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Integrations

Polling an existing mailbox with IMAP

If buyers already email purchase orders as attachments to a mailbox you own, ProcuLink can check that mailbox on a schedule and import the supported attachments. Configure it in Settings → Email intake.

This article is the per-provider reference. For the set-up in order, follow poll a mailbox you already own over IMAP — or start with receive orders by email if you have not yet ruled out the hosted address, which needs no credentials at all.

When to use this

Use IMAP polling when orders already arrive in an existing inbox — a shared orders@yourcompany.com, a distribution mailbox, or a folder your team forwards to — and you would rather not change how senders address their email.

If you do not already have a mailbox, or you would rather not share credentials, use the hosted inbound address instead: {slug}@orders.proculink.eu, where {slug} is your workspace slug. That address is a ProcuLink-run mailbox, so there is nothing to poll and no password to store — mail sent to it is imported automatically. IMAP polling is only for reading a mailbox you already run.

What you configure

  • IMAP host and port — see the table below.
  • Username — usually the full email address.
  • Password — for most business providers this must be an app password, not your normal login password (see below).
  • TLS — leave TLS on. Port 993 is IMAP over TLS and is the correct choice for every provider here; do not use the older plaintext port 143.
  • Folder — the mailbox folder to read, typically INBOX.
  • Default supplier — the supplier imported messages are attributed to when the sender does not otherwise identify one.

Provider host and port

Provider              IMAP host                Port   Notes
--------------------  -----------------------  -----  ----------------------------
Gmail / Google        imap.gmail.com           993    App password required (2FA)
Office 365 / Outlook  outlook.office365.com     993    App password required (MFA)
Proton (via Bridge)   127.0.0.1                1143    Local Proton Bridge only
Generic / other       (from your provider)     993    Use the provider's IMAP host

App passwords, not your login password

Gmail and Office 365 block plain IMAP sign-in with your normal password when two-factor or MFA is on — which it usually is. Generate a dedicated app password in the provider's security settings and paste that into ProcuLink. It is scoped to mail access and can be revoked without changing your account password. The credential is encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM.

Proton mail is only reachable over IMAP through the local Proton Bridge app, which exposes 127.0.0.1:1143 on the machine running it — ProcuLink's hosted poller cannot reach a Proton Bridge instance running on your laptop, so use Proton with IMAP only where Proton Bridge runs on a reachable host.

Plan availability

IMAP polling is included on every paid plan — Growth and up. On the free Pilot trial you can fill the form in and save it, but the polling toggle stays off until the plan changes; upload through the app instead.

How polling works

ProcuLink checks the folder every five minutes. There is no faster or slower option in this release.

Each run imports supported attachments from messages it has not seen before and records each message so it is not re-imported. It does not delete or move your mail. One purchase order per email keeps routing clean.

What gets ingested

Over IMAP, attachments with the extensions .csv, .xlsx, and .pdf are picked up. Each attachment becomes a separate order. A message ProcuLink has taken is marked Seen in the mailbox so it is not ingested twice.

The hosted {slug}@orders.proculink.eu address is more permissive than IMAP polling: it also accepts .xml, .edi, and .txt attachments, and can fall back to extracting a simple purchase order from the message body when AI extraction is enabled.

When things fail

Bad credentials or an unreachable host raise an alert on Settings → Email intake, and polling pauses until the configuration is fixed rather than failing quietly. The Last poll timestamp on the same screen is the fastest way to notice: one that stops advancing means the poller is no longer getting in, usually because an app password was rotated or revoked.

Common problems

  • Login rejected. Almost always the login password was used where an app password is required. Regenerate an app password and retry.
  • Connects but imports nothing. The orders may be in a folder other than INBOX, or the messages carry no supported attachment. Point the folder setting at the right folder and confirm senders attach the PO file.
  • Wrong mailbox. IMAP polling reads a mailbox you run; it is not the same as the hosted {slug}@orders.proculink.eu address, which needs no mailbox and no password.

Need help? Email support@proculink.eu or see Ways to send orders to ProcuLink.