Copy your invoices to Xero
By Fred Wu, maker of Hourbun · Checked · Report a mistake
The short answer
Hourbun copies each invoice that it issues to one Xero organisation, one way, with its credit notes, and with its payments if you turn that on. You connect Xero once in Settings, Integrations, Xero, with a Xero app of your own, and choose the revenue account, the tax types and whether payments are copied.
Steps
- Make a Xero app. Hourbun has no app of its own at Xero yet, so the connection uses an app that belongs to your workspace. In Hourbun, open Settings, Integrations, then Xero: the tab App credentials shows the steps and your callback URL. Sign in to Xero Developer and open My Apps, then New app. Name the app (Hourbun, for example), choose the Web app (auth code) type, enter your website as the company or application URL, and enter the callback URL as the redirect URI (Copy callback URL copies it). Create the app, and on its Configuration page copy the client ID, then generate a client secret. Xero does not charge for an app with up to 5 connected organisations.
- Save the credentials. Paste the client ID and the client secret into the tab App credentials, then press Save credentials. Hourbun stores the secret encrypted and never shows it again.
- Connect. Press Connect, sign in to Xero with a user of the organisation, and allow the connection. Hourbun connects one organisation.
- Choose the settings. On the tab Settings, choose the Account of the invoice lines and the Xero tax type of each tax rate. Under Payment copying, payments stay out of Xero until you choose to copy them, to the bank account that you choose. Then press Save changes.
- Issue an invoice. Mark an invoice as sent, or send it. The Xero line of the invoice page says that it is copying, then In Xero, with a link to the copy.
What the copy does
- It copies each invoice issued after the connect, and each change of it when you issue it again. For an invoice issued before the connect, use Sync to Xero on its page.
- It copies a credit note with the invoice that it credits, and allocates it in Xero.
- With payment copying on, it copies each new payment once, and never changes or deletes a payment in Xero. Payments recorded before you turned it on are not copied.
- It is one way: Hourbun reads nothing back from Xero. A delete or a write-off in Hourbun does not change the copy in Xero: change it there by hand.
Questions
Questions and answers
Does Hourbun sync with Xero both ways?
No. Hourbun copies its issued invoices, credit notes and, if you choose, payments to Xero, one way. It reads no change back from Xero, so a change in Xero stays there.
Does Hourbun copy my old invoices to Xero?
Not by itself. Hourbun copies the invoices issued after you connect Xero. For an earlier invoice, Sync to Xero on its invoice page copies it, without its earlier payments.
Which Xero organisation can Hourbun connect to?
One Xero organisation for each Hourbun workspace, through a Xero app that the workspace makes in Xero Developer. Xero does not charge for an app with up to 5 connected organisations.