One purchase, two receipts: PayPal, marketplaces and double documents

Pay through PayPal and you get two emails: PayPal's payment receipt and the merchant's own order confirmation. Same purchase, same dollars, two documents. Marketplaces, booking platforms and payment processors all do a version of this. If both land in your receipt archive — and if you've set capture up properly, they will — your totals now count that purchase twice.

The wrong fix: delete one

The instinct is to trash the "extra" one. But the two documents aren't interchangeable. The processor's receipt proves you paid; the merchant's invoice says what you bought, usually carries the ABN and the GST breakdown, and is the one your accountant actually wants. Warranty claims can go the other way — the merchant document names the product, the payment record proves the date and amount. You want both in the file.

The right fix: link them as the same purchase

When rct-keep flags the pair as possible duplicates, don't choose between them — mark them as the same purchase and pick which one counts. Both stay stored, searchable and attached to their originals; only the one you chose contributes to totals, summaries and exports. The other is kept as proof of payment, labelled as such on its receipt page.

Change your mind later? The linked pair shows on both receipts' detail pages with an unlink button. And if the counted receipt ever ends up in the trash, the supporting copy automatically starts counting again — the purchase never silently vanishes from your totals.

When it really is a duplicate

Forwarded the same email twice, or uploaded a PDF that inbox scanning had already imported? That's a true duplicate — same document, not two views of one purchase. Trash one from the duplicates page and move on. The distinction to keep in mind: two copies of one document → trash one; two documents for one purchase → link them.

And when it's neither

Two flat whites, same cafe, same price, same day, two genuinely separate visits — the detector will reasonably ask. That's what "these are different receipts — keep both" is for. Nothing is deleted, nothing is linked, both count.

This works even better inside Receipt Keep — start a 14-day free trial.