As automation and AI reshape the accounting ecosystem, Dext is emerging as one of the most influential players helping firms modernize how financial data is collected, processed, and analyzed.
Leading that effort across North America is Toronto-based executive Joanne Modugno, Dext’s General Manager for the region and a seasoned fintech leader with deep experience in payments, banking, and spend management.
Since joining the company, Modugno has been charged with accelerating Dext’s footprint in a market where demand for automation is rising sharply. Canada already represents one of the company’s strongest growth engines—with more than 45,000 SMB customers, 1,800 accounting-firm partners, and over 34 million documents processed annually—while the U.S. market is now expanding under the global scale of IRIS Software Group.
In this conversation, Modugno discusses her path from Visa and CIBC to Dext, the company’s upcoming payments rollout with Airwallex, its agentic AI initiatives, and how she sees automation transforming the accounting profession. She also shares why North America is entering a pivotal period for bookkeeping innovation—and how Dext plans to lead that shift.
Can you tell us about your experience and what makes you a good fit to grow Dext across North America?
JM: I’ve held leadership roles at CIBC and Visa, focusing on financial services, payments, and expense management. At Visa Inc., I played a key role in launching a multinational commercial card program and leading B2B small business initiatives across the business credit card portfolio. I’ve also run my own business ventures and consulting projects, working with financial institutions to bring innovative credit and payment products to market. My most recent work has centred on go-to-market strategies for SaaS technology and spend management solutions with embedded payments. This blend of corporate leadership, entrepreneurial experience, and deep understanding of financial services uniquely positions me to drive Dext’s next phase of growth.
What is Dext’s presence in Canada today?
JM: Canada has been a key growth market for Dext since we entered in 2018. Today, we have a team of 23 employees based out of Toronto, serving more than 45,000 SMB customers and partnering with over 1,800 Canadian accounting firms, including leading national players like MNP and BDO Canada. Each year, we process more than 34 million receipts and invoices in Canada alone, with those numbers growing year over year. This momentum reinforces Canada’s importance in our long-term strategy.
What are your priorities for the first few months?
JM: My immediate priority is to strengthen Dext’s North American presence by focusing our growth with small business clients, accountants and accounting software partners. We’re aligning our regional strategy with the global vision, building on our strong Canadian base, and continuing to reinforce Dext’s reputation as the go-to partner for bookkeeping automation. I’ll be working across sales, marketing, operations, and partnerships to accelerate growth, while advancing our mission to simplify accounting workflows through AI innovation and industry-leading customer experience.
You announced a partnership with Airwallex this summer. Can you provide us with an update on the launch of your payment capabilities in Canada and what it will mean for Dext clients?
JM: Our payments capabilities will launch in Canada in early 2026. This new feature means we’re completing the accounts payable journey, bringing invoice capture, payment, and reconciliation into one frictionless process. In partnership with Airwallex, we’re bringing world-class payments infrastructure into the mix, enabling businesses to get paid faster, more securely, and with fewer errors. Canadian businesses can expect:
- End-to-end AP workflows from invoice to payment to reconciliation
- 99% data accuracy with industry-leading automation
- A single source of truth across bookkeeping and payments
- Faster month-end close and reduced manual effort
Can you share more about how Dext is integrating AI into its offering?
JM: Innovation is at the heart of Dext, and AI is a major focus for us as we build tools that make bookkeeping smarter, faster and more valuable for our customers.
We recently announced our agentic AI offering, a digital bookkeeping assistant designed to learn how users work and help them improve their workflows. It identifies patterns, predicts behaviours and surfaces opportunities for improvement directly within Dext. By guiding users to approve and act on these insights, Dext’s agentic AI aims to minimize the time spent on manual edits and enhance the automation of everyday bookkeeping tasks, freeing users to focus on higher-value work, such as advising clients or growing their business.
In addition to this, last spring we launched Dext Vault, which creates a single, intelligent space for contracts, leases, and agreements – automatically summarizing, tagging, naming, and extracting key data such as due dates, so professionals can stay ahead of compliance and renewals.
What does Dext’s expansion look like in Canada and the US?
JM: In Canada, we’re doubling down on our investment in innovation and customer experience. Major milestones will be the full launches of our agentic AI and payments capabilities. These two products are a key focus for us as we enter 2026.
In the US, we have 1,200 accounting and bookkeeping offices using Dext, processing over $10M in transactions in the past 12 months. Now we’re part of IRIS Software Group, our market presence is significantly strengthened. IRIS is a global provider of cloud-hosted software solutions serving 100,000+ customers across 135 countries. This partnership gives us the scale and credibility to expand across the US market in a more strategic way–we’re just getting started.
Bigger picture, how do you see AI shaping the accounting profession?
JM: AI is fundamentally changing the accounting profession, moving it from a focus on data entry and reconciliation to one centred on insight and strategy. Our platform has already processed more than 173 million invoices, 8.4 million bank statements, and five million line items in the past six months – all at 99% accuracy and in a fraction of the time it would take manually. AI can handle routine tasks, allowing accountants and bookkeepers to focus on verification and strategic advisory, tax planning, and cash-flow management, the kind of high-value work the businesses they work with truly need.
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