Sporty is an official partner with Xero online accounting software. To learn more, click here.
This means that Sporty can automatically raise invoices for you within your Xero software. This commonly occurs whenever a person submits one of your online forms that has Products set on it. For example, it could be a Membership form with a Product called 'Membership Subs'.
When an invoice gets raised in Xero, Xero needs to know the same details that would normally be required if you were raising the invoice manually. For example, Xero needs to know:
- Who the invoice is for, so it can be added to that person's account in Xero if it already exists.
- The name of each Product line item on the invoice, along with the quantity sold and the unit price.
- Which General Ledger (GL) code from your Chart of Accounts each Product line item should use.
- Which GL code to use for merchant transaction fees relating to online payments (if any).
- Which GL code to use to record payments if someone pays when they perform a transaction.
- Whether GST is applicable and, if so, whether the price stated includes or excludes GST.
- Whether to raise the invoice as a Draft in Xero, or automatically set it as Authorised (Approved).
- When a person pays you online, whether to mark the invoice as Paid in Xero.
- What action Xero should take for an invoice if you later delete that transaction within Sporty.
When you connect your Xero to Sporty for the first time, you'll follow the instructions here. This includes saving default settings in Sporty that give Xero answers for many of the questions raised above. For example, which GL codes should be used by default. These default settings save you from having to answer these same questions every single time you create a new online form or add a new Product line item to an online form. You can return later to your Admin Settings in Sporty if you wish to modify your default Xero settings.
Since your default settings for Xero may not be applicable for every single transaction on every one of your online forms, Sporty also lets you set different defaults that will be used for transactions that occur on different online forms. Sporty supports this functionality for all forms you create locally using the Form Builder utility as well as for any official forms (e.g. 'SuperForm') that you inherit from a governing body.
If you want an online form to create invoices in Xero with settings that are different from your site-wide defaults, Sporty lets you set local default settings for Xero on a form-by-form basis. If you set local default settings for Xero on an online form, then Product line items for that form will use those local settings instead of your site-wide default settings. You can also modify these further by editing the Xero settings for each individual Product line item if you wish.
Manage default Xero settings for an online form
Go to your Dashboard and click the Online Registrations tile.
Click the edit pencil button to the right of the form/database name that you wish to modify.
This opens the Form Builder utility. Scroll towards the bottom of the screen to the Products section and click the Xero Settings link.
A Xero Settings pop-up window will appear. It has two tabs at the top: Invoice and Contacts.
Invoice tab
The Invoice tab lets you modify the default Xero settings that will apply for each Product line item that you subsequently add to the online form. Note that changing these default settings with not update any Product line items that you have already added to your online form. If these already exist, you can modify the Xero settings per Product line item if you wish (see section later in this support article).
Invoice status in Xero
If you set the invoice status to Draft this means that the invoices created in Xero when people submit your form will be created in a draft state. This gives you an opportunity to review each invoice in Xero and possibly modify it before you approve it. Alternatively, if you wish the invoices to automatically be approved in Xero, you can change this status to Authorised.
Note that if a form is set to have a mandatory payment, an invoice will not be raised in Xero until payment has been made. As the invoice will be 'paid' once it reaches Xero due to the mandatory payment setting, the invoice will be found under the paid tab in Xero.
Default GL account code and Default tax type
Sporty will display a dropdown of your GL codes from Xero. New online forms will automatically inherit your site-wide default settings for Xero, as set in your main Admin Settings area in Sporty. You can use the dropdowns to select different GL codes that will be used by default for any additional Product line items that you add to this one online form. Similarly, if your organisation is GST registered and GST applies for most of your products, check that the default tax type is set to OUTPUT2 (GST on income). Alternatively, set this to NO GST if GST does not apply.
Display additional identifiers
i) Identifier field to add to invoice as separate line item
This extra setting lets you select any question field on your online form and Sporty will display each person's answer as an additional item on the invoice created for that person in Xero. For example, if your form has a question field called 'Region' then this could be selected here.
Then, if a person submits your form with the Region field set to say, 'Auckland', then 'Auckland' will be added to the invoice in Xero as a $0.00 line item.
The actual invoice will simply show the identifier (e.g. 'Auckland') without displaying the $0.00...
ii) Identifier field to display as invoice reference
This extra setting lets you select any question field on your online form and Sporty will display this in the invoice Reference. For example, if your form has a question field called 'Team name' then this could be selected.
The Team name field is then displayed in the invoice summary view under the heading Ref making it easy to identify invoice raised for particular team names when viewing in Xero.
Contacts tab
Whenever Sporty raises an invoice in Xero, Xero needs to know who the invoice is for. Xero creates an account contact for each person or organisation that an invoice is created for.
The Contacts tab lets you manage how these account contacts are created and used in Xero. By default, Xero will use the contact details that a person enters on your online form for the primary person. This includes the first name, last name, email, phone number and address (if entered). However, you may prefer for invoices to be raised in Xero to use contact details that are different to the primary person. For example, you may prefer invoices to be raised under the name of a school instead of the name of the teacher-in-charge, or under the name of a parent/caregiver instead of the name of a child.
To modify the fields that Xero uses for the account contact when an invoice is raised, use the dropdown boxes to select whichever question field you wish from your online form. Note that the system only lets you select fields that are in the correct format. For example, you can only choose a field on your form that is formatted as an address to map to the address field for the contact in Xero.
IMPORTANT: If you modify the Contact settings, please ensure you complete every dropdown possible here since these settings will replace your defaults for this online form. If any dropdown is left as 'Not Specified' here (such as the Phone Number field in the image above) this means that when someone completes the form and a new contact is created in Xero, the contact record in Xero will NOT include a phone number.
Manage Xero settings for individual Product line items
At the bottom of your online form, you can add/edit products. A 'Product' is anything that you wish to receive payment for, such as subs, fees, team photos or merchandise. These items will display publicly at the bottom of your online form.
For more detailed instructions on how to manage products and payments for your online forms, please refer to this support article.
Once a product has been added to your online form, you can edit the settings for that item so that it uses a different Xero account GL code and/or a different Xero tax rate if you wish. IMPORTANT: You can only modify these Xero settings for individual products on your form if the form is set with the option to Automatically create invoices in Xero is ticked on in the Xero Settings for that form...
Then to edit the settings for a product, click the edit pencil button to the right of the product...
Then use the dropdown boxes to modify the Xero Account GL code or Xero Tax Rate...
Once you are done, click the Done button to save the changes to this product line item.
IMPORTANT: You must also click the Save Form button at the bottom right of the entire form to permanently save all changes you have made to your online form.
Tips for bookkeepers:
- Connecting Sporty with Xero: Click here.
- How to add Products and Payments to an online form: Click here.
- Reconciling your merchant pay-out within Xero: See here for more information.
- Using Xero Tracking Codes and Options: See here for more information.
For more information, please visit www.sporty.co.nz/xero or download the full Xero User Guide.