Xero or QuickBooks integration: what it takes

Sooner or later, most business systems need a Xero or QuickBooks integration. Invoices raised in your system should appear in Xero or QuickBooks without anyone retyping them. Payments recorded in the books should show as paid in your system.

Both Xero and QuickBooks have APIs built for this. The connection itself is rarely the hard part. The decisions around it are, and getting them wrong means duplicate customers, invoices that never arrive and month-end totals that don’t match.

Decide what lives where first

Go through each kind of record and agree which system creates it and which one copies it:

• Customers: usually created in your system and copied to the accounts.
• Products and services: either side, but pick one.
• Invoices and credit notes: created in your system and copied to the accounts.
• Payments received: recorded in the accounts after bank reconciliation, and copied back to your system.
• Account codes and tax rates: kept in the accounts. Your system reads them.

When both systems can create the same record, duplicates follow. Agree it with your accountant before anything is built, because they will live with the result.

What the connection has to handle

1. Approval and disconnection. Someone with access to the accounting file approves the connection once. It can be disconnected later, by accident or when staff change. Someone should be told when that happens, before invoices pile up unsent.
2. Mapping. Each product or service needs the right account code and tax rate, including SST where it applies. When the accountant changes the chart of accounts, the mapping has to change too.
3. Limits. Xero allows each connected organisation 60 calls a minute, 5 at a time.^⁠[1] On Xero’s free developer plan, the daily limit is 1,000 calls per organisation, and 5,000 on its paid plans.^⁠[2] A system that sends every invoice line separately can run into that. A good integration sends in batches.
4. Failures. Some syncs will fail: a closed accounting period, a missing tax rate, a duplicate invoice number. Decide who gets told, how they fix it and how the record is sent again.
5. A monthly check. Compare the totals in both systems at month-end. It catches what the error alerts missed.

Our integration worksheet goes through these decisions one record at a time.

What it costs to run

Both companies changed how they charge developers.

• Xero’s new developer plans took effect on 2 March 2026. The free Starter plan covers up to 5 connected organisations at 1,000 calls a day each. Core is AUD35 a month for up to 50, and Plus AUD245 a month for up to 1,000.^⁠[2] An integration for your own company’s books usually fits the free plan, unless it syncs heavily.
• Intuit launched its App Partner Program in the US in July 2025. It has four tiers, with free API access to start, then a flat monthly fee by tier and usage fees as an app grows.^⁠[3] Check the current terms for your integration and region before it is built.

Your Xero or QuickBooks subscription itself is separate, and so is the hosting for your own system.

Ready-made connector or your own?

If you are connecting a well-known product, such as an online store or a payments service, look in the Xero and QuickBooks app marketplaces first. A ready-made connector costs a monthly fee and someone else keeps it working.

Build your own when the system on the other side is your own, or when your rules are: how you group invoices, which branch an invoice belongs to, or what has to be checked before anything reaches the books.

How it worked for Smartledgers

Smartledgers turns receipts and invoices into bookkeeping records. Our system reads each document, picks out the fields and line items, and shows them to a reviewer beside the scan. Only after a person approves them do the records go to the client’s books in QuickBooks or Xero.

That check before the sync is worth copying. It is much easier to stop a wrong record than to reverse one that has already reached the accounts.

Common questions

Can the connection work both ways?

Yes. Invoices can go to the accounts and payments can come back. Just make sure each record has one owner, as in the list above.

What happens when our accountant changes the account codes?

The mapping breaks for anything new that uses them, and syncs start failing. Make changing the mapping part of the month-end routine, or of whoever maintains the system.

Can you fix an integration someone else built?

Often, yes. If one integration keeps breaking, that is a clear problem to point at, which is what a fixed-price Fix Sprint is for.

How we can help

An integration is rarely finished once it works. Account codes change, the business adds branches, and the platforms change their terms: Xero changed its developer pricing in March 2026, and Intuit in July 2025. That is why we usually build it on Managed Delivery, from RM13,000 a month: the integration is one priority, and it stays looked after once it is live.

Invoices then reach the books the day they are raised, and month-end becomes a check rather than a hunt.

If an integration you already have keeps failing, that is a Fix Sprint, for RM3,000 to RM10,000. When the scope is written and fixed, a new one can be a Custom Project, from RM30,000.