Staged design invoices in Xero, and how a Xero sync is planned

Read this first

General information only, not accounting, tax or legal advice. Menu names, tax rate names and features in Xero depend on your plan, region and settings, so check them in your own Xero file or with your bookkeeper. Xero is a trademark of its owner. DrafterShare is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Xero.

Set up Xero for staged design fees

1. One contact per payer. Create the client as a contact with their name, address and ABN if they have one, so the buyer details appear on each invoice.
2. One income account for design fees. Use an account in your chart of accounts for design and drafting fees, so stage income reports together.
3. One invoice per stage. Name the stage and what it covers in the line description, in the same words as your fee proposal.
4. Set the tax rate on every line. If you are GST-registered, choose the GST rate that matches the supply on each line. Ask your bookkeeper if you are unsure.
5. Use the reference field. Put the site address and stage in the reference so you can find the invoice later.
6. Check your invoice details. Look at an invoice preview and confirm it shows the words “tax invoice”, your ABN and the GST amount (what the ATO says a tax invoice shows).

Fixed dates or triggers?

If your payment schedule runs on calendar dates, a repeating invoice in Xero can raise each one on schedule. Most design stages are triggered by an event, such as client approval or issue for lodgement, so you will usually create each draft invoice when the trigger is met. Staged invoicing for drafting jobs covers how to define the triggers.

When consultants are on the job

Your Xero file records your own sales and costs. Engineers, surveyors and energy assessors issue tax invoices in their own names if they are GST-registered, and a consultant you pay and on-charge is a separate GST question; see GST on consultant fees and split payments for design projects.

How a Xero sync is planned to work

DrafterShare is in development and not yet available, and the Xero sync is planned, not live. The plan is for invoices generated for each payee, and the payments received against them, to sync to Xero so your books match what was billed and paid. Xero is the first accounting integration planned; more are being considered.

Xero’s developer documentation says the Accounting API lets a connected app create sales invoices, update draft ones, email them and retrieve them, which is the kind of integration the plan is based on. Details such as account mapping and tax rate mapping are still being designed, and we will not claim a sync works until it does.

• Planned: invoices generated in DrafterShare for each payee on a shared stage.
• Planned: those invoices and their payments sync to your Xero file.
• Not decided yet: how accounts and tax rates are mapped. Tell us what you need on the waitlist.

See the planned flow

The planned flow, from time logging to quotes, client payment, generated invoices and the Xero sync, is on the features page. How it will work shows the split between designer and consultants, and the sample demo uses sample data only.