Adding a client account in Dext creates a dedicated space to receive, review, and manage financial documents for one of your clients’ businesses.
The number of clients you can add depends on the client bundle included in your subscription. If you've reached your limit, go to How to manage your practice subscription in Dext to upgrade.
Important: Practice Admins and Client Admins can add clients by default. Standard users need the Add client accounts additional permission. If you don't see the option to add a client, contact an admin in your practice to request access. For a full breakdown of roles and permissions, go to Roles and permissions in Dext.
If your client already has a Dext account
If your client already uses Dext, ask them to invite you to access their account rather than creating a new one. Go to How to invite your accountant or bookkeeper to access your Dext account for instructions to share with them.
If your client has multiple businesses and needs an additional Dext account under the same email address, select Skip invitation during setup, then add the client as a user with their existing login email.
Add a business client
To add a business client, go to your Clients list and select Add client.
If your practice is based in the UK, you'll be prompted to select a client type — select Business client, then Continue. US and Canadian practices go straight to the solutions step.
Then follow the steps below.
Select the solutions to enable for this client: Bookkeeping, or Bookkeeping and Data Health & Insights if you have that add-on. Select Continue.
Connect to accounting software now, or select Skip to do this later. During setup, only Xero and Sage Accounting are supported. Other software can be connected later under Business settings > Connections.
Enter the client's Business name, Practice code, and Industry. If you connected accounting software in step 2, the organisation name populates automatically. Select Continue.
Assign colleague access and select Continue:
Colleagues tab — toggle access on or off for individual team members
Teams tab — assign access by team (Practice Advanced only)
Practice Admins have access to all clients by default. If you have no other colleagues on your account, this step is skipped automatically.
Invite the client or skip:
Invite now — enter the client's name and email address. Optionally, add a mobile number to send an SMS invitation with a download link for the Dext mobile app. The client can only use one invitation to create their password — using one invalidates the other.
Skip invitation — the account is created without an invitation. The client can still submit documents using their Extract by email address but won't have access to Dext on web or mobile until invited.
Select Create. The account appears in your Clients list with your practice's default settings applied.
Important: Email and SMS invitations expire after one week. To resend one, go to Users > Manage > Resend invitation in the client's account.
The first user added to a client account automatically becomes the Business Admin. You can update their privileges at any time from the Users page in the client's account.
US and Canada: self-employed setting
For US and Canadian practices, you can mark a business client as self-employed during setup. This applies to sole proprietor and unincorporated business clients who don't use accounting software.
To enable it, select Without integration at the accounting software step, then turn on the Self-employed toggle at the client details step.
When enabled, Dext pre-loads a tax-appropriate category list and adds a Tax summary export to the client's Costs and Sales workspaces.
For full details, go to Managing US and Canadian self-employed clients in Dext.
Add a self-employed client (UK — Dext Solo)
Dext Solo is the product for UK practices managing sole traders and unincorporated landlords mandated for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD IT). Adding a Solo client uses a different setup flow from a standard business client.
To start, go to your Clients list, select Add client, and select Self-employed. You'll set up the client's income sources — including business type, accounting method, and quarterly period type — as part of the same creation flow.
For the full setup steps, go to How to add a Dext Solo client.
Note: Dext Solo is only available for UK practices.
Add multiple clients at once
You can add multiple clients to Dext at once using Client Sync or a CSV bulk upload. Client Sync is the faster option if your clients are already in a connected accounting software.
Client Sync
Client Sync lets you add and integrate multiple clients at the same time using the client list from your connected accounting software. It also lets you reconnect expired integrations and reassign clients in bulk.
For more on Client Sync, go to Using Client Sync in Dext.
CSV bulk upload
If your clients aren't in a connected accounting software, you can add them in bulk by submitting a completed CSV to Dext.
Note: CSV bulk uploads are only available for Bookkeeper and Accountant Partner accounts.
Step 1: Download the correct template
Download the template for your practice's region:
Step 2: Complete the template
Open the file and enter the required information for each client. The template includes instructions for each column.
Important: Don't change the column headers — doing so may prevent the upload from working.
Step 3: Send the completed file to Dext
Email the completed CSV to the regional address listed in the template, using the subject line specified in the file. The Dext team will upload the accounts to your Clients list.
After adding a client
Once a client account is created, you can update its settings at any time. Select Manage next to the client in your Clients list, then go to Business settings.
To save time on future setups, configure default settings that apply automatically to every new client account you create. Go to [Setting default client account settings in Practice settings] to set these up.