Dext Review: Are Dext Prepare Features Worth the Pricing?

You may know this tool by a different name. 

Just when it had amassed a whopping one million users, a platform called Receipt Bank would rebrand itself into what is today known as Dext Prepare.

First, let’s tackle the reason behind the name change in our Dext review. According to the company, Receipt Bank has outgrown its function of just receipt capture and has evolved into a true data capture tool—think of (D)ata (ext)raction.   

In this article, we’ll analyze the main features of the product and mention the most notable pros and cons. 

Let’s dive in. 

Dext review 2024 (FKA Receipt Bank): Is Dext Prepare any good?

After writing this comprehensive Dext Prepare review, we can say that this tool is a great value for its money and ease of use. Accountants and bookkeepers can create multiple accounts for their clients and manage their finances from one central place. What else can you do with Dext?

Clients can submit receipts, invoices, and other documents straight to their accounts so that nothing falls through the cracks. It’s a real game changer for business owners of small and medium companies who can snap receipts and upload them to the platform and save hours of data entry with line item extractions. 

Dext pricing plans

First of all, how much does Dext cost? Let’s first review Dext Prepare prices:

How much does Dext cost for nonprofits?

Currently, Dext Prepare doesn’t offer a discount for nonprofit organizations. The monthly plans apply to all types of organizations. 

Are there any Dext coupon codes or promo discount vouchers?

We did the research, and it seems there are no Dext coupon codes or discount vouchers at this time.

Dext free vs paid: what’s the difference?

Unfortunately, Dext Prepare doesn't have a free plan. The good news is that a 14-day free trial lets you try all the software features before you commit to a paid plan. 

In terms of monthly plans, there are six: three for small to medium businesses, and three for accounting and bookkeeping firms. 

Dext Prepare's paid plans for small and medium businesses are based on the number of items processed per month. Small businesses needing an expense tracking functionality can get started for $27 per month or $22 billed annually. The cheapest plan supports five users and lets you process up to 300 documents.  

The Premium plan costs $53 per month or $43 if billed annually. It’s geared toward bigger businesses as you can have up to 20 users and process up to 3,000 documents. 

The highest-paid plan is called the Enterprise and is suitable for large enterprises. It costs $80 per month billed monthly or $64 per month billed annually. There's a limit of 30 users and 4,000 monthly documents. 

Additionally, there are three plans geared towards accounting and bookkeeping firms. The paid plans range from $234.99/month to $848.99/month billed annually. Each plan supports unlimited users; the only difference between the plans is the number of clients you can have. The lowest-paid plan lets you manage up to 10 clients, while the highest-tier plan gives you a limit of 50. 

Dext overview: what is Dext & what is Dext Prepare used for? 

Dext, formerly known as Receipt Bank, is an expense management platform that reduces tedious manual data entry by extracting information from financial documents and recording it digitally. It includes features like receipt scanning, expense reporting, bank statement extraction, bank feeds, and other bookkeeping tools. 

You can use it on its own, although the app works better in combination with an accounting system and other productivity tools. It integrates seamlessly with all the popular accounting software, including Quickbooks Online (QBO), Xero, and Sage Accounting. 

It's a time saver tool built for accountants and bookkeepers, as well as for small and medium-sized businesses that process a considerable number of receipts per month.

Dext features list

The main features of Dext are:

• Adding documents

• Data extraction

• Accounting software integration

• Expense reports

• Rules and automation 

• Client accounts 
   

1. Adding documents 

There are several ways to add Costs, Sales, and Bank items to your Dext Prepare account. Once you log into your account, you'll see a green + Add Documents button at the top of the page. The Add Documents panel will appear on the right-hand side of your screen. 

From here, you can upload your document in a few different ways, depending on whether it's a Cost document, a Sales document, or a Bank Statement. Use the Costs panel to add bills, receipts, and purchase invoices. 

If it's a Cost document, you can upload the file from your computer, send it via your dedicated Dext Prepare email address, connect to a supplier with Invoice Fetch, or via the Dext mobile app. Additionally, you can also upload Cost documents via Paypal, Dropbox, and Tripcatcher (for UK users). 

If it's a Sales document, you can upload it from your computer or send it via email. Bank statements can be uploaded from your computer, or you can connect to your bank via a Bank Feed. 

You'll be able to upload up to 50 documents at once using the Upload, Email, or Mobile submission methods.

There are three document formatting options you can use when uploading multiple documents from your computer: one document per file (PDF, JPG, PNG, ZIP), one document per page (PDF only), and auto splitting (PDF only). 

All submitted documents will then enter the data extraction process.
 

2. Data extraction 

Data extraction can take anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours, depending on how many people submit their paperwork simultaneously. Generally, data extraction takes around 30 minutes. 

If you're pressed for time, you can move one item or several items to the Inbox and manually complete the extraction process. Dext also offers a "Boost" functionality that you can activate to speed up the data extraction process, although this comes at an additional fee.

Dext Prepare can extract information such as:

• Type of document

• Document date

• Supplier

• Currency

• Total amount paid or due

• Tax amount

• Invoice number

• Payment method

You can also activate the "auto-categorization" option that uses machine learning to extract a category based on the way you previously categorized similar items. If there's a supplier rule in place, the system will only suggest a category. 

Another neat feature is the Line item functionality that lets you split a combination invoice into individual line items. 
 

3. Accounting software integration

Where Dext Prepare shines is its seamless integration with all the popular accounting software. It easily integrates with QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, FreeAgent, FreshBooks, KashFlow, Twinfield, and more. You can connect Dext Prepare with only one accounting software at a time. 

You'll be asked to integrate the software with an accounting program during the onboarding process. The integration shouldn't take more than a few minutes. Once you integrate the two programs, you'll be able to send data from Dext Prepare to your accounting software, and vice versa. 

For example, by integrating Dext Prepare with QuickBooks, you'll sync the Chart of Accounts, Suppliers, Customers, Classes, Locations, and Payment Methods across the two platforms. To send your Dext Prepare items directly to QuickBooks Online, simply activate the "Publish" button.

Once you integrate Dext Prepare with an accounting software, you’ll be able to set up an additional integration with tools like Bill.com, WorkflowMax, Gusto, and ApprovalMax.
 

4. Expense reports  

The Expense reports function lets you create your own custom reports. Simply go to your Inbox and select the items you want to add to your new expense report. The new report will be available to view and edit from the “Expense Report”' section of the account.

The Advanced expense reports option includes Expense Report Approvals and Effortless Expense Reports.

The Expense Report Approvals option lets specific account users sign off on other employees' expenses before they're marked as complete. The Effortless Expense Reports lets you generate expense reports automatically, including weekly, bimonthly, and monthly reports. When you activate this feature, you need to tell the software which employees can have the Effortless Expense Reports feature on their account.

Expense Reports can be published to integrated accounting software, exported in CSV and PDF formats, or automatically sent via email.
 

5. Rules and automation 

Dext Prepare lets you set up Supplier and Customer Rules so that you don't need to review predictable paperwork from repeat suppliers or customers. Once you've set a supplier or customer rule, it will be applied every time a new transaction from that supplier or customer is uploaded to Dext Prepare. 

For example, Uber receipts will always be categorized as travel expenses, Apple and Adobe receipts as IT costs, electricity bills as utility costs, etc. 

You can use Supplier Rules or Customer Rules to assign a default:

• Category

• Invoice due date

• Tax rate

• Payment Method

• Paid/Unpaid status

• Description

• Currency
   

6. Client accounts 

You can create separate accounts for your clients if you're an accountant or bookkeeper firm with a Streamline plan subscription. This allows you to manage several clients from one central location. There's the option to give your clients access to their accounts from where they can upload their financial paperwork. The normal Dext Prepare submission methods are all available to Client Account Users.

Dext pros and cons

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of Dext:

Dext advantages

The software has a clean user interface. It has a small learning curve, but even beginners can quickly learn how to navigate the platform. If you run across a problem, there's an extensive knowledge base with hundreds of help articles. 

Another perk of the software is that it does an exceptional job of extracting relevant information from receipts and invoices. While other tools like Hubdoc might not recognize all data, Dext works flawlessly and can capture all information, including document date, currency, tax amount, and more.

Dext Prepare integrates seamlessly with all the popular accounting apps like QuickBooks, Xero, and Freshbooks. For example, you can quickly process all expenses via Dext Prepare and then send that processed information directly into your accounting system. It can save you hours of data entry and provide more accurate data, making reconciliation a breeze.

Dext Prepare has an easy-to-use mobile app for Android and iOS that minimizes data entry. You can use your smartphone to snap a photo of a paper document and extract all the important data. You can upload bills, receipts, invoices, and bank statements on the go. 
 

Dext disadvantages

Dext Prepare is not the cheapest software. Its monthly plans for small to medium businesses range from $27 to $80+ per month, while the monthly plans for accounting and bookkeeping firms cost anywhere from $235 to $850 per month. 

Another downside of the Dext Prepare software is that it's not a full accounting system. If you want a complete accounting and bookkeeping software with more advanced features, you have to integrate Dext Prepare with a separate accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero. This might be a major issue if you're a business with a tight budget. 

Dext complaints & praise (from real Dext customer reviews)

Positive reviews of Dext Prepare say how the platform makes it incredibly easy to capture receipts, invoices, and bills and upload them into the system. Users seem to like there are multiple ways of adding documents, each one equally convenient. People say how you can snap a receipt on the go, whether that is a coffee meal, or travel expense, and publish it straight into your accounting system. And the best thing, according to users, is that you can throw the paper receipts as you will have a digital copy to refer to. Other Receipt Bank reviews, or Dext, as it’s currently known, say that the system is ideal for businesses that process a large volume of paper invoices and receipts. User reviews also say it can be a great solution for accounting firms that need an easy way to administer client accounts.

Some negative Dext reviews talk about the expensive monthly plans. Several users in the US have an issue with the software using European formatted dates (DD/MM/YY). In some reviews, users complain that the software might be a little overwhelming to use at first.  
 

Review of Dext Compare support

You can contact the Dext Compare customer support team via phone, email, and chat. If you reach out via chat, you are supposed to leave a message, and one of the company's consultants will be in touch as soon as possible. You can contact them via email, and the support team will get back to you at the earliest opportunity. 

In addition, there's an extensive knowledge base that contains a good deal of help articles and video-based training courses. If you log into your account, you can click on the Help button in the lower right-hand corner of each page, and it will show several related topics or let you type in your question.

Is Dext worth it? Key takeaways

Answering the question, “is Dext worth it?” requires a more detailed explanation. 

Our overall rating is that the software is an excellent choice for businesses that need to process a large volume of invoices and receipts every month and want to go paperless. You can save time doing manual work by simply snapping a picture of a receipt, and the system will take care of the rest. Best of all, no more stuffing paper documents in envelopes. Dext Prepare can make the bookkeeping process a breeze if you're running a small or medium-sized business. 

Dext Prepare is also a great option for accounting and bookkeeping firms managing multiple clients. You can save hours of manual work every week processing clients' expenses. Even better, clients can be given access to the software where they can upload receipts and invoices themselves, even on the go.

The tool can be handy if you're already using an accounting software. Dext can be a great add-on for managing expenditures and expenses. It works for small businesses as well as for businesses with a number of employees. You can even integrate it with a payroll software, in addition to an accounting software. 

However, if you're a micro business that has to deal with only a handful of paper documents, this software might be an overkill. It's also an unnecessary expense if you're not using an accounting software.

If you’re on the lookout for the best accounting software to use in combination with Dext Prepare, take a look at this list of the 15 best bookkeeping software we prepared for you.