously synced. Documents that were already imported from a previous sync are not re-processed.

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OAuth tokens

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Gmail and Outlook OAuth tokens can expire or be revoked if you change your password, revoke TaxLayer's access from your Google/Microsoft account settings, or if the provider resets the token. When this happens, the account status changes to Error and you will need to reconnect.

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Troubleshooting

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The OAuth flow completed but the account does not appear in the table. Refresh the page. The authorisation redirect sometimes takes a moment to register.

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The account status shows Error. The OAuth token has likely expired or been revoked. Click Connect on the account row to re-authorise. If the problem recurs frequently, check that TaxLayer is not being blocked by your organisation's Google or Microsoft admin settings.

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Documents from my email are not appearing in the Documents list. Check the Processing tab on the Documents list — they may still be processing. If you recently changed the sync window, trigger a manual sync. If the account shows an active status and sync was recent, check that the emails contain attachments in a supported format (PDF, PNG, JPG, XLSX, DOCX).

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I connected the wrong email account. Delete the account from the Email Accounts page and reconnect with the correct account. Previously extracted documents are not removed automatically.

Updated on: 16/04/2026