Xero Integration

Xero Integration

The Zeald-Xero integration helps save you time by automatically creating Xero invoices, whenever you get a new order through your website.

However, as with other integrations, an additional cost will be required to have this added to your website.  Learn more about Zeald integrations

Once you have purchased the Xero integration and would like to set it up on your website, this is done through the Website Manager/admin side of your website. Note that Zeald is the master data source in this integration, not Xero.
 

Setting up a Xero integration 

To create a new integration, select 'Preferences', then 'integration' and click the 'Add integration' button.





This brings you to the 'ADD/EDIT INTEGRATIONS' page.  In the Type dropdown selector, choose Xero.  This will result in additional fields appearing:
 

Name

This should describe the integration. If it's a demo integration for testing, then label it 'Demo Xero connection'. If it's a live integration then label it 'Live Xero connection'.
 

Application type 

Choose 'Zeald partner application' here, unless you have specific instructions to use a private application. 

In order for the website to have access to connect with your Xero account, you will then need to click on 'Authorise access to Xero Account'.

You'll be taken to the Xero website, where you'll need to enter your Xero email/password if you're not already logged into Xero. Then you'll see the following screen:


Choose the organisation that you would like to connect to your website, and then click the Authorise button.
You should then see a message saying that authorisation is successful and get redirected back to the website to complete the setup.
 

Sync options

When data should be sent to, and received from Xero is determined by what is selected in the 'Sync automatically' field. 



Manual sync only - data will not send or receive unless the 'Sync now' link is clicked - on the integrations page.  Note: Irrespective of the setting in the above field, 'Sync now' can be clicked at any time to force a manual sync.



Automatically every 15 minutes - this means that every 15 minutes the sync process will run.

Automatically at midnight - this means that the sync process will run once per day, at midnight.

When the sync happens, any new orders, customers, and products are sent to Xero. 
 

Error handling

The field called 'When there is an error syncing, what should we do', determines how any errors that occur on the sync should be communicated.  



Email the error message to the website admin every time you sync - every time there is an integration error, an email will be sent to the website admin (according to the email address entered into the website's contact setting).

Send a daily email with the errors for that day - if there are multiple errors in a day, the website will just send one email to the website admin which contains all of the day's errors.

Ignore the error message - the website admin will not receive any notification of errors. If there are any errors they will still be recorded, but require the website admin to go into the integration logs to retrieve them. 

 

Xero invoice options

Select which date to begin synchronising data. 

We recommend setting this to today's date (when you're setting up the integration), which means that all orders from today onwards will be synchronised to Xero.

If however you would like to synchronise old orders to Xero as well, you can back-date the sync to the date of the oldest order you want to push through to Xero.

Leave the field blank if you want to push all orders starting from the first order on the site.
 

Invoice due date

Select the number of days after the creation of the order in Zeald that your Xero invoice should be due.



The default is 30 days - meaning that an invoice in Xero that originated from a website order, will be due for payment 30 days after the order was placed. You can put whatever number of days you like here.
 

Invoice creation

Select the type of invoice created in Xero when orders are synchronised from the website.


 

Account for sales

Choose the Xero account which website sales should be attributed to.



Your actual Xero accounts will appear in the dropdown list. If you would like different website sales to be attributed to different Xero accounts, see the below setting.
 

Use Xero set sales account

This setting gives you the option to let Xero assign different sales to different accounts.

Set to yes if you have items in Xero assigned to different accounts, and you would like the website to assign sales to different accounts as per your Xero settings.

Set to no if all sales from the website should go into one main account in Xero. The account in the above setting will be used in this case.
 

Tax rate for sales

Select the tax rate that should apply to all website sales.



Your actual Xero tax rates will appear in the dropdown list.
 

Advanced pricing

Advanced pricing is not considered a discount on your website however you may want to consider it one on Xero. Note this only applies if your website uses the 'Advanced pricing' add-on - which may be included in your website package or may need to be purchased additionally.



As a discounted item -  this means that an item that has advanced pricing applied, will appear as a discounted product on your Xero invoice.

As a normal product - this means that an item that has advanced pricing applied, will appear as if the sale price is the normal (non-discounted) price, on your Xero invoice. 
 

Order level discounts

Decide how to handle discounts that apply to the whole order, such as coupons.

Apply the discount to each item line - this means that each line item in your Xero invoice will show a discounted price.

Add a separate line item with the value of the discount - this means that each line item in Xero will show the normal price, and an extra line for the discount will be added.

Account the discount should be assigned to (for a separate line item discount) - If you choose to add a separate line item for the discount you can select which account to assign the discount to
 

Xero contact format

Choose how you'd like the contact Name to reflect in Xero.



Xero uses this contact format to determine whether each user already exists in Xero, or if they're a new customer. We recommend using 'Username' to avoid overwriting contacts with the same name in Xero.
 

Duplicate contact check

If someone orders on the website, and a record for this user already exists in Xero, the invoice will be attributed to the existing Xero user. Matching the user between the website and Xero is done using whichever contact format is selected in the above setting.

If the website recognises a match but some of the details are different (e.g. a different address or phone number), the website can do one of two things:

1. Overwrite the contact details in Xero for this user, according to the information they gave on the website. Select No for this setting.

2. Do not overwrite the details in Xero. Instead give a warning which explains which information is different for this user, between the website and Xero. You would then need to manually change the user's details on the website or Xero, before that order will go through to Xero.
Select Yes for this setting.
 

One-off contact sync

This feature is to be used when you're first setting up the integration, or if you add new contacts to your website which need to be synchronised to Xero.

This is useful if you're new to Xero but have an established website - it's a quick & easy way to get all of your contacts into Xero automatically. 


You can select to either synchronise all customers, or just customers which are set as 'active' on your website.
After selecting from the dropdown options, click on 'Push website customers to Xero' to start the sync.

Note that you don't have to run this sync if it's not useful for you.
 

One-off product sync

This feature is to be used when you're first setting up the integration, or if you add new products to your website which need to be synchronised to Xero. 

This is useful if you're new to Xero but have an established website - it's a quick & easy way to get all of your inventory items into Xero automatically. You will then need to add in other accounts-related details to the items in Xero.

Note that you don't have to run this sync if it's not useful for you.
 

Xero payments

When an order is "Waiting for payment" update to pending when invoice is paid on Xero - tick this box if you would like the order status to update in the website, when you set an invoice as paid in Xero. 

Email an update to the administrator when an order is updated to pending - tick this box if you would like the website admin to receive an email, letting them know when the status of an order is updated as per the above setting.
 

Save

Hit the green Save button to save your preferences.


 

Reset data 

If you have previously setup a Xero integration on your website (especially if you used a demo account to first test it), you may be prompted to reset the data. We recommend resetting all existing data if prompted, to ensure that your website and Xero account aren't affected by any previous integration data or saved settings.