Dext vs AutoEntry prices for accountants: per client against per credit, worked for a 20-client practice

Dext charges an accountancy practice for each client. AutoEntry charges for each document, through monthly credits, with no limit on clients. For a practice with 20 clients, Dext's Essentials plan is £240 a month and AutoEntry is cheaper until the clients average more than 25 simple documents a month each.

What this is, and is not. A desk check of two pricing pages as they stood on 1 October 2026. All prices exclude VAT. We did not ask for quotes and have not used either product, so we say nothing about how well they read a receipt. Prices change; read the live page before deciding.

How Dext prices a practice

Dext's page for accounting and bookkeeping firms has three plans and a stepper for the number of clients. The price for each client falls as the number rises. We read the stepper at four sizes, on the annual subscription billed monthly:

The Essentials totals fit a simple pattern: £165 for the first 10 clients, £7.50 for each client from 11 to 50, then £5 for each client above 50. That pattern is our reading of four points on the stepper. Dext does not state it.

The third plan, Solo, is for clients who are sole traders or landlords within MTD for Income Tax and not VAT registered. It showed £2.50 a client a month, with a minimum of 5 clients (£12.50).

The page's billing switch marks the annual subscription as 13% off the monthly one. Listed add-ons are priced for each client: custom guidance for its AI Assist at £5, data health checks at £5, payments at £10 and online sales channels at £5.

How AutoEntry prices a practice

AutoEntry sells credits. Every plan includes unlimited users and, for accountants and bookkeepers, unlimited clients.

What a credit buys depends on the document:

• an invoice or a receipt: 1 credit;
• an invoice with line items extracted: 2 credits;
• a supplier statement: 2 credits;
• a bank or card statement: 3 credits for each page.

Unused credits roll over for 90 days. Going over the allowance is charged at a higher rate for each credit, and the page does not give that rate. Above 2,500 credits the price is by quotation.

The same practice on both lists

Take 20 bookkeeping clients who send only receipts and invoices, with no line items, at one credit each.

The crossing point is the jump from Platinum to Diamond. Up to 500 credits a month, AutoEntry costs half of Dext's £240 or less. From 501 credits, the next plan is £331.50 and Dext is £91.50 a month cheaper.

At 50 clients the pattern repeats one step up. Dext Essentials is £465. AutoEntry's Diamond plan covers 30 documents a client for £331.50, and its Sapphire plan covers 50 documents a client for £518.25.

Bank statements move the answer. A client who sends 25 receipts and a four-page bank statement uses 25 + 12 = 37 credits, so 20 such clients need 740 credits and the Diamond plan. A practice that takes bank data from a feed and not from PDFs keeps the lower figure.

What the pages do not say

• Dext's extraction allowance. Dext says each plan comes with an allowance of credits for bank statements, line items and supplier statement reconciliation, with top-ups available. The practice page gives no size for the allowance and no top-up price.
• A document limit on Dext. We found no limit on documents for each client on the practice page. Ask before relying on that.
• AutoEntry's overage rate. Stated as higher; not stated in pence.
• Monthly billing on Dext. We read the annual subscription only.

If the clients are on Xero

Xero's UK page for document capture lists "Smart document capture" in all four plans, from Ignite at £18 a month to Ultimate at £70. For a client already paying for Xero, that is capture at no further charge, and the question becomes whether it does enough. Hubdoc's own site shows US$12 a month after a 30-day trial and no sterling price.

Five questions before choosing

1. How many clients send documents in a normal month, and how many documents each? Count last quarter.
2. How many of those documents need line items? On AutoEntry each one costs double.
3. Do bank statements arrive as PDFs, or through a feed?
4. Will the client count grow this year? Dext's price for each client falls as it does.
5. Who pays: the practice, or the client through the fee? Our client fee calculator shows what a monthly software cost does to the fee a client needs to pay.

Capture only saves time if clients use it. Our guide on how to stop clients sending records late makes it the default at onboarding, and our check of practice management software prices covers the other large software bill.

Overlyft is not a capture tool and is not priced here. It works on what a capture tool produces: matching captured receipts and invoices to bank lines, and putting each uncertain line on a query list. Tax advice and sign-off stay with the accountant.