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, under AI Assist. You can 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 runs after other automation features, including supplier rules, smart suggestions, and basic extraction, and may overwrite values set by them. It doesn’t run on documents imported through Commerce Lite or the Amazon Business connection. Go to What can Dext AI Assist guidance search for and update? for details.
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:
Select AI Assist in the left-hand navigation of the account (below Bank).
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
Dext AI Assist creates guidance for your account automatically, based on how you work. You don’t need to start it yourself.
AI Assist starts creating guidance once the account has a licence and at least 25 edited documents. If the account already has 25 edited documents when the licence is assigned, creation starts straight away. Otherwise, it starts when the account reaches 25 edited documents. Edits include flagging, publishing, archiving, and changing values in document fields.
Until the account reaches that point, the Account guidance page shows an empty state with the message AI Assist needs a bit more activity to suggest guidance. Keep working as usual.
When AI Assist has created your guidance, the same page shows a Your AI Assist guidance is ready banner.
AI Assist turns the new guidance on and sets it to Manual review. This happens even if the account already has guidance you created. You’ll see its suggestions on your documents and can choose whether to apply each one.
If a generated rule overlaps with one of your own, only one of them runs, so you won’t get duplicate suggestions.
To review the new guidance, open the Account guidance list. Admins can edit a rule, change its Application mode, or turn its Active toggle on or off. If you don’t want AI Assist to use a generated rule, turn off its Active toggle. To let AI Assist apply a rule without your review, set its Application mode to Auto-apply.
Note: AI Assist creates guidance for an account once. It doesn’t create a new set later, so to add or change rules, write your own or edit the existing guidance.
You can also write your own rules at any time: go to Create guidance manually.
Create guidance manually
To create a guidance item manually:
Go to AI Assist in the left sidebar menu
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.
Note: Guidance descriptions have a 1500-character limit, including spaces.
Available actions
Available actions are the document fields and actions that AI Assist can update or perform based on your guidance.
List of available actions
List of available actions
Flag document (including colours)
Add note
Publish document
Archive document
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.
Guidance can also add an internal note to a document or publish it automatically. For example: "If the document is from a specific supplier and the total amount is below £50, publish the document."
When guidance publishes a document automatically, any approval workflow that also applies to that document takes priority — Dext holds the document for approval instead of publishing it straight away. For more on setting up approval rules, go to How to set up Costs and Sales approval workflows in Dext.
If Auto Expense claims is enabled for a user, that takes priority — Dext adds their new items to their Expense claim instead of publishing them automatically.
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. AI Assist doesn't read the email body unless your guidance tells 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.
Use line items in guidance
AI Assist guidance can update each line item on a document separately, including setting a different category for each line based on its product name or description. This needs Line Item Extraction turned on for the account.
Write guidance that names the supplier, what to look for on each line, and the category to set. For example: “For invoices from [supplier], keep each product as a separate line. Set lines whose description contains ‘paper’ to Stationery, and lines containing ‘toner’ to Printing. Leave other lines unchanged.”
AI Assist reads the wording of each line, so it isn’t an exact-match lookup. Start with Manual review to check its suggestions, then switch to Auto-apply once they’re right. For everything guidance can change on a line, go to What can Dext AI Assist guidance search for and update?
Use document owner and uploader in guidance
AI Assist guidance can also trigger based on the document owner or the user who uploaded the document.
Document owner is the user assigned to a document. It's set automatically when uploading a document, submitting one by email, or manually assigning it afterwards.
The uploader is the user who submitted the document. This can differ from the document owner.
Write guidance like: "If the document owner is [name], set the payment method to Company card." Or: "If the uploader is [name], flag the document."
If a document arrives via Extract by email, guidance can match the sender's email address or domain too. For example: "If the document is submitted via Extract by email and the uploader's email is [address], set the category to Art." Or: "If the document is submitted via Extract by email and the domain of the uploader's email is @dext.com, set the description to Entertainment."
Note: Document owner and uploader can only be used as conditions in guidance, not as actions. AI Assist can't set or change the document owner.
For more on Extract by email, go to How to submit documents to Dext via 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 under AI Assist. It's not available for Core guidance or Shared guidance managed at the practice level.
To view guidance history:
Go to AI Assist in the left sidebar menu
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.
