Every client's books, automated.Captured, reconciled, sealed and filed.
Documents arrive from your clients. Distil captures, categorises, reconciles and seals them, then publishes to Xero, QuickBooks or its own ledger. Your VAT return prefills from the sealed books, ready to check and submit to HMRC.
- 14-day free trial
- Cancel any time
- UK data centres, UK GDPR
From £29 a month. No per-client fee, at any tier. Unlimited users, no minimum licences.
01Capture
Your clients just send it
Photograph a receipt, forward an invoice, drop in a bank statement. It lands in the right client's queue.
They tap the link you send and it opens straight on their phone, with your practice's name on it. They can keep it on the home screen. Nothing to download, no password to remember, and no seat on your bill.
SMD Accountancy
Send documents to your accountant
Upload a receipt or invoice
PDF, photo or scan
Add to Home Screen
What your client receives
haisem.co.uk/upload/7k3q9d…
In Acme Design Ltd's queue0of 3
- Receipt_0812.jpgWaiting to arrive—
- Invoice-7731.pdfWaiting to arrive—
- Statement_Aug.pdfWaiting to arrive—
02Categorise
It codes itself
After three corrections to the same supplier and category, every future match publishes with no click.
AI learns categorisation rules per client and per practice. After three corrections to the same supplier and category, future matches publish without a click. Four gates run before anything posts, and the reasoning is one tap away.
| Date | Description | Amount | Category | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03 Aug | AMZN MKTPLACE£48.20 · Office supplies · 5100 | £48.20 | Office supplies 5100 | Review |
| 03 Aug | BT BUSINESS£62.40 · Telephone · 7500 | £62.40 | Telephone 7500 | Review |
| 04 Aug | TFL TRAVEL CH£17.60 · Travel · 7400 | £17.60 | Travel 7400 | Published |
| 05 Aug | SCREWFIX DIRECT£211.38 · Repairs · 7800 | £211.38 | Repairs 7800 | Review |
| 06 Aug | HMRC VAT£3,412.00 · VAT control · 2200 | £3,412.00 | VAT control 2200 | Review |
03Reconcile
Reconcile a practice, not one client at a time
One table carries every client's unmatched lines, exceptions and seal-readiness.
We think reconciliation is the biggest time sink in bookkeeping, so it runs across the whole practice. Drill into a client, resolve or hold each item with a reason. The month seals only when nothing is left open.
14items to resolve across the practice
Seal this monthSeal is disabled while items are open. Resolve them below or hold them with a reason.
| Client | Unmatched | Exceptions | Bank balance | Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acme Design Ltd3unmatched ·1exception | 3 | 1 | £12,408.10 | Open |
| Birchwood Cafe5unmatched ·0exceptions | 5 | 0 | £3,102.55 | Open |
| Cotswold Joinery0unmatched ·2exceptions | 0 | 2 | £48,900.00 | Open |
| Delta Fitness2unmatched ·0exceptions | 2 | 0 | £7,215.80 | Open |
| Eastgate Lettings1unmatched ·0exceptions | 1 | 0 | £21,044.62 | Open |
04Close
Close itself
An annual invoice becomes a twelve-month release schedule the moment it arrives.
Each seal posts that month's journal alone, so prepayments and accruals land in the right period without a spreadsheet.
Purchase invoice · 01 Aug 2026
Northstar Software Ltd
Annual licence, 12 months from 1 Aug
£1,200.00
Release schedule
£1,200.00remaining ·12future releases
- Aug£100
- Sep£100
- Oct£100
- Nov£100
- Dec£100
- Jan£100
- Feb£100
- Mar£100
- Apr£100
- May£100
- Jun£100
- Jul£100
Next seal posts31 Aug
- Dr 7600 Software subscriptions
- £100.00
- Cr 1103 Prepayments
- £100.00
05File & publish
File without re-typing a single box
The VAT return's nine boxes prefill from the sealed ledger and submit to HMRC.
MTD VAT returns and MTD for Income Tax quarterly updates are both filed to HMRC from Distil. Every submission keeps its receipt reference in the filing history.
Prefilled from the sealed ledger (0/9)
Submit to HMRC- 1VAT due on sales—
- 2VAT due on acquisitions—
- 3Total VAT due—
- 4VAT reclaimed on purchases—
- 5Net VAT to pay—
- 6Total sales, ex VAT—
- 7Total purchases, ex VAT—
- 8Supplies of goods to the EU—
- 9Acquisitions of goods from the EU—
Filing history
- 1 Jan to 31 Mar 2026Submitted 05 May 2026 · receipt a3f9c1d2
It ends where your practice already works.
Capture and reconcile in Distil, then publish to the ledger each client keeps. Or keep the whole set of books here.
| Publishes to | What | How clients map |
|---|---|---|
| Bills, with the PDF attached | Each client maps to its own organisation; the right one is chosen without a picker | |
| Bills, individually or up to twenty at a time | Each client maps to its own company, the same way | |
| Distil ledger | Everything: sealed periods, prepayments and accruals, P&L, balance sheet, cash flow | No other software required |
Seven years, encrypted, in the UK.
Every document is stored in UK data centres, encrypted at rest, and kept for seven years from upload, which covers the six-year HMRC rule.
- Residency
- Documents in the UK (AWS London); the application database in the EU (Paris) under the UK adequacy decision.
- Keys and tokens
- Xero and QuickBooks tokens encrypted with AES-256-GCM. Row-level security scopes every query to your practice.
- Your data, your property
- GDPR-processed, never sold. Export any time; account owners can delete the account from Settings.
Day 0
Uploaded over TLS 1.2+, stored AES-256 encrypted in AWS London
Day 90
Moved to Glacier Instant Retrieval, still opens instantly from an evidence pack
Year 7
Seven years from upload, covering the HMRC record-keeping period, then deleted automatically
Three practices, in their own words.
"Other software I used required multiple add-ons to do what Distil does out of the box. One flat fee, everything included. Invoices, bank statements, client uploads, VAT and MTD. Nothing else comes close for the price."
"My team was spending a full week a month just doing bookkeeping. Now I upload invoices, bank statements, AI categorizes it, we review, and publish in under an hour. It's really all in ONE!"
"I tried three other OCR tools before Distil. None of them understood UK VAT codes or nominal categories. This one does. And the flat pricing means I know exactly what I'm paying."
Per practice, not per client.
Every serious competitor charges per client, and most impose a minimum licence count before you have the clients to fill it. Distil charges per practice, with no minimum.
No per-client fee at any tier, unlimited users, every feature on every tier — self-billing is the one paid add-on, charged per client you switch it on for. The price shown is the yearly price per month; paying monthly costs about a fifth more. The automation is what makes this price shape possible.
| Practice size | Distil | Briefcase | Dext | AutoEntry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 clients250 docs a month | £29Soloholds 250 docs | £90 | £138 | £108 |
| 25 clients1,500 docs a month | £179Professionalholds 3,000 docs | £475 | £345 | £469 |
| 100 clients6,000 docs a month | £349Practice+holds 7,000 docs | £1,900 | £1,380 | ~£1,940 |
Scroll the table sideways for Dext and AutoEntry.
Monthly, per practice. Competitor figures are their published per-client prices at each size, checked on 22 August 2026. Most also set a minimum licence count; Distil has none.
Solo
A sole practitioner or a first year
£29a month
- 250 documents a month
- 100 bank statement pages a month
- 20 clients you file for, over a rolling year
- MTD VAT filing to HMRC
- No per-client fee, unlimited users
Billed yearly at £348. Cancel inside the 14 days and you pay nothing. No VAT added at checkout.
Starter
A small practice with steady monthly volume
£79a month
- 1,000 documents a month
- 250 bank statement pages a month
- 80 clients you file for, over a rolling year
- MTD VAT filing to HMRC
- No per-client fee, unlimited users
Billed yearly at £948. Cancel inside the 14 days and you pay nothing. No VAT added at checkout.
Professional
A growing practice with many filing clients
£179a month
- 3,000 documents a month
- 800 bank statement pages a month
- 250 clients you file for, over a rolling year
- MTD VAT filing to HMRC
- No per-client fee, unlimited users
Billed yearly at £2,148. Cancel inside the 14 days and you pay nothing. No VAT added at checkout.
Practice+
A large practice, one bill
£349a month
- 7,000 documents a month
- 2,000 bank statement pages a month
- 700 clients you file for, over a rolling year
- MTD VAT filing to HMRC
- No per-client fee, unlimited users
Billed yearly at £4,188. Cancel inside the 14 days and you pay nothing. No VAT added at checkout.
Every feature on every tier: capture, books, reconciliation, ledger, reports, MTD VAT filing, Xero and QuickBooks publishing. Annual pricing and the full comparison
Questions practices ask before they switch.
Grouped by what you are trying to do. Anything not here: info@haisem.co.uk.
Overview2 questions
What is Distil?
Distil is AI-powered bookkeeping for UK businesses and accountants. Upload invoices and bank statements — AI categorises everything, files your VAT and Income Tax returns to HMRC, and generates P&L, cash flow, and balance sheet reports. Plans start from £8/month for business owners and £29 a month billed yearly for accounting practices (per practice, no per-client fee — self-billing is the one paid add-on). 14-day free trial on all plans.
What's the difference between invoices and receipts?
Distil processes purchase invoices (bills from your suppliers like Amazon, Screwfix, office supplies) and expense receipts (smaller items like taxi fares, coffee with clients). For accountants, the primary use is processing supplier invoices for VAT returns and monthly reconciliations. Upload any document - the AI handles both.
Business Owners3 questions
Is Distil suitable for sole traders and small businesses?
Do I need an accountant to use Distil?
What’s the difference between the Business Owner and Accountant plans?
Client Upload Links8 questions
How do client upload links work?
How many clients can I create upload links for?
Can clients upload their own receipts on the fly?
Do clients need to create an account or download an app?
What if a client uploads the wrong receipt?
Can I expire or disable a client upload link?
Can clients see what they've uploaded?
Can I also bulk upload receipts at month-end or quarter-end?
Clients & Supplier Rules4 questions
How many clients can I manage?
What are supplier rules?
Do I need to set up supplier rules for every client separately?
No. Distil uses a two-tier supplier rules system:
- Practice defaults: Set "Amazon → Office Supplies (7500), S 20%" once. Applies to every client automatically.
- Client overrides: For one client that needs a different rule (e.g., "Amazon → Computer Equipment (6200)"), set a client-level override. It takes priority over the practice default for that client only.
Compare this to Dext, where rules are per-client only, meaning you set up the same Amazon rule 50 times for 50 clients. With Distil, set it once, override where needed.
Does each client have their own chart of accounts?
Bank Statements9 questions
Can I process bank statements too?
Which UK banks are supported?
How accurate is bank statement extraction?
Are supplier names extracted from bank transactions?
Can clients upload bank statements via their upload link?
Do bank statements count toward my document allowance?
How does bank reconciliation work?
Can Distil reconcile bank transactions automatically?
Do I still need Xero or QuickBooks for bank reconciliation?
Storage & HMRC Compliance4 questions
How long is my data stored and accessible?
What are evidence packs and when do I need them?
Is Distil GDPR compliant?
Can I delete documents before the retention period ends?
AI & Accuracy4 questions
How accurate is the AI extraction?
Distil achieves 95%+ accuracy on standard UK invoices and receipts, with higher accuracy on digital documents (98%+). Bank statement extraction accuracy exceeds 99% for transaction-level data (date, description, amount, balance).
Our AI is trained specifically on UK documents and understands:
- UK VAT codes (Standard, Reduced, Zero-rated, Exempt)
- Nominal codes (5000, 7300, etc.)
- British supplier patterns
- HMRC-compliant date and amount formats
Documents flagged for review (missing invoice number, date, or supplier) ensure you catch errors before publishing to Xero/QuickBooks.
What does the AI actually extract?
Does the AI get better over time?
What if the AI extraction is wrong?
Accounting Software5 questions
What accounting software does this work with?
Publish bills directly to Xero & QuickBooks Online with the PDF attached. CSV export is available for Sage/FreeAgent when needed.
Multi-tenant support: Connect multiple Xero organizations and QuickBooks companies if you manage clients across both platforms. Choose which organization/company to publish to from a dropdown in your dashboard.
Can Distil publish directly to Xero or QuickBooks?
Yes. Distil publishes invoices directly to Xero and QuickBooks Online as bills with PDF attachments. Here's how it works:
- Connect your Xero organization or QuickBooks company via one-click OAuth (takes 30 seconds)
- Review AI-extracted invoices in your dashboard
- Select invoices to publish (individually or in bulk up to 20 at once)
- Click "Publish to Xero" or "Publish to QuickBooks"
- Invoices appear instantly as bills in your accounting software with PDFs attached
You can connect multiple Xero orgs and QuickBooks companies (perfect for accountants managing multiple clients) and select which to publish to from a dropdown. No CSV export/import needed.
How do nominal codes work?
Can I use Distil for VAT Returns?
How does VAT bridging work?
Distil distinguishes between sales invoices (revenue you invoiced to clients) and purchase invoices (bills from suppliers). Sales go into Boxes 1, 6 (Output VAT & sales values), while purchases go into Boxes 4, 7 (Input VAT & purchase values). The system automatically filters by invoice date within your VAT period and totals net + VAT amounts per invoice type. You get a clear breakdown showing which documents contribute to each box, plus options to manually adjust for partial exemptions, capital goods, or EU transactions.
Sales Invoicing3 questions
Can I create and send invoices from Distil?
Do sales invoices appear in my P&L?
Can I void an invoice?
Income Tax (MTD ITSA)3 questions
Does Distil support Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD ITSA)?
Available now. Distil aggregates your income and expenses per tax year and files them to HMRC. Features:
- View HMRC obligations and deadlines
- Preview quarterly updates with all 15 HMRC expense fields
- Category-to-HMRC field mapping (customisable)
- Submit directly to HMRC from Distil
Quarterly updates, the year-end calculation and the final declaration are all submitted from Distil.
How will Distil calculate my ITSA quarterly submission when it launches?
What if some categories don't map to HMRC fields?
Reporting & Insights3 questions
Can I see a cash flow report?
Does Distil have a balance sheet?
Can I track mileage?
Yes. Log business mileage with HMRC-approved rates:
- Cars: 45p/mile (first 10,000), 25p/mile thereafter
- Motorcycles: 24p/mile
- Bicycles: 20p/mile
Each entry is logged as a mileage expense and flows into your MTD for Income Tax figures.
Pricing & Limits5 questions
What happens if I hit the allowance?
How is the allowance calculated?
Are there any per-client fees or per-user fees?
Can I cancel anytime?
Do you offer annual billing?
Getting Started4 questions
How do I get started with client upload links?
Is there a mobile app for me (the accountant)?
Do you offer training or support?
Can I import historical documents?
Start with one client.
No minimum licences and no per-client fee. From £29 a month after a 14-day trial.