Bring your customers across, carry on your invoice numbers, and leave your history and unpaid invoices in Xero until they are finished.
Who this guide is for
Xero does a lot. If you only use it to send invoices, you can move that one job and leave the rest where it is.
This guide is for you if
- You mainly use Xero to quote and invoice clients.
- You are a sole trader or a very small business and want a lighter tool for invoicing.
- You are happy to start new invoices in Invio and finish the old ones in Xero.
Keep Xero for the rest if
- You reconcile your bank, pay bills or run payroll in Xero.
- Your accountant works directly in your Xero file.
- You want to compare the two first: read Invio vs Xero.
Keeping both is fine. Invio can export your invoices as a Xero-ready CSV, so Xero can stay your set of books.
The 10-minute plan
Five steps, in this order. The click-by-click export steps for Xero are in the next section.
Get your clients out of Xero
Export your customers from Xero as a CSV file. It is one menu and one click: the steps are below.
Import them into Invio
Open Clients, then Import. Choose Xero as the source of the file and upload Contacts.csv. Read the preview: Invio lists every row as a new client, a duplicate or a problem before it creates anything, and importing the same file again does not create doubles. A file can hold up to 500 clients.
Carry on your invoice numbers
On the same page, type your last invoice number (INV-0457) into "Your last invoice number". Invio works out the prefix (INV-) and the next number (458), so your next invoice is INV-0458 and no client ever sees a number twice. You can also set both by hand in Settings, under Invoice Defaults.
Add your business details
In Settings, Business: upload your logo and, if you are registered for GST, switch GST on and add your GST number. In Settings, Payments: add the bank account clients should pay into.
Add your usual rates (optional)
Export your products and services from Xero, then add the jobs you bill most to your Item Library, in Settings. Invio does not import rates yet, so this step is by hand.
Export from Xero, click by click
Checked 8 October 2026 against Xero's own help pages. Menus change, so if a step does not match your screen, start from the source: Export contacts out of Xero, Export invoices and bills out of Xero, Change the transaction number sequence, Export inventory items out of Xero.
Your customers
In Xero, open the Contacts menu and choose Customers. Click the menu icon at the top right, then Export. Xero downloads a CSV file to your computer, usually named Contacts.csv. Choosing Customers rather than All contacts leaves your suppliers behind.
Your latest invoice number
In the Sales menu, choose Invoices and look at your newest invoice. Xero numbers invoices and credit notes in one sequence (for example INV-0002, CN-0003, INV-0004), so take the highest INV number, not a credit note. To see the sequence itself, open Sales settings, then Invoice settings, then Default settings: the prefix and the next number are under Automatic sequencing.
Products and services (optional)
In the Sales menu, choose Products and services, click Export, then choose CSV. Open it to see the rates you have saved. Xero also offers a PDF.
Repeating invoices (if you have any)
Xero cannot export repeating invoice templates. Write each one down: the client, the amount, how often it repeats and the date of the next one. You will set them up again as recurring invoices in Invio, and stop the Xero version on your switch day so a client never gets two.
What to leave behind in Xero
Moving your invoicing does not mean moving your history. You do not need it in Invio.
When to switch
A clean start date makes the overlap easy to manage.