Start with a message you actually want
Suppose you search for your hosting invoice every month. You type in the service name, work through maintenance notices and offers, and eventually find the PDF. That message gives you a starting point: you can see who sent it and check whether earlier invoices arrived the same way.
Open the sender details and use the actual email address, not just the display name. Then try the search below, replacing the example address with the one in your message. It looks for a sender, an attachment, and a PDF file. It cannot tell an invoice from a price list attached to an email.
Paste this into Gmail’s search box and replace the example sender.
Source for this section: Google: Gmail filters
Try to catch the filter getting it wrong
In this fictional example, the search finds February and March hosting invoices plus a PDF price list. A known April invoice is missing because it came from a different address. Do not create the filter yet. Compare the senders and subjects of those four messages, adjust the criteria to a genuine shared feature of the invoices, then search again. The test should return all three known invoices without the price list. If no reliable condition separates them, keep the broader search and check the documents manually.
If the supplier also sends offers from the same address, a consistent part of the subject line may help. Leave specific invoice numbers and months out of a permanent filter; they will change next time. If invoices arrive from different addresses, first look for what they have in common. Too many conditions can hide the very document you need.
Apply a label; keep the messages in your inbox for now
On a computer, click Show search options at the right of Gmail’s top search box. Enter the criteria you tested in the previous step. At the bottom of the search window, choose Create filter, select Apply the label, such as “Invoices to review”, and confirm. Start without deleting messages or skipping the inbox: you will still see them if the criteria are wrong.
- From
- billing@example.com
- Has attachment
- Yes
To label older mail as well, use the option to apply the filter to matching existing conversations. Check that the next invoice gets the label when it arrives. Once this rule works reliably, add another supplier. Easier retrieval is the result you want, not a larger collection of filters.
Source for this section: Google: Gmail filters
A filter cannot create a missing attachment
If the sender changes, edit the original filter. On a computer, open Settings → See all settings → Filters and Blocked Addresses. Find the rule, choose Edit, change the criteria, select Continue, then Update filter. Repeat the test with known messages. Adding a nearly identical rule makes later faults harder to trace. If the supplier starts sending a portal link, use the label as a download reminder; the filter cannot retrieve the file from the portal.
Labels do not decide which company a document belongs to or whether the accountant has received it. The forthcoming HeyRup is intended to help collect and hand over PDFs from supported mailboxes, starting with IMAP; the Gmail connector is in preparation. That account connection is not available yet. You can already use a tested filter within Gmail if repeated searches for one service are slowing you down.