Receipts are arriving by email, invoices need checking, and your accounts still need to be ready at month-end. Dext and QuickBooks can both help, but they tackle different parts of that workload.
Dext helps you collect and process the paperwork behind your transactions.
QuickBooks Online manages your accounting records, customer invoices and financial reporting.
There is some overlap, particularly around receipt capture and expenses, but you can also use the two together.
The right choice starts with what is slowing your team down. Do you need an accounting system, a better way to get information into it, or more control over employee spending?
This guide compares their UK business offerings, with features and pricing checked in September 2026.
Dext is bookkeeping automation software that collects financial documents, extracts information and helps prepare it for your accounts. You may recognise it by the earlier names Receipt Bank or Dext Prepare.
You can photograph receipts, upload invoices or forward documents by email. Dext extracts the details so you can check and categorise the transaction before publishing it to connected accounting software.
Its role now extends beyond document capture. Dext also supports employee expense claims, mileage tracking and approval workflows. Eligible UK businesses can add Dext Payments for supplier and employee expense payments.
For a finance team, the practical appeal is having a process for getting paperwork ready before it reaches the ledger. It is particularly relevant when documents come from several people, suppliers or locations.
QuickBooks Online is cloud accounting software from Intuit. It brings together income, expenses, customer invoicing, bank transactions and financial reports.
It also includes receipt capture, so you do not automatically need a separate app to digitise your paperwork. Depending on your plan, you can add capabilities such as bill management, multiple currencies, inventory and project profitability.
QuickBooks is the more appropriate starting point if your immediate need is to maintain the business accounts. Dext can help prepare information for those accounts, but it does not replace QuickBooks Online's full accounting role.
Imagine your team sends receipts from site visits while supplier invoices arrive in different inboxes. The work starts before anyone opens the accounts: collecting the documents, finding missing information and deciding how each purchase should be coded.
Dext brings that collection process together. Alongside uploads and email, invoice fetch can retrieve documents from supported supplier accounts. Extracted information can then be checked and prepared for publishing.
This is where an additional tool may earn its place. If you repeatedly chase the same paperwork or retype the same supplier details, assess how much of that work a dedicated capture process removes.
QuickBooks can extract information from uploaded receipts and bills, then let you review the details and create a transaction or match an existing one.
That distinction matters. Uploading a receipt does not mean the accounting is finished. Someone still needs to resolve missing information and check the correct match.
For a small team with a manageable number of documents, keeping this work inside QuickBooks may be sufficient. Before adding another subscription, run a representative batch through the process you already have.
Include a clear receipt, a faded one, a supplier invoice and a transaction already in the bank feed. Count the corrections and decisions needed to finish each one.
Capturing a receipt and approving an employee's claim are different tasks. Finance also needs to know who spent the money, why they spent it and who should authorise it.
Dext supports expense claim approval workflows with multiple stages and amount-based conditions. For example, a claim could go to a manager first and require another approval above a specified value. Its mileage tools also allow business journeys to form part of the expense process.
QuickBooks Advanced allows employees to submit expenses directly and gives finance a way to review, track and store claims. It also adds workflow automation. These capabilities should not be assumed to exist in every QuickBooks subscription.
If expenses are your main concern, walk through a complete example before choosing. Submit a claim, return it for clarification, resubmit it and approve it. Then check what reaches the accounts and how reimbursement will be handled.
For mileage, check who can record trips and how those records become approved employee claims. Tracking distance alone does not establish that the full reimbursement process meets your needs.
Yes. Dext connects to QuickBooks Online so you can prepare documents in Dext and publish the resulting information into your accounts.
A typical process looks like this:
The connection can bring across accounting lists, including suppliers, accounts and supported tracking information. Set these up carefully before relying on automation.
There are also details worth testing. For example, Dext expense claims containing multiple QuickBooks Locations can publish without Location data. If you report by branch or site, that is something to resolve during setup rather than discover at month-end.
Using both tools makes sense when the additional document workflow removes enough work to justify another subscription. If your existing QuickBooks process already runs smoothly, adding Dext may offer less value.
Dext helps you keep the supporting information organised: the document, its category and its approval record. That is useful when someone asks what a purchase relates to or whether it has been reviewed.
QuickBooks brings transactions into the wider financial picture. Its reports include profit and loss, balance sheets, and accounts payable and receivable. More advanced reporting and analysis depend on your subscription.
Think about the question you need to answer. “Where is the receipt for this purchase?” is different from “What was our profit this quarter?” Your document process and accounting system need to support both without making the team reconstruct the story manually.
The subscription prices cover different jobs, so a lower starting price does not automatically make either product better value.
Dext’s UK entry package costs £290 a year, excluding VAT, equivalent to £24.17 per month when billed annually. This includes five users and 250 documents per month. The monthly equivalent is a budgeting figure: the annual subscription is paid upfront.
Higher user or document requirements mean choosing a larger package. If you reach your monthly document limit, you can continue uploading, but further extraction waits until your next billing date or a plan upgrade.
Some specialist processing also costs extra beyond included credits:
Check your busiest months when choosing an allowance. A package that covers an average month may leave you short when invoices arrive in a batch.
Eligible UK businesses can add Dext Payments to pay suppliers and employee expenses through supported QuickBooks Online or Xero connections.
The service lists a £15 setup fee and 25p per payment. For example, 40 chargeable payments would add £10 in payment fees, plus the setup fee when you first join.
These charges sit alongside your main Dext subscription. If you already have a payment process that works well, assess whether bringing payments into Dext removes enough administration to justify the additional cost.
QuickBooks offers several UK subscriptions, with the price increasing as you add users and more advanced accounting tools. For budgeting, start with the standard monthly rate, then treat any introductory discount as a temporary saving.
Simple Start costs £16 per month, reduced to £1.60 per month for the first six months. It includes one user, plus accountant access, and covers core tasks such as income and expense tracking, receipt capture, mileage tracking and VAT submission.
This is a sensible starting point if one person manages the accounts and your requirements are relatively straightforward.
Essentials costs £38 per month, reduced to £3.80 per month for the first six months. It supports three users, plus accountant access, and adds bill management and multiple currencies.
For this comparison, bill management is a meaningful step up. If you need to manage unpaid supplier invoices alongside your day-to-day expenses, assess Essentials rather than comparing Dext only with QuickBooks’ cheapest business plan.
Plus costs £56 per month, with an introductory price of £5.60 per month for the first six months. It supports five users, plus accountant access, and adds capabilities including inventory and project profitability.
Consider this tier when you need to understand costs by project or manage stock alongside the accounts.
Advanced costs £123 per month, reduced to £12.30 per month for the first six months. It supports 25 users, plus accountant access, and includes tools such as custom reporting, forecasting, spreadsheet sync, fixed asset tracking and revenue recognition.
The additional cost is easier to justify when your finance team needs those capabilities. If your immediate goal is simply to capture receipts, assess the lower tiers first.
QuickBooks also offers Sole Trader Plus at £10 per month, or £1 per month for the first six months. This is a separate option for sole traders; the main comparison here focuses on Simple Start through Advanced.
The offer reduces the subscription by 90% for six months. After that, the standard monthly rate applies.
For example, Essentials would cost £250.80 across the first 12 months: six payments of £3.80 followed by six payments of £38. A subsequent full year at the unchanged standard rate would cost £456.
That difference matters when comparing ongoing costs. Payroll and other paid extras should also be budgeted separately.
If you combine QuickBooks Essentials at its standard £38 monthly rate with Dext’s £290 annual entry package, the base subscriptions total £746 a year, before applicable VAT and optional extras.
That is approximately £62.17 per month for budgeting purposes, although Dext’s annual fee is paid upfront.
If you qualify for the QuickBooks introductory offer, the same combination would total £540.80 in base subscription charges during the first year. The lower first-year cost should not be mistaken for the ongoing annual budget.
Whether that combination offers good value depends on the work Dext removes. If QuickBooks already handles your paperwork comfortably, another subscription may be unnecessary. If collecting and preparing documents still takes hours each month, compare that time with the additional £290 annual cost and any add-ons you need.
It can be, particularly if document collection and processing are still taking too much time.
Start with the work you want to remove. Are employees sending receipts to several inboxes? Is someone downloading supplier invoices individually? Does finance repeatedly correct or re-enter information before it can be posted?
Those are useful reasons to assess Dext. If the main problem is a lack of financial reporting, revisit your QuickBooks plan and accounting setup first. If it is inconsistent expense policies or approvals, assess that workflow directly.
Choose QuickBooks Online when you need the accounting system itself, including customer invoicing, bank reconciliation and financial reports.
Consider adding Dext when you want a dedicated process for collecting and preparing documents before they reach your accounts.
Assess a specialist expense and spend management platform when the bigger issue is controlling employee spending, applying policies and getting approvals completed consistently.
Bring a month's worth of real examples to the decision. That will tell you more than a feature count about where your team needs help.
Explore ExpenseOnDemand's spend management software.
Dext overlaps with some QuickBooks features, particularly document capture and expenses, but it serves a different main purpose. For a business that needs full accounting, Dext is better considered alongside the accounting system than as a direct replacement.
No. QuickBooks Online has its own receipt capture. The reason to add Dext is the additional collection and processing workflow, rather than receipt scanning alone.
Eligible UK businesses can use the Dext Payments add-on with supported QuickBooks Online or Xero connections. Check setup requirements and payment charges separately from the main subscription.
That depends on the approval process, access and accounting connection you need. Compare Dext's claims workflow with QuickBooks Advanced's employee expense features, then assess whether a dedicated expense platform better fits your policies and team structure.
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