CRM Xero Integration
Xero's API is one of the better accounting APIs to work with. The decisions that determine whether this integration succeeds are still accounting decisions, made with your bookkeeper before any code is written.
Discuss your projectSettle the mapping, then the mechanics
Before anything is built, four questions need answers from whoever owns your books. Which revenue account does each product or service post to? Which tax rate applies, and does it vary by customer or by the customer's country? Are you using tracking categories for departments, branches or projects, and must every line carry one? And how is a Xero contact matched to a CRM company — by name, by email, or by an identifier you store in both?
The tracking categories question catches people out. Xero allows up to two, and if your reporting depends on them then every invoice the integration creates must populate them or your management reports develop holes that are tedious to correct retrospectively.
As with QuickBooks, the design we recommend is two one-way flows rather than a bidirectional sync. The CRM owns the pipeline and the relationship; Xero owns invoice status, payments and credit terms. Deals flow out as invoices, payment status flows back into read-only CRM fields, and neither system overwrites what the other owns. A true two-way sync on invoices invites conflicts with financial consequences and we would want a strong reason before building one.
What we build
Invoices from won deals
With line items on the right accounts and tax rates, tracking categories populated, and your invoice branding theme applied. Created as drafts while the integration is new.
Quotes where you use them
Xero quotes raised from CRM deals, then converted to invoices on acceptance, so the numbers follow through rather than being retyped.
Payment status to the CRM
Paid, part paid, overdue and days outstanding on read-only fields, so your salespeople can see a customer's position before promising terms.
Contact matching
On an identifier stored in both systems rather than on name, with near matches reviewed rather than merged automatically.
Repeating invoices
For subscription or retainer billing, set up from the CRM where the deal is recurring rather than one-off.
Credit notes and refunds
Handled explicitly as their own document type, since treating a credit note as a negative invoice causes problems your accountant will find.
Revenue reporting
Closed pipeline reconciled against invoiced and collected revenue — three figures most businesses cannot compare in one place.
Xero-specific details
- Xero's OAuth uses a connection per organisation, so a business with several Xero organisations needs the integration scoped per connection rather than per account.
- Refresh tokens are short-lived and must be rotated on use. An integration that does not refresh correctly stops working quietly, so we alert on token health rather than waiting for a failed sync.
- API rate limits apply per organisation and per app, which means bulk work is batched and paced rather than looped.
- Tracking categories are limited to two and, where your reports depend on them, must be populated on every line the integration creates.
- Tax rates are configured per organisation and differ by region, so the rate name in your Xero is what we map to rather than a generic code.
- Invoice numbering should stay with Xero rather than being set from the CRM, which avoids gaps and duplicates in your sequence.
- Invoices move through draft, submitted, authorised and paid, and only some fields are editable at each stage — the integration respects that rather than attempting edits Xero will reject.
Common questions
Tell us what you need
Describe the problem and we will come back with scope, timeline, and a rate. No obligation to proceed.
Get in touch