Your feedback in action: the Xero Workpapers update
If you’re a Xero partner in Australia, you know compliance season has a cost that doesn’t always show up in timesheets or recoverable time billed to the client. Typing in numbers that already live somewhere else. Rebuilding last year’s workpaper structure by hand. Chasing the right figure across Xero, the ATO, client receipts.
That overhead adds up across every client, every year, and it’s time your practice never gets back. When we looked at what Australian firms were telling us, that you have told me personally, many spend over half their annual compliance time just creating, reviewing and managing workpapers.1 We knew a better tool on its own wouldn’t cut it – you need it integrated end to end with your workflow.
That’s what Xero Workpapers was built to do. Built in partnership with BGL, it connects your compliance work to the tools and data your practice already relies on in Xero.
Here’s where we’ve landed: what’s already live, what’s coming next.
One place for client data and managing compliance
This is what a truly connected compliance workflow looks like in practice: fewer handover points, less duplication, and less system switching during your busiest season.
Rather than being just another tool to manage, Xero Workpapers works inside the practice experience you already know. You work with the same navigation, client and staff lists, and connected data across your compliance tools, instead of maintaining a separate system.
Your clients’ Xero data flows into workpapers, so reporting and tax stay in step. Final figures can move directly from a completed workpaper pack into the company tax return reducing re-keying data.
This is also where Xero Partner Hub comes in. It brings together client management and compliance tasks in one place, so you can see what needs attention and get to the right work faster. Tax Manager builds on that with a more integrated way to manage tax obligations inside Xero.
Xero Partner Hub is currently in early access and you can opt in now or be moved automatically when it rolls out to all practices later this year.
Your feedback, now live in Workpapers
Over 2,500 partners have shaped Xero Workpapers since day one. From the classic Workpapers feedback that formed its foundation, to the 37 product ideas and 493 votes completed since launch, your feedback continues to drive what we build next.
To give you a sense of what’s been shipped: refreshing data from individual workpapers, seeing account names on notes, pulling the financial year end date automatically from Xero, and closing notes in one click. We’ve also taken the first step in a more connected books-to-tax process, with data now flowing directly from a completed workpaper pack into the company tax return without copying figures by hand.
One practice recently told us: “The fact that you responded and made the change is fantastic.” When practices see their feedback acted on, it reinforces the collaborative relationship we aim for: one where sharing input leads to visible, meaningful change.
What’s coming next in Workpapers
Here’s what’s coming in the next weeks and months, based on what you voted for: the ability to attach Xero report PDFs directly to your pack without the manual export step and a new GST worksheet will be available shortly. We’re also working on template customisation, a clearer sign-off process with individual preparer and reviewer approvals, drag-and-drop document handling, direct export to Xero Tax for trusts, and more.
We’re not slowing down on Workpapers just because Plus is coming. Workpapers Plus adds advanced functionality on top of Xero Workpapers, so upgrades to the Workpapers itself helps every practice, on Workpapers Plus or not.
Introducing Xero Workpapers Plus
For many practices, Xero Workpapers will be exactly what you need, and we’ll keep improving it based on what you tell us.
But we also hear from firms that manage more complex clients, that they need greater standardisation across larger teams, or are spending too much time on workarounds that shouldn’t be necessary. For those practices, we’ve been building something more.
Xero Workpapers Plus is an optional paid upgrade, everything in Workpapers, plus the improved control, automation and additional compliance needs firms with more complex clients have been asking for.
Your practice, your setup
Configure templates, mappings and pack structures once, so each job can start the way your practice works, and every job can stay consistent without the setup.
Less manual groundwork
AI data extraction from supporting documents, automatic Xero report PDF imports, and ATO-powered pre-population cut manual data entry before a preparer even starts.
Every client in one flow
Advanced worksheets for Division 7A, Capital Gains Tax, Hire Purchase and inter-entity loans keep complex calculations in one place instead of scattered across spreadsheets. And with upcoming support for non-Xero clients, practices will be able to bring their whole client base into one process.
Workpapers Plus is the next step in that shared direction with BGL:
“Partnering with Xero on Workpapers has been a genuinely collaborative experience. Workpapers Plus represents the next stage of what we’re building together, giving Australian practices the advanced compliance tools they’ve been asking for, inside the platform they already trust. We’re excited about what’s ahead” — Daniel Tramonta, CEO, BGL
Join early access
Early access to Xero Workpapers Plus opens in August to a small group of eligible practices. This initial release will include key capabilities such as the Division 7A worksheet, entity-type customisation, deep ATO integration and AI document extraction for bank and loan statements.
We’ll expand access and features through the end of 2026, guided by early adopter feedback.
Selected practices will get three months at no additional cost, followed by six months at 50% off*. Standard pricing after that will be $45 AUD excluding GST per user, per month.
Getting in early means more than a discounted price. It puts you directly in line to shape the next features we ship. If you want a say in what comes next, register your interest here.
1 In a survey conducted by Xero between July and September 2025 with 147 Australian practices, 39% of firms reported spending between 51-75% of their team’s total annual compliance time on creating, reviewing, and managing workpapers to prepare for tax forms.
*This offer is only available to eligible Xero Partners in Australia selected by Xero to participate in the Workpapers Plus early access. Participants must purchase the Workpapers Plus add-on in Xero Partner Hub and the discount will be applied automatically. The offer is available from 3 August 2026 until 30 September 2026. The discount applies to Xero’s then current regular price for the Workpapers Plus add-on and does not apply to any base plan subscriptions or additional charges for usage and payment fees, unless otherwise specified. This offer cannot be used with, or exchanged for, any other offer. Xero can change or cancel this offer at any time. At the end of the offer period, the Workpapers Plus add-on will be charged at Xero’s standard rates and will auto-renew monthly until cancelled. Terms apply
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