Ad platforms' and vendors' bills by email, straight to a campaign

Most media spend reaches an agency as email: a receipt from Google Ads or Facebook, a vendor's invoice. Each can go straight to the campaign it's for, so billing the client is a matter of checking it and approving it.

Three ways to say which campaign

• The campaign's own address. A campaign under way shows an address on its page, under Costs, with a copy button. Whatever is sent there arrives in Documents in already linked to that campaign.
• The campaign's number in the subject. Forward to your vendor bills address with the number (CMP-2026-0144, say) anywhere in the subject line.
• In Documents in. Open the document and choose under Which campaign is it for? thruflow suggests one when the email names the campaign or its purchase order, when it names a client who has one campaign billed over time, or when this vendor's last bill went to one campaign.

From the email to the invoice

1. 1

   Forward it

   By hand, or with a rule in Gmail or Outlook that forwards the platform's receipts for that ad account to the campaign's address.

2. 2

   Check it in Documents in

   The amount, date and reference are read from the email, with a line for each of the platform's campaigns when the receipt lists them. Each line starts out coded to the campaign: Media spend on the platform's channel (Google Ads is paid search, Facebook is paid social) when the scope has a media line, Passed on when it has a costs line. Change any line that's for something else.

   Documents in
3. 3

   Save it as a bill

   The first time, add the platform as a vendor; after that its emails are matched to it. Someone else approves the bill.

   Bills
4. 4

   Bill the client

   Once approved, the spend is on the campaign as a billable item at cost, with your fee on it as the media line says. Prepare invoice puts them on one invoice.

   Campaigns

What it needs

• A line to bill it on. Media spend bills through the scope's Media line when that's billed from vendors' bills; other costs through a Costs passed on line. With neither, the cost counts on the campaign but isn't billed, and Documents in says so.
• Something to read. A PDF, a photo, or the email's own text. A spreadsheet of spend isn't read as a bill.
• The right campaign on each line. A receipt that covers two of your campaigns is one bill: change the campaign on the lines that belong to the other.