Guide · updated 5 November 2026

Copy Xero bank rules between organisations by hand, and document them

Setting up a new client often means rebuilding the bank rules you already wrote for the last one. Xero does not let you export or import them, so the reliable way is a written record and a careful rebuild. This guide gives you that routine and a spreadsheet template.

Download the bank rules template (CSV)

What Xero offers today

There is no built-in export or import for bank rules, and the idea "Bank Rules: ability to import and export" has over 550 votes on Xero Ideas, with comments from accountants through 2026. Rules live inside each organisation, so a new organisation starts empty. Bank rules are found under Banking in the Xero menu, or from the bank account's Manage account menu, depending on your Xero version; the official help is on Xero Central. You need standard or advisor access to create them, and the demo company cannot hold rules, so test on a real client organisation.

Step 1: write the rules down in the source organisation

1. Open the list of bank rules for each bank account. Note the rule type (spend money, receive money or transfer money) and the order: Xero applies the first rule that matches, so order matters.
2. Open each rule and record what it needs: the conditions (field, operator, value), the contact, the account it allocates to, the tax rate, any description, reference or tracking categories.
3. Use the template columns for that: one row per rule, with a priority number, so the order survives.

Step 2: check that the new organisation has what the rules point at

Most rebuild problems are not the rules, they are the things the rules refer to. Before you start, check that the new organisation has the same chart of accounts codes and names you allocate to, the same tax rates, any tracking categories and the contacts named in the rules. A rule that points at an account the new client does not have cannot be created as written.

Step 3: rebuild in priority order

1. Create the rules in the new organisation in the same order as your sheet.
2. Tick done in new org on each row as you go, so an interrupted setup can be resumed.
3. Keep names identical to the source rules. It makes the next comparison, and the next client, easier.

Step 4: test with real statement lines

When the first bank feed or statement import arrives, check a handful of lines for each rule type: the suggestion should match your sheet. Tick checked with test line only when you have seen a rule fire. Fix any line that matches the wrong rule by reordering, not by adding more rules.

Step 5: keep the sheet as the firm's record

The filled-in sheet is the documentation: what each rule does, in what order, for which client. Store it with the client file. When Xero or the client changes, change the sheet and the rule together, and note the date.

Mistakes that cost time

• Rebuilding rules before the chart of accounts is final: the allocations change and the rules must be edited again.
• Broad conditions (for example a very short text) that match unrelated lines. Prefer the most specific text from the statement.
• Forgetting transfers: transfer rules need both bank accounts to exist in the new organisation.
• No test line: a rule that never fired is not yet a checked rule.