Prepayment schedules for Xero, without the spreadsheet

An annual insurance bill or a quarter’s rent paid in advance should hit the profit and loss account month by month, not all at once. Xero has no prepayment schedule for this. The idea “Prepayments & Accrual Schedules” asks for one “instead of using spreadsheets”. It is labelled Accepted, but on 21 November 2025 Xero wrote that “there are currently no plans for this in the pipeline”.

The manual way in Xero

Code the bill to a prepayments account on the balance sheet instead of the expense account.
Each month, post a manual journal: debit the expense, credit prepayments, for that month’s share. Xero’s repeating journals can do this when the amount is the same every month (an example from a UK bookkeeper).
Keep a spreadsheet of what makes up the prepayments balance, with additions and releases each month, and tie it to the balance sheet.

That breaks down with part months, price changes, cancellations and many clients. Commenters on the idea also note that Dext’s prepayment feature doesn’t handle foreign-currency bills, so those stay in a spreadsheet.

What Amortline does

One row per bill in Amortline’s template (CSV or Excel, or pasted from a spreadsheet): type, reference, amount, service start and end dates, the P&L account and the balance sheet account.
Three spreading methods: daily (by days in each month), equal monthly (a part month counts if it covers at least half the month), or monthly by days (full months equal, part months by days). Amounts are worked in pence, and any rounding goes to the last month, so each schedule adds up to the bill exactly.
A Xero manual journal import CSV with one balanced journal per month-end not yet posted. See the import format.
A posting record so no month is posted twice, and a working paper in Excel and PDF with the roll-forward per balance sheet account (opening, additions, released, closing) next to the Xero balance you type in.
Changes and cancellations: a new amount from a date re-spreads what is left; a cancellation stops the schedule, with the rest refunded or released to P&L that month.
Foreign-currency bills: give the base-currency amount as booked in Xero, and Amortline spreads that, because Xero manual journals are base currency only.

In Xero, go to Reporting › All reports › Journal Report › Go to manual journals › Import, and choose the file. The journals arrive as drafts for you to check and post.

What it doesn’t do

It doesn’t read bills from Xero: you list them in the template.
It doesn’t post to Xero. You import and post the journals yourself.
It spreads straight-line only.

Try it on your own schedule. Free, no sign-up, nothing uploaded. The free version covers one client, and the journal file, posting record and working paper cover 3 lines per client. The Practice plan (£12 per month or £120 per year) covers every line and every client: see pricing.

Build a schedule

More guides

Amortline is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Xero. Xero is a trademark of Xero Limited. This guide was checked against the linked sources on 27 October 2026; Xero changes its product, so check the current Xero Central article if a menu looks different.