Dext vs Shoeboxed

Dext

• Small businesses that want receipts and bills coded before they reach the books
• Accounting and bookkeeping firms collecting paperwork from many clients
• Teams with employee expense claims and mileage to approve

Shoeboxed

• Self-employed people who keep paper receipts and would rather mail them than scan them
• Freelancers and drivers who want mileage and receipts in one record for tax time
• Bookkeepers collecting paper receipts from small business clients

Dext

• Dext is not a ledger: it sends coded documents to accounting software such as Xero, QuickBooks or Sage, which is bought separately.
• After the monthly document allowance is used, uploads wait unread until the next billing date or an upgrade; over 5 business entities needs a quote.
• Line item, supplier statement and bank statement extraction past the free credits cost from $20.50, $20.50 and $13 a month, or $0.50, $0.50 and $0.32 a document.
• Firm plans need at least 10 clients, Data health and insights costs $7.50 per client a month extra, and annual plans need 30 days' notice to cancel.

Shoeboxed

• There is no free plan or free trial: the card is charged at sign-up, with a 30-day money-back guarantee that ends once a Magic Envelope has been shipped.
• Scans past a plan's allowance cost extra, from $0.07 to $0.19 per digital scan and $0.77 to $2 per paper scan, and extra envelopes are $9 each.
• QuickBooks Online, Xero and Gmail sync need Pro or higher, and Starter keeps digital scans for 3 years rather than for as long as the account is active.
• It captures receipts and mileage but does not keep books; cancelling means calling the billing team rather than doing it in the account.

Dext

Capture from phone, email or WhatsApp

Send receipts, invoices and statements from the mobile app, an email-in address, WhatsApp or an upload, or have Dext fetch invoices from suppliers directly.

Data extraction and coding

Reads supplier, date, amount, tax and line items (Dext states over 99% accuracy), suggests categories and applies supplier rules before publishing.

Accounting software sync

Publishes coded documents to 36+ accounting and e-commerce platforms, including Xero, QuickBooks and Sage, and pulls bank feeds from over 11,500 banks.

Employee expenses and mileage

Staff submit expense claims and mileage in the app, managers approve them, and each claim syncs to the books with an audit trail.

AI Assist

A paid add-on that learns the choices you make on suppliers, categories and splits and proposes automations for you to approve.

Vault document storage

Keeps every original document for at least ten years, tagged and searchable. Free up to 100MB, with more storage from $4 a month.

Shoeboxed

Magic Envelope mail-in scanning

Mail paper receipts and documents in a postage-paid envelope; staff in Durham scan and categorize them, then shred them or send them back, as you choose.

Several ways to send receipts

Snap receipts in the iOS and Android app, forward them to an account email address, drag them in from a computer, or import e-receipts with Gmail sync on Pro and up.

Human-checked data extraction

OCR pulls the vendor, total, date, sales tax and payment type, and Shoeboxed staff check the result before it lands in the account.

Tax categories and expense reports

Receipts are sorted into 15 standard tax categories or your own, and reports with the receipt images attached can be exported, shared or printed.

Automatic mileage tracking

The mobile app logs business trips by GPS in the background and sends a daily summary to confirm. It is included on every plan.

Accounting software sync

Pro and higher connect to QuickBooks Online and Xero; every plan exports CSV, and receipts can also go to Wave, Evernote and Dropbox.

Dext

• Business$25.21

  per month for up to 250 documents, billed annually ($31.50 monthly)

  5 users, capture, extraction and accounting sync. A slider adds users and documents: $48.75 a month billed annually at 10 users and 500 documents.

• Essentials$17.70

  per client / month, on an annual subscription billed monthly

  For accounting and bookkeeping firms, 10-client minimum. Capture and processing for business and self-employed clients; the rate per client varies with the count.

• Advanced$19.20

  per client / month, on an annual subscription billed monthly

  For firms, 10-client minimum. Adds advanced automation, practice insights and controls; the rate per client varies with the count.

Shoeboxed

• Starter$8.08

  per month for up to 3 users, billed annually ($9 billed monthly)

  50 digital scans a month, 20 paper scans a year, 1 Magic Envelope a year and 3 years of scan storage. Billed as $97 a year.

• Pro$24.75

  per month for up to 5 users, billed annually ($29 billed monthly)

  250 digital and 50 paper scans a month, an envelope each quarter, Gmail receipt sync, QuickBooks Online and Xero, and phone support.

• Plus$66.42

  per month for up to 10 users, billed annually ($79 billed monthly)

  1,000 digital and 150 paper scans a month, a Magic Envelope every month and priority support. Billed as $797 a year.

• Paper Plus$166.42

  per month for up to 10 users, billed annually ($179 billed monthly)

  For heavy paper volume: 5,000 digital and 300 paper scans a month and 2 Magic Envelopes a month. Billed as $1,997 a year.

Dext

• Annual discount

  Up to 20% off business plans with yearly billing

  The entry business plan costs $25.21 a month billed annually ($302.50 a year) against $31.50 billed monthly.

• Annual discount

  13% off firm plans on an annual subscription

  The pricing page for accounting and bookkeeping firms labels its annual subscription 13% off the monthly rate.

Shoeboxed

• Annual discount

  Save 11% to 19% with yearly billing

  Starter is $97 a year against $9 a month, Pro $297 against $29 and Plus $797 against $79; the pricing page gives the saving as 11%, 17% and 19%.