Guidance is the set of rules and logic Dext AI Assist uses to generate suggestions. This article explains how to create, edit, and review guidance - whether you're a practice managing clients or a business using Dext directly.
Admins - including accountants and bookkeepers accessing client accounts - can view, create, edit, and manage guidance, as well as control how suggestions are applied. Standard users can view and apply suggestions to their own items, but cannot edit guidance.
Note: Dext AI Assist takes priority over other automation features, including supplier rules, smart categories, and basic extraction.
Practice guidance
Practice guidance is only available to accountants and bookkeepers with a Dext Practice account.
Practice guidance is centrally managed in Practice settings and can be enabled for all or selected clients. Updates apply automatically to all linked clients and apply to new items only.
Note: Access to Dext AI Assist in Practice settings is limited to Practice Admins and Client Admins with the Manage the practice's business permission.
Create and assign practice guidance
To create and assign practice guidance:
Go to Practice settings.
Select AI Assist > Practice guidance.
Select Create guidance.
Enter a Name and Description.
Choose the Application mode (Auto-apply or Manual review).
Select Next and choose the clients to enable it for by switching the toggle to Yes.
Select Create guidance to confirm.
Practice guidance is visible in client accounts, but can't be edited there. Clients can use it, but only the practice can manage it.
Account-level guidance
Note: This guidance applies to individual accounts only. It can be used in standalone business accounts or in client accounts within a practice, but it is created and managed separately from practice-level guidance.
You can generate, create, and manage guidance in any Dext account from Business settings.
Access guidance
To access guidance in Business settings:
Go to Business settings.
Select AI Assist in the left-hand menu.
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
Enabled status - whether the rule is active
From this view, admins can edit, change the application mode, enable or disable, and delete guidance.
Generate guidance
If no guidance exists yet, select Generate to let the agent 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 will be greyed out. The ability to regenerate updated guidance is planned for a future update.
Create guidance manually
To create guidance manually:
Select Create guidance.
Review the guidance writing tips at the top of the page.
Enter a Name and Description explaining the logic.
Choose how it should apply: Manual review or Auto-apply.
Select Create guidance to save.
Edit guidance
To edit an existing rule:
In the 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.
Review suggestion performance
You can review how guidance is performing directly from the guidance list in Business settings. Each rule shows counts for suggestions triggered, applied, and dismissed.
To see affected items:
Go to Business settings > AI Assist.
In the guidance list, find the Suggestions triggered, Suggestions applied, or Suggestions dismissed column for the relevant rule.
Select any count to open a preview of the exact items where the guidance was suggested, applied, or dismissed.
From the item preview, you can:
Open individual documents using View item
See the document type, date, and supplier
Use Advanced search to filter by supplier and date range