Xero Integration

Xero Integration

With our Xero integration, transactions that occur through MembershipWorks can be exported to your Xero account, so you spend less time on bookkeeping and more time on growing your organization.

Setting Up Xero

To initiate a connection to Xero, go to Organization Settings > Accounting, select “Xero” and click Connect to Xero. If you are not currently signed in to your Xero account, you will be prompted to sign in. When prompted, click Allow access.



You will then asked to setup the appropriate accounts, taxes and items to be from MembershipWorks:



Each financial transaction in our system will generate an invoice and payment, and these settings will be used as follows:
  1. Each transaction will generate an invoice in Xero, using the corresponding items for each class (ie. membership, events, donations, cart and other) of transaction. You can setup your items in Xero under Account > Inventory.
  2. Tax rates for each corresponding tax rule will be used for the invoices if tax is part of the transaction. You can setup your tax rates in Xero under Settings > General Settings > Tax Rates.
  3. Credit card and offline payments will be deposited into the corresponding bank accounts in Xero. You can view and setup your accounts in Xero under Settings > Chart of Accounts.
  4. Any credit card transaction fees will debit the credit card deposit account and credit the transaction fee (expense) account.
If you have not yet setup the bank accounts, tax rates or items in Xero, you can do so by logging into Xero. Once the accounts, tax rates, and items are setup, refresh Organization Settings > Accounting, and click Update Xero Settings to assign the settings.

Important:
  1. Accounts must have an Account Code setup in Xero under the account settings
  2. For deposit accounts, if the account is not setup as a “Bank” account type (eg. if it is a “Current Liability” account), it must have “Enable payments to this account” enabled
  3. Items must have an Item Code and Sales Account setup in Xero under the item settings
Once you have assigned the accounts, tax rates and items, click Save & Continue to save the settings.

Exporting Transactions To Xero

You can export transactions to Xero from several places:
  1. From the Dashboard > Financial page, you can select a date range (at the top left corner), and click on Export Xero to export transactions in that date range to Xero. You will be prompted to select the types of transactions (membership, events, cart, donation, other) to export.
  2. From each event’s Dashboard, you can click on Export Xero to export the event payments for just this event.
  3. From each form under Forms Carts Donations, you can click on Export Xero to export the payments for just this form.

How Transactions Are Generated

Each financial transaction – membership payment, event payment and forms/carts/donations payment – generates:
  1. A Contact if one does not already exist for the account/event/form registrant. We will attempt to match against an existing contacts in Xero by email or account name.
  2.  An Invoice or Credit Note (if transaction is a net credit)
  3. A Payment for the gross payment
  4. A Manual Journal or Bank Transaction for the transaction fee if a credit card transaction fee is recorded with the payment

The following diagram summarizes data flow to Xero:


Invoices / Credit Notes

For membership payments, the invoice will list the membership level, membership add-ons, and any discount or adjustment as separate lines. For event payments, the invoice will list each type of event ticket and any discount code used as separate lines. For forms/carts/donation payments, the invoice will list the items purchased and any discount code used as separate lines.

Each invoice line is a Xero item that corresponds to the type of transaction – membership, events, donations, cart and other. The items corresponding to each type of transaction is setup under Organization Settings > Accounting.

For example, the invoice below shows an invoice generated from a Forms / Carts / Donations transaction that includes a cart item, tax-free donation and an applied discount code:



Payments

Any payments received or refunded will be recorded against the deposit account (as setup under Organization Settings > Accounting) and applied to the corresponding invoice or credit note. Credit card transactions are identified by their gateway transaction ID.



Notes: single payment applied to multiple invoices

When the deposit account is a Bank account, we will export the payment as a single Bank Transaction, and then apply the appropriate amount to each invoice so the invoices are paid.

When the deposit account is not a Bank account, then there is no way for us to export that as a single payment to Xero. In this case we have to split the payment transaction up into multiple payments in Xero. For example, if a $100 payment needs to be applied to a $60 invoice and a $40 invoice, it will be exported as 2 payments to Xero – a $60 payment and a $40 payment – that is applied to the corresponding invoices.

Credit Card Transaction Fees

Your credit card processing fees (if such information is provided to us) will be recorded as Manual Journals, debiting the expense account you have designated for transaction fees during setup and crediting the deposit account for credit card payments. If the deposit account is setup as a Bank account, the transaction will be recorded as a Bank Transaction instead (as Manual Journals are not allowed), with the contact set as “Transaction Fee”.



Xero FAQ

Account(s) not showing on the settings screen

Make sure each account has an Account Code assigned in Xero under Accounting > Advanced > Chart of Accounts. Also for deposit accounts, if the account is not setup as a “Bank” account type (eg. if it is a “Current Liability” account), it must have “Enable payments to this account” enabled.

Item(s) not showing on the settings screen

Make sure each item has an Item Code and Sales Account assigned in Xero under Business > Products and Services.

Can I have different items for each membership level, event ticket, event group, cart item, etc?

At this time it is not possible to have a different Xero item for each specific membership level, event ticket, or cart item. However the description for each line in the invoice will reflect the specific membership level, event ticket name, cart item, etc.

When and how does data sync to Xero?

You have to trigger a sync of transactions to Xero from Dashboard > Financial (transactions by date range), or from the event/form Dashboard (transactions for the corresponding event/form), by clicking on the Export Xero button.

How many transactions can I export per day?

Xero has a limit of 5000 API calls per day. Each transaction can involve 1-6 API calls, so 800 to 5000 transactions can be exported to your Xero account per day.

Does exporting the same transaction twice cause problems?

We will remember when a transaction has been previously exported and will not create any duplicate invoices or payments.

What happens if a transaction has been updated (voided, partially refunded or payment received)?

You have to trigger a sync of transactions to Xero that would include the updated transaction. Our system will know when a transaction has been previously exported, and either update it accordingly (eg. recording a payment received) or generate a new credit note (void or partial refunds) to account for the changes. Note that if a new credit note is created, it may not have the same breakdown of items/information as the original transaction.

Warning – Modifying or Deleting Exported Records Directly in Xero

Any changes made directly in Xero does not update our system, so certain changes will cause issues.
  1. Deleting or merging Customer records in Xero created for your members. The Customer record is linked to the member account, so when the Customer is deleted or merged that will cause errors when exporting future transactions for that member.
  2. Deleting or recording payment against open Invoices. Doing so will cause errors when our system attempts to update the Invoice in a future export, such as recording a payment against that Invoice.
  3. Deleting any Invoices, Credits, Payments or Journals that may need to be updated in a future export. This will not trigger a re-export of the transaction, instead this will trigger an error when the system tries to update the transaction in Xero (since it has been deleted).
  4. Changing the Customer associated with or the total for Invoices, Credits or Payments that may need to be updated in a future export.
The following changes are safe to make directly in Xero:
  1. Altering Invoices, Credits, Payments or Journals without affecting the associated Customer or total. For example, changing the description of the line items or adding classes to Invoices.
  2. Altering (but not deleting or merging) Customer records.
  3. Deleting or merging Customer records of accounts that have been deleted from MembershipWorks.
  4. Altering or deleting Invoices, Credits, Payments or Journals of transactions which are fully finalized and exported from our system – ie. no future adjustments or refunds are expected for the transaction.
  5. Deleting Invoices, Credits, Payments or Journals of transactions that have been deleted from MembershipWorks.
When in doubt of whether certain changes will affect future exports please contact us.

How do I disconnect your system from my Xero account?

Login to Xero and go to Settings > General Settings > Connected Apps. Locate our app under “Xero Connected Apps” and click “Disconnect”.



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