Connect Xero to Engineer OS

What the integration does

Connecting Xero keeps your job management and your accounts in step without retyping anything:

• Customers stay matched. Pull your Xero contacts into Engineer OS so invoices raised against a job land against the right customer in your books.
• Invoices flow one way, automatically. Raise an invoice in Engineer OS, push it to Xero with one click. Line items, VAT and totals carry across.
• Payments flow back. When a customer pays an invoice in Xero, Engineer OS picks the payment up overnight and updates the invoice status, so your ageing dashboard reflects reality.
• Edits are tracked. If an invoice changes in Engineer OS after it was pushed, you'll see an "out of sync" banner with a one-click re-sync.

What you need before you start

1. A Xero organisation. The integration connects to an existing Xero account, it does not create one. Any current Xero business plan works, and a Xero free trial works too if you're evaluating both products together.
2. The right Xero user role. The person connecting must have the Standard or Adviser role in Xero. Invoice-only or cashbook users can't authorise app connections; if your bookkeeper or accountant manages your Xero users, ask them to either upgrade your role or do the connection step with you.
3. The right Engineer OS role and plan. You must be an owner or admin of your Engineer OS organisation, and accounting integration is available on the Scale plan.

That's it. No API keys, no IT involvement, no Xero configuration beforehand.

Connecting, step by step

1. In Engineer OS, go to Settings → Accounting.
2. Click Connect on the Xero card.
3. You'll be taken to Xero's own login page. Sign in with your Xero credentials. Engineer OS never sees your Xero password, the sign-in happens entirely on xero.com.
4. Xero asks which organisation to connect (if you have more than one) and shows exactly what access Engineer OS is requesting. Click Allow access.
5. You land back in Engineer OS with the connection live.
6. First job after connecting: click Pull customers. Engineer OS matches your Xero contacts against your existing customer list by name and email, links the matches, and creates Engineer OS customers for any Xero contacts it doesn't recognise. You'll see a summary of matched and created records.

From then on, every invoice detail page has a Push to Xero button, and payments recorded in Xero appear against your Engineer OS invoices each morning.

What access Engineer OS has, and what it doesn't

When you click Allow access, Xero grants Engineer OS exactly these permissions and nothing more:

| Access | Why | |---|---| | Read and update contacts | Matching and creating customers | | Create and update invoices | Pushing invoices you raise in Engineer OS | | Read payments | Updating invoice status when customers pay |

Engineer OS cannot see your bank accounts, bank feeds, payroll, reports, or anything else in your Xero organisation. It cannot delete invoices or record payments in Xero.

The connection uses tokens issued by Xero, not your password, and those tokens are encrypted at rest (AES-256) in our database. You can revoke access at any time from either side: Disconnect in Engineer OS Settings → Accounting, or from Xero under Settings → Connected apps.

Day-to-day behaviour

• Pushing an invoice is always a deliberate click, nothing is sent to your books automatically.
• Payments sync overnight (around 5am UK). You can also pull payments on demand from the Accounting settings page.
• Out-of-sync detection: editing a pushed invoice in Engineer OS flags it immediately and offers re-sync, so Xero is never silently stale.
• Tokens refresh themselves. You won't be asked to reconnect on any schedule; the connection persists until you disconnect it.

Troubleshooting

• "I don't see a Connect button": you're not an owner/admin of the Engineer OS org, or your plan doesn't include accounting.
• Xero shows an error instead of the consent screen: usually a Xero role issue, check you're a Standard or Adviser user in that organisation.
• A customer didn't match on pull: matching uses name and email; tidy the record on either side and pull again, pulls are safe to repeat.
• Connected the wrong Xero organisation: Disconnect in Engineer OS, then Connect again and pick the right one at the Xero step.

FAQ

Do I need a Xero account first? Yes. Engineer OS connects to your existing Xero organisation. If you don't use Xero (or QuickBooks), Engineer OS invoicing still works fully on its own, the integration is optional.

Does my accountant need to do anything? Only if your own Xero login doesn't have the Standard or Adviser role. Many small firms have their accountant as the Xero subscriber; a 2-minute role change or a screen-share for step 3 covers it.

Can I connect more than one Xero organisation? One Xero organisation per Engineer OS organisation.

What happens if I disconnect? Nothing is deleted on either side. Already-pushed invoices stay in Xero, your Engineer OS data is untouched, and payments simply stop syncing. Reconnecting picks up where you left off.

QuickBooks? The same integration exists for QuickBooks Online, same flow, same permissions model. Connect it from the same Settings → Accounting page.

Still stuck? Email support@engineeros.uk