Overview:

Setup your Xero integration options for each financial company here, and once that is done you can seamlessly sync your batch data between Workbench and Xero.

Screen Guide:

The Xero Integration screen is accessed from the main menu in Workbench under the Administration - Data Transfer folder, and gives you a visual overview of configuration for the selected Financial Company.

The configuration for the selected Financial Company is displayed and modified here, and also to initiate the import sync process with Xero. Data export to Xero is initiated for the respective batch types from Export Control.

All export batches are supported, even Payroll ones if you are using Xero Payroll for Australia. A Workbench Payroll batch export will create Timesheets and Leave requests in Xero, depending on the Payroll Codes defined in each Activity. See the Xero Payroll section for more details.

If the Xero integration is not setup, refer Getting Started with Xero Integration.

Fin Co Code selects the Financial Company to view or edit its Xero configuration. All other details are within context of the selected financial company. Where multiple financial companies are used refer Multiple Financial Companies.
Last Update displays the date of the last sync.
Access is the integration access token provided by Xero.
Company Name displays the corresponding company name on Xero.
Tracking Category 1, 2 defines the job attributes from Workbench that should be populated into the respective Tracking Categories that can be used for transaction analysis in Xero, refer Tracking Categories.
Payroll Access indicates whether Xero Payroll is in use and so payroll data should be included in the sync. For details refer Xero Payroll.

The following checkboxes indicate the optional data to sync for the selected financial company:

Companies - Xero companies require an Account Number to be imported into Workbench, and it is matched to the AP Account or AR Account fields in the Workbench company record.
Job Receipts - Only Xero AR Payments with an AUTHORISED Status will be synced.
Payments - Only Xero AP Payments with an AUTHORISED Status will be synced. Those AP Payments that are ‘deleted' or ‘unbatched’ in Xero are also imported to Workbench as reversed payments.
GL Accounts - Indicates that GL Accounts should be synced. This enables the GL Account picker on the Activity details popup, rather than relying on plain text entry.
Include AP Attachments - Indicates that AP Invoice / Credit Attachments should sync to Xero Attachments.
Include AR Attachments - Indicates that Job Sales Invoice / Credit Attachments should sync to Xero Attachments.

The following data are always synced:

Job Sales Invoices - These are synced to Xero AR Invoices with status ‘AUTHORISED’.
Job Sales Credits - These are synced to Xero AR Credit Notes with status ‘AUTHORISED’.
AP Invoices - These are synced to Xero AP Invoices with status ‘AUTHORISED’.
AP Credits - These are synced to Xero AP Credits with status ‘AUTHORISED’.
GL Journals - These are synced to Xero Manual Journals with status ‘POSTED’.
Source Tax Rates - These are synced from Xero Source Tax Rates and selected with Export Code picker on GST Types list, refer Tax Types.
Currencies - These are synced to the Currencies list.

Function Buttons

Connect to Xero - Starts the authentication process for the connection between Workbench and Xero.
Test - Use this to test the connectivity between Workbench and Xero.
Validate Companies - This is deprecated functionality.
Validate Accounts - Verifies that GL accounts used in Workbench exist in Xero, and list those accounts not in Xero.
Import - Starts the import process for Companies, Job Receipts, Payments, GL Accounts, Export Codes, and Currencies. The details of the process are displayed below the buttons.
Save - Saves the Xero integration configuration to Workbench.

Next Steps:

Once the configuration is complete, data export from Workbench to Xero is initiated for the respective batch types from Export Control.

A task is scheduled to automatically perfom an import of all the elements selected in the Xero Integration screen: Companies, Job Receipts, Payments, GL Accounts, Export Codes, and Currencies. This is the same process that can be manually triggered using the Import button. The Last Update date is used in this process and Workbench will only import any chnages it can find in Xero from that date onwards. If for any reason you cannot see a payment, or Contacte, etc that was created in the past, you can backdate the Updated date to a date in the past, save, and trigger the import again. This will bring all chnages from date onwards.

Considerations

Xero software was designed for small businesses and as such, comes with limitations that need to be considered based on the size of your business. Xero applies hard limits on various transactions. However, we've observed Xero performance is severely degraded when the number of transactions reaches these numbers:

Invoicing - 1,000 per month
Bills - 1,000 per month
Bank transactions - 2,000 per month
Inventory items - 4,000 tracked inventory items
Contacts - 10,000 in total
Fixed assets - 500 fixed assets
Tracking categories - 100 for each category (max of 2 active categories)
Employees – 100 in total

At Workbench, we are using APIs and able to push more records. However, API calls are also limited. There is no direct translation of API calls to business transactions. i.e. submitting a single invoice requires Workbench integration with Xero to make 3-5 API calls. You can find more information on API limitations here: https://developer.xero.com/documentation/guides/oauth2/limits/

In order to reduce the number of API calls per minute/per hour, we recommend limiting export batches down to 40-50 Invoices, Bills or GL Journal Records.