If you have a bookkeeper that is asking you for your bank statements then you have chosen a good bookkeeper!
There are several reasons why they will ask you for your bank statements:
Human Error
Bank to Xero transmission errors
ATO regulations
Human Error
Bank feeds into your accounting system are a great time saver, but checking an actual bank statement balance against the balance in Xero at the end of each month ensures that the bank feed data has not been changed or tampered with.
Some examples of human error that could cause problems are:
if you have manually imported transactions prior to the bank feed kicking in and this has led to a doubling up of transactions
if you have manually entered a payment or deposit against a bill or invoice and allocated it to the incorrect bank account
if you have deleted transactions by mistake
Bank to Xero
Many users believe that when the accounting file displays that bank accounts are reconciled that this is all there is to it.
In actual fact 'reconciled" on your dashboard does not mean that the balance is reconciled to your actual bank statement balance, but just that all the imported transactions have been 'matched' in your file. The balances can in fact be very different.
Giving your bookkeeper a copy of your bank statements enables them to verify the balances in Xero and make amendments when they don't balance.
ATO Regulations
The Australian Taxation Office specifies clearly "for tax purposes you must keep your records in an accessible form (either printed or electronic) for five years". That includes your banking r`uuoyuoyIf