Xero

Xero is a suite of online accounting software for small businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers. It enables its users to track and manage cash flow processes, invoicing, payments, reporting, and pay runs.

BETA FEATURE

Support for Xero integration is presently BETA. Features, implementation, and behavior are subject to change without notice. If you are using, or plan to use, this integration, please contact our sales team.

Aligni’s native Xero integration currently supports inventory balance updates from Aligni’s warehouse management to your accounting system.

Integration Setup

Organization Settings API & Integrations Xero

Only the Aligni administrator is able to set up and configure the Xero integration. To establish a connection between Aligni and Xero, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to your Xero account.
  2. Sign in to your Aligni account. You must be signed in as an administrator.
  3. Visit the Xero integration page: Organization Settings API & Integrations Xero
  4. Click on the button labeled Connect to Xero.
  5. You will be redirected to Xero and asked to grant Aligni access to various rights in your Xero organization. You must click Allow Access to proceed.

Configuring Inventory Synchronization

Inventory synchronization will create a routine manual journal entry to synchronize the balance of one or more warehouses in Aligni to an account balance in Xero. You can set up multiple synchronizations if your accounting system has multiple inventory balance accounts.

The synchronization process involves three steps:

  1. Aligni queries the current balance of the assigned account in Xero.
  2. Aligni totals the value of inventory in the selected warehouses in Aligni.
  3. Aligni creates a manual journal entry in Xero to synchronize these values. This entry will include a credit (or debit) to the selected inventory asset account and a debit (or credit) to the default expense account selected in the General Setup of the integration.

The settings for each inventory synchronization include:

  • Auto sync – When this is enabled, Aligni will automatically make the journal entry at the selected synchronization interval. If this option is disabled, synchronization will only occur when you manually click the SYNC NOW button.
  • Synchronization Interval – Here you can select an interval (year, month, week, or day) and additional specifiers to determine when auto sync will occur. For monthly synchronizations, if you want to synchronize at the end of the period, select “On the 31st” and Aligni will automatically run the synchronization on the last day of the month, even for shorter months.
  • Warehouses – Select which specific warehouses will be included in the calculation to synchronize to the corresponding Xero inventory asset account. The value in these warehouses will be totaled and used as the target value.

Off-Book Inventory

It is often the case that you will want to keep track of assets and their value even if you have already expensed them. Aligni can still track this inventory, its location, and its value but not share this with your accounting system.

You can use Aligni to track inventory for assets you have already expensed an do not need to track in your accounting system. For example, if you maintain inventory of testing assets or lab equipment, you can create a separate warehouse for this inventory and leave it as an “unpaired location” for the Xero synchronization. This inventory amount will not be shared with Xero.