Key takeaways
- Built in: bank feeds.
- Partly covered: credit card feeds, AP automation, receipt capture, expense claim approvals and approval workflows.
- Vergo works with any card from any bank and posts coded spend into Clear Books.
Where should you go next?
- Does Clear Books have bank and credit card feeds?
- Does Clear Books have AP automation built in?
- Does Clear Books have receipt capture or a mobile expense app?
- Does Clear Books have approval workflows for invoices and expenses?
- Does Clear Books have built-in expense management?
- What are the best expense management add-ons for Clear Books?
- Vergo's Clear Books integration
- Get started with Vergo
Clear Books AP and expense capabilities at a glance
| Capability | In Clear Books? | What the documentation shows |
|---|---|---|
| Bank feeds | Yes | Automatic bank feeds via Plaid (UK Open Banking) are included on paid plans ('Bank feed with automated matching' on Small, Medium and Large; also Sole Trader and Property paid plans); Plaid polls four times a day and consent is renewed every 90 days. |
| Credit card feeds | Partly | Credit card accounts can be kept as bank-type accounts in Money > Bank accounts (opening balances can be negative for cards), and transactions can be brought in by statement import. However, the bank-feed guide does not say whether Plaid feeds cover credit card accounts, and no card-network feed is documented. |
| AP automation (invoice capture and processing) | Partly | Auto Bills (OCR bill and receipt capture by email forwarding, mobile or upload; extracts supplier, date, invoice number, VAT and total and matches to the bank feed) is a paid add-on on Small, Medium and Large and included on paid Sole Trader and Property plans; price not stated on the pricing page. However, there is no approval step for bills; only purchase orders can be approved. |
| Receipt capture and mobile expenses | Partly | The Clear Books mobile app can create an expense from a photo, but OCR data extraction comes from Auto Bills, which is an add-on on the company plans (Small/Medium/Large). |
| Expense claim approvals | Partly | Employee Expenses (submit for approval; manager approves; approval raises a bill payable to the employee; mileage at HMRC or manual rates) is included only on the Large plan. |
| Approval workflows (invoices, POs, payments) | Partly | Approvals exist for purchase orders (toggle plus an 'Approve Purchase Orders' user permission; Medium, Large and Practice Edition) and for employee expense claims (Large). However, no approval step for bills (purchase invoices) and no configurable multi-level routing is documented. |
What to budget for
- Credit card feeds (partly): employee expense management for Small/Medium plans and corporate card program with receipt matching.
- AP automation (invoice capture and processing) (partly): AP invoice capture / OCR (vendor add-on on company plans) and bill approval workflow tool.
- Receipt capture and mobile expenses (partly): AP invoice capture / OCR (vendor add-on on company plans), employee expense management for Small/Medium plans and corporate card program with receipt matching.
- Expense claim approvals (partly): employee expense management for Small/Medium plans and bill approval workflow tool.
- Approval workflows (invoices, POs, payments) (partly): AP invoice capture / OCR (vendor add-on on company plans) and bill approval workflow tool.
Add-ons Clear Books teams commonly consider
- AP invoice capture / OCR (vendor add-on on company plans)
- Employee expense management for Small/Medium plans
- Bill approval workflow tool
- Corporate card program with receipt matching
Where Vergo fits with Clear Books
Vergo integrates with Clear Books and posts coded card spend into it; for Clear Books, the live integration covers expense management. It works with any card from any bank — connecting your existing cards involves no card applications, no re-issuing and no banking change. Employees send receipts by text or from their phone, and Vergo chases missing receipts itself instead of waiting for a report. Vergo proposes the coding by inference from your own accounting structure and history — no rule library to build, no keyword lists to maintain, and new vendors are coded on first sight. The proposal covers the account code, VAT rate and project, and every coding shows why it was chosen, so a reviewer confirms in seconds instead of re-coding by hand. Approval workflows are optional and fit how you already control spend: route by GL account, by amount, or by project — or skip approval flows entirely and let policy flags catch only what breaks a rule.
About Clear Books
Typical users: UK small businesses, limited companies, sole traders, landlords and charities needing MTD-compliant bookkeeping. Deployment: cloud.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Clear Books capabilities need an add-on?
Per Clear Books Ltd's documentation, credit card feeds, AP automation, receipt capture, expense claim approvals and approval workflows are partial or missing.
Does Vergo replace Clear Books?
No. Clear Books stays your ledger. Vergo integrates with Clear Books and posts coded entries into it.
Do we need new cards?
No. Vergo works with any card from any bank; connecting your existing cards involves no card applications, no re-issuing and no banking change.
How current is this?
Each answer was checked against Clear Books Ltd's public documentation on September 30, 2026.
