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Hello!

Regarding the download attachment beta project I have here: https://x-extentions.vercel.app/

Hope all is well here, I have some updates for the bills feature, looks like I've been able to fix the issue of timing out when downloading many files. So far I've clocked that it takes around1.2 seconds per attachment (which is very close to the 60 requests per minute limitation)! and keeping in mind that the maximum number of requests a user can make per 24 hours is 5000. So it may be that there needs to be something done on my end to arrange a long running task some point in the future.

I noticed a couple of things will stifle it at the moment, if you have a weirdly named file like ".png.pdf" which may confuse the compute to wonder about the actual format of the file. I'll report more on the other potential ways later, but fingers crossed it works for most of you 🤞

Would appreciate it if you let me know how you get on

Kind Regards

Hi Platypus,

Apologies for the late reply as I have to log in after work.

Quick note before I reply, the site https://x-extentions.vercel.app/ will be moved to a more permanent home, for now I'm just testing the reception of this idea.

I do have some good news in that I have attached error logging/monitoring now, so I should be able to see what errors users are seeing, and based on what I have been experimenting with larger numbers of attachments to download, it seems that the server I was hosting this app on was configured to time out after 10 seconds. However with your case it's slightly a different thing, it seems I may not have configured the request timing properly, and therefore Xero may have just said "nope, too many requests" and thrown it back.

Thanks for reading through the long windedness! I will be working on it for sure, I also attached a screen shot on the new version that shows you how many attachments will be downloaded, to give a rough estimate on how long it could take.

I'll keep updating this thread in the meantime with how I'm getting on with this fix, thanks again for using it!

I also want to know more about how I can alleviate your security concerns as well, so the more information the merrier!

Kind Regards

ps: remember that the authentication is configured to last only half an hour for security measures, so if you see requests failing after half an hour then refresh and you should be able to see that you need to connect it again.

Hi AA,

despite my concerns regarding safety, I tried your app. It's failing (twice already). Any troubleshooting tips?

Hi 👋, a bit late after work but I managed to add some updates to the security side of the app, I added a consent as well as reaffirmed the 30 minute access. As mentioned if more and more like it, I will add more features to this beta and hopefully we'll be able to have something that can add to our Xero experience.

Here's the link to the beta app: https://x-extentions.vercel.app/

The more input the better, thank you!

Hi Kevin

Thank you so much for replying, this is the first time I got a response for any product I released on beta so I'm very thankful 🙏

And thank you for saying there could be value, it means alot to me that I'm starting to understand what it means to help customers relieve their pain in their business.

I want to assure you that this app is very secure in that it uses the Oauth2 process provided by xero, which means you didn't actually have to log on directly from the app, it was probably the case that your weren't logged in to start with?. All that the process does is that it goes to your xero and asks for permissions like being able to read attachments etc. Also, the deployed app uses https which encrypts data going back and forth to the server.

I totally respect your decision and will take this on board to make further security improvements and announcements to allow the user to feel more at ease. I'll keep this place updated too and show screenshots if anyone is interested!

Thanks again 🙌

Hi user AA.

Thanks for creating the app to download the documents. I think you're on to a winner and once polished up, if there's enough interest, there's value in charging a small fee.

As a PSA to the community I'm reluctant to use this service however as it requires me to enter my Xero login details. I'm sure sure there's no malicious intent with what you've created but bad faith actors can do the same and take credential details and or do man-in-the-middle attacks to access documents.

Have a think on ways to put safeguards or security in place to make your solution a real winner :)

Cheers

Hey y'all 👋.

I created a prototype app that helps you download bill attachments (as an example) by month https://x-extentions.vercel.app/ , It's still a little buggy so apologies. Also, due to the rate limitations xero put, we can only request one attachment per second, so 60 attachments mean 60 seconds possibly.

I created an example feature for bill attachments, if enough people see it possibly saving them time, I can build the other resources and help you enjoy this app once more.

Let me know, thanks!

I have a client going through a 2 year audit. They have 6 bank accounts and needed the bank reconciliation report for each month.

6 accounts*12 months*2 years = 144 reports. We had to download each one. One at a time...

Please add this functionality.

Xero is useless for audits - basic functionality is missing and therefore will be cancelling and taking all clients off it as well.

Please could this important feature be added as a matter of urgency. Your nearest competitor (Quickbooks) has this feature and therefore it should be a priority for Xero and a matter of courtesy for loyal clients of Xero that wish to leave for their own specific reasons.

Does anyone know if you can mass download on Quickbooks?

This "product idea" is from 2013.
It was 'declined' in 2023 - did that take 10 years?
Now it's 11 years.

Would this be critical if I were not trying to leave Xero in response to the mess of 'new invoicing' and the mess I expect to happen with 'new' bills? Probably only if our tax agency came calling for an audit.

But now it is critical ...

I want to second the alternative: keep a non-productive version acceessible for people so they can access their history. This ought to be your responsiblity as it's not that we changed - YOU DID.

I cannot make your software work for me anymore.
Please let me take my stuff and leave.

When I export bills to .CSV it excludes the image files for receipts. This needs to be fixed.

You are simply using this as a strategy to make customers stick with you. It is clear and obvious as there is a lot of work involved to port out all the files/attachments individually. Frankly I think this approach is woeful and un-supportive! Using attachments and other Xero app has all kind of GDPR issues in the UK, plus it drives up the costs for SME's. This is really very, very unhelpful! You have had years to sort this and clearly have no plans to help your customers in this important area.

Agree that this should be a priority as numerous documents need to be downloaded from the files section for compliance purposes

Can you please recommend or suggest connected apps that can do this for us?

@Cara Cunniff

You can send the receipt to the client. You just have to tick a box for this (after you have attached the file to the invoice).

I cannot understand how when I submit an invoice with a receipt image to a client that Xero doesn't send this to the client with the images. This defeats much of the ease when the receipts are expenses. You assign the expense to the clients (not much good without the image - as it's proof) but don't actually send them. Very very limiting and a reason to change to provider.
This is a basic need when submitting expenses on an invoice!

It's clear from the comments below this is a critical requirement.

I would like to add my voice to this issue. I have a client whom is changing entities and will open another XERO account, however will need the attached bills for their industry as some areas, such as retention, etc may take 5 years to finalise. They have thousands of transactions, and the representative said we have to download everyone individually? We now either have to keep the XERO file open & pay two subscriptions, or cancel the subscription and then we still have to reapply when we need info & pay the subscription again. I was told by the representative that the client should have all of these anyway, but we are now going into a paperless society so they don't keep them, they scan & attach ! If you don't allow us to download, you should at least allow a read only file or backup option as such so we don't pay the subscription, but can still look in & get info but not enter anything.

I add my voice to the cacophony: we should be able to download all the attached PDFs from our file, and even better be able to download them from certain areas for certain date ranges. This is a serious limitation on the usefulness of attached documents for Bills in particular.