How to upload documents in Dext

Sort the paperwork into two piles. Costs is for receipts and bills from suppliers, and Sales is for invoices your business has issued. Then think about who each document belongs to. Dext asks for a Document owner, and a cost that isn't tied to any one user, such as rent, can have None.

Look at how each file is put together, because Dext offers three layouts. One document per file suits separate PDF, JPG, PNG or ZIP files, and you can select or drag several of them together. One document per page is for a single PDF where every page is a different document. Auto-splitting is for a single PDF holding several documents that run across pages, which Dext finds and separates for you.

Check file sizes too. Dext caps images and PDFs at 6MB each, ZIP files at 100MB, and PDFs sent for auto-splitting at 40MB.

Uploading isn't the only route in. Documents can also be emailed to Dext, which has a how-to of its own.

1. Select Add documents, which sits in the top left or right corner of Dext.
2. In the Add documents panel, open the Costs tab or the Sales tab, whichever matches the paperwork.
3. Choose a Document owner from the dropdown. Pick None when the document doesn't belong to a particular user.
4. Choose the layout that matches the file: One document per file, One document per page or Auto-splitting.
5. Drag the files into the upload area, or click Select files and browse to them on your computer.
6. Watch the progress as the files upload. Each one then shows under Processing in the Costs or Sales workspace until Dext has finished reading it.

Once extraction is done, the document leaves Processing and lands in the Inbox, with details such as the supplier, the date and the total filled in from the document itself. You don't have to complete every field before submitting from the phone, since Dext reads them for you.

On the phone, the camera has three modes, chosen before you take the photo. Single is for one receipt or bill. Multiple takes up to 50 separate receipts or bills and makes each photo its own document. Combine puts up to 50 photos of one long or double-sided receipt together as a single document. In Multiple mode every receipt keeps its own Item details, so swipe between them to fill each one in.

Put something in the wrong tab on the phone? Open it, tap the three-dot menu at the top right and choose Move to Sales or Move to Costs. When your documents have finished processing, you can publish them to your accounting software.

If an upload never reaches the Inbox, check whether Dext rejected it or picked it up as a duplicate. Sending the very same file twice gets it rejected, with a banner on the phone saying so. A second, different photo of something Dext already has is handled by your account's duplicate setting: with Automatic it's deleted and only shows in Submission history in the web app, and with Review it stays on the Costs tab marked Duplicate.

For a black camera screen, start with Dext's camera access: in your phone's Settings, tap Dext and turn Camera on. Still black? Restart the app, or upload the picture from your photos. If the app warns that an image looks blurry, retake it, so Dext has a sharp image to read the details from.