Xero- Demo Article 1

How to integrate Xero with Hike

A seamless connection between your point of sale and your accounting software.

INTEGRATION

Xero (Accounting)

AVAILABLE ON

Hike Plus plan (paid add-on)

SETUP

3 main steps

Overview

Hike offers a built-in integration with Xero, creating a seamless connection between your point of sale solution and your accounting software.

By pairing Hike and Xero, retailers can forgo laborious manual data entry. Your data goes directly from Hike to your Xero account with precise accuracy.

What syncs automatically

• Products and inventory

• Customer profiles

• Sales transactions, payments and discounts given

• Credit notes, layby and on-account sales

• Purchase orders and supplier profiles

• Stocktake and inventory change log

• Gift card sales and redemptions (with proper liability allocation and reduction in Xero)

• Loyalty points earned and used (with liability allocation and redemption in Xero)

NOTE · Multiple outlets

If you use Hike across multiple outlets, you can link each outlet to a separate Xero organisation. This gives you accurate sales history, with more posted automatically to Xero for every outlet.

Plans and pricing

IMPORTANT

Xero integration is currently a paid add-on with a Hike Plus plan subscription. The Xero online integration is not available on Essential or Trial plans.

The Xero online add-on is charged per Hike account, per month. There are no additional charges based on outlets, registers or users. Prices for each region are listed below for your reference.

Region	Add-on price (per Hike account, per month)
Australia	AU $10
United States	US $10
South Africa	R 168
Canada	CA $14
Singapore	SG $14
United Kingdom	GBP 8
India	INR 940

Before you begin

Before you start the integration, we strongly recommend speaking to your accountant about which accounts you want to post from Hike to Xero. Make sure Xero’s Chart of Accounts contains every account you need for mapping, in particular:

• A refund account

• Corresponding payment types in Xero

• Expense and liability accounts for loyalty points

• Payment and liability accounts for gift cards

• Revenue and COGS accounts designated for inventory and non-inventory items

• An asset account for inventory

• Corresponding names for Hike payment methods in Xero, and the related bank accounts

To add or edit accounts, see Appendix A: Add or update an account in Xero’s Chart of Accounts.

WARNING · All-or-nothing sync

Xero requires a complete integration when connecting the two applications. If any piece of data is incorrect, all of it will be rejected. For example, if you run the end-of-day sync and one item has an error, all of that data is rejected.

If you haven’t already spoken to your accountant, Hike strongly recommends that you do so before preparing your Xero account for the integration.

DISCLAIMER

Throughout this article we make suggestions about account types in Xero’s Chart of Accounts. These suggestions are for tutorial purposes only. We strongly recommend that you obtain professional advice from your accountant before deciding on account mapping criteria and selections for your business.

Setup at a glance

You will set up the integration in three main steps:

Activate the connection

Connect Hike to your Xero account and authorise the sync.

Map Xero accounts

Define how each type of Hike data is posted to Xero.

Apply sync settings

Choose the sync direction and start syncing.

Part 1: Activate the Hike and Xero connection

1. In Hike, follow Storesetup tab and click on Add-ons and activate the Xero addon.

2. In Hike, open the Store setup tab and click Integrations.

3. You will see a list of applications that Hike connects to. Click Activate to the right of the Xero icon.

4. You will be directed to the Xero login page.

5. Log in using your Xero credentials. If you’re already logged in to Xero, this step is skipped automatically.

6. Click Allow access to authorise Hike to sync with Xero.

7. Once the connection is active, you are redirected automatically to the Xero integration settings screen in Hike.

NOTE · Checking the connection

To confirm the integration is active, close the settings screen. You will land back on Hike’s Integrations list. Next to the Xero row, the Activate option is replaced by Manage. This means the Hike + Xero connection has been activated successfully.

Part 2: Map Xero accounts

This is where you map the relevant account types in Hike to define how your data is posted to Xero. For example, if you sell gift cards in Hike, mapping a Xero liability account for them lets you track the increase and decrease in your gift card liability.

All settings in this part are found in Hike under Store setup > Integrations > Xero > Manage.

2.1 Primary settings

Select how you would like to sync your sales transactions from Hike to Xero.

Option	How it works
Create individual (separate) invoice in Xero for each sale	Suitable if you prefer to sync each sale as its own invoice in Xero. It gives you more visibility into your transactions, but it also adds many more transactions to Xero’s sales transactions list.
Send one summary invoice to Xero with all transactions combined when you close your cash register	Syncs your total sales summary for the day by posting totals to the relevant accounts. The summary is sent to Xero as one sale invoice at the end of the day, when you close your cash register in Hike.

NOTE

Hike always syncs on-account sales as individual transactions, even when the summary option is selected.

TIP · Which option works best?

The best choice depends on your industry, business size and what you want to achieve from the integration.

Coffee shops often prefer the summary option. They have many small, mostly walk-in transactions with no customer details, so syncing every invoice would clutter the Sales section in Xero.

Furniture retailers often prefer detailed invoices. Almost every sale has a customer associated with it, and invoices are comparatively large.

2.2 Common customer name for walk-in sales

Select a common customer name for walk-in sales. All cash and walk-in sales are synced to Xero under this customer profile. Even though you won’t receive customer information to engage with these customers further when a generic name is used, you can still identify shopping trends across all of your walk-in customers.

2.3 Inventory products

Set the default accounts used when inventory products are sold, purchased and counted.

Setting	What it does
Sales (Revenue) account for inventory items	The default sales/revenue account for your inventory products.
Purchase (COGS) account for inventory items	Your default cost of goods sold (COGS) account for inventory products. COGS refers to the expenses involved in creating or purchasing the products that your store sells.
Inventory asset account	An asset account in Xero for your inventory. Inventory movement caused by a sale, purchase, stocktake or return is recorded here.
Adjustment (rounding) account for inventory	When you undertake a stocktake you may find discrepancies, and occasionally gains. Hike records all inventory spillage and spoilage under this account. If you don’t have one, create a new account in Xero’s Chart of Accounts. This is normally an Expense account.

NOTE · Product-level accounts

Hike also lets you set product-specific Revenue and COGS accounts for each product. If nothing is specified at product level, the default accounts above (and those for non-inventory items below) are used to post revenue and COGS amounts.

2.4 Non-inventory products

Setting	What it does
Sales (Revenue) account for non-inventory items	Select one of the revenue accounts from Xero’s Chart of Accounts. This is where you allocate revenue generated from sales of products or services that have inventory tracking disabled.
Purchase (COGS) account for non-inventory items	When you sell a non-inventory item, the costs associated with that item are recorded to this account.

2.5 Invoice settings: accounts for payments

Map the accounts used for refunds, cash rounding and discounts.

Setting	What it does	Create it in Xero as
Refund account	Refunds are posted to Sales as negative values, using the “sales – refunds = net sales” formula. Xero does not allow negative invoices, so whenever daily sales are less than the refund totals, Hike posts the refunds to the account you specify here.	Current Asset account, with Enable Payments ticked
Cash rounding expense account	Small cash rounding can occur with decimal values, tax calculations and cash payments. For example, if an invoice total is $10.12 and the customer pays with cash, the rounding is $0.02.	Expense account
Discount account code	The account in Xero for discounts given to customers. You can use either a Xero Revenue or an Expense account.	Expense or Revenue account

To create each account, go to Chart of Accounts in Xero, click Add Account, select the account type, name the account and save. See Appendix A for details.

2.6 Accounts for liability and expense

IMPORTANT

If you have not already created a current liability account for store credit, gift cards or loyalty in Xero, create it first and tick Enable Payments on the Edit Account screen. If Enable Payments is not ticked, your liability will not be reduced when these payment options are redeemed.

Setting	What it does
Store credit liability account	Hike lets you create credit notes. Map customer credits to the corresponding liability account in Xero. Whenever a customer redeems store credit, your liability is reduced in Xero.
Loyalty liability and expense account	Specify these if you use Hike’s Loyalty feature. Loyalty points are posted to Xero as an expense and a liability when a customer starts earning points. Whenever accrued points are used as payment, your loyalty liability is reduced in Xero.
Gift card / gift certificate liability	Gift card sales are different from other products because they do not result in income. You accept payment in exchange for the promise of providing goods and services later, so gift cards are recorded and posted to Xero as a liability when sold. The liability is reduced when a customer redeems the gift certificate.

2.7 Accounts for cash management

Here you map cash movements in Hike so that they are posted into Xero.

WARNING

Incorrect mapping may result in wrong amounts being posted, or Xero may decline to sync the transaction.

Setting	What it does	Create it in Xero as
Cash in/out account	Posts additional cash that you add to or remove from your cash register.	Current Asset account, with Enable Payments ticked
Cash float account	Your opening and closing cash float is recorded to this account.	Current Asset account, with Enable Payments ticked
Till payment discrepancy account	When you close your cash register at the end of the shift or day, Hike prompts you to enter the “actual” counted amounts against the amounts “recorded” as received. This account records any difference between actual and expected cash takings.	Expense account, with Enable Payments ticked
Tip account	If you accept tips, this is the corresponding account in Xero. The account type depends on how you process tips (see below).	Liability or Income account
Xero account for freight charges	The Xero account where sale and order-related freight charges are posted.	Select from your existing accounts

Choosing a tip account type

• Liability: some Hike users record tips as a liability because they distribute them among their staff. Tips are added as a liability when recorded, and the liability is reduced when tips are paid out to staff.

• Income: where there is no external staff, tips are simply recorded as income for the business. In the example below, the Other Revenue account in Xero is used because tips are not the main business and are recognised as “Other Revenue”.

2.8 “On account” and parked sales

Hike allows you to record “on account” sales and tracks customer outstanding payments and credit limits. Here you choose:

• Whether sales invoices are sent to Xero as Draft, Submitted or Authorised.

• The standard invoice “due within” timeframe in Xero for all invoices generated from Hike: 1 Day, 3 Days, 15 Days or 30 Days.

You can set the same options for parked sales. Parked sales are not counted towards a customer’s credit limit.

2.9 Inventory settings

Select the outlet to sync data to and from Xero. If you have multiple outlets, you can choose which outlets sync inventory with Xero. Alternatively, you can link outlets to separate Xero organisations by setting up a connection for each outlet separately.

Bill purchase order items as they are received

When you create a purchase order (PO) in Hike, a bill is also created along with the PO, and that bill syncs separately to your accounting system. Previously, the bill was created only when the PO was completed in Hike.

The checkbox highlighted above controls how bills are generated for partial deliveries:

• Option selected: a separate bill is generated each time you receive partial quantities of a PO.

• Option not selected: only one bill is created, when the PO is marked as received.

2.10 Tax mapping

On the left are all the tax options available in Hike. Use the drop-down menus on the right to map the corresponding sales and purchase tax codes in Xero.

• To update or change tax rates in Hike, go to Store Setup > Tax Rules.

• To update or change tax rates in Xero, go to Settings > Chart of Accounts.

2.11 Payment methods mapping

Every payment type in Hike must have a corresponding account in Xero for transactions to sync properly. Most Hike users use a Bank account type in Xero for payments, although some retailers prefer to send payments to a Clearing Account first, before reconciling.

Payment type	Recommended Xero account	Why
Card payments	The corresponding Bank Account	Receipts are easy to reconcile with automated bank feeds.
Cash and custom payments	A Clearing Account	Cash is parked in the clearing account until bank deposits are cleared. This is normally a Current Asset account with Enable Payments ticked. You may need to create a new Cash Clearing account in Xero first, if one has not already been set up.

In the example above, Hike card payments are mapped directly to the bank account CCARDS ANZ (AU) Card Payment in Xero, and cash payments are sent to a cash clearing account in Xero.

2.12 Map location tracking categories

This feature is useful when you use tracking categories in Xero to track account transactions by location or outlet. To set up tracking categories, refer to Xero’s support article on tracking categories.

1. In Xero, set up your outlets as tracking categories and options.

2. In Hike, activate the feature and map each of your outlets to its tracking option.

Part 3: Apply sync settings

Here you define the sync direction. For example, if you do not want to import existing customers from Xero into Hike, set the direction to Hike → Xero for customer records.

You can define the sync direction for five types of data: Customers, Products and inventory, Sales, Supplier and Purchase order.

Direction	What it does
2-way	Your data syncs both to and from Hike and Xero.
Hike → Xero	Data is sent only from Hike to Xero. For example, selecting Hike → Xero for Products and inventory shares all of your products and inventory data from Hike to Xero, but not from Xero to Hike.
Xero → Hike	Data is sent only from Xero to Hike. For example, selecting Xero → Hike for Sales shares all of your sales information from Xero to Hike, but not the other way around.

Save and start syncing

Once you have completed all the necessary steps, click the Continue button, at the top or bottom of the page, to save and start syncing.

TIP · Hike tip

If the Continue button is greyed out, you have not completed a step. Make sure everything on the page is completed before moving on.

First-time sync

If this is your first time syncing, or if you have made significant changes to your sync settings, you will see the following screen.

Choose your primary source (2-way sync)

If you selected 2-way sync, confirm which platform is the primary source. The primary source overwrites the other platform when duplicate records exist. For example, if you chose 2-way sync for Customers, you must specify which app overwrites the other when a customer with the same name exists in both.

• Hike → Xero: Hike becomes the primary source.

• Xero → Hike: Xero becomes the primary source.

Sync past transactions

Specify the date from which you would like your existing sales records to start syncing to and from Hike.

Once you have selected your primary source and dates, click Save & Sync Now to finalise your sync settings. Hike immediately begins syncing with Xero.

NOTE

Syncing your data across may take some time, depending on the number of products and existing transactions to sync.

Appendix A: Add or update an account in Xero’s Chart of Accounts

While setting up account mapping for Xero, you may need to edit an existing account or create a new one. In Xero, open the Settings tab and select Chart of Accounts.

You will see a list of all your accounts. You can filter by Assets, Liabilities, Expenses and so on, or use the search bar to find an account by name.

1. To create a new account, select Add Account.

2. A new box appears where you can create a new account (or edit an existing one, as shown here).

NOTE

Whenever you create an account in Xero, you are asked to enter a unique code. This code makes the account easy to find when you map the corresponding Xero accounts throughout this integration.

IMPORTANT

Tick Enable Payments to this account if you want to record payments for accounts other than bank accounts.

Appendix B: Create a bank account in Xero

1. In Xero, go to your Chart of Accounts and select Add Bank Account.

2. Search for your bank, then enter your account details, including the BSB and account number.

NOTE

The unique account code you enter here is the one you use to map the account in Hike. It cannot exceed 10 characters.

3. After selecting Continue, you are given the option to download a form so that your bank transactions can be imported automatically. Whether you download the form now or click Skip to do so later, your bank account is created in Xero.

4. To view and edit the account, enter its code in the search filter in your Chart of Accounts.