Four settings already inside your Xero plan hand back about 32 hours a year for half a day of setup: bank rules, repeating invoices, invoice reminders and batch payments. None of them costs extra. The menu path for each is below, checked against Xero Central. Do these before you buy an add-on to solve the same problem.
Why these stay switched off
These four are configuration rather than features. You do not trip over them while doing the daily work, because each one lives behind a menu you visit once during setup and then stop opening. There is no prompt, no badge, no upsell, so they sit at their defaults for years while people pay for apps that do the same work.
Each section below has the menu path, what the setting does, and where it goes wrong. Xero shifts menu names between versions, so if yours reads differently, search the article title in Xero Central and take the current wording over mine.
Bank rules: reconcile once, apply forever
A bank rule tells Xero what to do with a statement line it has seen before. Set one for your fuel card and every fuel transaction arrives at reconcile time already coded, contact filled in, ready to click through.
The path. In the Accounting menu, select Bank accounts, then click the menu icon and select Bank Rules. Click Create rule. Under "Apply a bank rule", choose whether any or all conditions must match, then set the conditions the statement line has to meet: contains certain text, equals an exact amount, and so on. Fill in the remaining fields, click Save, then OK on the bank reconciliation screen. Xero documents the full flow in Create a bank rule.
Where it goes wrong. Rules that are too loose. A rule matching only "PAK" will catch things you did not mean, and because the coding happens quietly at reconcile time, the wrong account can collect transactions for a whole quarter before anyone notices at GST time. Build rules on the payee string plus a bank account, review them once a quarter, and delete the ones for suppliers you no longer use.
Repeating invoices: the monthly ones raise themselves
If you invoice the same customers the same amount every month, maintenance contracts, retainers, service agreements, a repeating template does it without you. Xero can save each one as a draft for approval or send it automatically.
The path. In the Sales menu, select Invoices. Select the Repeating tab, then click New Repeating Invoice and fill in the repeating transaction fields. Faster still, open a customer's last invoice, click the menu icon and select Repeat, which copies the details across for you to edit before saving. Xero covers both in Add or edit a repeating invoice template.
Where it goes wrong. Set to send automatically and then forgotten. A repeating invoice keeps going out after a customer cancels, which is an awkward conversation and a credit note. Start every template as an approved draft rather than an auto-send, and put a quarterly diary note to open the Repeating tab and read the list.
Invoice reminders: the chase-up that runs itself
This is the one with the shortest path to money. Xero will email a customer when an invoice is overdue, on a schedule you set, without you opening anything.
The path. In the Sales menu, select Invoices, then click "Invoice Reminders: Off". Tick the "Email customers when an invoice is" checkbox. Xero ships three default reminders, and you can edit or delete those and add more, up to five in total. There is a setting to skip reminders for amounts owing under a threshold you choose, so a small rounding balance does not trigger the same chase as a real debt. See Set up and add invoice reminders.
Where it goes wrong. The reply address. Customer replies go to the email of whoever turned reminders on, so if that was your bookkeeper three years ago, the answers to your chase-ups are landing in an inbox you never open. Change that address at setup. Also worth remembering that the average NZ invoice runs about ten days late, a figure I covered in the invoice retyping post, so the reminder schedule should start close to the due date rather than a fortnight past it.
Batch payments: pay forty bills in one upload
Instead of keying each supplier payment into internet banking, Xero can build one payment file covering the lot.
The path. From your bills list, tick the checkbox for each bill you want to pay, then click Batch payment. Enter the Payment Date and select the bank account to pay from. You can part-pay a bill by editing the amount in the Payment field. Click Make Payment, and you land on the batch payment transaction where you can export the batch file for your bank, print a PDF, or send remittance advice. Xero sets this out in Pay multiple bills.
The detail that makes it worth doing: bills show separately in Xero, but bills from the same supplier are combined in the payment file, so each supplier gets one payment and one reference. That alone removes a class of "which invoice was this for" emails.
Where it goes wrong. Bank account numbers held against contacts. A batch file is only as good as the account numbers in it, and nobody checks a contact record until a payment bounces. Verify supplier bank details on the contact card before your first batch, and confirm any change by phone rather than by email, because invoice redirection fraud in New Zealand runs on exactly that email.
| Setting | Where it lives | What it takes off you |
|---|---|---|
| Bank rules | Accounting > Bank accounts > menu icon > Bank Rules | Coding the same statement lines every week |
| Repeating invoices | Sales > Invoices > Repeating tab > New Repeating Invoice | Raising the same invoices every month |
| Invoice reminders | Sales > Invoices > Invoice Reminders: Off | Chasing overdue customers by hand |
| Batch payments | Bills list > tick bills > Batch payment | Keying each supplier payment into internet banking |
Worked example: 32 hours a year
A six-person Canterbury trade business. These timings are an assumption to show the shape of the sum, not a measurement, so put your own counts through it.
- Bank rules. 120 bank lines a month, 70 of them repeat suppliers. Coding one by hand takes about 35 seconds, with a rule about 5. That is 30 seconds saved on 70 lines, 2,100 seconds, or 35 minutes a month. Call it 7 hours a year.
- Repeating invoices. 14 monthly maintenance invoices at 4 minutes each is 56 minutes. Templates turn that into a 10-minute check. Saving 46 minutes a month, about 9 hours a year.
- Invoice reminders. 25 overdue invoices a month, 3 minutes each to look up and email, is 75 minutes. Reminders handle roughly 18 of them, saving 54 minutes a month, close to 11 hours a year.
- Batch payments. 40 supplier payments a month keyed individually at 45 seconds each is 30 minutes. One batch file takes 5 minutes. Saving 25 minutes a month, 5 hours a year.
- Total. 7 plus 9 plus 11 plus 5 is 32 hours a year, for a setup cost of about half a day.
Four hours of setup returning 32 hours a year pays back in about seven weeks, and every year after that is free. That ratio is better than almost anything you can buy, which is the argument for doing this before you shop for an add-on. Put your own numbers into the ROI calculator and it will price the hours against your rate.
The reminders line understates its own value, too. Hours saved is the small half. Invoices paid a week sooner is the other half, and that one shows up in the bank rather than the timesheet.
When you do not need these
Bank rules stop being useful when your transactions are all one-offs. A business whose bank feed is 90 percent unique customer payments has nothing for a rule to match, and writing rules for a handful of lines a month is a hobby rather than a saving.
Repeating invoices need repetition. If you have two retainer clients, a diary reminder is the same outcome with less to maintain.
Invoice reminders can be the wrong move when you sell to a small number of large customers on negotiated terms. An automated chase to a head contractor's accounts team on day three, when your contract says 20th of the following month, damages more than it collects. Set the schedule to your actual terms, or leave the chasing to a person for those accounts.
And if these four are already on and the admin still eats your evenings, the problem is upstream of Xero. That is usually double entry between a job tool and the ledger, covered in the retyping post, or a job costing timing gap, covered in the job costing post. For a professional services firm the next question is usually the Projects module rather than any of these settings, which I have gone through in the Xero Projects fit assessment.
Do it in one afternoon
Order matters. Start with invoice reminders, because that one takes ten minutes and brings money in. Then bank rules for your five most frequent suppliers. Then repeating invoices for every fixed monthly customer. Batch payments last, once your supplier bank details are checked. Block out an afternoon, work down that list, and you will spend it once.
If you get through all four and want to know what is worth paying for next, the short list is in the Xero add-ons post. If you would rather have someone look at the whole workflow with you, book a free 30-minute call. Half the time the answer is a setting you already own, and that is a fine outcome for both of us.
Common questions
How do I set up a bank rule in Xero?
In the Accounting menu, select Bank accounts, then click the menu icon and select Bank Rules. Click Create rule, choose whether any or all conditions must match, and set the conditions the statement line has to meet, such as containing certain text or equalling an exact amount. Complete the remaining fields, click Save, then OK on the bank reconciliation screen. Matching transactions are then created for you at reconcile time.
How do I set up a repeating invoice in Xero?
In the Sales menu, select Invoices, choose the Repeating tab, then click New Repeating Invoice and fill in the repeating transaction fields. You can also start from a customer's last invoice by clicking the menu icon and selecting Repeat, which copies the details across for you to edit before saving.
Do Xero invoice reminders cost extra?
No. Invoice reminders are part of Xero, and you turn them on from the Sales menu by selecting Invoices, then clicking Invoice Reminders: Off. Xero sets up three default reminders and you can edit or delete those and add more, up to five in total. There is also a setting to skip reminders for amounts owing under a threshold you choose.
How many hours do these Xero settings save?
On the worked assumptions in this post, a six-person trade business gets back about 32 hours a year from bank rules, repeating invoices, invoice reminders and batch payments together, for roughly half a day of setup. That is a payback of about seven weeks. The figures are an assumption rather than a measurement, so run your own bank line and invoice counts through the same sum.