The Quote Inbox

The Quote Inbox lets you forward a supplier's quote email straight into Mortar — attachments included — instead of typing every line into a room by hand. Mortar reads what it can, and you review and edit before anything touches a project.

This is an owner/admin feature. Quote amounts are cost data, so members never see the Quote Inbox — same as invoices.

Your project's forwarding address

Every project gets its own private forwarding address, shown at the top of that project's own Quote Inbox page (and on its Quote Requests page too). It looks like inbox+<a long code>@reply.mortar.design.

Forward, don't type. When a supplier emails you a quote, just forward the whole email (or BCC the address when you send your own request) to that project's address.
The address is per-project. A forward lands directly in the right project — there's no picker to get wrong. If you forward the wrong email to the wrong project, open the forward from the holding area and use Re-assign project to move it.
Regenerate if you need to. If the address ever leaks somewhere you don't want it (a shared inbox, an old email chain), click Regenerate — the old address stops working immediately.

What parses

Forward the email as-is; Mortar handles the rest.

All common attachment types are supported: PDF, PNG/JPEG/WebP images, Word (.docx), and Excel (.xlsx) quotes are all read. Anything else is still stored and downloadable, just marked "not parseable."
Mortar reads both the email body and every attachment, and pulls out the vendor, currency, and each line item — name, quantity, unit, price, lead time — where it can find them.
Forwarding several supplier emails at once (e.g. Gmail's "select multiple → Forward as attachment") lands as one quote per original email, not a single combined forward. Gmail sends each selected email as its own attached file, and Mortar unpacks each one separately — you'll see a row in your Quote Inbox for every supplier email that was forwarded, each with its own lines and its own total, rather than everything mixed onto one.
Every studio can parse up to 100 forwards a month. A forward that arrives after that is stored in full — the original email and every attachment are safely kept — but it won't parse. Once the allowance resets next month, open the forward and use Re-parse. Re-parse only works once per forward, so it's worth waiting for the reset before spending it.
Parsing takes a little while. A forward shows as Received, then Parsing, then Ready to review (or Failed, with a reason, if something went wrong).
Once a forward parses successfully, Mortar also writes a short AI-generated summary of the quote, shown above the original email on the forward's own page. If you're looking at an older forward that arrived before summaries existed, you'll see a Generate summary button instead — it re-runs the parse (refreshing any still-pending lines; accepted lines are never touched) and works once per forward.

Reviewing and editing before you accept

Open any forward from that project's own Quote Inbox page (in the project's navigation) to see the original email and attachments alongside the parsed lines.

Click an attachment to preview it. A PDF opens in a new tab; an image opens in a full-screen lightbox you can step through alongside the forward's other images. Every attachment also has its own download button if you'd rather save it.
Nothing is added to a project automatically. Every line waits for you to accept it.
Edit before you accept. Fix a name, quantity, unit, price, or currency right on the line — whatever you save is exactly what becomes the item's cost, not the parser's original guess.
Low-confidence lines are dimmed, never hidden, so you know to double-check them without losing them from the list.
If the parsed lines don't add up to the quote's stated total, you'll see a note above the lines — a common, usually harmless sign that the total folds in tax or shipping the lines don't restate, but worth a glance.

Where accepted lines land

Product, fee, and shipping lines go into a room you choose — an existing one or a brand new one, typed right there.
Service lines go into your services catalogue by default, so the same service (delivery, install, consultation) doesn't need re-entering from every vendor's quote. Tick "also track in a room" to additionally add it as a line item in a specific room.
Accepted lines link back to the item or service they became, and the whole thing shows up in the project's activity feed.
A quote in a currency Mortar doesn't yet support (see Currencies) skips at accept time with a clear reason — fix the currency on the line first, or leave it for later.

Attaching a forward to a quote request

If you'd already sent a Quote Request to that same supplier, for that same project, and it's still open, Mortar offers a one-click "Attach as reply" on the forward's detail page. This links the two together and records the forward as that request's reply — you don't have to choose between the two features.

If the forward itself looks like an auto-reply or was flagged as spam, attaching still links it to the request's thread, but Mortar won't treat it as the actual quote (the request stays open) — you'll see this called out before you attach.

Dismissing, archiving, and deleting

Dismiss a whole forward (or just one line) if it's not going anywhere — you can undismiss it later, nothing is deleted.
A dismissed forward that sits untouched for 90 days quietly drops off the default list on its own (nothing you need to do). It's not gone — switch to the Archived filter pill to find it, and its detail page always stays reachable. A forward is never archived while it still has an accepted line on it.
Delete is different — and permanent. Every forward (from the list's "…" menu, or the Delete button on the forward's own page) can be deleted outright, in any state, including an accepted one. Deleting removes the forward itself, its attachments, and its parsed lines for good — there's no undo, unlike Dismiss. If you delete a forward that already had lines accepted, the items or services those lines became stay in your project — only the forward, not what you already built from it, is removed.

Troubleshooting

Nothing parsed / the forward says "Failed." Open the forward and check the reason shown. A blurry photo of a paper quote, a password-protected PDF, or a very unusual layout can all trip up parsing — the original email and every attachment are still there for you to read and enter by hand if needed. Use Re-parse for one more attempt (available once per forward).

"Parse quota reached." Your studio has used its 100 parses for this month. The forward is stored in full — open it any time to read the original email and download attachments — but it won't parse. Once the allowance resets next month, open the forward and use Re-parse. Re-parse only works once per forward, so it's best to wait for the reset before using it.

"Unsupported currency." The quote is in a currency Mortar's items don't support yet (see Currencies). Edit the line's currency to a supported one if that's a mistake, or note the amount and enter it manually.

I forwarded the wrong email to the wrong project. No harm done — open it from the Quote Inbox list and use Re-assign project (as long as nothing on it has been accepted yet).