Xero's Built-in Customer Statements vs Statey (2026)

Xero can send customer statements — manually. If you're deciding whether the built-in statements are enough or you need an app, here's the honest 2026 picture.

What Xero's built-in statements do well

• Two statement types: Outstanding (what's owed now) and Activity (transactions over a period).
• Send by email or PDF from Contacts → Customers → Send statements, one customer or a ticked batch.
• Branding themes apply, and it's free — included in every Xero plan.

For a business that sends a handful of statements and doesn't mind doing it by hand each month, that's genuinely enough. You don't need an app.

Where the built-in statements stop

Each of these is a real, current limitation — most have long-running requests on Xero's own Product Ideas forum:

1. No schedule. Every statement run is started by a person. The request for automatic statements has 1,171 votes (open since 2015; Xero moved it to "In discovery" in 2026 — worth watching, but nothing has shipped).
2. No age analysis on the statement. No 30/60/90 columns. Xero declined this request ("not in pipeline") and pointed users at exporting the Aged Receivables report instead.
3. PDF only by email. Customers who want Excel statements need the manual report-export workaround.
4. Sent from Xero's address , not yours — with the familiar spam-folder consequences.
5. No sending record. History & Notes shows that something was sent, not the document, the recipients, or whether it arrived.

What Statey adds

Statey is a Xero App Store plugin that does one thing — customer statements — deeply:

	Xero built-in	Statey
Sending	Manual, per run	Scheduled: every 1–15 weeks/months, chosen weekday or date, any hour — plus manual anytime
Age analysis	Not on statements	Eight bucket presets (30/60/90, weekly 7/14/28, up to 120/150), invoice- or due-date anchored
Format	PDF	PDF, Excel, or both
Sending address	Xero's	Your own domain (self-service DNS, SPF/DKIM)
Recipients	Manual selection	Xero contact groups × filters (e.g. only overdue), don't-send list, multiple contact people
Delivery	Unknown	Per-recipient delivered/bounced with reasons; full sending history; re-download exactly what was sent
Statement content	Fixed layout	Sections toggle individually; custom header/footer with variables; multi-currency
Price	Free	From $10 per org/month , unlimited users, 32-day free trial

Which should you use?

• Stay with built-in Xero if you send a few statements occasionally and manual is fine.
• Use Statey if statements go out on a rhythm, customers ask for age analysis or Excel, deliverability matters, or you're tired of being the person who remembers.
• Neither is a collections suite. If your problem is chasing — reminders, late fees, escalation — that's a different category of tool (and a bigger subscription). Statey pairs happily with whatever you chase with.

FAQ

Can Xero send customer statements automatically?
Not natively as of September 2026 — every run is manual. Xero is researching it ("In discovery"). Statey does it today on any schedule.

Can Xero add 30/60/90 aging to a statement?
No — Xero said this is not in its pipeline. Statey adds it with eight bucket presets.

Can Xero email a statement as Excel?
No, emailed statements are PDF only. Statey sends Excel, PDF, or both .

Will this article stay accurate if Xero ships automatic statements?
We'll update it the day that happens — the comparison then becomes scheduling basics vs statement depth.

Try Statey free for 32 days — no credit card required.