Enter your idea

Here are some screen shots of the interface and how it exports all documents into a structured folder...

@Carlos thanks for sharing your effort below...

This is a really well thought‑out solution — nice work. You’ve clearly put a lot of effort into solving a problem that a lot of people run into.

At the same time, it does highlight the gap pretty clearly. Xero doesn’t currently support bulk export of attachments natively and suggests third‑party apps where this is needed.

What you’ve built shows what’s possible — but it also relies on a level of technical skill (and ongoing maintenance) that most businesses and firms simply don’t have capacity for.

For those looking for a more accessible approach, this is something we’ve been addressing for a while with **Control‑C** (authorised Xero app partner). Bulk export of attachments is already handled as part of a structured backup and continuity layer — no scripting or custom workflows required.

The practical benefit isn’t just the export itself, it’s having certainty:

* when records are needed, they’re already there
* when something changes or disappears, recovery is immediate
* when access is disrupted, work can continue

Completely agree with the direction you’re exploring — this is exactly the kind of problem that needs solving, just ideally in a way that’s repeatable and accessible for non‑technical users 👍

went back to Claude and figured a way to share the JSON file with configuration in MAKE,
download, uploaad to Claude and make it yours.
wish you all the best.

I officially lost patience waiting for Xero to build this, so I spent 12 hours locked in a room with Claude and Make.com. After an aggressive amount of troubleshooting, I successfully built a daily automated backup solution.

It now handles all our payment vouchers, attaches supporting docs, and flings them into Google Drive automatically. It’s saving us hours of tedious work every day. Make.com won't let me export the script to share the love directly with you guys, but behold: the holy grail of scenarios. 👇

It would be very useful if it was possible to bulk export digitally saved receipts from Xero.
Please consider adding this as a feature.

It's crazy that we cannot easily bulk export our receipts from Files Archive.

@Freya Pieroz, wondering if having your clients send the docs to the hubdoc email/inbox, instead would make your life at least a little easier (provided you can live with the information-poor file names that are autogenerated by Hubdoc/Xero. It would be easy to just hit the button "Xero Files" twice and would have the two copies of the document in Xero Files. If I misunderstood your issue or if this is not helpful, please disregard.

I have clients who autoforward all emails from their business's general accounts email inbox to the Xero inbox. This includes, for example, a travel reimbursement request with up to twenty attachments with supporting documentation (receipts), which both needs to be attached to the bill AND to the invoice when they on-bill the cost to their customer.

The only way to do this is to download... each... file... separately... to then be uploaded to also be attached to the second type of transaction, and in the new inbox, we can't go from one file to the next, we have to click on each file in order to be able to click on the itty bitty download button. I'd use tab to switch between files, but you have to tab through the entire list of files and then through the file manipulation buttons to get to the download button, and then through the entire document, menu bar, and then the list of files again to get to the next file, which is an absolute waste of my time.

We solved this problem as we ran into this exact issue ourselves, and not just for one-off bulk document exports, also for regular bulk documents exports.

The situation we were in was having to spend hours or days to manually download, group, and reference documents from Xero each time an Innovate UK, Horizon Europe, or other project expense claim was due. That was extremely time consuming, slow and prone to human error.

Over the last months our team has been using instaClaim (https://instaclaim.app/) to connect to Xero and automatically pull invoices and receipts, and export them grouped by project / tracking category and by expense category, along with project expense reports ready for submission, all at the click of a button - it feels like magic!

For projects requiring more extensive evidence, like those funded by Scottish Enterprise, we often use also the bank statement redaction feature, which allows all sensitive information to be automatically redacted from bank statements except for transaction lines matching the project expenses to be evidenced.

For anyone following this thread who needs bulk access to attached files rather than individual downloads, this has covered the use case and more for us, allowing us to get back a lot of our time and produce in a matter of minutes audit-ready project expenses documentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgW0aNUSsKI

Hi @Paul Nixon,

I understand the frustration around not being able to bulk export attachments directly from Xero, but it’s important to note that relying on Xero’s limitations as an excuse to a tax authority isn’t valid. If you review Xero’s Terms of Use, they clearly state that users are responsible for maintaining copies of all data entered into the platform. This includes any files or attachments uploaded.

If a business doesn’t currently have a copy of these documents outside Xero, it’s a serious risk and highlights the need for a proper backup strategy. Cloud accounting software is not a substitute for your own record-keeping obligations. Tax authorities expect you to have access to your source documents regardless of the software you use.

In short:

* Xero provides tools for compliance, but ultimate responsibility lies with the user.
* If you don’t have backups, now is the time to implement one—there’s no excuse for not safeguarding your data.

Having just read the comments regarding Xero Approved Apps it is disappointing that Xero do not allow users to bulk extract their data from uploaded files used to support transactions direct from the system. Its not about the "few bucks" I should not need a work around for such a basic requirement. This feels like going backwards and would we buy software that only posted a one sided credit entry and then bought add-ons for the debits. Guess I will have to keep the electronic list of files separately just like the old days with monthly lever arch files, just without having the paper. Only an option if you are a business with relatively few transactions!

To address Kelly's comment directly its not my problem that the complexity of the feature means that its not on your roadmap, its Xero, and thanks for giving me the evidence that if I am ever asked for a bulk download from the tax authorities or auditors that its not me being difficult its a Xero software failure.

To save everyone time reading through 14+ pages of frustration, I’ve compiled the list of Xero-approved apps mentioned here that handle backups and data restoration:

Control-C: https://apps.xero.com/!QfMrh/app/controlc
Boxkite: https://apps.xero.com/!QfMrh/search/app/boxkite
Numerint: https://apps.xero.com/!QfMrh/search/app/numerintbackup

FileXtract - but tis not part of Xero app developers

Do any of the readers here subscribe to a backup service? If so, congratulations—you already have the golden ticket. That service should hand you all your attachments neatly packaged, right? Problem solved.

Now, I get it—the idea of paying for yet another subscription might feel like buying an umbrella on a sunny day. But ask yourself: is it really that cost-prohibitive to spend a few bucks for peace of mind when an auditor or tax regulator is breathing down your neck? Compared to the alternative—clicking “Download” a thousand times—those few dollars start looking like a bargain.

Because honestly, if your plan is to wait for Xero to provide it or you manually download every file, you might want to block out your calendar until… well, retirement.

We (Control-C) will offer you a free backup for 30days, to backup and download all your attachments (extended if you have so much data it does not complete within the 30days) to anyone who mentioned that you read this post. You can find us in the Xero App Store and there is no obligation to continue the service after that.

@Carlos Pascual
Here’s the irony: by subscribing to Control-C, you actually resolve your non-compliance issue of not having a copy of all your data entered into Xero, as required by Xero’s Terms of Use—assuming you don’t already have a third-party backup in place to protect your subscribers’ data. In other words, you’re ticking the compliance box and, as a bonus, you get Bulk Export of Attachments included. 😉

Frankly, I don’t see any practical way to extract all the data you’ve entered into Xero without an automated solution. Doing it manually is not only time-consuming but also economically unviable compared to the minimal cost of an automated backup.

Exactly, we need bulk download all attached pdf receipts and invoices on each transactions. That is very critical whenever we do audit or required documents.

"Kelly & Team – relying on third-party integrations for basic data retrieval is a compliance risk, not a solution.

While we appreciate the transparency regarding the technical challenges of 'bulk printing' Excel files (as Campbell noted), this thread has conflated 'Print' with 'Export.' We don't need Xero to format Excel files for paper; we need Xero to allow us to extract our own substantiated data.

The Urgency: In the event of a tax audit or if a business needs to migrate software, we are currently unable to extract the source documents (PDFs/receipts) that substantiate our ledger without clicking one-by-one thousands of times. This makes Xero a 'black hole' for data.

Please decouple 'Bulk Print' from 'Bulk Export.' If the roadmap blocks printing, fine. But Bulk Export is a fundamental feature for data ownership and audit trails that needs to be prioritized immediately. We shouldn't have to pay extra subscription fees to third-party apps just to access our own historical records."

@Rob Storey

In Kelly's defence...

Bulk Print vs Bulk Export – Why They’re Connected but Not Competing

The core need behind this idea is bulk export – the ability to retrieve all attached files from Xero in one go for backup, audit, or compliance purposes. Once files are exported, printing them becomes straightforward using any standard print workflow outside Xero.

“Bulk print” is essentially a side effect of having bulk export. If you can export everything, you can print everything. The real challenge is getting the files out efficiently, not printing them inside Xero.

So, this request should be understood as:

Bulk export = essential feature
Bulk print = natural consequence of export, not a separate priority.

Focusing on bulk export doesn’t detract from the printing need—it actually solves it. If Xero delivers bulk export, users gain full flexibility to print, archive, or process files however they choose.

It does make sense to wrap both these up into one thread IMO

Why have you merged my comment about bulk file export into this again? Every time you do this the idea gets lost with the bulk print request which you state in this thread is the big problem. I don't want / need the bulk print facility, it is a legal responsibility that I securely store all files and if I can't bulk download this makes it a time consuming task to ensure backups! Please separate these 2 ideas - they a VERY different!

There is a long ongoing topic relating to bulk file export but it is very much tied into a bulk print requirement.
These topics need to be separated as it appears that the issue for Xero is the print function.
If these topics are separated at least we can then get the bulk file download that so many seem to need / want.
And again to be clear this is not a request for downloading invoices and their attachments but a bulk download of the files stored in Xero.

📂 **New Feature Just Released:

🚀 **BULK Export All Invoices as PDF + Attachments**

You can now export your entire invoice history — organised by Contact Name → Invoice Number → Invoice PDF + all attachments. No more digging, no more manual sorting. Just clean, complete records at your fingertips.

ALSO — Coming Soon from Control-C!

🚀 **Unlimited Addresses for Xero Contacts**

Still stuck with just one address per contact in Xero? That’s about to change!

Control-C is launching a game-changing update that gives you the freedom to use as many addresses as you need — no workarounds, no frustration, and most importantly, no compromise to your historical invoice integrity.

🧠 **Why This Matters**

Xero’s current design means that if you update a contact’s name or address, every past invoice linked to that contact is retroactively changed. That’s not just inconvenient — it’s a serious audit risk. You lose the original invoice details, making it impossible to reissue a true copy or prove compliance.

Control-C solves this.

Our upcoming multiple-address support doesn’t just let you pick any address for any invoice — it also preserves the original invoice exactly as it was issued. Every change is versioned, every invoice is backed up, and your audit trail stays intact.

🛡️ **Total Peace of Mind**

- Immutable invoice history — even if you update a contact, the original invoice remains untouched.
- Automated backups with full version control.
- Audit-compliant record keeping, built into every invoice.

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