In this article, you will find a detailed description of the Planyard Xero integration, how to set it up, and how to utilise all its features
Table of contents
Introduction
At Planyard, we understand that efficient budget management is key to the success of construction projects. That's why we've partnered with Xero, one of the leading accounting software platforms, to streamline your financial workflows. Our integration allows you to automatically transfer cost documents directly from Planyard to Xero, eliminating the need for manual data entry and reducing the risk of errors.
This powerful integration not only saves you time but also ensures that your financial data is always synchronised and up-to-date, providing a real-time view of your project finances. With Planyard and Xero working together, you can focus more on delivering successful projects and less on administrative tasks.
Data Transfer Details
Let's review the information exchanged between Planyard and Xero once the integration is set up.
- Planyard sends all approved costs to Xero. Each cost includes a reference to Planyard to easily review the associated cost document.
- Planyard will import accounts used in Xero. When creating a new project, you can link all budget items to your chart of accounts in Xero. This linkage ensures that Planyard includes the correct Xero account in the data sent to Xero.
- Tracking categories enable Planyard to send details about the projects associated with the costs transferred to Xero.
- Contact information is exchanged bidirectionally; Planyard both receives and sends contact details to and from Xero.
How to setup Xero integration
Only users with permission to edit change company settings and integrations, as well as the correct permissions in Xero. In order to set up the integration, login to your Planyard account and follow these steps:
- Click 'Company' in the top menu row.
- Click 'Integrations' in the company menu row.
- Under the Xero logo, click 'Connect'.
- Use your Xero login credentials to connect Planyard with your Xero account.
Planyard is not integrated with your Xero account and all approved costs will automatically be sent to Xero.
Connect chart of accounts
This setup allows for a direct linkage of Planyard’s budget line items to the corresponding Xero accounts. By doing so, each approved cost is already tagged with the right account information when transferred to Xero, streamlining the process of financial tracking and management. Let’s dive into the detailed steps to ensure a smooth and effective integration.
Once the integration with Xero has been set up, navigate to your project and follow these steps to connect the line-items in your budget with the Xero chart of accounts:
- Go to 'Settings' in the project menu row
- Activate the feature for chart of accounts
- Click 'Assign accounts' once the feature is activated.
- You will no see a table containing to colums:
- Line-item: displays all the line items in your budget. Warning triangle in front of a line-item indicates that there is now accounting account selected for the item.
- Accounting account: displays the specific Xero account where any cost for the budget line-item should be allocated. To select the account for a particular item, double-click an empty cell and select the account. You can also assign accounts to batches by clicking the empty cell of a category or subcategory; all subsequent line-items will then be categorised under the same account.
If the budget items used in Planyard correspond with accounts in Xero, you can use the feature for automatically matching accounts. Planyard will automatically match budget-line items with accounts in Xero named the same way. To use this click 'Auto match accounts' in the top right corner.
Utilise tracking categories
If you've established tracking categories in Xero to monitor costs across various projects, these categories will automatically synchronise with Planyard. Within Planyard, you can easily assign a tracking category to your project. This integration allows Planyard to relay information about the tracking category to Xero whenever cost documents are submitted, ensuring seamless data management and accuracy.
Activate tracking categories
To utilise tracking categories, you must first activate this feature in your company account's integration settings. Simply go to the 'Company' tab in the top menu, select 'Settings' from the dropdown menu, and then choose 'Integration Settings'. Here, you can enable the tracking categories feature to start leveraging the feature.
Assign tracking category to project
Once tracking categories have been activated, go to your project and click 'Settings' in the project menu. Then, find the 'Tracking Category' option and click 'Change Tracking Category'. Select the appropriate category from the dropdown menu and click 'Save'. Your project will now be tagged with the selected tracking category. Consequently, all cost documents sent from the Planyard project to Xero will include information on the tracking category.