Live Integration with Xero

Introduction

Joblogic provides the ability to create a live integration/synchronisation (sync) with Xero accounts packages. This user guide will detail the Xero live integration functionality within Joblogic and some aspects to be aware of when conducting a sync with this accounts package.

What can be synced

The Xero integration has the ability to sync customers, tax & nominal codes and invoices, credit notes & payments. However, it is important to bear in mind which way these items are able to sync between Joblogic and the accounts package.

Customers

These items can sync both ways, meaning that customers in your Xero account will sync to your Joblogic and customers in your Joblogic account will sync to Xero.
However, customers will only sync from Joblogic to Xero if an approved invoice for that customer exists in Joblogic. Any already existing customers in Xero will sync across to Joblogic providing that the customer has not been marked as inactive within the Xero package.

It is important to ensure that the details for corresponding customers match up correctly in each system in order to prevent duplicates of the customer being created.

The name, email address, account number, address, telephone and contact fields on the customer details page in Joblogic, need to match the contact information page of the customer account in Xero (contact name, email, account number, postal address, phone, primary person).

Tax and nominal codes

These will only sync from Xero to Joblogic. This means that all of the codes set up in your Xero package will be created within your Joblogic settings library, in order to allow them to be used and allocated within Joblogic.

Invoices, credit notes and payments

This only refers to sales invoices (purchase/supplier invoices cannot be transferred via the live sync) and these only sync from Joblogic to Xero.

How to conduct the sync

In order to conduct a sync between your Joblogic and Xero accounts, login into your Joblogic account.

Within Joblogic, select ‘Settings’ from the left side panel > ‘Account Integration’.

You will then be presented with an option to synchronise with either a Xero or QBs accounts package.

Select the ‘Connect to Xero’ button.

Enter your login credentials for the Xero account to be synced with.

You will then be directed to the Xero synchronisation page.

Select which data you would like to be synced by using the toggle buttons for the appropriate data.

Note that invoices, credit notes and payments will only sync from the time stamp marked ‘First Connected’. Any approved invoices, credit notes or payments raised, prior to the Xero accounts integration being activated will not be synced. Additionally, the ‘Tax Codes & Nominal Codes’ sync cannot be switched on or off as this needs to remain active in order to allow the codes against invoices, credit notes and payments to synchronise.

Select ‘Save and Sync’ and you will be presented with a confirmation page.

Select ‘Proceed’ if you are happy to continue.

The sync will now take place and you can continue to use the system until this is complete.

Once completed the sync and notification icons to the top right of your Joblogic screen will notify you of the sync’s success or failed statuses.

Once the sync has finished, navigate to the Sync History page within Joblogic via ‘Settings’ > ‘Sync History’.

This page will then detail any successful and failed items within the sync and provide a failure explanation for any failed items to allow you to correct these and resync.

Ensuring that tax and nominal codes are correct

Accounts packages use tax and nominal codes in order to define and categorise different types of financial data and every accounts package typically has it’s own set of codes.

If items such as invoices, credit notes and payments are labelled within Joblogic with tax and nominal codes which do not correspond with your accounts package they will likely be rejected and fail to pass over to Xero during a sync.

It is therefore important to ensure that the correct tax and nominal codes, in accordance with those set up in your Xero account, are assigned to any invoices, credit notes and payments in order to allow them to successfully transfer from Joblogic to the accounts package.

The easiest way to ensure that this is achieved, is to conduct a tax & nominal codes sync before any codes are assigned to the invoices, credit notes and payments in Joblogic. This will ensure that those codes which correspond with your Xero package will be available to use and assign within Joblogic.

Once you have done this select Settings in your Joblogic > Library > Tax Rates/Nominal Codes as applicable.

Check that the tax rates and nominal codes populating your libraries are applicable to you and your Xero package’s code settings.

With regards to tax rates, you will likely find that the Joblogic system default tax codes of T1 (Standard rate: 20%), T0 (Zero rate: 0%) and T9 (No Tax) do not apply to your Xero accounting package. Providing that you do not already use these codes/they do not apply to you, it is advised to delete the T1 and T0 codes from your Joblogic system in order to prevent colleagues from inadvertently assigning these to invoices and credit notes. This can be achieved by selecting the code and selecting the ‘delete’ button (providing that the code is not already in use within the system).

The T9 code cannot be deleted from the system due to being a foundational code so advise users to refrain from using this code unless it is applicable to them and it exists in your Xero account as a usable code.

Once you are satisfied that the tax rates and nominal codes populating your libraries are applicable to you and your accounts package, these can then be used throughout the Joblogic system and assigned to invoices, credit notes and payments in order to allow for a successful sync to your Xero accounting package.

‘The tax type code does not exist’ (the T1 error)

There have been issues experienced by our customers in the past concerning the below tax code error when attempting to sync invoices to Xero:

Example of the error: “Standard Invoice: 190230 - The TaxType code T1 does not exist or cannot be used for this type of transaction. The TaxType code 'T1' cannot be used with account code '200'.”

This error means that the invoice attempting to be synced has the tax code T1 (the Joblogic system default for 20% VAT) assigned to at least one of it’s lines. However, the code does not exist in the Xero package as one of it’s usable tax codes causing the accounts package to reject the invoice.

Should you find this error occurring, you can resolve this by creating the tax code stated in the error (T1) in your Xero account or by crediting and re-raising the invoice(s) with the applicable tax code for your Xero package (The typical sales tax code in Xero for 20% VAT is ‘Output 2, 20% VAT on income’). Conducting the sync again following either of these two options will then pass the invoice(s) over successfully.

Alternatively, our technical support team can amend the tax code(s) against the invoice(s) to the required one in the background of the system for you but be aware that there may be a waiting time involved for the team to action this due to the technical nature of the task.

The reason that the Xero sync times out (the 30 minute limit)

The connection to Xero times out after 30 minutes of logging in as a security measure implemented by the accounts package. If a sync therefore takes a significant amount of time to process due to a high number of items, it may time out before processing them all. However, it will still process a portion of the invoices/data. This means that when there are a high volume of records to run, it can take multiple connections/logins to clear them all down.

Xero suppliers syncing to Joblogic as customers

Suppliers set up in Xero will sync across to Joblogic as customers if they are set up as an account that can receive sales invoices within Xero. This is to accommodate instances where you may charge/invoice a business which may typically act as your supplier.

If you find that suppliers in your Xero package are syncing to your Joblogic as customers, check the settings of these suppliers in the Xero account to confirm as to whether the supplier(s) which have synced have been set to be able to receive sales invoices.

Further Support

For further information or assistance on the above, contact our Support Team on 0800 326 5561 or email support@joblogic.com. Alternatively, our Account and Project Management teams can be reached by emailing accountmanager@joblogic.com or projectmanager@joblogic.com respectively.

Publishing Details

This document was written and produced by Joblogic’s Technical Writing team and was last updated on the date specified above. Be aware that the information provided may be subject to change following further updates on the matter becoming available. Additionally, details within the guide may vary depending on your Joblogic account’s user permissions.