Xero

Xero Terms of Use: Key Points and Risks

*This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. The Terms incorporate other documents—especially Xero’s Privacy Notice, Data Processing Terms, pricing plans, payments terms, and third-party terms—which may materially affect your rights.*

1. Data Collection and Usage

Xero may process:

• Account and contact information, such as your name, email address, and subscription details.
• Business and financial data that you or invited users upload or enter, including customer, supplier, employee, tax, banking, and transaction information.
• Location information, including geographical information used to determine tax location or residency.
• Usage and technical data, which may be used to operate, secure, analyze, and improve the services.
• Payment and billing information, including information needed for subscriptions and app purchases.

You retain ownership of data you submit, but grant Xero a broad licence to use, copy, transmit, store, analyze, and back up it to:

• Provide and maintain Xero;
• Improve, develop, protect, and create new services;
• Communicate about your subscription;
• Send marketing consistent with your preferences; and
• Share it with service providers and partners supporting these purposes.

Xero may create anonymized and aggregated statistical data from your data and usage and use it for product development, business trends, and other communicated purposes.

2. User Rights

The Terms do not provide a detailed standalone list of privacy rights. Your rights are primarily governed by:

• Xero’s Privacy Notice for your own personal data;
• Xero’s Data Processing Terms for personal data processed on your behalf; and
• Applicable privacy laws in your location.

The Terms indicate that you may request complete removal of data after termination, although Xero retains data for a period under its retention policy. After cancellation, data is archived and generally inaccessible unless you reactivate and pay outstanding or renewed fees.

You may also:

• Cancel with one month’s advance notice;
• Stop using certain bank feeds;
• Manage connected third-party apps; and
• Object to unacceptable material term changes by terminating under the normal notice period.

3. Third-Party Sharing

Xero may disclose data to service providers and partners supporting its operations. If you connect an app, bank feed, lender, payments provider, or other third-party product:

• Your data may be shared with that provider;
• The provider’s separate privacy notice and terms apply;
• The provider may charge additional fees;
• Xero generally does not endorse or accept responsibility for the provider; and
• Some providers may pay Xero referral, revenue-based, or data-access-related fees.

Connected platforms, such as banks, may administer your Xero organisation, access data, restrict access, or terminate services under their own terms. You are responsible for ensuring you have consent and legal authority to submit other people’s personal data.

4. AI/ML Training

The Terms do not expressly say that customer data is used to train artificial intelligence or machine-learning models.

However, the licence permits Xero to analyze submitted data to “improve,” “develop,” and “create new services.” This wording is broad enough that AI-related development could potentially fall within it, but the document does not confirm whether identifiable customer data, de-identified data, or both are used for model training. The anonymized-data provision expressly allows use of aggregated data for product development.

Users should review Xero’s Privacy Notice and Data Processing Terms for any specific AI, analytics, or model-training provisions.

5. Key Obligations and Restrictions

Users must:

• Provide accurate, complete, and current information;
• Protect usernames, passwords, and email accounts;
• Notify Xero immediately of unauthorized access or security breaches;
• Use strong passwords and comply with required security features;
• Maintain their own backups;
• Verify information used for tax, legal, and compliance purposes;
• Have appropriate rights and consents for data about others; and
• Use Xero only for lawful business purposes.

Users must not misuse the service, violate fair-use limits, infringe intellectual property, or store sensitive data—such as payment-card details, tax identifiers, or bank-account details—in inappropriate free-form fields. Feedback may be used by Xero without restriction.

6. Liability and Disputes

The services are provided “as is,” subject to non-excludable legal rights. Xero generally disclaims implied warranties.

Major limitations include:

• No liability for lost profits, revenue, goodwill, customers, reputation, anticipated savings, compliance problems, or indirect/consequential losses;
• For data loss, liability is generally limited to reasonable recovery efforts from available backups; and
• Total liability is capped at subscription fees paid in the preceding 12 months.

You must indemnify Xero for qualifying third-party claims arising from your use of the services or third-party products, subject to exceptions for Xero’s serious wrongdoing.

Disputes generally go to binding arbitration or small claims court, rather than ordinary courts, and class or representative actions may be restricted where legally permitted. Governing law and venue depend on your Xero edition and country.

7. Changes and Termination

Xero may change the Terms, pricing, features, or services. Material changes will generally receive about 60 days’ notice by email or a visible in-service notice, but non-material changes may be made without notice. Changes are not retrospective.

Subscriptions automatically renew and are charged each billing period. Xero may suspend or terminate for nonpayment, breach, insolvency, legal/regulatory risk, or other specified grounds. Refunds are generally unavailable, and termination may make data inaccessible unless reactivated or separately removed.