Xero

Xero API integration with managed OAuth. Manage contacts, invoices, payments, accounts, and run

Category: productivity Source: XeroAPI/xero-python

Xero is a community skill for cloud accounting integration, covering contact management, invoice creation, payment tracking, account reconciliation, and financial reporting for small business accounting workflows.

What Is This?

Overview

Xero provides programmatic access to cloud-based accounting software for managing financial records and business transactions. It covers contact management that creates and maintains customer and supplier profiles with billing details and payment terms for transaction processing, invoice creation that generates professional invoices with line items, tax calculations, and automated delivery to customers, payment tracking that records incoming and outgoing payments with bank reconciliation and cash flow monitoring, account reconciliation that matches bank transactions with accounting records automatically, and financial reporting that generates profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow reports with customizable date ranges. The skill enables businesses to automate accounting workflows and integrate financial data with other business systems.

Who Should Use This

This skill serves small business owners managing accounting operations, bookkeepers automating financial data entry, and developers building business management integrations.

Why Use It?

Problems It Solves

Manual data entry for invoices, payments, and expenses is time-consuming and error-prone for growing businesses. Disconnected financial systems require duplicate data entry across multiple platforms leading to inconsistencies. Bank reconciliation requires tedious manual matching of transactions with accounting records every month. Generating financial reports for tax filing and business analysis involves extracting data from accounting software manually.

Core Highlights

Contact manager maintains customer and supplier profiles with billing information. Invoice generator creates detailed bills with automated tax calculations and delivery. Payment tracker records transactions and reconciles bank accounts. Report builder generates financial statements with customizable parameters.

How to Use It?

Basic Usage

from xero import Xero
from xero.auth import OAuth2Credentials
import os

credentials = OAuth2Credentials(
    client_id=os.environ['XERO_CLIENT_ID'],
    client_secret=os.environ['XERO_CLIENT_SECRET'],
    token=os.environ['XERO_ACCESS_TOKEN']
)

xero = Xero(credentials)

invoice = xero.invoices.put({
    'Type': 'ACCREC',
    'Contact': {'Name': 'Client Co'},
    'LineItems': [{
        'Description': 'Consulting',
        'Quantity': 10,
        'UnitAmount': 100.00
    }],
    'Date': '2025-03-15',
    'DueDate': '2025-04-15'
})

Real-World Examples

payment = xero.payments.put({
    'Invoice': {
        'InvoiceID': 'xxx-xxx'
    },
    'Account': {
        'Code': '200'
    },
    'Amount': 1000.00,
    'Date': '2025-03-20'
})

report = xero.reports.get(
    'ProfitAndLoss',
    params={
        'fromDate': '2025-01-01',
        'toDate': '2025-03-31'
    }
)

transactions = xero.banktransactions.filter(
    Date__gte='2025-03-01'
)

contact = xero.contacts.put({
    'Name': 'New Supplier',
    'EmailAddress': 'supplier@example.com',
    'IsSupplier': True
})

Advanced Tips

Use webhook endpoints to receive real-time notifications when invoices are paid or bank transactions are imported for automated reconciliation. Implement batch operations for creating multiple invoices or recording bulk payments to reduce API calls and improve performance. Store Xero contact IDs and invoice numbers in your CRM database to maintain consistent references across systems.

When to Use It?

Use Cases

Automate invoice generation and delivery when orders are completed in your e-commerce or service management system. Sync customer payment records from payment processors like Stripe to Xero for accurate financial reporting. Generate monthly financial reports automatically and email them to stakeholders without manual data extraction.

Important Notes

Requirements

Xero account with API access enabled and OAuth credentials configured for authentication and authorization. Understanding of accounting concepts like accounts payable, accounts receivable, and chart of accounts for correct API usage. Network access to Xero API endpoints for making requests and receiving webhook notifications.

Usage Recommendations

Do: validate invoice data before submitting to Xero to avoid creating incorrect financial records that require manual correction. Use the correct account codes from your chart of accounts for accurate financial categorization. Test integration in a Xero demo company before deploying to production accounting data.

Don't: create duplicate invoices or payments without checking for existing records first since this causes accounting discrepancies. Ignore webhook signature verification since unverified webhooks can be spoofed by attackers. Hard-code account codes and tax rates since they vary across organizations and regions.

Limitations

Xero API rate limits restrict request frequency which may impact high-volume integrations requiring careful request management. Some advanced features like multi-currency transactions and fixed assets require specific Xero subscription plans and may not be available on starter tiers. Historical data import has limitations on date ranges and transaction volumes that can be processed in single operations.