When to use line items
Line items let you break an invoice or bill into individual entries and apply coding to each one. Use them when you need to split a single document across different ledger accounts, tax codes, tracking categories, or inventory items - rather than coding the whole document as one line.
Plan and view requirements
Two things must be in place before the line items view is available and active on a document.
👉 Is line item extraction included in my plan?
Line item extraction is a paid plan feature. If your subscription does not include line items, the line items view won't display any line items. To check whether your plan includes line items, open your account settings or contact Datamolino support.
👉 Why don't I see the line items table on my document?
The line items table only appears when the document's export view is set to Line Items. If the document is set to Invoice Total or Tax Summary, you will see document-level totals instead. To see the line items table, switch to the Line Items view using the radio button options on the document.
👉 When is the table locked?
The line items table is read-only when the document is in a processing state (uploading, extracting, templating, repairing, exporting), when it is archived or in trash, or when it is locked by approval flow (awaiting approval or already approved, if the folder locks documents on submission). Move the document back to an editable state to make changes.
Learn more about how export formats differ in Export formats: Totals, Line items, or Tax summary compared.
Switching to the line items table
To see the line items table, switch to the Line Items view using the radio button options on the document.
If you process line item invoices regularly for the supplier, set Line Items as the default view for the supplier in the supplier automation.
If you process line items for all (or most) of your invoices in the folder, set Line Items as the default view for the entire folder.
What gets captured for each line
When a document is processed with line item extraction, Datamolino reads each line from the invoice or bill and fills the table automatically. The fields captured per line are:
Description - the text of the line as it appears on the document
Quantity - where shown on the source document
Amounts - as they appear on the invoice
👉 What about unit price?
Unit price is calculated in the background based on the total and quantity.
👉 What about coding options?
Coding fields such as ledger account, tax code, and tracking categories are not captured from the document itself. They are populated from your connected accounting software and applied by you (or by automation rules) on each line.
Adding, editing, and deleting lines
👉 How to add a line item manually?
Click Add line at the bottom of the table. A new blank row appears for you to fill in. Manually added lines behave the same as captured lines - they can be coded, included in the checksum, and exported.
👉 How to delete a line item?
Use the delete action on the row you want to remove. The document totals update automatically. If you delete every captured line and leave the table empty while the export format is still set to Line Items, export will be blocked - see "The at least one line item rule" below.
👉 Can I edit several lines at once?
Yes. Open the document in Fullscreen view to bulk edit lines, apply the same coding across multiple lines, and save the result as a rule for future documents.
Coding columns by accounting software
The coding columns shown in the line items table depend on the accounting software connected to the folder. The data columns (description, quantity, amounts, tax) are the same everywhere; the coding columns differ.
Xero folders
Ledger Account - the Xero account each line is posted to
Tax code - the Xero tax rate applied to the line
Tracking categories - one column per active tracking category in Xero
Inventory item - shown when the folder has inventory items enabled in its settings
QuickBooks folders
Account and tax code per line
Class and Customer columns where these are configured in QuickBooks
FreeAgent folders
Account and tax code per line
Unit column for FreeAgent
Offline folders (no accounting software connected)
The data columns are still available so you can capture and edit lines, but integration-specific coding columns are not shown.
Codes pulled from your accounting software are kept in sync when you reconnect the folder or refresh the connection, so new accounts, tax codes, and tracking categories become available in the drop-downs.
The "at least one line item" rule
When the export format is set to Line Items, the document must have at least one line in the table. If the table is empty, export is blocked and you will see the error "Items - size cannot be less than 1".
There are two ways to resolve it:
Switch the Export as: selector back to Invoice Total (or Tax Summary) so the document exports at the document level instead.
Add at least one line manually using Add line, then code and save it.
How does automation work for line items
👉 Description matching
Datamolino remembers the coding from the last time a line item was exported. This is based on the exact line item description. If the same description appears on a future invoice from the same supplier, the coding is applied automatically — no manual input needed.
👉 Keyword Rules
If line item descriptions vary but share common words, you can set up Keyword Rules to automate coding based on those words. Learn more about Keyword Rules
👉 Bill Split
If you need to divide an invoice total across multiple ledger accounts or tracking categories without coding each line individually, use Bill Split. Rules can be saved and applied automatically for specific suppliers. Learn more about Bill Split
Checksum validation for line items
Checksum validation checks that your line items add up to the invoice summary before the document is exported to your accounting software.
👉 Why it matters
If the totals don't match, it usually means a line item is missing or was coded with a wrong tax code. Exporting with a mismatch would create an error in your accounting software.
👉 How it works
The checksum widget shows two rows:
Invoice Summary - the amounts captured directly from the invoice document (what's printed on the bill). This row is not exported - it exists only for comparison.
Line Items Sum - the total of all your individual line items as coded in Datamolino. This is what gets exported to your accounting software.
When both rows match, the export goes through. When they don't, Datamolino blocks the export so you can fix the discrepancy first.
👉 How to fix a checksum error
Check your line items - are any amounts wrong or missing? Are they coded correctly?
Amend the invoice total - if the line items are correct but the captured total is off, update the invoice summary to match.
👉 Turning validation off
You can disable checksum validation per document (inside the document view) or per supplier (in Supplier Automation settings). This is useful for invoices where a mismatch is expected or acceptable.
