Export all receipts and attachments before you cancel: a guide for Xero users

Cancelling an accounting subscription, or moving your books to different software, is the last moment to collect the paperwork behind them: every receipt, supplier bill PDF and contract scan attached to a transaction. Those files are not in the usual data exports. This guide covers what a cancellation does to your access, what Xero can and cannot export, a checklist for the attachments, and a way to pull them out in one run.

Checked against Xero Central on 12 October 2026.

What a cancellation does to your access

Xero's page on cancelling a subscription says that only the subscriber can cancel, and that a paid subscription has a one-month notice period during which you are still billed. All users keep access to the organisation during that month, and Xero recommends exporting your data in that time. After the notice period it archives the data to meet record-keeping requirements. You can reactivate within the data retention period, which varies by region, and if the subscription is still cancelled at the end of that period the data is permanently deleted. Xero also notes that it has no read-only plan.

So the practical deadline is the notice period. Do the export while the organisation is fully open, not after.

The native way: what you can export

1. Reports and ledgers. Xero lists what can be exported out of the system, including contacts, invoices and bills, the chart of accounts and reports (Export data out of Xero).
2. Invoices and bills as CSV. Up to 500 transactions per export (Export invoices and bills). That is the data, not the files attached to it.
3. The attached files, one by one. Open each transaction, open the file and download it (View, download and delete files in transactions).
4. The document library. Accounting > Documents, open a file, click the download icon (Organise your document library).

Where the native way runs out

• The data exports leave the files out. The list of exportable data does not include files attached to transactions.
• There is no bulk download. Xero's reply on the bulk export request (close to 700 votes), dated 20 November 2025, says it is not in its plans at the moment and points to third-party apps.
• The library may be incomplete. Xero says a file attached from your device to a bill or expense claim is saved to the library archive automatically, but for other transactions, including invoices, it is saved there only if you uploaded it to the library first (Attach a file to a transaction).
• Names tell you nothing. A file keeps the name it was uploaded with, so scan001.pdf does not say which supplier, date or number it belongs to.
• You cannot prove you got everything. Nothing in the manual routes counts the files for you.

A checklist for the last month

1. Decide the range you must keep. Many businesses keep seven years; check your own record-keeping rules with your accountant.
2. Export the data first: the reports, the CSV exports and the ledgers your accountant needs.
3. Download the attachments for the same range, with names you can trace to a document.
4. Check the count: files you expected against files you got.
5. Keep the archive somewhere that is not the system you are leaving, with a second copy.
6. Only then confirm the cancellation or the cut-over date.

For the export on its own, without the cancellation angle, see the guide to downloading all attachments and receipts.

The faster way: Unapprove

Unapprove is a web app that works with Xero. Its attachment export reads the files attached to your documents and streams them to you as ZIP files. The export only reads: nothing in your books changes.

How a run goes

1. Connect: you sign in at Xero and choose the organisation.
2. Scan, which is free. It reads which documents have files attached and how big they are, for sales invoices, bills and credit notes, and for bank transactions if you tick them. Leave the dates empty for everything, or set a range.
3. Read the totals: documents, files and size. That is your count to check against.
4. Download the ZIP parts. Each part holds up to 200 files and 300 MB, and a document's files stay together in one part.
5. Open manifest.csv and compare.

What you get

• Folders by document type, year and month, and names that carry the date, number and contact, for example Bills/2025/2025-03/2025-03-14_INV-8812_Acme Supplies_receipt.pdf.
• A manifest.csv with one line per file: its path in the ZIP, document type, number, reference, date, contact, status, total, currency, original file name, size, the result, and the Xero document and attachment identifiers.
• A file that Xero will not hand over is not skipped silently. It is listed in the manifest and in _ERRORS.txt.
• Voided documents' files are included. Deleted documents' files are left out, because deleted documents are not part of the books.

Time and limits. The export runs at about 55 files a minute, so 3,000 files take about an hour. Xero also limits how many API calls an organisation may make in a day; if a part cannot finish today, it stops and you start it again later. The scan's results are kept for 30 days. Fair use is 5 GB per organisation per 30 days. It does not cover the library inbox, or files attached to quotes, purchase orders, manual journals or contacts: for those, use the manual routes above.

What access it asks for: the same connection as the clean-up tools, including read and write on invoices and attachments, plus read-only on settings and contacts. Bank transactions need one more read-only permission, requested only if you tick them.

What it never does: see your Xero password, change your books during an export, or keep your files. Each file is streamed from Xero to your download and is not stored.

Price: the scan is free, and the free trial (14 days, three documents processed in total) includes one sample download of 25 files, enough to check the layout. Downloading everything needs a plan: $29 per month per connected organisation, or a one-off $49 Clean-up Pass for 7 days, where the export does not count against the pass's 500 documents. For a one-time exit, the pass is the shape that fits. Prices are in US dollars and exclude VAT and sales tax (added at checkout); the pricing page has the details.

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