How to send expenses to Xero as bills

Updated recently

Who can use this?
Platform
Web
Plan
All plans
Permissions
Owner · Settings

Topic

Optionally, each expense can be pushed to Xero as a draft supplier bill (accounts payable) so you can pay the supplier and claim the GST — with the receipt attached. It's off by default and best turned on with your accountant, because a cost-plus expense is also re-billed to your client on the invoice.

Instructions

  1. 1
    Turn it on in Integrations → Xero.

    In the Expenses card, tick 'Push expenses to Xero as bills'. It's off until you enable it.

  2. 2
    Pick a default expense account.

    Choose the Xero account bills post to (e.g. Cost of Goods Sold, Direct Costs) from your chart of accounts. You can override it per push.

  3. 3
    Choose Automatic or Manual.

    Automatic pushes every expense as a draft bill the moment it's saved. Manual waits for the per-expense 'To Xero' button. Automatic is the default.

  4. 4
    Push and track status.

    A pushed expense shows a blue 'In Xero' badge; when the bill is paid in Xero it turns green 'Paid'. Use 'Push all to Xero' to sweep up any that aren't synced yet.

Additional Information

Bills land as drafts for you to review and approve in Xero, and the receipt image is attached to the bill.

An expense is never pushed twice — once it has a bill it shows the badge instead of the button.

Job costing (profitability) stays in WorkshopMax; the bill posts to the account you choose, at account level, matching how other trade apps handle it.

Expenses captured on the mobile app are swept to Xero by a scheduled job rather than instantly, so they arrive a few minutes later.

Was this article helpful?