If you spend hours every month downloading bank statements, chasing utility bills, and photographing receipts before your bookkeeper asks for them, Hubdoc was built to solve exactly that problem. For Canadian small businesses using cloud accounting software, it is one of the most practical automation tools available — and for Xero users, it comes at no extra cost.
Hubdoc is a document collection and data capture platform designed to eliminate the manual work of gathering financial documents. It connects directly to your supplier portals and financial institutions, automatically fetches your bills and statements, and pushes them into your accounting software with the data already extracted. The company was founded in Toronto in 2012 and acquired by Xero in 2018, making it a core part of the Xero ecosystem for Canadian bookkeeping workflows.
At its core, Hubdoc does three things: it fetches documents automatically from supplier websites, it accepts documents forwarded to a unique email address, and it captures paper receipts through a mobile app. Every document is stored in one organised inbox, with key data — vendor name, date, amount, GST/HST — pulled out and ready to publish into your accounting file.
This is where Hubdoc earns its keep. You connect your supplier accounts — utilities, banks, telecom providers — once, and Hubdoc logs in on your behalf at regular intervals to download new invoices and statements. No more remembering to log in to five different portals each month. The documents appear in your Hubdoc inbox automatically, already categorised.
Hubdoc assigns your account a unique email address. Any invoice or receipt you receive by email can be forwarded to that address, and Hubdoc will extract the key data and file the document. Many businesses set up supplier email rules so that invoices are auto-forwarded the moment they arrive in the inbox — completely removing a manual step from the process.
For paper receipts — a coffee with a client, a hardware store run, gas for a business vehicle — the Hubdoc mobile app lets you photograph the receipt on the spot. The image is uploaded, OCR technology reads the key fields, and the receipt is queued in your inbox ready to be coded and published. The paper copy can then be discarded, because CRA accepts digital images of receipts as compliant records.
Hubdoc maintains a library of Canadian supplier connections. Some of the most useful for small businesses include:
The fetch library is not exhaustive — smaller regional suppliers or niche vendors may not be supported — but for the recurring bills that hit most Canadian businesses every month, the coverage is solid. Any document that cannot be auto-fetched can still be handled through email forwarding or mobile capture.
Because Hubdoc is owned by Xero, the integration between the two platforms is seamless. When you code a document in Hubdoc — assigning the account, GST/HST treatment, and any tracking categories — and click publish, it creates a transaction directly in Xero with the source document attached. The original invoice or statement lives inside the Xero transaction, which means your records are always complete and audit-ready.
For businesses reconciling bank feeds in Xero, Hubdoc documents match to incoming bank feed transactions automatically when the amounts align. The result is a reconciled transaction with a source document attached — exactly what your accountant and CRA want to see.
Hubdoc also integrates with QuickBooks Online, so QBO users are not excluded. However, the integration is not as deeply embedded as it is with Xero, and critically, Hubdoc is not free with a QuickBooks Online subscription. QBO users need to weigh whether the $20 per month standalone cost makes sense for their volume of documents, or whether a competing tool such as Dext (formerly Receipt Bank) or AutoEntry delivers better value for their workflow. For QBO users processing high volumes of receipts, Dext is generally the stronger pairing — it has deeper QBO integration and a more mature OCR engine optimised for that platform.
Pricing is one of Hubdoc's biggest selling points for Xero customers. Hubdoc is included at no additional cost with every paid Xero plan — Starter, Standard, and Premium. If you are already paying for Xero, you have Hubdoc. There is no tier gating or document volume limit to worry about at the entry level.
For businesses not using Xero or QuickBooks Online, or for those who want Hubdoc connected to a secondary organisation, Hubdoc is available as a standalone subscription at approximately $20 CAD per month. One important limitation: a single Hubdoc account connects to one Xero or QBO organisation. Businesses that operate multiple entities need a separate Hubdoc account — and separate cost — for each one.
A common concern among Canadian business owners is whether electronic copies of receipts are actually acceptable to CRA. The answer is yes. CRA's policy is that digital records, including scanned or photographed receipts, are acceptable as long as the image is legible and contains all the required information: vendor name, date, amount, and GST/HST number where applicable. You are required to keep business records for six years from the end of the tax year to which they relate. Hubdoc stores documents indefinitely within the platform, satisfying both the format and retention requirements without you needing to maintain physical files.
The team at Swift Accounting Calgary uses Hubdoc as a standard part of the bookkeeping workflow for clients on Xero, specifically because the source-document-attached reconciliation it produces makes file reviews and CRA audit responses straightforward.
If you are on Xero and spending any meaningful time each month gathering bills and statements, Hubdoc is worth activating immediately — it costs nothing and the setup time is measured in minutes for most suppliers. If you are on QuickBooks Online, the calculus is more nuanced: assess your monthly document volume and compare Hubdoc's $20 per month against Dext or AutoEntry before committing. For most Xero-based Canadian small businesses, Hubdoc is one of those tools that pays for itself — in time saved — within the first month of use.
Yes. Hubdoc is included with all paid Xero plans — Starter, Standard, and Premium — at no additional charge. There is no document volume cap at the entry level. The only scenario where you pay separately for Hubdoc is if you want to use it as a standalone tool or connect it to a second accounting organisation.
Yes. CRA accepts digital records, including photos and scanned copies of receipts and invoices, as valid business records provided the image is clear and contains all required information. You must retain records for six years. Hubdoc stores documents within the platform and they can be exported at any time, satisfying CRA's retention requirements.
Hubdoc connects to all major Canadian banks — RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO, CIBC, ATB Financial — as well as major telecom providers like Telus, Rogers, Bell, and Shaw, and utilities including ENMAX, EPCOR, BC Hydro, Hydro One, and Enbridge Gas, among others. The full supplier library is searchable within the Hubdoc app, and any supplier not listed can be handled through email forwarding or mobile capture.
For QBO users, Dext (formerly Receipt Bank) is generally the stronger choice. It has deeper native integration with QuickBooks Online, a more robust OCR engine, and its pricing structure is purpose-built for the QBO workflow. Hubdoc works with QBO but is not included free with any QBO plan, making Dext the more cost-effective and better-integrated option for businesses on that platform.
Hubdoc removes one of the most tedious parts of running a small business — gathering financial documents — and replaces it with an automated system that keeps your books clean and CRA-ready throughout the year. Whether you set it up yourself or have your bookkeeper configure it, the return on the setup time is significant. If you would like help integrating Hubdoc into your accounting workflow, or if you want to know whether Xero and Hubdoc are the right fit for your business, contact Swift Accounting to speak with our team.
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