For UK accounting practices
An AutoEntry alternative with a bill you can forecast
AutoEntry charges by document credit, so a busy January costs more than a quiet June. Receiptflow is one flat monthly figure of £150, £275 or £500.
No credit card required.
The difference in one line
Per-credit billing moves with your document volume, which moves with your clients’ trading and your own seasonality.
A flat tier does not move at all. The same figure in January as in June.
The short answer
The main alternatives to AutoEntry for a UK practice are Receiptflow, Dext, Hubdoc and Datamolino. The practical difference is how each one bills: AutoEntry charges per document credit, Dext charges per client, Hubdoc comes bundled with Xero, and Receiptflow charges a flat monthly tier. Practices leaving AutoEntry usually cite one of two things: costs that are hard to forecast, or questions about the roadmap since the Sage acquisition.
Receiptflow vs AutoEntry
The capture workflow is similar on both. These are the differences that show up in a budget and in a roadmap conversation.
| Compared on | Receiptflow | AutoEntry |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat monthly tier: £150 / £275 / £500, ex-VAT | Per document credit, by volume |
| Published figures | Yes, on our pricing page | We have not verified their current practice pricing. Check their rate card |
| Cost in a peak month | Unchanged | Rises with document volume |
| Cost of a quiet month | Unchanged | Falls, the genuine advantage of the model |
| Forecasting a year ahead | A known figure | An estimate based on last year’s volume |
| Client submission | Mobile app, email forwarding, direct upload | Mobile app, email forwarding, direct upload |
| Accounting integrations | Xero, QuickBooks Online, CSV export | Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage |
| Ownership | Independent | Acquired by Sage |
Receiptflow pricing figures are ex-VAT. We are not publishing AutoEntry’s pricing here because their pricing varies depending on usage.
The difference that shows up at budget time
Per-credit pricing is cheap until it isn’t
Credit billing genuinely suits some practices. Low, steady volume means you pay for what you use, with no floor to clear first. For a small practice with a handful of low-volume clients that is a real advantage, and we would not argue otherwise.
The months you most need a predictable cost base are the months the bill moves.
Why it is hard to forecast
Volume is driven by your clients’ trading and your compliance calendar, not by your planning. A January running 40 per cent above average in documents runs above average on the invoice too, arriving in the same week as everything else.
The effect worth naming
Credit models make you think about volume as a cost. That occasionally leads practices to batch, delay or discourage submissions to manage the bill, which is the opposite of what a capture tool is for. On a flat tier there is no marginal cost to a client sending another receipt.
Pull your last four quarters of document counts and run them against both models. Comparing headline rates tells you nothing.
If your busiest month is more than about twice your quietest, predictability is probably worth more to you than the saving in the trough.
Roadmap
What the Sage acquisition changed
Less than most practices expected.
Cross-platform support has held up, connections to Xero and QuickBooks Online remain in place, and nothing has been announced that restricts them. Anyone telling you otherwise is ahead of the evidence.
So why do practices keep asking?
The concern is structural, not specific. When a capture tool is owned by one ledger vendor, firms on a different ledger reasonably want to know where they sit in the priority order. Not because something has gone wrong, but because the incentives have changed, and roadmaps follow incentives eventually.
The sensible response is not to panic-switch
Know what your exit looks like. Three questions:
- What is the notice period on your current contract?
- How would you export the stored documents you have to retain?
- How long would a migration take if you needed one?
A practice that can answer those three is in a reasonable position whatever happens next.
The honest part
When AutoEntry is the better choice
Your volume is genuinely low. If you process a few hundred documents a month across a small client list, per-credit billing will likely come in under a flat £150 tier. Flat pricing has a floor and there is no way around it.
You are a Sage practice. A native Sage connection matters if your clients sit there, and common ownership is a reasonable bet on that integration being maintained. Receiptflow exports CSV rather than connecting natively, which is not the same thing where a digital link is required.
Your volume is seasonal and you like paying for the trough. Some practices genuinely prefer a bill that falls in quiet months, even knowing it rises in busy ones. That is a legitimate preference, not a mistake.
Migration
What switching involves
1 · Connect your accounting software
Authorise Xero or QuickBooks Online. Nothing changes on the ledger side and no historic data needs to move.
2 · Load your client list and rules
Clients are added in bulk. Re-creating categorisation rules is the part worth setting aside an afternoon for.
3 · Move client submissions across
Clients get a new forwarding address and the mobile app. Start with your highest-volume clients, since they set the shape of your month-end.
4 · Run one month-end on both, then export
Reconcile across a full cycle before cancelling. Retrieve the stored documents you are required to retain before the old subscription lapses.
Common questions
How much does AutoEntry cost?
It bills per document credit, with the cost scaling to your volume. We do not publish a figure here because we have not verified their current practice pricing directly. Check their own pricing page for the accountant audience rather than relying on a third-party summary, including ours.
Is flat pricing cheaper than per-credit pricing?
Not automatically. Flat tiers win when volume is high or unpredictable; per-credit wins when volume is low and steady. Take your document counts for the last four quarters and compare against both models. If your busiest month is more than about twice your quietest, predictability is probably worth more to you than the trough saving.
Does the Sage acquisition mean I should switch?
Not on its own. Cross-platform support has held up and nothing has been announced that restricts it. The sensible response is to know your exit position (notice period, document export, migration time) rather than to move pre-emptively.
Can I keep using Xero or QuickBooks?
Yes. Receiptflow connects to Xero and QuickBooks Online directly, and extracted data can be exported as CSV for other packages. Your ledger and chart of accounts are unaffected. Only the capture tool in front of them changes.
What about clients on Sage?
Receiptflow exports data as CSV rather than connecting to Sage natively. Where a digital link is required, a CSV export does not meet the same standard as a native connection, so this is worth checking against your specific obligations before switching a Sage-heavy client base.
How long does migrating take?
Setup is usually an afternoon. The full switch typically takes one month-end cycle, because it depends on clients adopting the new submission route. Allow four to six weeks end to end and cancel at renewal rather than mid-term.
Do I need a card to trial it?
No. The free trial requires no credit card, so you can run a peak-volume week through it and see what the flat tier would actually have cost you against that month’s credit usage.
Check it against a real month
Take your busiest recent month, run the documents through, and compare the flat tier against what that month actually cost you.
No credit card required.
