Use manual line items in Dext to split a receipt, bill, or invoice into multiple rows with different categories, customers, tax rates, or tracking fields.
Note: This article covers manually creating line items. If you want Dext to automatically extract line items from documents, see Using Line item extraction in Dext.
Create manual line items
To manually split a transaction into multiple rows:
Go to Costs or Sales.
Open the item you want to split.
Scroll to the Line items section.
Select Create line items.
The line item editor will open.
Add and edit line item rows
After selecting Create line items, you can enter each row manually.
For each line item, you can:
Enter a description
Select a Category
Assign Customer, Product/service, or tracking fields (if enabled)
Choose a Tax rate
Set Quantity and Unit price
Use + Add new line item to add additional rows.
The totals update automatically as you edit. The combined Net, Tax, and Total must match the item total.
When finished, select Done.
Bulk edit manual line items
You can update multiple manual line items at once.
Select the checkboxes next to 2 or more rows.
Select Bulk edit.
Update fields such as Category, tracking fields, Customer, or Tax rate.
Select Bulk edit to confirm.
The changes apply to all selected rows.
Note: The available tracking fields can vary depending on the connected accounting software.
Merge line items
You can combine multiple line items into 1 row.
Select the checkboxes next to 2 or more rows.
Select Merge line items.
Dext combines the selected rows and adds their Net, Tax, and Total values together.
After merging, the combined row appears without a description and shows a merge icon with a number indicator.
Select the merge icon to open the Merged line items modal and view the individual rows.
Unmerge line items
You can reverse a line item merge.
Open the merged line items view.
Select Unmerge all.
This restores the original individual line items.
What happens if totals don’t match?
When using line items, the sum of all rows must equal the item total.
If there’s a difference, Dext shows an “Out by” value at the bottom of the screen. You must resolve this before publishing or marking the item as ready.
Add remaining balance
The Add remaining balance button activates when the total of your line items does not match the item total.
To complete the split automatically:
Select Add remaining balance.
Dext creates a new line item for the remaining amount.
The new row is automatically labelled Remaining balance.
Edit the Description, Category, or other fields as needed.
This helps you quickly balance the transaction without manually calculating the difference.
Adjust the line items view
You can change how the document preview and line item editor are displayed.
Hide preview
Select Hide preview to remove the document preview from the screen.
Only the line item editor remains visible, giving you more space to edit rows.
Vertical split
Select Vertical split to display the document preview on the left and the line item editor on the right.
You can resize the sections by dragging the divider between them. Select Horizontal split to switch back.
Table settings
Use the settings icon in the upper-right corner of the line item table to customise visible columns and table density.
You can:
Show or hide columns such as Product/service, Customer, or Unit price
Adjust table density (Wide, Medium, Narrow)