Product fit and marketing are often the top priorities for managing a Shopify company, with accounting and bookkeeping coming in last. Yet, your business may suffer if cash flow and profitability are not monitored from the beginning.
Shopify is an effective tool, but its accounting features have limits. You can completely transform your business operations with the Xero Shopify integration.
By connecting Shopify and Xero, orders can be continuously synchronized, doing away with the need for manual entry into accounting software.
Keep reading as we’ll answer in detail: Why and how does Shopify integrate with Xero?
Contents
1. Xero overview: a solution to streamline the financial process
Financial problems can cause a huge headache for any online business. Whether you’re just starting out or running a small or big business, you will face at least one of the following problems:
- Excessive operating expenses
- Inefficient payment processing
- Poor financial system
- No preparation for unforeseen expenses
- Neglecting necessary reporting
- Poor tax compliance
- Threats to cybersecurity
Fortunately, there are tools and services that can help you deal with it and Xero is one of the top choices in the market.
Xero is a cloud accounting software that can assist you in managing your accounts in real time.
Bookkeepers, accountants, and small businesses have used it to handle bill payments, VAT returns, sales tax administration, expense claims, project tracking, invoice sending and payment acceptance, and other business-related tasks.
Additionally, Xero offers registered customers free, limitless help, and the Xero Community lets users exchange advice and experiences with other Xero users.
Up to now, the integration between Shopify and Xero has assisted millions of company owners globally in taking control of their money, and it can help you too.
2. Benefit of integrating Xero to Shopify
Knowing how beneficial the Shopify Xero integration is to your business will allow you to appreciate and enjoy the integration roadmap. Your online businesses will gain a great deal from the Shopify Xero inventory integration, including:
- Auto financial administration: To make reconciliation easier, Shopify sends Xero daily sales reports for each payment method.
- Replacement of spreadsheets: Accounting chores are made more effective by combining Xero with Shopify’s sales features.
- Easy transaction transfer: Without requiring any human input, Shopify sales transactions are seamlessly transferred to Xero.
- Simple reconciliation: In just a few clicks, transactions can be easily matched with bank data, saving time and effort.
- Precise Tax Compliance: Tax season is less intimidating when every transaction is recorded in great detail. When it comes time to pay taxes, everything proceeds as normal since the integration makes sure compliance is ingrained in everyday operations.
- Real-time data recording: Shopify sales and fees are shown daily by Xero, giving users immediate access to information about income and profit. The dashboard’s display of transactions speeds up the process of creating financial statements, enabling companies to make confident and timely strategic adjustments.
- Comprehensive financial evaluation: Having access to a comprehensive cost and profit breakdown is necessary for an efficient financial performance evaluation.
- Cash flow management: Xero’s features provide a thorough understanding of both cash flow and business performance. Having real-time awareness of your financial situation makes controlling cash flow, which is perhaps the most important aspect of your organization, simple and well-informed.
- Perceptive analytics: Make well-informed company decisions with Xero’s powerful forecasting and analytics.
- Better Stock Management: Shopify’s data on items sold, when combined with Xero’s stock value accounting, allows for more intelligent stock management and buying choices for businesses with large inventory.
💡 Pro tip: Shopify merchants can use POS systems for Xero to ensure to sync sales, orders, inventory, customers, and financial data across operation systems.
3. In-depth use case
To have a deeper grasp of the Shopify integration by Xero, let’s go over a few situations.
- Case #1: Large Sales Volumes Management
It might be difficult for stores that are expanding quickly to stay on top of sales statistics. Integration results in numerous joyful returns—a real-time financial overview and fewer chances for errors—as every Shopify sale now instantly creates an invoice in Xero.
- Case #2: Omnichannel Retailing
It’s possible that you sell on other platforms in addition to Shopify. There are more integrations than simply Xero and Shopify. By combining all of these sales channels into Xero, all financial problems may have a single source of truth.
- Case #3: Global Sales
Keeping track of several currencies may be challenging for retailers who operate across the world. The Shopify to Xero integration tracks currency gain or loss on sales, giving you visibility into your global financial footprint and assisting in managing the complexity of foreign exchange.
4. Xero Shopify integration: How much does it cost?
There is a monthly fee to link your accounts in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, in addition to the monthly membership fees for Shopify and Xero. In all other locations, the Shopify integration by Xero cost is free.
Pricing is as follows, in local currency:
- NZ: $20 per month (excl. GST)
- AU: $20 per month (excl. GST)
- UK: £10 per month (excl. VAT)
- USA/CA/SG/ROW: free
There are three pricing options for Xero accounts, and each is charged independently from your Shopify or Shopify Plus membership.
For young businesses, the $15 monthly Early plan is the most appropriate. The $42/month Growing plan is perfect for small businesses that have consistent monthly sales. The sophisticated multi-currency capabilities are only available in the $78 per month Established plan.
Now, there is a discount of 50% off your plan for 4 months if you make a purchase. Thus, after reading this blog and you think this integration is beneficial for you, don’t hesitate to buy your favorite plan.
5. Xero Shopify integration: a step-by-step guide
To reconcile the features of these two potent tools and link your Shopify store with your Xero account, there are a few steps you must take.
It goes without saying that you must first have accounts on each of these tools. Next, you must use an app or plugin to link them to one another. A clearer picture of your performance that you can manage from a single spot will be the end result of this simple-to-follow approach that needs very little customization.
You’ll need a dependable integration solution to get started that can easily link Xero and your Shopify account. Here are some well-liked choices to think about:
- Xero Shopify App: A built-in Shopify app in Xero makes it simple to combine the two systems. Install the app by doing a simple search for “Xero” in the Shopify App Store.
- Other Integration Tools: If you would rather experiment with other alternatives, you might look into third-party applications such as Synder, A2X, or LinkMyBooks. These tools come with more sophisticated functionality and personalization choices.
In this blog, we illustrate how to use the Xero Shopify App to conduct the best Shopify Xero integration. If you haven’t started your Shopify store yet, register here!
When finishing your Shopify business setup, you can take the following steps to see how the integration between Shopify and Xero works:
- Step 1: Go to the Shopify App Store. Then, find and install the Xero app.
- Step 2: Select the payment plan you wish to use. Accept the terms and conditions.
- Step 3: Tap the “Connect Now” button.
- Step 4: When a new popup window appears, it will ask you to choose the business you wish to link to Shopify from Xero and log in.
After selecting the business to link, click “Allow Access.” You will then be sent to Shopify, where you will have to choose which Xero accounts you want Shopify to link to. The sample we chose for these accounts is displayed in the accompanying image, although the user is free to choose otherwise.
- Step 5: The payment settings come next. The problem with this is that Xero defines most expense accounts as overheads rather than expenses, so you’ll probably need to utilize the “Create a new expense account” link. You may add a new expense account to your Xero chart of accounts by tapping that link.
Once it’s created, you should be able to select the freshly established account when you reload the Shopify page. When chosen, it will have this appearance.
- Step 6: The Tax Settings will be now visible. You can fill in the necessary information.
- Step 7: This step will deal with configuring your preferences. After everything is finished, click “Complete setup” to proceed.
- Step 8: The “Launch Xero” button will be located in the upper right corner of the next page. To visit Xero and verify that the app has connected properly, click that button. Shopify should now appear as an integrated app under Xero Settings/Connected applications.
- Step 9: You have successfully linked Xero with Shopify. You may utilize the Shopify app’s tab to locate the Xero app and then access its settings if you need to modify any aspects of how Shopify data impacts Xero accounts.
6. Conclusion
Shopify and Xero integrate quickly and easily with our step-by-step guide. These companies are excellent partners since they are committed to meeting your daily requirements and providing businesses with amazing advantages.
With the Xero Shopify integration, you’ll cut down on mistakes, save time, and obtain insightful information about how well your company is performing. This simplifies the management of your online store and frees you up to concentrate on your own priorities.
If you would like to know more about Shopify integrations to streamline your business operation, take your time to browse our eComStart blog.
7. FAQs
