How to Remove Billable Expenses in Xero

Updated on:

May 12, 2026

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Use this interactive demo to learn how to unlink billable expenses from a bill in Xero.

Quick summary

This tutorial shows how to remove billable expenses in Xero by editing a bill and clearing the customer or project assignment. Follow these steps to detach a billable expense from a contact so it no longer appears as a chargeable line item on your bill.

Steps

On the Xero main dashboard, navigate to the top menu bar and click 'Business'.
Choose 'Bills To Pay' from the dropdown list of options.
Find and open a bill from the list of available bills.
Tap 'Bill Options' in the top-right corner of the bill view.
Click 'Edit' to enter edit mode for the bill.
Tap the 'Assign Expenses to a Customer or Project' option within the bill editor.
Click the field under 'Customer / Project' and delete its existing input.
Click 'OK' to apply and confirm the changes.
The billable expense is now successfully removed from your Xero bill.

📌 Why this matters

Managing billable expenses accurately in Xero is critical for keeping accounts payable clean and avoiding incorrect client charges. The ability to remove or reassign a billable expense directly from a bill prevents billing errors and ensures that only valid, approved costs are passed on to customers or projects. For bookkeepers and finance teams, this feature saves time by eliminating the need to void and recreate bills just to correct expense assignments. Proper billable expense management in Xero also supports accurate financial reporting and cleaner audit trails.

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