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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.

If a developer in your app store can make this happen, why can't you?

Further to that, why not contact one of those developers and buy their solution and implement it? The work is already done.

Or maybe even poach some of the software engineers from that team to work for you.

My point is that a solution exists; it's just not being integrated despite being a fairly common need in the finance realm.

This should now be a priority as files are often needed to be downloaded en mass for compliance purposes

I now have grave concerns about Xero software given their update today. As the need is very obvious, I suggest that anybody who has commented makes sure that the they have voted for this issue to be resolved and asked other collegues to do the same. From a review of the topics list it is currently number 11 on the list and I am sure vote number would increase dramatically if all users understood the legal implications.

Thousands of users have reported this as a critical feature.
In addition, for most jurisdictions, it's a legal and audit requirement as well as a client service expectation.
Xero should adjust its response to this request. We buy a license for book keeping software. If it can't perform basic tasks, such as exporting the records we have created,, we aren't getting what we pay for...

I've just had this response from Xero support:

Hi Rachel

Thanks for responding back.

We at Xero have decided not to look at this idea any further so this is a option we will not implant and have no plans to add this.

We have checked this with our product team and this cannot go any further we have no other workaround other then having a look at the app store.

We receive large volumes of wide ranging requests from our customers, which are all regularly reviewed, analysed and prioritised by our product team.

A rarely submitted feature request might be superb and very valuable but may be competing against a common request that may be perceived to be less valuable. We do try to take all elements into consideration.

The reason we don't make our Development Plan public is so that we can retain flexibility regarding features included in releases. We do mention some planned features on our blog, but as others are more susceptible to change, we'd rather under-promise and over-deliver than vice versa.

We really hope you understand the complexities involved and don't feel we're ignoring you even though the features you've requested aren't immediately included. We also hope you continue to submit your feedback, suggestions, frustrations and comments as this really does help us to improve Xero.

Thank you again for your feedback.

Xero Product Ideas: Share and support ideas

Kind regards

Naveed

Hello, just to reiterate what other users are saying.

We are in desperate need of this functionality. We have to evidence our costs to our customers and need to show them copies of the original bills we have received. Some Projects have hundreds of bills on which we currently have to save one by one; a time consuming and therefore costly exercise for an SME.

Xero please escalate this development.

Thank you.

If the government asks for a list of my expenses, I need to be able to generate a report of all my expenses for the financial year to give them. Not having this feature makes the financial app unusable for running a small business that needs to track and possibly print a report on expenses for tax purposes.

This is very helpful, so please kindly prioritize! Thanks!

This should be prioritized. Thank you!

This is a big need. Please do place resources here. Thank you!

Hi Xero, with the upcoming retiring of Classic invoicing in September with no suitable replacement as yet, many customers have expressed their intention to move away from Xero as it no longer meets our needs.

The only issue holding my company back from migrating on 1st July, is how to retrieve all the attached files in AP, invoicing and spend/receive money transactions.

Having been a huge fan of Xero since inception we have trusted you to assist with our transition to paperless by utilising the attach files function in Xero.
As we are required to keep these records for 5-7 years, we will need to hold on to Xero in some form or another if a bulk download of files is not possible.
Please look at this again to give the customers you have alienated a feasible migration outward process.

Or can you please advise how these files will be retained to be retrieved, if required, for an audit.

Thank you.

As per all the other comments, this isn't good enough.

It's ridiculous this feature is not there. You have an archive for each company and thier data. This data should be accessible and also the feature of date filter is the simplest of implementations. Xero hasn't even provided the basic master file for attachments which would still be a pain but at ;east everything is one place and you can search or sort through the attachments and keep within the tax laws of evidence. Xero needs to implement this immediately as I have 9 companies with Xero and will be looking to transfer the data and move my business elsewhere that supports the features that should be standard.

Two posting today about external solutions ( at a cost) to what should be resolved internally. Our local group has highlighted a hesitancy to use Xero in future when there is no understanding of this need to be integral to the actual software. Such a shame as originally Xero showed greta promise that it was not just another Sage or QB.

We found a great company that can download attachments from Xero called Numerint https://numerint.com/
They are on the app store as well!