Billing Fixed Price Agreements in XPM

Fixed Price Agreements

Fixed Price Agreements are either billed from Xero, or from Practice Ignition. Here we are focusing on setting up Fixed Price Agreements using just Xero and Xero Practice Manager. 

We will first look at how invoices sync from Xero to Xero Practice Manager, then look at best practices on how we set these up to ensure end of year rollover is seamless as possible.  At the end of this section we will look at what to do if invoices have not been synced correctly from Xero to Xero Practice Manager.

Understanding the Invoice Sync with Xero Practice Manager

When we create an invoice in Xero Practice Manager, the invoice gets sent to Xero via the API.  This happens immediately once the invoice is approved in Xero Practice Manager.  We can also send invoices the other direction, that is, from Xero to Xero Practice Manager.  This is what we do for our Fixed Price Agreements.  It’s not quite as straightforward when sending invoices from Xero to Xero Practice Manager, because we don’t just create an invoice, we also need to allocate the invoice to the appropriate job.

We have two ways of allocating the Xero invoice to the appropriate job in Xero Practice Manager.  We can add the Job Number to the reference field in the Xero invoice, or we can add the Client Order No. to the reference field.  The Client Order No. is a field within the job.  When the invoice is created in Xero, the invoice will sync to Xero Practice Manager by checking to see if the reference field in the invoice matches either a Job Number or Client Order No in XPM.  It’s important to note this does not happen immediately when the invoice is created.  It will happen overnight.

We will be setting up repeating invoices in Xero, and matching the reference numbers with the Job Numbers or the Client Order No.s with the appropriate jobs.  Each month when the invoices are created, new invoices will be created against the jobs in Xero Practice Manager as interim invoices.

Setting up the Invoice Sync with Xero Practice Manager

Our objective is to capture 12 invoices from Xero against their respective jobs in XPM.  So when the first invoice is created, we want to have a job set up ready to capture the invoice.  We can then leave this on autopilot throughout the whole financial year as each new invoice that is created will automatically sync to the correct job in XPM.  Once we reach the end of the financial year however, we will have 12 invoices on the job so we need to consider what we do with the next invoice.

We need the next invoice to be captured against the next year's job.  We do this by directing the next invoice to the new job.  If we used the Job Number, we will need to update all the Xero repeating invoices with the new job number in the reference field.  If we used Client Order No., we will need to update all the jobs to move the client order number from the old job to the new job.

So which option is best?  This is up to you, but we prefer using the client order number.  The client order number is generally the client code.  So for ABC Limited, the code might be ABC100.  Once the 12th invoices have arrived against all the Fixed Price Agreement jobs, you can click into each client in XPM and open up their active jobs.  You will have one for this year, and one for next year.  Open up both jobs and edit them.  Cut the client order number from the old job to the new job then hit save on both jobs.

Repeat this for each client you have on a Fixed Price Agreement.  When the next invoices are created in Xero, the invoice will sync to the new job as that is where the client order number is now kept.  This is something you will do each new financial year.

What if my invoices have not synced correctly?

If Xero Practice Manager has not been set up correct from the beginning, it is more than likely you will have jobs that have missing invoices, or invoices sitting against the wrong jobs.  Don’t worry, this can be fixed.

To sync an old invoice to the correct job within XPM, you need to first delete it out of XPM.  The invoice may either be against another job, or sitting in the miscellaneous tab.  The easiest way to find the invoice is to run an invoice report using the report builder and look for the invoice number.  ‘Control F’ is an easy way to find it if you have a giant list of invoices.  Once you find the invoice in the list, click into it and delete it.  This will delete it from XPM, but not from Xero.

Once you have deleted all the invoices that have incorrectly synced with XPM, open them up in Xero and update the invoice reference to contain either the job number of the client order number.  This will let Xero know where to send the invoice.  You then need to edit something in the invoice.  You can either put a full stop at the end of the description, or add a space. Just some sort of edit.  This will trigger the API because the invoice has been edited, and will sync it back to XPM - this time against the right job.

Here are those steps in bullet points:

• Identify the Fixed Price Agreements jobs that are missing invoices
• Check if these invoices are in XPM by running an Invoice Report using the report building.  If the invoice is not in the list, it means it is not in XPM, so you don’t need to worry about deleting it.
• Using your report in XPM, open up all the invoices that are in XPM, but against the wrong job or have synced as a miscellaneous invoice.
• Delete all these invoices.
• Jump into Xero and open up the invoices you want to sync to the jobs in XPM.
• Add the client order number or job number to the reference field, then edit the description on the invoice by adding a full stop or a space.  
• Save the invoices after marking the edit.
• Wait overnight, then check to see if all the invoices have turned up correctly.

It’s a good idea to start with just one or two jobs before doing them all incase you get something wrong and waste hours editing invoices for it not to work.  Check on a couple jobs first, and if that works, roll up your sleeves and do the rest.

One more word of caution here is that there is a limit of around 500 invoices that can sync overnight.  So don’t edit more than 500 invoices in a day or you’ll end up with some invoices that did not sync despite you following all the steps correctly.  If you have any issues beyond what is mentioned here, contact Xero Support.