GUIDE · XERO BANK FEEDS
Set up a Xero bank feed,
then fill in the months it doesn’t bring.
To set up a bank feed in Xero, go to Accounting, Bank Accounts, click Add Bank Account, find your bank and authorize the connection. How much history it brings depends on the bank. Months before the feed starts come in as imported statements. For those earlier months, the ZeraBooks bank statement converter turns the old PDFs into a Xero-ready CSV, each one proven against its printed balances. Weighing a switch instead? See the Xero alternative comparison.
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STEP BY STEP
How do you set up a bank feed in Xero?
From Xero’s U.S. bank feeds page, checked October 22, 2026. Do it once per bank or card account.
- 1
Open Bank Accounts
In Xero, go to the Accounting menu and choose Bank Accounts.
- 2
Click Add Bank Account
Search for your bank by name. Xero says it connects to thousands of U.S. banks, including the large ones and card issuers.
- 3
Authorize the connection
Follow the prompts, which usually means signing in to the bank and agreeing to share account data. The connection is read-only: Xero can’t make payments through it.
- 4
Choose the account and any history
Pick which of your bank accounts the feed fills. If the bank offers past transactions, Xero lets you bring them in here.
- 5
Check the first line
Once lines arrive, note the date of the earliest one. Everything before that date has to come from statements.
- 6
No direct feed?
Smaller banks and credit unions are often reached through a third-party feed such as Yodlee, which signs in with your banking details. Xero’s blog notes multi-factor authentication can make those feeds less reliable.
We set you up and catch up your past months for free. Then ZeraBooks keeps your books done.
A REAL EXPORT
What does a CommBank statement look like after a Xero-ready download?
A real run in ZeraBooks Convert: the fictional CommBank sample statement CommBank_Business_Transaction_7714_Sep2026.pdf, already proven to the cent, downloaded Xero-ready as a CSV. The file that came out, Xero-ready - CommBank_Business_Transaction_7714_Sep2026.csv, has 13 rows with the columns Date, Amount, Payee, Description, Reference.
The format, picked in Convert
The file that downloaded
HOW FAR BACK
How far back does a Xero bank feed go?
There is no single answer. Xero’s own page says historical data “depends on your bank”, and older Xero help pages give different figures. What decides it:
The bank
Each bank decides how much past data it sends through the feed. Some send months, some only send from the day you connect.
The kind of feed
A direct feed comes from an agreement between Xero and the bank. A third-party feed reads what online banking shows, which may be a shorter window.
When the books start
If your books start January 1 and you connect in October, the gap is whatever the feed doesn’t reach. A new business that connects on day one has no gap.
Pending lines
The newest days can lag while the bank moves lines from pending to posted. That is a late feed, not missing history; give it a day before importing anything for those dates.
WORKED EXAMPLE
How do you fill the history a bank feed is missing?
Halden Cycle Works is a fictional bike shop. Its Xero books start January 1, 2026. It connects the checking feed in October, and in this example the feed’s first line is July 1. January to June come from the bank’s monthly statements:
| Month | Source | Opening | Net change | Closing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | Statement import | 12,480.00 | 1,215.40 | 13,695.40 |
| February | Statement import | 13,695.40 | −842.15 | 12,853.25 |
| March | Statement import | 12,853.25 | 2,306.90 | 15,160.15 |
| April | Statement import | 15,160.15 | −1,118.60 | 14,041.55 |
| May | Statement import | 14,041.55 | 967.25 | 15,008.80 |
| June | Statement import | 15,008.80 | 953.55 | 15,962.35 |
| January to June | 12,480.00 | 3,482.35 | 15,962.35 | |
| July onward | Bank feed | 15,962.35 |
The test is the hand-over: June’s closing balance of 15,962.35 must equal the opening balance printed on the July statement, where the feed takes over. 12,480.00 + 3,482.35 = 15,962.35. If Xero’s balance at June 30 is anything else, a month is missing, doubled or imported into the wrong account.
BACKFILL WITHOUT OVERLAP
How do you import old statements next to a live feed?
The feed and the imports must meet exactly, with no shared days.
- 1
Find the feed’s first date
Sort the account’s statement lines oldest first. Halden’s first fed line is July 1, so imports stop at June 30.
- 2
Get the statements
Download January to June from online banking. If the bank offers OFX or QFX for those months, use it; older months are often PDF only.
- 3
Turn PDFs into CSV
Xero lists a PDF upload for supported banks. For other banks, scans, or statements with several accounts, convert to CSV with one Amount column and money out negative.
- 4
Prove each month first
Opening plus the month’s lines must equal the printed closing balance before anything goes into Xero. One that doesn’t add up has a missed or misread line.
- 5
Import oldest first
Use Import a Statement on the account’s menu, one month at a time from January, and check Xero’s balance after each against the printed closing balance.
- 6
Clear any overlap
If June 30 lines arrived by feed and by file, use Find and remove duplicate bank statement lines. If a line can’t be imported at all, Xero lets you mark the transaction reconciled by hand.
FEED VS STATEMENTS
Should you use a bank feed or import statements in Xero?
Most Xero users want both: the feed for new days, statements for the past. Where each one is the better source:
| Question | Bank feed | Imported statements |
|---|---|---|
| New transactions each day | Arrive daily without effort | Only as often as you import |
| Months before you connected | Only what the bank chooses to send | Any month you have a statement for |
| Proof against the bank | No printed opening or closing balance per line | Each month carries the bank’s printed balances |
| When it breaks | If the connection drops, new lines stop until it is reconnected | Nothing to reconnect; the file is the record |
| Where it lives in Xero | Add Bank Account; reconciling is in every plan, Auto-reconcile in Growing and Established | Import a Statement sits on each bank account’s menu |
Plan details from Xero’s U.S. bank feeds page, checked October 22, 2026. Reconciling against a printed statement is still worth doing for a fed account once a month; the method is in how to do a bank reconciliation.
WHERE ZERABOOKS FITS
Does ZeraBooks provide a bank feed for Xero?
No. ZeraBooks has no bank feed and no connection to Xero. It doesn’t replace the Xero feed and doesn’t send anything to Xero.
What it does is the backfill step. ZeraBooks Convert reads old PDF statements, including scans and PDFs with several accounts, and checks every statement against its printed opening and closing balance, to the cent, before you download. You get a Xero-ready CSV per account to import through Import a Statement. The column layout and import steps are on the bank statement to Xero page.
Converting a whole year at once? Check that each month’s closing balance meets the next month’s opening first; combine bank statements shows how to spot a gap.
MORE IMPORT GUIDES
Getting statements into other software
- MYOB bank statement importThe OFX and QIF files MYOB takes, the steps and the fixes.
- Bank statement to Google SheetsPDF to CSV, the import settings that matter and a check formula.
- Bank statement to XeroA PDF statement as a Xero-ready CSV, imported and checked.
- Import a PDF bank statement into QuickBooksFour routes, the CSV layouts and the checks before import.
- QuickBooks Spreadsheet SyncWho has it, what its templates import, and a worked bill batch.
- Zoho Books statement importThe files Zoho Books takes, the steps and the date fixes.
Why is my Xero bank feed missing older transactions?
The bank only sent part of its history, or none, when you connected. Xero says historical data depends on the bank. Import statements for the earlier months, ending the day before the feed’s first line.
Why are the last few days missing from my Xero feed?
Usually the bank hasn’t moved them from pending to posted yet, so the feed is late rather than broken. Wait a day before importing anything for those dates, or you may end up with duplicates.
Can I add history to a bank feed after I connect it?
Not through the feed if the bank doesn’t offer it. Import statement files for the missing months through Import a Statement on the account’s menu. Xero treats imported and fed lines the same when you reconcile.
Is a Xero bank feed safe?
Xero describes the connection as read-only: it can read transactions but can’t make payments. Third-party feeds sign in with your banking details, so check your bank’s terms before using one.
What if my bank has no feed in Xero?
Use a third-party feed if one covers your bank, or import statements every month as OFX, QFX, QBO, QIF or CSV. Monthly statement imports also give you the bank’s printed balances to reconcile against. Treasury files such as MT940 aren’t on that list, so convert them first.
Does ZeraBooks connect to my bank?
No. ZeraBooks uses no live bank feeds. You upload PDF or CSV statements and Convert gives you checked Excel or CSV. It is included in the ZeraBooks subscription, from $79 a month billed annually after a 7-day trial; see ZeraBooks pricing.
FREE SETUP + CATCH-UP
Backfill the months your feed missed.
Every statement checked before you import it.
Upload last year’s PDFs, download Xero-ready CSV per account, import oldest first. 1,000 pages a month from $79 a month billed annually. For books built from statements instead of a feed, see AI bookkeeping.