Exporting to Xero

What you get

A CSV built for Xero's bills importer (22 columns), one row per invoice line. Proven to import into a live Xero organisation.

Export from an extraction

1. Open the export menu

   With an extraction on screen (or open from History), press Export ▾ and choose Xero.

   

2. Enter the account code

   Enter the code from your Xero chart of accounts this spend should post to (e.g. 429 for General Expenses in Xero's default chart). Use a spend account: Xero will not apply an expense VAT rate to a bill posted to a sales account such as 200, so the bill imports reading 0.00% VAT with the tax sitting in an unclassified adjustment. NoticeDesk remembers the code you use for each supplier and pre-fills it next time.

   An account code is required: leaving it empty shows an inline message and the download waits, because a bill with no account has nothing to attach its VAT rate to and would import with 0.00% VAT. The message clears as soon as you type a code.

   

3. Choose the tax type

   These are Xero's exact tax-rate names, so the import maps cleanly:

   Tax type	Use for
   20% (VAT on Expenses)	Standard-rated UK purchases
   Zero Rated Expenses	Zero-rated purchases
   Exempt Expenses	Exempt purchases
   No VAT	Outside the scope; pre-selected when every invoice in the export is in a currency other than sterling. Any tax an invoice shows is added to the cost of its lines (one unit per line, the printed quantity and price in the description), with no VAT posted. An export that includes a sterling invoice opens on 20%, so check it before you download

4. Download, then import into Xero

   Before you download, the dialog may show an amber note about the tax type. It appears when the invoice and the selected type disagree: an invoice showing no VAT under a standard-rated type, a sterling invoice carrying VAT under No VAT (which keeps it off your return) or under Zero Rated Expenses or Exempt Expenses (which say none was charged), lines at different VAT rates when one type will be applied to all of them, a line whose printed VAT rate could not be read (a rate written as Exempt, E, Z or Out of scope, or a line coded T0, T2 or T9, is read as zero; Std, S or T1 is not, because that names a rate rather than stating it), a VAT figure that could not be read as a number, or a till receipt whose line amounts add up to neither its total nor its total less VAT. It also names a foreign-currency invoice that shows tax (a US sales tax included): under No VAT it says the file adds that tax to the cost of the lines, under Zero Rated Expenses or Exempt Expenses that the type posts it as VAT, and under 20% that the type reclaims tax charged abroad as UK VAT. Under its no-UK-VAT, zero-rated and exempt choices it says the tax may be UK VAT you can reclaim when the supplier's VAT number starts GB, XI or UK or its country is the UK, and asks when the number has no country prefix; under one that charges VAT (which already reclaims it) it asks only about a number with no country prefix; suggests the reverse charge may apply to a foreign invoice that shows no tax, says what the file posts when the lines add up to more or less than the invoice's net, may say what the file posts against the invoice's printed total, where the two differ by more than 5p and no other sentence already says what the file posts (a net read before a discount, say), and names an invoice or due date that could not be read as a date (Xero may refuse the import, so correct the date and save first; a saved record reopens for editing when you upload the same file again). It never changes the type for you: it names what it noticed and leaves the choice with you, because zero VAT can mean zero-rated, exempt or outside the scope, and only the document tells you which.

   In Xero: Business → Bills to pay → Import, upload the CSV, and review Xero's preview before completing. Our amounts are tax-exclusive: UnitAmount is the net figure and the VAT sits in its own TaxAmount column, so if Xero asks whether amounts include tax, choose exclusive. Treating net figures as gross would pull the VAT back out of them and understate every line. Imported bills arrive as drafts, so you get a final look inside Xero too.

Credit notes

A credit note exports with negative line amounts: that's how Xero's bill importer represents credits. A line that runs the other way, such as a restocking fee on returned goods, is written positive, so the lines still add up to the credit. Import it the same way; Xero recognises the negative bill as a credit note.

Lines with no unit price or no quantity

A line the document shows with no unit price (a lump-sum service, say), with a unit price of more than two decimal places (£0.0625 an envelope, for instance), or with a unit price and an amount but no quantity (an hourly rate beside the total for the job), goes into the file as one unit at its net amount, the one figure on the line that is exact. Its description carries what the document printed, as in Envelopes (16,000 × £0.0625), Site visits (qty 3) or Consulting (£5.00 each), so the line still reads as it did. Where it adds to a description, the dialog names the line before you download.

A line whose quantity, unit price and amount disagree by more than a penny, such as 2 × £10.00 against an amount of £15.00, goes into the file as it was read, and Xero works the line's amount out from its quantity and unit price. The dialog names the line and its figures before you download, with the amount they come to where nothing needs rounding, so you can check it first: the document may give a discount the file does not carry or round its unit prices, or a figure may need correcting. A line that prints a unit price but no amount goes in as it was read too, with a quantity of 1 where none is printed, so Xero works out an amount the document does not show: the dialog names that line as well. Where no line shows an amount, the VAT the document prints goes on that line beside its quantity and unit price when it is the only line; with several such lines, or under No VAT (where the tax is added to the cost), it goes on a line of its own, so each line keeps its quantity and unit price. Under No VAT any other line whose tax is added to its cost goes in as one unit at that amount, its printed quantity and price added to its description, and the dialog does not work that line out.

Exporting a whole batch

From a batch summary or a History batch group, the same export produces one combined CSV for every invoice in the run. The account-code prompt appears first, exactly as it does for a single invoice; the account code and tax type you choose apply to every row in the combined file.

Where the supplier printed a product code, it rides at the end of the Description text, as in Steel bracket, 90mm (SB-90), so you can match a line back to a purchase order or delivery note. It is deliberately kept out of Xero’s Item column: Xero creates a product in your Products & Services list from that field, so supplier codes there would fill your item list and could overwrite an item code you already use.

If any invoice in the export isn’t in GBP, a currency check appears before the prompt: Xero only accepts a file containing another currency when multi-currency is enabled on your Xero organisation. You can go back or export anyway; nothing is ever locked.