Enter your idea

Thanks Diana for your thoughtful reply—and I completely agree, having access to your attachments in bulk is essential, especially for audit or compliance purposes.

Just to clarify, the original request was for the ability to "bulk export and print" attachments from Xero. What you’ve described—QuickBooks Online exporting attachments into a ZIP file—is exactly what Control-C offers for Xero. We provide a bulk export of all invoice-related attachments in a structured format, ready for printing. Like QuickBooks, we don’t automatically print Excel (XLSX) files, because as we pointed out, those still require manual formatting and printing due to their variable layout.

So yes, the technology to bulk export is achievable (and we’ve built it), but the “print” part—especially for Excel files—is where things get tricky. QuickBooks doesn’t print XLSX files either; it simply gives you access to them in bulk, which is what most users need. If that’s the goal, Control-C already delivers that functionality for Xero.

Appreciate your engagement on this—it’s exactly the kind of feedback that helps move things forward.

Thanks to Campbell Green for trying to explain and resolve this query that has been ongoing for years. What I struggle to understand is that Quickbooks Online already has this bulk export facility of attachments. If the technology is as difficult to build as described, why can Quickbooks Online do it and Xero can't? You would imagine that Xero has the resources to buy the know how from Quickbooks if they can't develop it themselves? Quickbooks exports excel attachments into zip files so would still need to be manually printed but most people don't need an instantly readable picture of all the files, they just want access to those files should they/HMRC wish to look at any of them in the future.

There is no denying it, this one has been requested for years and definitely has merit.

Let me explain really briefly why this is not an easy or a possible task for Xero, or anyone to implement with a great deal of success.

The challenge with implementing a bulk export and print feature in Xero isn’t just about downloading files—it’s about how those files behave when printed, specifically Excel spreadsheets (XLSX), a file format Xero allows to be used as an attachment.

Unlike PDFs or images, Excel files aren’t designed for printing. They often span multiple pages, have variable layouts, and require manual formatting (like adjusting orientation, scaling, or selecting print areas) to look right on paper. Automating this process reliably across hundreds of files is extremely difficult, and that’s likely why Xero hasn’t offered a bulk print option—it’s not just a technical hurdle, it’s a formatting nightmare.

That said, the next best solution would be a bulk download/export of all attachments related to an invoice, organised in a logical folder structure. This would allow users to manually handle printing of complex files like XLSX while still saving time on retrieval.

If you're looking for a solution today, check out Control-C.com or find us in the Xero App Store - we are a certified Xero App Partner.

We currently offer exporting of an invoice, complete with its attachments and are about to release a bulk export of invoices and attachments, making it easier to manage your data - however printing Excel files will always need your manual touch. The good thing is you don't have to manually download your attachments one at a time through Xero, we do this for you. We will be creating subfolders by Contact, with all the invoices and their related attachments in separate subfolders by invoice.

I hope that helps clarify why this request is more complex than it seems. The expectation is unreasonable from a technical perspective and nothing to do with Xero's inability to deliver a complete solution for this request. For those wanting a more detailed drill into the reason why, please read the attached document.

I hope this is received by the Xero community as a helpful response (with a solution), as to why Xero are not going to build this anytime soon. I am sure Kelly would love to close this request after all these years. ;-)

RE Paul Nixon's comment below, how have we all been lulled into using Xero software, and indeed recommended it by our accountants, when it doesn't meet UK legislation? I would have assumed, quite wrongly, that compliance would be a huge feature in any accounting software and always has been in the past e.g. old style Sage - but now software suppliers don't seem to care.

very important

There's been many threads on this and it's extremely disappointing that Xero doesn't support bulk export. As Paul Nixon says in this thread, it's a legal requirement in the UK and we're entitled to request a copy of all our data.

Hi All

I have just asked the same question and received the same answer that files uploaded can not be bulk downloaded. Seems strange as the image must be somewhere on a data path. I am not that computer literate so will go with the explanation here.

However Xero do seem to be putting anyone using the software, without a separate backup of an invoice, in breach of HMRC regulations "CH13400 - Record Keeping: How records may be preserved: Computer records" where we should be able to reproduce any document supporting a transaction.

In addition there is a need to comply with proper accounting records with the Companies Act.

Only really an issue if you move software as you will need to maintain the Xero record for at least 6 years or as noted in comment by Gemma the business is closed. My issue is slightly different as I need the link to be verified for a potential dispute

Do Xero have any advise they can share with the community that will alleviate concerns regarding record keeping requirements under HMRC regulations and the Companies Act.

In summary though it would have been very useful if I could have downloaded the pdf uploads to a particular supplier account in one go as I need these to support a complaint regarding historical issues, and the download would have given me the audit trail showing that they have been accurately reproduced from the software.

This would be a useful functionality to have in Xero!

This would be very useful, highly recommend.

It would be useful to be able to download all PDF documents from Xero at the point you stop using Xero for any reason. Especially at the point a company is in liquidation so you maintain the records.

Not impressed! Received an email to say my suggestion about bulk downloading files had been added to a previous suggestion. This made me think that it was something Xero were progressing only to sign on here to find the suggestion has been disregarded as too complicated?!

Reading the comments there are quite a lot of people that think this response is unacceptable?

I would like to be able to bulk download files from the directory. Currently you need to open each file and download individually. I would like to see an option where you can select all files in a folder and download them all with a single click.

Hi team,
You can bulk export Files from Xero using Boxkite, which automatically downloads and backs up your selected data to Dropbox. It takes just minutes to set up and download Files. You can also download and back up other essential data for compliance purposes, including contacts, invoices, bank transactions, journals and financial statements.

Check it out: https://www.getboxkite.com/

Hi Hema 👋

Apologies for the late reply, and thank you for checking it out 🙌!

I'll include those years this weekend, the change should hopefully be out by Monday.

Thanks Again

*EDIT*

Just pushed the latest change in, you should be able to see it now 👍

Also, watch out for some more updates soon, we'll update:
- Current feature bugs
- Add in new requested features
- Overall theme

Let me know how the latest change has gone and if you can download the attachments in for your requested year

Hello,

This function would be so valuable to my clients and its a shame its not currently supported by Xero. Abe A, thank you for taking the time to do this!

Abe, can I ask whether its possible to do the export from 2021? When I try to use your app it only lets me select 2022 and later.

Thank you again.

Could it be that what's interwoven is the wish to make it as hard and expensive for people to leave when their needs are continuously and consistently ignored? Just a thought.

Kelly - understand your comment around how interwoven this might be if it was incorporated directly into Xero. AS an alternative could you develop a Xero plug-in for this functionality? There's obviously appeal given the level of votes on this.

Honestly, this is mind boggling that this option is not available. Xero is expecting us to trust them with our receipts in their cloud based system, yet, when we want access to download as bulk for whatever reason, we have to download them one by one ? makes zero sense !

Honestly, Xero, i think it's time i change platform. The added value you claim, is mostly BS. The cost no longer matches the value.

There should be a way to download or save multiple pdf files attached to bills at once by selection of a customer or bills. Doing this one by one is very time consuming and should be available when it is audit requirement for payments.

Hi Holly and Tim, the app we made here (https://x-extentions.vercel.app/) is currently free at the moment. We addressed the issues some of the people were having here and stuck on some monitoring to see if any errors occur during any sessions to see exactly what problems to solve. Any feedback would be appreciated!