The Cost Analysis insight analyses a client's expenses across their supplier base and expense accounts over time. It automatically detects periods where spending is unusually high compared to other months and lets you investigate or dismiss each alert directly from the insight.
To access it, go to a client's account and select Insights in the left navigation, then select Cost analysis.
Important: This insight is available for Xero clients only.
Who can use this insight
The Cost Analysis insight is available to practices with the Data Health & Insights add-on, on Practice Essentials and Practice Advanced plans.
By Supplier and By Account
Two tabs at the top of the page control how costs are categorised.
By Supplier — groups costs by supplier. Each supplier appears as its own card showing spending activity over time.
By Account — groups the same costs by expense account. Each account appears as its own card.
Both views work in the same way — the only difference is whether costs are grouped by supplier or by account.
Regularity
Each supplier or account card shows a regularity indicator on the right. This is Dext's assessment of how frequently costs are posted to that supplier or account.
The possible values are:
Frequent — costs posted regularly throughout the month
Biannual — costs posted roughly twice a year
Annual — costs posted roughly once a year
Anomaly detection
Dext analyses spending patterns for each supplier and account and automatically flags periods where the total amount is unusually high compared to other months. Flagged periods appear as orange bars in the chart. Hovering over a bar shows the period and total for that month.
When a flagged period is selected, Dext displays an alert message below the chart that identifies the period and amount and explains that it's higher than normal for that supplier or account.
A transaction table appears below the alert, showing the individual transactions that make up that period's total, with columns for Contact, Type, Date, Amount, and a View in Xero link to open each transaction directly in Xero.
Dismissing alerts
If you've reviewed a flagged period and don't want Dext to raise it again, select Dismiss Alert. Dismissed periods don't contribute to the client's Health Score.
A supplier or account card remains visible until all flagged periods within it have been dismissed.
To view dismissed alerts, use the filter panel and select Dismissed under By Type. From there, you can review dismissed periods and undo any accidental dismissals.
Filtering and searching
Use the search field at the top of the page to find a specific supplier or account by name. Use the date range control to limit the view to suppliers or accounts with activity in a specific period.
Select the filter icon to open the filter panel. Two filter groups are available:
By Type — filter by All, Dismissed, or Suggested.
By Regularity — filter by All, Annual, Biannual, or Frequent.
Syncing and recalculating data
To update the Cost Analysis insight, use the two buttons at the top of the page:
Sync — pulls any new data or changes from Xero into Dext.
Recalculate — recalculates the insight based on the latest data pulled into Dext.
If you've made changes in Xero, select Sync first, then Recalculate to see the updated figures.