Cortena is a Glimps alternative for teams that want an agent, not another invoice pipeline to babysit.
Glimps is a known AI invoice processing player in the Dutch Exact Online market. 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 July 2026. Where a Glimps detail is not publicly documented, we mark it "varies" rather than guess.
What Glimps does well.
We are not here to run Glimps down. It is a serious product for Dutch finance teams on Exact Online. Credit where it is due.
Strong Exact Online presence in the Netherlands
Glimps is visible with Dutch finance teams and accountants evaluating AI invoice processing for Exact Online. That local market familiarity matters.
Positioned as a Scan & Herken alternative
The product speaks directly to teams looking beyond Exact's built-in capture. That alternative positioning is clear and useful for buyers comparing options.
Dutch-language content and guides
Glimps invests in Dutch content that finance buyers actually find in search. That content discipline is real for the Benelux market.
If those points describe what you need, Glimps 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.
Pipeline tools still leave humans to finish the coding.
Many AI invoice tools still centre on extraction and routing, then ask your team to complete and maintain the coding. 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, 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. Glimps facts we keep to what is publicly documented, and mark the rest "varies".
Glimps 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.
Glimps is the better fit when
- Your accountant already runs Glimps and prefers that stack.
- You want a Dutch AI invoice tool built around Exact Online first.
- You value an established Scan & Herken alternative over a newer agent approach.
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 a pipeline.
- You run several entities and want workflows to inherit.
- You want free white-glove setup and booking proposals into Exact Online.
Moving from Glimps 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.
Questions people ask before switching.
Yes, for teams that want an agent to do the coding rather than another invoice pipeline to supervise. Both target Exact Online automation, but Cortena.ai codes every field with an explainable reason and is briefed in plain language.
Cortena.ai delivers booking proposals into Exact Online with the source document attached, and syncs master data back from your administration. Your archive stays in Exact, and Cortena works GoBD-aligned.
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.
Cortena is built as an alternative to Scan & Herken for Exact Online, with agent-first coding instead of capture-only workflows. Cortena also exports to Twinfield on the same path as Exact Online, so multi-entity groups on both systems can use one workflow.
- Still have a question?
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.
Book a demo