How to email a Xero Profit and Loss automatically every month

Short answer: Xero cannot email a Profit and Loss on a schedule by itself. You can save a custom Profit and Loss and export it as a PDF or spreadsheet, but someone still has to run it, attach it and send it every month. To make it automatic, use an app that connects to Xero, pulls the report fresh on the day you choose (after your month-end close, not the 1st) and emails it to the recipients you list, ideally with a check by the bookkeeper before it reaches the client.

A monthly Profit and Loss is the report most business owners actually read. It answers the simple questions: did we make money last month, where did it come from, and where did it go. For a bookkeeper or accountant, sending it is usually a small task. The problem is that it is a small task repeated for every client, every month, and it only gets done if someone remembers.

This guide covers what Xero gives you out of the box, the manual routine most people use today, and the decisions worth making before you automate any of it.

What Xero does natively

Xero’s reporting is strong for producing a Profit and Loss on demand. At the time of writing you can:

• Run the Profit and Loss at any time with live figures, choosing the date range and comparison periods (up to twelve months side by side; see Profit and Loss by month).
• Customise the layout and save it as a custom report, so the same version can be re-run each month.
• Export it as a PDF, a Microsoft Excel file or a Google Sheets spreadsheet, according to Xero Central.
• Publish a finalised version. Published reports are locked so they cannot be edited afterwards, which is useful as a record of what was reported. In Xero’s user role tables, publishing is an Adviser role permission.
• Share with your adviser. Xero promotes sharing reports with your adviser so you can discuss them together, and anyone with a suitable user role in the organisation can open the report themselves.

What Xero does not currently do is send a Profit and Loss to someone’s inbox on a schedule. Automatic generation and emailing of reports has been one of the longest-running requests on Xero’s public product ideas forum. In May 2026 Xero said its reporting team was exploring ways to email and auto-schedule reports, and at the time of writing the idea is marked “In discovery”. Features change and can vary by plan and region, so check Xero Central for the current state in your edition before building a process around this.

If one person reads the report and they already log in to Xero, the native tools may be all you need. Save a custom Profit and Loss, open it after month-end, and you are done.

The manual monthly routine

Where the reader is a director, owner or board member who does not log in to Xero, the usual process looks like this:

1. Finish reconciling the bank accounts for the month.
2. Post any month-end journals (accruals, prepayments, depreciation).
3. Open the saved custom Profit and Loss and set the date range to last month.
4. Check the figures look sensible against prior months.
5. Export to PDF, and sometimes Excel as well.
6. Attach the files to an email, write a short covering note and send.
7. Repeat for the next client.

None of these steps is difficult. Steps 1 and 2 need judgement. Steps 3 to 7 do not, but they still take time and they are the steps most likely to slip in a busy month.

Decisions to make before automating

Automation is easy to set up and easy to get wrong. A few minutes on these questions will save awkward conversations later. (If you are still choosing how to automate it, the options compared covers exporting by hand, asking readers to log in, Partner Hub packs, reporting suites, general automation tools and delivery apps.)

When in the month should it send?

The figures can only be as good as the books on the day the report is generated. If bank feeds are reconciled by the 5th and journals posted by the 7th, a send on the 1st will deliver an incomplete picture. Pick a send day that sits after your normal close, not on the first of the month by default.

Who are the recipients?

List them explicitly. A Profit and Loss that goes to two directors and an external investor is a different document, in terms of sensitivity, from one that goes only to the owner. Keep the recipient list short and review it when people change roles.

Which format does each reader need?

• PDF for people who want to read it on a phone or print it.
• Excel for people who want to add their own notes, charts or comparisons.
• CSV for anyone loading the numbers into another tool.

Sending all three is often simplest, since each reader opens the file they prefer.

Does someone need to check it first?

This is the most important question. A fully automatic send is fine for a client whose books are always closed on time. For anyone else, a review step is safer: the report is prepared on schedule, a person looks at it, and only then does it go to the client.

Common pitfalls

• Unreconciled transactions. Uncoded bank lines can make income or expenses look very different from reality. Check the reconciliation status before anything is sent.
• Cash versus accrual basis. Make sure the basis matches what the reader expects, and keep it consistent month to month.
• Wrong period. A report covering “this month” sent on the 3rd shows three days of activity. Be clear about which period each send covers.
• No context. A Profit and Loss with no covering note invites questions. Even one line (“revenue up on last month, two large supplier bills landed”) helps. If you send Xero’s Management Report, its cover page, notes and commentary are the place for it.

Automating the monthly email with ReportPilot

If the manual routine is the part you want to remove, a scheduling tool can take over steps 3 to 7. ReportPilot is one option built for this. It connects to Xero with read-only access, pulls the Profit and Loss fresh from Xero at send time, and emails it as a combined PDF, XLSX and CSV to the recipients you choose on a weekly, monthly or quarterly schedule.

For clients where you want a check before anything goes out, approval mode sends the pack to the bookkeeper first with an “Approve & send” link, so the client only receives it once you are happy with the numbers. The Profit and Loss can also be combined with other reports, such as the Balance Sheet or an Executive Summary, if the client wants more than one page; see how to send a monthly management pack from Xero.

Whatever tool you use, the setup is the same: decide the send day, the recipients, the formats and whether a review step is needed, then let the schedule handle the repetition. ReportPilot has a 14-day free trial with no card, so you can set up one client’s monthly Profit and Loss and see the first send before paying.

Common questions

Can Xero send reports automatically? Not at the time of writing. Xero can run, save, export and publish a Profit and Loss, but there is no built-in option to email it to someone on a schedule. Scheduled emailing needs a separate app connected to Xero, or a person doing it by hand each month.

What day of the month should the report send? After your normal month-end close. If the bank is reconciled by the 5th and journals are posted by the 7th, send on the 8th or later. A report sent on the 1st covers last month, but before the books for it are finished.

Can I check the report before the client gets it? Yes, if your tool has a review step. In ReportPilot, approval mode emails the pack to the bookkeeper first with an “Approve & send” link, and the client only receives it after you approve.

Which format should I send the Profit and Loss in? PDF for owners and directors who read on a phone or print it, Excel for anyone who adds their own notes or charts, and CSV for loading into another tool. If you are not sure, send the PDF and Excel together.

Is it safe to connect Xero to a reporting app? Look for read-only access, so the app can read reports but not change your books, and check that you can disconnect it from Xero at any time. ReportPilot asks Xero for read-only access only.