Connect your Xero organization to SKULabs and your sales orders become Xero invoices, and your purchase orders become Xero purchase orders and bills — automatically, on a recurring schedule.

This guide covers what the integration does, how to connect it, every setting on the page, how to control exactly which records sync, and how to read the sync reports when something does not look right.

SKULabs is the system of record. Xero is the accounting book.

SKULabs pushes records to Xero on a recurring schedule — roughly every 10 minutes. Importing orders and items from Xero is optional and is turned on separately, per store.

You can connect more than one Xero organization to a single SKULabs account. Each one gets its own settings panel, its own sync reports, and its own sync state — so an order can sync to one organization, several, or none, depending on the rules you set.

You need:

Tip: Try this against Xero's Demo Company first. Once you turn sync on, records start flowing into real books on the next scheduled run.

Go to Settings → Accounting → Xero and click Connect Xero, or go to Settings → Stores → Add a Sales Channel and pick Xero.

You are returned to SKULabs and the organization appears as a store of type xero.

Reconnecting is safe. If you authorize an organization that is already connected, SKULabs recognizes the same Xero tenant, refreshes the stored credentials, and reactivates the existing store rather than creating a duplicate. The same Xero organization cannot be connected twice.

The connection requests these Xero scopes: contacts, settings, invoices, payments, bank transactions, and manual journals — plus offline access so the sync can keep running without you signing in again.

Everything that controls what gets pushed lives in Settings → Accounting → Xero. One panel appears per connected organization, with two collapsible sections: Order invoices and Purchase orders.

Click Save after any change.

If the account and tax dropdowns are empty, they are read live from that organization's Xero chart of accounts and tax rates — so a blank list usually means the connection needs reauthorizing. Reconnect the organization and they will populate.

Which orders sync: orders placed in the last 30 days, from your active non-Xero stores. Split parents and combined children are excluded. An order syncs once; with Keep invoices up to date on, it is pushed again whenever it changes afterward.

This is the setting most often misunderstood:

Partially refunded and partially paid orders pay only the amount actually due, not the full total.

Which POs sync: closed purchase orders from the last 30 days. Turn on Sync open purchase orders too to also push POs that are still open.

The supplier must exist. The Xero supplier comes from the purchase order's distributor in SKULabs. A PO with no distributor is skipped with "Supplier (distributor) not found".

If you keep tracked inventory in Xero, the Bill is the document that moves your quantities. The Xero Purchase Order never does — a Xero purchase order is a non-posting document, so whatever its status, it leaves both your accounts and your inventory quantities untouched.

To have a closed SKULabs purchase order add stock in Xero:

On the next run SKULabs creates the Bill as authorized, and Xero increases the item's quantity on hand and carries the cost on your inventory asset account until the item sells.

Not every line moves stock:

Only items SKULabs creates are set up as tracked. When a SKU already exists in Xero, SKULabs matches it and leaves its settings alone — so an item that is untracked in Xero stays untracked, even after you select an inventory asset account. Change tracking on those items in Xero, or create the item in Xero the way you want it before its first sync.

The Bill carries the quantity ordered, not the quantity received. Order 100, receive 80, and close the purchase order, and the Bill still shows 100 — so Xero adds 100 to quantity on hand and bills the full ordered value. If you want Xero to match what actually arrived, edit the purchase order down to the received quantity before closing it. With Keep purchase orders and bills up to date on, later edits are pushed to the Bill as well, as long as Xero still allows the change.

Tracked inventory cuts both ways. With tracked items, the invoices SKULabs pushes also reduce quantity on hand — and Xero does not allow a tracked item to go negative. If Xero's quantity on hand is behind your real stock, Xero can refuse the invoice and the order shows as Failed in the sync report. SKULabs remains the system of record for warehouse quantities and never pushes stock levels or adjustments, so Xero's numbers move only from the documents it receives. If you do not need inventory valuation in Xero, leave Inventory asset account blank and keep your items untracked.

By default, every eligible record syncs to every connected Xero organization. That is usually what you want with a single organization.

To be selective — or to route different records to different organizations — use Settings → Shipping → Rules.

Add a rule with one of these actions, found in the — Xero — section at the bottom of the action list:

One option is generated per connected organization, so the action you pick is also the destination.

This is a switch, not just a filter. As soon as any rule with a Xero order action exists, broadcasting stops: only orders matching a rule will sync. The same applies independently to purchase orders. If records suddenly stop syncing after you add your first rule, this is why.

Purchase orders can be matched on created date, warehouse, supplier, and tag.

The push described above is the main use of the integration. SKULabs can also pull from Xero, and that is configured per store, not on the accounting page.

Go to Settings → Stores, open the Xero store, and expand Access credentials & integration settings.

Turn the import itself on with Enable orders sync at the top of the store page.

No sync loops. Every invoice SKULabs creates is stamped Synced by SKULabs in its reference, and the importer skips those. Your own pushes never come back as new orders.

SKULabs can also push price and cost updates to matching Xero items by SKU.

You do not have to wait for the schedule. Open the order and choose Menu → Re-sync to Xero.

This pushes that one order to every connected organization it qualifies for, and reports the result per organization. It is the fastest way to confirm a settings change did what you expected.

A synced order also shows:

Orders that fail carry a red Failed Xero Create Invoice tag; failed purchase orders carry Failed Xero PO Sync. Both are ordinary tags, so you can filter and save views on them.

The sync runs about every 10 minutes.

When a record fails, SKULabs does not retry it immediately or give up on it. It backs off on a growing delay and keeps trying:

In the meantime the record shows in the report as "Recently failed 3x (reason); retry after 2h" — that is the backoff working, not a new error each run.

If Xero returns a rate limit, SKULabs slows itself down and honors the wait Xero asks for.

If your authorization is revoked or expires, sync for that organization pauses rather than failing every record, and the store is deactivated so you are prompted to reconnect.

Settings → Advanced → Sync reports is where every run is recorded. Filter the type to Xero Invoice or Xero Purchase Order.

Click the magnifier on any row for the per-record detail.

Each record lands in one of these states:

Keeping invoices up to date is limited by Xero's own accounting rules, not by SKULabs. These are the cases where an update is reported as Blocked and the Xero document is deliberately left alone:

Invoices

Purchase orders and bills

About payments. Xero only allows amounts to change while nothing is paid against an invoice. So when SKULabs updates a paid invoice, it removes the payment it applied, makes the change, and re-applies it. Reconciled payments cannot be removed, which is why a reconciled invoice is left alone entirely.

Other Xero behavior worth knowing before you file a bug:

Open the Xero store under Settings → Stores and click Disconnect in Access credentials & integration settings.

This revokes the token with Xero and deactivates the store in SKULabs. Records already in Xero stay exactly as they are — nothing is deleted or reversed. Your settings are preserved, so reconnecting the same organization picks up where you left off.

How soon after an order appears will it reach Xero?
Within about 10 minutes, on the next scheduled run. Use Re-sync to Xero on the order if you need it immediately.

Can I connect two Xero organizations?
Yes. Each gets its own settings panel and its own sync reports. Use shipping rules to route records, or leave rules empty to send everything to all of them.

Why is my invoice sitting as awaiting payment when the order was paid?
No Payment account is selected. Select one and re-sync.

Will old orders sync when I turn this on?
Only orders from the last 30 days are eligible, and closed purchase orders from the last 30 days.

Will SKULabs change my Xero invoice numbering?
Only if you want it to. By default invoice numbers are built from the order number with an SL prefix. Turn on Use Xero auto increment for Invoices # to keep your own Xero sequence — the order number then appears in the invoice Reference.

Can I control which accounts a specific product posts to?
Yes. SKULabs creates a Xero item only when nothing matches the SKU, using the accounts configured above. To control them yourself, create the item in Xero first with the accounts you want — SKULabs matches it by SKU and leaves its settings alone.

Does the integration push inventory levels to Xero?
No — SKULabs never sends stock levels or inventory adjustments, and prices and costs are the only item values it pushes. If you set an Inventory asset account, your products are created as tracked inventory items and Xero then moves its own quantities from the bills and invoices it receives. See Using the Bill to adjust inventory in Xero.

An order is tagged Failed Xero Create Invoice. What now?
Open Settings → Advanced → Sync reports, filter to Xero Invoice, and read the reason on that order. Fix the cause, then use Menu → Re-sync to Xero rather than waiting for the backoff.

Still stuck? Contact us at support@skulabs.com with the order or PO number and the date of the sync run, and we can pull the matching report.