Comparison · AutoEntry
Looking for a cheap AutoEntry alternative? ScanToExcel is $4.99/mo flat
AutoEntry charges credits per document and starts at $13/month for just 50 credits — credit-based pricing makes monthly costs unpredictable. ScanToExcel is $4.99/month flat with unlimited daily conversions and direct Excel export, no credits to track.
Verified: May 12, 2026
Why look for an AutoEntry alternative?
Most people searching for an AutoEntry alternative are frustrated with credit-based pricing. 50 credits at the entry tier vanish quickly when bank statements and multi-page invoices each consume multiple credits, and the next tier up doubles the price. If your workflow ends in Excel rather than Sage or Xero ledger drafts, you're paying for a publication rail you don't use. ScanToExcel is $4.99/month flat — unlimited daily conversions, no credit accounting, and native Excel export with pre-mapped Xero and QuickBooks CSV templates if you still need them. The trade-off: no direct ledger sync. If you're happy to one-click import a CSV, the annual math is roughly $48 versus $156+.
Side-by-side comparison
| ScanToExcel | AutoEntry | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing & commitment | ||
| Cheapest paid plan | $4.99/mo | $13.00/mo |
| Per-user or flat? | Flat rate | Flat rate (credit-based, unlimited users) |
| Monthly document cap | Unlimited daily conversions | 50 credits/mo on entry plan |
| Annual discount | No | No |
| Contract length | Month-to-month, cancel anytime | Month-to-month |
| Documents supported | ||
| Receipts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Invoices | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bank statements | ✓ | ✓ |
| Credit card statements | ✓ | ✓ |
| Paystubs | ✓ | ✕ |
| Image of tables (screenshots, photos) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Multi-page PDFs | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scanned PDFs (image-based) | ✓ | ~ |
| Output & integrations | ||
| Native Excel export (.xlsx) | ✓ | ~ |
| CSV export | ✓ | ✓ |
| Xero / QuickBooks CSV templates | ✓ | yes (direct API) |
| Direct Xero / QuickBooks / Sage sync | ✕ | ✓ |
| Bulk upload (parallel processing) | yes (up to 50 files) | ✓ |
| Practical & UX | ||
| Can test without account? | yes (10/day free) | ✕ |
| Data residency / GDPR | EU processing, zero retention | AWS EU-West, persistent storage |
| Time to first export | Under 60 seconds, no install | Onboarding call / setup required |
What AutoEntry does better than ScanToExcel
AutoEntry is the right tool if you live inside the Sage ecosystem. Its deepest integration is with Sage 50, Sage 200 and Sage Intacct: bills flow straight into the ledger with two-way sync, supplier rules auto-categorise recurring invoices, and bank statements reconcile against feeds inside the same tool. AutoEntry's parent company (Sage) has owned the product since 2017, so the integration depth genuinely exceeds anything a third-party tool can match. ScanToExcel produces Excel and pre-mapped CSVs but doesn't publish to any ledger directly. Other AutoEntry strengths: a mobile receipt-snap app for field capture, per-user email-in addresses, and firm-wide licences that many UK and Irish bookkeeping practices already include in their Sage subscription. If you publish bills to Sage daily and your practice already pays for AutoEntry through a Sage bundle, the credit-based pricing is effectively absorbed — and ScanToExcel saves you nothing.
The verdict
Pick AutoEntry if:
you're an accounting firm with 20+ clients already on Sage, Xero or QuickBooks, need unlimited-user collaboration, direct ledger API sync, and budget isn't a concern.
Pick ScanToExcel if:
you're a solo bookkeeper, SMB owner, or finance professional who needs clean Excel output from receipts, statements, paystubs, and image tables — without credit caps, per-firm pricing, or ecosystem lock-in.
Neither if:
you're a Sage-aligned bookkeeping practice already paying for AutoEntry inside a Sage Accountants Edition bundle. Splitting that bundle to save $8/month rarely makes commercial sense; stay with AutoEntry until your Sage subscription itself is up for renewal.
Frequently asked questions
How do AutoEntry credits actually work in real practice?
One credit per document by default — but a multi-line invoice with 'full detail' line-item extraction consumes 3 credits, and bank statements can consume more depending on length. Credits do not roll over month to month, so any plan must be sized for peak rather than average volume, which forces upgrades sooner than the headline price suggests.
Does ScanToExcel really reject documents with pen marks the way AutoEntry does?
No — this is one of the clearest differentiators. AutoEntry's published guidelines instruct users to reject and re-scan documents with handwritten notes obscuring printed text. ScanToExcel's vision-language model reads through annotations, ticks and signatures, which matters for receipts in expense reports and supplier invoices in active review.
What about AutoEntry's Sage 50 / Sage Business Cloud-native posting?
That is AutoEntry's strongest moat. Since Sage acquired AutoEntry in 2017, the integration into Sage 50, Sage Accounting and Sage Intacct is the most native of any third-party capture tool. ScanToExcel does not match that rail — it exports CSV that you import manually into Sage. If your firm runs on Sage and posts dozens of bills per day, AutoEntry remains the natural fit.
Will AutoEntry's supplier rules and approval chains survive migration?
They will not. ScanToExcel is a stateless extractor with no chart of accounts, no supplier memory and no approval routing. If you rely on AutoEntry's per-supplier coding rules and multi-step approval, plan for those workflows to live in your accounting platform itself, not in the capture layer.
Does ScanToExcel handle the 'full detail' line-item extraction AutoEntry charges 3 credits for?
Yes — by default and at no extra cost. Every invoice processed in ScanToExcel returns full line-item detail (description, quantity, unit price, tax, line total). There is no two-tier 'header only vs full detail' billing model.
Does ScanToExcel offer per-client billing dashboards like AutoEntry's firm console?
No. AutoEntry's accountant edition includes per-client folders, partner billing and credit pooling across the firm. ScanToExcel is single-account and not designed for multi-client practice management. Bookkeeping practices managing 5+ Sage clients should price the AutoEntry firm tier rather than scaling individual ScanToExcel seats.
If AutoEntry is the cheaper Sage option, when does ScanToExcel still win on price?
Whenever your real volume — counting full-detail invoices at 3 credits each — pushes you above 50 credits per month. AutoEntry's $13/50-credit Bronze plan is exhausted by 17 detailed invoices; the Silver plan ($24/100) is exhausted by 33. ScanToExcel's $4.99 unlimited plan removes that escalator entirely.
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