A Complete Guide to Xero Backup

21 Jun 2024

3 min read

Ahana K B

Introduced in 2007, Xero is cloud-based accounting software designed for small to medium-sized businesses worldwide. It simplifies finance management by offering tools for invoicing, bank reconciliation, payroll, inventory, and more.

With 4.2 million small businesses using Xero to store highly important financial data and no recycle bin, it is pertinent to have a backup strategy in place for Xero.

What happens when Xero data is deleted?

Xero lacks a native recycle bin feature, so any data that gets deleted—whether accidentally or otherwise—is permanently lost.

Additionally, Xero does not offer a native backup solution designed for individual use. Xero does retain customer data for 7 years even after a subscription is terminated, but this is primarily for compliance and data integrity, not for user-initiated recovery.

In fact, Xero themselves recommend regularly backing up your data to ensure data safety:

"You're responsible for keeping records of data entered in Xero, so we recommend you regularly perform your own backups."

To learn more about why it is important for the organizations to back up their Xero data, read this article.

What are the different ways to back up Xero data for businesses?

Businesses can back up Xero data in the following ways:

Export Xero data to create a local backup
Subscribe to a third-party tool that incrementally backs up all invoices, payroll, inventory, etc.

Export Xero data to create a local backup

Organizations can back up their Xero data by manually exporting the company data and creating a local backup.

Who can export data from Xero?

Xero doesn’t have a single feature to copy all your organization’s data at once, but you can export data from specific sections and generate reports individually. Your ability to export data depends on your user role in Xero. If you have the adviser role, you can run and export most reports. However, to export payroll reports, you need payroll admin access.

To know more about how to export different types of Xero data, read this article.

Limitation of exporting Xero data for backup

Data must be manually exported regularly.
Users need to keep track of and organize the exports to be able to quickly access it in case of a deletion or unwanted transaction.
Users cannot export all the organization’s data in one go. They must export data from specific sections and generate reports individually.

Pro tip

Set lock dates: Lock dates in Xero allow you to set a specific date after which no transactions can be added or edited. Only users with Advisor roles can set or modify lock dates. Setting lock dates ensures that historical data remains consistent and unchanged, which is crucial when performing data exports for backup purposes. It also prevents users from making accidental or unauthorized changes to past transactions, reducing the risk of errors in your backups.

To read more about setting lock dates, click here.

Back up Xero data using third-party cloud backup solution

Exporting data using the native option does not act as a comprehensive backup solution for your Xero data. A third-party backup solution like SysCloud lets users back up multiple organizations on the Xero platform directly to the cloud. SysCloud automatically backs up Xero data so that the users do not have to worry about data loss.

What type of Xero data does SysCloud backup?

Account
Bank Transaction
List
Bank transfer
Contact
Credit note
Invoice
Item
Manual journal
Payment
Purchase order
Tracking category
Prepayments
Over payments
Batch payments
Attachments

How to set up Xero backup using SysCloud?

Follow the below steps to set up Xero backup using SysCloud:

Note: Only the primary owner can set up a Xero backup with SysCloud.

Step 1: Log in to your SysCloud account.

Step 2: Click "Jobs" from the top menu bar.

Step 3: Enter a job name and a description (optional). Click "Next".

Step 4: Click the "Connect" option beside Xero from the Clouds list. 

Step 5: Click "Connect and add organizations".

Step 6: Sign-in to Xero to authenticate.

Step 7: Click "Start backup".

Step 8: Select the checkbox next to the Xero organizations you want to backup. Click "Confirm".

This will start the backup for your Xero data.

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In this article

What happens when Xero data is deleted?
Export Xero data to create a local backup
Back up Xero using third-party cloud backup solution

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