Modules/Xero

Business Data Engine is ready to go with Xero Accounts.

If you're using the shop module, or otherwise generate invoices in Business Data Engine for anything, the Xero integration lets you seamlessly upload the invoices into Xero, download payment information back into Business Data Engine and ensure that you're up to date with your customers' payments.

Setting it up

Setting up the Xero integration requires a little bit of work to get it going. To do this, you'll need access to your organisation's Xero account and admin access to Business Data Engine.

Business Data Engine will automatically generate a digital certificate when you first enable the Xero module. You'll need to give this to Xero to link the application.

1. Open Business Data Engine's "Settings" admin panel and then go to "Xero Accounts".
2. Copy the certificate to the clipboard - you'll need this later.
3. Now, ensuring you're logged into Xero, go to the Xero Developer portal
4. Click on "My Apps" in the top navigation bar.
5. Click "New App" at the top right
6. Select "Private App" and give it a name (for example, "Business Data Engine")
7. Choose your organisation to connect the BDE site to
8. Select "Paste from Clipboard" and then paste the certificate you obtained earlier from the clipboard into the box that appears.
9. Tick the box "I have read and agree to the Xero Developer Platform Terms & Conditions"
10. Click "Create App"
11. The page will refresh to a page which contains both a Consumer Key and a Consumer Secret, you will need to copy each of these into the relevant box on the BDE Settings Page.

In the future (we anticipate late 2020), this will be changing, as Xero migrates to OAuth2. We'll be notifying customers when we plan to upgrade to support OAuth2, as it will simplify the connection process.