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 need a manual report-export workaround — or see how to send statements as Excel files.
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.