Xero report scheduling: what Xero does and doesn't do

Short answer: At the time of writing Xero does not email reports on a schedule. It automates invoice reminders, repeating invoices and the send time of one-off invoices, and it produces reports, saved layouts and report packs on demand, but each report still has to be run, exported and sent by hand. Xero said in May 2026 that it was exploring scheduled report emails (marked “In discovery”). If your readers log in to Xero, that may be enough; if they want the numbers in their inbox every week or month, or you look after many organisations, you need another app.

“Can Xero email my reports automatically?” is one of the most common questions bookkeepers and business owners ask. The short answer, at the time of writing, is that Xero automates a lot of things, but sending reports to an inbox on a schedule is not yet one of them.

This guide sets out what Xero does natively, what it does not, and how to decide whether the native tools are enough for you. Xero releases features regularly, and availability can vary by plan and region, so treat this as a snapshot and confirm the details on Xero Central for your edition.

What Xero automates well

Xero has a good deal of built-in automation, mostly around transactions and customers:

• Invoice reminders. Xero can automatically email customers when an invoice is due or overdue. Xero Central describes up to five reminders, each set to a number of days before or after the due date.
• Repeating invoices. Invoice templates can repeat on a schedule, and Xero can create and send them for you.
• Scheduled sending of one-off invoices. In July 2026 Xero announced that choosing the day and time a one-off invoice is sent is live for all users. Xero noted this applies to one-off invoices, not to repeating invoices, reminders, statements or payslips.
• Live analytics. Xero’s own site says core analytics features, including business snapshot, short-term cash flow and Profit and Loss trends, are included across its plans, with Analytics Plus adding longer forecasts on some plans or as an add-on. Plan names and inclusions differ by region. For what Xero’s analytics does and does not do next to a weekly email, see ReportPilot vs Xero’s own analytics.

What Xero does well for reports

Xero’s reporting module is strong at producing reports on demand:

• Live reports such as the Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, Executive Summary, Budget Summary, Aged Receivables, Aged Payables and Bank Summary.
• Custom layouts that you can save and re-run (see the Xero reports guide for the six reports an owner needs and how to save a custom one).
• A Management report and custom report packs, so you can bundle several reports and run them together.
• Publishing, which creates a locked, read-only version of a finalised report. Xero’s user role documentation lists publishing as an Adviser role permission.
• Export to PDF, Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, with options such as style, name and watermark when exporting to PDF.

For someone who logs in to Xero and runs their own reports, this is a complete toolkit.

What Xero does not currently do

The gap is delivery. At the time of writing:

• Reports are not emailed on a schedule. Automatic generation and emailing of reports is one of the oldest requests on Xero’s public product ideas forum, first raised in 2014. In May 2026 Xero said its reporting product team was exploring ways to email and auto-schedule reports directly from Xero, and the idea is marked “In discovery”. Some Xero marketing pages refer to scheduling report emails, so if you need certainty, check Xero Central for your edition or ask Xero support directly.
• Customer statements are not sent automatically. Statements can be sent manually. Automatic statement emails are also listed as “In discovery” on the product ideas forum, with Xero reporting further discovery work in August 2026.
• Invoice reminders go to customers only. They are designed to get invoices paid, not to keep directors informed about receivables.

Native versus scheduled: a quick comparison

Need	Native Xero	Notes
Run a report with live figures	Yes	Any time, from the reports area
Save a custom layout	Yes	Re-run each month
Bundle reports into a pack	Yes	Management report and custom report packs
Lock a final version	Yes	Publishing (Adviser role)
Export to PDF, Excel, Google Sheets	Yes	Manual, per report or pack
Remind customers about overdue invoices	Yes	Invoice reminders
Email reports to directors on a schedule	Not at the time of writing	Listed as “In discovery”
Email statements to customers on a schedule	Not at the time of writing	Listed as “In discovery”

When native Xero is enough

You probably do not need anything else if:

• the people who read the reports log in to Xero themselves;
• you have one or two organisations and a few minutes to export and email after month-end;
• your readers are happy to look at published reports inside Xero.

In those cases, a saved custom report pack and a calendar reminder to send it may be all you need.

When a scheduling tool helps

A separate tool starts to earn its place when:

• Readers do not log in. Directors, investors or lenders who want the numbers in their inbox, not another login.
• You manage many organisations. Fifteen clients times one pack a month is fifteen rounds of open, run, export and email.
• Timing matters. A weekly receivables summary every Monday is easy to promise and easy to forget.
• You want a review step that does not depend on memory. The pack is prepared on schedule and waits for a person to approve it.

Third-party apps on the Xero App Store cover this need in different ways, so compare a few against how you actually work. Automating Xero report emails: the options compared sets the main approaches side by side, from a manual monthly routine to dedicated delivery apps.

Questions to ask any scheduling tool

• What access does it need? Read-only access to Xero is sufficient for reporting and limits what can go wrong.
• When are figures taken? Figures pulled at send time reflect the books on that day. Cached data may be out of date.
• Which reports and formats does it support? Check that the reports your readers rely on are included, in the file types they use.
• Is there an approval option? For clients whose books are not always closed on time, a review step before sending is important.
• How does pricing scale? Per-organisation pricing matters if you work across many clients.

Common questions

Can Xero email reports automatically? Not at the time of writing. You can run, save and bundle reports, and export them to PDF, Excel or Google Sheets, but sending them to an inbox on a schedule is not built in. Automatic report emails have been requested on Xero’s product ideas forum since 2014, and in May 2026 Xero said its reporting team was exploring them.

Can I schedule a Profit and Loss to be sent every month in Xero? Not natively. The closest native routine is a saved custom report pack plus a calendar reminder to run, export and email it after month-end. The monthly Profit and Loss guide sets out that routine and the ways to automate it.

What can Xero send on a schedule? Invoice reminders (up to five, before or after the due date), repeating invoices, and one-off invoices at a day and time you choose. All of these go to customers. Customer statements are sent manually.

Do invoice reminders tell directors what is owed? No. They go to the customer to get the invoice paid. A director who wants a weekly view of receivables needs an aged summary sent to them; see aged receivables reports for directors.

How much time does sending reports by hand take? It depends on the number of organisations. One pack is a few minutes. At 10 minutes per pack, 15 clients with one monthly pack each is 150 minutes, two and a half hours a month, and a weekly receivables summary for those same clients adds another 60 to 75 packs a month (four or five Mondays each).

What should I check before using a scheduling app? That it needs read-only access to Xero, pulls figures at send time rather than from a cached copy, supports the reports and file types your readers use, lets you approve a pack before it goes, and has pricing that still works at your number of organisations.

ReportPilot as one option

ReportPilot is built for the delivery gap described above. It connects to Xero with read-only access and emails report packs (including the Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, Executive Summary, Budget Summary, aged receivables and payables summaries, Bank Summary, and lists of unpaid invoices, invoices raised, draft invoices and unpaid bills) as a combined PDF, XLSX and CSV on a weekly, monthly or quarterly schedule. Figures are pulled fresh from Xero at send time, and approval mode sends the pack to the bookkeeper first with an “Approve & send” link. There is a 14-day free trial with no card.

For a closer look at specific workflows, see emailing a Profit and Loss every month, sending a monthly management pack, aged receivables reports for directors and five ways bookkeepers send Xero reports to clients.