Arlo provides seamless two-way integration with Xero to manage your invoices. Orders are automatically exported to Xero and assigned to your account/GL codes, and payments against the invoices are synchronised back into Arlo.
Important: If you are not using Arlo's new order system yet, see the legacy processes here. If you are unsure about this contact Arlo Support.
In this article:
- Testing the Xero integration
- Set up Xero integration
- Xero integration processes explained
- Xero integration settings explained
- Assign your Xero account codes to Arlo
- Manage your Xero inventory
Testing the Xero integration
Before using the Xero integration, we strongly advise that you test the integration thoroughly.
While Arlo Support can do their best to help you, we are not Xero experts. You should ensure you have somebody who knows how to use Xero competently managing your orders.
To test the Xero integration:
- Open your Demo Company
- Navigate to the Settings
- Click Xero
- Connect to your Xero Demo Company Account
- Follow the 'Set up Xero integration instructions' in your Demo-Company, and complete some test transactions until you are comfortable with the integration.
- Note: You can test credit card transactions in Arlo using the card number 4242 4242 4242 4242 and setting an expiration date in the future, when submitting test orders.
Set up Xero integration
The following instructions describe how to set up Xero integration. If you already have orders in Arlo before setting up the integration, these orders will not be exported to Xero. To get prior orders into Xero, you may export the orders from Arlo to import into Xero.
- Open the Settings menu.
- Click Xero.
- Press Connect to Xero. You will be redirected to Xero's website.
- Log in to Xero (if prompted) and select your organisation.
Hint: If your organisation is not listed then make sure your user account is a standard user or financial adviser role in Xero. - Press Authorise.
- Set up and link Xero accounts/GL codes to Arlo.
Note: This must be done if you are accepting credit card payments or Arlo won't be able to export orders as it won't know where to put the revenue. - Carefully review the additional integration settings and behaviour.
- Press Save.
- (Optional) If you have multiple regions in Arlo and a separate Xero account for each region you can connect a separate Xero account to each region. Contact Arlo Support to turn on regionalised Xero integration.
- If you don't want to do this, orders for all regions in Arlo will go to a single Xero account and your Xero account will need to be set up with multi-currency capability.
Xero integration processes explained
- Order creation and exports
- Adding payments to orders
- Cancelling orders and registrations
- Credit notes and refunds
- Disconnecting and reconnecting orders from Xero
Order creation and exports
- Credit card orders paid using the Arlo checkout are exported to Xero.
- The order is marked as paid in both systems automatically.
- Orders submitted with alternative payment methods are exported to Xero.
- The order is marked as unpaid in both systems until you add payments to the order in Xero.
- You can view exported Arlo orders easily by clicking View in Xero.
Adding payments to orders
Once an order has been exported to Xero, you cannot add payments to it from within Arlo. Xero is the source of truth and all payments must be added in Xero. Xero synchronises payments back to Arlo automatically every hour.
- Learn how to reconcile credit card and other transactions in Xero.
- Learn how to add manual payments to orders in Xero.
If a billing contact has outstanding credit balance within Xero, you can apply this to an invoice and it will synchronise back to the original order in Arlo, provided that the billing contact on the Xero invoice matches the contact on the existing credit.
- Learn how to apply credit to an existing invoice in Xero.
Orders can be approved automatically when fully paid in Xero as long as this setting is enabled in your Xero integration settings in Arlo.
If you need to mark payments against an order in Arlo instead of Xero, you should not export the order to Xero, or disconnect the order from Xero and Arlo will become the payment source of truth.
Additional notes about payments from Xero
- After payments have been recorded, you can manually synchronise payments by opening the Xero Integration Settings page and clicking Synchronise Payments, or alternatively, by opening an order and clicking Sync payments. You only need to do this if you don't want to wait for the automated synchronisation.
- You can view all synchronised payments from Xero in the order payment log.
Order cancellations, credit notes, and refunds
- If you need to void an order completely, you can cancel it in Arlo, then mark it as void in Xero.
- If you need to cancel registrations and reduce the balance due on an order, or process a refund for a cancellation you can generate a credit note/refund and export it to Xero.
- If an order has been paid using Credit Card via Arlo, you can create a credit note/refund in Arlo to be exported to Xero. You can choose to refund the full amount or a lesser amount. The credit note is marked as paid in both systems automatically.
- If an order has been paid by an alternative payment method, e.g. Invoice, you can create a credit note to be exported to Xero. You can choose to refund the full amount or a lesser amount. The credit note created for the refund can be marked as paid in Xero or Arlo and, as long as the order is connected to Xero, the two systems will remain synchronised.
- You can disconnect an order from Xero at any time by clicking Disconnect.
- Important: If you have disconnected an order, and you add payments to it in Arlo, when you reconnect it to Xero, Arlo will remove any payment lines that do not exist in Xero, as Xero is the source of truth for payments.
For example, if you mark an order as paid in Arlo, but that payment line does not exist in Xero when you reconnect it, the payment line will be deleted from the order in Arlo.
Xero integration settings explained
- Order creation and invoicing
- Stop orders from being synchronised to Xero
- Contacts and organisation settings
- Set up accounts/GL codes
- Error contact
- Assign Xero tracking codes in Arlo
- Managing your Xero Inventory
Order creation and invoice settings
- Choose which state invoices in Xero are created in.
Important: Don't use the draft option if you have credit card payments enabled as Arlo can't send payments to Xero if the invoice is in a draft state.
- Choose whether or not Arlo exports zero value orders, e.g. where no payment is required.
- Choose which system sends invoices for Arlo created orders.
Note: If you select Manually send invoices and credit notes from Xero invoices will no longer be sent from Arlo if enabled.
- You can choose to only export website orders when either an invoice is sent, or the order is approved. If you do this, you'll need to also ensure your website orders aren't set to be approved, and automated invoices from Arlo are disabled.
- You can choose to export management platform orders only when they are approved.
- When creating management platform orders, you can deselect all options to approve the order, send an invoice from Arlo, and export the accounting system.
- Arlo allows you to mark orders billed to a specific organisation as "Requiring attention". The order will not be exported to Xero until you dismiss the message on the order.
If you do eventually export the order, Arlo payments will be synchronised to Xero.
Note: You can also disconnect an order manually from Xero that has already been exported. This should only be done if you want to manage payments in Arlo, and you don't plan to reconnect the order to the Xero. If you do reconnect, Arlo will remove any payment lines on the order that do not exist in Xero.
Xero contacts and organisations settings in Arlo
Note: Contact updates are disabled if you are using regions in Arlo and are connected to multiple Xero accounts.
- Contacts in Xero are copied to Arlo during the initial integration setup.
- New contacts created in Xero can be copied periodically (hourly).
- Contacts updated in Xero periodically update contact details in Arlo.
- Billing contacts on orders in Arlo will be created in Xero when those orders are exported.
- Billing contacts updated in Arlo that have been exported to Xero will be updated in Xero.
- Contact updates are not supported for regionalised Xero integration (linking Arlo regions to separate Xero platforms).
The following settings must be filled in, in order for your Xero/Arlo integration to work correctly. For a full breakdown of Xero/Arlo processes, see Managing orders in Arlo.
If you need to create accounts or contacts for these settings, you may need to refresh (F5) the settings page in Arlo to see them coming through.
- Open the Settings menu.
- Click Xero. (If you are not connected, you will need to connect to Xero).
- Set the accounts for payments processed through Arlo to be sent to in Xero. These can be different, or the same. Important: Accounts must have a numeric account code.
- (Optional) If you use Stripe, add an 'Expense' account for Credit card fees as Arlo splits out transaction fees making reconciliation simple.
Important: The Credit card payment fee account must not be the same as the Credit card payment account (above), and must have the 'Enable payments to this account' setting active. Learn how to set up an expense account in Xero.
- (Optional) If you use Stripe, add a contact in the Credit card fees contact. This will be the contact listed on the expense item for the Stripe Fees. We recommend creating a contact in Xero called 'Stripe Fees'.
- Set the default accounts for order line revenue associated with the following Arlo entities. You can also set unique GL codes on events manually if required.
- Used to notify an administrator if there are any problems with the integration.
Assign Xero tracking codes in Arlo
Arlo supports automatically assigning tracking codes to invoice line items when an invoice is created in Xero. Read how to set up, view, and manage Xero tracking codes in Arlo.
Managing your Xero inventory
If you use Xero's inventory feature, you can set up Arlo to automatically create inventory items using event template codes and match future invoice lines for reporting on your inventory. Inventory items will be created in Xero when an invoice is sent from Arlo to Xero.
