---
title: "Xero statement CSV: export a customer statement to Excel"
description: "Xero sends customer statements as a PDF only. Here are the Xero reports you can export to Excel instead, their limits, and how to send a CSV statement with your own columns on a schedule."
url: https://www.paidnice.com/blog/xero-customer-statement-csv
---

# How to export a Xero customer statement to CSV or Excel

Written by

Ashley Schroder
Expert verified

Co-founder of Paidnice

Ashley tested each way to get a Xero customer statement into a spreadsheet, from report exports to the invoice CSV, against Xero Central's own help pages.

Reviewed by Jack Daffron

Co-founder of Paidnice

Published Nov 11, 2026 · 8 min

## Summary

Xero cannot export a customer statement as CSV or Excel. It prints or emails the statement as a PDF. You can export a report such as Aged Receivables Detail to Excel and cut it down for one customer. Paidnice builds a statement CSV with the columns you pick and sends it on a schedule.

- **In Xero:** Statements are a PDF, printed or emailed. Reports export to PDF, Excel or Google Sheets, and invoices export to CSV.
- **The workaround:** Export the Aged Receivables Detail or Customer Invoice Activity report to Excel, then remove the other customers. You do it manually for each customer.
- **With Paidnice:** A spreadsheet template with up to 30 columns, as an outstanding or an activity statement, on the same email as the PDF.

Your largest customer's accounts payable team writes back to say they cannot use your statement. They want it as a spreadsheet, so they can match it line by line against their ledger. You open Xero, look for an export button on the statement, and find Print PDF and Email.

Here is what Xero can give you, the report workarounds and their limits, and how to send a statement CSV that an AP team can import.

## Can you export a Xero customer statement to CSV or Excel?

No. Xero produces customer statements as a PDF only. You can print the PDF or email it to the customer, but there is no CSV or Excel option on the statement itself.

Xero's guide to [viewing or sending a customer statement](https://central.xero.com/0/article/Send-a-customer-statement) lists two statement types and two ways out:

- **Activity statements** show all the activity for a customer in a date range, including invoices, payments, credit notes, prepayments and overpayments.
- **Outstanding statements** show only what the customer owes on a certain date.
- **Print PDF** and **Email** are the two ways to send either type.

Xero users have asked for a spreadsheet statement for years. The [Customer statements: Export to Excel](https://productideas.xero.com/forums/967115-invoices-quotes/suggestions/45012895-customer-statements-export-to-excel) idea was posted in April 2022 and has 222 votes. Its status is still Submitted, and the page shows no reply from Xero.

Free: Payment reminder email templatesCopy the reminder emails for before, on and after the due date.

## How do you get a Xero statement into Excel today?

The usual workaround is to export a Xero report to Excel and cut it down to one customer. Xero reports export to PDF, Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, according to Xero's guide to [exporting and printing a report](https://central.xero.com/0/article/Export-or-print-a-report).

Three exports come close to a statement:

| Xero export | Closest to | What to watch |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Aged Receivables Detail report](https://central.xero.com/0/article/Aged-Receivables-Detail-report-New), exported to Excel | An outstanding statement | Shows foreign currency amounts in your base currency. Filter or group it by contact, or delete the other customers. |
| [Customer Invoice Activity report](https://central.xero.com/0/article/Contact-Transactions-Summary-report), exported to Excel | An activity statement | Pick one contact and a date range each time you run it. |
| [Invoice export](https://central.xero.com/0/article/Export-invoices-and-bills) from Sales, Invoices | A raw list of invoices | A CSV with one row per line item, not per invoice, and up to 500 transactions in each export. |

To export the Aged Receivables Detail report for one customer:

1. In the Reporting menu, select All reports, then open Aged Receivables Detail.
2. Set the date, then add a filter, or group by contact, so you see the one customer. Click Update.
3. Click Export, then select Excel.
4. Open the file, remove the report title rows, and save it as a CSV if the customer wants one.
5. Attach the file to an email to the customer, separately from the PDF statement.

## What limits does the report workaround have?

The report workaround gives you a spreadsheet, but every step is manual and the file is laid out as a report, not as a statement an AP team can import.

- **One customer at a time.** You run, filter, export and clean the file for each customer, every month.
- **Report layout.** Titles, group headings and subtotals sit in the rows. An AP team that imports the file has to strip them out first.
- **Base currency.** The Aged Receivables Detail report shows foreign currency amounts in your base currency, so a customer billed in USD may not see their own figures.
- **Your columns, not theirs.** You get the columns Xero's report offers. You cannot give a column the header the customer's system expects.
- **No schedule.** Xero's statement guide has no schedule, so each statement and spreadsheet goes out when you send it.

For one customer a quarter, the workaround is fine. For several customers every month, the manual steps add up.

## Who asks for a customer statement in CSV?

Accounts payable teams ask for a statement in CSV when they reconcile your statement against their own ledger. A PDF makes them retype or copy each line. A CSV goes straight into a spreadsheet or their reconciliation tool.

- **Large customers with many invoices.** A 40-line statement is slow to check from a PDF.
- **AP teams that import statements.** Some AP teams, and the tools they use, match statement lines to open bills. They need one row per invoice and a fixed column order.
- **Customers that want extra detail.** Long purchase order references and line details that do not fit on a PDF fit in a spreadsheet column.

Ask the customer which columns they want, in what order, and what each header should say. That answer decides the template.

## What columns can a Paidnice statement CSV have?

A Paidnice spreadsheet template starts with seven columns: Date, Activity, Reference, Due Date, Amount, Payments and Balance. You can add more fields, reorder them and give each one your own header, up to 30 columns. For a full example layout, see this [statement of account CSV template](https://www.paidnice.com/blog/statement-of-account-template-csv).

| Group | Fields |
| --- | --- |
| Default columns | Date, Activity, Reference, Due Date, Amount, Payments, Balance |
| Other fields | Overdue Age, Prompt Payment Discount, Tax Amount, Net Amount, Payment Date, Contact Name, Currency, Type |
| Custom fields | Any invoice custom fields Paidnice has synced, marked (Custom) at the end of the list |

Each column needs a header of up to 100 characters. Use the header the customer's system expects, such as "Invoice Date" instead of "Date". A template needs at least one column.

Turn on the totals row to add a last row with the sum of each money column. On an activity spreadsheet, the Balance column on that row shows the closing balance instead of a sum.

## What does the statement CSV file look like?

Here is an outstanding statement for Northline Ltd from a template with renamed headers and the totals row on:

| Invoice Date | Due Date | Amount | Paid | Balance | Currency |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2026-09-15 | 2026-10-15 | 1200.00 | 200.00 | 1000.00 | USD |
| 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-31 | 2450.00 | 0.00 | 2450.00 | USD |
| 2026-10-06 | 2026-11-05 | 860.50 | 0.00 | 860.50 | USD |
|  |  | 4510.50 | 200.00 | 4310.50 |  |

Dates are YYYY-MM-DD and amounts are plain numbers. See the [statement of account CSV template](https://www.paidnice.com/blog/statement-of-account-template-csv) for why that format imports cleanly.

## Should the CSV be an outstanding or an activity statement?

On Xero, a Paidnice spreadsheet template is either an outstanding statement or an activity statement. You choose when you create the template, and you cannot change it afterwards.

- **Outstanding spreadsheet:** what the customer owes now, with one row for each unpaid invoice or credit. Use it when the AP team imports open items.
- **Activity spreadsheet:** every transaction in a period, with a running balance. The activity period starts at 30 days and goes up to 1096 days or 36 months, counted back from the end of the statement period.

An activity spreadsheet does not need Xero's standard activity statement. It works for newer Paidnice organizations too. For when to send each type, see our guide to [scheduling activity statements](https://www.paidnice.com/blog/schedule-activity-statements).

## How do you send a Xero statement as a CSV with Paidnice?

Build a spreadsheet template, publish it, then select it under Statement attachments on a statement policy. Paidnice then emails the CSV on your schedule, on the same email as the PDF if you select both.

1. Go to Organisation Settings, Statements, and open the Custom tab.
2. Click New template, give it a title, pick Spreadsheet (CSV), and choose Outstanding or Activity.
3. Pick the columns, type each header, and turn on the totals row if you want one. Click Save columns.
4. Use Preview as to check the rows with a real customer, or Download CSV to open the file in Excel.
5. Click Publish. Customers only ever get the published version.
6. Open a group's statement policy and select the template under Statement attachments, next to Organisation default for the PDF.
7. Set the schedule: Monthly, Monthly (Weekdays) or Weekly.

Every selected attachment goes on the same email. The person who reads the statement gets the PDF, and the AP system gets the CSV. The full setup is in the help guide to [editing a spreadsheet template](https://help.paidnice.com/statements/statement-settings-and-templates#editing-a-spreadsheet-template), and our [Xero statement guide](https://www.paidnice.com/xero/auto-send-statements) covers the schedule.

Put the customers who want a CSV in their own group with this policy. The rest keep a PDF-only policy. Paidnice has [automated customer statements](https://www.paidnice.com/automated-customer-statements) on every plan.

## Can you send one CSV statement without a schedule?

Yes. Click Send statement on the contact in Paidnice, choose the CSV template under Statement attachments, preview, then click Send Now. Paidnice remembers your choice for next time.

To send to several customers at once, tick them on the Contacts page and use Quick Actions. To save the file yourself, open the template and use Preview as with that customer, then Download CSV.

## Can customers download the statement CSV themselves?

Yes. In the Paidnice customer portal, the Download menu on the outstanding statement can offer your spreadsheet templates. Each one is listed by its title followed by (CSV), and downloads with that template's columns. More on how to [let customers download their own statements](https://www.paidnice.com/blog/let-customers-download-statements).

Choose which templates to offer under Organisation Settings, Portal, Statement Downloads, Spreadsheet downloads. You can select any number of published templates. The portal also always offers All as CSV.

The AP clerk who needs the file on the 3rd of the month gets it without emailing you. The [portal settings guide](https://help.paidnice.com/portal/how-the-customer-portal-works#portal-settings) lists every option, and our [customer portal page](https://www.paidnice.com/customer-payment-portal) shows what the customer sees.

💡 Paidnice insight

When a customer asks for an Excel statement, ask for a sample file from their AP team. Copy their column order and headers into the template once, and their statement lands in their system every month with no rework on either side.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can Xero export a customer statement to Excel?

No. Xero prints or emails customer statements as a PDF. To get a spreadsheet from Xero alone, export the Aged Receivables Detail or Customer Invoice Activity report to Excel and remove the other customers.

### Is the Paidnice statement file Excel or CSV?

Paidnice makes a CSV file. It opens in Excel and Google Sheets, with dates as YYYY-MM-DD and amounts as plain numbers with two decimals.

### Can I send the PDF and the CSV statement on one email?

Yes. A Paidnice statement policy attaches every template you select under Statement attachments, so one email can carry the PDF statement and one or more CSV statements.

### How many columns can a statement CSV have?

Up to 30. Each column needs a header of up to 100 characters, and you can add an optional totals row with the sum of each money column.

### What happens with customers who owe in more than one currency?

Paidnice makes one CSV file for each currency, for each template you attach. Each file lists only that currency's lines.

### Can I build an activity statement CSV for a Xero customer?

Yes. On Xero, a spreadsheet template can be an activity statement that lists every transaction in a period, from 30 days up to 36 months, with a running balance and a closing balance on the totals row.

## Paidnice features in this article

- [**Customer statements** Sends branded customer statements on your schedule, with one button to pay.](https://www.paidnice.com/automated-customer-statements)
- [**Customer payment portal** Shows customers every open invoice in one place, where they can pay.](https://www.paidnice.com/customer-payment-portal)

## About the editorial team

Written by Ashley Schroder Co-founder of Paidnice

Ashley is a co-founder and lead developer of Paidnice and has built accounting software for more than 10 years. He builds the ledger connections that put reminders, late fees and payments into Xero, QuickBooks and ERPs such as NetSuite and Business Central. Before Paidnice he co-founded A2X, ecommerce accounting software for Xero and QuickBooks.

Reviewed by Jack Daffron Co-founder of Paidnice

Jack is a co-founder of Paidnice and has built accounting software for more than 10 years. He builds the product that sends reminders, adds late fees and takes payments for businesses on Xero, QuickBooks and ERPs such as NetSuite and Business Central.

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