Xero offers cloud-based accounting software that's built with small businesses in mind. Employers can access their business finances anytime, from any internet-connected device – phone, tablet, or computer.
Integrating the Xero app in OnPay makes balancing your books even easier. After setting it up with your Xero account information, OnPay will sync your payroll data to Xero each time you process a pay run.
Installing the Xero app
In OnPay, click Company, App Directory.
You can find Xero in the Accounting category, or in the "Find an app" search bar.
Click the "Xero" tile to get started.
If you're not already subscribing to Xero, you can learn more and get pricing. Click Get Started With Xero to sign in (or sign up) with Xero.
A pop-up window will appear, asking you to enter your Xero login credentials.
Select the company name to connect with this Xero account.
Click Allow Access.
Choosing an integration type
Select the integration type that corresponds with your Xero plan.
What does OnPay do differently for these two plans?
"Manual Journals" is designed to avoid exceeding Xero's Early plan limit of 5 bills per month. "Bills" is only recommended for Xero plans that include unlimited bills per month. Selecting "Bills" will ask OnPay to sync pay run data in detail (by payee), with each entry counting as a bill in your Xero plan. "Bills" also includes an option to automatically approve entries.
Select whether you'd like payroll data to sync automatically. We recommend selecting "yes", to ensure your Company's payroll data stays up-to-date with each pay run.
For subscribers of Xero's Early plan
The following instructions apply only to Xero plans that include unlimited bills (entries) per month. If you've selected "Manual Journals", you can skip to mapping checking and clearing accounts↓
For subscribers of Xero's Growing and Established plans
For Xero plans that include unlimited bills per month, we recommend selecting "Bills" because it enters pay run data in Xero in detail by payee.
Sync in summary or detail
Syncing this data "In Detail" takes advantage of Xero plans with unlimited bills per month by separating entries by payee.
More about syncing in detail vs. in summary→
Type of bill approval
Select how entered bills synced from OnPay are entered in Xero.
- Awaiting Payment - OnPay enters bills as approved and awaiting payment in Xero
- Approved and Paid - OnPay enters bills as approved, and generates payment in Xero
- Draft Bills - OnPay enters bills that will need to be approved and paid in Xero
See where to find all three of these transaction types in Xero→
Mapping checking and clearing accounts
For subscribers of Xero's Early, Growing, and Established plans
Under "Checking and Clearing Accounts", is a list of account types that can be mapped to accounts in Xero. Use the menus on the right to select the appropriate account for each item. This tells OnPay where journal entries for transactions should be made.
- Checking Account - The verified bank account OnPay drafts for taxes and direct deposits
- Direct Deposit Clearing Account - Liability account for employee net pay via direct deposit
- Controlled Tipes Clearing Account - Liability account for tips that are not given to workers directly (Ex: Non-cash tips included in credit card purchases must be relayed to the tipped worker by their employer, and are therefore considered "controlled tips")
If your company does not have controlled tips, leave the "Controlled Tips Clearing Account" blank.
More about accounting for controlled tips in your General Ledger→
Adding or changing an account in Xero
If you need to add or change an account in Xero after turning on this integration, you can do so. After making the change in your Xero chart of accounts, return to OnPay and look for Refresh Accounts in the upper right of the Xero integration settings.
Mapping transaction types
Following the same process used to map checking and clearing accounts, map wages and salaries by selecting the corresponding department, asset, liability, or expense account for each item listed.
To the right, you'll find a table listing the categories and subcategories that can be mapped. You can use this table to skip to any category. Categories that need your attention are indicated by a red exclamation point.
You can map each of the following to Xero:
- Wages
- Deductions and Garnishments
- Tax expenses
- Tax liabilities
Tracking categories
You can also map tracking categories, which is useful when running reports in Xero because you can filter by department, location, or cost center.
Viewing and sending pay runs to Xero
Once the integration is set up, OnPay will automatically send pay run data to Xero each time you process payroll. However, if you've processed pay runs in OnPay before setting up this Xero integration, you may want to send these pay runs to Xero so they're included in your general ledger.
Click Pay Runs to view a list of completed runs.
Pay runs that display a green "Sent Successfully" label have already been synced to Xero. Click Send for each pay run that you need to export to Xero.
It may take a few moments to complete this data export, but you don't need to wait before sending additional pay runs to Xero.
Once a pay run displays the green "Sent Successfully" label, you can find these transactions in Xero.
Click Close to return to the Xero integration settings page.
v7.24