Import bills into QuickBooks Online from CSV

By Kayabyte · Last updated 29 October 2026

QuickBooks Online has a built-in bill import, so you do not have to key each supplier invoice by hand. It is available on some plans, and labels change, so treat this as a guide and check your own account.

1. What the import needs

Open Settings, then Import data, then Bills. Intuit provides an example file. The required columns are the bill number, supplier, bill date, due date, account, line amount and line tax code. You can import bills with several lines or as one total per bill; a line account is needed either way. Suppliers and accounts must exist before you import, unless you tick the option to create missing suppliers. Intuit suggests importing about 100 bills at a time.

2. Prepare the file

One row per line item, with the bill number, supplier and dates repeated on each row of the same bill. Use the account names exactly as they are in your chart of accounts, and a tax code that exists in your company. Pick the date format in the mapping step to match the file.

3. Check before you import

Compare each bill’s lines with the invoice total. QuickBooks does not know what the PDF said, so an error here goes straight into your books.

4. Import and map

Choose the file, tick the supplier option if you want it, map each column to a QuickBooks field, set whether amounts include tax, and import. Spot-check a few bills afterwards.

5. Where Balanced helps

Balanced reads invoice PDFs, scans and images on your Mac, extracts the header and line items by rules, and checks quantity times price, the line sum and the total. Choose QuickBooks Online bills import (CSV) in the export, set a default account and tax code, and export a batch of invoices into one file. It writes a file; it does not connect to QuickBooks. The column names follow the example file, so if QuickBooks maps a column wrongly in your region, adjust it in the mapping step.

Honest limits: invoices vary a lot, so check the header and the line table in the preview; a poor scan or a photo taken at an angle can misread digits (the checks usually catch it); a password-protected PDF has to be unlocked first. Nothing here is accounting or tax advice.

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, for up to 3 Macs. See pricing and the help page. macOS 14 or later.