What has synced with Xero, what is waiting to go, what counts in your reports, and how to connect.
Pages: Xero · Settings → Integrations (the Xero card)
Base treats Xero as the ledger downstream of the decisions you make in Base. Claims go out as sales invoices, approved bills go out as bills, issued purchase orders go out as purchase orders, credit notes and payments follow, and what changes in Xero — payments, voids, bills raised there, new contacts — comes back. The Xero page is Base's own view of all of it: what the last import brought in, what is waiting to go, every push and pull in the last fortnight with failures called out, the linked sales invoices, bills and purchase orders with their jobs, the live Xero money-in and money-out picture, and the data settings that decide what pulled Xero data counts in your reports. Connecting, and choosing the accounts things post to, happens on the Xero card on Settings → Integrations.
Base uses Xero's words for accounting objects — bill, purchase order, contact, account, tax rate, tracking option — and keeps the construction terms that carry legal meaning. The full list is the Base ↔ Xero terms table under Data settings.
On the Xero card on Settings → Integrations, pick from your own chart. Until you have chosen, the card says claims and bills post to Base's Australian defaults.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sales account | Progress claims and retention releases go to Xero as sales invoices on this account. |
| Purchases account | Supplier and subcontractor bills post here unless the cost code names its own account. |
| Retention account | Where the retention withheld on each claim is parked. Default: a negative line on the sales account. |
| Bank account for payments | When a payment run is marked paid, each bill's payment is recorded in Xero from this account. Unset: not recorded, the bank feed reconciles. |
| Work in progress (asset), Billings in excess (liability), WIP revenue adjustment | The accounts the month-end WIP journal posts through. Unmapped, the journal drafts but cannot post. |
| Tax rate on sales / on purchases | The Xero tax rates used on lines. |
Press Save. Changes apply to claims and bills pushed from now on; anything already in Xero stays where it was posted.
On the Xero card, or on the Xero page, press Import from Xero (Import again after the first time). Base brings in jobs from your tracking category and Xero Projects, every sales invoice, bill and purchase order, and your contacts. Anything not coded to a job in Xero lands on one holding job so nothing is missed. The page polls while it runs and then says in words what it found — jobs created and matched, sales invoices with their value and what is outstanding, bills, purchase orders, contacts — and how many documents sit on the holding job. Nothing is duplicated by a re-run.
On the Xero page, What synced shows the latest import, then Waiting to go to Xero: sales invoices (sent claims), bills (approved) and purchase orders (issued), each pushed within a day. Last fortnight groups every push and pull by what and which way, with the OK and failed counts and the last error; open Every entry for the full list.
Sales invoices, Bills and Purchase orders list everything Base holds that is linked to Xero: the number, contact, job, dates, amounts (bills and purchase orders ex GST), the status in Xero's words, whether it was Raised in Xero or Sent from Base, and a Xero link that opens it there. Search by number, contact or job; tick Only raised in Xero to see only what came in. A document on the holding job links to the Money page, where you give it a job.
In Xero now reads live from Xero through Base: who owes you and who you owe by age bucket, the net position, and the bank balance. That is Xero's ledger; the Reports page is Base's.
Admins only. Under Data settings, tick or untick Sales invoices raised in Xero, Bills pulled from Xero, Purchase orders raised in Xero and Documents still on the holding job, or set Only count Xero documents dated from a date. These decide what the Reports page, the Money page and the cashflow forecast count. Each change saves as you make it and applies from the next load. Nothing is deleted: a document left out is still on the Xero page, still on its job, and still follows Xero. Documents you raise in Base are always counted.
| Direction | What | When |
|---|---|---|
| Base → Xero | A sent claim, as a sales invoice built from its lines with retention as a negative line | Within a day; at once when the client's approval is recorded |
| Base → Xero | An approved bill, on the cost code's account with the job's tracking option | Within a day |
| Base → Xero | An issued purchase order, on the supplier's contact | Within a day |
| Base → Xero | A credit note, allocated to the claim's sales invoice | When issued |
| Base → Xero | Payments for a paid payment run, from the bank account for payments | When marked paid |
| Xero → Base | Sales invoice paid, part paid, voided; credits raised in Xero | Every fifteen minutes; within a minute with webhooks |
| Xero → Base | Bills raised in Xero on a tracked job, awaiting review on Job Costs | Same |
| Xero → Base | Purchase orders raised in Xero on a tracked job, and the status of ones Base sent | Pulled on the same cycle |
Base refuses to send a sales invoice whose lines do not add up to the claim's total. The failure shows in the activity list with the claim and the amount.