Business Finance Assistant is closing on 14 December 2026
We understand that changing the tools you use to manage your business can take time. This page explains what the Business Finance Assistant (BFA) closure means for you, the key dates you need to know, and the support available to help you move to a new solution.
What you need to do
Download and save your data before 14 December 2026 to make sure you keep any information you might need - like reports, submissions, and records. Once the service closes, you will no longer be able to access BFA.
You'll find step-by-step instructions in our data download guide.
Things to know if you use BFA to submit VAT returns to HMRC
- The final VAT period supported in BFA will be the period ending 31 October 2026.
- VAT returns for this period must be submitted by the HMRC deadline of 7 December 2026.
- If your VAT period finishes earlier than 31 October, you may want to move to a new accounting software provider for the start of your new VAT period.
Moving to a new accounting solution
Every business has different accounting and bookkeeping needs. Make sure you look at different options and providers before choosing the right software for your business.
Our exclusive Xero Business Edition offer
As an active BFA user, you could get a free 9-month Xero Business Edition subscription* to help you transition from BFA.
The offer is available until 8 January 2027 and includes:
- a free 9-month Xero Business Edition subscription of your choice
- optional support and Fresh Start migration service to help set up Xero with key information from your BFA account.
*After your 9-month free period, your subscription will automatically renew and your card will be charged. You can cancel or change your plan before your free period is over. To cancel or change your plan, you must provide one month’s notice to Xero.
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If you're a Bank of Scotland customer moving from BFA to Xero, you can use Xero's supported Fresh Start migration service to help you get started. This aims to set up your Xero account with the key information from your BFA account including:
- customer and supplier contacts
- opening balances
- aggregate outstanding invoice and bill balances.
To use this service, you’ll need to download your Customer lists, Supplier lists and Journal entries from BFA and share this with Xero.
Please be aware, this will not be a full historical transaction migration. There may not be an exact replication of your previous BFA foreign exchange calculations. You're responsible for making sure that any data to submit to Xero is complete, correct and uncorrupted.
Chosen to migrate? Set up in 4 simple steps
Switching from Business Finance Assistant to Xero
Watch the video (8m 28s)
Frequently asked questions - BFA closure
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Business Finance Assistant will close on 14 December 2026. After this date, you'll no longer be able to access the service, so it's important to download any data you wish to keep before then.
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We do not currently offer a direct replacement for Business Finance Assistant. We encourage you to review the accounting software options available and choose the solution that best meets your business needs.
Frequently asked questions - BFA Xero offer
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No. The 9-months free Xero offer is available to new, eligible Xero customers only. If your business already has an active Xero subscription, you won't qualify for this offer and your existing Xero subscription will continue under your current arrangements.
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Yes. You'll be eligible for one Xero offer for each qualifying BFA account you hold.
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Before requesting your migration, you will need to download the following files from BFA:
Files you will need to download from BFA before requesting your migration File required
How to obtain it
File required
Customer List
How to obtain it
Go to Customers and select Export Customers
File required
Supplier List
How to obtain it
Go to Suppliers and select Export Suppliers
File required
Journal Entries* (XLS format)
How to obtain it
Go to Journal Entries and select Export Journal Entries
*If you can't see Journal Entries in BFA:
- Select Your Profile.
- Select Preferences.
- Turn on Show accountancy information.
- Save your preferences.
Once downloaded, you'll need to upload all files when raising your migration request with Xero Support.
You only need to upload the files that are relevant to your business. If you do not use customer lists, supplier lists or journal entries in BFA, you do not need to provide those files to Xero.
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If you're having difficulty downloading data from BFA, please contact the BFA Support Team at support@businessfinanceassistant.bankofscotland.co.uk.
For support with uploading files to Xero or completing your migration, please contact Xero Support by raising a support ticket within Xero. You can do this once you've created your Xero account.
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A full historical migration of your BFA data is not part of the Xero supported migration process. If you require a fuller migration, you should speak to your accountant who may be able to support you.
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On 14 December 2026 your BFA account will close automatically. If you want to close your BFA account before 14 December 2026, you can do this by navigating to ‘Your Profile’ in BFA. Please ensure that you have downloaded the data you need before closing your BFA account.
Help and support
If you have any questions, contact us on 0345 300 0268 and we’ll be happy to help.
Lines are open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and Saturday 9am to 2pm, excluding bank holidays.
Terms and Conditions - BFA Xero offer
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1. About this offer
If you are a Business Finance Assistant (BFA) customer of Bank of Scotland and meet Xero's eligibility criteria set out below, Xero is offering 9 months' free access to an eligible Xero subscription plan (the "Offer").
The Offer is available until 23:59 on 8 January 2027.
2. Who is eligible for the Offer?
The Offer is available to existing Bank of Scotland Business Finance Assistant (BFA) customers.
A customer may claim the Offer once for each separate BFA business/account relationship they hold. For example, a customer with two separate businesses using BFA is eligible to receive the Offer for each business.
The Offer is available regardless of the type of Bank of Scotland business current account or banking relationship associated with the BFA service.
The Offer is not available to accountants or bookkeepers purchasing subscriptions on behalf of clients.
3. What are Xero’s Offer conditions?
The Offer is brought to you by Xero, not Bank of Scotland. We're letting you know about it because Xero wanted to make it available to our customers. If you decide to accept Xero’s Offer, you will be entering into an agreement directly with Xero, and they will ask you to accept their own terms and conditions for the products/services they provide. This is separate from any relationship you have with us, and we are not responsible for the Offer, data migration activities or anything arising from it.
Subscription Offer
The 100% fee-free discount applies to Xero's price for its Simple, Ignite, Grow, Comprehensive and Ultimate plan subscriptions only. The 100% fee-free only applies to the subscription fee based on the subscription type you have selected and does not apply to additional charges for add-ons, usage, or payment fees. The Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other Xero plan offer and cannot be exchanged for any other Xero offer.
At the end of the Subscription Offer period (i.e. after the 9 month fee-free period), your subscription with Xero will be charged at Xero’s standard rates applicable at that time, for the plan you selected and will auto-renew monthly until cancelled. You can cancel your Xero subscription through Xero (Cancel a subscription – Xero Central) but please be aware that under Xero’s current terms, you must give Xero one month’s notice to cancel, but you can do so at any time. Cancelling your Xero subscription does not impact the availability of your Bank of Scotland Business Account(s).
4. Optional BFA Data Migration Service
As part of the Offer, eligible customers may choose to request a BFA-to-Xero Data Migration Service to set up an opening position in Xero. Participation in the migration service is entirely optional.
Customers are not required to use the migration service in order to accept the Offer and obtain the 9-month free subscription period.
The migration service is intended to import selected information from BFA into a newly created Xero organisation. The migration scope covers:
- Customer contacts
- Supplier contacts
- Opening balances
- Aggregate outstanding invoice and bill balances
The migration service will not provide a complete historical conversion of BFA records.
The following are not included within the standard migration scope:
- Full historical transaction migration
- Exact replication of historical multicurrency behaviour
- Incomplete, incorrect, or corrupted file submissions
- Post-conversion reconciliation or accountant review
- Bespoke ledger clean-up or manual reconstruction of non-standard data issues
- Self-serve conversion or imports you run yourself
Customers who require a complete historical migration may need to maintain separate copies of historical records exported from BFA.
Customer responsibilities for migration requests
To request a migration, you must:
- Create a new Xero organisation
- Configure the organisation in accordance with Xero's migration instructions
- Grant the required access permissions to Xero's migration team
- Download and provide the required BFA export files
- Submit a migration request through Xero's designated support process and follow the instructions you receive from Xero in relation to the migration service. Until Xero has confirmed your migration is complete, you must not actively use your account, as this will delay the set-up process and your Xero account may need to be deleted and re-opened. Once you receive confirmation that the migration is complete, you can begin using your new Xero account.
You are responsible for ensuring that information submitted to Xero is complete, accurate and up to date.
Other important information
- Xero reserves the right to share the information you submit as part of the Offer when subscribing with Xero with Xero’s referral partners for the purposes of promotion attribution, fulfilment, and reconciliation, in accordance with Xero's privacy notice. Further details can be found here.
- You are responsible for downloading and retaining any records, reports or other information they require from BFA before the service is closed.
- We have agreed with Xero the format for the BFA data download so that it is compatible with Xero migrations requirements. You are responsible for downloading all data required in the format provided for the migration (i.e. all periods not partial periods). You must not alter the format of the data after it has been downloaded from BFA. Xero may suspend or pause the optional migration service where there are issues with the data format. As a result, the optional migration service may not be available at all times during the Xero offer period. We are not liable to you for any delay or interruption to the optional migration service caused by factors outside our control. You must contact Xero if there are any issues with the migration service. Once Xero has confirmed that the migration service is complete, you can then use your Xero account.