This document provides best practices when syncing between Bill.com and Xero.
Best Practices
Contacts vs. Vendors/Customers
- Vendors and Customers will connect to the same contacts in Xero, as long as the names match, and they have transactions in Bill.com.
- If Contacts in Xero do not have transactions, assign them to one of the groups that we create: Sync to Bill.com Vendors or Sync to Bill.com Customers. If the Contact exists as both a Customer and a Vendor, add them to both groups.
- If the names of Contacts in Xero do not match the Vendors/Customers in Bill.com, then the Contact will be created as a new Vendor/Customer in Bill.com, and the Vendor/Customer in Bill.com will be created as a new Contact in Xero.
- Newly-created Contacts in Xero won't sync to Bill.com until a transaction is created for them. When a transactions is created, Xero will categorize them and then sync them into Bill.com as either a Vendor or a Customer.
- Newly-created Vendors/Customers in Bill.com will sync over to Xero in either the Sync to Bill.com Vendors group, or Sync to Bill.com Customers group. If a Vendor and Customer in Bill.com have the same name, then they will sync as one Contact in Xero, but will be a part of both Groups.
- In order to sync to Bill.com, the contact address in Xero must be specifically in the "Postal Address" section. Also, the contact phone must be in the dash format (xxx-xx-xxxx) and not be in the "Mobile Phone" field in order to sync to Bill.com.
Archive vs. Delete
- Bill.com never truly deletes information. If you choose to Delete a record in Bill.com, it becomes inactive, the same record in Xero will be Archived. You can un-delete a record that has been deleted at any time in Bill.com.
- Xero has the option to delete, which will truly delete records in Xero. If a record is deleted in Xero, the matching object in Bill.com is unchanged. Because the record was removed in Xero, there is no update triggered for the sync to carry over.
- Undeleting an inactive vendor/customer in Bill.com will not restore the arhcived contact in Xero
- Restore the contact in Xero and the sync will undelete the the vendor/customer in Bill.com
Tracking Categories
- In order for tracking categories to sync, in Xero they must be named Location and Department
- When initially creating locations and departments, those will sync from Xero to Bill.com and/or Bill.com to Xero. Updates/deletions made to these items, however, will not sync from Xero to Bill.com, and must be done in Bill.com manually.
Reconciliation
- Bill.com makes one or two lump-sum withdrawals (depending on when you schedule your payments) for the total amount of bills paid on a given day. This withdrawal(s) are located in your Bill.com Money Out Clearing account in Xero. When reconciling your bank account, you will need to reconcile once for all bills paid on a given day.
Chart of Accounts
- When creating a bank account or charge account in Xero, a corresponding chart of account is auto created. The chart of account will sync to Bill.com.
Items
- Items will sync two way between Bill.com and Xero. When entering in Sales Tax, these will only sync one way from Xero to Bill.com.
Bills
- Only unpaid bills sync from Xero into Bill.com, so you should always initiate payments in Bill.com. On the Bill.com Pay page you can pay via Bill.com (check or ACH), or record payment made offline. The sync will send to Xero the related payment or check to be printed in Xero.
- $0 bills will sync from Bill.com to Xero as Paid
- You can choose to have only Approved bills sync to Xero. Learn more here
- If using approvals in Xero, once a bill is approved in Xero it can not be deleted, it can only be voided. Voiding an approved bill in Xero will not sync to Bill.com. The bill will need to be manually deleted in Bill.com.
Vendor Credits
- Only unapplied vendor credits sync from Xero, so you should apply vendor credits in Bill.com.
- When you make a payment with a vendor credit, we will sync it to Xero, where it gets automatically applied.
- You can choose to have only Approved vendor credits sync to Xero. Learn more here
Credit Memos
- Credit Memos don't sync to/from Xero. They need to be manually applied in both Bill.com and Xero.
Bill/Invoice numbering
- When creating invoices/bills, each needs a unique invoice number to avoid the sync number-matching to an incorrect invoice/bill.
AR Invoice Payments
- AR payments in Bill.com will only sync to Xero if applied to an invoice; overpayments/unapplied payments will not sync to Xero.
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