Dext helps businesses capture receipts, invoices, and bank transactions, extract the data automatically, and send it directly to their accounting software. This article walks you through setting up your account and getting the most out of Dext from day one.

If you don't have an account yet, go to app.dext.com/en/signups, select For businesses, and start a free 14-day trial. No payment details required.

For an overview of what Dext does and who it's for, go to What is Dext, and who is it for?

When you first sign in, Dext walks you through a setup checklist. The key things to complete before you start uploading documents:

Business settings — your business profile, connections, extraction preferences, and subscription are all managed from Business settings in the bottom-left navigation. Go to What is Business settings in Dext? for a full overview of what's available.

Connect your accounting software — connecting Dext to Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage, or another supported platform lets Dext import your chart of accounts and contacts, and push extracted data straight into your accounting records when you publish. To connect, go to Business settings > Connections and select your accounting software. Go to How to connect Dext to accounting software for instructions.

If you don't use accounting software, or yours doesn't integrate directly with Dext, you can still use Dext to capture and process documents and export the data manually. Go to Setting up Dext without accounting software for how to configure this.

Download the mobile app — the Dext mobile app is one of the most important tools for day-to-day use. It lets you and your team capture receipts on the go, create expense and mileage claims, respond to paperwork requests from your accountant, and get notifications when documents have been processed.

Download the app from the App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android) and sign in with your Dext credentials.

Go to Getting started with the Dext mobile app for a full walkthrough.

If other people in your business need to submit or manage documents, add them as users. Each user gets their own login and can be assigned a role that controls what they can see and do. You can also add users without login access — they can still submit documents via their unique email address without being able to view the account.

To add users, go to Users in the left navigation and select Add a user. You can add users one at a time or in bulk via CSV.

Go to How to add users to your business account for the full steps, and Roles and permissions in Dext to understand what each role can access.

Once your account is set up, you can start getting documents in. There are several ways to do it:

Dext extracts key data from each document automatically — supplier, date, total, and tax — and presents it for review in your inbox.

If you have a question about a specific item, you can send your accountant a message directly from it using item messaging. Go to How to use item messaging in Dext for more details.

Go to How to upload costs and sales documents in Dext for a full guide to submission methods.

If you or your team pay for business expenses out of pocket, Dext lets you group those items into expense claims for review and reimbursement.

To create an expense claim, select the relevant items in your Costs inbox and select Add to expense claim. You can also create claims directly from the mobile app. Go to How to create an expense claim for instructions.

For business travel, you can log mileage claims from the mobile app — either manually or using GPS tracking. Go to How to add a mileage claim using the mobile app for instructions.

Approvals let you control which documents and expense claims get reviewed before they're published or reimbursed. This is particularly useful if you want a manager to sign off on expenses before they're processed.

You can set up separate approval workflows for costs and sales items, and for expense claims.

Go to Setting up and managing approvals and How to set up expense claim approval workflows in Dext for instructions.

The more you use Dext, the more it can do automatically. Supplier rules let you set default coding for any supplier — account code, tax rate, payment method, and more — so every future document from that supplier is categorised without manual input.

Auto-publish takes this further by publishing qualifying items to your accounting software as soon as they're extracted, with no review needed.

Your accountant can set up rules and automation on your behalf, or you can configure them yourself from Business settings.

Go to Rules and automation in Dext for a full overview.

You can bring bank transactions into Dext in two ways:

Once transactions are in, you can view and manage them from Bank > Transactions.

Bank Match automatically identifies where a bank transaction matches an uploaded document, confirming the paperwork is in place.

If a transaction has no matching document, you can send a paperwork request to a team member via the mobile app, asking them to upload the missing receipt or invoice.

Go to How does Bank Match work in Dext? and How to request paperwork for bank transactions in Dext for more details.

When documents are reviewed and coded, publishing sends the extracted data — supplier, date, amounts, and account codes — directly into your accounting software.

You can publish items individually or in bulk from your inbox. If your accountant manages your bookkeeping, they'll typically handle publishing on your behalf.

Go to How to publish documents in Dext for full instructions.

If you work with an accountant or bookkeeper, you can give them access to your Dext account so they can review, manage, and publish your documents.

To invite them, go to Business settings > Accountant, enter their email address, and select Send invite. If they already use Dext, they'll get access immediately. If they don't, Dext will send them an invitation to sign up.

Your accountant's access doesn't affect your documents, settings, or data — you can remove or change their access at any time. If your accountant pays for your Dext subscription and you'd like to take over billing, go to Business settings > Subscription and select Change who pays.

Go to How to invite your accountant to access your Dext account and Change who pays for a Dext business account for more details.

If you're paying for Dext directly, you can manage your plan, billing details, and payment method from Business settings > Subscription.

Go to Dext plans for businesses for an overview of what's included, and How to manage billing details for your Dext business account for billing and invoice management.