Enter your idea

@Campbell Green, @Sarah Hart, also if you read the FAQ from Control-C they clearly state

"We have spent a considerable amount of time exploring the ability to restore data to Xero, and yes we can restore data, but just not enough to honestly say we can ‘Restore to Xero’. Our view is, that having so many gaps in a restore, and so many limitations on what can currently be restored means that a partial restore actually has little value to a business or accountant. To say otherwise is a play on words and simply misleading to unsuspecting Xero users."

So, I think that says it all !!
And any other 3rd party provider is in the same boat.

Thanks for suggesting Xero users purchase critical services from a third-party service provider @CampbellGreen. ... Alternatively, one could move to Quickbooks or MYOB which enable regular backups within the software subscription, and which take responsibility for the quality of those backups, instead of disclaiming and outsourcing all.

Hi everyone, as Kelly has mentioned above, you could simply plugin an App such as Control-C to do your automated backups for you. Simply search the name 'Control-C' or the key word 'backup' and plug them in.

If you mention that you found Control-C on a Xero community thread they will offer you a heavy discount for the first year right now.

Trying to vote and advise this is a 'CRITICAL' function, yet, even when logged in I can't vote. Good way for Xero to make sure functionality they don't care about/want to build doesn't get voted for. Just like Single Sign-on (SSO) for platforms like AzureAD (Entra ID). They are not taking their responsibilities relating to a being a cloud platform provider serious, let alone their responsibilities for providing these services under the new SOCI regulations within Australia. Think it's about time I take my business and clients elsewhere!

@DMC XERO-ADMIN with the issue that it seems that any and all 3rd party solutions don't have enough access to do a 100% full backup ... so not really an option at all. :-(

Looks like the only way is to relying on third-party paid services...

So we are continually being warned to back up and that there could be a large hacking event that could shut down the internet but Xero thinks it's unescessary to allow us to back up. Not good enough! 100% online models are doomed to fail. Our connectivity is becoming ever more intermittent and every time our connectivity stops so does our business because it is running on xero. Time to explore other options. We need to be able to back up who our customers are and how much they owe us daily. We also need to be able to work offline and then synchronise so that our business doesn't grind to a halt every time the internet slows due to increased use.

ah but guys, the programmers have been busy on developing the new reports that no-one was asking for and few people like!

I'd say quite a few senior managers would be saying the exact same thing after the breakdown of invoice and copy-to functionality two days ago. I wonder how many users spent enormous amounts of time recreating invoices only to have them drop out continually. Xero performed excruciatingly bad, not to mention the repeated data loss. It would have been a very big warning that Xero is not immune thinking it can run a serious application without built-in default user ability to back up automatically.

I also notice this product ideas area still doesn't recognise when a user is already logged into Xero. Is it worth mentioning this basic deficiency again to deaf ears? We're obviously wasting our time discussing anything of a higher order nature.

This should be a built in feature.

I fully agree with the comments below, I'd rather have the app provided or native to Xero or even recommended by Xero, than just have to search for one.

But, I still don't understand why Xero is not planning on adding this feature, it should already be happening. This is so critical and to palm this off is a bit ridiculous and slack on Xero's behalf.

What happens if Xero closes down, how do we get this backup that "aren't designed to be used by individual organisations" ??? Not to undo/reverse but to have in case we need it.

I fully support Colin's comments below, I'd rather have the app provided or native to Xero or even recommended by Xero, than just have to search for one.

A backup is a critical feature missing from XERO which would include all documents uploaded to support transactions such as invoices and receipts. For example if a company ceased trading for any reason the owner needs to retain all accounting records for 6 years and for this purpose a backup would be essential.

Nicholas, You make a very sound point. Xero will miss out on additional earnings when an account can't be recreated efficiently from a core backup. Probably many opportunities lost because I can also make the point that we are in the process of selling one of our company's divisions and likewise, if that division's operations can't be transferred easily, the other company will not consider using Xero but take on a different accounting app.

I must also say, in addition to the criticism Xero receives from users pointing out inaction for core requests over many years, it's hard to believe whether anyone in Xero ever joins in and gets emails responding to the Product ideas threads. Having to login here when you are already logged into Xero is frustrating and at odds with any sort of "beautiful" experience. Secondly, I can't count the number of years every forum email I receive has that blue Xero logo so large, so crude and ugly, it has never been coded correctly to show in a user's email client such as Outlook, correctly. That over-blown, pixilated logo is so beyond it's intended use, it's not only ugly, it pushes content so far down one becomes tired of even bothering to scroll down enough to read what might be written by new users or those of us who have been around for some years almost ready to quit. Goes to show that no-one, I mean NO ONE employed by Xero has ever come to these forums as a user and added comment, or they would have noticed that ugly Xero logo and done something about it - at least since 2018 when I joined!

This would be a good idea. I have requests from clients that would like to create an exact duplicate of a current Xero organisation to run parallel.

However, there is no such feature yet. Which means that I would have to export out thousands of invoices and supplier bills and reimport everything in if I would like to create an exact duplicate.

I also replied to the email received from Sukhinder - it appears we are unable to have open communication as advised... I received the following response to my email:

Beautiful accounting software

Hey there,

Looks like you’ve replied to one of our no-reply email addresses.

If you’ve got a question about how to use Xero, the best place to start is Xero Central.

Thanks,
The Xero Team

I Tweeted the following:
"Have you actually used Xero for running any of your businesses and if so, which businesses? Xero feature requests and fixes have been fobbed off or unattended to for many years totally frustrating users!"

Everyone send the new CEO a tweet about this feature request!
https://twitter.com/sukhindersingh?s=20

The new Xero CEO sprouts lots about running businesses prior to her appointment but not once did I read that she actually used Xero! Why would anyone be appointed to the CEO position if they have had no experience actually using Xero to run a business?!

Let's see how fast all the feature requests are implemented. Good starting point would be to implement cases first requested by Xero users a decade ago and continually asked for since. While she's at it, it would be nice to be auto logged into this product ideas interface when one is already logged into Xero!

Note the reply from the ceo@xero.com is

"Thanks for reaching out to ceo@xero.com - I love hearing from you and getting your feedback.

Emails to this inbox will be monitored by the Xero team and we’ll do our best to respond where possible.

If you have a support query, please continue to reach out via Xero Central. For all feature requests and product ideas, please go to Xero Product Ideas.

Best wishes,
Sukhinder and the Xero team"

So we can only hope that the Xero team will report back to her.