"How Dext AI Assist Cut Manual Bookkeeping for 2 Firms
Key Takeaways
AI-assisted data entry frees firms to grow without adding headcount. Both Decimal and Streamline Management scaled their client base while keeping their teams the same size, showing how automation directly supports firm growth.
AI tools that learn from corrections compound in value over time. Dext AI Assist picks up on the specific patterns each firm corrects — like splitting fuel categories or flagging personal expenses — and starts applying them proactively, reducing repetitive review work.
Manual data entry disproportionately burdens firms serving high-volume, multi-supplier clients. Hospitality clients in particular generate large volumes of supplier bills, making them one of the clearest use cases for automated invoice coding.
Automation improves both speed and accuracy simultaneously. Rather than forcing a trade-off between the two, Dext AI Assist let Decimal maintain accuracy while significantly speeding up processing.
Faster document handling replaces slower manual workflows like site visits. Streamline's team now resolves document queries in minutes rather than scheduling in-person visits, directly cutting non-billable time and travel.
Manual data entry is one of the biggest drains on a bookkeeping practice, and two Australian firms decided to do something about it.
Steven Blaine launched Decimal in Perth to serve the hospitality industry – a dream that was over 20 years in the making when Steven and his dad purchased a country pub. With his accounting degree, it was the perfect set up to begin helping pubs and restaurants in Western Australia become their most profitable selves.
Steven started out as a self-described “automation skeptic.” This meant manually keying in every supplier bill into Xero by hand, creating hours of tedious busy work. And because his hospitality clients often had a large number of suppliers, as the firm grew, so did the workload. As Steven put it, “We were struggling to keep on top of [the workload] while trying to expand. Something had to change.” When the opportunity to join the beta team came along, Steven rejoiced, “Dext AI Assist came along, and I was like, ‘Sign me up!’”
For Nicole Lynch of Streamline Management, the manual workload also involved unnecessary travel in addition to the manual work. Her team once drove across the city collecting paper receipts. Even as bookkeeping went digital, processing source documents accurately remained a time-consuming headache. Nicole’s firm was primed and ready to “dedicate our resources to keeping up with industry updates” like Dext AI Assist, the bookkeeping AI agent that puts you in control.
Dext AI Assist changed the game
For Decimal, the change to Dext AI Assist came “at a really good time for us.”
After signing up to the Beta programme at a roadshow, immediately Steven and his team found that they didn’t need to do much to get AI Assist up and running in their practice.
For his hospitality clients, that meant that Dext AI Assist would look “at other parts of the invoice to gain some insight on how to code a particular invoice.” Once they made the switch, the time-saving and accuracy meant that “initial feedback has been amazing.”
For Streamline, the value is in how Dext learns. The platform picks up on corrections the team makes and starts suggesting them proactively, adding cafe names to invoice fields for easier bank reconciliation, separating motor vehicle fuel from machinery fuel, even flagging potentially personal expenses. "It's not writing long-winded essays," Nicole says. "It's just getting on with the real work in the background."
Efficiency. Accuracy. Every Time.
Both firms now take on more clients without adding headcount. Nicole's team answers document queries in minutes instead of scheduling site visits.
“There is always a trade off between efficiency and accuracy.” But with Dext AI Assist, Steven noted that Decimal now gets the best of both worlds and “it’s enabled us to speed things up.”
When it comes to her firm, Nicole said, “We use the best tech to produce the best results.” When it comes to AI in bookkeeping, the best is Dext.
