What is a Supplier Shield?
Supplier Shield automatically verifies supplier details using data from your uploaded invoices or manually entered information. It compares that data against both trusted internal records and external validation sources.
If any details don’t match, you’ll see a real-time confidence indicator next to the supplier name. These indicators help you:
Confirm the supplier and proceed with payment
Review or correct supplier information
Acknowledge and continue if you choose to accept the risk
The goal is to help you detect issues early, reduce manual verification, and make safer payment decisions.
Important: Dext Payments is only available for Xero-integrated UK clients.
Why Supplier Shields matter
The Supplier Shield is designed to:
Prevent fraud before it happens
It flags mismatched or suspicious supplier details before funds are sent, allowing you to take action before a payment is made.
Support confident decision-making
Confidence indicators help you understand whether a supplier’s details are verified or require review, reducing uncertainty in the payment approval process.
Reduce manual checking
By cross-referencing data automatically, Supplier Shield limits the need for manual data validation and frees up your time.
Protect your business and cash flow
Avoid paying unverified or incorrect suppliers - and reduce the risk of payment errors, fraud losses, or chargebacks.
Embed security into your payment flow
No additional steps are needed - verification checks happen automatically as part of your payment process.
How Supplier Shields work
When you add or select a supplier, Dext Payments automatically runs a series of background security checks.
Summary of checks performed
Internal risk lists – Detects any known issues or flagged suppliers.
Invoice vs. bank details match – Compares extracted invoice bank details against the supplier’s default record.
Previous successful payments (supplier) – Confirms if you’ve paid this supplier before.
Previous successful payments (bank details) – Confirms if you’ve safely used those account details before.
Confirmation of Payee – Uses a bank-led name checking service that validates whether the supplier bank account name and details match the records held by the receiving bank.
Match with Xero supplier details – Ensures consistency with data from connected accounting systems.
Currency match – Checks that the beneficiary’s currency aligns with the invoice currency.
Incomplete data check – Alerts you if payment information can’t be extracted or compared from an invoice. You can review and add the details manually.
Cost Approval - Indicates if a cost item has been explicitly authorised by the business in Dext before being published to Xero.
If an issue is found, you’ll see a warning or indicator before confirming payment.
What you’ll see
Each supplier will display one of the following verification states, based on the outcome of the background checks and data comparison.
Verification states:
Icon | Meaning | Description |
Hollow green shield | Verified | All verification checks have passed. |
Hollow amber shield | Review recommended | At least one check has failed. Please review. |
Amber triangle warning | Missing supplier details | The supplier has no bank details. Please enter manually. |
Best practices
To ensure Supplier Shield works as intended and provides accurate results:
Upload clear, complete invoices to allow accurate data extraction.
Always verify supplier banking details during onboarding or any time they change.
Investigate any supplier marked as Review recommended or flagged with missing details before releasing funds.
Keep your supplier list up to date to improve match accuracy and reduce unnecessary warnings.
Payments videos
Payments in Dext: Onboarding and regulatory verification | |
Payments in Dext: Managing roles and permissions | |
Payments in Dext: Building approval workflows | |
Payments in Dext: Making your first payment | |
Payments in Dext: Funding your wallet | |
Payments in Dext: Registering a device for payments authentication | |
Payments in Dext: End-to-End setup: Payment runs for accounting teams |
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