LayerNext starts at $99/month for AI bookkeeping with QuickBooks integration, while Dext starts at $31.50/month as a document capture and pre-accounting tool. LayerNext focuses on fully autonomous bookkeeping, real-time bank reconciliation, and CFO-level financial insights. Dext focuses on receipt scanning, invoice capture, and pushing clean data into your accounting software but it does not close your books or give you financial intelligence.
The pricing reflects two very different tools solving two different problems.
Plan
Starter
Dext
Up to 250 documents,
5 users,
mobile receipt capture,
OCR extraction,
QuickBooks/Xero/Sage sync
Dext
Up to 100 transactions/month,
QuickBooks integration,
Automated categorization,
Bank reconciliation,
Basic cashflow view
Pro/Growth
Dext
Additional users and document volumes, advanced automation rules
Dext
Up to 500 transactions/month,
Advanced insights,
Runway prediction,
Margin analysis,
KPI dashboard
Enterprise
Dext
Accounting firm plans and multi-entity setups available
Dext
Unlimited transactions, Multi-entity support, Custom integrations, White-glove support
Key Difference: Dext is cheaper at entry level because it only handles one part of the process capturing and organizing documents. You still need your accounting software and someone (or something) to actually close your books. LayerNext handles the entire bookkeeping workflow autonomously, from transaction categorization to reconciliation to CFO-level reporting.
The pricing difference is significant and reflects completely different approaches.
Feature
Instant CFO Insights (Burn rate, Runway, Margins)
Dext
LayerNext
Transaction Anomaly Detection
Dext
LayerNext
Fully Autonomous Book Closing
Dext
LayerNext
Real-Time CFO Dashboard
Dext
LayerNext
Automated Bank Reconciliation
Dext
Partial - matches documents to bank feed
LayerNext
Continuous
Mobile-First Real-time Dashboard
Dext
Track expenses, capture receipts, and manage financial data
LayerNext
Track, Manage financial data on the go
AI Transaction Categorization
Dext
LayerNext
AI-Powered Receipt Matching & OCR
Dext
LayerNext
Native QuickBooks
Dext
LayerNext
The Question: Do you want a tool that feeds data into QuickBooks, or one that runs your bookkeeping inside QuickBooks automatically?
LayerNext is built as a fully autonomous AI CFO that automatically handles bookkeeping, reconciles your bank, and keeps your books always closed in real time without hiring a bookkeeper.
LayerNext works with your existing QuickBooks account, automating the bookkeeping, reconciliation, and reporting inside it so you don't have to touch the manual work. The AI learns your business patterns over time and improves categorization accuracy automatically.
Result: Reduces manual bookkeeping by 80% and eliminates repetitive data entry.
Instead of reconciling at month-end, LayerNext reconciles transactions continuously throughout the month. That means fewer surprises at tax time, cleaner books year-round, no month-end scramble, and faster financial reporting.
LayerNext provides CFO-level insights automatically, including cash flow health, burn rate, runway tracking, margin analysis, runway prediction, forecasting, and transaction anomaly detection. Your numbers update in real time no waiting for monthly reports.
Important: LayerNext currently integrates with QuickBooks only. Xero and Sage integrations are coming soon. All transactions sync automatically from your bank to QuickBooks, no manual data entry required.
LayerNext offers mobile apps for both iOS and Android, allowing you to manage your books on the go with receipt capture and real-time reconciliation.
LayerNext is designed for founders and small business owners who manage their own books in QuickBooks and want them always closed without hiring a bookkeeper. Best for solo founders, small service businesses, early-stage startups, growing SMBs, e-commerce stores ($200K–$2M revenue), professional services, and Canadian small businesses.
Dext is a document capture and pre-accounting platform trusted by over 700,000 businesses and 12,000 accounting firms worldwide. It processes over 320 million financial documents per year with 99.9% OCR accuracy.
Dext's core strength is making it easy to get financial documents into your accounting system. You can capture receipts via the mobile app, email forwarding, drag-and-drop upload, WhatsApp, or Dropbox. The OCR technology reads supplier names, amounts, tax details, and due dates even from handwritten receipts with near-perfect accuracy.
Set rules once and Dext automatically codes future documents from the same supplier. This is a significant time saver for businesses with recurring vendors. Custom rules let you automate how transactions get categorized and posted.
Dext sits at the front end of your accounting workflow. It captures, extracts, and organizes data, then pushes it cleanly into Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, or 30+ other accounting platforms removing the manual data entry step for your bookkeeper or accountant.
Dext handles employee expense submissions, multi-level approval workflows, mileage tracking via GPS, and multi-currency transactions. Teams can submit, review, and approve expenses in one place.
Dext stores all financial documents securely for up to 10 years receipts, invoices, statements searchable and audit-ready. A strong compliance feature for businesses that need to keep records long-term.
Unlike LayerNext, Dext works with more than 30 accounting platforms and connects to 11,500+ banks and financial systems globally. It also connects with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Amazon, Stripe, and PayPal.
Dext is best suited for businesses and accounting firms that need to eliminate manual data entry at the document capture stage. It works particularly well as part of a stack: Dext handles document capture, your accounting software handles the ledger, and your accountant or bookkeeper handles the analysis. If your business relies on Xero or Sage, Dext is the stronger choice for document capture.
LayerNext has an office in Winnipeg, MB (200-135 Innovation Dr., R3T 6A8) in addition to their San Francisco office. They actively serve Canadian businesses and understand Canadian business needs. Benefits include Canadian company with local support, Canadian tax requirement familiarity, CAD currency support, Canadian bank integrations, and service across both Canada and the US.
Dext does operate in Canada. They offer pricing in CAD, support Canadian banks, and are actively used by Canadian accounting firms and SMBs. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) even offers members a 25% discount on Dext plans. However, Dext is a UK-headquartered company and its support and infrastructure are primarily based overseas, which matters if local support is a priority for your business.
For Canadian businesses: Both tools are available, but LayerNext offers a more locally-grounded option with a Canadian office and direct understanding of CRA requirements. Dext is a solid tool for Canadian document capture but does not provide the full bookkeeping automation that LayerNext delivers.
Let's look at the real annual costs:
The important nuance: Dext does not replace your bookkeeper, it makes your bookkeeper's job faster and cleaner. If you use Dext without a bookkeeper, you still have to reconcile your accounts, close your books, and generate financial reports yourself. LayerNext does all of that automatically.
For most small businesses, LayerNext delivers the complete bookkeeping solution at less than a quarter of the cost of Dext combined with a bookkeeper.
Who should choose
If you,
Already have a bookkeeper or accountant and want to make their job easier
Process a high volume of receipts and invoices that need to be captured accurately
Use Xero or Sage as your primary accounting platform
Need expense management and employee reimbursement workflows
Want long-term document storage for compliance and audits
Work with an accounting firm that already uses Dext in their stack
Need multi-currency support for international transactions
Want mileage tracking via GPS
Dext Customer Profile
Who should choose
If you,
Run a small or mid-sized business (under $5M revenue)
Already use QuickBooks and want automation
Want your books always closed without hiring a bookkeeper
Need real-time cash flow visibility and CFO-level insights
Want to save $3,000–5,000/year vs traditional bookkeeping
Prefer fully autonomous AI without needing to manage a separate document workflow
Are a Canadian business that wants local support
Want mobile app access to your books and financial health at a glance
LayerNext Customer Profile
The difference isn't about which tool is "better." It's about where in the bookkeeping process each one operates.
LayerNext = Full-stack autonomous bookkeeping. Connects to your bank, categorizes transactions, reconciles accounts, closes your books, and delivers CFO-level financial intelligence automatically.
Dext = Pre-accounting. Captures documents, extracts data, feeds your accounting software. Requires a bookkeeper or accountant to complete the process.
One is a feeder. The other is the engine.
As bootstrapped founders, we faced a common problem:
We were paying $400/month for a bookkeeper who took 2 weeks to close our books each month. By the time we got our financial reports, the data was already outdated.
We looked at tools like Dext and while the receipt capture was excellent, we still needed someone to actually do the bookkeeping. Dext feeds data in. We needed something that could run the whole thing.
We just needed:
We didn't need to manage a document inbox. We didn't need to wait for a bookkeeper to process what Dext captured. We needed the books closed, automatically, all the time.
So we built LayerNext.
1. How much does LayerNext cost?
2. How much does Dext cost?
Dext Business plans start at $31.50/month for 5 users with 250 documents included. Annual billing brings this down to $25.21/month (20% savings). Practice plans for accounting firms start at $239.19/month for 10 clients.
3. Does Dext close my books automatically?
No. Dext captures and organizes your financial documents and pushes them to your accounting software. The actual bookkeeping reconciliation, categorization review, month-end close, and financial reporting, still requires a bookkeeper, accountant, or another tool.
4. Does LayerNext replace Dext?
For most small businesses using QuickBooks, yes. LayerNext automates the full bookkeeping workflow including transaction categorization and bank reconciliation, so you don't need a separate document capture tool. If your primary need is Xero or Sage integration, or managing employee expense submissions, Dext may still be relevant in your stack.
5. What accounting software does LayerNext integrate with?
LayerNext currently integrates with QuickBooks only (QBO and Desktop). Xero and Sage integrations are coming soon.
6. What accounting software does Dext integrate with?
Dext integrates with Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, and over 30 other accounting platforms. It also connects with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Amazon, Stripe, and PayPal.
7. Does LayerNext work for Canadian businesses?
8. Does Dext work for Canadian businesses?
Yes. Dext operates in Canada, supports CAD pricing, and integrates with Canadian banks. Canadian businesses can also access a 25% discount through CFIB membership.
9. Which is better for a solo founder or bootstrapped startup?
LayerNext. If you're managing your own books in QuickBooks and want them closed automatically without any manual overhead, LayerNext gives you everything you need for $99/month. Dext at $31.50/month still leaves the actual bookkeeping work undone.
10. Can I use both LayerNext and Dext together?
Technically yes, but for most small businesses using QuickBooks, LayerNext already handles what Dext does plus everything beyond it. You'd be paying for overlap. The exception would be if you have heavy employee expense workflows or need Dext's long-term document vault for compliance purposes.
11. What is the best AI bookkeeping software for small businesses?
Dext is genuinely excellent at what it does, capturing receipts and invoices with near-perfect accuracy and feeding clean data into your accounting software. If you have a bookkeeper or accountant managing your finances and you want to save them hours of manual data entry, Dext is a strong tool.
But if you're a small business owner managing your own books in QuickBooks and you want them done automatically, reconciled, closed, and reporting on your financial health in real time Dext alone won't get you there. LayerNext will.
