To publish an item in the Dext mobile app, swipe right on a Ready item in the Costs or Sales tab and tap Publish. You can also open the item and tap Publish to followed by the name of your accounting software.
Before you start
To publish from the Dext mobile app, your account and your user both need to be set up for publishing.
Accounting software: your Dext account must be connected to accounting software. You can connect it in 2 ways:
On a Dext Business account, admin users can connect from the mobile app
Anyone else can connect from the web app
Dext Solo: Dext Solo accounts can't connect to accounting software, so they can't publish items.
Publishing permissions: Admin users can publish by default, including accountants and bookkeepers who access a client account. Standard users can publish only if they have publishing permissions. For details, go to Roles and permissions in Dext
Important: You can't publish from the mobile app if you use Sage 50 or QuickBooks Desktop. Use the Dext web app instead.
Publish with a swipe
To publish an item straight from the list in the Dext mobile app, swipe right on a Ready item and tap Publish.
This is the quickest way when you've already checked the item details, when your rules and automation code documents for you, or when you pre-selected fields as you submitted the item on mobile.
Go to the Costs tab or the Sales tab.
Swipe right on the item.
Tap Publish.
The swipe action isn't available on items that show To review. For why, go to If Publish is unavailable below.
Publish from the item details
To publish an item from its details in the Dext mobile app, open the item and use the Publish button at the bottom of the screen. This is useful when you want to check the details first, or when you've been editing the item and want to publish straight from there.
Go to the Costs tab or the Sales tab.
Tap the item.
Tap Publish to followed by the name of your accounting software, for example Publish to Xero.
Publish an approved item
If approval was requested for an item, Publish only appears after the item is approved. You publish an approved item from Approvals in the Costs tab. It doesn't appear in the general list of items.
Go to the Costs tab.
Tap Approvals at the top.
Choose Assigned to me or All items.
Find the item that shows Approved.
Swipe right on the item and tap Publish. Or tap the item, then tap Publish to followed by the name of your accounting software.
Before approval, the item shows Request approval instead of Publish. For how approval works for expense claims, go to How to manage expense claims in the Dext mobile app
Where items go after publishing
After you publish an item in the Dext mobile app, it shows Publishing in the item list while Dext sends it to your accounting software. By default, it then moves to the archive with a Published label and the date.
To find a published item:
On the Costs tab, tap …, then Costs archive.
On the Sales tab, tap the archive button at the top right.
Find your item in the list.
Published items go to the archive by default, but an admin user can change this setting in the web app. If your published items stay in the Costs or Sales tab, the setting is different for your account. To see how it works, go to How to archive and unarchive items in Dext
If publishing fails
If publishing fails in the Dext mobile app, the item stays in the Costs or Sales tab and shows To review or Ready with an exclamation mark.
Tap the item to open its details.
Tap Review issues.
Read the message on the Errors screen. It comes from your accounting software, for example, when a tax code doesn't match the category.
Fix the field or setting the message points to.
Publish the item again.
Fixing the error doesn't always clear the message, so try publishing the item again after you've addressed the error.
Republish an item
To republish an item from the Dext mobile app, unarchive it and clear its publishing data, then publish it again. The same rules apply as for publishing, so you need to be an admin user or have publishing permission, and the item must be Ready.
In your accounting software, delete the previously published version of the item. This avoids duplicates.
In the Dext mobile app, open the archive. On the Costs tab, tap …, then Costs archive. On the Sales tab, tap the archive button at the top right.
Swipe left on the item and tap Unarchive.
When prompted, choose Unarchive and clear publishing data.
You can also unarchive from the item details. Tap the item, tap … at the top right, then tap Unarchive and choose Unarchive and clear publishing data.
The item moves back to your Costs or Sales tab. You can now publish it again. For the same steps in the web app, go to How to republish an item
If Publish is unavailable
Publish can be missing or greyed out in the Dext mobile app, and each means something different.
Not shown at all: you don't have publishing permission, or your account isn't connected to accounting software. Ask an admin user to enable publishing for you. Dext Solo accounts can't connect to accounting software.
Greyed out, or no swipe action: the item shows To review. On the item details, Publish to stays inactive until you fix the missing details or issues. In the Costs or Sales tab, you can't swipe the item to publish it.
Request approval instead: an approval workflow applies, so the item must be approved first. Go to Publish an approved item above.
To fix a To review item, tap Review issues on its details. The Errors screen lists what to complete, for example "Complete the Category field."
Once you've fixed everything, the item shows Ready and you can publish it. For what each status means, go to What do "To review" and "Ready" mean in Dext?