Dext vs. Airwallex: compare on features and benefits for accountants and bookkeepers

For accountants, bookkeepers and finance professionals, having an effective tech stack is essential for supporting every day operations and illuminating future growth potential. The industry has had a dramatic evolution when it comes to technology; with an explosion of providers emerging - all trying to solve complex solutions. 

When asked what their primary motivator was for updating their internal technologies, a recent CPA survey found that 63% of accountants and finance professionals were looking to enhance operational processes. Meanwhile 77% had an active digital transformation strategy. In other words, tackling digital efficiencies is clearly a key priority – but finding the right provider for your needs is not so obvious.

We want to help you decode solutions on the market so you can evaluate what’s right for you. In this article, we’re examining Airwallex and Dext side-by-side. 

What is Dext?

Dext was founded in England in 2010 under the name ‘Receipt Farm’, and later 'Receipt Bank'. The business focuses on building cloud accounting tools for accountants, bookkeepers, and businesses worldwide. Built around a key focus of digitally documenting financial paperwork and receipts, Dext now offers other expense management and accounting automation tools. The business now services businesses in the UK, APAC, the US, Canada, and France.

Some key features include; Paperwork collection and extraction

Upload a variety of paperwork types - receipts, invoices, bank statements - and data will be extracted and organised without manual entry. 

Sales data and insights tools

Receive sales data in real time and run analysis, while exporting to popular accounting platforms.

App capabilities

Scan receipts on-the-go with Dext’s app built for receipt scanning.

Integrations with common software

Dext integrates with software that is commonly used across accounting, commerce and more.

What is Airwallex?

Founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2015, Airwallex streamlines complex financial operations tasks with its advanced functionality. It is a fintech platform enabling businesses to seamlessly manage cross-border payments, collections, and finances. 

Since its inception, the business has become one of Australia’s tech unicorns, expanding across the world and picking up top accolades along the way, including “FinTech of the Year” at the Asia FinTech Awards 2022 and “Editor’s Pick” on CNBC's World’s Top FinTech Companies 2024 list. The Airwallex team supports businesses around the world, while never forgetting its ANZ roots. 

Accountants and bookkeepers are able to leverage Airwallex product suite to solve common and complex problems from a single, integrated platform. Airwallex provides an advanced accounts payable solution that simplifies and automates the entire payment process. 

Some key features include;

Expense management

Airwallex offers an end-to-end expense management system. Bolstered by our incredible Borderless Cards (coming soon to NZ), you can reconcile card expenses and reimbursements in one place, and gain real-time visibility over spending for your clients. Our expense management tools are great for managing risk and automating manual entry tasks; giving you the capabilities to design multi-layer approval workflows and set expense submission criteria.

Bill Pay

Our trailblazing Bill Pay software gives you the ability to upload, approve, pay, and reconcile your clients’ domestic and international bills all within the Airwallex account. This not only reduces manual effort but also minimises errors, ensuring timely and accurate payments.

Of course, smart integrations are an integral part of this process. With Bill Pay, you can easily import data such as chart of accounts and sync bills and payments back into Xero. 

Advanced international payments infrastructure

One of the things many users love about Airwallex is our groundbreaking global payments infrastructure. Airwallex offers a range of transfer options to make sure you get the fastest and most cost-effective solution, unlocking market-leading FX rates in over 150 countries and 60+ currencies. 

Beautiful desktop and mobile app experience

At Airwallex, we’re extremely design-driven. We build intuitive platforms, and frequently get the feedback that new users pick up our tools intuitively. Our mobile experience also allows you to access and operate many of our features on-the-go, including the ability to instantly review and approve expenses, perfect for today’s hyper-mobile professionals.

Dext vs. Airwallex integration flows

Xero the accounting platform of choice for many Dext and Airwallex users. In terms of the workflow processes between the two integrations, there are some major differences. 

The Dext and Xero payment workflow involves bill and expense data moving from the Dext platform, to approvals which occur on Xero, finally resulting in the payment being made.

The Airwallex and Xero payment workflow operates through a more holistic integration, with all bills and expenses moving through Airwallex, with data transferring through Xero every step of the way.

How does the Gild Group use Airwallex to power their clients’ growth?

Airwallex is honoured to partner with one of Australia’s fastest growing multidisciplinary professional services firms, the Gild Group. 

Using Airwallex’s global capabilities, borderless cards and Xero integration, the group has successfully been able to drive value for their clients.

Winning with virtual cards

“The way we use Airwallex, as well as being an operational expense account, is by giving budgets to people and then issuing Airwallex Borderless Cards to them, which negates our expenses process,” says Gild Group Director Amit Shah. 

“There was definitely a pain point to be solved in terms of needing to go through getting authorisation for purchases, versus now being able to just easily monitor employee spending over the course of a month.”

Saving money on foreign transactions

Amit has also been able to help his clients’ save significantly when it comes to foreign currency transactions. 

“The ability to move funds between internal entities with Airwallex and not have to wait three days for the funds to clear, and not get stung with really bad rates, has been pretty phenomenal.”

Boosting time efficiency with the Xero integration

The Xero integration has also proved to be incredibly valuable for Amit’s team and clients.  

“We do bookkeeping for many of our clients, and Airwallex’s easy integration with Xero is super helpful for this,” says Amit.

“Whereas before we were having to import transactions and get exports from PayPal, we now have an operating account in Xero that scrapes in transactions every day. Having up to date accounts is so helpful.”

Final thoughts

While Dext is a strong tool for expense management, Airwallex’s offer of next generation of accounts payable tools - combining its global payment infrastructure and seamless integration to Xero – makes it the superior choice for accountants and bookkeepers looking to streamline their financial operations.

With Airwallex, you can enhance your accounts payable processes, support international transactions, and provide comprehensive financial management for your clients with a future-ready platform.

Learn more about Airwallex and how it can benefit your clients today by getting in touch with our Partnerships team at [email protected] 

Sources;

https://dext.com/au/about-us

https://dext.com/au/products/prepare

https://dext.com/au/products/commerce

https://dext.com/au/products/prepare/receipt-automation-app

https://dext.com/au/resources/software-integrations

Disclaimer: The information was based on our own online research and we were not able to manually test each tool or provider. The information is provided for educational purposes only and a reader should consider the specific requirements of their business when evaluating providers. This research is reviewed every year. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [email protected]

This information doesn’t take into account your objectives, financial situation, or needs. If you are a customer of Airwallex Pty Ltd (AFSL No. 487221) it is important for you to read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) for the Direct Services, which is available here.