Left-side lookup

Look Up Columns on the Left Side of the Match Column

Priya, a finance specialist, matches invoices to a bank export where the payment status sits to the left of Invoice No.

Problem

Priya needs to reconcile open invoices before month-end. Her accounting export uses Invoice No as the key, but in the bank report the fields she needs include Payment Status, which appears before the Invoice No column. A traditional VLOOKUP would require rearranging columns first; SheetMatch can bring columns from either side.

Demo Files

Main file: Invoices

Invoice No	Customer	Invoice Amount	Due Date
INV-1008	Acme Supply	$600	2026-05-15
INV-1011	Bright Labs	$420	2026-05-18
INV-1014	Northstar Co	$980	2026-05-20

Lookup file: Bank Payments

Payment Status	Payment Method	Invoice No	Payment Date	Paid Amount
Paid	Bank transfer	INV-1008	2026-05-10	$600
Paid	Credit card	INV-1014	2026-05-19	$980
Unapplied	Bank transfer	INV-1020	2026-05-21	$150

Recommended Options

Trim extra spaces for invoice numbers copied from accounting exports.
Use first match if each invoice should have only one payment record.

Result Preview

Result preview

Invoice No	Customer	Invoice Amount	Due Date	Payment Status	Payment Method	Payment Date	Paid Amount
INV-1008	Acme Supply	$600	2026-05-15	Paid	Bank transfer	2026-05-10	$600
INV-1011	Bright Labs	$420	2026-05-18	No match	No match	No match	No match
INV-1014	Northstar Co	$980	2026-05-20	Paid	Credit card	2026-05-19	$980

What This Shows

SheetMatch works more like XLOOKUP here: the return columns can be left or right of the match column.
Priya can spot unpaid invoices from blank payment fields without rearranging the bank export.