How to find duplicate invoices and bills in Xero
In Xero, under Purchases, Bills, click the menu icon and select Review duplicate bills. It flags bills and credit notes whose contact, reference and total all match. Xero Central describes no such review for sales invoices. Duplicate Finder, part of our app Unapprove, scans sales invoices and bills and lists possible duplicates, free.
Duplicate bills: Xero's own review
Steps from Xero Central's Review duplicate bills or credit notes.
- In the Purchases menu, select Bills.
- Click the menu icon, then select Review duplicate bills.
- Click the supplier name to see that supplier's duplicate bills and credit notes.
- Review the bill fields, then click Void, Delete or Keep all.
The limit. Xero compares the Contact, Reference and Total of all bills and credit notes, so a copy with a different reference is not flagged.
How to find duplicate invoices in Xero with a report and a formula
- Open the report. In the Reporting menu, select All reports. Open Receivable Invoice Summary for sales invoices or Payable Invoice Summary for bills.
- Set the period. Select a date range, choose Invoice Date under Date Search, then click Update.
- Leave out voided documents. Both reports include deleted and voided invoices by default, so add a filter to exclude them.
- Export it. Click Export, then select Excel or Google Sheets (Export and print a report).
- Line up three columns. Put the contact in column A, the invoice date in B and the total in C. Row 1 holds the headings.
- Count the matches. In D2 enter
=COUNTIFS($A:$A, $A2, $B:$B, $B2, $C:$C, $C2)and fill it down. A row showing 2 or more has a twin. - Run a looser pass. In E2 enter
=COUNTIFS($A:$A, $A2, $C:$C, $C2). It ignores the date, so it also finds a copy entered on another day.
What the formulas miss
- Different references. The formulas ignore the reference, so they also flag real invoices for the same total: open each pair.
- Two contact records. A second record for the same customer does not match.
Duplicate Finder: a free scan of sales invoices and bills
Duplicate Finder for Xero is part of Unapprove, a web app by Atesen Software, the publisher of this guide.
You connect your Xero organisation to run it. Xero asks for read and change access, because one connection also covers Unapprove's bulk void. The scan only reads and writes nothing to Xero: documents change only in a run you confirm by typing. The scan result is stored encrypted and deleted after 30 days, or when you disconnect the organisation.
- How it decides. Two documents of the same kind, for the same contact, currency and total, dated the same day, or less than 7 days apart with the same reference. You can change the number of days. At 7 days, a weekly or monthly invoice for the same amount is not listed, even when its reference never changes.
- Free, no card. Scan as often as you like. You see how many possible duplicates there are, what they add up to, and the first 10 rows, each with the copy it would keep.
- With a plan. The full list on screen and as a CSV, each row with a link that opens the document in Xero. You can void the extra sales invoices in bulk: you see a preview, download a backup file and type a confirmation before anything is voided.
- What it does not do. It never suggests voiding a copy with a payment or a credit on it. Duplicate bills are listed too. Both copies usually carry the same supplier invoice number, so the number cannot say which copy to void: open them in Xero from the list and choose.
Price. $39 a month, or a one-off $49 pass for 30 days, per organisation, in USD excluding tax (pricing page). About Unapprove.
Before you void: pick the right copy
Xero says voided invoices can't be restored.
- The payment. Keep the copy that has it. A paid invoice or bill can't be voided until the payment is removed (Delete an invoice or bill payment).
- The bank match. Keep the copy whose payment is reconciled. If the wrong copy got the match, see can you bulk unreconcile in Xero.
- The credit note. Keep the copy it is allocated to.
If both copies are paid, check whether the money moved twice.
Void the duplicates
- Draft or awaiting approval. Tick them and click Delete.
- Bills awaiting payment. Xero voids these in bulk: on the Awaiting Payment tab, tick the bills and click Void (Delete or void a bill).
- Sales invoices awaiting payment. Xero says you can't void them in bulk (Delete or void an invoice). See how to void multiple approved invoices in Xero at once.
The routes compared
| Route | Use it for | Finds duplicates? | Voids them? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xero's Review duplicate bills | Bills and credit notes | Yes, on Contact, Reference and Total | Yes |
| Report export and COUNTIFS | Sales invoices and bills | Yes, on your formula's fields | No |
| Duplicate Finder, part of Unapprove | Sales invoices and bills | Yes, on contact, currency, total and date or reference | Sales invoices in bulk, with a plan |
| Cause guides on the Unapprove site | Dext or Hubdoc, a migration, a Shopify or Amazon sync, year-end | No | No |
Questions about this guide: support@atesensoftware.com.
Questions people ask
How do I find duplicate invoices in Xero?
Xero Central describes a duplicate review for bills and credit notes only. For sales invoices, export the Receivable Invoice Summary report to a spreadsheet and use COUNTIFS to count the rows that share a contact, date and total. Or run Duplicate Finder's free scan, which lists possible duplicate sales invoices and bills. Open each pair in Xero before you void anything.
How do I find duplicate bills in Xero?
In the Purchases menu, select Bills, click the menu icon and select Review duplicate bills. Xero lists bills and credit notes whose Contact, Reference and Total all match. Click a supplier, review the bills, then click Void, Delete or Keep all. Bills created from the same repeating bill template are not compared.
Is there an app to find duplicate bills in Xero?
Start with Xero's own Review duplicate bills screen, which is part of Xero. Duplicate Finder, part of our web app Unapprove, scans bills and sales invoices and lists possible duplicates: the same contact, currency and total, dated the same day, or less than 7 days apart with the same reference. The scan is free and writes nothing to Xero. Checking many client files each month? See a practice-wide checker compared with Duplicate Finder.
How do I remove duplicate invoices in Xero after a sync created them twice?
List the copies first, with the report and COUNTIFS or with Duplicate Finder's scan. In each pair keep the copy that has the payment, then delete a draft copy or void an approved one. A void can't be undone. With an Unapprove plan, the extra sales invoices from a scan less than 24 hours old go to a bulk void after a preview. The cause is covered in duplicate invoices from a Shopify or Amazon sync.
Is there a duplicate invoices report in Xero?
We found no report with that name on Xero Central. Review duplicate bills is a screen for bills and credit notes. The Receivable Invoice Summary and Payable Invoice Summary reports list the invoices or bills for a period, and you run the duplicate check on the export.
Sources. Xero Central: Review duplicate bills or credit notes, Delete or void an invoice and Export and print a report, checked 15 November 2026; the other linked articles, 14 November 2026. The Xero steps are quoted from Xero Central; we did not re-run them in a Xero organisation. The Duplicate Finder, connect and pricing pages were read on 15 November 2026.
Atesen Software makes Unapprove and is not affiliated with Xero. Xero is a trademark of Xero Limited.