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Hello, for everyone following this topic I have developed a desktop app to complete this task (currently in beta mode). It reads your existing Xero invoice(s) and lets you commence grouping line items. I'm inviting some more interested users to take a look and offer any feedback as to what would be most useful for them.

Not sure if appropriate to post this here so please forgive me if not.

Once logged in (secured with 2FA) you can play with a sample organisation, and go on to connect one or multiple of your organisations via a xero portal. The app then simply reads your existing invoice data allowing you to select existing invoices and then group line items and describe them however you see fit. Preview and download your newly created invoice as PDF and/or send a copy back to Xero to sit in your Xero invoice as an attachment.

This way you can polish the complex invoice you need within xero for all your accounts tracking, but elegantly and quickly generate a sales invoice for your client. There are no features in this app that attempt to modify any Xero accounting - any accounting changes still need to be done in Xero and changes ripple through in realtime to this new app.

The intention is to eventually make this app available from the Xero App Store.

Anyone interested please reach out to tmd@tomdavid.com.au and I’ll share you a link.

We still need this!

Per the people's voice, this needs to be fixed asap

This needs to be fixed urgently.

The inbuilt calculator is not at all helpful to address this issue

Put it on your roadmap urgently

Hi Hannah G,

I see above here you're saying Xero won't be adding this feature in the near term. It's dated almost two years ago.

Is there any change to this?

@Thomas, We are using a custom built order management system in Airtable. A great thing about Xero (and Airtable) is the open API. We can manage a wholesale order in Airtable and track it through our entire production process. Then, through some automation when the order is fulfilled, we produce a draft invoice in Xero, which is then approved and sent normally through Xero.

Which order management system are you using Jason, if you're comfortable sharing?
Given that we are a long way off getting this functionality inside Xero, this sounds like an option that we'd be interested to explore.

I used to need this feature, but I no longer do. I was using Xero as our primary source for customer orders. Now I flipped things around and it's working much better. I am using a separate order management system. It creates an invoice directly in Xero and only includes the information that the customer needs to see. This, I think, is the best of both worlds. The order management system contains all the relevant data to support our SOPs and the invoices in Xero are focused the final products/services that are sold to the customers. This is working better for us rather than overloading the invoices to try to do it all.

Ben Harper has captured this issue and reasons to fix it perfectly, I second every part of his comment.

My Thoughts

Reason for Feature Development
1. Professional Presentation for Clients

Many businesses want to present clean, summary-style invoices to clients without exposing detailed internal breakdowns (e.g., markup, subcontractor fees, individual material costs).
Currently, to avoid showing certain line items, businesses must manually merge or delete them, which complicates record keeping and audit trails.
2. Maintain Accurate Internal Reporting

Businesses often use detailed line items for internal analysis, job costing, and tracking. Hiding items from the client-facing invoice while retaining them in the backend would preserve data integrity without compromising client presentation.
3. Competitive Sensitivity

In trades, consulting, and contracting industries, line items may reveal sensitive supplier costs, margins, or proprietary service breakdowns. Hiding them prevents price shopping and protects intellectual property.
4. Industry Standards

Competitor software (e.g., QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and Zoho Books) offer “summary invoices,” “collapsible line items,” or “internal notes only.” To stay competitive, Xero should match this flexibility.
5. Enhanced Customisation and Control

Businesses increasingly demand invoice customisation. Adding this feature would improve user satisfaction, especially among trades, agencies, and firms who need tailored client communication.

I currently have a free trial, I like the look of xero over competition at present, but This is looking ot be a deal breaker.
We often have 30 or more items on the invoice plus lines for labour costs, we want to be able to describe the service carried out (which can be done in the description field) but not show line items of individual spares or materials, we just need a total for the client.
Pointless paying for email invoicing with payment links if we have to use a seperate invoicing software so the invoices can be sent as we need.

I'm with everyone on this thread, would love to see this feature added – it’s been requested for years and is something other systems already offer. We often need to track all the individual components for our own records, but don’t always want to show the full breakdown to the client. Being able to combine or hide line items would make things so much tidier and more professional from a customer point of view, while still keeping things clear on the backend. Please consider prioritising this.

Come on Xero, for every person that comments here, there are more that want this feature that don't comment here! This is important to our businesses!!

HI Xero! Can you give us an update on this? I need this functionality.

Hide duplicate line items on the PDF invoice that goes to a customer. This is useful when using tracking categories behind the scenes but you only want the customer to see a total, not all the details.

Adding to the chorus - please can we get this in development.

Can anyone help me with the invoice template that might be the answer to hiding charged line data from my staff. I am having real trouble with xero sales invoicing since moving from QBS!

Sadly Nathan Xero continue to ignore multiple requests on this preferring "to focus on other priorities"

They have made it clear that they have no intention of doing anything about this in the near term

Not listening to what the customers need