Invoices posted twice after a migration or conversion: a guide for Xero users

The move to Xero is done, but the aged receivables are twice what the old system said. Open invoices came across twice: once from the conversion, once from an import or an integration. This guide covers how that happens, how to check it against the conversion balances, how to remove the extra copies by hand, and how to void a large batch of them in one run.

Checked against Xero Central on 16 October 2026.

How open invoices end up in the books twice

• Two people loaded them. A conversion service brought the open invoices across, and someone also imported them from a CSV or entered them by hand. Xero's own import skips an invoice number that already exists (Import customer invoices), but numbers can change along the way. MMC Convert's FAQ, for example, says duplicate numbers from the old system are made unique by adding a character (MMC Convert FAQ). A copy under a slightly different number is a new invoice to Xero.
• Dated after the conversion date. Xero expects the pre-conversion transactions to be the unpaid invoices and bills, dated before the conversion date, at their outstanding amounts (Troubleshooting conversion balances). An open invoice re-entered with a later date counts as a new sale on top of the balance brought across.
• History brought in again. A sales connector backfilling past weeks after the move posts what the conversion already holds. That case has its own guide: duplicates after a sales sync.

The manual way, step by step

1. Hold the bank reconciliation. Xero's tips say not to reconcile bank accounts until all unpaid invoices and bills are in, to avoid duplicate transactions (Tips for entering conversion balances). The same holds while you remove copies.
2. Compare the totals. The unpaid invoices and bills must add up to the accounts receivable and payable conversion balances; Xero suggests checking against the aged summaries for the day before the conversion date (Enter unpaid invoices and bills for your conversion balances). Run the same report in the old system and note which customers differ.
3. Find the pairs. For each customer that differs, search by contact and amount (Search for sales and purchase transactions). Look for the same amount and date under two numbers.
4. Delete the drafts. Imports arrive as drafts, and drafts can be deleted several at a time from the Draft tab (Delete or void an invoice).
5. Void the approved copies. Sales invoices are voided one at a time; bills can be voided several at a time from the Awaiting Payment tab (Delete or void a bill). To keep the original number on the surviving copy, change the extra copy's number before you void it.
6. Save the conversion balances again. Each save reverses the previous conversion journal and posts a new one (Enter conversion balances), so the receivables figure is right once the copies are gone.

Where the manual way runs out

• Volume. A conversion can bring hundreds of open invoices. If they all came across twice, that is hundreds of separate voids: Xero says awaiting payment invoices can't be voided in bulk.
• Paid copies. If a customer payment was matched to the wrong copy, remove the payment first and reconcile the bank line again (Delete an invoice or bill payment).
• Lock dates. If the accountant has already locked the conversion period, nothing dated on or before the lock date can be changed (Set up or remove lock dates).
• Voids are permanent. A voided invoice can't be restored, so a wrong pick costs a re-entry.

The faster way for the approved copies: Unapprove

Unapprove is a web app that works with Xero. It does not compare your books with the old system and it does not touch the conversion balances: you find the copies with the steps above. It then voids a whole selection of them for you.

• Select by what the copies share. Filter approved sales invoices and bills by date range, contact, number, reference or amount owing. Copies loaded in one go can be picked out by their dates and numbers.
• A backup before anything runs. The preview offers a CSV of the selection: numbers, references, contacts, dates, totals, amounts paid. Keep it with the conversion file.
• Void in one run. Type the count, for example VOID 40. The run voids in batches of 50, re-reads each document first, and adds a history note to each.
• If the copy that stays needs work. The unapprove run makes a draft copy with the same number, contact, dates, lines and attachments, then voids the original, so you can correct it and approve it again.

What it skips, and tells you why: documents with a payment applied (why), documents in a locked period (why), and documents for an archived contact (why). Each run has a ceiling on the number of documents; a large conversion is cleared in a few runs.

What access it asks for: your name and email to sign you in, read and write on invoices and bills, read and write on attachments, and read-only on organisation settings and contacts.

Price: free for 14 days, with unlimited previews and three documents processed in total. After that, $29 per month per connected organisation, or a one-off $49 Clean-up Pass for 7 days and up to 500 documents, which suits a one-off conversion clean-up. Prices are in US dollars and exclude VAT and sales tax (added at checkout); the pricing page has the details.

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