Hubdoc and Dext are excellent at what they do. But if you need Operations and Finance working from the same page, what they do isn't enough.
There's a common misconception in the procurement software market: that capturing invoices and extracting data is the same thing as managing procurement. It isn't.
Hubdoc (owned by Xero) and Dext (formerly Receipt Bank) are popular tools. They've helped thousands of businesses digitise their paperwork. For accountants and bookkeepers managing receipt piles and chasing invoices, they're genuinely useful.
But here's what we see repeatedly: operators adopt these tools expecting them to solve their procurement headaches and find they've only addressed a fraction of the problem. Because document capture tools were built for Finance teams sitting at desks. Not for Operations teams running the business.
The line item reality
Here's where things get interesting and where the limitations become clear.
Hubdoc doesn't extract line items at all. It captures invoice-level data only: supplier name, total amount, date, invoice number. If you need to split an invoice across categories, you do it manually. Xero has publicly stated they have no plans to develop line item extraction for Hubdoc. This is one of the most requested features and one of the main reasons users leave for alternatives.
Dext does offer line item extraction as a paid add-on. It can pull description, quantity, unit price and tax per line. You enable it per supplier and it uses a credit system. Dext also offers 'line item grouping' to auto-categorise extracted lines into accounting categories based on description matching.
But here's the critical gap: even Dext's line item extraction feeds accounting categories, not operational intelligence.
You might get 'Stationery' or 'Food Supplies' in your ledger. But you won't see 'Chicken breast, 5kg, £4.20/kg' tracked over time. You won't spot that your supplier increased prices by 8% last month. You won't compare what you're paying versus what you agreed. Document capture tools tell Finance what category the money went to. They don't tell Operations what they're actually buying or whether they're getting value.
Where document capture falls short
Whether you're running one site or ten, the challenges of procurement go far beyond getting invoices into Xero.
Operations teams need visibility. Managers need to see their budgets, understand their spending and make informed purchasing decisions in real-time. Document capture tools don't provide operational dashboards. They don't show a chef what products are now now too expensive or alert a manager when spending is spiking.
Finance teams need control without bottlenecks. When every invoice has to flow through Finance before anyone can act, you create delays that frustrate Operations and backlogs that overwhelm Finance. Document capture doesn't solve workflow, it just digitises the pile.
Both teams need the same truth. Operations makes decisions based on what they think they've spent. Finance reconciles based on what's actually been invoiced. When these don'tmatch and they rarely do with manual processes, month-end becomes an exercise in forensic accounting.
Hubdoc and Dext weren't designed to bridge this gap. They were designed to serve one side of it.
The channel problem: meeting operations where they are
Document capture tools offer limited ways to get information in: email forwarding, mobile app uploads, direct fetch from some suppliers. That works when your workflow centres on a bookkeeper processing documents at a desk.
But Operations teams don't work that way.
A manager might receive an invoice by email, by hand from a delivery driver, via a supplier portal, or embedded in a monthly statement. They might need to raise a purchase order from their phone while standing in a stockroom. They might need to query a charge while on a call with a supplier.
Rigid input channels create friction. Friction creates workarounds. Workarounds create data gaps. Data gaps create month-end chaos.
A true procurement platform needs to be as flexible as the real world, accepting documents and data however they arrive, from whoever needs to submit them, without forcing everyone into the same narrow funnel.
Different products for different problems
This isn't about better or worse. It's about fit.
Hubdoc and Dext solve the document-to-ledger problem. They're designed for accountants and bookkeepers who need to reduce data entry and feed information into accounting software. If your primary challenge is getting receipts and invoices digitised for the books, they'll serve you well.
OmniPATH solves the Operations-to-Finance problem. It extracts at the product level, not just invoice totals, but what you bought, in what quantity, at what price. It tracks price movements over time. It compares what you're paying against what you agreed. It gives Operations the intelligence to protect margins, while giving Finance complete, accurate data to close the books.
The distinction matters because choosing the wrong tool means building processes around limitations rather than capabilities.
What Operations actually needs
Operations teams are busy. They're managing people, suppliers, customers and problems, often simultaneously. They don't have time to learn complex software or navigate desktop-first interfaces.
What they need is immediate access to the information that drives their decisions: What have we spent? What's committed? What's left? Which invoices need attention? Where are we trending against budget? And critically, are we paying what we should be paying?
OmniPATH puts this information in their hands, on any device, without training, in seconds. Not buried in accounting software they don't have access to. Not delayed until Finance processes the paperwork. Available now, when the decision needs to be made.
That accessibility creates agility. When managers can see their numbers in real-time, down to the product level, they make better purchasing decisions. They catch price creep early. They stop waiting for permission and start taking ownership of their margins.
What Finance actually needs
Finance teams are under pressure. Month-end close timelines are tight. Audit requirements are increasing. And too often, they're spending their time chasing missing information rather than analysing it.
Document capture helps with part of this, getting basic invoice information into the system faster. But it doesn't ensure those invoices are matched to purchase orders. It doesn't flag discrepancies before they become problems. It doesn't give Finance confidence that what's in the ledger reflects what's actually happening operationally.
OmniPATH protects the books by building controls into the workflow itself. Invoices match to POs. Approvals follow defined hierarchies. Anomalies get flagged automatically. When Finance comes to close the month, the work is largely done, and the data is complete.
Complete information. Complete actions. Faster close.
The month-end reality
Here's what month-end looks like with document capture alone: Finance has a pile of digitised invoices with totals allocated to broad categories. Some match bank transactions. Some don't. Some are coded correctly. Some need chasing. Some are still missing entirely because Operations forgot to forward them.
The result? Days spent reconciling. Emails flying back and forth. Accruals based on guesswork. Reports delivered late with caveats. And no insight into whether the business is actually getting value from what it's buying.
Here's what month-end looks like with OmniPATH: Finance has a complete picture. Every purchase order is tracked. Every invoice is matched to the line item level. Every approval is logged. Spend is visible by category, by supplier, by product, in real-time, not reconstructed after the fact. Price variances are flagged before they compound.
Month-end becomes a review, not a rescue operation.
Built to scale with your business
Whether you're running a single site today or planning to expand tomorrow, your procurement platform should support both realities.
OmniPATH works for a single-site operator who wants real-time visibility and control without the complexity of enterprise software. And it scales seamlessly when you add a second site, a fifth or a fiftieth without exponential growth in admin overhead or the need to rip and replace your systems.
The same platform. The same visibility. The same control. Just more of it.
Making the right choice
If your only challenge is reducing data entry for your bookkeeper - getting invoice totals scanned and into your accounting software, Hubdoc or Dext will likely meet your needs. They're cost-effective tools for digitising documents.
But if you need to know what you're buying, not just what you're spending. If Operations and Finance need to work from the same truth. If you want to protect your margins, not just record your costs. If you want to close the month faster with complete data, you need more than document capture. You need procurement automation that serves both teams.
OmniPATH was built for exactly this: bringing accessibility and transparency to Operations, so they can be agile. Protecting the books for Finance, so they can close with confidence. Creating a single source of truth that both teams trust, right down to the line item.
OmniPATH: Loved by Operations. Trusted by Finance.
Ready to move beyond document capture? Book an introductory call and see how OmniPATH bridges the gap between Operations and Finance for businesses like yours.
