Setting up Email Auto Forwarding (Outlook/Microsoft)

• This guide contains step-by-step instructions on how to set up autoforwarding rules in Gmail and Outlook for different configurations.

• When auto-forwarding rules are set up, Briefcase can receive all client emails and only put individual transactions through into your clients Briefcase inbox.

• We can also handle duplicate checks and multi-page invoice splits as part of this workflow.

Below are instructions for:

• Direct access to your client inbox → when you wish to forward all emails from a clients inbox into Briefcase

• Internal invoices inbox → when you receive emails from multiple clients in one internal inbox and wish to forward emails from specific clients to their respective Briefcase accounts

Summary

Direct Inbox Access (Windows)

1. Click the Home tab.

2. Click Manage Rules and Alerts.

3. Click New Rule.

4. Select Apply rule on messages I receive under "Start from a blank rule". Click Next.

5. In the conditions menu, do not select any options. Click Next.

6. In the popup, click Yes to apply the rule to every message.

7. Under "What do you want to do with the message?", select forward it to people or public group.

8. Click the underlined people or public group. Enter the client-specific Briefcase forwarding address. Click OK.

9. Click Next through the exceptions menu (do not select any exceptions). Click Finish.

10. Enter a name for the rule (e.g., [Client Name] - Briefcase Auto Forwarding).

11. Click OK to finish. All emails received in this inbox will now be automatically forwarded to the client’s Briefcase inbox.

Direct Inbox Access (Mac)

1. Click the Message tab.

2. Click Rules.

3. Click Edit Rules.

4. Click the + button to add a new rule.

5. Enter a name for the rule (e.g., [Client Name] - Briefcase Auto Forwarding).

6. Select Apply to all messages as the condition.

7. Select Forward to as the action.

8. Enter your client-specific Briefcase forwarding address.

9. Click Save.

All emails received in this inbox will now be automatically forwarded to the client’s Briefcase inbox.

Internal Invoices Inbox (Windows)

1. Click the Home tab.

2. Click Manage Rules and Alerts.

3. Click New Rule.

4. Select Apply rule on messages I receive. Click Next.

5. In the conditions menu, select from people or public group and to people or public group.

6. Click the underlined from people or public group. Enter all email addresses you want to trigger the rule for.

7. Click the underlined to people or public group. Enter the email address that you will be receiving emails from (e.g. your internal receipts@ email). Click Next.

8. For the action, select forward it to people or public group.

9. Click the underlined people or public group. Enter the client-specific Briefcase forwarding address. Click OK.

10. Click Next through the exceptions menu (do not select any exceptions). Click Finish.

11. Enter a name for the rule (e.g., [Client Name] - Briefcase Auto Forwarding).

12. Click OK to finish.

13. Repeat these steps for each client.

Emails will now be automatically forwarded based on the rules you have created.

Internal Invoices Inbox (Mac)

1. Click the Message tab.

2. Click Rules.

3. Click Edit Rules.

4. Click the + button to add a new rule.

5. Enter a name for the rule (e.g., [Client Name] - Briefcase Auto Forwarding).

6. Select From as the condition and enter the client-related sender addresses (e.g., admin@, invoices@, finance@).

7. Select Forward to as the action and enter the client-specific Briefcase forwarding address.

8. Click Save.

9. Repeat for each client, changing the rule name, "From" addresses, and "Forward to" address.

Emails will now be automatically forwarded based on the rules you have created.

Troubleshooting: "Your organization doesn't allow external forwarding"

If Outlook shows "Your organization doesn't allow external forwarding. Please contact your administrator for further assistance" when your rule tries to forward, the block is coming from Microsoft 365 — not from Briefcase. Since 2020, Microsoft blocks automatic external forwarding by default through its outbound anti-spam policy, so a Microsoft 365 administrator needs to allow forwarding to Briefcase.

Step 1 — Allow automatic forwarding for the mailbox

We recommend scoping this to only the mailbox(es) that forward into Briefcase, so the rest of your organisation stays locked down.

1. Go to the Microsoft Defender portal (security.microsoft.com).

2. Open Email & collaboration → Policies & rules → Threat policies → Anti-spam.

3. Click Create policy → Outbound.

4. Give it a name (e.g. Allow Briefcase forwarding) and, under Users, groups, and domains, scope it to the mailbox(es) that forward into Briefcase.

5. Under the protection settings, set Automatic forwarding rules to On – Forwarding is enabled.

6. Click Save. Changes can take up to an hour to take effect.

Step 2 (optional) — Restrict forwarding to Briefcase only

Step 1 lets those mailboxes forward anywhere. To allow forwarding only to Briefcase and keep every other external destination blocked, add a mail flow rule:

1. Go to the Exchange admin center (admin.exchange.microsoft.com) → Mail flow → Rules → Add a rule → Create a new rule.

2. Under Apply this rule if, choose The message properties → include the message type → Auto-forward.

3. Add an exception: Except if → The recipient → address matches any of these words, and enter briefcase.to.

4. Under Do the following, choose Block the message → reject the message and include an explanation.

5. Click Save.

The result: auto-forwards to @briefcase.to are allowed, and auto-forwards to any other address stay blocked. Every Briefcase forwarding address ends in @briefcase.to (for example acme-limited-4821@briefcase.to), so allowing that one domain is all you need.

If the block persists after these changes, ask your admin to check for a custom mail flow (transport) rule that blocks external forwarding, under Exchange admin center → Mail flow → Rules.

Additional Information

• You must verify each Gmail forwarding address before you can use it in a filter.

• We recommend sending a test email after setup to confirm forwarding is working correctly.

• Forwarding may be disabled or restricted by your administrator. If you see the message "Your organization doesn't allow external forwarding", follow the Troubleshooting section above. If you do not see the forwarding options at all, contact your IT support.

• If you use an email client that is not Gmail or Microsoft Outlook, please email us at support@briefcase.so and we would be happy to help you get set up.