Connecting your Dext and Xero accounts lets you send your items directly from Dext to your accounting software with all the relevant details applied.
Once connected, Dext syncs your key lists from Xero and enables the Publish button, allowing you to export your costs and sales data seamlessly.
Important: Only Admin users can connect Dext to accounting software. This includes accountants and bookkeepers accessing a client account.
What connecting does
Connecting Dext and Xero will:
Sync your Chart of Accounts, Suppliers, Customers, Tax rates, Tracking Categories, Products and services, and Payment methods.
Activate the Publish button in Dext, which allows you to send your processed items and Expense claims directly to Xero.
Once connected, Dext will automatically sync your Xero data every 48 hours to keep your lists and categories up to date.
Tip: You can apply your synced categories and tax rates manually to items in Dext or automate this process using Supplier and customer rules
How to connect your Xero account
Go to Business settings in the sidebar
Select Connections
Under Accounting software, click Connect
Select Xero from the list
Click Connect software
Log in to Xero
Click Allow access
Select the organisation you want to connect to
Click Finish
Once connected, your Chart of Accounts will appear under Business settings > Lists > Categories.
If the organisation appears greyed out in Xero
When you’re redirected to Xero to authorise the connection, you may see the organisation you're trying to connect to greyed out in the dropdown list.
In this case, you do not need to select it again - click Continue with [number] organisations.
This will complete the authorisation process and return you to Dext to finish the connection.
Choose your Xero integration settings
After connecting, choose how Dext publishes data to Xero from your Xero settings page.
To access these settings:
Go to Business settings > Connections.
Click Manage next to Xero, then select Settings.
From here, you can adjust publishing preferences, default destinations, tax behaviour, and more for your Xero integration.
Manage how suppliers sync from Xero
Within the Xero settings page, you can choose whether Dext displays:
All Xero contacts, or
Only Xero suppliers
Use the Supplier list dropdown to select your preferred option.
After changing this setting:
Go to the Costs tab
Open Suppliers
Click Reload
This refreshes the supplier list based on your selected option:
If Only suppliers is selected, contacts that are not suppliers will be removed (unless already used on items).
If All contacts is selected, all Xero contacts will be available as suppliers in Dext.
Note: If your Xero organisation has more than 3,000 contacts, Dext will automatically limit the sync to suppliers and contacts that already have invoices in Xero.
Control how Dext uses Xero bank data
The Bank section of your Xero settings controls whether Dext imports bank data from Xero and how it uses that data for Bank Match.
Sync bank data – when turned on, Dext brings bank accounts and bank transactions from Xero into Dext. If you turn this off, Bank Match and Paperwork Match stop working, along with other features that rely on bank data. Bank data already in Dext stays as it is.
Autofill payment – when turned on, Dext fills in the payment section for bank match and sends items to the paid area of the matched bank account for reconciliation. If it’s off, you can still fill in the payment fields from the item view.
Auto-publish – when turned on, Dext publishes items with a unique bank match automatically, where possible. Dext pre-fills the payment fields from the match information and sends the item to purchases as paid and linked to the matched bank account. You can only turn this on after you turn on Sync bank data and Autofill payment.
To learn more, go to How does Bank Match work in Dext? and How to use auto-publish in Dext.
Troubleshooting publishing errors
If you experience any issues when publishing to Xero, check the Xero publishing error messages guide.
It explains the most common publishing errors and how to resolve them.
How to reconnect your Xero account
If your Xero connection expires or stops working, you’ll need to reconnect it to restore publishing.
Follow the steps in our dedicated article on how to reconnect with Xero.