How to Add an Advisor in Xero

You set up Xero. You’ve been managing the numbers. But now you need a second set of eyes — an accountant, a bookkeeper, or a financial advisor — and you’re not sure how to get them in without handing over your entire account.

Here’s the thing: Xero’s advisor access system is actually one of the cleanest in the accounting software world. You can give someone full advisor-level access in under three minutes. No sharing passwords. No back-and-forth emails about permissions. Just clean, role-based access that keeps your data safe and your advisor equipped to actually help you.

This guide walks you through every step — from inviting a new advisor to managing existing users and understanding what each role can and can’t do.

What Is an Advisor in Xero?

In Xero, an “Advisor” is a specific user role designed for accountants and bookkeepers. It’s the most powerful role you can assign to an external collaborator — short of making someone an Owner.

Here’s what an Advisor can do that a standard user cannot:

• Run and export all financial reports
• Convert draft transactions to approved
• Access the Xero ledger and journal entries
• Use the Xero Practice Manager connection (if they’re on an accounting firm account)
• Lock dates and manage period-end tasks

This is the role your accountant actually needs to do their job properly. Standard user access won’t cut it for year-end work, tax prep, or full financial reviews.

Why You Need to Get This Right

Getting the advisor role wrong creates real problems.

Give someone too little access and they’ll keep coming back to you for exports, reports, or approvals. That’s wasted time on both sides — and it slows down work that should be seamless.

Give someone too much access without understanding what they can change and you risk unauthorized edits to finalized periods, locked accounts being unlocked, or reports being run without your knowledge.

The Advisor role in Xero exists precisely to solve this. It gives the right level of trust to the right kind of collaborator — without you handing over the keys to everything.

Before You Invite an Advisor

Two things to check before you start:

You need to be the Subscriber or have User Management permissions. Only the Xero subscription owner or a user with “Manage users” permission can invite advisors. If you don’t have this, you’ll need to ask the account owner to do it.

Have the advisor’s email address ready. Xero sends an invitation to their email. If they already have a Xero account (which most accountants do), they’ll connect through their existing login. If they don’t, they’ll create a free Xero login to accept the invite.

How to Add an Advisor in Xero — Step by Step

Go to Your Organization Settings

Log into Xero. In the top left, click on your organization name to open the menu. Then select Settings from the dropdown.

Open the Users Section

Inside Settings, look for the Users option in the left-hand menu. Click it. This shows you everyone who currently has access to your Xero account and their roles.

Invite a User

Click the Invite a user button in the top right corner of the Users page.

A form will appear asking for:

• First name
• Last name
• Email address

Fill these in with your advisor’s details.

Select the Advisor Role

Below the name and email fields, you’ll see a list of roles. Select Advisor.

Xero will show you a summary of what this role includes — confirm it’s what you want, then continue.

Customize Optional Permissions (If Needed)

Depending on your Xero plan, you may also see optional add-ons you can grant alongside the Advisor role:

• Payroll Admin — lets them manage payroll if you’ve set it up
• Expenses — gives access to expense claims
• Projects — visibility into project tracking

Only check these if your advisor genuinely needs them. The cleaner the permissions, the easier it is to manage access later.

Send the Invitation

Click Send invite. Xero sends an email to your advisor immediately.

They’ll get a link that takes them to Xero, where they either log in with an existing account or create a new one. Once they accept, they’ll appear in your Users list as an active Advisor.

That’s it. The whole process takes about two minutes.

What Happens After You Send the Invite?

Once the invitation is sent, here’s the state your advisor sits in:

• Pending — they’ve been invited but haven’t accepted yet
• Active — they’ve accepted and have full access
• Inactive — they’ve been removed or their access has been revoked

You can see this status in your Users list at any time. If an advisor doesn’t receive their invite email, check that the address is correct and ask them to look in their spam folder. You can also resend the invite from the Users page.

How to Change an Advisor’s Permissions

Sometimes you need to adjust what an advisor can see or do after they’re already in the system.

Go back to Settings → Users, find the advisor in the list, and click on their name. You’ll see their current role and any additional permissions. Make the changes you need and click Save.

The update takes effect immediately — no re-invitation needed.

How to Remove an Advisor from Xero

When an advisor’s engagement ends, you want to remove access cleanly and promptly.

Go to Settings → Users, find the advisor, click on their name, and scroll to the bottom of their profile. Select Remove user or Deactivate. Confirm the action.

Their access is revoked instantly. They won’t receive a notification, but they’ll no longer be able to log into your Xero organization.

Don’t skip this step. Former accountants or bookkeepers retaining access to your financial data is a security and compliance risk. Make removing access part of any offboarding checklist.

Understanding All Xero User Roles

Xero has several user roles. Knowing all of them helps you give the right access to the right people.

Owner / Subscriber — Full control over everything, including billing and subscription. Only one person can hold this role.

Standard — Can create and approve transactions, run reports, and manage general day-to-day work. No access to user management or locked periods.

Advisor — Everything a Standard user can do, plus access to the journal, period locking, report pack creation, and accountant-level tools.

Read Only — Can view all data and run reports but cannot create, edit, or delete anything. Useful for silent partners, investors, or internal reviewers.

Invoice Only — Can only create and approve invoices. No access to the full ledger. Good for sales or admin staff who shouldn’t see the full financials.

Most external collaborators — accountants, bookkeepers, financial consultants — will need the Advisor role. Everyone else fits somewhere lower on this list.

Common Issues When Adding an Advisor in Xero

“I don’t see the option to invite users.” You likely don’t have User Management permissions. Ask the account owner to either add you as a Standard user with this permission or have them send the invite directly.

“My advisor says they didn’t get the email.” Check the email address for typos. Ask them to check their spam folder. If needed, go to Users, find the pending invite, and resend it.

“My advisor can’t see certain reports.” Make sure they’re set to the Advisor role, not Standard or Read Only. A quick role change in the Users settings fixes this immediately.

“I invited them but they appear as a different organization’s advisor.” If your advisor uses Xero Practice Manager through their own accounting firm’s Xero account, they may connect differently — via the Xero HQ/advisor network rather than a standard invite. Ask your accountant which method they prefer.

How Multiple Organizations Work

If you run multiple businesses on Xero, you’ll need to add your advisor to each organization separately. Access is not shared across Xero organizations — each one is its own standalone environment.

The process is identical for each: Settings → Users → Invite a user → Advisor role → Send.

Your advisor will see all connected organizations listed in their own Xero account once they’ve accepted each invitation.

Conclusion

Adding an advisor in Xero is genuinely simple — once you know where to look.

Go to Settings, open Users, invite them with the Advisor role, and you’re done. Your accountant gets the access they need without you sacrificing control over your account.

The bigger principle here is the same one that applies to any part of your business: the right access, for the right person, at the right time. No more, no less.

Get this right in Xero, and your financial management becomes a collaboration instead of a bottleneck.