Three ways to label a PO Gmail missed.
SideQuest reads anything in Gmail with the purchase-orders label. Most POs get there through a sender filter on Day 1. The rest — forwarded from a colleague, sent by a one-off vendor, or buried in a thread — need one of these three tricks. All three are free. None require software.
Path A · Sender filter
Set up once per customer domain. Covers 80% of incoming POs automatically.
Path B · Plus-alias forward
For stragglers. Forward to your own +po address; a filter labels it.
Path C · Manual click
For one-offs. Open the email, click the label, done in three seconds.
Path A — Sender filter (set once, runs forever)
Best for repeat customers who always email POs from the same address or domain. Set this up the first time a customer sends you a PO and it auto-labels every future one.
Steps in Gmail
- Click the gear icon → See all settings → Filters and Blocked Addresses.
- Click Create a new filter.
- In From, type the customer's email or domain. Examples:
[email protected] *@acmedistribution.com [email protected] OR [email protected]
- Click Create filter.
- Tick Apply the label, choose
purchase-orders. If the label doesn't exist, click New label and create it. - Tick Also apply filter to matching conversations so any historical PO from that sender gets picked up too.
- Click Create filter.
Repeat for each new customer domain. Most distributors set up 15–30 of these in their first week and rarely add more.
Path B — Plus-alias forward (for stragglers from anyone)
Gmail lets you receive mail at [email protected] and filter on the alias. We use that here. Once configured, anything you forward to your own +po alias gets labeled automatically — useful when a colleague forwards you a PO they got, or a vendor emails from a personal address.
Steps in Gmail
- Decide on your alias. If your Gmail is
[email protected], your alias is[email protected]. Works on plain@gmail.comaddresses too. - Settings → Filters and Blocked Addresses → Create a new filter.
- In To, type your alias:
[email protected]
- Click Create filter → tick Apply the label
purchase-orders→ tick Never send it to Spam → Create filter. - Save the alias somewhere obvious: a sticky note, your email signature, your phone contacts.
To use it: when a stray PO lands in your inbox, click Forward and put your +po alias in the To: field. Gmail labels it within a minute, SideQuest picks it up on the next scan.
[email protected] and you never touch it.
Path C — Manual label click
For a one-off PO from someone you'll never hear from again, skip the filter setup.
Steps in Gmail
- Open the email.
- Click the label icon at the top of the message (looks like a price tag).
- Pick
purchase-orders. If it isn't there, click Create new. - Close the email. SideQuest sees the label on the next scan, usually under 90 seconds.
Keyboard shortcut: with Gmail shortcuts enabled (Settings → Keyboard shortcuts → On), open the email and press l then type the label name. Two seconds per email.
Edge cases
What if the PO is an attachment and the email body is empty?
SideQuest reads the attachment. The body can be empty, "see attached," or a forwarded chain. As long as there's a PDF, image, or Excel attachment, SideQuest extracts the line items.
What if a customer emails our sales rep, not the AP inbox?
Two options. (1) Forward to your +po alias from path B. (2) Have the rep set up a filter that auto-labels anything from that customer's domain, even when sent to the rep's personal Gmail. SideQuest reads any inbox connected via OAuth, not only the AP one.
What if I'm on Outlook or another mail client?
SideQuest reads Gmail today. If your team uses Outlook, the cleanest path is to set up a Gmail address (free) and have customers cc: it on POs, or auto-forward from Outlook to the Gmail address. Native Outlook support is on the roadmap; email [email protected] if it's urgent for you.
What if I accidentally label the wrong email?
Remove the label before you ask Claude to draft the Estimate. If a draft already exists locally, ask Claude to discard it. If you already submitted the Estimate to QuickBooks, delete it in QB the way you would any other Estimate.
Can I rename the purchase-orders label?
Yes. Use any label name you want, then re-run qb-distributor-mcp setup and type your new label name at the "Gmail label to watch" prompt — or edit GMAIL_PO_LABEL in ~/.qb-distributor-mcp/.env directly. Default is purchase-orders because it's hard to confuse with anything else.