10 Ways to Automate Xero with Zapier to Improve Your Business Operations, Fast

If you are using Xero for billing and accounting, you’re already well on your way to improved operations. However, there’s a lot more that you can stand to do along the way. Xero is a leading accounting app that makes tracking business expenses and keeping track of billing, eCommerce, and time tracking easier than ever. It offers intuitive, native mobile apps as well as a robust web-based interface, all of which feature customizable dashboards for total streamlined accounting management. 

You can take all of the repetitive, tedious details and busywork out of your accounting and billing when you put Xero to work for your organization. Plus, when you enhance it with the power of Zapier, the leader in automation, you’re going to be able to set yourself up for hands-off success in several ways. On its own, Xero offers things like:

• Contact management to keep track of suppliers, customers, and others
• Customizable dashboard for centralized billing and invoicing
• Bank reconciliation and syncing features
• Expense claims and expense reporting
• Financial reporting tools
• Payroll through Gusto
• Project and invoice tracking
• Smart lists to make invoicing and billing simpler

And then, you add the power of Zapier and it’s just going to get better. Zapier is designed to automate just about any software that you use, making it easy for you to transfer information between apps, set up repetitive tasks, and streamline your business operations by embracing all that can be done through automation. In this instance, it’s about automating the billing and invoicing tasks that are eating up your valuable time. 

Zapier can create invoices automatically, triggered by a sale or payment that is processed, for example. It can even help you automate notifications, invoicing, CRM and database updates, and so much more. There are over 1,000 apps that integrate with Xero specifically, and Zapier has the power of more than 3,000 apps in total, and counting, to help you automate your business and get rid of the time-consuming admin work, including billing and accounting. 

No matter how you use them, you’ll find plenty of pre-built workflows that can free up your time and making accounting easier, whether you’ve got a lot to do or only a few accounts to handle. Zapier and Xero are a dynamic duo and when you integrate them into your tech stack, you’ll see endless perks and possibilities along the way. 

Important areas to automate

When it comes to billing and accounting, certain areas are more fruitful to automate than others. Anything that makes your day easier, of course, should be on the list, but some people aren’t even sure where to start. Every business has slightly different needs. Nonetheless, just about everyone can benefit from incorporating automation into things like:

• Sales Orders and Invoicing
• Purchasing
• Expense Reports
• Payroll
• Mileage/Travel Reimbursements
• Accounts Payable
• Cashflow Forecasting
• Reporting and Analytics

Your day-to-day accounting will get a lot easier and might even be something that you can cross completely off your list when you embrace the power of automation. This will improve the quality of your records, as well as your compliance, and ensure that there are fewer errors and potential inaccuracies in reporting. Humans are great, but they’re not perfect. AI, however, can be programmed to get every detail exactly right, down to the last fraction of a cent. 

You’ll also see reduced costs and labor hours, as well as a boost in employee morale because people are dealing with fewer repetitive, tedious tasks that just don’t require a human touch anymore. There are plenty of areas of your business that do, and when you automate, it becomes that much easier to focus on them. 

Everyone wins with automation and when it comes to something as detailed and repetitive on a day-to-day basis like your invoicing and billing, it’s going to make big improvements in your operations in more ways than one. In the list below, you’ll see some of the automations available for Zapier and Xero, giving you just a glimpse into the power of automation and helping you get started on your own strategy. 

And speaking of taking care of repetitive day-to-day tasks, ask how our virtual receptionists can handle things like payment collection, phone calls and chats fielding payment questions, and more. 

So, just how can you put Zapier and Xero to work in your business? Here are some of the leading automations to consider. 

1. Create Xero invoices from Stripe charges    

Stripe is one of the leading payment processing tools available today. It’s simple to use and it offers so much more than the average payment processing solution. In addition to making it easy to accept credit cards and digital payments, Stripe also allows you to bill hours and projects, create customer accounts, and so much more. With this automation, you can even generate invoices in Xero and send them to customers as soon as they’re charged on Stripe. When you want a better way to integrate your payment solutions, Zapier has you covered. 

2. Create new Xero invoices for PayPal sales    

If you use PayPal, it’s got its own basic invoicing functions, but those generally require a lot of attention. On the other hand, if you’re using Xero for invoicing because not all your customers pay through PayPal, you’ll love this integration. You can enjoy the simplicity of Xero invoicing and the ability to get it done automatically when you use this Zapier automation. Just set the workflow into place and then watch as every single PayPal sale generates an invoice in Xero, sends it to the customer, and even copies you if you desire. 

3. Have Xero invoices created when Pipedrive deals hit certain stages    

Pipedrive is one of the best tools to have on hand if you need a good sales platform. It offers so much versatility and makes sales easier than ever before. With this automation, it simple to have invoices generated in Xero as soon as your deals in Pipedrive hit a certain stage. Simply set the stage at which you want invoices sent, set the automation in place, and watch it work. Anytime the deal progresses accordingly, Zapier will notify Xero and cause an invoice to be created so that you can bill the client or customer. 

4. Create Slack notifications for new Xero invoices    

This automation makes it easy to keep your whole team on the same page. Slack is a great collaboration tool that’s used by a lot of teams in businesses of all kinds. Instead of having to watch for invoices to come in and then let people know or have someone sitting on your inbox all day just waiting, you can get back to work and let AI do the watching. Whenever a Xero invoice is generated or sent out, it will trigger Zapier to create a notification in Slack. You can choose to send the notification to someone directly, or even to post it on a channel for an entire team to see. 

5. Generate Xero invoices for WooCommerce orders automatically    

WooCommerce is another popular eCommerce platform. If you’re using it to conduct business, this automation will ensure that you spend less time on your billing. All that you have to do is set this automation up so that when a transaction occurs on WooCommerce, Zapier is notified and then sends the information along to Xero to generate the invoice accordingly. This way, you can use the invoicing tool that you prefer and still get streamlined billing and payment solutions for your customers and clients. You can even take it a step further and choose to create notifications to go with this automation, and more. 

6. Add Mailchimp subscribers from your Xero contacts    

Mailchimp makes email marketing easy. You'll find that there are several automations that can make it even simpler, thanks to Zapier, and this is one of them. Simply set it up so that anytime you create or modify a contact in Xero, their information is “zapped” over to Mailchimp and put on the appropriate subscriber list. Once the workflow is in place, this will all happen behind the scenes and you’ll never have to worry about adding subscribers by hand or trying to remember who has or hasn’t been subscribed. 

7. Send Gmail notifications for Xero payments   

Never miss another payment when you set up this automation. When your clients or customers pay an invoice through Xero, you can count on Zapier to deliver a Gmail notification to let you know that the money has arrived. You can even set it up to email specific people who handle accounting or notify the entire team. It's all about making it work for you, but this allows you to get back to work and get notified when payments come in so that you’re not just sitting around waiting to get paid. 

8. Save your Xero invoices to Google Sheets as rows    

Google Sheets is a great tracking tool when you just need basic spreadsheets, and yet it’s so much more than a basic platform. If you’re tracking your billing and invoicing in a sheet, this automation takes the work out of it for you. Simply create an invoice in Xero and watch this automation transfer the details to the appropriate Sheet and row, giving you seamless tracking of all of your invoicing and automating the tedious details along the way. You can even reverse this workflow and generate invoices on Xero from Google Sheets rows, too.

9. Create Xero invoices from your Shopify sales    

If you use Shopify as your eCommerce platform, having tools to streamline everything is going to help you make it that much more successful. Xero is easy to integrate with Shopify in several ways, including with this workflow that’s designed to automatically generate invoices whenever an order is placed on your Shopify site. Simply set the automation to task and when an order comes in, an invoice will be generated in Xero and sent to the customer, keeping everything moving without you having to do the work yourself. 

10. Create new invoices for Google Calendar events    

With this automation, you’ll find that it’s easy to generate invoices for events that you host or appointments that you have, and you don’t even have to lift a finger. Set the workflow in motion and every time a Calendar event occurs that is billable, Xero will generate a new invoice and send it to the appropriate party. It’s going to take a lot of extra steps off your hands and save everyone a lot of headaches. 

Take your operations further when you partner with Smith.ai 

At Smith.ai, we love automation and all that it has to offer. We’re proud to work with tools like Zapier to provide you with seamless, efficient solutions for everything from 24/7 live website chat to after-hours phone answering, and so much more. Let us be the face of your business so that you can get back to the business that deserves your attention. We’ll work with you to come up with a perfect strategy for automation and more. 

We also love Zapier and its ability to provide smart workflows between all the most valuable tools in your tech stack, no matter what kind of business software you’re using. You can use the pre-built solutions or create custom automations, and Zapier is also the reason that Smith.ai integrates with more than 3,000 different apps so that every single chat, call, and text is logged in the right place, right away. 

Check out all the apps to explore the many ways we can connect to Zapier! You can also explore Smith.ai’s Answering Service app on Zapier or ask about Smith.ai’s Website Chat app on Zapier. 

When you’re ready, schedule a consultation to discuss our 24/7 chat and phone answering services, which include everything from new client intake and after-hours answering to scheduling, sales development, and more. You can also reach us at hello@smith.ai or (650) 727-6484.