Hubdoc is one of the most well-known document collection tools in Canada — it was founded in Toronto and is now owned by Xero. Nabbit is a Canadian-built receipt capture product focused on QuickBooks Online integration and CRA compliance. If you're choosing between them, here's what you need to know.
| Feature | Nabbit | Hubdoc |
|---|---|---|
| Founded in Canada | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes (Toronto; now Xero-owned) |
| Primary use case | Receipt capture + expense sync | Document collection + bank statements |
| GST/HST auto-detection | ✓ Automatic per-receipt extraction | Limited; better for document fetching than receipt OCR |
| CRA compliance | ✓ CRA-ready 6-year archive | ✓ Document retention included |
| QuickBooks Online Canada | ✓ Native, full-featured integration | ✓ Integration available (less detailed) |
| Xero integration | ✗ Not available | ✓ Xero-native (Hubdoc is owned by Xero) |
| Bank statement fetching | ✗ Not available | ✓ Core feature |
| Receipt OCR accuracy | ✓ AI-powered, high accuracy | Moderate; better for PDFs than mobile photos |
| Team approval workflow | ✓ Built-in approvals | ✗ Not a core feature |
| Independent (non-Xero) | ✓ Works with any accounting stack | ✗ Optimised for Xero ecosystem |
This is the most important distinction to understand before choosing.
Hubdoc was built primarily to fetch financial documents — bank statements, utility bills, invoices — automatically from online portals. It connects to your bank and pulls statements on your behalf. Its receipt capture (physical receipt OCR via mobile) is a secondary feature.
Nabbit was built specifically for receipt capture — photographing a paper receipt, extracting the data with AI, coding the expense, and syncing to your accounting software. Its core workflow is field-to-QuickBooks for businesses where receipts are generated in the field.
If your primary need is fetching bank statements and supplier invoices automatically, Hubdoc is stronger. If your primary need is capturing physical receipts from employees and syncing coded expenses to QuickBooks, Nabbit is stronger.
Both tools store documents in compliance with CRA's 6-year retention rule. The difference is in how they handle tax.
Nabbit reads the GST or HST amount directly from every receipt image and separates it from the base amount before syncing to QuickBooks. Input Tax Credits (ITCs) are tracked per transaction automatically. At GST/HST filing time, your coded expenses in QuickBooks already carry the correct tax amounts.
Hubdoc's document fetching workflow typically delivers raw PDFs and statements to QuickBooks or Xero, where the accountant still needs to code the tax amounts manually. For high-volume receipt capture scenarios, this creates work that Nabbit eliminates.
Hubdoc is now a native component of Xero. If you use Xero, Hubdoc is included in your subscription and deeply integrated. If you use QuickBooks Online Canada, Hubdoc is a separate cost and the integration is less native.
Nabbit was built for QuickBooks Online Canada. If QuickBooks is your accounting platform, Nabbit integrates more deeply.
Choose Nabbit if: You use QuickBooks Online Canada; your main problem is employees submitting receipts (field staff, contractors, team expenses); you want automatic GST/HST coding per receipt; and you need a team approval workflow before expenses hit QuickBooks.
Choose Hubdoc if: You use Xero (Hubdoc is included in your Xero subscription); your main need is fetching bank statements and supplier invoices automatically; or you are an accountant managing document collection across multiple clients.
Whichever product you pick, test it against the things that cause trouble at GST/HST filing time and in a CRA audit:
Include both paper receipts and an emailed supplier invoice: a faded thermal receipt, a fuel receipt, a supplier invoice with a GST/HST number, and a receipt that shows GST and PST separately. Compare what each tool read against the paper, and note how many fields you had to correct by hand. Then ask what the tool does with the corrected data, because the cost of a bad read is an ITC you cannot support later. The guide on what receipts CRA requires lists exactly what a valid receipt must show.
Connect QuickBooks Online Canada in minutes. Most businesses sync their first receipt the same day they sign up.
Start Free Trial →The rules on this page come from these Canada Revenue Agency publications. Check them for the current wording, because CRA updates its guidance.