Aug 26 2025
Expense admin often eats hours you could spend elsewhere. Paper trails stack up, inboxes clog with receipts, and reconciliation drags.
With card feeds linked through Open Banking, you can stitch together a lean setup in a single day. It can help you automate receipt capture, sync transactions into accounting, and flag anomalies in Slack. Let’s map the process.
Open Banking links your business cards directly to accounting tools. Banks provide secure APIs, and once permission is granted, transactions flow in without manual entry. Data updates several times daily, so balances stay accurate.
UK card feeds often include merchant details and transaction categories. That detail helps reduce errors when matching receipts. Cleaner data makes month-end far less stressful.
Interest-free windows and purchase protection differ by provider. A loan from 118 118 Money or another lender follows similar principles, which is why reviewing card terms supports smarter credit management.
Card feeds appear in Xero or QuickBooks as live bank accounts. Once connected, each card transaction lands in the feed, ready for coding or reconciliation. No need to import CSVs or chase missing entries.
Bank rules can auto-categorise regular spend like software, fuel, or subscriptions. You stay in control, with override options for edge cases.
Multi-user setups benefit most. Team members can see transactions in real time, making expense oversight a shared process, not a solo admin task.
Receipts usually land in inboxes, get lost in pockets, or sit in chat threads. Forwarding them to an OCR tool like Dext or AutoEntry gives structure. Once scanned, data gets pulled into fields: date, supplier, amount, VAT.
Email rules or filters can handle the forwarding. Suppliers that send digital invoices can be set to auto-route into the OCR inbox.
You don't need any special formatting. PDF, JPG, or even a phone photo works, as long as the text is clear and legible.
Once receipts appear in the OCR tool, the real-time card feed waits in Xero or QuickBooks. The software suggests matches based on date, amount, and supplier. You can confirm or edit with one click.
A perfect match links the document, assigns the category, and updates VAT records. That sync flows into reports and compliance exports automatically.
Outliers, like rounding errors or FX fees, can be flagged for review. Consistency improves over time as the tool learns common suppliers and patterns.
Some expenses slip through unchecked, whether wrong categories, double charges, or missing receipts. Workflow tools like Zapier or Make can flag those instantly.
A rule might watch for weekend charges or high-value spend over a set threshold. When triggered, a Slack message tags the right person or channel with context and links.
Alerts aren't just for problems. They can prompt follow-ups, like reminding someone to upload a receipt or approve a cost before it gets booked.
Automation in finance is rarely about flashy tech. It is about freeing mental space so decisions carry sharper focus and fewer delays. Each small system you stitch together pays back in clarity.
The real opportunity sits beyond the setup itself; once your data flows clean and fast, new ideas for efficiency start to surface.
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