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.
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.
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.
Privacy and access
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
Open the William AI tab and go to Email search.
Click + Add email.
Sign in to Google (for Gmail) or Microsoft (for Outlook), and grant Apron read-only access.
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.