Line item grouping lets Dext automatically combine extracted line items based on their description, tax percentage, or both. This creates cleaner entries in your accounting software and reduces manual review time.
Important: Only Admin users - including accountants and bookkeepers accessing a client account - can set up and manage line item grouping.
Before you start
Line item grouping requires Line Item Extraction to be enabled for the relevant supplier or customer. If you haven't set that up yet, see How to use Line Item Extraction in Dext.
Create line item groups
Line item groups define how Dext groups extracted lines. For example, a group called Vehicle Hire can group lines with descriptions like car hire, van rental, or hire company names - and assign them to a category automatically.
You manage line item groups from Business settings > Lists > Line item groups.
To add groups, choose one of the following:
Select template - use a pre-made template with suggested groups for your region. You can edit templates after selecting them.
Import from CSV - upload a CSV containing your groups.
Add new line item group - create a group manually.
When an invoice is processed, Dext uses these groups to suggest the correct category automatically.
Set grouping rules
Once you've created your line item groups, you can set grouping rules at supplier level for Costs, or at customer level for Sales.
For Costs:
Go to Costs > Suppliers.
Open a supplier with Line Item Extraction enabled.
Under Group line items by, choose how you want items grouped:
Line item group
Tax percentage
Line item group and tax percentage
For Sales:
Go to Sales > Customers.
Open a customer with Line Item Extraction enabled.
Under Group line items by, choose how you want items grouped:
Line item group
Tax percentage
Line item group and tax percentage
Tip: You can also access these grouping options from the Set supplier rules or Set customer rules link on the Item details page.
Automatically add a balancing line
When line items are extracted, the total of the extracted lines may not always match the document total exactly. Enabling Automatically add balancing line creates an additional line for any remaining unallocated amount, so you don't need to balance it manually.
You can enable this from the supplier or customer rules page alongside your grouping settings.
Review grouped line items
When Dext has automatically grouped line items, a brain icon appears next to them on the Item details page. This indicates the lines have been categorised and grouped based on your line item group settings.
To review how items were grouped:
On the Item details page, select Edit line items.
Grouped line items are shown together, with an invoice icon indicating how many individual lines are included.
Select the group to view the individual line details.
If the grouping isn't correct, select the grouped lines and select Unmerge to split them back into individual line items.
Merge line items manually
You can also merge line items manually from the Edit line items view. This is useful when you want to combine specific lines that haven't been grouped automatically.
To merge line items manually:
On the Item details page, select Edit line items.
Select the checkboxes next to the lines you want to merge.
Select Merge line items.
The selected lines are merged into a single row with a numbered badge showing how many lines are included. The description field is blank by default — you can type a name for the group directly in the field.
To review or undo a manual merge, select the grouped row to open the Merged line items modal, then select Unmerge all.