Why customers keep asking for copies
Customers lose invoices. Their accountant wants last year’s, their finance team wants proof that one was paid, or they just can’t find the email. Each request means opening Xero, finding the invoice and sending it again.
The obvious fix, giving them a login to your accounts, is the one to avoid. Here are the options, from the most manual to the least.
Don't add customers as users in your Xero account
Xero user roles are designed for your own team and advisers, not customers. The roles that can see sales invoices can also see your contacts, and some show a summary of invoices across your business; the Viewer role can see most areas, including contacts’ payment history. See Xero’s user roles.
Adding a customer as a user would show them information about your other customers and your business, which is a data protection problem as well as a commercial one.
What you can do from Xero itself
- Online invoice links. Each invoice has its own link that anyone with it can open, showing the invoice, what has been paid and what is left, with a PDF download. It’s one link per invoice, so it doesn’t give the customer a history of everything. See Xero Central.
- Customer statements. An activity statement lists invoices, payments and credits for a date range; an outstanding statement shows what is owed. You send them by email from Xero, one customer or a batch at a time. See Xero Central.
- Payment receipts. For a paid or part-paid invoice, Xero can email the customer a receipt from the payment. See Xero Central.
All three work well, but each one starts with you doing something. None of them gives customers a place to look things up for themselves.
A branded customer portal that reads from Xero
The other option is a customer portal: each customer signs in to a page with your branding and sees their own invoices from your Xero account, paid and unpaid, with nothing else from your accounts. The portal reads from Xero, so you keep invoicing exactly as you do now.
Before you choose one, check:
- Read-only access. It should only be able to read from Xero, not create or change anything.
- Each customer sees only their own invoices. Ask how customers are matched to Xero contacts.
- Customers don’t need a Xero login. They should sign in with their own email and password.
- Easy to disconnect. Removing access should stop the invoices showing straight away.
How PORTALD does it
- 1Connect your Xero account once. PORTALD asks for read-only access to contacts, invoices and payments, so it can’t create, edit or delete anything.
- 2Match each PORTALD customer to their Xero contact.
- 3Customers sign in to your branded portal and see their balance and invoices, marked Due, Overdue or Paid, however old they are.
- 4They download the PDF of any invoice, fetched from your Xero account when they ask, so it matches what’s in Xero.
The same portal handles your forms, document requests and contracts, so the place a new client signs your terms is also where they find their invoices later. See invoices from Xero and how PORTALD uses Xero for the details.
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Common questions
Can I give a customer access to their invoices in Xero?
Not safely by adding them as a user. Xero's user roles are designed for your own team and can show your contacts and other financial information. Share invoice links or statements instead, or use a customer portal that reads from Xero.
Do Xero online invoice links show past invoices?
Each online invoice link shows one invoice, including what has been paid and what is left. To show a customer their history, send an activity statement or use a customer portal.
Can customers see paid invoices in PORTALD?
Yes. Invoices awaiting payment and paid invoices from your Xero account stay in their list, however old, and they can download the PDF of any of them.
Does PORTALD send receipts or take payments?
No. PORTALD doesn't create separate receipts or take payments. A paid invoice shows as Paid with its PDF to download, and you can still send a receipt from Xero if a customer needs one.
Will PORTALD change anything in my Xero account?
No. It asks for read-only access, so it can't create, edit or delete anything in your Xero account. Disconnecting stops invoices showing in your portal straight away.