WooCommerce and Xero

WooCommerce into Xero, coded the way you report

WooCommerce runs on your own site, so what reaches Xero depends on the connector you chose and what it was built to carry. We make the orders arrive coded the way your business actually reports, and where no connector can do that, we build the one that can.

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What goes wrong without it

A plugin is not a policy

Every WooCommerce store reaches Xero through something, and that something was written to a general idea of what a shop needs rather than to yours. Everything below follows from that. The clearing account is where it surfaces: a balance that never returns to zero is unmapped transactions, not a rounding difference.

Orders that arrive uncoded One income account for everything sold, so the report can tell you the total and nothing else about it.

Fees netted off the takings Sales landing net of the gateway's fee understates your income and hides a cost you have genuinely incurred.

The coding rule kept somewhere else A spreadsheet outside the finance team that says how each product should be coded, which stops matching the moment anything changes.

What you get

Orders that arrive already correct

Every order coded on the dimensions you report on, not just to one income account

Gross sales, gateway fees and refunds split apart, so income is income and the fee is a cost

The coding rule carried by the product itself, so it cannot drift out of date

A clearing account that returns to zero, which is the test that the mapping is right

GST checked on every mapped account against your circumstances, never assumed

Invoices created as drafts for you to review and approve, never posted behind you

How it works

Three steps, in this order

1 Work out what the coding actually has to say Which dimensions a report has to hold up on, and whether the connector you have can carry them. That answer decides whether this is a configuration job or a build.

2 Put the rule where it cannot drift The coding carried by the product rather than by a document somebody has to remember to update, so a new line item arrives already knowing what it is.

3 Reconcile before we hand it over You do not get left with a live connection until the clearing account returns to zero and the period reconciles against the bank.

When the standard connection stops short

We have built this one, not just configured it

WooCommerce is a plugin on your own site rather than a platform with one official route into Xero, so what reaches your ledger depends on which connector you picked and what it was built to carry. When a not-for-profit needed every order coded across three dimensions at once, and the platform's own payment processing stopped matching the coding, we built the integration that reads the code off the product and creates the invoice correctly. Everything we automate arrives in Xero as a draft for a person to review and approve, because ownership of what reaches your ledger stays with you.

Coding the connector cannot reach Account, job and chapter on the same invoice, or whichever dimensions your reporting runs on. Two out of three still produces a report nobody can use.

The platforms with no connector at all Order systems, subscription tools and CRMs that Xero has never been introduced to. If the data follows a pattern, the pattern can be automated.

The rule lives in the system, not a spreadsheet Coding rules kept in a document outside the finance team stop matching the moment anything changes. Carried by the product itself, they cannot drift.

A person still approves it Nothing posts itself. Every automated transaction lands as a draft for review, so a human owns what enters the ledger.

If a person is opening WooCommerce to read a description before they can code an invoice, that is worth a conversation.

Who it suits

Who this is for

Stores on their own site WordPress and WooCommerce, where the plugin decides what Xero sees. Not-for-profits Events, courses and chapters, where one order codes three ways at once. Shopify as well The same work where the store is hosted for you. Read the case study The build this page describes, with the situation that led to it.

Questions we answer every week

Questions we are asked most

Does WooCommerce integrate with Xero? There is no single official route, which is the difference between WooCommerce and a hosted platform. Several plugins and connectors exist and they carry different amounts of detail across. Whether any of them suits you depends on how your reporting needs orders coded, so that is the question we start with rather than which plugin to install.

Our products need coding more than one way at once. Is that possible? Yes, and it is the case a general connector usually cannot handle. Where a report has to hold up on an income account, a job and a location at the same time, the coding has to travel with the product rather than be applied afterwards. We have built exactly that, and the case study describes it.

Will things post to Xero without us seeing them? No. Everything we automate arrives as a draft for a person to review and approve. Automation is there to remove the typing, not the judgement, and ownership of what reaches your ledger stays with you.

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