What the Xero integration does
The Xero integration links a SparkReceipt workspace to a single Xero organization so that your accounting reference data stays in sync and the documents you capture in SparkReceipt can be posted straight into Xero.
Once connected, SparkReceipt pulls reference data from Xero and pushes processed documents to Xero:
- From Xero → SparkReceipt (read-only sync):
- Chart of accounts – expense-type accounts become expense categories in SparkReceipt, and revenue/income-type accounts become income categories.
- Contacts – suppliers are synced as expense accountables (vendors) and customers as income accountables. A Xero contact that is both a supplier and a customer is synced on both sides.
- Tax rates – including which accounts each rate can be applied to, so SparkReceipt doesn't offer an invalid tax/account combination.
- Bank accounts – synced as payment methods so that paid documents can be reconciled against the right account in Xero.
- Tracking categories – your active Xero tracking categories and their options (for example grants, projects or departments), so you can tag each line with them before publishing.
- Organization preferences – base currency, country and company name are read from Xero to keep SparkReceipt aligned with your Xero settings.
- From SparkReceipt → Xero (publishing documents):
- Expense documents (receipts, bills, purchases) are published to Xero as bills (ACCPAY invoices).
- Income documents (sales invoices, sales receipts) are published to Xero as sales invoices (ACCREC invoices).
- The original attachment (PDF or image) is uploaded alongside the transaction. File types Xero does not accept are automatically converted before upload.
- If a document is marked as paid in SparkReceipt, a matching payment is recorded in Xero against the bank account you selected.
- Any tracking options you set on a line are sent with that line, so the bill or sales invoice arrives in Xero already tracked.
Multi-currency documents are supported and, where needed, converted to your home currency on the Xero side.
Prerequisites
- An active Xero organization that you are authorized to connect to third-party apps.
- Only one accounting integration can be active on a SparkReceipt organization at a time. If you already have QuickBooks Online, FreeAgent, FreshBooks or Zoho Books connected, disconnect it before connecting Xero.
- The person doing the connecting must be a SparkReceipt administrator or accountant on the organization – those are the roles that can see the Integrations settings.
Connecting and initial setup
The high-level setup flow is:
- Log in to SparkReceipt as an administrator or accountant and open the Integrations entry in the left-hand sidebar. This takes you to the Integrations tab in your account settings.
- Under the Accounting section, click Connect to Xero. You'll be redirected to Xero to sign in and authorize SparkReceipt.
- If your Xero login has access to more than one Xero organization, SparkReceipt asks you to pick which one to connect – the integration links a SparkReceipt organization to a single Xero organization at a time.
- SparkReceipt then runs the initial sync, pulling in accounts, contacts, tax rates and bank accounts from Xero, as well as your Xero organization preferences (base currency, country, company name). When the sync completes, you land on the Xero settings page in SparkReceipt, where you can review the imported data.
From that point on, documents you process in SparkReceipt can be published to Xero from the document view.
Publishing documents to Xero
Publishing to Xero is a manual step in SparkReceipt, not an automatic sync. Documents only move to Xero when you publish them.
Publish a single document
Open the document in SparkReceipt and click Publish to Xero in the document view. A confirmation dialog summarizes what will be sent (the transaction, line items, the original attachment and, if the document is marked as paid, a matching payment). After publishing, you'll see a link back to the document in Xero.
Publish several documents at once
In the documents list, select the documents you want to publish and click the Publish action in the bulk-action bar at the top of the list. The dialog also offers an option to re-publish any documents that were already published, in case you've made edits in SparkReceipt that you want reflected in Xero.
Documents added before connecting Xero
Any documents that were processed in SparkReceipt before you connected Xero were categorized using SparkReceipt's generic categories. Those generic categories aren't mapped to a Xero account, so publishing them will fail until they're moved to a Xero-synced category. Two ways to fix this:
- Pick a Xero-synced category manually. Open the document, change the category to one of the Xero-synced expense or income accounts, and publish.
- Rescan the document. Use the Rescan document action on the document. The AI re-categorizes the document against the categories that are now available, which includes your Xero accounts.
Xero tracking categories
If you use Xero tracking categories to report spending against grants, projects, departments or regions, you can set them in SparkReceipt so they carry through when you publish.
Where tracking categories come from
SparkReceipt reads your active tracking categories and their options from Xero when you connect. If you add or rename a tracking category or option in Xero later, click Sync now on the Xero settings page in SparkReceipt to bring the change across. Xero allows up to two active tracking categories per organization, so you'll see at most two.
Set tracking on a document
- Open the document in the SparkReceipt web app.
- Each line of the document has a dropdown for every tracking category, named after the category in Xero (for example Grants or Region).
- Choose the option you want for that line, or leave it on No followed by the category name to send the line without tracking.
- Publish the document to Xero as usual.
Tracking is set per line, so a receipt with several lines can be split across different options, for example two grants. Tax and tip lines don't carry tracking. Setting tracking is currently available in the web app.
Add tracking to documents you've already published
Open the document, choose the tracking options on its lines, and click Update in Xero. This updates the existing bill or sales invoice in Xero rather than creating a second one.
Good to know
- Tags aren't sent to Xero. SparkReceipt tags stay in SparkReceipt and can't be mapped to Xero tracking options. Use the tracking dropdowns instead.
- Archived options are skipped. If a tracking category or option has been archived in Xero, SparkReceipt leaves it out when publishing so the rest of the document still goes through.
Common publishing questions
Are income amounts published to Xero as tax-inclusive?
No. Income documents are published to Xero as sales invoices (ACCREC), and those invoices are always sent tax-exclusive. Each line carries the net (pre-tax) amount, and Xero adds the tax on top from the tax rate. This is fixed – the invoice is sent with Xero's line amounts set to Exclusive, so there is no option to publish income as a single tax-inclusive gross amount.
The Tax not applicable publish mode, which posts the gross tax-inclusive total for expenses, does not change income. Income invoices stay tax-exclusive regardless of that setting.
Can a receipt be published to Xero as a single line?
Not with a setting. SparkReceipt publishes one Xero line per line item on the document, and each line carries its own account. There is no toggle that collapses a multi-line receipt into a single line.
If you want a single line in Xero, edit the expense in SparkReceipt so it has just one line item (a single category) before you publish it. It will then publish as one line. A receipt that already has a single line item is published as a single line.
Can an expense be published with an empty contact, or a default supplier?
No. Publishing an expense to Xero creates a bill (ACCPAY), and Xero requires a contact on it. SparkReceipt maps the expense's Merchant to the Xero contact. If the document has no merchant, no contact is sent and Xero rejects the bill – SparkReceipt cannot create the transaction without one.
There is no setting for a default or fallback supplier on the Xero integration. Set a Merchant on the expense before publishing. If you don't have the real supplier, you can enter a generic catch-all name (for example Miscellaneous) and reuse it – SparkReceipt will create and reuse a single matching Xero contact for that name.
Troubleshooting and feedback
If something doesn't look right – a missing category, a document that failed to publish, an unexpected error – contact support through the in-app chat widget. That's the fastest way to get help.
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Xero is a trademark of Xero Limited. SparkReceipt is an independent, third-party integration and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Xero.