Invoice Your Customers Using Xero

Creating and sending invoices in Xero is fast and straightforward. This lesson walks you through raising an invoice from start to finish.

1. Open Sales Overview

Go to Business and select Sales overview. This page shows totals for draft, awaiting approval, awaiting payment, and overdue invoices at a glance.

2. Create a New Invoice

Click + New to raise a new invoice. If prompted, switch to new invoicing.

3. Complete the Invoice Details

• Customer name — select from existing contacts or create a new one on the fly.
• Reference — optional, but useful for internal tracking.
• Invoice number — Xero auto-assigns and increments these. You can set the starting number in Invoice settings.
• Due date — set a default in invoice settings so it fills in automatically every time.
• Currency — multicurrency is available on Xero's Premium plan.
• Branding theme — select a template if you have multiple themes set up.

4. Add Line Items

Use the Item field to select a saved product or service — this auto-fills the description, price, and account. Or enter the details manually:

• Description
• Quantity and unit price
• Account — typically a revenue account such as Sales
• Tax — choose tax inclusive or exclusive to match how you've entered the unit price
• For additional options (such as a discount), use the overflow menu on each line

5. Preview the Invoice

Click Preview to see exactly what your customer will receive when you send the online invoice.

6. Send the Invoice

Click the overflow menu and select Send. Your customer's email address auto-fills from their contact record. Review the email and send.

7. Enable Invoice Reminders

Once you're actively invoicing, make sure invoice reminders are turned on in Invoice settings. Xero will automatically chase customers for overdue payments on your behalf.