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How to Create an inbox

Updated

This guide will walk you through the entire process of creating an inbox in Mailparser

1. Log in and Access Your Dashboard

  1. Go to app.mailparser.io and log in.

  2. From the dashboard, click “Create Your First Inbox”.

2. Choose a Template

When you create a new inbox, you’ll first be asked to give the inbox a name, after doing that the screen will appear with the unique email of the inbox - you can then forward in manually the fist sample email.

After the email arrives you will be prompted to choose a template. For simple forms the default template will likely work, if not you can select from the template library.



Here are a few examples of the categories offered:

  • Food Delivery

  • Insurance Leads

  • Job Applications

  • Lead Generation

  • Real Estate

  • Shipping and Transportation

👉 Tip: Some templates only provide suggested parsing rules — you can always add, edit, or remove rules later.

3. Create Parsing Rules

Parsing rules tell Mailparser which data to capture from your documents.

  1. Parsing rules tell Mailparser what data to extract from your emails or attachments.

  2. Open one of your received emails.

  3. Click “Add Rule”.

    Then configure your rule:

  • Choose the data source
    • Use Email Body for text inside the email
    • Use Attachments for PDFs or file


 

  • If using attachments:
    • Select “Text Content” to extract readable text from the file
    • (Optional) Apply filters like file type or filename if multiple attachments exist

Mailparser converts attachment content (like PDFs) into text so it can be parsed just like an email body. 

Next, refine your rule:

  • Add filters to isolate the exact value

  • Chain multiple filters to narrow down the data

  • Format or clean the output if needed

  • Repeat for each field you want to extract (e.g., invoice number, date, totals, line items).


👉 Tip: Whether you’re parsing email text or PDFs, the process is the same once the text is extracted.

6. Test Your Parser

Mailparser automatically applies rules to your emails.

To review results:

  • Open an email in your inbox
  • Check the extracted data panel

If something isn’t correct:

  • Edit the rule
  • Save changes

Mailparser will automatically reprocess your emails with the updated rules.

👉 Tip: If something looks off:

  1. Edit your parsing rules.

  2. Requeue for parsing again until the results are correct

7. Set Up an Import Source

There are four ways to get your emails into your Mailparser inbox:

  1. Manually forward emails as you receive them
  2. Set up automatic forwarding in your email client
  3. Have the sender send a copy directly to your Mailparser address
  4. Import .eml files directly from the Parsing Rule Editor tab

Which method you choose depends on your workflow.
If you use Mailparser for on-demand processing, manually forwarding emails one by one may be simplest. You can also forward multiple messages at once by attaching them as .eml files to a single email.

Most users, however, prefer to automate things using either Option 2 or Option 3.

8. Export Your Data

Once your documents are parsed correctly, you can export the extracted data.

9. Maintain and Optimize Your Inbox

  • Update or add new rules if your email layouts change.

  • Regularly review parsing results for accuracy.

  • Clone inboxes to handle new document types while preserving existing setups.

✅ Summary

You’ve now created an inbox, imported sample emails, built parsing rules, tested them, and set up your preferred import and export options.

By following these steps, you can automate data extraction from emails efficiently.

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