Contact - Having custom fields on invoices and contacts
Ability to add a custom fields to a contact record that is able to be displayed on invoices
Purpose: Ability to include more information that’s unique to customers/business/industry that assist the transaction and relationship between customers

Hi everyone, we thoroughly appreciate your engagement and sharing how custom fields would be advantageous to you here.
With lots of work for 'building on beautiful' underway atm, we want to be honest that custom fields is not planned in the near term.
Some in the idea here, may find the recent addition of Notes that can be added within the Contact Details section of a contacts record useful in being able to record and view specific detail relative to a contact at present - More on this shared here
We'll continue to evaluate the viability of largely voted ideas such as this when there is resource, however this unlikely in the next 12 months.
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Donna Philpott commented
Yes, we can add extra details in the reference field on an invoice, but that's not adequate. You can't search for this information via the customer search option which means trawling through every invoice trying to find the one you are looking for. Extremely limited functionality in Xero regards setting out documents . This is a very disappointing part of the programme.
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Brett Talbot commented
Wow - this request was created in 2012!
We use XERO for two businesses and run a SaaS business for school management software and quite often find ourselves in the position of recommending accounting software.
It's fast getting to the point we will have to move away from XERO as the lack of a few custom/merge fields on the contact record causes us a *lot* of manual copying and pasting for each billing invoice we send.
I think XERO is missing a beat here.
Why not add a few fixed text fields (e.g. Custom 1 Text, Custom 2 Text) to the customer record and have them as merge fields in the email or document templates?
This would vastly improve things and I can't imagine this is very difficult to do.
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Ron Oettel commented
I am new to Xero. I thought the accounting side of the program is far more robust and “accounting like” than QuickBooks could ever imagine being. However, QuickBooks is a lot more flexible and adaptive when it comes to form customization. I am very disappointed that there is not a “service date” field, none customizable, and, apparently, based on Kelly Munro’s comments, nothing on the table. It seems that the “building on beautiful” with its “the only constant is change,” the notion that Xero has to stay ahead of its competition, etc., is nothing more than “building on beautiful” is more lip service than customer service. What a shame!!
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Maya Adamson commented
@ Xero, this is a VERY basic function that your customers are requesting. Not having this function impacts on our ability to service OUR customers, and it makes us look incompetent. We are tired of having to provide our customer with the excuse, "Our accounting software doesn't have that function". This basic function has been available with Quickbooks Online for over 12 years. I personally regret switching to XERO at the suggestion of my accountant. XERO is clearly tailored to meet the needs of accountants and is completely out-of-touch with the needs of it's end-users. I'm so sick of this ****. I want to go back to Quickbooks.
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Jo Russell commented
We have government clients who are asking to be sent invoices using the eInvoicing function, rather than pdf's via Xero's email function, BUT they also require a separate field to be added to the invoice header so that their system can recognise the invoice.
Without a custom field on the invoice header, we are unable to comply as we already use the Reference field for internal purposes. If we could add an internal reference field that can be seen on the Contact card in the same way the Reference field currently does, that would solve the issue. -
Vilma Rumbutis commented
Hello,
I had multiple clients asking for convenience fee addition to the invoice and had to disappoint them.
I suggest to implement a change to accommodate a convenience fee that is applied when clients pay via credit card, as opposed to account balance payments.The key requirement is to have this convenience fee calculated as a percentage of the total invoice amount and displayed as a separate line item at the bottom of the invoice in Xero.
For example, an invoice would look like this:
Services A $100.00
Services B $100.00
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SUBTOTAL $200.00
CONVENIENCE FEE 3.5% $7.00
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GRAND TOTAL $207.00Thank you
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nicole fitzgerald commented
I am converting from Reckon to Xero and paid and just realised that there is no column on the invoice to add a service date. We have the majority of our commercial cleaning business customers on a monthly single invoice that require several service dates within that month. Just realised that this is not possible.
Extremely disappointed as heard the Xero was the Rolls Royce in business programs. -
Toni Ankers commented
Hello, is there any update on this?
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Jennifer Fraser commented
Xero allows us to connect with so many apps - it would be great to have a couple of custom fields to allow us to i) keep records among different aps that relate to a specific customer and 2) allow us to add merged fields from a connected app.
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Miriam Odlin commented
Now 13 years later, this is still not implemented. Xero must have the resources to fix this. It is quite normal for invoiced to include a date delivered column. This should be simple to implement and useful for a a lot of customers. Please don't succumb to inshitification now that you have captured the market...
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M Concepcion Prado commented
Because I can't create an invoice that calculates quantity, price, and number of months (custom field), I have to create invoices manually for some services. Xero seemed like a great application, but the more I learn, the more disappointing it is to see that adding a custom field to the invoice is not on the roadmap in 2025.
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Amanda Cotton commented
Sad to see that this was raised 2 years ago now and still not being considered.
The notes function that was mentioned is helpful and all, but we cannot search for the contents of these notes to quickly see who has/hasn't signed up to something or who owns a specific item we need more information for.
The amount of time at month end and beyond that would be saved is what makes this very important for usMay we have an update as to if/when this may be considered? You can add custom fields for reports and orders, so why not for contacts and invoices?
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Kaitlin Radstaak commented
Seeking this functionality as our CRM has multiple reference fields available that we need to use, however when we export invoices to Xero there is only the one reference field. We desperately need multiple reference fields on Xero invoices to properly integrate and invoice providers who require more information. We don't have time to manually manipulate invoices when we have 1300 clients to invoice every month end. Xero, please listen to your paying customers and create more flexible invoicing options.
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Rach McDowall commented
NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
Kelly
This function is CRITICAL if we are to get VALUE out of XERO. We have Customers that need additional information, which can't be replicated in XERO from CIN7 due to XERO not having the option of ADDITIONAL FIELDS.
If we could, we would be able to MAXIMISE the function of AUTO REMINDERS for certain Customers. Our staff waste time resending unpaid invoices.
This function SHOULD ALREADY be in XERO. Other accounting software have it.Also you said that there was not likely to be any action for the next 12 months. That was back in March 2023. So it's now 2 years later.
Have XERO put this on the agenda yet?
If not, who do I need to talk to explain how important this function is. As a share holder, it ****** me off that XERO is not listening to their Customers (even though Xero is making money for me). To continue to focus on making money is a rather short sighted strategy as once you have Customers leave they will not come back.
I hope that the team making the call on what gets prioritised are not TECHNICAL PEOPLE or MARKETING PEOPLE but people with REAL BUSINESS knowledge -
Georges Pentecost commented
Restricting manipulation and ultimately usefulness of xero data - get the option of adding a custom field on both invoices and bills please. I can't understand why for instance "Order Number' is a customer field on Purchase Orders and doesn't follow through into Bills for instance. Come on, only a little adjustment - your stock is up 6%
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Rasmus Schleef commented
Mind boggling that this feature exists for Quotes in Xero but not for Invoices...
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Olivia Wilmington commented
We need to be able to add another box to add another reference on the invoices
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Karena Payne commented
We need specifc area's for reference numbers
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Edward Kingsley commented
We need dates! Wake up XERO
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Amber Cassidy commented
How is Xero so far behind here? I can't enter a PO number, a delivery address, an "attention to" name unique to each invoice. It seems like such a simple thing to do and I was surprised I couldn't find it anywhere. Thought I was going crazy.
Not only can Xero not do it, but it appears they have no intention on getting it up and running. "New Invoicing" Pffft! What a waste of time.
I know which software I will be referring clients back to. At least then they can do what they need and I don't have to listen to all the complaints.