Xero has no native payment plan feature: you cannot split one invoice into scheduled instalments inside Xero. What you can do is record part payments against a single invoice, take a deposit through Stripe, or connect an app like Paidnice that puts a real schedule, with per-instalment reminders and autopay, on the invoice you already sent. This guide covers each route, the popular workaround that quietly breaks your accounts, and the setup that runs itself. (Looking for Xero's own subscription pricing plans? That is Xero's pricing page; this guide is about letting your customers pay an invoice in instalments.)
Four native features get mistaken for payment plans. Each is useful; none is a plan. Here is the honest map.
| Native feature | What it does | Schedule visible to customer | Reminders per instalment | Auto-collects | Keeps one invoice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part payments | Records each partial payment against the invoice during reconciliation; balance steps down | No | No | No | Yes |
| Deposits via Stripe (new, Jun 2026) | Customer pays a deposit on the online invoice; balance stays due | Deposit only | No | Deposit only | Yes |
| Expected payment date | Internal planning field for your cash flow view | No (invisible to customer) | No | No | Yes |
| Repeating invoices | Generates new invoices on a schedule | Per new invoice | Per new invoice | No | No (many invoices) |
| Invoice reminders | Chase the whole invoice after its single due date | No | Whole invoice only | No | Yes |
Xero is aware of the gap. The request for instalments on invoices has been open on Xero Product Ideas since 2012, carries 237 votes, and is marked "in development". What shipped first, in June 2026, was deposits on invoices (507 votes): live for organisations in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, Canada, and Singapore, provided you use Stripe. Xero's own response on the thread notes it "doesn't yet cover fuller progress-payment and instalment workflows". That sentence is the current state of play.
The walkthrough at the top of Google for this search tells you to create a repeating invoice and call it a payment plan. Please do not.
A repeating invoice creates new revenue every time it fires. If the work is already on an invoice, adding a monthly repeating invoice for the "instalments" books the same sale twice: once on the original, again each month, while the original sits in your receivables ageing as unpaid. Your revenue is overstated, your debtor report is fiction, and your accountant gets to unwind it at year end.
Repeating invoices are the right tool when each billing period is genuinely its own charge, a retainer, a subscription, rent. For an amount already invoiced, either record part payments against the original or put the original on a managed plan. If you do split an agreed project into stages up front, that is progress billing with separate invoices per stage, decided before anything is issued, not a repair job afterwards.
For the occasional arrangement, Xero can carry a plan manually. It has three moving parts, and you are two of them.
What Xero will not do in this setup: remind the customer about instalment dates (invoice reminders fire off the single due date, not your schedule), collect anything automatically, or tell you an instalment was missed. With one or two plans running, a calendar and some discipline cover it. At five plans it becomes a part-time job, which is roughly the point our customers stop doing it by hand.
Whatever else you do, take a deposit. On the new native flow, add the deposit to the online invoice (Stripe organisations in AU, NZ, UK, US, CA, and SG), the customer pays it on the spot, and the balance stays due on the invoice. It is half a payment plan: money now, commitment proven, but the remaining balance still has one due date and no schedule. The other half, dates, reminders, and collection for the balance, is what the next section adds. If you are choosing deposit sizes, 20 to 30% on overdue balances and up to 50% on new work are the working norms (the reasoning is in the complete guide).
Paidnice connects to Xero and runs the plan on the invoice you already raised. The setup, start to finish:
Payment plans are included on Pro plans, from US$99 a month with local pricing in seven currencies. Customers cut their average wait for payment in half within 30 days across the base, and the shape repeats through our customer stories: a bookkeeping firm took outstanding invoices from $60,000 to $24,000, an events company went from one late booking in five to none. The payment plans feature page has the short tour, and the payment plan calculator models schedules, deposits, and interest before you commit to numbers with a customer.
A plan is only as reliable as the rail collecting it. The options that work with Xero, and where each genuinely fits:
| Tool | What it does with Xero | Instalment schedule on the invoice | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paidnice (our product) | Full AR layer: payment plans on existing invoices, per-instalment reminders and autopay, late fees, statements, escalation; writes back to Xero | Yes, on the invoice and the customer PDF | Businesses that want plans plus the rest of collections handled in one place |
| Pinch Payments | AU/NZ payments platform: direct debit and cards, can break an existing Xero invoice into an instalment schedule (50/25/25 style splits) | Yes, via its payment plan flow | AU/NZ businesses whose main need is the collection rail itself |
| GoCardless | Direct debit mandates for Xero invoices; pull-based collection, strong in the UK | No, collection only, plan managed by you or a partner tool | UK businesses on bank-to-bank collection |
| Stripe (native Xero) | Cards and wallets on online invoices, now including deposits; scheduled payment of an invoice by the customer | Deposit only | Everyone already on Stripe who needs deposits and card payment today |
| Paythen | Stripe-based payment plans; connects to Xero via Zapier rather than a native integration | In Paythen, synced across by Zapier | Stripe-first businesses happy to maintain Zapier plumbing |
Two pieces of paper and one policy: the signed agreement (with the balance acknowledged, the schedule, autopay authority, and acceleration on default), and a written answer to "what happens when an instalment is missed", which is a retry, a late fee, a short cure window, then the remaining balance falling due. The full protocol, including the scripts, lives in payment plans for overdue invoices. One accounting note worth pinning: for standard invoice-basis GST and VAT registrants, tax follows the invoice, not the instalment dates, so a plan spreads the cash without moving the tax point. Confirm your own treatment with your accountant.
No. Xero records part payments against an invoice and, since June 2026, can take a Stripe deposit on an invoice, but it cannot create an instalment schedule, remind per instalment, or auto-collect a plan. The instalments feature request is marked "in development" on Xero Product Ideas; a connected app covers the gap today.
During bank reconciliation, open Find & Match on the statement line, tick the invoice, click Split, and enter the amount received. The invoice stays awaiting payment and the balance reduces. Repeat per instalment until it reaches zero.
Yes, as of June 2026, for organisations in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, Canada, and Singapore using Stripe. The customer pays the deposit from the online invoice and the remainder stays due. There is no native schedule for the balance yet.
With Paidnice connected, yes: customers can self-serve a plan from the payment portal inside rules you set, minimum deposit, maximum instalments, allowed frequencies, and an optional establishment fee. You approve the rules once instead of negotiating every plan.
Generally no for invoice-basis registrants: the tax point follows the invoice date, so instalments change when cash arrives, not when tax falls due. Cash-basis registrants report as payments land. Check your scheme with your accountant.
This guide is part of a set on customer payment plans. Each piece stands alone; together they cover the whole system.
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