Kayabyte

How do you find duplicate supplier invoices before you import them into Xero or QuickBooks?

By Kayabyte · Last updated 4 November 2026

The same supplier invoice often turns up twice: once as an email attachment and once in a shared folder, or as a scan of a PDF you already have. Before you import bills, list supplier, invoice number and total for every invoice, and treat two rows with all three the same as one invoice. A spreadsheet can find them in a few minutes. Do not rely on the accounting package to catch the second copy for you; check its documentation, because this page did not test how Xero or QuickBooks react to a repeated invoice number.

Method 1: a list and a formula

  1. Make a sheet with one row per invoice: supplier in column A, invoice number in column B, total in column C.
  2. In D2 enter =COUNTIFS(A:A,A2,B:B,B2,C:C,C2) and fill it down.
  3. Filter column D for values above 1. Those rows are the same invoice more than once.
  4. Keep one copy, preferably the one you can attach to the bill, and remove the others from the batch.

Type suppliers consistently first. Acme Ltd and ACME Ltd. are different text to a formula, and COUNTIFS ignores case but not punctuation or extra spaces, so trim the names before you compare.

Method 2: look for invoices that share a number but differ

Two invoices with the same number and supplier but different totals are not duplicates. They are a credit note, a corrected invoice or a typing mistake, and need a person to decide. Use the same formula without the total (=COUNTIFS(A:A,A2,B:B,B2)) to list them, then check each against the PDFs.

What to avoid

With Balanced

Balanced reads your invoice PDFs on your Mac and does this check when you export. If two invoices have the same supplier, invoice number and total, the export window shows a switch for the later one: “Leave out” that file, with the name of the invoice it repeats. The second copy is left out by default and you can switch it back on. If you add the very same file twice, the second copy is dropped when it is read. Invoices without a supplier or invoice number cannot be compared this way, so they are never flagged.

For Xero bills and QuickBooks bills exports, Balanced also lists invoices that have no invoice number, which those imports may refuse. The check compares what was read from the PDFs, so a poor scan that misread a digit can hide a duplicate; look at the header in the preview. Balanced writes a file and does not log in to Xero or QuickBooks or send anything for you.

Download Balanced and try it free: the free version reads and checks everything, exports up to 3 invoices in one file, and needs Pro beyond that. Pro is USD 59 per year or USD 7.99 per month. See pricing and the help page. macOS 15 or later. Nothing here is accounting or tax advice.

Steps with Balanced

  1. Add the invoice PDFs, or a folder of them, to Balanced.
  2. Check supplier, invoice number and total in the preview for each one.
  3. Choose Export All and the format for your software, such as the Xero bills or QuickBooks bills CSV.
  4. In the export window, read the “Leave out” switches and the warnings about missing numbers, and decide for each.
  5. Export, then compare a few bills with the PDFs before importing.

Questions

Does Balanced remove duplicates without asking? It switches the later copy to “Leave out” and shows you which invoice it repeats. You can switch it back on.

Will it catch the same invoice with a different total? No. Same supplier and number with a different total is shown as two invoices, because it may be a credit note or a corrected invoice.

Does the accounting software warn about duplicates itself? Not tested here. Check the Xero or QuickBooks help for how they treat a repeated invoice number.