Both QuickBooks Online users and Xero Accounting users have the ability to add payments to supplier invoices. Payments can be added within the accounting application and then synchronised to DEAR or added in DEAR and synced to the accounting software. QuickBooks Online users will sync payments automatically, but Xero users will have to ensure the correct payment settings are enabled.

This article explains how different types of payment are handled by DEAR and Xero. 

Prerequisites

• Connect Xero to DEAR Inventory (required)
• Ensure your Chart of Accounts is set up correctly (see Xero Integration - Setting up Accounts in Xero). 

Table of Contents

• Payment Settings
• Payments and Refunds
• Customer Credits and Supplier Deposits
• Duplicate Payments

Payment Settings

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DEAR users with Xero integration have three options for applying payments to invoices:

• Pull payments from Xero 
• Push payments to Xero
• Synced both ways (default setting). 

For payments applied in DEAR to be applied to DEAR or Xero invoices, payments must be set to push payments to Xero or synced both ways. 

Change Xero payment settings:

1. Navigate to Integration → Xero.
2. Check that Xero payments are set to either Sync both ways or Pushed to Xero.
3. Save your changes. 

Payments and Refunds

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NOTE: Payments can only be synced if there is a synced invoice to apply the payment to. For example, if an error occurs during syncing of INV-1246, the payment applied to that invoice will not be synced.

Payments applied in DEAR will be exported to Xero during synchronisation if your Xero payment settings are set to Pushed to Xero or Synced both ways. Payments applied in Xero will be exported to DEAR during sync if your Xero payment settings are set to Pulled from Xero or Synced both ways. 

DEAR takes the due payment amount from invoices in Xero and exports payments from DEAR to Xero for that invoice until the invoice is fully paid. Payments are consolidated based on the invoice ID in Xero, type of transaction (payment or refund), and account code. 

During export, if payments exceed the total invoice amount, these are not exported. Undoing, deleting or changing a payment in DEAR deletes the corresponding payment in Xero.

Payments are applied to invoices. 

Credit Notes authorised in DEAR will be exported to Xero, but will not be allocated against invoices. Credit Notes created in Xero are NOT picked up by DEAR. Therefore the correct way to manage credit note refunds would be to enter the credit note in DEAR, let it sync to Xero, and refund this credit note to customer credit. After that, apply this customer credit to invoice as a payment in DEAR.

Customer Credits and Supplier Deposits

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Customer Credits and Supplier Deposits are handled slightly differently from regular payments and refunds. 

NOTE: To use this feature, you should have created accounts in Xero with the correct settings and mapped them to the equivalent DEAR accounts in Settings → Reference Books → Financials → Account Mapping. It is important that your Customer Credit/Supplier Deposit accounts are set to accept payments. 

Customer credits are amounts owed to customers, which can be used against future payments. In Xero, they are accounted for by a Customer Credits liability account. When a customer credit is applied to a sale quote, it is synced to Xero as a Money Received object. Learn more about Customer Credits. 

Supplier Deposits are money that you have paid to a supplier, which can be used against future purchases. In Xero, they are accounted for by a Supplier Deposits asset account. When a supplier deposit is applied to a purchase order, it is synced to Xero as a Money Spent object. Learn more about Supplier Deposits. 

Duplicate Payments

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In some cases, users can accidentally create duplicate payments. For example, a payment has been applied in DEAR but has yet to be synced to Xero. Another user processes the payment in Xero using bank reconciliation. When the payment from DEAR eventually syncs to Xero, the payment will be duplicated, and an error occurs. 

DEAR stops these errors from happening by treating identical payments (payments for the same amount, on the same invoice, on the same day) as duplicates and removes them automatically.