How do I create an Invoice?

You create an Invoice the usual ways - through the Registration, through a Sales Opportunity, etc, which will produce a Draft Invoice. You can make necessary changes before you lock the Invoice through the Finalise Invoice button. This will achieve the following:

1. Lock the Invoice - you won’t be able to make major edits to the Invoice through Administrate
2. Sends the Invoice to Xero’s Awaiting Payment list
3. All operations regarding the Invoice (sending via email, attaching to communication triggers, viewing) will use the Xero Invoice PDF - see Xero Invoice Documentation to configure the styling, etc .

Upon successful completion of the above, your Invoice screen will be updated as follows. Please note the green “View on Xero” button and the synchronisation button.

Once successfully synchronised, Xero controls will appear on the Invoice screen

Click on View in Xero and you’ll be taken to the Invoice in Xero. It’ll also be available on your Xero Dashboard. The Invoice will belong to Awaiting Payment section.

See your Invoice in Xero after synchronisation

You can also view Invoices through the Xero Dashboard:

See your Invoice in Xero’s dashboard after synchronisation

In the Sales Ledger, you'll have visibility over whether an Invoice has been finalised and sent to Xero:

Note the “Sent to Xero” and “Payment” columns in the Sales Ledger relate to Xero

You can then action the Invoice using Xero, such as making payments against it in Xero, which will automatically be synced back to Administrate every hour, or you can manually sync it. Please refer to Xero Support Documentation on Sales Invoices for more information what you can achieve using Xero Invoicing.

What if my customer details are on Administrate, but aren’t on Xero yet?

If Xero doesn’t find the appropriate account, it’ll ask if you wish to create a “contact” (a Contact in Xero is an Account in Administrate).

You can create Administrate customer details in Xero if they don’t exist

If you have your customer details already on Xero, but get prompted for Payment Terms, please see the following section, What are Payment Terms?

How do Xero payments work with Administrate?

With the Xero Integration, you can make Payments against the Invoices in Xero and these payments will sync automatically with Administrate on an hourly basis. You can check for errors in the sync through the Xero Status tab in the Xero Integration.

The status shown in the “Payment” column will relate to payments made in Xero, not Administrate payments.

What are Payment Terms?

In Xero, Invoices have a due date, which is part of their Payment Terms. You’d need to have set this up for your Xero Organisation, in order for the Integration to work. This is the number of days that the payment terms should be met. If you don’t use a fixed date per month, then the Tax Point will be used to calculate the due date.

Administrate syncs the Invoice Due Date in this order:

• If set, your customer’s individual setting. In Xero, this is a “ custom due date for an individual contact ”.
• Your Xero organisation’s default due date.

If you don’t have Payment Terms set up in Xero, or wish to find out more about this, please refer to Xero’s Documentation on Payment Terms .

Can I make changes once I’ve finalised the Invoice?

Please remember that once the Invoice has been finalised, the Invoice PDF used is the Xero Invoice PDF - please see Xero documentation on how to configure the styling of Invoices for more information.

You can make limited changes in Administrate once the Invoice has been finalised.

You are able to make changes to:

• PO Reference
• Other Inv. Ref.
• Comments
• Service Date for the Invoice Item
• Description for the Invoice Item

Once you’ve made the changes in Administrate, please remember to sync to Xero, using the button.

You’re able to make other changes, e.g. Xero Inv., etc. through Xero. Please see Xero’s Documentation on Awaiting Payment Sales Invoices for further information. Once you’ve made the changes on Xero, you can force the changes to be viewed on Administrate by clicking on the appropriate Invoice.

What happens to my promo codes?

Administrate offers both Discounts and Promo Codes (percentage based), while Xero only supports one kind of ‘discount’ . Therefore, when you sync to Xero the Administrate Promo Code will not be taken into account. If you are using Administrate Promo Codes for percentage discounts, we suggest you use Administrate Discounts instead, for invoices you wish to sync to Xero.

Payments

For Administrate Companies with the Xero Integration, Payments should be recorded within Xero only. Xero is the source of truth for these transactions and any Payments against Xero Invoices that were originally created in Administrate will be synced back to Administrate within an hour. For Administrate Invoices associated with Companies not linked to Xero, Payments should be processed in Administrate as normal.

I’m a Xero Early Adopter, will my Payments start syncing automatically?

You’ll need to switch Payments syncing on manually, first, by clicking Enable on the Xero Integration’s Status tab. This lets you decide from when you wish to start using the Xero payments feature. Before switching this on, we recommend that you ensure the data in your Administrate instance matches that of your Xero organisation. For example, if an Invoice has been marked as Paid in Xero, it should also be marked as Paid on Administrate. Once you switch on the Payments feature, you won’t be able to create Payments against Invoices in Administrate, so it’s important that the data on both Administrate and Xero match beforehand.

Switch on Payments through the Xero Integration’s Status tab

Recording Credit Notes

For Administrate companies that have Xero enabled, credit notes should be recorded within Xero only. Xero is the source of truth for these transactions and any credit notes against Xero invoices that were originally created in Administrate will appear in Administrate automatically within an hour. For Administrate invoices associated with companies not connected to Xero, credit notes can be taken via Administrate as normal.