openaccountants Xero Integration Skill v1.0
General reference only. This skill is general tax/accounting reference material for AI-assisted workflows. It has not been reviewed for any specific person's facts, documents, elections, deadlines, residency, filing status, or local procedures. Do not rely on it to file, pay, amend, or take a tax position without review by a qualified professional in the relevant jurisdiction.
Section 1 — Platform Overview
Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform used primarily by small and medium businesses and their accountants. Headquartered in New Zealand, Xero is dominant in AU, NZ, and the UK, with growing adoption in the US, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Africa. Xero provides invoicing, bank reconciliation, payroll (in some regions), expense claims, and financial reporting.
Users interact with Xero data in two main export contexts: bank statement CSVs (for importing transactions into Xero or exported from Xero) and invoice/bill CSVs (for bulk import/export of sales invoices and purchase bills).
Section 2 — Export Formats
| Format | Use Case |
|---|---|
| CSV | Bank statement import/export, invoice import/export, contact lists, chart of accounts |
| Individual invoices, statements, financial reports | |
| Excel (XLSX) | Reports (P&L, Balance Sheet, Aged Receivables, Trial Balance) |
| Google Sheets | Reports (direct export option) |
Bank statement CSVs are the most common data a user will upload for bookkeeping purposes. Invoice CSVs are used for bulk operations.
Section 3 — Column Mapping
Bank Statement CSV
Xero reads bank statement CSVs positionally, not by header name. Column order is critical.
| Position | Column | Required | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Date | Yes | Transaction date. DD/MM/YYYY for UK/AU/NZ orgs, MM/DD/YYYY for US orgs. YYYY-MM-DD works universally. |
| B | Amount | Yes | Signed number. Positive = money in, negative = money out. No currency symbols, no thousand separators. |
| C | Payee | No | Counterparty name. Used for contact matching and bank rule triggers. |
| D | Description | No | Memo/narrative. Max 500 characters. Appears in transaction notes. |
| E | Reference | No | Check number, transaction ID, or external reference. |
| F | Cheque Number | No | For check transactions only. |
Precoded Bank Statement CSV (extended format)
Adds three columns to the standard format for auto-classification:
| Position | Column | Required | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| G | AccountCode | Precoded only | Must match a nominal code in the Xero chart of accounts exactly. |
| H | TaxType | Precoded only | Must match a Xero tax rate name exactly (e.g., "20% (VAT on Income)"). |
| I | ContactName | Precoded only | Must match an existing Xero contact name exactly. |
Invoice/Bill Import CSV
| Column Header | Required | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ContactName | Yes | Must match an existing Xero contact or Xero creates a new one. |
| InvoiceNumber | Yes | Unique invoice identifier. Duplicates are rejected. |
| InvoiceDate | Yes | Date format must match org region settings. |
| DueDate | Yes | Must be on or after InvoiceDate. |
| Description | Yes | Line item description. |
| Quantity | Yes | Line item quantity. |
| UnitAmount | Yes | Line item price excluding tax. |
| AccountCode | Yes | Must match a Xero chart of accounts code. |
| TaxType | Recommended | Must match Xero tax rate name exactly. |
| Reference | No | PO number or external reference. |
| Currency | No | Three-letter ISO code (GBP, AUD, USD). |
| Total | Auto | Calculated by Xero from line items. |
| TaxTotal | Auto | Calculated from TaxType and amounts. |
Multi-line invoices: each line item is a separate CSV row. Rows with the same InvoiceNumber are grouped into one invoice.
Section 4 — Transaction Type Codes
Xero does not use explicit transaction type codes in CSV imports. Transaction direction is determined by the sign of the Amount field:
| Sign | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Positive (+) | Money received / deposit / credit to bank |
| Negative (-) | Money paid out / withdrawal / debit from bank |
During reconciliation inside Xero, transactions are categorized as: Spend Money, Receive Money, Transfer, or matched to existing invoices/bills.
Section 5 — Fee Structure
Xero itself does not charge transaction fees that appear in exported data. Xero's subscription fees are billed separately and do not appear in bank statement exports.
Bank fees, payment processor fees, and other charges appear as regular negative-amount transactions in bank statement CSVs with the bank's own description.
Section 6 — Tax-Relevant Fields
| Field | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| TaxType | Invoice CSV, Precoded bank CSV | Must exactly match a configured Xero tax rate (e.g., "20% (VAT on Income)", "Tax on Purchases", "GST on Income", "BAS Excluded"). |
| TaxAmount | Invoice CSV | Per-line-item tax amount. Auto-calculated if TaxType is set. |
| TaxTotal | Invoice CSV | Invoice-level total tax. |
| AccountCode | Invoice CSV, Precoded bank CSV | Determines which P&L/BS account and indirectly which tax treatment applies. |
Xero tax rate names are region-specific. UK orgs use VAT rates, AU/NZ orgs use GST rates, US orgs use sales tax rates. The TaxType string must be copied verbatim from Settings > Tax Rates in the user's Xero org.
Section 7 — Multi-Currency Handling
Xero supports multi-currency on paid plans. In CSV exports:
- Bank statement CSVs are always in the currency of the bank account they belong to. No currency column exists in the standard format.
- Invoice CSVs include an optional
Currencycolumn (three-letter ISO code). If omitted, the org's base currency is assumed. - Exchange rates are managed inside Xero, not in the CSV. Xero applies the rate from its feed or a manually entered rate at reconciliation time.
- Unrealised and realised currency gains/losses are calculated by Xero automatically and posted to a Currency Gains/Losses account.
When processing a user's Xero CSV that contains foreign-currency transactions, note that the amounts are already in the bank account's currency — no conversion is needed at the CSV level.
Section 8 — Reconciliation Tips
- Date format is the #1 import failure. Confirm the user's Xero region before processing. UK/AU/NZ = DD/MM/YYYY. US = MM/DD/YYYY. When in doubt, use YYYY-MM-DD (works everywhere).
- Column order matters more than column names. Xero reads positionally. If a bank CSV has Description in column A and Date in column B, the import will silently misread everything.
- No opening/closing balance rows. Remove any summary rows, running balance columns, or opening/closing balance lines before import. Xero calculates balances internally.
- Max 1,000 transactions per file. Split larger datasets into multiple files by date range.
- Duplicate detection is weak. Xero checks for duplicate imports within the same bank account using date + amount + payee, but edge cases slip through. Cross-check after import.
- Bank rules accelerate reconciliation. If the user has set up bank rules in Xero, many transactions will auto-match. Precoded CSVs bypass rules entirely by specifying the account directly.
Section 9 — Common Gotchas
- Wrong sign convention. Some bank CSVs use positive for debits and negative for credits (the opposite of what Xero expects). Always verify: positive = money IN.
- Comma in amounts. Xero expects a period as the decimal separator and no thousand separators. "1,234.56" breaks the import; use "1234.56".
- Currency symbols in Amount. "$100.00" fails. Use "100.00".
- AccountCode typos in precoded CSVs fail silently. Xero skips the precoding for that row without warning. The transaction imports but without the account assignment.
- TaxType must be an exact string match. "VAT on Income" is not the same as "20% (VAT on Income)". Copy from Xero's tax rate settings exactly.
- Line breaks in Description. Carriage returns inside a description field break the CSV parser. Ensure descriptions are single-line.
- UTF-8 encoding required. Non-UTF-8 files cause character corruption, especially with accented names or currency symbols in descriptions.
Section 10 — Sample Data
Bank Statement CSV (standard)
Date,Amount,Payee,Description,Reference
15/03/2026,2500.00,Acme Ltd,Invoice 1042 payment,INV-1042
16/03/2026,-64.99,Adobe Inc,Creative Cloud monthly subscription,SUB-2251
16/03/2026,-1200.00,HMRC,VAT Q4 2025 payment,VAT-Q4
17/03/2026,890.50,Widget Corp,Project consulting fee March,PO-8891
18/03/2026,-45.00,Vodafone UK,Mobile phone March,DD-MOB
18/03/2026,-12.50,Barclays,Monthly account fee,BANKFEE
19/03/2026,150.00,John Smith,Expense reimbursement,EXP-034
20/03/2026,-3200.00,Jane Doe,Salary March 2026,PAY-MAR
Invoice Import CSV
ContactName,InvoiceNumber,InvoiceDate,DueDate,Description,Quantity,UnitAmount,AccountCode,TaxType,Currency
Acme Ltd,INV-1042,01/03/2026,31/03/2026,Web development services,40,62.50,200,20% (VAT on Income),GBP
Widget Corp,INV-1043,05/03/2026,04/04/2026,SEO audit report,1,890.50,200,20% (VAT on Income),GBP
Widget Corp,INV-1043,05/03/2026,04/04/2026,Keyword research addon,1,200.00,200,20% (VAT on Income),GBP
Disclaimer
This skill and its outputs are provided for informational and computational purposes only and do not constitute tax, legal, or financial advice. Open Accountants and its contributors accept no liability for any errors, omissions, or outcomes arising from the use of this skill. All outputs must be reviewed and signed off by a qualified professional before filing or acting upon.
Source: OpenAccountants — open tax Guides for AI, reviewed by named CPAs/CAs/EAs. Quality: source-cited draft. For always-current figures and named-accountant backing, connect the OpenAccountants MCP server (openaccountants-mcp).