How to export bills from Xero to CSV

In Xero, go to Purchases, then Bills, open the menu next to New Bill and choose Export bills. A CSV downloads. Each export holds at most 500 bills, and each line item of a bill sits on its own row, which matters when you look for duplicates.

Why duplicate bills happen

A supplier resends an invoice, or you get it by email and by post.
A bill is entered twice, or imported and also entered by hand.
The reference is formatted differently: INV-001 versus 001.

Steps to export

Open Purchases, then Bills.
Pick the tab you want, for example All.
Optionally use Search to set a start and end date, or filter by status.
Open the menu icon next to New Bill and choose Export bills.
Check the details on screen, then choose Export. A CSV file downloads.
More than 500 bills? Narrow the date range and export in batches.

Spotting duplicates once exported

Open the CSV in a spreadsheet. Because each line item is its own row, a bill with three lines appears three times. That is normal, not a duplicate.
Sort by contact (the supplier), then by reference and date.
Look for the same supplier with the same reference, or the same total on nearby dates.

Xero also has its own review page for possible duplicates. Its help centre says it compares contact, reference and amount across bills and credit notes, and lets you keep or remove the flagged ones. To open it, go to Purchases, then Bills, open the menu icon and choose Review duplicate bills. It looks at bills already in Xero, not at an exported file.

Limits of the manual method

That comparison needs contact, reference and amount to line up, so a reference typed differently can slip past it.
Line-item rows make a plain sort confusing until you group them by bill.
With batches of 500, a duplicate can sit in a different file from its twin.
Special characters can break an export, and some contact details may be missing depending on your user role.

FAQ

Can I export more than 500 bills at once?

Not in one file. Split by date and export several times.

Why is my bill on several rows?

Each line item gets its own row. Catchfold combines line-item rows of the same bill.

Can I fix duplicates in the CSV?

No. Fix them in Xero. The CSV is only for looking.

Check it automatically with Catchfold

Catchfold is a free tool that runs in your browser. Export your bills as a CSV, open Your files, and pick the file. It never leaves your computer. Catchfold flags bills that look like possible duplicates, or whose totals do not add up, and a person decides what to do. It never pays, blocks or approves anything. It is a free prototype with no guarantee, and it will not catch every duplicate. The pilot guide has export steps for other tools.

Related guides

Sources

Menus change; the vendor's help page is the source of truth.

Checked against vendor pages on 23 October 2026.