Payments: Setting Up Xero

Connecting with Xero

Navigate to Centre Setup > Centre Settings > Payments - Xero Integration section - click Connect to Xero (per image below).  

Please note that you need to have Centre Administrator access to view the Centre Settings. 

You will be taken to Xero to login and asked to allow Discover to access your Xero data. 

Please note: If you have Multiple Centres on Discover and Have Multiple Organisations under one Xero Login please take a look at the article Xero FAQ.

Configuring Discover For Xero

1) Navigate to Centre Setup > Centre Settings and complete the details in the Payments - Xero Integration section. 

2) To make Discover more precise in collecting Payments, select the accounts you would like Discover to draw information from (i.e. exclude accounts that process payments related to MOE Funding, Capital Receipts, WINZ etc). If you cannot see your account in the Xero Account Code field, you will need to ensure it is classed as a 'Revenue' account in Xero. Further information about locating this information can be found in our Xero FAQ page.

3) Click 'Save' at the bottom of the screen.

If you tick 'Enable Xero Feed', Discover will pull reconciled payments from Xero nightly from the account code(s) you chose.  You will receive a summary email of payments processed and any unmatched transactions you need to manually reconcile.  

We recommend manual uploads for several weeks until you are confident you have setup your descriptions in Xero correctly. After this, the automatic Xero feed can be switched on.

Please note: Payments named "Work and Income" or "EFTPOS" are automatically excluded.  

• It's best practice to input EFTPOS payments into Discover at the time of the transaction.
• WINZ will often make a bulk payment for several children in one lump sum, so WINZ payments should be either input manually, or automatically input using the WINZ feature (see Centre Settings -> Payments - WINZ Options)

Discover uses the Description and Reference fields in Xero to determine who the payment has come from.  You must make this unique, for example the childs first name, last name and date of birth. Alternatively or additionally you can create a unique Bank Reference code for the Bill Payer and use this code in Xero.

Please choose these descriptions/codes with care - if you use the same description for two payments intended for different people, Discover would assume both those payments go to the same person.

Manually Bulk Loading Payments

Once Xero has been connected and configured, you will be able to upload Xero transactions by going to Payments > Upload Payments on the main menu and clicking 'Get Xero Transactions'. Discover will show you a list of payments that it can upload and any payments (like WINZ or EFTPOS) that it will ignore. If Discover does not know who the payment comes from then you will be prompted to match payments with billpayers on the payment upload screen per the image below. 

Unmatched Payments

For each unmatched payment, click in the Bill Payer field and begin typing to search for and select the bill payer.  Discover will remember which payments go to which bill payers for next time.  

After searching and matching payments to missing bill payers, you can leave unmatched ones for later by leaving the tick box at the bottom set.

However, if you have matched all relevant payments and would like Discover ignore the unmatched ones permanently, untick the 'Save' box and click 'Upload' - anything not matched will be ignored.