What do I need?
A Windows 10 or 11 computer, and an email account that offers IMAP with an app password. Gmail, Yahoo Mail and iCloud Mail all do, in their security settings. Some Microsoft accounts refuse app passwords. Statements you download from your bank need no email account at all.
Will it read my bank's statements?
Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander, Nationwide, Monzo and Starling have templates of their own. Statements from other banks are read too, and always sent for you to check. Either way, every balance is checked before a statement can be exported. The free trial reads 20 pages, so try it on your own statements before you buy.
Is it Making Tax Digital software?
No. Inbox Extract does not send anything to HMRC. It takes the figures out of your invoices and statements and puts them in a spreadsheet, or in the bookkeeping software you keep your records in.
Will Windows warn me when I install it?
Probably, the first time. Windows says "Windows protected your PC" about programs it has not seen many times before. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Inbox Extract then installs for you alone, with no administrator password, and is in your Start menu.
What is it like to use?
Inbox Extract opens in its own window, light or dark, with a screen for each job: what needs checking, your documents, your statements, exports, inboxes, templates and settings. Anything to check is shown beside the page it came from. The same work can also be typed as commands, such as inbox-extract run, for scripts and Windows Task Scheduler.
How do I get my licence?
Your licence key is emailed to you after you pay. Paste it into Settings in the app and choose Activate. Anything the free trial had not read yet is read once the licence is in place.
What about scanned documents?
Scans and photographed pages are read with Tesseract, a free program you install separately. Most invoices and statements are made from text and do not need it. Password-protected statements open with a password you save once for that bank or sender.
Does it use AI?
Only if you turn it on. When the templates cannot read a document fully, AI extraction can send its text to Anthropic's Claude API, using your own API key, so the cost is on your Anthropic account. Every value it suggests is checked against the document before it is kept.
Is there a Mac version?
Not yet. The download is for Windows.