PayHero integrates with Xero, an online accounting system designed for small businesses and their accountants. For details on how to integrate with Xero, see our Xero Integration article here.
Once successfully connected, the Xero tab will be visible under Manage. You can use this tab to manage the settings that will apply to your data transfers from PayHero to Xero.
Invoices
The Invoices section at the top of the Xero settings page allows you to manage how your invoices will arrive in Xero:
Default Invoice Status - Select whether you want to send Draft or Approved invoices to Xero. We recommend using the Draft Invoice Status initially, as it means that invoices will still be sent even if you have not set all your Xero accounts in PayHero.
Consolidate Employee Invoices - Tick this if you would prefer to send a single invoice through to Xero for all employees in the pay run.
Tracking Categories
Tracking categories are an optional Xero feature that allows you to track your business costs to different business areas. See this article from Xero for information about setting up tracking categories in Xero.
If your business uses tracking categories in Xero, you can assign them to Work or Teams in PayHero, so that your payroll data is assigned to the appropriate categories.
In the Xero settings page in PayHero, the Work Tracking Category and Team Tracking Category drop-downs will allow you to choose from your existing Xero tracking categories:
If you need to edit the available categories, do so from your Xero account. For the examples in this article, our account has the following tracking options set up in Xero:
Click the buttons below to learn more about setting up tracking on your Work and/or Teams in PayHero.
Setting Up Work Tracking
Setting Up Work Tracking
Work tracking will allocate gross earnings for any hours recorded in the Timesheets to the assigned tracking option. This type of tracking is ideal if you want to track employees working across different tasks or areas of the business, where one employee may work across multiple tracking options in a week. Note that this tracking method does not track any additional costs, such as KiwiSaver and employee leave.
To set up Work tracking, first select the appropriate Xero tracking category from the Work Tracking Category option via Manage > Xero in PayHero, as seen here:
The Xero Settings section will now be visible on each of your Work options under Manage > Work. Edit each of your Work and set the appropriate Xero Tracking option from the drop-down, then click Save.
Gross Earnings for hours recorded against this Work will now flow through to Xero against the selected Tracking Category, as seen here:
Setting Up Team Tracking
Setting Up Team Tracking
Team tracking will allocate all earnings and wage costs for each employee based on their primary Team. This type of tracking is ideal if you want to track information based on department, location, or other categorisation that is fairly static for each employee.
To set up Team tracking, first select the appropriate Xero tracking category from the Team Tracking Category option via Manage > Xero in PayHero, as seen here:
Once a Team Tracking Category is assigned, the Xero Tracking dropdown will be visible on each of your Teams under People > Teams. Edit each of your Teams and set the appropriate Xero Tracking Category option from the dropdown, then click Save.
All earnings for each employee will flow through to Xero against the Tracking Category selected on their Team, as seen here:
If an employee is in multiple Teams, their earnings will be tracked to the Tracking Category of the employee's Primary Team, which you can set on the Employment tab for the employee.
Pay Item Accounts
This section allows you to allocate Pay Items out to various accounts from your Xero Chart of Accounts.
Some pay items have been linked to their standard account in Xero, e.g. Annual Leave Taken is allocated to Salaries by default. Other pay items without an obvious default account in Xero do not have one automatically assigned, and will need to have the appropriate Account Code selected from the drop-down.
Once you've selected the Account Code, the Tax Rate will default based on the Tax Rate you've set on the Account Code in Xero. However, you can override this if required.
Team Account Codes
Using Teams in PayHero, you're able to apply a different Xero Account Code to be used, depending on the employee and their Primary Team. This enables different GL Account Codes to be used to separate your different cost centres.
To do so, first select the 'Use Team Account Code' checkbox on any Pay Items which require multiple Account Codes.
Instead of defaulting to the GL Code set under Manage > Xero, any pay items with the 'Use Team Account Code' option checked will default to the Account Code set on the employee's 'Primary Team'. The employee will have their Primary Team shown under the Manage > Employees list, and will have a star icon alongside their name in their Primary Team.
In the example below, Emma and Jane will have their Salary and Sick Leave earnings coded against the 'Salary W' GL Code, as that is what is set on their Primary Team.