Dext vs Hubdoc

…and why some teams still feel stuck anyway

If you run an e-commerce, wholesale, or inventory-heavy business, you already know the drill.

Invoices arrive from everywhere. Freight. Platforms. Suppliers. Ad hoc charges. PDFs, emails, scans, statements. Some are clean. Many are not.

That’s why tools like Dext and Hubdoc became so popular. They promised to take the mess out of invoice capture and push clean data into Xero or MYOB.

And to be fair, they do help. A lot.

But if you’ve ever thought, “Why are we still touching so many invoices?” you’re not imagining things.

This post breaks down Dext vs Hubdoc honestly, then explains where the cracks start to show for growing teams. And finally, why Pulsify tends to click for businesses that have outgrown basic invoice automation.

Why Dext and Hubdoc exist in the first place

Before comparing features, it helps to understand the problem they were built to solve.

Both Dext and Hubdoc focus on one core job: getting documents into your accounting system without manual data entry.

They do this well.

You upload or forward invoices. OCR reads the key fields. Bills appear in Xero or MYOB with dates, suppliers, totals, and tax.

For simple invoices, that’s a win.

No typing. No scanning folders. Less admin.

But invoice automation doesn’t stop at capture. And that’s where the differences start to matter.

Dext vs Hubdoc at a glance

Let’s get the basics out of the way first.

Hubdoc in plain English

Hubdoc is tightly bundled into the Xero ecosystem.

If you’re on certain Xero plans, you already have it. No separate subscription. No extra setup.

It’s simple, predictable, and works quietly in the background.

Best for:

• Small businesses

• Low invoice volumes

• Mostly single-account bills

• Teams that want “good enough” without configuration

Limits show up when:

• Invoices need splitting across accounts

• Tax treatments vary line by line

• Someone has to review everything anyway

Dext in plain English

Dext is more powerful and more configurable.

It supports more suppliers, better OCR, and deeper extraction. You can add rules. You can push more structured data downstream.

It’s often the next step after Hubdoc.

Best for:

• Bookkeepers managing multiple clients

• Businesses with higher invoice volumes

• Teams willing to spend time on setup

Limits show up when:

• Invoices are complex at line-item level

• Review time starts to outweigh capture time

• Exception handling becomes the bottleneck

Neither tool is “bad.” They just stop short of how real invoices behave once a business grows.

Where Dext and Hubdoc usually fall over

This is the part most comparison posts skip. But it’s the part bookkeepers complain about quietly.

1. Line-item reality vs header-level capture

Most invoice tools are great at header data.

Supplier. Date. Total. GST.

Real invoices, though, live at line level.

Freight split across inventory and expenses. Platform fees with mixed tax. One invoice, four accounts, two tax rates.

Hubdoc mostly assumes one destination. Dext can split, but it still expects a human to check the logic.

So the invoice gets captured fast. Then it sits in review. Then it gets touched again at month-end.

Speed in. Slow everywhere else.

2. Exception handling becomes the hidden cost

Ask any finance team where time disappears and they won’t say “data entry.”

They’ll say rework.

Invoices that:

• Don’t match the PO

• Don’t balance after GST

• Need context from last month

• Look fine but aren’t

Dext and Hubdoc flag issues, but they don’t resolve them. Someone still has to open the bill, think, decide, fix, and approve.

Multiply that by hundreds of invoices and you see the real cost.

3. Bookkeeping AI that still needs babysitting

Both tools market automation. And they do automate part of the process.

But the AI stops early.

It extracts. It guesses. Then it hands control back to the human.

That’s fine at low volume. It’s painful when invoice count doubles and the team doesn’t.

This is where many businesses quietly accept that AP is “just messy.”

It doesn’t have to be.

The gap nobody talks about.

Decision automation

Here’s the uncomfortable truth.

Most AP tools automate reading, not deciding.

They read invoices. Humans decide what to do with them.

That worked when invoice volumes were manageable. It breaks when businesses scale.

What teams actually need is software that:

• Understands how invoices behave over time

• Learns account and tax patterns at line level

• Only interrupts humans when something is genuinely new or risky

That’s the gap Pulsify was built for.

Where Pulsify fits in. And why it feels different

Pulsify isn’t trying to replace Dext or Hubdoc at capture. It goes further downstream.

Think of it less as invoice automation and more as accounts payable automation.

Here’s what that means in practice.

Built for invoices that don’t go cleanly

Pulsify assumes invoices are messy by default.

Multiple accounts. Mixed GST. Freight. Adjustments. Credits. Partial matches.

Instead of treating these as exceptions, the system expects them.

It works at line-item level from the start. That’s a big shift.

Bookkeeping AI that learns outcomes, not just fields

Most bookkeeping AI focuses on extraction.

Pulsify focuses on outcomes.

It learns how invoices were coded, approved, and posted. Over time, similar invoices stop being reviewed manually.

Only real edge cases surface.

That’s how review time actually drops, not just data entry.

Exception handling without endless back-and-forth

When something doesn’t match, Pulsify doesn’t just flag it.

It routes it.

Approvals, questions, context, all in one flow. No chasing emails. No reopening bills three times.

For teams running Xero or MYOB with real volume, this matters more than OCR accuracy.

Dext vs Hubdoc vs Pulsify. Who each one is really for

Let’s be honest and practical.

• Hubdoc works if your invoices are simple and volume is low.

• Dext works if you want better capture and are willing to review a lot.

• Pulsify works when review itself becomes the problem.

Many businesses don’t switch because Dext or Hubdoc failed.

They switch because growth exposed a different bottleneck.

And that bottleneck is human attention.

Why this matters for bookkeepers and small businesses

If you’re a bookkeeper, your margins don’t improve by typing faster.

They improve when:

• Fewer invoices need review

• Clients send less clarification

• Month-end feels calmer

If you’re a business owner, you don’t care about OCR.

You care about:

• Clean numbers

• Fewer surprises

• A finance team that isn’t constantly behind

That’s why the conversation is shifting from invoice automation to AP automation.

Capture is solved. Decision fatigue is not.

So which one should you choose?

If you’re choosing today:

• Start with Hubdoc if you’re small and simple.

• Use Dext if you need stronger capture and supplier coverage.

• Look at Pulsify if you’re tired of touching the same invoices over and over.

Different tools. Different stages.

The mistake is assuming one tool should solve every stage of growth.

Final thought

Dext vs Hubdoc is a useful comparison.

But it’s no longer the most important one.

The real question is how much of your accounts payable process still depends on humans remembering, checking, and fixing things that software could learn.

Once invoice volume crosses a certain point, that question gets very loud.

And that’s usually when teams start looking beyond capture alone.