Configuring Xero Integration

There are two stages to configuring Xero integration. The first stage is to configure your Xero chart of accounts to ensure accounts are created for SimpleClinic to link to. The second stage is to configure SimpleClinic to send your sales and invoices to those accounts.

This integration requires a Starter, Standard, or Premium Xero Plan

This integration requires a Starter, Standard, or Premium Xero plan. It will not work with a managed plan provided by your accountant. Managed plans are referred to as Xero Ledger and Xero Cash Book.

When an invoice is sent to Xero, SimpleClinic will:

  1. Create the client if the client does not already exist in Xero.

  2. Create an invoice for the client in Xero based on the SimpleClinic category to Xero linkage.

  3. Add a payment to the invoice created in Xero with the funds going to the nominated settlement account to await your bank reconciliation.

Creating the Necessary Xero Chart of Accounts

SimpleClinic requires accounts in your chart of accounts to be created for:

  1. An account to be settled into. This will be used to record invoice payments pending the bank reconciliation.

  2. Revenue accounts for each product category you have created in SimpleClinic.

To create your chart of account settings login to your Xero account and then go to Settings -> Chart of Accounts from Xero's top navigation bar.

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When your chart of accounts is displayed click Add Account from the action bar at the top of the account list.

The first account you need to create is to receive invoice payments. This account should be created as follows. This account is ONLY required if you wish to have invoices automatically marked as paid in Xero and use a transfer rule to reconcile. Check with your book keeper or accountant.

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The account used for settlement requires the following settings:

  • Account Type (required) -- This should be set to type Current Asset.

  • Code (required) -- You can provide any unique code for the account.

  • Name (required) -- A short name for the account. This will be visible in Xero and your reports. This is what we will refer to in the SimpleClinic Xero Setup Wizard.

  • Description -- A description for the account if required.

  • Tax (required) -- This should be set to BAS excluded. GST obligation will be calculated based on the revenue accounts created in the next step.

  • Enable payments to this account (required) -- This should be checked. This is the most important step to ensure that payments can be made to the nominated account.

Once you have created this account click Save at the bottom of the window.

Additional accounts should be created for each product category that you have defined in SimpleClinic. These should be revenue accounts. The example below shows a revenue account for Naturopathic Services.

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The following settings are recommended for each revenue account you created.

  • Account Type (required) -- This should be set to Revenue or one of the child types depending on your accounts feedback.

  • Code (required) -- You can provide any unique code for the account. Typical Revenue accounts start with a code of 200.

  • Name (required) -- A short name for the account. This will be visible in Xero and your reports. This is what we will refer to in the SimpleClinic Xero Setup Wizard.

  • Description -- A description for the account if required.

  • Tax (required) -- This should be set based on whether you need to collect GST for the product category. Naturopathic services for example are GST exempt and would be set to GST Free Income. Product supplements on the other hand would be GST on Income.

  • Enable payments to this account -- This should remain UNCHECKED. Payments are not being allocated directly to the revenue accounts.

Repeat this step for each account you need to create in Xero. In SimpleClinic multiple product categories can be recorded in one Xero account. You need to create additional accounts for:

  • Additional visibility in Xero reports if required OR

  • Different tax settings for example naturopathic services vs massage services or product revenue.

Linking SimpleClinic to Xero

The second step is to link SimpleClinic to Xero. You can do this from the Integrations page in the Business Setup menu.

When you click the Connect button you will be directed to Xero to login and provide permission for SimpleClinic to utilise your Xero account. Once you are logged in from the list of organizations choose the relevant organization. Changing this later may require you to reconfigure the integration.

After choosing the organization you will be returned to the SimpleClinic page where you can configure the integration.

The top section of the page is read only and contains information about the Xero organisation we are linking to. This will be based on the organisation you chose when you initially logged into Xero.

In Step 1: Make Sure Accounts are Set Up we will double check that the accounts we need have been setup within Xero.

We REQUIRE the following accounts:

  • Revenue account: unless overridden by a product category mapping setup in Step 3 a revenue account is needed to create new invoices.
  • Rounding account: if we need to allow for rounding (most often due to discounts) this is the account rounding will be coded to. Amounts in your rounding account should be very small.
  • Purchases account: orders you create in SimpleClinic will be coded to this account by default.
  • Settlement account: a settlement account is optional and only needed if you will be using a clearing account to automatically pay invoices in Xero.

In Step 2: Configure Account Mappings you will be able to match the accounts we need to the relevant accounts in Xero. Each of the required accounts will give you an option to choose a matching account from Xero.

All options will require a mapping.

Also in Step 2 you can choose your Bank Reconciliation Method.

This will either be through a Clearing Account or through Matching Invoices. Talk to your book keeper or accountant to see which they prefer. The option for Clearing Account is disabled if no Settlement Account was detected.

In Step 3: Optionally Map Product Categories to Specific Revenue Accounts you can choose to override the default mapping setup in Step 2 for products that match a specific product category.

Using this option gives you more control over how your sales will map to Xero revenue accounts for enhanced reporting from Xero.

Sending Invoices to Xero

Once you have logged back in you will be able to send sales to Xero. There are two ways to do this.

Firstly, each invoice maintains a link to Xero referenced by the Xero ID in the top right hand Invoice Details well. If this invoice has not been set to Xero the Xero ID will be a grey box with the text Unlinked. If the invoice has been sent to Xero a reference to the Xero ID will be highlighted in green.

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Clicking the Send to Xero button will send the individual invoice to Xero and reload the page. You may be promoted to login back into Xero, this is a normal part of the process if:

  1. You have not previously logged into Xero in that SimpleClinic login period, OR

  2. More than 30 minutes has passed since you logged into Xero.

The second option to send sales to Xero is through the SimpleClinic Sales Report. Running a Sales Report from the Reporting menu will display a Send to Xero button next to the report title. This will send the contents of the report to Xero.

As above, if you have not logged into Xero in the current SimpleClinic login period, or it has been more than 30 minutes since you logged into Xero, you will be prompted to allow access to your data.

You will then be redirected to a page listing invoices and a status column. SimpleClinic will automatically start sending all invoices to Xero and the status will be updated for each invoice as it is sent.

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A green sent indicates that the invoice has been sent correctly. Failures will be indicated by a red failure label. Common causes of failure include:

  • The invoice has a line item with a negative quantity or negative amount. Xero does not support creating invoices with negative line items or negative totals. These need to be created manually in Xero.

  • The client record already exists in Xero. When creating an invoice SimpleClinic will attempt to create the client record if it has not already been created by SimpleClinic. When the client record is created a reference is tracked in SimpleClinic so that we don't try to create again. If you have already manually created clients in Xero SimpleClinic will not have a Xero ID for these and will try to create again. This causes Xero to return an error.