TailrideProton Mail
Collect invoices and receipts from a Proton Mail mailbox through Proton Mail Bridge, with everything screened on your own computer.
Proton Mail is end-to-end encrypted, so no cloud service — Tailride included — can read it directly. Proton Mail Bridge is Proton's own app that makes the mailbox available to programs on your computer over local IMAP. Tailride Desktop connects to Bridge there, gives every document a quick check on your machine, and uploads the ones that look like invoices, receipts or credit notes to Tailride, where they are read and processed.
Requirements
Proton Mail Bridge requires a paid Proton plan (Mail Plus, Proton Unlimited or Proton for Business). Bridge must be running while Tailride collects.
Setup
Install and start Proton Mail Bridge from proton.me/mail/bridge and sign in to it with your Proton account. Bridge shows a mailbox password for each account — that is the password Tailride needs, not your Proton password.
In Tailride Desktop choose Suppliers → Add supplier → Proton Mail. Enter your Proton email address and, under Passwords, the Bridge password. Leave Bridge host at 127.0.0.1, Bridge port at 1143 and Security at STARTTLS (Bridge default) unless you changed them in Bridge.
Click Test connection to Proton Mail Bridge. Tailride reports the number of messages it can see and loads your folder list.
Pick the folders to scan (default: INBOX), a start date, and the options below. Save. Proton Mail gets its own schedule — hourly by default — separate from portal collection.
Options
Invoice filter mode — which emails are opened at all:
| Option | What is inspected |
|---|---|
| Whitelisted senders & emails with attachments (recommended) | Mail from senders on your whitelist, plus any email carrying a PDF or image |
| All emails with PDF/image attachments | Every email with a PDF or image attachment |
| Whitelisted senders only | Only mail from senders on your whitelist |
How much of the mailbox to scan — Recent mail only keeps up with mail as it arrives; Everything works back through the whole mailbox a stretch at a time, remembering where it got to, so a large mailbox takes several runs. New mail is always looked at first.
Check documents before sending — the local gate that decides what leaves your computer:
| Option | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Read every file on this computer first (recommended) | PDF text is extracted locally; scans and images get a second look with local text recognition. Files that clearly do not look like an invoice, receipt or credit note are skipped; the check is deliberately generous, so anything that might be an invoice is still uploaded. |
| Strict | Only files whose own text proves what they are |
| Off | Send everything the filter mode selects |
Read scans and photos — turns local text recognition on or off for the second look. Convert HTML receipts to PDF (on by default) turns receipt emails without a PDF attachment — Uber, Stripe, SaaS subscriptions — into PDF invoices on your machine.
What is skipped
- Trash, Sent, Drafts, Junk/Spam and other system folders are never scanned, whatever you select.
- Documents already collected are recognised by a content hash and never uploaded twice, even after a re-scan or a cleared invoice list.
- Files rejected by the local check are remembered, so they are not re-examined on every run.
What leaves your computer
Documents that passed the local check — everything that might be an invoice, receipt or credit note — plus the data Tailride extracts from them (supplier, amounts, dates, VAT). The actual reading and extraction happen on Tailride's servers, not on your computer. Your Proton password, the Bridge password and the emails the check skipped stay on your machine. The Bridge password is stored in the macOS Keychain or Windows DPAPI.
Troubleshooting
- "Connection failed" — Bridge is not running, or the host/port/security settings differ from Bridge's. Open Bridge → your account → Mailbox configuration and compare.
- Test succeeds but reports 0 messages in INBOX — Bridge is still syncing the mailbox (it downloads mail locally the first time). Wait for Bridge to finish, then test again.
- Bridge on another machine — you can point Bridge host at it, but then the connection crosses the network and Tailride requires a valid TLS certificate. Loopback (
127.0.0.1,localhost) skips certificate checks because Bridge issues its own certificate. - Invoices missing — check the filter mode (a strict whitelist hides everything else) and the start date, then switch the scope to Everything once to catch older mail.