Upcoming Changes to the Xero Integration

If you are a Xero + Actionstep integration user, you should be aware of a few upcoming changes. These will be released separately and information about each release is listed below in order of planned release.

• Release 1: Firm Withdrawals and Deposits Automatically Pushed to Xero (9 September)
• Release 2: Delete and Revert Invoice to Draft Without Unlinking

Release 1: Firm Withdrawals and Deposits Automatically Pushed to Xero (9 September) 

Starting 9 September 2025, Actionstep will fully support pushing firm withdrawals and firm deposits you create in Actionstep through to Xero. 

When this feature is enabled, any new firm withdrawal you enter in Actionstep will create a Spend money transaction in Xero. Actionstep will record and store the details of the Xero transaction so that the two transactions remain connected. If you then edit the firm withdrawal (e.g., update the date, bank account number, amount, line item details, etc.) and then save the updates, Actionstep will push the same changes to the Xero transaction. 

Likewise, if you delete or reverse a firm withdrawal in Actionstep, the transaction will also be deleted in Xero. 

When entering a firm deposit in Actionstep, a Receive money transaction is created in Xero. Editing, deleting, or reversing a firm deposit will also push through to Xero, just like it does for Withdrawals

Because these transactions happen in the background, you are not required to complete any extra steps (aside from enabling the related feature flag). Additionally, you will not see anything different in the Actionstep user interface. However, before these changes are released, ensure staff responsible for entering either firm withdrawals and firm deposits into Actionstep or bank transactions into Xero are aware of these changes. 

Handling Errors

The Actionstep / Xero integration attempts to ensure that every withdrawal and deposit transaction in Actionstep has a matching one in Xero, and vice versa.

However, some rules may stop you from saving or editing transactions. For example:

• In Actionstep, a transaction might be blocked if it’s already reconciled or falls in a lock-out period. If Actionstep blocks it, nothing will be sent to Xero.
• In Xero, a transaction might be blocked if (for example) you use an unmapped tax code or GL account, or you try to edit a transaction that has been deleted. If Xero blocks it, the transaction won’t be saved in Actionstep.

In both cases, you’ll see an error message.

Unlinking Transactions

With these updates, you should no longer need to unlink transactions to edit and delete firm withdrawals and deposits. There may be times, however, where Xero prevents you from changing a transaction in Actionstep. If this happens, you can still unlink the transaction from Xero and then make changes to the transaction in both systems separately. This gives you full control over the transactions that are in both systems.

The instructions in Unlinking Invoices and Payments from Xero in Actionstep cover how to unlink invoices and payments. However, you can follow these same instructions for your bank transactions by instead selecting the Admin > Accounting > Xero: Bank Transactions option. To more quickly find the transaction you want to unlink, when viewing the list of bank transactions, you'll see a column that shows the transaction type: Firm withdrawal or Firm deposit. Once identified, select the checkbox for the transaction and click Unlink from Xero.

Once unlinked, any changes you make to that transaction in Actionstep will not be pushed through to Xero. Depending on what you are trying to achieve, you may need to also find the transaction in Xero and make changes to it there.

Release 2: Delete and Revert Invoice to Draft Without Unlinking (Early Access: 2 Sept)

With this update, if you revert an invoice to draft or delete an invoice in Actionstep, the invoice will automatically be voided in Xero. Additionally, to ensure that any invoice you move to draft can also be approved again and pushed through to Xero, the invoice reference will be updated in Xero when the transaction is voided. This ensures that the invoice reference remains unique.   

Enable the Changes to Preview Them

Starting 2 September 2025, you can have early access to this new workflow by going to Admin > General settings > Feature preview and toggling Xero - Revert/delete Invoices without unlinking to on.

Previous Behavior

Before this change, when a user in a system linked to Xero needed to delete an invoice or move an invoice back into draft, they (or an admin) would need to first find and unlink the invoice from Xero or else they would see an error message like this:
 

Once unlinked, the invoice could be deleted or moved into draft again but the user also had to make similar changes in Xero. Understandably, this process made it difficult to change invoices and often caused transactions to end up in a state where the two systems did not match.

Potential Errors

After this update, Actionstep will still validate that the deletion/ revert to draft can happen in both systems before the change is made. If there is any reason why the invoice cannot be changed in either Actionstep or Xero, the change will not be made in either system and you will see an error message explaining the issue. These messages should provide guidance on how to resolve the issue and whether the change needs to happen in Actionstep or Xero. 

There can be instances where Xero won't let you delete the invoice or revert it to draft. When this happens, you can still unlink the invoice in Actionstep and make your changes. While the need to unlink records will be less common, the option is still available so you can stay in full control of your records

Limit Who Can Delete / Revert Transactions

You (or an admin) can control which staff members can delete transactions or revert transactions to draft. 

To find and set these options:

1. In Actionstep, go to Admin > Users & permissions > Data Permissions.  
2. Select your System Role.
3. From System Object drop-down list, select Accounting - Sale/Purchase Object. 
4. In the list of permissions, find these options and enable/disable them based on the level of access you want the System Role to have:
   • can_delete_Sales_Invoice 
   • can_unlock_Sales_Invoice 
5. Click Save to save and apply your changes.

Making Suggestions During the Open Beta

If you experience issues or have suggestions, please submit an Actionstep Support ticket.