Guides for keeping your Xero archive honest.
How-tos, export walkthroughs, and compliance notes for small businesses and bookkeepers who need records they can open without a live Xero seat.
Why Ziroo backups stay readable without Ziroo
The Ziroo feature I'm proudest of is one we refused to build: there is no portal where you view your backups. No vault, no viewer, no "log in to browse your archive." Ziroo delivers plain PDF and CSV files into your inbo...
When a client leaves: the bookkeeper's records guide
The email arrives eleven months after the disengagement letter. The client's new accountant, polite and slightly harried: "We're missing the supporting documents for several 2024 transactions. Could you send through what...
Xero is down: what you can do (and what you can't)
If you're reading this while the Xero login page spins: check status.xero.com to confirm it's an outage, stop refreshing, and skip to the "keep trading" list below. The rest of this page is for afterwards, and for making...
ATO record keeping rules for small business, in plain English
The ATO's record keeping requirements have a reputation for complexity they don't quite deserve. The core of it fits in a sentence: keep the records that explain your tax affairs for at least five years, in a form you ca...
Xero data export: every option, one table (2026)
People searching "Xero data export" are usually looking for one button, the one that hands over everything. That button doesn't exist. What exists is a scattering of export options across different screens, each with its...
What happens to your invoices if you cancel Xero?
Cancelling a software subscription is usually a two-minute job. Cancelling the software that holds five years of your invoices deserves a slower hand, because the question that matters gets asked too late, usually about...
How to back up Xero to Dropbox (3 ways)
Half the bookkeeping world runs on Dropbox. If yours does, you've probably received the shared folder invitation ("FY2026 Records") along with a polite request to keep it current, and then discovered the awkward truth: X...
How to back up Xero to Google Drive (3 ways)
It's the last week of the quarter and your accountant sends the familiar email: "Can you drop the invoices and reports into the shared Drive folder before Friday?" So begins the ritual. Log into Xero, export, download, r...
How to back up Xero: the complete guide (2026)
Somewhere in Xero's terms of use, in a section most subscribers have never opened, there's a sentence that makes this guide necessary: "You're responsible for maintaining copies of your data entered into our services." X...
Does Xero back up your data? Yes, but not for you
Short answer: yes, Xero backs up its systems. Xero replicates data between data centres, encrypts it, and maintains internal backups it can attempt recovery from. But that backup exists to keep the platform running, and...
Xero data loss: the terms say backups are your job
There's a sentence in Xero's terms of use that most subscribers have never read. It sits in section 37, under the heading "Data loss":
How to export Xero invoices to PDF (all four ways)
Your accountant emails on a Tuesday afternoon: "Can you send through last quarter's invoices as PDFs?" Easy enough, you think. Then you open Xero and go looking for the export button.