How to Export Gmail Emails for Bookkeeping

Updated October 2026 · v1.0.4

An invoice that only lives in Gmail is easy to lose when the mailbox is cleaned up. A PDF of the email plus the attached invoice is the usual file an accountant can open later.

This is your copy for your own records. It is not a tax filing, and it does not replace the books in your accounting software. Attachly packs the messages you select into PDF and ZIP output so you are not printing fifty invoices by hand.

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Save one invoice thread

Do this for a single vendor before you automate the rest.

Search the vendor. In Gmail, search the sender and a word like invoice, receipt, or the month you need.
Print the message to PDF. Use Gmail’s print action and Chrome’s Save as PDF so the email text is in the file.
Download the attached invoice. Save the PDF or image the vendor attached, next to the email PDF, with a name you will recognize.

Pack a selection with Attachly

Select only the bookkeeping threads. Leave newsletters and personal mail unselected.

Build the Gmail search. Narrow to the label or senders you keep for accounts, then select those rows.
Save PDF and attachments. Use Save PDF for the message text and Attachments for the vendor files.
Use Full pack for a dated ZIP. Premium’s Full pack puts a folder per thread in one ZIP. Store that file with the rest of that month’s records.

Keep the export boring and complete

Check a sample PDF before you delete anything from Gmail.
A ZIP is not an accounting ledger. Your accountant still decides what to book.
Do this on a machine signed into the company Google account, not a personal profile that only has some of the mail.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a Google Takeout replacement?

No. Takeout exports the mailbox Google holds. Attachly exports the messages you select, as PDFs and attachment files, from the Gmail tab you have open.

Will this satisfy a tax auditor?

Keep the vendor’s own invoice file as well as the email. What an auditor accepts is outside Attachly’s scope.

Can I export and then delete the mail?

Open the ZIP and confirm the invoices are inside before you delete anything in Gmail.