Key takeaways
- Clear Books is UK cloud accounting for sole traders, small businesses and accountants.
- Employee expense claims, mileage and projects are on the Large plan; OCR, the mobile app and bank feeds are on all plans.
- An approved claim raises a bill payable to the employee.
- Vergo proposes account code, VAT and project, texts for receipts and posts purchases through the Clear Books API once credentials are enabled.
Where should you go next?
- Vergo's Clear Books integration
- What expense management software integrates with Clear Books?
- Get started with Vergo
How do you automate expense management in Clear Books, step by step?
- Enable API credentials. Your team enables them on your Clear Books account once; Vergo does the rest.
- Keep your cards. Connecting your existing cards involves no card applications, no re-issuing and no banking change.
- Collect receipts by text. Employees handle everything by text message — no app to download, no portal login — and Vergo chases missing receipts itself instead of waiting for a report.
- Propose account code, VAT and project. Vergo suggests each for every receipt line, with the reason.
- Deliver to Clear Books. Once your team enables API credentials on your Clear Books account, Vergo posts coded purchases with receipts attached through the Clear Books API.
What does Clear Books need on each purchase?
- Account code: from your tailored chart.
- VAT rate: for the VAT return.
- Project: used as a cost centre or department on the Large plan.
- Supplier or employee: who was paid, or who is owed.
- Receipt: attached.
Where does Clear Books stop and automation start?
Clear Books gives employees a proper claims route on the Large plan: add a receipt, submit for approval, and a manager approves. Auto Bills can read supplier, date, VAT and total from a receipt. What neither does is decide the account code and project for a purchase, or chase the receipt from someone who has not sent it. Vergo reads the receipt itself, line by line, and predicts the coding from what was actually bought, not just the vendor name on the header.
A practical example
A UK architecture practice on Clear Books tracks each project as a cost centre. An associate pays for large-format prints and a site visit train fare on the practice card. Vergo texts for both receipts, proposes printing and travel account codes with the right project and VAT rates, and the practice manager confirms. Clear Books receives both purchases, receipts attached.
How Vergo handles this
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. In Clear Books that includes your projects, which is where cost-centre reporting comes from. Approval workflows are optional and fit how you already control spend: route by GL account or by amount — or skip approval flows entirely and let policy flags catch only what breaks a rule.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we need the Clear Books Large plan?
Vergo works with the purchases, suppliers and account codes Clear Books exposes. Employee Expenses and Projects in Clear Books itself are on the Large plan.
Can Vergo create expense claims in Clear Books?
The Clear Books API supports purchases of the expenses type, and Vergo produces claims in that form.
Who enables the connection?
Your team enables API credentials on your Clear Books account once; Vergo handles the rest.
Does Vergo handle VAT?
Yes. Vergo proposes the VAT rate with the account code on each line.
Do we need new cards?
No. Connecting your existing cards involves no card applications, no re-issuing and no banking change.
