Xero customer statements: Outstanding vs Activity, and how to send them

Short answer: in Xero, go to Contacts > Customers, open the menu (⋮) at the top right and choose Send statements. Pick the statement type, Outstanding (what the customer owes on a date) or Activity (everything that happened on their account between two dates), set the date, click Update, tick the customers and email them. Statements are free on every Xero plan, but someone has to start each run: Xero has no setting that sends them every month by itself.

Use Outstanding when you want to be paid: it lists the invoices still unpaid and any open credits on the date you choose. Use Activity when a customer wants to match their records to yours: it starts from an opening balance and shows every invoice, payment and credit note in the period.

Menu names move between Xero releases. If a label below does not match your screen, search Xero Central for “send statements”.

Outstanding or Activity: which to send

	Outstanding statement	Activity statement
What it lists	Unpaid invoices and open credits on one date	Every invoice, payment and credit note between two dates
Starts from	Nothing: only what is still open	The balance owed on the start date
Fully paid invoices	Left out	Shown, with the payments against them
Total	What the customer owes on that date	The closing balance at the end date
Best for	Asking to be paid; customers with several open invoices	A customer reconciling their supplier account; a dispute about what was paid; year end

Both statements show the same total on the same date, because the closing balance of the account is what is still open. The difference is how much history comes with it.

Neither type can show only the overdue invoices. An Outstanding statement includes invoices that are not due yet, so a customer can read the total as overdue when part of it is not. The worked example shows how big that gap can be, and how to deal with it in the email.

A worked month: one customer, both statements

A Brisbane coffee roaster supplies a café on 14-day terms and invoices it about every fortnight. All amounts include GST, because statements show what the customer has to pay. On 1 October the café owed one invoice from September. During October:

• 6 Oct: the café pays INV-0412 ($3,520).
• 8 Oct: INV-0431 for $2,860, due 22 Oct.
• 15 Oct: INV-0440 for $3,190, due 29 Oct.
• 17 Oct: credit note CN-0019 for $240 for a damaged bag, not yet set against an invoice.
• 24 Oct: the café pays INV-0431 ($2,860).
• 29 Oct: INV-0452 for $2,970, due 12 Nov.

The Activity statement, 1 to 31 October, reads like a bank statement for the customer’s account. The columns on Xero’s PDF are named a little differently, but it carries the same lines:

Date	Activity	Amount	Balance
1 Oct	Opening balance		$3,520
6 Oct	Payment for INV-0412	−$3,520	$0
8 Oct	INV-0431, due 22 Oct	$2,860	$2,860
15 Oct	INV-0440, due 29 Oct	$3,190	$6,050
17 Oct	Credit note CN-0019	−$240	$5,810
24 Oct	Payment for INV-0431	−$2,860	$2,950
29 Oct	INV-0452, due 12 Nov	$2,970	$5,920
31 Oct	Balance due		$5,920

The check: opening $3,520, plus $9,020 invoiced, less $6,380 paid and the $240 credit, gives $5,920.

The Outstanding statement at 31 October leaves out the paid invoices and shows only what is open:

Item	Due	Amount
INV-0440	29 Oct (2 days overdue)	$3,190
INV-0452	12 Nov (not due yet)	$2,970
CN-0019	Credit	−$240
Total outstanding		$5,920

Same total, very different message. Of the $5,920, only $3,190 is past due, and $2,950 once the credit is used against it. If the email only says “please find your statement attached”, the café’s owner may pay all $5,920 a fortnight early, or decide it is wrong and pay nothing. A one-line covering note fixes that: “INV-0440 ($3,190) was due on 29 October; less your $240 credit, $2,950 is due now. INV-0452 is due on 12 November.”

It is also the moment to tidy the credit. An open credit note sitting on the account is easy to forget. Allocate it to INV-0440 in Xero so that both statements and the aged receivables report show $2,950 against that invoice.

How to send statements, step by step

1. Go to Contacts > Customers. Statements are sent from the customer list, not from Reports.
2. Click the menu (⋮) at the top right and choose Send statements.
3. Choose Outstanding and a date (usually the last day of last month), or Activity and a date range. Click Update.
4. Xero lists your customers with their statement balances. Tick the ones to send to. To send to one customer only, open the customer and choose the statement from their contact page.
5. Check the email address on each line. It is filled in from the contact record, and a customer with no email address cannot be emailed until you add one.
6. Check the message, then send. Xero emails each customer a PDF of their statement, using your branding theme.

Two things catch people out. The email is sent by Xero rather than from your own mailbox, so check what the customer sees (sender, reply address, wording) by sending one to yourself first. And Xero’s record of the send (in the contact’s history) shows that a statement went out, not what it said, so if a customer disputes a balance later, keep your own copy of the PDF.

When statements help, and when reminders are better

Xero’s invoice reminders chase one invoice at a time, automatically, a set number of days after it falls due. Statements show a customer their whole account. They do different jobs:

• Customers on account with several invoices a month (wholesale, trade, regular services). One statement a month is easier for their accounts team to pay from than five separate reminders.
• After a credit note or a part payment. A statement shows the customer what is left, so they do not pay the full original invoice twice or argue about a balance.
• Before you escalate. Send a statement before a firm phone call or a final notice, so you both start from the same figure. In the UK, the late payment interest calculator works out what you can add to a late business invoice.
• At year end. Many customers ask for an Activity statement to tie their supplier account to yours before their accounts are finalised.

For a one-off customer with one invoice, a statement adds nothing that a reminder does not already say.

A simple monthly routine is to send Outstanding statements in the first two working days of the month, to every customer on account with a balance, after the month’s invoices are approved and the bank is reconciled (the month end checklist puts both in order). Then a week later, open the Aged Receivables Summary and phone anyone with a large balance that has not moved. The who owes me money guide covers which customers to chase first.

What Xero’s statements cannot do

• No schedule. Someone has to start every run. Scheduled statements are a popular request on Xero’s product ideas forum; until it ships, put the run in your month-end routine, or use an add-on from the Xero App Store.
• No overdue-only statement. As in the worked example, Outstanding includes invoices not yet due. If you want a customer to see only what is late, run the Aged Receivables Detail report filtered to that customer, export it to PDF and attach it to your own email.
• No ageing columns on the statement. It lists the due dates but does not group them into 30, 60 and 90 days. The aged reports do that for you; they just are not sent to customers.
• It only shows what is in Xero. A payment the customer made that is not yet reconciled still shows as owing, so reconcile the bank before you send. Otherwise the first reply you get is “we paid that”.

If a balance has been owed for months and will not be paid, a statement will not change that; writing off a bad debt in Xero covers when and how to stop counting it.

Common questions

What is a customer statement in Xero? A document you send a customer that shows the state of their account with you: either the invoices and credits still open on a date (an Outstanding statement) or every transaction between two dates with opening and closing balances (an Activity statement). You send it from Contacts > Customers > Send statements.

What is the difference between an Activity and an Outstanding statement? An Outstanding statement lists only what is unpaid on the date you choose. An Activity statement starts with the balance on the start date and lists every invoice, payment and credit note in the period. On the same date both end at the same total; Activity just shows how the customer got there.

Can Xero send statements automatically every month? No. Xero can send statements to many customers at once, but a person has to start each run, and there is no setting for a monthly schedule. Invoice reminders, which are per invoice, can be automatic.

Can I send a statement showing only overdue invoices? Not as a statement. Outstanding statements include invoices that are not due yet. Run the Aged Receivables Detail report for that customer, export it to PDF and send it yourself, or say in your covering email which invoices are overdue and by how much.

Why does a payment still show on the statement as unpaid? The payment has not been reconciled in Xero, or it was reconciled but not matched to the invoice (for example, coded as income instead). Find it in the bank reconciliation and match it to the invoice, then send the statement again.

How often should I send customer statements? Monthly for customers on account with more than one invoice a month, in the first couple of working days after the month end. For customers who pay each invoice separately, invoice reminders are usually enough.

Do statements replace invoice reminders? No. Reminders are automatic and chase each invoice as it becomes late. Statements are a monthly view of the whole account. Most businesses that sell on account use both: reminders for each invoice, and a statement each month.

Seeing who is late every Monday

Statements are what your customers see. To see your own side, every week, without running a report, ReportPilot reads your Xero figures and sends a short plain-English email every Monday: money owed to you that is past due and by whom, cash in the bank against last month, and bills due in the next two weeks. It does not send statements or reminders to your customers. To see what late payers cost you in cash, try the free debtor days calculator. ReportPilot asks Xero for read-only access, and there is a 14-day free trial with no card.