Xero integration: how your software connects to Xero, and what it costs

A Xero integration is the connection that moves records between another system and Xero without anyone retyping them: a completed job becomes a draft invoice, a supplier's invoice becomes a draft bill, a new customer becomes a contact, and Xero reports back when an invoice is paid. If the other system is a mainstream product, a ready-made add-on from the Xero App Store is often enough. When the other system is your own software, or the add-ons do not map your data the way your bookkeeper needs, a custom integration through Xero's API does the job. With us, that costs $1,500 to $5,000 ex GST per integration, on top of the web app or custom software it connects. This guide explains what an integration does, how to choose between an add-on and a custom build, why it should create drafts, what it costs, and how Reckonly does it.

It moves records between two systems, in one direction or both, either when something happens or on a schedule. For a small business, the useful flows are usually these:

• Invoices out. When a job is completed or an order is approved in your system, a draft invoice with the right customer, line items, account codes and GST appears in Xero.
• Bills in. A supplier invoice or a receipt captured in your system becomes a draft bill in Xero, with the supplier, the amount and the tax already filled in.
• Contacts kept in step. A new customer in your system becomes a contact in Xero, so the two lists never drift apart.
• Payment status back. When an invoice is paid in Xero, your system shows it as paid, so staff stop asking whoever does the books.

The connection itself uses Xero's own sign-in. Someone with access to your Xero organisation approves it, and the business can withdraw that approval later. The integration never needs your Xero password.

The hard part is rarely the connection. It is deciding the rules: which system owns each record, which account code and tax rate each kind of line uses, what happens when a customer exists in one system and not the other, and what the integration does when Xero refuses a record. Those decisions belong in the written scope, agreed with whoever does your books, before any code is written.

Start with the Xero App Store when the system you want to connect is a mainstream product, such as a point-of-sale, payments or job management service, that already lists a Xero connection. It is ready today and someone else maintains it. Before you rely on it, check which records it moves, in which direction, how it handles tax rates and tracking categories, and what it costs each month.

Build a custom integration when one of these is true:

1. The other system is your own software, such as a custom app, a customer portal or an internal tool, so no add-on exists.
2. An add-on moves the data, but not in the shape your bookkeeper needs: the wrong account codes, no tracking categories, or one line where you need several.
3. You need a person to check records before they reach Xero, and the add-on you found posts them straight through.
4. The connection is one step in a larger workflow, such as a quote that becomes a job, then an invoice, then a payment reminder.

General automation tools that link cloud apps sit between the two. They suit simple, low-volume flows, and they can become hard to follow once the rules multiply and nobody remembers which step does what.

A custom integration also has to respect Xero's limits. Xero caps how many API calls an app can make each day for each connected organisation: 1,000 a day on its free Starter plan and 5,000 on its paid plans, according to Xero's developer pricing. A well-built integration therefore batches its work and runs it in the background, rather than calling Xero every time someone clicks a button.

Because a posted entry is part of the business's financial record, and a mistake in it costs more to fix than a mistake caught in a draft. Wrong GST on a bill flows into the BAS. A duplicate invoice goes to a customer. A draft, on the other hand, waits in Xero for the business or its bookkeeper to look at and approve.

The rule we follow is simple: the system proposes, a person approves. Three details make it work in practice.

• Failures are visible. When Xero rejects a record, because a contact is missing or an account code has been archived, the integration shows it on a list with the reason, so someone can fix it and send it again. It never fails silently.
• Nothing is sent twice. If a send is retried after a dropped connection, the same job must not become two invoices. The integration remembers what it has already created.
• Your bookkeeper agrees the mapping. Account codes, tax rates and tracking categories are set with the person who does the books, not guessed by the developer.

Approving automatically can make sense for high-volume records that a person or firm rules in your own system have already checked. It is a decision to make deliberately, in the scope, not a default.

With us, a Xero integration costs $1,500 to $5,000 ex GST, priced on top of the web app or custom software package it connects ($15,000 to $40,000 ex GST) and fixed in the written scope. Where it lands in that range depends on:

• how many kinds of record move: invoices only, or invoices, bills, contacts and payments;
• whether data moves one way or both ways;
• how many rules the mapping needs, such as account codes, tax rates and tracking categories;
• how well documented any third system is, when your software also talks to another product.

There are two running costs to plan for. Xero changed its developer plans on 2 March 2026: its Starter plan has no monthly charge and allows up to five connected organisations, which covers a system built for one business, while an app that many businesses connect to, such as a product sold to other companies, needs one of Xero's paid plans. And the integration needs looking after like the rest of the system. Our care plan, at $300, $700 or $1,500 a month ex GST, covers hosting, monitoring, security updates and bug fixes, so if a change on Xero's side stops the integration working, fixing it is part of the plan.

Every price we charge, including the integration add-on, is on our pricing page.

Reckonly is a product our co-founder Anis built and runs himself, before ELORA DIGITAL opened. A sole trader photographs a receipt, AI reads the vendor, ABN, total, GST and date, and the user confirms or corrects the result. Confirmed receipts then go to Xero, MYOB AccountRight or Zoho Books as drafts, ready for the business or its bookkeeper to approve in the ledger, and a quarterly BAS summary pulls the confirmed figures together.

Three of its design decisions apply to any accounting integration:

• Drafts, not posted entries. Nothing reaches the ledger until a person has looked at it, first in Reckonly and then in the accounting software.
• The slow work runs in the background. Reading a receipt and talking to the accounting software happen in background jobs, so the app stays quick while they run.
• The connection survives a deploy. Encryption keys first sat on temporary disk, and every deploy broke the connections to the accounting software. Moving them into the database fixed it.

Reckonly belongs to Anis, not to ELORA DIGITAL, and it is not client work. No user, revenue or accuracy figures are published for it, and none are quoted here.

List the records that should move, the system that owns each one, and who approves them before they count. Ask whoever does your books which account codes and tax rates each kind of record should use. Then tell us about the workflow. A founder replies with an estimate range within one business day, and for a project over $10,000 the written scope and the fixed price come out of a paid discovery workshop. If a ready-made add-on already does what you need, we will tell you so. Our custom software development guide explains how the wider build runs.