Based on a webinar with Rechargly, All In Advisory, and Dext, this blog explores how firms can decide which clients should pay for Dext, how to price it fairly, and how to run the recharge without it living in a spreadsheet.
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Recharge or Absorb? How to Handle Dext Subscription Costs Across Your Client Base
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Every new financial year brings the same question: should you recharge your Dext subscriptions to clients, or absorb the cost yourself? Firms are split. Some recharge it, some build it into a service package, and some have not really decided either way.
Either way, it should be a deliberate decision. Not charging for a client-facing cost is money left on the table.
At Rechargly, we recently had a webinar with Aly Garrett from All In Advisory and Glenn Castle from Dext, hosted by Alex Millar. The session covered making the recharge call, pricing by usage, handling the conversation with clients, and where the process falls over. This blog shares the main takeaways.
If you'd prefer to watch, here's the recording:
Start with who actually uses Dext
Before pricing, the first question is usage. The clearest signal of whether to recharge is whether the client actually touches the platform.
Dext has moved well beyond receipt capture, so there are several signals to look for: staff submitting expense claims through the mobile app, approval workflows, even mileage claims. A client actively running part of their business through Dext is a strong candidate to recharge. One who never touches it, where everything is done on their behalf, is a reasonable one to absorb.
Drawing the line on who pays
The line comes down to the work being done. Where the firm does the transactional and bookkeeping work, Dext is a must, always paid by the client and recharged. Where a client takes it on themselves, the firm charges for setup and training, then checks in at BAS time. If it has not been used correctly, that becomes a conversation about bringing it back in-house or running more training, which is also charged for.
The principle is simple. If the client does not touch it, absorbing it is fine. Once it is client-facing, that is the chance to recharge.
Price by usage, not a flat fee
A flat fee is the simplest starting point, but volume-based pricing is fairer, because the clients running large volumes through Dext are usually better placed to pay for it.
In practice that means brackets: a lower charge for light users, a higher fee for heavy users, lifted once usage climbs past a set point. For a new client, estimate volume from their bank and supplier payments. For an existing one, use actual usage from the Dext report. And weigh value, not just cost: a supplier statement extraction might cost cents but save hours of reconciliation.
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