Xero
Xero integration, specialising in South African systems
Xero is usually the one system a business has already got right. The problem is everything around it: the bank, the card machine, the job system, the payroll, the spreadsheet someone rebuilds every month. We build the connections between them, against the Xero API, and then we keep them running. Most of that work is South African, because that is where the gaps are widest. The engineering is not.
Xero Developer Partner
Listed on the Xero App Store as a development partner, in South Africa and five other regions.
Capability
What we build
Five things, built against the Xero API directly rather than through a connector that has to suit everybody.
01
Bank APIs into Xero
Payment initiation from Xero, account verification before money moves, real time notifications, and transaction history feeding the bank feed. Built in production against FNB's Online Banking Enterprise Integration Channel.
02
Payment gateway settlement
Card and online payments reconciled into Xero automatically, matched against the provider's own settlement data rather than assumed. Running in production for Yoco and Zapper.
03
Job management to invoice
Completed work raises its own invoice in Xero, with the job detail, the right account codes and the right tracking categories already on it.
04
Payroll and statutory filing
Payroll runs posted to Xero correctly, and the SARS submissions around them prepared from the same data rather than rekeyed.
05
Everything else that touches the ledger
CRM, e-commerce, field service, custom platforms. If it has an API and it should be talking to Xero, it can be.
Proof
Xero integrations we have built
Both are live, and both clients are contactable.
Product
Crosspost: Zapper settlements into Xero, on their own
Most of what we build is custom. Crosspost is the exception, the one integration enough businesses needed the same way that we packaged it. Every trading day it posts your Zapper takings into Xero, meaning the sale, Zapper's fees with their VAT, and the payout, and reconciles the clearing account to the cent. Free connectors import a daily total; Crosspost posts the entries a bookkeeper would, so the books actually balance. R199 a month, with a 14-day free trial and no card to start.
See how Crosspost works →How we connect
Against the API, not around it
01
Authenticate
Through Xero's OAuth 2.0 authorisation code flow, using an app you authorise from your own Xero organisation and can revoke whenever you choose.
02
Orchestrate
On n8n where a workflow is the right shape for the job, and on purpose built services where it is not. Both deployed on infrastructure you own.
03
Verify
Everything that moves money is built to be checked. Reconciliation is matched against the provider's own source data, and the result is either exact or it raises an exception for a person to look at.
Questions
Common questions
Do you build a Xero app, or a custom integration?
Usually a custom integration, built for one business and its actual process, against the Xero API directly. The exception is Crosspost, our packaged Zapper-to-Xero product: that job is the same for every Zapper merchant, so packaging it made it affordable. Where an off-the-shelf connector would break on the edge cases that matter to you, we build custom.
How does the integration authenticate to Xero?
Through Xero's OAuth 2.0 authorisation code flow, with an app you authorise and can revoke at any time from your own Xero organisation. Xero Custom Connections, the simpler client credentials option, are not available in South Africa, so the authorisation code flow is the correct route here.
What happens when Xero or a vendor changes their API?
That is what the monthly covers. Integrations break when a vendor changes something upstream, so the arrangement includes monitoring, alerting, and fixing vendor changes when they land, along with a monthly report of what ran and what it recovered.
Who owns the integration once it is built?
You do. It runs on infrastructure you control, it is documented, and it is not locked to us. That is deliberate. An integration you cannot take elsewhere is a liability, not an asset.
Are you a Xero certified advisor?
No, and the distinction matters. A Xero certified advisor is an accounting accreditation. We are a Xero development partner, listed on the Xero App Store, which is the engineering side. We are not an accounting practice and we do not give accounting advice. What we bring is four years in accounting and audit before software, drafting annual financial statements and running audit files, which means the integration is built with the ledger and its controls in mind rather than only the endpoints.
Client
We engaged Gainly to help us integrate our Xero platform directly with our FNB Enterprise Banking system. They set up the API connection so that our payments can flow directly from Xero into FNB, where we can then review and release them securely from our cell phones.
Previously there was a lot more manual capturing and handling of banking information, which obviously creates room for human error and potential fraud.
Gainly handled the API integration very proficiently and were extremely helpful throughout the process. I would definitely recommend Gainly to other Xero customers looking for similar integrations.
Start with the problem, not the build
Tell us what is not working between Xero and the rest of your business. The first conversation is free, and it ends with a written view of what it would take to fix, whether or not you use us.
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