If your team already uses ApprovalMax for invoice approvals, connecting it to Dext adds an approval step between document processing and publishing to your accounting software.
Once connected, Dext extracts and codes your documents, sends them to ApprovalMax for approval, and ApprovalMax syncs them to Xero or QuickBooks Online once they're approved.
How the approval workflow works
When ApprovalMax is connected, Dext handles extraction and coding as normal. Publishing a document sends it to ApprovalMax, where it's routed to the appropriate approver based on the workflow set up there.
Once approved in ApprovalMax, the document is synced to Xero or QuickBooks Online with an Awaiting Payment status. An audit trail is generated automatically and attached to each approved document.
Before you start
To connect ApprovalMax to Dext, you'll need the following in place:
Admin role in Dext - only Admin users, including accountants and bookkeepers accessing a client account, can connect or manage accounting software integrations
An active Xero or QuickBooks Online connection in your ApprovalMax organisation
Bill Review and Approval workflow set up and activated in ApprovalMax
Connect ApprovalMax to Dext
To connect ApprovalMax, go to Business settings in the bottom-left navigation, then select Connections. In the Accounting software section, select Connect.
Find and select ApprovalMax for Xero or ApprovalMax for QuickBooks Online, then select Connect.
Review the connection summary, then select Connect software.
Log in to your ApprovalMax account when prompted and select Allow access.
Select Finish when the confirmation appears.
Once connected, you can manage tax defaults and publishing settings by going to Business settings > Connections, then selecting Manage > Settings next to your ApprovalMax connection.
Note: If you're already connected to Xero or QuickBooks Online in Dext, you can add ApprovalMax as a secondary connection alongside it. For more on how additional connections work, see How to use additional accounting software connections in Dext.
What Dext syncs from your accounting software
Dext pulls the following from Xero or QuickBooks Online when connected via ApprovalMax:
Categories
Suppliers
Customers
Tax rates
Bank accounts
Tracking Categories (Xero)
Classes and Locations (QuickBooks Online)
Publishing to ApprovalMax
When publishing Cost items from Dext, the document types, destinations, and limitations below all apply.
Supported document types
All document types are supported except Credit notes/Refunds and Sales items, which cannot be published to ApprovalMax.
Publishing destinations
Each Cost item in Dext has a Publish to field on the item details page. The options available depend on your accounting software.
ApprovalMax for Xero:
Invoice - routes the document through ApprovalMax for approval before publishing to Xero. If a payment method linked to a bank account is allocated to the document, it publishes directly to Xero as paid under the relevant bank account. The Paid toggle does not affect this - the payment method allocation does.
Bank - bypasses ApprovalMax and publishes the document directly to Xero.
ApprovalMax for QuickBooks Online:
Bills - for unpaid items and expense claims. Routes through ApprovalMax for approval before publishing to QuickBooks Online.
Cash, Check, or Credit Card - for paid items. Bypasses ApprovalMax and publishes directly to QuickBooks Online.
Expense claims
Expense claims published to ApprovalMax are registered as Bills. The claim owner's name appears as the supplier.
Note: Customers in Costs line items are not sent to ApprovalMax.
Tax
ApprovalMax processes tax to 2 decimal places only - for example, 0.00. Dext rounds tax amounts accordingly when publishing.
Foreign currency (QuickBooks Online only)
Foreign currency items cannot be published to ApprovalMax when your main integration is QuickBooks Online. Attempting to publish produces a currency mismatch error.
To work around this, you can either publish the item in your account's default currency or enable Multicurrency in QuickBooks Online.
Important: Once Multicurrency is enabled in QuickBooks Online, it cannot be disabled.
If a bill is rejected or needs republishing
What happens when a bill needs to be republished depends on whether it's already been approved in ApprovalMax.
If a bill is rejected
If a bill is rejected during the approval process, find it in the Archive in Dext under Costs and republish it from there. For steps, see How to republish an item.
If a bill has already been approved
If a bill has already been approved in ApprovalMax, clearing publishing data won't allow you to republish it. To resolve this, delete the document from Dext, re-upload it for processing, and publish it again - it will be assigned a new item ID.