Cortena is a Basecone alternative for teams that want an agent, not another scan-and-check workflow.
Basecone is the established Wolters Kluwer scan and recognise tool many Dutch accountants already trust for Exact Online and Twinfield. Cortena.ai starts from a different premise. You brief an agent the way you would brief a bookkeeper, and it codes every field with a reason you can read. Here is a fair, factual comparison so you can decide which one fits.
Comparison written and reviewed October 2026. Where a Basecone detail is not publicly documented, we mark it "varies" rather than guess.
What Basecone does well.
We are not here to run Basecone down. It is a serious product for Dutch finance teams and accounting firms. Credit where it is due.
The default at many Dutch accountants
Basecone sits inside the Wolters Kluwer stack and is deeply familiar to Twinfield and Exact Online practices. That distribution and trust matter.
Broad ERP coverage for scan and recognise
Exact Online, Twinfield and several other Dutch packages are supported. Multi-administration firm workflows are a known strength.
Approval app and per-invoice pricing
Mobile approval and a per-document price can suit lower volumes and accountant-led setups where the firm already owns the process.
If those points describe what you need, Basecone may be the right fit and you can stop reading here. The rest of this page is for teams who want agent-first coding with readable reasons on every field.
Scan and recognise still leaves humans to finish the coding.
Basecone-class tools centre on capture, recognition and saved booking rules, then ask your team to check and complete. Cortena.ai is agent-first. You instruct it once, in plain language, and it does the coding with a reason on every field.
Explainable AI on every field, not a black-box guess.
Cortena.ai codes the GL account, cost centre and VAT code, and shows why it chose each one: the precedent it followed, the rule it matched, the line it read. Your team reviews reasoning, not a bare suggestion.
- Account, cost centre and VAT code coded per line
- A plain-language reason attached to every field
- Precedent learning from your own corrections
Recurring office supplies from Staples Nederland B.V. Last 5 invoices booked to 4200 (office expenses), cost centre 100. Dutch VAT 21 %, reverse charge not applicable.
You brief it like a bookkeeper, not a rules engine.
Instead of building and maintaining rigid if-this-then-that rules per supplier, you write guidelines in plain language. Cortena.ai follows the briefing and asks when it is not sure.
- Guidelines in plain language, not rule trees
- Judgement on edge cases, questions when unsure
- One briefing that improves as your books do
The honest comparison.
Row by row, on the dimensions that actually change your week. Cortena facts are what we ship today. Basecone facts we keep to what is publicly documented, and mark the rest "varies".
Basecone is a capable product and its exact behaviour depends on plan, configuration and your accountant's setup. Where we could not verify a detail from public sources, we wrote "varies" instead of inventing one. If any fact here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Who should pick which.
Basecone is the better fit when
- Your accountant already runs Basecone and prefers that stack.
- You want the default Wolters Kluwer scan and recognise workflow.
- Your volumes are modest and per-invoice pricing fits better than an agent rollout.
Cortena is the better fit when
- You want coding done for you, with a reason on every field.
- You would rather brief an agent than maintain supplier booking rules.
- You run several entities and want workflows to inherit.
- You want free white-glove setup and booking proposals into Exact or Twinfield.
Moving from Basecone takes about 15 days.
There is no ledger migration to dread. Your books stay where they are and your accountant keeps their tool. We connect your invoice inbox, learn your accounts and rules from your history, and run alongside you until the coding earns your trust.
See multi-entity onboarding- 1Connect and brief, day 1Point your invoice inbox at Cortena and write your first briefing. No migration, no project team.
- 2Learn from your historyCortena studies past codings and your chart of accounts, then codes new invoices side by side with you.
- 3Go live in 15 daysOnce the coding is right, you review by exception and export booking-ready batches into Exact Online or Twinfield.
Questions people ask before switching.
Yes, for teams that want an agent to do the coding rather than another scan-and-check workflow to supervise. Both connect to Exact Online and Twinfield, but Cortena.ai codes every field with an explainable reason and is briefed in plain language.
Cortena.ai delivers booking proposals into Exact Online and Twinfield with the source document attached, and syncs master data back from your administration. Your archive stays in the accounting package.
No. There is no ledger migration. Your books stay where they are, your accountant keeps their tool, and Cortena connects to your invoice inbox and learns from your history. Most teams are live in about 15 days with free white-glove setup.
Cortena is built for multi-entity work. Workflows and briefings inherit across administrations, and a root mailbox can route invoices to the right entity automatically.
We have tried hard to keep it fair. We credit what Basecone does well and, where a detail is not publicly documented, we mark it "varies" rather than invent a fact. If anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
See the difference on your own invoices.
Book a demo and bring a week of real supplier invoices. We will code them live, reason on every field, so you can compare for yourself.