Connect your bank alerts

Your bank already emails you when you spend. Forward those emails to Cova and your transactions appear on their own — no bank login, no app permissions.

What Cova can and can't see. You get a private address that only receives mail. Nothing gains access to your inbox, Cova never sees your email password, and only the emails your own filter forwards ever reach us. Stop any time by deleting the filter.

1. Copy your capture address

In Cova, open More → Auto-capture bank alerts, tap Reveal, then Copy. It looks like [email protected]. Keep it private — anyone who has it can add transactions to your account.

2. Add it as a forwarding address

Gmail

Settings (gear → See all settings) → Forwarding and POP/IMAP → Add a forwarding address → paste → Next.

Outlook / Hotmail

Settings → Mail → Forwarding → enable forwarding and enter the address. You'll create a rule in step 4 rather than forwarding everything.

iCloud Mail

icloud.com/mail → Settings → Forwarding → add the address, then use Rules in step 4.

Yahoo

Settings → More Settings → Mailboxes → your account → Forwarding. Note Yahoo has gated auto-forwarding behind a paid plan at times.

3. Confirm the code — it appears inside Cova

Your email provider sends a confirmation code to the address you just added. That address is Cova's mailbox, not yours, so you won't receive it by email.

Go back to More → Auto-capture bank alerts. The code appears there within a minute — tap check again if it hasn't yet. Paste it back into your email settings, or use the one-click confirm link if there is one.

4. Create one rule per bank

This is the step that decides what gets forwarded. Don't switch on "forward everything" — you only want bank alerts.

In Gmail: Filters and Blocked Addresses → Create a new filter → put one bank's sender in From → Create filter → tick Forward it to and choose your Cova address. Repeat for each bank.

Use a separate filter for each bank. Combining senders with commas — from:([email protected],[email protected]) — is accepted by Gmail, looks correct in the filter list, and then silently matches nothing at all.

If you must combine, use capitalised OR: from:([email protected] OR [email protected]). To check any filter really works, paste its search text into the Gmail search bar — if your alert isn't in the results, the filter can't fire.

Filters are never retroactive. They only act on mail that arrives after you save them, so an alert already sitting in your inbox won't be picked up. Forward those manually, once.

Which banks work

Cova currently reads alerts from Trust, DBS/POSB iBanking and PayLah!, plus Grab e-receipts. Forwarding an unsupported bank is harmless — it arrives, isn't recognised, and shows up as "skipped" in your recent activity. Email us the alert and we'll add it.

If nothing arrives

The Auto-capture screen shows recent activity at your capture address. That one list distinguishes "forwarding is broken" from "forwarding works but this bank isn't supported". Start there, then see Nothing is appearing.

Work email won't work. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 administrators usually block external auto-forwarding. Use the personal address your bank alerts go to.