How to update all repeating invoices at once in Xero (annual price increase)

Every year the same job comes round: your rates go up, and every customer on a repeating invoice has to move to the new price. Xero has no button that changes the prices on all repeating invoices together. This guide covers the manual method step by step, what it costs in time, where it goes wrong, and how Repeatwise does the whole batch with a preview first.

Last checked 23 Oct 2026 against Xero Central, Xero Product Ideas and the Xero developer documentation.

Bulk pricing and annual increase workflow reviewed 25 Oct 2026.

Before you start: fix the rule and list the templates

Decide the rule first and write it down: a percentage, a flat amount per unit, or a price list by item. Decide the rounding too. A 3.5% rise on 450.00 gives 465.75, but the same rise on 19.99 gives 20.68965, so choose in advance whether prices go to the nearest penny, the nearest 0.05 or the nearest whole unit. One rule for every line means two people doing half each end up with the same prices.

Then list what you have. In the Sales menu select Invoices and open the Repeating tab. Xero’s repeating invoice article says this tab shows the templates with the date of the next transaction. Xero cannot export that list (the guide to exporting repeating invoices covers the options), so for a large batch you build it yourself. Put it in next-run order. Any template that runs before you reach it creates an invoice at the old price.

The manual method

1. Open the template. In the Sales menu, select Invoices, open the Repeating tab and click the template in the list.
2. Check the tax setting. Look at the Amounts are setting (tax exclusive or tax inclusive), so the price you type follows the same basis as the old one.
3. Change the price on each line. Type the new price on every line that should rise. Leave the lines for items that keep their price.
4. Leave the dates alone. Do not touch Next Invoice Date. Xero’s article warns that if you move it to a past date, all transactions are created again from that date.
5. Save. Xero says changes to an existing template are applied to all subsequent transactions, and you can see them in the History and Notes.
6. Move to the next template. Repeating bills are under Purchases, then Bills, then the Repeating tab, where you click the supplier’s name.
7. Check one generated invoice after the next run. Open it and confirm it carries the new price. Invoices created before your edit keep the old price.

Why the API cannot bulk edit prices in place

Xero’s own screen lets you edit an existing template. Its RepeatingInvoices API cannot edit a repeating invoice in place: it supports creating and deleting templates. The official Xero OpenAPI specification describes the operations as create or delete, even where a method name includes “update”. A bulk app must replace templates and disclose what cannot carry over.

Annual price increase for recurring invoices in Xero

For a January increase, list the last invoice that should use the old rate and the first that should use the new rate for each customer. Check the agreed notice period. Edit after the last old-rate invoice is created and before the first new-rate invoice is generated. A weekly customer and a monthly customer may need different editing windows. Repeatwise applies a job when you confirm it; it does not schedule a future price increase.

Where it goes wrong

• Timing. An edit applies to transactions created after you save it. A template that runs today may already have created its invoice. If a template is set to Approve for Sending, Xero’s article says the invoice is emailed on the date it is created, so the customer gets the old price unless you edited first. Do the nearest run dates first.
• Inventory items. Xero’s article has a note on inventory: if you update an inventory item’s selling price on the template, the updated price won’t flow through to new repeating invoices, and has to be changed on the invoice after it is created. If your templates use inventory items, change one template and check the generated invoice before you do the rest.
• Batch checking. The documented manual flow has no batch before-and-after price review. Check each edited line and total before saving.
• No scheduled increase. Xero’s article describes no setting for a price that starts on a later date. Edit the template after the last invoice that should keep the old price has been created, and before the first one that should use the new price.
• Notice periods. Check what your contracts say about notice before a new price reaches an invoice.

What it costs in time

Use your own number of minutes. If opening, editing and saving one template takes two minutes, 150 templates take five hours. If a template with several lines takes five minutes, the same 150 take 12.5 hours, before any checking. That excludes building the list, checking afterwards, and correcting the ones you got wrong. With ten templates, do it by hand: it is quicker than learning any tool.

The other route Xero’s community manager described

In a 2022 reply on the Product Ideas page for bulk updates, a Xero community manager suggested exporting the invoices already generated from the templates, editing the amounts in the CSV, importing them again, and using the imported invoices to create new templates. Read the limits before you plan around it:

• Xero’s export is capped at 500 transactions at a time, and the import page recommends no more than 500 per file. Imported invoices arrive as drafts.
• Xero’s article describes creating a template with the Repeat option on an invoice in the Awaiting Payment or Paid tab, and says files on that invoice are not copied to the template.
• The old templates still have to be deleted, or customers are billed twice. Deleting a template leaves invoices already generated from it unaffected (Delete repeating invoice templates).

Xero’s article also points to the Xero App Store for more advanced customisation of repeating transactions.

What Xero’s users are asking for

Three ideas on Xero Product Ideas ask for what this guide works around. Votes and status as of 23 Oct 2026:

• Repeating Invoice - bulk update of amounts: 273 votes, status In discovery. On 24 Feb 2026 Xero’s community manager wrote that its product team is beginning to explore repeating invoices.
• Repeating Invoices - Ability to bulk update repeating invoices: 61 votes, status submitted.
• Invoices: Repeating Invoices - Bulk Import/Export: 294 votes, status Accepted. On 15 Jul 2026 Xero replied that the work isn’t currently roadmapped and that it recognises the gap.

The Repeatwise way

Repeatwise is an independent app that works with Xero. It makes the same change as the manual method, for the whole batch, and shows you the result before it writes anything.

1. Connect and scan. Sign in with Xero and choose the organisation. The free scan lists every repeating invoice.
2. Choose the rule. A percentage, a fixed amount per unit, one price for everything, a price list by item code, or an exported CSV where you fill the NewUnitAmount column. Filter by invoice type, customer, currency, item code, account code or description text, and choose the rounding.
3. Preview. Each line before and after, totals per currency, warnings, and the templates it will skip with the reason. The preview is free and unlimited.
4. Run. Type REPRICE and the number of templates. The job runs in the background.
5. Check the result. You get a report CSV, a backup of every original, and Undo for 30 days.

Xero’s developer documentation describes creating and deleting repeating invoice templates, and no call to edit one in place. So Repeatwise replaces each template. It saves the original, creates a new template with the new prices starting on the day the original would have run next, reads the new one back and compares it field by field, and deletes the original only if they match. The new template has a new ID in Xero, and the history notes of the old one do not carry over. Invoices already created are not affected.

It does not change every template. It skips repeating bills, templates with file attachments, templates whose next run is today or tomorrow (UTC), ended series, and monthly templates whose run day is not the start day. Unit prices with more than 2 decimals, or a rule producing them, are refused or skipped because re-creation stores only 2 decimals. Each skipped template is listed with its reason.

Online Payments is not copied. The API exposes no field for the template’s payment-service choice, so the replacement can show None. Undo does not restore that choice either: set it again in Xero. Saved originals are encrypted; download the backup JSON from the job page within 30 days. Undo skips templates edited after the job. Saved originals are deleted after the retention period; disconnecting the organisation deletes them immediately.

The scan, the preview and the CSV export are free, and so are the first 5 templates you change in each organisation. After that a $39 pass covers one organisation for 14 days and up to 250 templates, and $59 a month per organisation has no template limit; both prices are excl. VAT/sales tax. A hundred templates take a few minutes, within Xero’s rate limits. Annual access is $590 per organisation per year, paid upfront, excl. VAT/sales tax; it renews each year until you cancel renewal. See pricing for the details.

Questions

Related guides

• How to export a list of all repeating invoices in Xero (next run date, amounts, customers)
  Xero cannot export repeating invoice templates. What you can get by hand, and a free scan that lists them all.
• How to import or copy repeating invoices into Xero (migrating from another system)
  Building templates in Xero from another system, the start-date trap, and what Repeatwise does and does not do for a migration.
• Pricing
  Free scan and preview, a $39 pass or $59 a month, excl. VAT/sales tax.