Receipt Scanning App UK 2026: Costs at 20, 100 and 250 Receipts

2026-10-30·The AI Ledger editorial team
Cover image for The AI Ledger article: Receipt Scanning App UK 2026: Costs at 20, 100 and 250 Receipts

The best receipt scanning app for a UK small business is usually the one already inside your accounting software, until you pass about 10 receipts a month. Then a capture app earns its fee. As of 30 October 2026, Dext costs £24.17 a month for 250 documents and Datamolino £29, both excluding VAT.

TL;DR:

  • Xero Ignite (£18 a month) and FreeAgent both include receipt capture but cap it at 10 receipts or bills a month on the entry tiers.
  • At 100 receipts a month, Datamolino (£17), Dext (£24.17) and AutoEntry (£27.65) cost £204, £290 and £332 a year.
  • At 250 receipts a month, AutoEntry needs its 500 credit tier at £119.35 a month, against £24.17 for Dext.
  • HMRC expects limited companies to keep receipts for 6 years, so storage and search matter as much as scanning.
  • Run your own receipts through a 14-day trial before paying anything.

Table of Contents

What is the best receipt scanning app for UK small businesses?

The best choice depends on volume. Under 10 receipts a month, use the scanner built into your ledger. From about 50 to 250 receipts a month, a dedicated capture app is usually cheaper than the time spent keying data by hand. This article is written for business owners, not practices, so the sums below are per business, per month, excluding VAT.

The shortlist is short. Dext has an editor score of 4.7 out of 5 and is the UK default for capture. AutoEntry scores 4.4, Xero 4.5, QuickBooks 4.3 and Datamolino 4.1. Each listing was verified against the vendor's site on its last verified date. The AI Ledger has not tested these apps hands-on.

AppBest forEditor scoreHeadline price (ex VAT)UK fit
DextSteady volume, several users4.7£24.17 a month annually, 250 documents, 5 usersLists accounting software integrations, check yours
AutoEntryLow, uneven volume4.4£15.45 a month for 50 creditsXero, QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent and others
DatamolinoCheapest per document at 100 to 2504.1£17 a month for 100 documentsXero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent
XeroOwners who rarely scan4.5Ignite £18 a month, 10 billsNative, with Hubdoc included
QuickBooksOwners who scan on a phone4.3Five plans, prices load on its pageNative receipt capture on all five
FreeAgentSole traders and landlordsNot listedFrom £19 a month (sole trader), 10 receipts freeNative Smart Capture

For deeper head-to-heads, see Dext vs AutoEntry (2026) and Best Receipt Capture Software for UK Accountants, which covers the practice angle.

Pro Tip: Count your real receipts and supplier invoices for the last three months before you compare prices. Volume decides which tier you pay for, so a guess can cost you a year of overpaying.

How much does a receipt scanning app cost at 20, 100 and 250 receipts a month?

Over a year, the cheapest app at 20 receipts a month is AutoEntry at £185.40, and at 100 and 250 receipts it is Datamolino at £204 and £348 respectively, with Dext close behind at a flat £290.04. All figures exclude VAT and were read from each vendor's pricing page on 30 October 2026.

Receipts a monthDextAutoEntryDatamolinoFreeAgent Smart Capture add-on
20£290.04£185.40£204.00£60 on top of the plan
100£290.04£331.80£204.00£60 on top of the plan
250£290.04£1,432.20£348.00£60 on top of the plan

The arithmetic, line by line:

  • Dext: £24.17 a month on annual billing covers 250 documents and five users. £24.17 x 12 = £290.04, whatever the volume up to 250. Dext lists £290 billed annually.
  • AutoEntry: an expense receipt costs 1 credit, per AutoEntry's credit rules. At 20 receipts, the 50-credit Bronze plan at £15.45 x 12 = £185.40 is enough. At 100, the Silver plan is £27.65 x 12 = £331.80. At 250, the 200-credit Gold plan is too small, so the 500-credit Platinum plan at £119.35 x 12 = £1,432.20 applies. Unused credits roll over for up to 90 days, which softens busy months.
  • Datamolino: Start is £17 for 100 documents (£17 x 12 = £204), Build is £29 for 250 (£29 x 12 = £348). Extra documents cost £0.25 each, and unused credit does not roll over.
  • FreeAgent: every business gets 10 receipts and bills a month free. The Smart Capture Unlimited add-on is £5 a month, so £5 x 12 = £60 a year on top of the plan.

Three costs sit outside that table. Dext charges extra for line-item extraction, from £16.50 a month or £0.40 a document, and its AI Assist add-on is £7.50 a month until 31 January 2027, per its pricing page. If your business pays a larger bill every month, check which add-ons you actually need.

Pro Tip: Compare annual totals, not monthly headlines. AutoEntry looks cheapest at £15.45 a month, but the same plan size costs far more once you cross 200 receipts.

Do you still need a separate app if your accounting software scans receipts?

Not if you scan fewer than about 10 documents a month. Xero's pricing page lists smart document capture in all four UK plans and includes Hubdoc, provided it is connected to your Xero subscription. Ignite, at £18 a month, lists "Enter 10 bills". Grow (£39), Comprehensive (£55) and Ultimate (£70) list bill entry with no stated monthly cap. Xero's current offer is 90% off for the first six months, which makes Ignite £1.80 a month at first.

FreeAgent's Smart Capture gives every business 10 receipts and bills a month at no extra cost, then £5 a month for unlimited use. Its sole trader plan is £19 a month, or £190 a year, after a half-price first period. The Free plan is available with a business current account at NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank.

QuickBooks lists receipt capture on all five UK plans, from Sole Trader Plus to Advanced, and its page gives no numeric receipt limit. Its prices load dynamically, so check the live page for today's figure. If QuickBooks is your ledger, QuickBooks pricing in the UK sets out the plans. Try QuickBooks (affiliate link) ↗ if you want the 30-day free trial.

The AI Ledger earns a commission if you sign up through a link marked affiliate. It never changes an editor score.

The honest comparison for ledger users is simple. A built-in scanner costs nothing extra and avoids a second login. A separate app adds supplier rules, email forwarding and multi-user inboxes. Choose the built-in scanner if you scan under 10 documents a month and want one fewer subscription. Choose a capture app once you are keying more than that by hand. For ledger choice itself, see Xero vs QuickBooks UK 2026 and QuickBooks vs FreeAgent.

Which receipt app suits which kind of business?

Match the app to your volume and your ledger. These rules are deliberately blunt, and each one names the case where a rival is better.

  1. Choose the ledger's own scanner if you issue or receive under 10 documents a month. It is cheaper than any paid app here.
  2. Choose Datamolino if you handle 100 to 250 documents a month and use Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent. It is the cheapest paid option in the sums above at both volumes.
  3. Choose Dext if you have several people submitting receipts, an accountant who already uses it, or volume near 250 a month. At that level it costs £24.17 against Datamolino's £29. Try Dext (affiliate link) ↗ offers a 14-day trial with no card details required, per its pricing page.
  4. Choose AutoEntry if your volume is below 50 receipts a month, or if your books are on Sage. At 20 receipts it is £104.64 a year cheaper than Dext (£290.04 less £185.40 = £104.64).
  5. Do not choose AutoEntry at 250 receipts a month. The credit model makes it the dearest option in this comparison.

Sole traders and landlords who must now send quarterly updates under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax should also check that their ledger handles it. A receipt app only feeds the ledger. It does not file anything. See our MTD software roundup for filing tools.

If you are choosing among many tools, the Finder filters by practice size and ledger, and Compare puts two listings side by side.

Where does each app fall short, and what happens to your data?

Every option has a gap, and the data question matters because receipts show suppliers, staff names and sometimes card details. Only state what a vendor's pages say; where a page is silent, treat it as not stated and ask.

  • Dext: costs more than Datamolino at 100 documents (£290.04 against £204). Its security page says it hosts data on Amazon Web Services, copies backups to another region and cites ISO/IEC 27001:2022. The page does not say whether customer data is used to train AI models, and points to a separate AI instructions page.
  • AutoEntry: the credit system is cheap at low volume and costly at high volume. Bank statement pages cost 3 credits each, and line-item invoices 2. The pricing page does not state hosting location or AI training.
  • Datamolino: it lists Xero, QuickBooks Online and FreeAgent exports, and the page does not mention Sage. It does not roll unused credit over, so quiet months are wasted spend.
  • Xero ledger scanner: Ignite's 10-bill limit is a hard planning number. Xero Expenses for claims and mileage is not in Ignite, and Grow covers one user, per the pricing page.
  • FreeAgent: the page says you can snap receipts on mobile but does not explicitly confirm Smart Capture runs in the app, so test that before relying on it.
  • QuickBooks: no numeric receipt limit is shown, which is good, but the live prices were not visible on the page when read, so confirm your plan cost.

A practical check is to ask each vendor three questions in writing: where is the data stored, is it used to train any model, and can the tool only read the ledger or also write back? Their answers belong in your records. For the practice view, see Dext Review 2026 for UK Practices.

Pro Tip: Turn off any "learn from my data" or "improve our service" switch you find in account settings until you have read the vendor's privacy policy. You can switch it on later.

How long must you keep receipts in the UK?

Limited companies must keep records for 6 years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to, according to GOV.UK. Those records include receipts for money spent and invoices for money received. Self Assessment taxpayers should keep records for at least 22 months after the end of the tax year if they file on time, and sole traders must keep records of business income and expenses.

The GOV.UK pages I read do not say whether a scan can replace the paper original, so confirm that with your accountant or HMRC guidance before shredding anything. What the rules do make clear is that you need to retrieve a receipt years later. Whichever app you pick, check three things:

  • Can you export every document and its extracted data if you leave?
  • Is the archive searchable by supplier and date?
  • Does the retention period match the six-year rule for companies?

Dext's pricing page lists a Vault add-on that is free for up to 100MB of storage, with extra storage from £2 a month. Ask each vendor what happens to your stored documents if you cancel.

How do you test a receipt scanning app in one week?

Run 30 real receipts through two apps and compare results. All of Dext, AutoEntry and Datamolino offer a free trial (14 days, 25 free credits and 14 days respectively), so a test costs nothing.

  1. Gather 30 receipts: 10 crumpled till rolls, 10 emailed invoices, 10 foreign or handwritten items.
  2. Scan the same set into each app on day one.
  3. Record how many needed correction of supplier, date, total or VAT.
  4. Post the results to a test or sandbox company file if your ledger allows it.
  5. Calculate the cost of your real volume using the sums above.
  6. Check the export: download everything and open it.
  7. Pick the app with the fewest corrections per 30, not the lowest sticker price.

If more than 3 of 30 need manual correction, count the minutes you spend fixing them. Time spent correcting can outweigh the gap between these plans.

Why does independent evidence matter when choosing a receipt scanning app?

Vendor pages describe the best case. Independent editor scores, dated listings and published pricing show what a tool costs and covers on a given day. The AI Ledger scores each listing on its own criteria, shows the date it was last verified against the vendor's site, and does not let commercial relationships change a score. Browse every listing in the full directory.

Realistic expectations: scanning is not bookkeeping

Expect to review every scanned receipt for the first month. A capture app saves typing, not thinking, and a wrong VAT code posted automatically is still a wrong VAT code.

Find your next receipt scanning tool through The AI Ledger

Start with the data entry and receipts category, then use the Finder to narrow by your ledger and budget. Check each listing's last verified date before you trial it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best receipt scanning app for UK small businesses?

For most owners, start with your ledger's own scanner and add Dext, AutoEntry or Datamolino once you handle more than about 10 receipts a month. Dext has the highest editor score at 4.7 out of 5. Datamolino is the cheapest paid option at 100 to 250 documents a month.

How much does Dext cost for a small business?

Dext's UK business plan starts at £24.17 a month excluding VAT, billed annually at £290, for 250 documents a month and five users. Line-item extraction costs extra, from £16.50 a month. Dext offers a 14-day free trial without card details, according to its pricing page checked on 30 October 2026.

Does Xero scan receipts?

Yes. Xero's UK pricing page lists smart document capture in all four plans and includes Hubdoc when connected to your subscription. The entry plan, Ignite at £18 a month, lists entering 10 bills. Grow, Comprehensive and Ultimate list bill entry with no monthly cap stated on the page.

Is FreeAgent free for receipt scanning?

FreeAgent processes up to 10 receipts and bills a month at no extra cost on each business. Unlimited use is the Smart Capture add-on at £5 a month. The Free plan is available to holders of a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank business current account.

Can I throw away paper receipts after scanning them?

GOV.UK says limited companies must keep receipts and invoices for 6 years, but the pages checked here do not say whether a scan can replace the original. Ask your accountant, keep originals until they confirm, and make sure your app lets you export every stored document.

Sources

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