With email search, William finds missing receipts in a connected inbox — Gmail or Outlook, on mobile or desktop. When a bank transaction doesn't have a matching receipt, William goes looking, quietly in the background, like an extra team member working on your behalf.
Before you start
Email search is available when your company is connected to Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent.
Email search is free until 1 December. After that, new pricing applies – check the details in our article: Apron pricing is changing on 1 December.
How email search works
Targeted search — William looks only for the specific receipt tied to a specific unreconciled transaction. It never browses the rest of the inbox.
Folders searched — while targeted to specific receipts, William's search does cover your whole mailbox: Inbox, custom labels/folders, Drafts, Sent and Archive. Only Trash and Spam are skipped.
Matched on transaction details — William matches receipts to transactions using the description, amount, and date — looking for a full match.
Automatic — William runs a search whenever a new bank transaction appears without a receipt. If nothing matches, it tries once more 5 days later, in case the receipt arrives late.
Manual trigger — open Missing documents, select one or more transactions, and click Search email to run a search on demand.
Visibility — every document William uploads via email search appears in your Inbox and the activity log — both the company-wide view and the per-document detail. On the transaction, you'll see "William AI uploaded a matching document from [email]."
Privacy and access
Independently audited — to connect Gmail and Outlook, Apron holds CASA (Google's external security audit) and ISO 27001 certifications.
Targeted, not exploratory — only the receipt tied to an unreconciled transaction is ever read. Email content beyond that match isn't visible to anyone at Apron, and isn't stored.
Read-only access — William can't send, delete, or modify any email.
Disconnect at any time — revokes William's access immediately.
Connect an inbox
You can connect an inbox on the web from Missing documents or from Settings.
From Missing documents:
Go to Missing documents and click Connect an email at the top of the page or in the banner.
Click Connect an email again in the window that opens.
Choose Gmail or Outlook, then click Continue.
Sign in to Google (for Gmail) or Microsoft (for Outlook), and grant Apron read-only access.
From Settings:
Open Settings and go to Email search.
Click Connect a new email.
Choose Gmail or Outlook, then click Continue.
Sign in to Google (for Gmail) or Microsoft (for Outlook), and grant Apron read-only access.
Once it's connected, you'll see "[your email] connected. William AI will upload any missing documents".
Tip: In the Apron mobile app, go to Settings › Email search and tap Connect email. The mobile app supports Gmail only for now — Outlook is coming soon.
Connect someone else's inbox
You can only connect an inbox you can sign in to. If receipts arrive in someone else's inbox, such as your client's or a teammate's, send them an invite link so they can connect it themselves. See Invite someone to connect their email.
Manage connected emails
Once an inbox is connected, the Connect an email button on Missing documents changes to Connected emails. Click it to see every connected inbox, click Connect new email to add another, or click Manage connected emails to open Settings › Email search.
Disconnect an inbox:
Go to Settings › Email search.
Click Disconnect next to the inbox.
Confirm with Disconnect.
William stops searching that inbox straight away. Only the person who connected the inbox, or a full Admin, can disconnect it.
What email search doesn't do
Unpaid invoices — email search finds documents for transactions that have already happened. For bills you still need to pay, forward them to your direct email instead. See Forward bills by email in one step.
Shared or delegated mailboxes — not yet supported. Connect individual Gmail or Outlook accounts only.
Other email providers — only Gmail and Outlook are supported.
Common questions
Can I connect more than one inbox to the same company? Yes — there's no limit. Connect as many as you need.
Can the same email address be connected to multiple companies? No. An email can only be connected to one company at a time.
Does William read attachments or the email body? Both. When the receipt is an attachment, William uses it directly. When it's only in the body, William converts the body to a PDF and uploads it to Apron.
Are shared mailboxes supported? Not yet — individual Gmail and Outlook accounts only.
What's next
Track William's decisions and the reasoning behind them — see every receipt William found in email, and the reasoning for how it was published.
Teach William about your policies — write rules and guidance to shape how William handles the documents it finds.
Understand auto-publish — see how William decides what to publish on its own, and how to turn it on.
Understand missing documents — the broader workflow for transactions missing their supporting documents.
Meet William, your AI bookkeeping agent — back to the overview.