Guidance is the set of rules and logic Dext AI Assist uses to generate suggestions. Account guidance is created and managed at the individual account level from Business settings. You can generate, create, and manage guidance rules here, whether you're using Dext as a standalone business or as a client account within a practice.
Account-level guidance applies to the individual Dext account only. It's separate from Core guidance and Shared guidance, which are managed at the practice level.
Note: Dext AI Assist takes priority over other automation features, including supplier rules, smart categories, and basic extraction.
Who can access guidance?
Access to AI Assist guidance depends on your role.
Admins — including accountants and bookkeepers accessing client accounts — can view, create, edit, and manage guidance, and control how suggestions are applied.
Standard users can view guidance and apply suggestions to their own items, but can't create or edit guidance rules.
For more details on managing access, go to Roles and permissions in Dext
Access Account guidance
To access Account guidance:
Go to Business settings.
Select AI Assist in the left-hand navigation.
If you are using Dext as a standalone business, select Account guidance (optional).
View existing guidance
Existing guidance is displayed as a list of rules. Each rule shows:
Name and description of the guidance
Created by — the user who created the rule
Suggestions triggered, applied, and dismissed — how the rule is performing
Application mode — Manual review or Auto-apply
Active status — whether the rule is currently enabled
From this view, Admins can edit, change the Application mode, activate or deactivate, and delete guidance items.
Generate guidance automatically
If no guidance exists yet, select Generate to let Dext AI Assist create guidance automatically based on your current data and workflows.
Note: Generate can only be used once. After the initial set of guidance is created, the button is greyed out. The ability to regenerate updated guidance is planned for a future update.
Create guidance manually
To create a guidance item manually:
Go to Business settings > AI Assist
If you are using Dext as a standalone business select Account guidance (optional).
Select Create guidance.
Review the guidance writing tips and available actions at the top of the modal.
Enter a Name and Description explaining the logic for the guidance.
Choose how it should apply: Manual review or Auto-apply.
Select Create guidance to save.
Available actions
Available actions are the document fields that AI Assist can update based on your guidance.
List of available actions
List of available actions
Flag document (including colours)
Update category
Update costs document type
Update currency
Update customer
Update date
Update description
Update due date
Update GST/HST/TPS
Update if document is rebillable to client
Update income source
Update invoice number
Update line items
Update paid status
Update payment method
Update product
Update PST/QST/TVQ
Update publish as
Update publish to
Update sales document type
Update supplier
Update tax
Update tax amount
Update tax amount (GBP)
Update total amount
Update total amount (GBP)
Your 2 project fields also appear as available actions, using the names set in your account or synced from your accounting software — for example, Tracking Categories in Xero. For more, go to Using projects in Dext.
Note: Some actions may not be available depending on your subscription or region.
Use email content in guidance
If documents are submitted to Dext via Extract by email, AI Assist can read the email body and use the information it contains to update document fields.
To use this, write guidance that explicitly tells AI Assist to read the email. It won't do so automatically — only when your guidance instructs it to.
For example: "If the email body contains a project code, set that as the document's Project Code."
When AI Assist finds matching content in the email, it suggests or auto-applies the value depending on the application mode set for that guidance rule.
Note: AI Assist currently reads the email body only. Support for email subject lines is planned for a future update.
For more on submitting documents by email, go to How to submit documents to Dext with Extract by email.
Edit guidance
To edit an existing guidance item:
In the Account guidance list, select Edit next to the guidance you want to update.
Update the Description or Application mode.
Select Save to apply changes.
Note: Changes to guidance apply to new items only. Existing Inbox items won't be updated.
View guidance history
Guidance history lets you track what changed, when it changed, and who made the update for any guidance rule.
Note: Guidance history is only available for Account guidance in Business settings. It's not available for Core guidance or Shared guidance managed at the practice level.
To view guidance history:
Go to Business settings > AI Assist
If you are using Dext as a standalone business select Account guidance (optional).
Find the rule you want to review.
Select the History icon at the start of the guidance row.