You stay the bookkeeper.
We do the data entry.
Line-by-line coding against your client's chart of accounts. The right VAT treatment per line. MTD-ready out of Xero or QuickBooks Online.
Every capture held in your review queue until you approve it. Drafts only. Never authorised.
Spitalfields Coffee Co Salt + Wick (Bath) Brunel Software Ltd Five active UK clients,
sorted by review urgency.
The same inbox your team uses, embedded live with real UK captures. Click any one to see how it's coded. Drafts only, synced to Xero or QuickBooks Online when you approve.
MTD ready 12 line items detected. Header-only OCR would lump these into one GL. ExpenseFlow split across Stock for Resale (1300), Packaging (6210), and Cleaning Consumables (6230).
LINE-LEVEL Header-level coding
made you the clerk.
The Bookers docket with twelve lines on one VAT code. The client-entertainment block applied to a staff lunch, or not applied to a client dinner. The £250 simplified-invoice threshold the partner asks about during VAT review. The CIS reverse charge applied or not applied to a subcontractor invoice.
The Wednesday afternoon before MTD submission, spent undoing what Dext put in the wrong account.
What this is.
A line-by-line coding engine for UK bookkeepers using Xero or QuickBooks Online.
Receipts come in. Line items get coded against the client's chart of accounts. The right VAT treatment gets applied per line (20%, 5%, zero-rated, exempt, out-of-scope, reverse charge). The MTD digital-links chain stays intact through to Xero or QuickBooks Online.
You approve. It posts as a draft.
Three steps.
You only do the last one.
Forwarded, snapped, or bulk uploaded.
Email forwarding. Mobile photos. Bulk upload. Captures route to the right client inbox automatically.
Set up once per clientEvery line. Coded.
Every line item, against the client's chart of accounts. 20% VAT, 5% reduced rate, zero-rated, exempt, out-of-scope, and reverse charge distinguished per line. VAT number captured. £135 import threshold and £250 simplified-invoice rule surfaced per receipt. CIS reverse charge applied to in-scope construction.
The work Dext leaves for youYour call. Then sync as drafts.
You open the queue. You approve. It syncs to Xero or QuickBooks Online as a draft. The partner does the final authorise. MTD digital links preserved from receipt to return.
✓ Drafts only · always · by design United Kingdom,
at a glance.
MTD digital links preserved.
Unbroken chain from receipt to VAT return. No re-keying. Xero or QuickBooks Online does the bridging.
VAT-invoice substantiation.
VAT number and supplier fields captured. £135 import split and £250 simplified-invoice rule surfaced per receipt.
6-year retention.
Immutable receipt image plus hash and timestamp. Audit trail preserved without manual storage management.
95% accuracy is
testable, not a slogan.
The mean of three components, recorded for every captured document. Every claim is testable. Ask for a parallel-run trial against your current tool and we'll share the per-document accuracy breakdown for your real UK invoices.
Did we read the receipt?
Vendor, VAT number, dates, totals, line items. All transcribed from the source document.
Did we pick the right account?
Per-client vendor rules learn from your corrections and map to the chart of accounts you actually use. This is where the AI does its work.
Did we apply the right tax line?
20% VAT, 5% reduced rate, zero-rated, exempt, out-of-scope, client-entertainment block, construction and overseas reverse charges, £135 import split.
If anything is wrong, it's wrong in the queue, not in the ledger.
Six UK miscodings that come back
to bite you at the VAT return.
Drawn from the HMRC rules ExpenseFlow ships with today. The traps surfaced for review before the receipt is synced.
Client meals block the input VAT. Staff meals do not.
Client-facing meals and events have their input VAT blocked under the business-entertainment rules. Staff entertainment and travel subsistence remain reclaimable. ExpenseFlow tags receipts based on who the expense is for, not just the supplier name.
B2B construction since March 2021. Buyer self-accounts.
Construction services between VAT-registered businesses use the domestic reverse charge. The platform applies the right tax code so the buyer accounts for VAT instead of the supplier charging it. Suppressed from Box 1 sales and self-accounted in Boxes 1 + 4 by the buyer.
Overseas SaaS, consulting, legal, digital services.
B2B services from outside the UK trigger the reverse charge: the buyer self-accounts for output VAT and reclaims it as input on the same return. Common on SaaS, consulting, legal, and digital services. Common on US suppliers like Figma, Notion, Slack.
Under £135 vs over £135. Two different paths.
Imports under £135 have VAT collected at point of sale by the overseas seller (if registered). Above £135, VAT is paid at the border or via Postponed VAT Accounting on the VAT return. The platform infers the path from the receipt value.
Books recover input VAT. Insurance does not.
Books, children's clothing, public transport, and most basic food are zero-rated (input VAT still recoverable). Insurance, education, health, and land are exempt (no input VAT recovery). ExpenseFlow distinguishes the two so the input claim is correct.
Up to £250: simplified. Above £250: full invoice.
Supplies up to £250 can use a simplified VAT invoice (no buyer details, no invoice number required). Above £250 a full invoice is needed for input recovery. The captured fields are surfaced for the bookkeeper to check before the claim is filed.
Two-way sync.
Attachments preserved.
Continuous on approved captures, not nightly batches. UK VAT codes, tracking categories, MTD digital links, and original receipt attachments preserved end to end.
Side by side with
what you're using now.
Pricing in
one paragraph.
$28 to $39 per client per month, with the rate dropping as your firm grows. No client minimum. No seat cap. Line items included at every tier. MTD bridging at no extra cost.
Subscription in USD. Receipt capture, VAT coding, and Xero or QuickBooks Online sync run in GBP end-to-end for your UK clients. Only the SaaS subscription itself is USD, so one rate card across every practice you might serve.
See full bookkeeper pricing →- Token allowance300 / client
- Team seatsUnlimited
- Client submittersUnlimited
- Trial30 days parallel
- BillingMonthly USD
The deep dive that
actually answers the question.
UK · VAT & MTD · Updated May 2026 United Kingdom VAT and MTD: the complete guide for 2026.
The 20% standard rate, 5% reduced rate, zero-rated, exempt, and out-of-scope. Client vs staff entertainment. Construction reverse charge (CIS, since March 2021) and overseas-services reverse charge. The £135 import VAT split (point-of-sale vs Postponed VAT Accounting). Simplified vs full VAT invoice (£250 threshold). MTD digital links from receipt to return.
Questions UK bookkeepers ask
before they switch.
Nothing posts without your approval. The mistake is corrected in the queue. The system learns. Next time the same vendor is coded correctly. The bookkeeper is always the last set of eyes.
Yes. Captured receipts are stored as digital records meeting HMRC's MTD digital-link rules, with VAT extracted line by line. The quarterly VAT return submitted via Xero or QuickBooks Online uses MTD-compliant bridging. Retention is the HMRC-required 6 years.
Xero and QuickBooks Online UK are supported natively today. Bills, expenses, and supplier credits flow with UK VAT codes and tracking categories preserved. FreeAgent, Sage Business Cloud and KashFlow are on the roadmap.
Yes. The system distinguishes 20% standard, 5% reduced, zero-rated (books, children's clothing, public transport, most basic food), exempt (insurance, education, health), and out-of-scope transactions, applying the correct code per line.
B2B construction services since March 2021 use the domestic reverse charge. ExpenseFlow applies the right tax code so the buyer self-accounts for VAT in Boxes 1 and 4 instead of the supplier charging it. CIS subcontractor invoices are tagged at capture.
B2B services from non-UK suppliers (US SaaS like Figma, Notion, Slack, overseas consulting, digital services) trigger reverse charge. The buyer self-accounts for output VAT in Box 1 and reclaims input VAT in Box 4 on the same return. Net effect zero when fully taxable.
Yes. Most practices do this by default during the trial. We share per-document accuracy breakdowns for your real UK invoices during the trial.
For goods imports over £135, PVA can be elected so import VAT is self-accounted on the VAT return rather than paid at the border. ExpenseFlow captures the C79 reference and surfaces the PVA election per receipt for reconciliation.
Subscriptions are billed in USD so there is one consistent rate card. Receipt capture, VAT coding, and accounting-platform sync run in GBP end to end. Only the SaaS subscription itself is USD.
Yes. Receipts up to £250 can use a simplified VAT invoice. Above £250 a full invoice is required. The platform surfaces receipts crossing the threshold with missing buyer or invoice-number fields for the bookkeeper to check.
Live for UK bookkeepers
and ready in minutes.
Start a free trial today. Connect Xero or QuickBooks Online and process your first UK client receipts in minutes.
Other ways to use the same engine,
depending on your angle.
UK VAT calculator
Add or extract VAT at the standard 20%, reduced 5%, or zero rate. HMRC-aligned.
A Hubdoc alternative for Xero firms
Line-item coding vs header-only capture. Same Xero, more detail.
A Dext alternative for UK practices
Line items on by default. No per-supplier toggle. Reverse-charge handled.
Practice-grade workflow
Per-client coding rules, multi-client inbox, fixed pricing for the firm.