The problem
Clients hand over receipts and supplier bills as photos, emails and paper, and you key each one in. If you look after 6 clients with about 60 documents each a month and typing one takes 2 minutes, that's 360 documents and 720 minutes, 12 hours a month.
What the AI does
Xero's smart document capture uses AI to read receipts, invoices and bills and pull out the key details. Clients (or you) photograph a receipt in the Xero Accounting app, forward documents to the organisation's Xero email address or drag files in on the web. You compare the original with the extracted details, correct anything wrong, then publish the record. Xero says it cross-checks extracted data against bank records to suggest matches and flags duplicate uploads.
A worked example
A bookkeeper in Bristol looks after 6 small limited-company clients who are already on Xero Grow. Each client sends about 60 receipts and bills a month. She asks them to forward or photograph them as they arrive and she reviews each extracted record before publishing.
Before
2 minutes to type each of 360 documents: 12 hours a month
After
About 45 seconds to check each extracted record: 4.5 hours a month
What it's worth
About 7.5 hours a month saved (360 documents x 1.25 minutes = 450 minutes), worth around £225 if your time is worth £30 an hour. Cost to you is £0 if clients already pay for Xero; each client's plan is separate (Grow is £39 a month, excluding VAT). Smart document capture is listed on every Xero plan, but Ignite is limited to 20 invoices and 10 bills a month.
How to set it up
- Tell each client how to send documents: the app, the Xero email address or upload on the web.
- Check which Xero plan each client is on. Ignite allows only 10 bills a month, so busy clients usually need Grow or above.
- Review every extracted record against the original before you publish it: supplier, date, amount and VAT.
- Agree a cut-off day each month for clients to send documents.
- Do a monthly spot check of 10 published records per client against the originals.
What goes wrong
- The extraction can misread an amount, date or VAT figure. The record is yours once you publish it, so check each one.
- Duplicate uploads are flagged, not guaranteed to be caught. Look at the bank reconciliation for doubles.
- Ignite caps bills at 10 a month, so a client who outgrows it needs a dearer plan; agree who pays before you move them.
- Clients photograph the wrong thing or send a statement instead of a receipt. Give them a short written guide.