Tidy Orders

Receipt forwarding

Forward receipts from Outlook to Tidy Orders

Outlook calls them rules instead of filters, but the idea is identical to Gmail: match only purchase confirmations and forward those to your Tidy Orders inbound address. Everything else stays in your mailbox.

6 min read Updated August 19, 2026
Goal: receipts, invoices, and order confirmations land in your review queue automatically — and nothing else does.

Before you start

Open Tidy Orders in another tab and go to Integrations.

  1. Find the Email Forwarding card.
  2. Copy your unique address — it looks like receipts+your-alias@inbound.tidyorders.com.
  3. Keep that tab open; you'll paste the address into Outlook in a moment.

These steps cover Outlook.com / Hotmail / Live and Microsoft 365 work or school accounts. Both offer rules under Settings → Mail → Rules, although the controls available for existing messages differ by account and Outlook client. Rules created on the web run server-side, so they work even when your desktop Outlook is closed; some rules created only in classic Outlook are client-side and require the app to stay open.

Step 1: test one receipt manually

Confirm a single receipt parses correctly before you automate anything.

  1. Open Outlook on the web and find a recent receipt or order confirmation.
  2. Choose Forward and send it to your Tidy Orders address.
  3. Open Review Queue and look for the new pending transaction.

Good receipt candidates

  • Show merchant name, order date, and total amount.
  • Are the original merchant email, not a screenshot pasted into a message.
  • Include the full thread if the total only appears in an earlier reply.

Step 2: create a targeted Outlook rule

  1. In Outlook on the web, open Settings (gear icon) → Mail → Rules.
  2. Select Add new rule and give it a name such as Tidy Orders receipts.
  3. Add a condition. From works best — it accepts several addresses in the same condition, and any one of them triggers the rule. Subject includes covers keywords like receipt, invoice, or order confirmation.
  4. Add the action Forward to and paste your Tidy Orders address. Forward as attachment also works when your client offers it.
  5. Add a second action — Mark with a category or Move to folder — so you can audit what was forwarded.
  6. Leave Stop processing more rules unchecked unless you know you want it.
  7. Save.

A key Outlook detail: when you stack multiple different conditions on one rule, they combine with AND — a message must satisfy all of them. So put every merchant address inside a single From condition (that list behaves as OR), and create a separate rule when you want subject keywords as well. Also note that rules skip anything Outlook already routed to Junk, so whitelist merchant senders you care about.

Outlook exposes Forward to, Forward as attachment, and Redirect to as separate actions. Use Forward to for the simplest setup; Tidy Orders can read the forwarded message body. Forward as attachment also works and preserves the original as an attached message. Redirect keeps the original sender in the From line, which is usually unnecessary for this workflow.

From: auto-confirm@amazon.com — Forward to: receipts+your-alias@inbound.tidyorders.com

Step 3: handle existing mail

Web-created rules normally handle messages that arrive after the rule is saved. Outlook.com does not currently run inbox rules over existing messages, and Microsoft documents Run rule now for new Outlook for Windows—not for the web clients covered here. If you use new Outlook for Windows and see that control, run the rule cautiously; otherwise select the receipts you want and forward them manually, or use the Upload tab for saved PDFs and images. A large backfill can create a burst in the review queue and count against your monthly transaction allowance.

Important: do not turn on account-wide forwarding under Settings → Mail → Forwarding. That sends every message, including personal and client mail, into your purchase workflow. Rules keep it scoped.

If you're on a Microsoft 365 work account

Many organizations block automatic external forwarding through an anti-spam outbound policy. If your rule saves but nothing arrives, that's usually why — the message is silently dropped by Exchange Online.

  • Ask your admin to allow forwarding to inbound.tidyorders.com, or to add an exception for your mailbox.
  • If that isn't possible, forward receipts manually, or use the Upload tab to drop PDFs and screenshots directly.
  • Shared mailboxes need the rule created while signed in to that mailbox, not your personal one.

Recommended rule criteria

  • Senders: receipts@, orders@, billing@, invoices@, no-reply@ addresses from merchants you actually buy from.
  • Subject terms: receipt, invoice, order confirmation, payment, subscription, renewal.
  • Skip: newsletters, promotions, shipping-only notices, and support threads.

If an email doesn't prove an amount was paid, don't forward it.

Step 4: review the first week

Match Forwarded receipts should map to the right vendor and amount.
Trim Delete rules that pull in marketing or shipping updates.
Tune Set vendor defaults once you approve repeat purchases.

Microsoft references

Microsoft documents inbox rules and the difference between server-side and client-only rules in its help for managing email with rules.