Xero is undoubtedly one of the best online accounting software applications that exist right now. It not only gives you a clear financial overview but also helps to set a budget for marketing and advertisement costs, provides approximate ROI on marketing, and even budget your sales. This software is so advanced that it considers international taxes also if you export your products.
WooCommerce being an open platform allows entrepreneurs to sell both domestically and internationally. The set of features in Xero that helps to calculate international taxes lets you calculate your total selling price after adding shipping costs. It also provides different ideas on how to minimize international taxes using different shipping methods. If you are planning to ship your products to another country, you can use Xero to get an idea of the international market also.
But how will you connect WooCommerce to Xero? There are three techniques that you can follow. I’m explaining each technique according to what I find is the easiest to the most difficult way.
1. Integrating WooCommerce to Xero
• This process starts by authenticating your WooCommerce and Xero accounts. According to me, it’s the easiest method that almost anyone can follow. By authenticating your account, you create a link between the two so that Xero can follow whatever you order it to do from your WooCommerce account.
• The next step is to select WooCommerce as the trigger app since you will ask Xero to follow everything that happens on your WooCommerce account. That means if you make an invoice on WooCommerce, Xero will make a copy automatically.
• Which application do you want to see the output of the invoice copy in? It’s Xero. Select Xero as your resulting action application. This finalizes the link between two accounts and establishes a connection so that Xero can perform automatically according to what you do on your WooCommerce account.
• Lastly, you need to select the actions you want Xero to perform on your behalf. For example, you can choose to import purchase orders, sales invoices, and even add or edit customer details. But make sure you select all these actions to make Xero Cloud Accounting Services work.
2. Installing Xero extension
• First, you need to purchase a WooCommerce Xero extension. This is a licensed extension available on the WooCommerce store. It lasts for 12 months and offers upgrades and support without additional costs.
• Go to your Xero homepage and head to your Chart of Accounts. Log in, and go to Settings. This page should consist of Sales, Shipping, Payment, and Rounding Off details. In case you don’t find these, you need to set them up. Note down the account numbers from your WooCommerce account to configure the integration.
Provide accurate details of your sales revenue, shipping revenue, payment collections for store purchases, and rounding adjustments for every order.
• Next, use your Xero account to configure the WooCommerce plugin settings. It will again ask for your WooCommerce account details. This creates a connection between the two accounts.
• I would recommend you to process a few transactions manually before switching to automatic integration. This helps you assess how Xero works. It also shows why Xero is beneficial for those involved in online selling.
3. Installing plugin in developer portal
This is the toughest method and would require a bit of technical knowledge.
• First of all, the server needs to have curlSSL and cURL installed. You can ask your web hosting service provider if they already have these installed or not.
• Next, you need to download a .zip file after creating your WooCommerce account. You can visit the WordPress admin page to check the plugin. Click on Add New and then upload the plugin you just downloaded. Install the plugin and then click on Activate to let the extension work.
• Now, you should set up and configure your Xero account. Its API should use OAuth 2.0 to validate any type of connection from WooCommerce. To establish the connection, you must create a Xero application on its portal. Once you do that, you will find an option to connect your WooCommerce account.
Now that you know the three ways to connect WooCommerce to Xero, you can try one of the methods to automate the billing and customer update features right away.