How do you get an emailed receipt into Xero?

Short answer: forward the email with the receipt attached as a PDF or image, because the attachment is what both tools work from. Xero's Files page, read on 14 November 2026, says you can forward a receipt to your Xero email address. Quenta gives you its own forwarding addresses, and a forwarded receipt goes through the same reading, review and Xero posting as a photograph, ending in a transaction with the original file attached.

This describes what the products publish about themselves. It is not accounting advice, and Xero changes its screens and names, so check the linked pages before you rely on a detail.

Where do you forward an emailed receipt in Xero?

You forward it to the email address Xero gives your organisation. Xero's Files page says you can "snap a receipt or forward it to your Xero email", and that Xero then reads the document and attaches the original file to the record it creates.

Xero has also renamed the area. A Xero blog post dated 18 September 2026 says Files is now called Documents, so the menu may not match older guides. The same post lists a bespoke email address as a planned feature "in the coming months", which means the address you see today is the one Xero generated for you.

Does the receipt have to be an attachment?

Treat it as yes. Plenty of shops now send a receipt as text in the body of the email with nothing attached. Xero's product ideas forum has an open request to allow file emails without attachments, marked "Gaining Support", and a Xero community manager wrote on 31 July 2026 that the team is aware of it. Xero has not said that a body-only email is read today.

Quenta's email receipts guide is explicit: forward the email with the receipt image or PDF attached. If the receipt exists only as text in the message, print the email to PDF from your mail app and forward or upload that file instead.

How does Quenta take an emailed receipt?

Where Email receipts in appears in Settings, Quenta provides forwarding addresses for digital receipts. The guide lists four options:

• The standard address accepts messages forwarded from the email address you use to sign in.
• The workspace address accepts mail from any sender, so you can give it to a supplier or an assistant.
• Admins can add regular sender addresses, and each sender confirms access by email.
• Organisations can have separate addresses, so receipts reach the right company.

The receipt then follows the same route as an upload. Quenta reads the merchant, date, total, currency, VAT details and a suggested category, posts an authorised spend-money transaction to Xero when it is confident, and attaches the original image or PDF. If something is unclear it waits in Review with the problem in plain words, as the how it works guide describes.

Which one should you forward to?

Forward to Quenta when the payment was by card or bank and you want a finished transaction, and to Xero when you only want a copy stored.

The difference is what each tool does with the file. Xero's Files page says it reads the document, attaches the original and compares it with your bank records so you can accept or reject a suggested match. Quenta goes a step further for card and bank payments: the forwarded receipt arrives as a posted spend-money transaction with the file attached, so the coding is already done when the charge turns up on the bank feed. Quenta does not reconcile for you, and the guide to receipts piling up before reconciliation covers that order.

Is it safe to give out a forwarding address?

Keep the workspace address private. Quenta's guide warns that anyone who knows an unrestricted address may be able to submit a receipt to that workspace. Admins can remove senders or change an organisation's address in Settings, which is the quickest fix if an address has travelled further than you meant.

Can you throw away the email afterwards?

You still need the record, so keep the file rather than the inbox. HMRC's VAT Notice 700/21, section 2.4, says VAT records are generally kept for at least 6 years, and section 6 says a scanned image can replace the original where it contains all the detail required for VAT. A PDF forwarded into Xero or Quenta is kept attached to the transaction, which is a sturdier place than a mailbox that you may one day close. The longer answer is in keeping paper receipts when you have a photo.

What does it cost?

Quenta's free plan covers 10 receipts a month per organisation. Quenta Pro is £6 per user a month, or £60 per user a year, tax included. Pro is fair-use capped at 350 receipts a month per workspace, so it is not unlimited. See the pricing page.

Quick answers

Can I forward a receipt to Xero? Yes. Xero's Files page says you can forward a receipt to your Xero email, and the area is now called Documents.

Does Xero read an email with no attachment? Xero has not said so. A request to allow it is still open on its product ideas forum.

Does Quenta accept forwarded receipts? Yes, where Email receipts in appears in Settings. Forward the email with an image or PDF attached.

Does an emailed receipt end up attached in Xero? Through Quenta, yes: the original file is attached to the spend-money transaction.

Is Quenta made by Xero? No, it is an independent app that connects to Xero.

For the whole route from receipt to posted transaction, read receipt scanning for Xero. Try it today.

Quenta is an independent app from We UC Ltd. Xero is a trademark of Xero Limited. Quenta is not affiliated with or endorsed by Xero.

Photograph it and forget it.