How to publish documents in Dext

Publishing only works once your accounting software is connected to Dext, since that connection is where the item goes. If you just want a copy outside Dext, exporting is the alternative: Dext can export items as a PDF, a CSV or a ZIP file, and with a connection in place the Export options in the Costs or Sales inbox sit in the Actions menu.

Look at each item's status. Every item in the Costs and Sales inboxes is either To review or Ready, and only Ready items can be published. To review means Dext has spotted a problem: often a missing category, supplier or total amount, but also a discrepancy in the line items, or a document that looks like a duplicate of one already in your archive. Hover over the To review badge to see what Dext wants fixed, or open the item and read the Please resolve these issues panel at the top.

Category is one of the fields Dext fills in from the document, but confirming it's the right one for the item is up to you. If you're not sure which category an item belongs in, or how its line details should be set out, check with your accountant before you publish.

1. Go to Costs or Sales, depending on the document, and open the item from the inbox. Its Item details page opens.
2. Read through the fields Dext has filled in, such as Supplier, Category, Date and Total amount, and correct anything that's wrong. A change saves as soon as you click outside the field.
3. Make sure Category, Supplier and Total amount all have a value. While any of them is blank, the item stays at To review.
4. Choose where the item should go in the Publish to field.
5. If you're connected to Xero, you can also choose a Publish as status for the item.
6. Select the Publish button, at either the top or the bottom of the page.

The item's extracted data and the image of the original document arrive at the destination you chose in your accounting software. Dext also holds on to a copy in its Archive tab, so you can look the item up again later.

A Ready status can show in one of two colours. Green means everything is in order. Yellow means the item looks right in Dext but an earlier attempt to publish it came back with an error from your accounting software. Hover over the yellow status to read the error.

To correct an item that has already gone across, see the how-to on clearing publishing data. Letting rules publish documents for you is covered in the how-to on auto-publish.

If the Publish button won't send an item, check its status first. A To review item needs the fields named in its tooltip completed or corrected before it turns Ready. A yellow Ready status points to an error your accounting software returned last time, and hovering over it shows the detail.

Finding Ready and To review items mixed together is slowing you down? Dext can show them as separate tabs. Go to Business settings, then Extraction, then Inbox tabs, and turn on Show To review and Ready tabs.