Xero tracking category limits — and how to free up options

Last updated: July 2026

Short answer: Xero allows 2 active tracking categories per organisation, each with a capped number of active options (100 on most plans). When you hit the cap, the fix is not deleting history — it's archiving options you no longer use.

What counts toward the limit

• Categories: only active ones count. You can archive a whole category to make room for a new one without losing its reporting history.
• Options: only active options count toward the per-category cap. Archived options keep all their transactions and reports but stop appearing in pick-lists.

This is why organisations that track job numbers, projects or events hit the wall: every finished job stays active until someone archives it, and each new job needs a free slot.

Freeing up space, manually

1. Go to Settings → Advanced settings → Tracking categories.
2. Open the category and archive finished options one at a time — there is no multi-select.
3. Options never used on any transaction can be deleted outright; anything with history can only be archived.

At a few options this is fine. With hundreds of completed job numbers it turns into hours of clicking — a bulk-archive feature has sat on Xero's idea board since 2023 without delivery.

Freeing up space in bulk

BulkOps (built by us) connects through Xero's official OAuth, lists every category and option in your organisation, and lets you tick hundreds of options — or a whole category — and archive them as one background job. It works for options in use on transactions, it's fully reversible (one click restores everything a job archived), and every change lands in a CSV audit trail. Free to try: previews are unlimited and your first 25 archived options cost nothing.

Full walkthrough: How to bulk archive tracking categories & options in Xero.

FAQ

Do archived options break old reports?

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

Can I merge two tracking options?

Not directly — Xero has no merge. The usual route is recoding transactions to the surviving option (e.g. via Find & Recode, adviser role) and then archiving the empty one.

Can I get more than two tracking categories?

No plan raises the two-active-category limit. If you need more dimensions, the common workarounds are option naming conventions or moving one dimension to Xero Projects.