How do I connect SaveTrees to Xero?

If you bill your clients from Xero, SaveTrees can create the invoices for you. Your accepted timesheets and expenses already have the hours, rates and approvals on them, so there’s no need to type them in again. It starts with connecting the two.

Connect

1. 1

   Go to Settings and click Xero.

   Open Xero settings in your account(opens SaveTrees in a new tab)
2. 2

   Click Connect to Xero.

3. 3

   Sign in to Xero if it asks, choose the organisation you invoice clients from, and click Allow access.

4. 4

   Back in SaveTrees, choose the date billing starts from and click Start billing from….

   

   Screens may look a little different in your account, with your organisation’s own colours and words.

Once you’re connected, the Xero page shows which organisation you’re connected to, who connected it, and when billing starts from.

SaveTrees connects to one Xero organisation at a time. If you tick more than one in Xero, it keeps the one you connected and lets go of the rest.

Choosing when billing starts

You’ve probably invoiced last month’s work already. The Bill from date tells SaveTrees where to start: work from that date on can be sent to Xero, and anything earlier counts as billed outside SaveTrees, so it’s never sent twice. It starts as today, which means only new work goes to Xero.

Not sure yet? Click Decide later. Nothing can be sent until you pick a date, and you can do that whenever you’re ready with Choose a date on the Xero page. To move it later, click Change next to Billing from.

Trying it out first

Xero has a demo company you can practise on. Connect that instead of your real organisation and SaveTrees marks it as a Test organisation, so it’s clear nothing is reaching your real accounts.

• When you’re happy, click Switch to live Xero and choose your real organisation. Anything you sent to the demo company goes back to unbilled, so you can send it for real. You’ll need to link your clients and choose your accounts again, because they belong to the demo company.
• Connected a real organisation you only want to test with? Click Mark as test organisation. This can’t be undone, so to send real invoices afterwards you’d connect a different organisation.

Disconnecting

Click Disconnect on the Xero page. Invoices you’ve already sent stay in Xero, and work that’s been billed stays billed, so it can’t be sent twice if you connect again later.

Connect the same organisation again and your client links and account choices are just as you left them.

What’s next

Before your first send, link your clients to their Xero contacts and choose which Xero accounts your fields go to. The Ready to send list on the Xero page shows what’s left. See How do I get ready to send invoices to Xero?

Who can do this

Your account owner, and admins whose permission group includes Send invoices to Xero and manage the Xero connection. Groups that could already manage your SaveTrees billing were given it automatically.