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 against an Online Form
Go to your Dashboard and click the Online Registrations tile.
Click the edit pencil to the right of the appropriate form/database name.
Scroll to the Products section click Xero Settings.
The Xero Settings modal has two tabs: Invoice and Contacts.
Invoice tab
This tab allows you to modify the default Xero settings that will be applied to products of the specific online form.
Note: If products have already been set up on the Online Form prior to the changes, they will not be updated to the new defaults. Edit the product line item to update the settings if required.
Automatically create invoices
To automatically create invoices upon a registration being submitted, tick the Automatically create invoices checkbox.
Include account summary link on completion
To include an account summary link on the completion of a registration, tick the Include account summary link on completion checkbox.
Invoice due date
If all invoices relating to this form are to have payment due on the exact same date, set this field to the specific date needed.
New invoice status
If Automatically create invoices has been enabled, be sure to review the status set against this option.
Set this field to Draft to have invoices automatically created raised as a draft invoice in Xero. This will allow you to review any invoices before they are sent and make adjustments as required. You have full control over when the invoice is approved.
If you would like the invoice automatically created in Xero as an approved invoice, set this status to Authorised. Invoices raised with this status can be found within the Awaiting Payment area of your Xero. They will not be automatically sent to the contact, you will still be required to send the invoice to request payment.
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 to use on line items and Default tax type to use on line items
Sporty displays a dropdown of your GL codes from Xero. New online forms will automatically inherit your organisations default settings for Xero which are set within the Admin Settings area in Sporty.
Use the dropdowns to select the GL code that will be used by default to code any product line items that are added to the form. For example your organisation may have a GL code for Subs (200) and a product is added after the default Xero settings have been set which is for Player registration fees. The payment made against this invoice when made via Xero, will be coded to the 200 GL code.
Note: If you are setting up multiple products that go to different GL codes, edit the product once added by selecting the specific account code for that product item.
Similarly, if your organisation is GST registered and the products that will be set up on your form include GST, set the default tax type to OUTPUT2 (GST on income).
If the organisation is not GST registered and products do not have GST included, set this to NO GST.
Identifier field to add to invoice as separate line item
Set a field to display on the invoice as a zero dollar line item to make it easier to identify what invoices relate to for both the organisation and for the registrant. The dropdown options are populated by the question fields set up on the form.
For example your form has a single choice question field called Region set up that asks the registrant to select which region they are wanting to play for. The answer which the registrant selects will be displayed on their invoice as an identifier.
This displays in Xero on the draft or approved invoice as shown below. There is no charge associated to the line item.
This displays on the invoice that is received by the registrant as shown below. There is no charge associated to the line item.
If you have not set this field, it will be automatically set to Not Specified. Any invoices created will display the form name as a zero dollar line item.
The form name will be displayed as shown below.
Identifier field to display as invoice reference
Set the what the reference field on the invoice populates with to make it easier to identify what invoices relate to for both the organisation and for the registrant. The dropdown options for this field are populated by the question fields set up on the form.
For example your form has a single-line text field called Team Name set up. The value entered by the registrant will be displayed on the invoice in Xero as the reference.
In Xero, the invoice will be created with the value entered by the registrant displaying as the reference (Ref) field. This makes it easy to identify which team the invoice relates to.
This reference field displays on the invoice received by the registrant as shown below.
If this field has been set to Not Specified, any invoices created will display the form name as the reference identifier. If both the line item identifier and reference identifier are set to Not Specified, only the reference field will be populated by the form name.
Contacts tab
Xero creates an account contact for each person or organisation that an invoice is created for so that Xero knows who the invoice is for.
The Contacts tab lets you decide how these account contacts are created and used in Xero.
By default, Xero will use the contact details that a person enters on the form as the primary person. This includes the first name, last name, email, phone number and address (if entered).
If you prefer that invoices are raised in Xero with different contact details to that of the primary person, from the dropdown against the specific field, select which question field from those added to your form that has the value which you want to have as the contact who the invoice is created for. Questions that are available to select from are only those that are in the correct format, these are not custom fields.
For example your form may have a question field set up for Parent/Caregiver details. If you would like the invoice in Xero to be created against the Parent/Caregivers First Name, Last Name and Email rather than the registrant (the primary person), select the appropriate Parent/Caregiver question from the dropdown against the appropriate contact field.
IMPORTANT: If you modify the Contact settings, ensure you complete EVERY dropdown possible as these settings will replace the defaults for this online form. If any dropdown is left as Not Specified, such as the phone number field in the image above, the new contact created in Xero will not include this information.
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 detailed instructions on how to manage products and payments for your online forms, click here.
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 click Save Form 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.