How to upload invoices and bills to Xero

Short answer

1. Purchases > Bills > New bill > Upload bills.
2. Select your PDF, JPG or PNG files.
3. Click Upload.
4. Open the Draft tab.
5. Check every line, then approve.

Before you start

You need a Xero login that can create bills and your supplier invoices as files. Sort bills from receipts first. A bill is a supplier invoice you pay later. A receipt is proof you already paid, and it goes in the Documents inbox as a spend money transaction. For tax invoices over $82.50 including GST, the ATO says you need a tax invoice to claim the GST credit: see ATO: When you can claim a GST credit.

For the full comparison of Xero’s three routes, read our guide on how to upload invoices and receipts to Xero.

The manual way in Xero

Steps follow Xero Central’s Upload bills into Xero, checked 11 October 2026.

1. In the Purchases menu, select Bills.
2. Click New bill, then select Upload bills.
3. Click Select files and pick your files, or drag and drop them into the box.
4. Review the files, then click Upload.

On a phone, tap the add icon on the Home or Purchases screen, then Bill, then Take or choose photo or Choose from files, then Upload.

Files need to be JPG, PDF or PNG and under 25MB. Bills can take a few minutes to appear. When Xero can read the bill, it fills in the contact, date, total, due date and reference. The draft is set to tax inclusive, whatever your usual setting. Xero works out the right tax only after an account code and tax rate are applied. A foreign currency bill comes in at your base currency until you change it.

The limits: the lines are yours. A bill with 14 lines is 14 lines of typing and coding. Nothing is checked against a purchase order, and no one is asked to approve it unless you set that up.

The Pulsify way

1. Forward the invoice to your company’s Pulsify address, or drop it on the Upload page. A phone photo works too.
2. Pulsify works out what each document is and splits PDFs that hold several invoices.
3. It reads every line and codes each to an account and GST, learning from how you coded that supplier before. Accuracy is 99%.
4. It checks for duplicates, changed bank details and ABNs. Only the exceptions need you.
5. After approval, Pulsify creates the bill in Xero with the PDF attached.

Worked example

Example Plumbing Supplies receives a bill from Example Pipe Co with 14 lines totalling $1,196.21. Seven lines are GST-free and seven are taxable.

Route	What you get	What you still do
Upload bills	Draft with contact, date, total	Enter 14 lines, set accounts and tax rates
Pulsify	Draft with 14 coded lines in Xero after approval	Look at what is flagged

If a bill with seven GST-free lines and seven taxable lines goes in as one tax-inclusive line at GST on Expenses, Xero works out GST on the whole amount. On a $1,196.21 total that is $108.75 of GST. The correct figure for this bill is $54.91. That is a $53.84 overclaim on one bill.

Check the result

After you approve the drafts, open one bill from each supplier and look at three things: the PDF is attached, the total matches the invoice and the due date follows the supplier’s terms. Then run the Bills to pay list and sort by due date. If a bill shows the wrong due date, Xero used your default terms, not the supplier’s. Fix the contact’s payment terms once so later bills come in right.

Common mistakes

• Approving the draft as it arrives. The total can be right while the tax is wrong.
• Leaving No contact on a draft. A supplier spelt two ways becomes two contacts with split history.
• Uploading receipts as bills. A paid receipt belongs in the Documents inbox.

Next step

Try an invoice and see a 14-line bill come in coded. Or book a call to find out how customers have saved hours per week after switching.

See the get invoices in guide for every way to send documents to Pulsify.