Xero Integration
How to connect Work Planner to Xero, choose where your customers, invoices, payments and expenses go in it, follow what's been sent on the Activity tab, bring in payments you match in Xero, and put right a connection that's stopped.
Connecting Xero sends what you record in Work Planner to your Xero organisation as you go: your customers as contacts, your charges and invoices as sales invoices, and your payments, write-offs, refunds, tips and expenses. Your books in Xero stay up to date without typing anything in twice, and your accountant sees the same figures you do.
Open Settings > Connections > Xero. Xero is included on the Pro and Team plans. On the others, the page says Xero is included on the Pro and Team plans, and is a £5 a month bolt-on on yours. and Add the Xero bolt-on opens Bolt-ons. If you manage more than one business, each one connects to its own Xero organisation: choose the business at the top first.
Before You Connect
- Two-factor authentication: Xero asks that anyone connecting it or changing its settings signs in with two-factor authentication. Until you turn it on in Settings > Two-factor authentication, Connect to Xero can't be clicked. If you only sign in with Google, Apple, Facebook or a passkey, your account has no password, so you can connect without it.
- A computer: Xero's sign-in needs a web browser, so in the phone app the page says Connect Xero from a computer, at work-planner.co.uk. Once it's connected, everything goes across whichever device you record things on.
- The same currency: Your Xero organisation needs to use the same currency as the business in Work Planner.
Connecting
- Start: Choose Connect to Xero. You go to Xero's own website to sign in, so Work Planner never sees your Xero password.
- Allow access: Xero asks you to allow Work Planner access, and which organisation to connect. Choose the organisation for this business and allow it.
- Back in Work Planner: You come back to the Xero page, which says Xero connected. If you chose more than one organisation, it asks Your Xero sign-in reached more than one organisation. Which one is this business? Choose one and click Connect, or Cancel. The ones you don't choose are disconnected at Xero again.
If it doesn't connect, the page says why, such as Xero wasn’t connected, because access wasn’t allowed., No Xero organisation was chosen, so nothing was connected. or That Xero organisation uses a different currency from this business, so it wasn’t connected. You can try again straight away.
Nothing is sent yet. The page says Choose where things go in Xero, then start sending. Nothing is sent until you do. and Choose settings opens the Settings tab.
Details
- Status: Connected, or Stopped once Xero stops accepting the connection, as described below.
- Organisation: The Xero organisation this business sends to.
- Connected on: The day it was connected.
- Connect again: Takes you to Xero's sign-in again, to put right a connection that's stopped or to move to a different organisation. Connect the same organisation and your settings are kept, and sending carries on from where it stopped. Choose a different one and you choose the settings again: everything from the date you send from goes to the new organisation, and nothing is taken out of the old one.
- Disconnect: The popup asks Are you sure you want to disconnect Xero? and says Work Planner stops sending to Xero. Everything already in Xero stays there, and you can connect again at any time. Choose Disconnect to confirm, or Cancel.
Settings: Where Things Go in Xero
The Settings tab reads your chart of accounts and tax rates from Xero, showing Reading your accounts from Xero... while it does, and fills in what it can, so it's mostly a case of checking. Changes save as you make them. Until you start sending, a note lists anything Still to choose before you can start sending:, each one a link to its field, or says Everything’s chosen. Check it over, then click Start sending to Xero at the bottom. Nothing is sent until you do.
- Send records from: Work Planner sends what's recorded on or after this date. It starts as the day you connected, and can't be later than today. Choose an earlier date if those records aren't in Xero yet. If you've been putting your sales into Xero yourself, choose the day after the last ones you put in, so nothing is in Xero twice.
- Sales: The account charges and invoices go to. Refunds come off it too.
- Tips: The account tips go to.
- Bad debts: The account debts you write off go to. If Xero doesn't have a bad debts account, add one in Xero or choose another expense account.
- Payments: The Xero bank account each payment method's payments go into, and payments with no payment method. Refunds and expenses go out of the same account, and tips go into it. Only bank accounts are offered. A new Xero organisation has none, so the tab says Xero doesn’t have a bank account yet. Add the one your payments go into, then check again. with Add a bank account in Xero and Check again.
- Bring in payments made in Xero: Off to start with. See Payments You Match in Xero below. When it's on, Record them as is the payment method they're recorded as in Work Planner.
- Send card and Direct Debit fees: On to start with. The fees go from the account their payment went into. Turn it off if GoCardless's or your card provider's own Xero app already sends them, so they aren't in Xero twice.
- Expenses: The Xero account each expense category goes to, and expenses with no category.
- VAT: If the business isn't VAT registered, it says This business isn’t VAT registered, so everything goes to Xero with No VAT. Otherwise, choose the Xero tax rate for each VAT rate you use, On sales and On expenses.
- Where do you file your VAT returns?: Asked when the business is VAT registered and your plan includes Making Tax Digital, so your returns are only sent from one place. From Work Planner sends them from the VAT page as usual. From Xero: Work Planner still shows each return's figures but doesn't send them to HMRC as well. It's the same choice as in Settings > Accounts & tax.
When everything's chosen, click Start sending to Xero. Your customers go across first, then everything else follows. After that, changes to the settings save as you make them and apply from the next send.
What Goes to Xero
- Customers: Every active customer becomes a Xero contact, with their name, email, phone numbers, address and reference as the account number. A customer who's left goes too if they have something to send. Anyone already in Xero is matched up rather than added again: by the contact number Work Planner gave them, their reference, their email, then their exact name. Change a customer's details and their contact is updated.
- Charges and invoices: Approved sales invoices to your Sales account. A Work Planner invoice is one Xero invoice with the same number and a line for each charge. A charge that isn't on an invoice is a Xero invoice of its own. If you're VAT registered, each line has its VAT at the Xero tax rate you chose. Missed visits, opening balances and charges of nothing aren't sent.
- Payments: Into the bank account for their payment method, paying the Xero invoice for their own invoice first, then their job's, oldest first. Anything left over is credit on the customer's contact. A payment towards an opening balance pays their oldest unpaid invoices already in Xero.
- Write-offs: A credit note to your Bad debts account, taken off the invoices it clears, oldest first. See writing off a debt.
- Refunds: Any credit the refunded payment left on the contact is paid back first. The rest is a credit note to your Sales account, paid out of the bank. If the customer owes it again, a new invoice says so, as Owed again after a refund. The credit note takes off the VAT of what you refunded and the new invoice puts it on again, so only a goodwill refund lowers your VAT, as it lowers the price. Paying back credit has no VAT. See refunding a payment.
- Tips: Money received into the bank, to your Tips account, with no VAT.
- Expenses: Money spent from the bank account for their payment method, to the account for their category, with their VAT. Work Planner doesn't record who you bought from, so each one is from a contact named after its category. Repeating costs and the ones Work Planner adds itself, such as SMS credits, go too.
When something changes in Work Planner, Xero is changed to match. An invoice or charge that changes is updated. One that's deleted, cancelled or put on an invoice is voided in Xero. A payment, write-off, refund or tip that changes is taken out of Xero and sent again, and one that's deleted is taken out. An expense is updated, or deleted there when you delete it here. Work Planner only changes what it sent, so anything you add in Xero yourself is left alone.
When Things Go
Work Planner sends new and changed records every quarter of an hour. Charges that aren't on an invoice, payments, write-offs, refunds and tips go the night after they're recorded, so the day's changes settle first, such as a charge going onto an invoice. Send now on the Activity tab sends everything straight away, today's too. From Job to Paid with Xero follows one job the whole way, invoiced or not.
Activity
The Activity tab shows what's happening. It updates by itself while it's open.
- Sending: When Work Planner last sent something, then how many records are Sent, Waiting to go (today's charges and payments among them) and Couldn’t send. With payments brought in from Xero, Brought in counts those.
- Send now: Sends everything that's waiting straight away.
- Couldn’t send: Each record Xero refused, or that's waiting for a choice in the settings, with Xero's reason, such as a date in a period that's locked in Xero. Click its name to open it in Work Planner, or View in Xero for what's in Xero. Put right what's in the way, then click Try again. Each is also tried again once a day, up to five times.
- Recently sent: What went to Xero most recently, newest first, a page at a time. What happened says Sent, Taken out of Xero, Brought in from Xero or Deleted in Xero, so taken out of Work Planner. Click a record's name to open it here, or View in Xero to open it there.
Payments You Match in Xero
Lots of businesses match their customers' bank payments in Xero. If that's you, turn on Bring in payments made in Xero on the Settings tab and choose the payment method to Record them as. When you match a customer's bank payment in Xero to a charge or invoice Work Planner sent, Work Planner records it against that job, every quarter of an hour, so the customer's balance is right. If it's deleted in Xero later, it comes out of Work Planner too.
Payments you take in Work Planner, such as cash on the day, still go to Xero as usual, and don't come back. Leave it off if you record your bank payments in Work Planner yourself, so they aren't counted twice.
From Job to Paid with Xero shows each step, from the bank payment arriving in Xero to the customer's balance in Work Planner.
When It Stops Working
If Work Planner is disconnected from Xero's side, such as under Connected apps in Xero, Xero stops accepting the connection. Work Planner finds out the next time it sends to Xero or reads its settings, and then:
- The Xero page says Xero has stopped accepting this connection, so nothing can be sent to Xero until you connect again., its status says Stopped, and only the Details tab shows.
- The notifications bell, phones and email say Xero has stopped accepting this business’s connection, with Nothing goes to Xero until someone connects again in Settings › Xero.
Choose Connect again and connect the same organisation to put it right. Nothing's lost: what was waiting goes at the next send.
If records keep being refused, still refused when they're tried again the next day, the bell, phones and email say Some records couldn’t be sent to Xero, such as 2 records keep being refused. See why in Settings › Xero › Activity. It goes from the bell once they're all sent.
These go to everyone who looks after the business's Xero. Each person can switch them off under Xero in Notification Settings.
If your plan stops including Xero, the page says Your plan no longer includes Xero, so nothing is sent to Xero. Add the Xero bolt-on and sending carries on from where it stopped.
Who Can Do What
Settings > Connections > Xero, and the Xero warnings, are for roles with Xero under Integrations, which owners and admins have. See Editing a Role to change who can. Connecting, and changing the Xero settings, also need two-factor authentication on the person's own login, unless they only sign in with Google, Apple, Facebook or a passkey.
Related articles
- From Job to Paid with Xero: A job from completing it to its invoice in Xero, and the customer's bank payment back into Work Planner.
- Accounts and Tax Settings: VAT registration, your VAT rates and where you file your VAT returns.
- VAT Returns: Your VAT returns, sent from Work Planner or from Xero.
- Payment Methods List: The payment methods each get a Xero bank account.
- Expense Categories List: The categories each get a Xero account.
- Notification Settings: Switching the Xero warnings off or on.
- Two-Factor Authentication: Needed before connecting Xero, unless your account has no password.
- Bolt-ons: Adding Xero on a plan that doesn't include it.