Xero and Square

[Deanie]

Hi All,

I am a small business, I use xero as my accounting software and invoicing and square for EFTPOS,

I am finding the merg between the two very clunky.

My biggest problem is that my Xero subscription is only 5 bills a month, but it obviously sees square fees as a bill.  

Then i am double reconciling and it just feels messy.  Anyone found a better way to do this with out having to pay a fortune

[Arie]

Hey @Deanie,

Thanks for writing in to the community 👋

It might be worth reaching out to Xero here to see if their support team have any suggestions around setting up the integration differently. As the integration is build out by Xero / Amaka, they'd be the experts in setting this up most efficiently. 

Hopefully another seller can share their suggestions as well! 

[RobbieB]

Hi Deanie, I stopped using the integration with Square to Xero as it was doing all kinds of weird things. It appeared each transaction made up of the same fees etc were not being allocated correctly i.e some parts of the transaction would be assigned to an account and the next transaction it would put it to another account. A real pain in the bum! Paypal integration  works brilliantly. So the way I do it is when I get a day of sales, I do an invoice to Square in Xero…so I do the invoice for the full sale (not including my Paypal payments) then do negative line item for the fee, so the balance owing is the payment that Square will make to my account…then I just reconcile the payment when it hits the bank. I find this is quick and easy get around as Square reports will tell you everything you need.  Kind regards Robyn

[tomven]

Hi @RobbieB, 

I would definitely contact Amaka and get them to look into your issue with the Xero sync app. It's been great for us (we've been using for around 12 months). I have used their support before and they're really responsive and solved our issue (it was during our initial migration from QuickBooks > Xero, the setup was a bit confusing but they ended up doing the back import for us which was super easy!).

The sync will change your life if they can fix the issue for you. So much easier, I don't even look at any of the invoices or fees etc, all I have to do is reconcile the incoming bank transfer from Square with 1 click of a button and it all balances without blinking! Highly recommend.

[RobbieB]

Yes, it would be great to figure out the integration.  When I tried it created the accounts for Square specifically, but then it would put what the customer paid for shipping in another account which wouldnt be a problem but it only did it on some of the orders.  I am just about ready to open my retail outlet but when I have a minute to spare I will try to contact support and see what the go is 🙂

[tomven]

Hi @Deanie,

Did you get this one figured out?

Firstly, 5 bills per month in Xero won't be worth your time. You've got to be all in on a proper subscription or its not worth bothering. That plan is really designed for hobbyists, not any kind of actual business. Xero definitely should have a middle tier that is more competitive with other products (ie QuickBooks) with say 50 invoices a month.

We used QuickBooks when we first started our business and it too had a sync tool for Xero which was quite good. QuickBooks was cheaper, so if you're looking for something more cost effective over Xero, definitely have a look at them.

We ended up just sucking it up and paying the higher Xero price just because it is better supported by most accountants (they all moan about QuickBooks). Xero does have some niceties though, like their payment reconciliation tool and sending receipts via email is far superior to QuickBooks, and these were a big things for us — I spent hours each week inputting expenses etc in QuickBooks, whereas now Xero makes it so much more automated.

Hope that helps.

[RobbieB]

Yes I agree with the above that the Standard Xero Plan would be the way to go especially if you are entering lots of bills and invoices.

I have a financial background and decided to try Quickbooks.  Quickly stopped the trial and got Xero.  Much much easier.  Quickbooks wouldn't let me do a standard refund and support was absolutely no help (was on the phone for hours and they still couldnt figure out how I should do it), so I am sticking to Xero and there support so far has  been great!