Delete all invoices, or start over: a guide for Xero users

Test invoices in the live books, a practice month, an import that went wrong from the first line, or a setup you would rather redo. The wish is the same: make the invoices go away. This guide sets out what can actually be deleted, what can only be voided, when a new organisation is the better answer, and how to clear a large number of approved invoices and bills.

Checked against Xero Central on 16 October 2026.

What can be removed, and what can't

• There is no reset. Xero says there isn't an option to remove all your data in one step; starting again means exporting, adding a new organisation and importing, and it calls that a last resort (Restart your Xero organisation).
• Drafts and awaiting approval: delete. Several at a time from the Draft or Awaiting Approval tab (Delete or void an invoice).
• Approved sales invoices: void, one at a time. Voided invoices can't be restored, and they stay visible in search results when you tick Include Deleted & Voided.
• Approved bills: void, several at a time, from the Awaiting Payment tab (Delete or void a bill).
• Paid documents: payment first. Remove the payment, then void (Delete an invoice or bill payment).
• Practice belongs in the demo company. It resets itself after 28 days, and you can reset it by hand at any time from My Xero (Use the demo company). A real organisation has no such button.

Clean up, or start a new organisation?

Clean up when the wrong invoices are a set you can name: one import, one test batch, one month. Start again when the problem runs through everything, for example the wrong base currency, which can't be changed once the organisation is set up. Xero's restart article lists the easier fixes to try first: deleting or voiding invoices, bills and credit notes, removing duplicate bank statement lines and unreconciling mismatched ones.

Starting over, step by step

1. Add the new organisation first. Keep the old one running until the new one is complete, and check the key settings during setup (Add another organisation).
2. Export what you need. Xero's list is the chart of accounts, contacts, invoices and bills, and the Bank Reconciliation Summary for bank statements already imported. Invoice and bill exports stop at 500 per file, so large sets go in batches (Export invoices and bills).
3. Correct the files, then import. Fix the mistakes in the exported files and import each one into the new organisation. Imported invoices arrive as drafts to approve (Import customer invoices).
4. Move the bank feeds. A direct feed can be transferred to the new organisation (Transfer a direct feed).
5. Keep the attached files. A CSV export holds the transaction lines, not the receipts and documents attached to them. Download the ones you need before the old organisation goes.
6. Cancel the old subscription last. A paid subscription has a one-month notice period during which you are still billed; a trial can be cancelled at once (Cancel your Xero subscription).

Where the manual way runs out

• Hundreds of approved invoices. Voiding them is one invoice, one menu, one confirmation at a time.
• Paid test invoices. Each payment is removed separately before the void.
• Voided is not gone. The numbers stay used and the documents still show in search with Include Deleted & Voided. If you need a clean history, a new organisation is the only way.
• Lock dates. Nothing dated on or before a lock date can be changed (Set up or remove lock dates).

The faster way: Unapprove

Unapprove is a web app that works with Xero. It can't do what Xero can't: it has no delete run for approved documents, and what it voids stays on record as voided. What it removes is the one-at-a-time work.

• Void a whole selection. Filter approved sales invoices and bills by date range, contact, number or reference, preview, type the count, and they are voided in batches of 50, each with a history note.
• A backup first. The preview offers a CSV of the selection before anything runs.
• Paid ones. A "Remove payments and void" run removes unreconciled payments and credit note allocations, then voids. Reconciled and batch payments are never removed.
• The files, before a restart. The attachment export downloads every file attached to invoices, bills and credit notes as dated ZIP files with an index. It only reads; nothing changes in the books.

What it skips, and tells you why: documents in a locked period (why) and documents for an archived contact (why). Each run has a ceiling on the number of documents; a large clear-out takes a few runs.

Price: free for 14 days, with unlimited previews and three documents processed in total. After that, $29 per month per connected organisation, or a one-off $49 Clean-up Pass for 7 days and up to 500 documents. Prices are in US dollars and exclude VAT and sales tax (added at checkout); the pricing page has the details.

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