How to email receipts to Dext

Work out which address you need, because the address decides three things: whether the item lands in Costs or Sales, who owns it, and how the file is split. The Single address for sales items ends in +sales@dext.cc, and Multiple addresses end in @multiple.dext.cc. These addresses only receive documents. You can't sign in to Dext with them.

Think about ownership as well. Items with no Document owner, which is what an account address produces, can only be seen by users who have access to all documents. An owner can be added to an item by hand later if needed.

Check the attachments. Dext takes JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP and TIFF images, PDF, DOC, DOCX, ODT and RTF documents, and ZIP files of images. A PDF sent to a Multiple address can run to 200 pages. Dext can't read attachments protected by a password, or documents that sit behind a link in the email.

Want a more memorable address? Change the part under Your email address for Extract by Email begins with, and Dext adds the domain. Admin users can change another user's address from Users, then Manage, then Edit user details, and the account's address from Business settings, then Extraction, on the Extract by email tab. To add files from your computer or phone instead, see the how-to on uploading documents.

1. In Dext, go to Profile, then User settings, and open the Extract by Email section. If you belong to more than one business, select the right one there.
2. Copy the address that suits the file. Use a Single address when each file is one document, even a document of several pages, and a Multiple address when every page of a PDF is a separate document.
3. For sales documents going to a Single address, copy the one ending in +sales@dext.cc rather than a Costs address.
4. Start a new email to that address. Attach the files, or paste the document into the body of the email. One email can carry several attachments.
5. To give the items a description, type it in the body between two #note tags. Sent to a Multiple address, that description is copied onto every item the PDF produces.
6. Select Send.
7. Later, open the Costs or Sales inbox to find the items Dext has created from the email.

When Dext has extracted the details, each item sits in the Costs or Sales inbox. From a Single address, a two-page invoice arrives as one item. From a Multiple address, a PDF of ten receipts arrives as ten items, all carrying the same #note description if you added one.

The email itself stays attached to what it created. Open an item and select its Email tab to see the original message, with its subject, sender, timing and full body. That's handy when you need to know who sent something, or what they wrote with it.

From there, check the details Dext has read, and add an owner if the item has none.

If something you emailed never shows up, Dext might have taken it out as a duplicate, or rejected it. Look in Submission history to see whether it was treated as a duplicate. For a rejection, Dext notifies the user whose address received the document, at their Dext login email.

To hear about every rejected file, with the reason, go to Profile, then User settings, open Bookkeeping email notifications and set On acknowledgement to Yes. If Dext says the name you chose for your address is already taken, pick a different one. Only an Admin user can change someone else's address or the account's. Dext treats your accountant or bookkeeper as an admin by default when they open your account as one of their client accounts.