How to Switch from Dext to Receiptflow Without Losing a Day's Work

How to Switch from Dext to Receiptflow: A Step-by-Step Migration Guide

If you've been looking at how to switch from Dext to Receiptflow, you're not alone. Since Dext eliminated unlimited plans for UK practices in August 2023, many accountants and bookkeepers have faced price increases of 200 to 400% at renewal. Practice plans now start at around £190 to £240 per month for just ten client companies, and the per-client model means costs keep climbing as you grow.

The good news: the actual migration is far simpler than most practices expect. You don't need to lose a single day of productive work. Here's exactly how to do it.

Before You Start: What You Need to Prepare

Spend fifteen minutes on this before touching anything. It will save you hours later.

Export your client list from Dext. Log into your Dext Practice dashboard, go to the Clients section, and export a CSV of all active clients. You'll want their names, email addresses, and which accounting software they're connected to.

Note your current integrations. Are you pushing data to Xero, QuickBooks, or Sage? Receiptflow connects to the same platforms, so your downstream workflows stay intact. Just make a note of which clients use which software.

Check your current Dext contract. If you're mid-contract, you don't need to cancel immediately. You can run both platforms in parallel during the migration window, which is exactly what we'd recommend for larger practices.

That's your prep done. The whole thing takes about fifteen minutes.

Step 1: Set Up Your Receiptflow Practice Account

Head to receiptflow.co and start your free trial. No credit card required.

Once you're in, the first thing to do is configure your practice settings:

• Add your practice name, logo, and contact details
• Connect your accounting software integration (Xero, QuickBooks, or Sage)
• Set your default VAT treatment preferences

This takes under 5 minutes for most practices. Receiptflow is designed to be set up without a sales call or an onboarding session. If you get stuck, the help centre covers every step and our human agent chat is also available through the portal and our website.

Step 2: Add Your Clients

This is where the bulk of the migration time sits, but it's still faster than you'd expect.

For each client, you'll:

1. Create a new client record in Receiptflow using the CSV you exported from Dext
2. Connect their accounting software account (Xero OAuth takes about thirty seconds per client)
3. Send them an invitation to the Receiptflow mobile app

For a practice with ten to fifteen clients, this step typically takes two to three hours. For larger practices, split it across two sessions or delegate the data entry portion to an admin.

One thing worth knowing: you don't have to migrate every client at once. Many practices move their five or six highest-volume clients first, confirm everything is working smoothly, then migrate the rest. This staged approach means there's no single point of failure.

Step 3: Brief Your Clients (Takes 10 Minutes Per Client)

The biggest concern most accountants have about switching is client disruption. In practice, it's minimal.

Clients need to do two things: download the Receiptflow app and start submitting receipts to their new email address. That's it.

The most effective way to handle this is a short, clear message. Something like:

"We've moved to a new receipt capture system. Please download the Receiptflow app using the link below and use this new email address for any receipts you send through. Everything else stays the same."

Most clients complete this in under five minutes. The Receiptflow mobile app is available on iOS and Android and mirrors the submission flow they're used to from Dext: photograph a receipt, submit, done.

Clients can also continue to email receipts directly. Each client gets a unique submission email address in Receiptflow, so if they already have a habit of forwarding receipt emails, the switch is a single address change in their contacts.

Step 4: Run Both Systems in Parallel for One Week

This is optional but recommended for larger practices.

For the first week after migration, keep Dext running for any clients who haven't confirmed the switch yet. Check each day: once a client has submitted their first receipt through Receiptflow successfully, you can stop monitoring their Dext inbox.

By day five or six, almost every practice finds that all active clients have made the transition naturally, without any chasing.

Start your free Receiptflow trial at receiptflow.co. No credit card required. Most practices are live within 5 minutes.

Step 5: Disconnect Dext and Confirm Your Accounting Integrations

Once all clients are active on Receiptflow, you have two tasks:

1. Confirm that receipt data is flowing correctly into your accounting software for each client. Pull up two or three recent transactions in Xero or QuickBooks and verify the data matches what was submitted.
2. Cancel your Dext subscription at the appropriate point in your billing cycle.

If you've been on a per-client Dext plan and have removed all clients, contact Dext support directly to confirm the cancellation and avoid being billed for inactive slots.

How Long Does the Switch Actually Take?

Here's a realistic time breakdown for a 10-client practice:

Active working time: under 5 minutes across 2 or 3 short sessions. Most practices describe it as straightforward once they start.

Why UK Practices Are Making the Switch

Dext remains a capable product, but its pricing structure has become a genuine pain point for smaller and growing practices. When practices paying a flat monthly fee for unlimited clients faced renewal quotes that were two to four times higher, the accounting community noticed. AccountingWEB threads on Dext pricing generated hundreds of comments from practices actively looking for alternatives.

Receiptflow is built specifically for the UK market. It's priced to make sense for practices of all sizes, without the per-client escalation that makes Dext increasingly expensive as you grow. The receipt scanning accuracy is built on modern AI extraction, the accounting software integrations are direct, and the client-facing experience is clean and simple.

For practices that use VT Transaction+, the CSV export from Receiptflow is clean and importable without manual reformatting.

Start your free Receiptflow trial at receiptflow.co. No credit card required. Most practices are live within a day.