Retroactive scan
Pull in invoices that arrived before you connected an inbox by scanning a chosen period of past email.
Retroactive scan
Member+Connecting an inbox does not touch your old mail. Inbox Ledger marks the moment you connect as the starting point and watches for new mail from then on. A retroactive scan is how you bring in invoices that arrived before that point.
What it does
A retroactive scan reads a window of past email from inboxes you already connected and pulls any invoices it finds. It works by email delivery date, not the date printed on the invoice. An invoice dated last year is found only if the email carrying it arrived inside the period you pick.
Only Gmail, Outlook, and IMAP inboxes can be scanned. Forwarding addresses and manual uploads are not scanned, because they capture documents the moment they arrive.
Run a scan
Open Retroactive Scan
In the dashboard sidebar, open Retroactive Scan, then click Find Past Invoices.
Pick a period
Choose Today, This month, Last month, or Last quarter.
Tick the inboxes
Tick the Gmail, Outlook, or IMAP inboxes you want to scan.
Start the scan
Click Scan Selected. Inbox Ledger reads the mail delivered in that window and queues any invoices for processing.

Credits
A retroactive scan uses credits, the same way new mail does. You need at least one available credit to start a scan. If your balance is zero, the scan stops with a message asking you to purchase a plan. See Billing and credits to top up.
The member, admin, and owner roles can run a retroactive scan. Viewers cannot.
Confirm it worked
Open Documents. Within a few minutes you should see invoices from the scanned window appear with the vendor and total filled in. If the list stays empty, the inboxes may have had no invoices in that period.
Related
Connect Gmail
Connect an inbox before you scan its history.
Sources overview
Compare every way to capture documents.
Billing and credits
Check your balance and top up credits.
Ready to try this?
Inbox Ledger turns your inbox into clean accounting data. The free tier includes 10 credits, refilled every 30 days.
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