How to bulk archive tracking categories & options in Xero

Last updated: July 2026

If you use tracking categories for job numbers, projects, events or locations, the list only ever grows — and Xero can only archive tracking options one at a time. Businesses with hundreds of finished jobs face hours of clicking. A bulk-archive feature has been requested on Xero's idea board since 2023 (150+ votes) with no delivery.

The manual process

1. Go to Settings (Organisation settings) → Advanced settings → Tracking categories.
2. Open the category (e.g. "Job Number").
3. Next to a single option, open the menu and choose Archive. Confirm.
4. Repeat for every option — there is no multi-select and no "archive all".

Archiving does not delete history: archived options keep their transactions and reporting; they just stop appearing in pick-lists. That is exactly why regular cleanup is worth doing — and exactly why the one-at-a-time UI hurts.

Deleting vs archiving

Xero deletes an option only if it has never been used on a transaction. Anything in use can only be archived. So for real-world cleanup (finished jobs with history), archiving is the only route — bulk or not.

Archiving hundreds of options at once

BulkOps (built by us) connects via Xero's official OAuth and turns the cleanup into one job:

• It lists every tracking category and option in your organisation, active and archived.
• Tick the options to archive — individually or a whole category at once.
• They're archived as a background job under Xero's API rate limits, with per-item results. Works for options that are in use on transactions.
• Fully reversible: one click restores everything a job archived, and every change is logged to a CSV audit trail.

Free to try — previews are unlimited and your first 25 archived options cost nothing, no card required.

FAQ

Does archiving a tracking option affect old reports?

No. Historical transactions and reporting keep the option; it only leaves the pick-lists.

Can I restore an archived option?

Yes — restoring makes it active again. BulkOps does this in bulk too (that's the undo button on any archive job).

Is there a limit on tracking categories?

Xero allows two active tracking categories per organisation (with up to 100 options each on most plans) — another reason to keep them pruned.