Xero Integration Overview

Modified on Mon, 14 Nov, 2022 at 12:58 AM

Overview

Actionstep includes full-featured billing, trust accounting, and general business accounting modules. An organization may wish to adopt these features of Actionstep without being forced to change their accounting system in the process.
There are many good reasons for not wanting to change accounting systems, such as:

Timing: It's hard to change accounting systems in the middle of a financial year
Comfort: The person who does the accounts may be comfortable with the current accounting system and does not want to change just because the front office is changing
Features: The current accounting system may have features such as automatic bank feeds that may not be available in Actionstep - note: these can only be used in a very limited capacity with a Xero integration.
External Accountant: The external accountant may only support a certain set of accounting software systems
Xero may support some tax and reporting jurisdictions which Actionstep does not - although Actionstep does have comprehensive financial reporting.

WARNING:

The Actionstep-Xero integration cannot be used on a database utilizing multiple currencies.

Any Actionstep database utilizing this integration should be set to the Accrual Accounting method. This will allow for invoices to be transferred to Xero prior to payment. Accounting method settings in Xero will determine the accounting method used for reporting.

It is not recommended that you use Xero's automatic bank feed if you are intending to process invoice payments in Actionstep.

Transactions sent from Actionstep to Xero will post the sum of the line items attributed to each general ledger account in the transaction. This means that though all of the transaction information will match, the layout of the invoice may vary slightly.

Xero - Trial Accounts

WARNING:

Do NOT connect a Xero trial account to an Actionstep system that will later need to use a live Xero account.

If a trial account is connected and later becomes invalid, a new Actionstep system will need to be created and a new Xero account connected.

When a Xero account is connected to Actionstep, accounts are allocated to specific accounting and billing functions. The first connected Xero account will write these accounts to Actionstep. Replacing the Xero account will not overwrite the accounts, creating a discrepancy between Xero and the available accounts in Actionstep.

Below outlines what can/cannot be done using the Xero Integration with the Actionstep Practice Pro + Accounting plan:

Client Billing	Works with a Xero Integration?
Posting a client bill to your Accounting	Yes Processed in Actionstep, posted to Xero
Paying a client bill	Yes Processed in Actionstep, posted to Xero
Creating a credit note	Yes Processed in Actionstep, posted to Xero
Applying a credit note to an invoice	Yes Processed in Actionstep, posted to Xero
Refunding an outstanding credit note back to the client	No Not available with a Xero integration
Refund an overpayment from a client	No Not available with a Xero integration
General Retainers (Regionally specific)	No Not available with a Xero integration

Trust Accounting	Works with a Xero Integration?
Trust Receipts, Payments, Journals and Transfers	Yes Processed in Actionstep, posted to Xero
Interest	Yes Processed in Actionstep, posted to Xero
Invoice Payments	Yes Processed in Actionstep, posted to Xero
Statutory Funds (Regionally specific)	Yes Processed in Actionstep, posted to Xero
Advanced Funds Transactions (Regionally specific)	Yes Processed in Actionstep, posted to Xero
Trust Bank Reconciliations	No Bank reconciliations for trust accounts should be completed in Actionstep and are NOT pushed through to Xero

Supplier/Vendor Transactions	Works with a Xero Integration?
Posting a supplier/vendor invoice to your Accounting	Yes Processed in Actionstep, posted to Xero
Paying a supplier/vendor invoice	Yes Processed in Actionstep, posted to Xero
Applying a supplier/vendor credit invoice to a supplier/vendor invoice	Yes Processed in Actionstep, posted to Xero
Purchase Orders	No These can be created in Actionstep but will not be posted to Xero
Purchase Credit Orders	No These can be created in Actionstep but will not be posted to Xero
Pre-entered Supplier/Vendor	No These can be created in Actionstep but will not be posted to Xero

Banking Transactions	Works with a Xero Integration?
A bank deposit (when not linked to a client payment)	No These can be created in Actionstep but will not be posted to Xero
A bank withdrawal (when not linked to a supplier payment)	No These can be created in Actionstep but will not be posted to Xero
Bank to bank transfer	No These can be created in Actionstep but will not be posted to Xero
Electronic batching of payments	No These can be created in Actionstep but will not be posted to Xero
Bank reconciliations	No Not available with a Xero integration
Printed Checks	No These can be created in Actionstep and the transaction will post to Xero depending on if it is for a supplier invoice or a bank withdrawal (see above), but the Check will be printed in Actionstep
Deposit Slips	No These can be created in Actionstep and the transaction in the deposit slip will post to Xero (depending on if it is for a supplier invoice or a bank withdrawal - see above), but the Deposit Slip will be printed in Actionstep
Bank feeds	Partial While the bank feed will work in Xero, any transaction created through the bank feed will not be processed in Actionstep

Other Accounting Functions	Works with a Xero Integration?
General Journals	No These can be created in Actionstep but will not be posted to Xero
Sales/VAT Returns	No These can be created in Actionstep but will not be posted to Xero
Divisions (Divisions allow you to have multiple organizations operating from one instance of Actionstep)	No Actionstep's division function is not designed to work with a Xero integration
Accounting reports based on Matter or Participant	No You will still be able to pull these reports in Actionstep, but the matter and participant types required will not be pushed through to Xero for you to run similar reports there
Multi-Currency Accounting	No Actionstep's multi-currency function is not designed to work with a Xero integration