You can publish costs and sales items from Dext directly to Xero. Where your items land in Xero - and how they appear - depends on the publish destination and status you choose.
Important: You must have an active Xero connection and either an Admin role or permission to publish granted by your account administrator or accountant/bookkeeper.
Costs publishing destinations
Costs items publish to Xero's Purchases section by default. You can change the destination to match how you manage your business expenses.
The 3 available destinations are:
Purchases - for unpaid and paid bills. Items appear in Xero under Purchases > Bills to pay.
Classic Expense Claims - for expenses paid personally by employees that need reimbursement. Items publish as Draft due to Xero API limitations.
Bank Accounts - for expenses already paid from a business bank account. Items publish as Spend Money transactions.
Sales publishing destinations
Sales items publish to Xero's Sales section by default. You can also publish to Bank Accounts for immediately reconciled transactions.
The 2 available destinations are:
Sales - for managing invoices and customer payments. Items appear in Xero under Sales > Invoices.
Bank Accounts - for sales receipts already received into a bank account. Items publish as Spend Money transactions.
Publish statuses
When publishing to Purchases or Sales, you can control how items appear in Xero using the Publish as setting. The available statuses are Draft, Awaiting Approval, Awaiting Payment, and Paid (where possible).
Publishing to Bank Accounts doesn't use a publish status - the destination itself determines how the item is recorded.
Note: On Simple Xero plans, items can only be published as Draft, with a limit of 5 bills published in other statuses.
Set your default publish destination and status
You can set a default destination and status for costs and sales so you don't need to update each item individually.
Important: Only Admin users can access these settings. Accountants and bookkeepers accessing a client account act as Admins by default.
Go to Business settings in the sidebar, then select Connections.
Select Manage next to Xero, then go to Settings.
Under Default 'publish to' destination for costs, select your preferred destination.
Under Publish costs items to purchases as, select your preferred status.
Repeat for sales using Default 'publish to' destination for sales and Publish sales items to sales as.
Publish to Purchases as Paid
To publish a costs or sales item to Purchases as Paid, the payment method assigned to the item must be linked to a Xero bank account. Without a linked bank account, Dext will automatically publish the item as Awaiting Payment instead.
To assign a payment method and publish as Paid:
Open an item from the Costs or Sales workspace.
In the Payment section, toggle Paid to Yes.
Select a payment method from the Payment method dropdown. If the method is linked to a bank account, you'll see a link icon next to it.
Set Publish as to Paid (where possible).
Select Publish.
If the payment method isn't linked to a bank account yet, select Link to bank account beneath the dropdown. See How to link a payment method to a bank account.
Publish to Bank Accounts
Publishing to Bank Accounts is the right choice when an expense has already been paid directly from a business bank account and you want to reconcile it in Xero without creating an invoice.
To publish an item to Bank Accounts:
Open an item from the Costs or Sales workspace.
In the Payment section, toggle Paid to Yes.
Select a payment method that is linked to a Xero bank account from the Payment method dropdown.
Set Publish to to Bank Accounts.
Select Publish.
Dext creates a Spend Money transaction in the Account transactions tab of the linked bank account in Xero.
Note: Publishing to Bank Accounts does not create an invoice in Xero. If you need an invoice and want to reconcile it later, publish to Purchases as Paid (where possible) instead.
Publish to Classic Expense Claims
Classic Expense Claims is for expenses paid personally by an employee that need to be reimbursed. Items published here appear as Draft expense claims in Xero, visible initially only to the employee they belong to.
Note: The employee must be linked to a Xero user account. If not, Dext will show the error: "A valid userID should be identified." See A valid user should be identified using the userID.
If you're managing reimbursable expenses across your team, use Expense Claims in Dext instead - this ensures all authorised users can review and process claims in Xero.
Why can I only publish to Bank Accounts in Dext?
If your Xero account is a Ledger or Cashbook plan, Bank Accounts is the only publishing destination available in Dext. Purchases, Classic Expense Claims, and Sales aren't supported on these plans.
If you upgrade to a standard Xero plan, reconnect your Xero file in Dext to bring the additional destinations across. See How to reconnect with Xero.
Where to find published items in Xero
Once published, you can find items in Xero based on the destination you chose:
Destination | Location in Xero | Transaction type |
Purchases | Purchases > Bills to pay | Supplier invoice |
Classic Expense Claims | Expense claims | Employee reimbursement |
Bank Accounts | Bank account > Account transactions | Spend Money transaction |
Sales | Sales > Invoices | Sales invoice |
You can also find any published item via the Dext Archive - each item has an Open in Xero button that takes you directly to the corresponding transaction.