edge can connect directly to your school's Xero organisation so that financial batches created in edge are sent to Xero, and your ledger numbers (chart of accounts) are imported from Xero into edge. The Xero integration is feature-switched and must be enabled for your school — contact support if you do not see the Xero Settings section on the Finance Settings page.
edge can connect directly to your school's Xero organisation so that financial batches created in edge are sent to Xero, and your ledger numbers (chart of accounts) are imported from Xero into edge. The Xero integration is feature-switched and must be enabled for your school — contact support if you do not see the Xero Settings section on the Finance Settings page.
Before you connect
Review these points before connecting edge to Xero (they are also shown on the Finance Settings page):
- edge recommends using a dedicated Xero account to connect to edge — this account should not be connected to any other Xero tenants.
- From 1 April 2021 Xero no longer supports access tokens created before 29 March 2021 — if your school connected before this date, disconnect Xero and then re-connect.
- If you experience difficulty with Xero from edge, remove edge from your list of connected applications in your Xero account settings, then disconnect and re-connect edge to Xero to re-authorise it.
Connecting your school to Xero
- Go to Finance > Configuration > Finance Settings (requires the Manage Financials permission).
- In the Xero Settings section, tick Enable Xero Integration and Save.
- Click Connect to Xero. You are redirected to Xero to sign in and authorise edge.
- If your Xero login has access to more than one organisation, you must select a Xero Tenant after authorising. If edge could not determine the tenant automatically, the status panel shows Please select a Xero Tenant with a list of organisations to choose from — select the correct one.
- Once connected, the status panel shows Connected, along with your organisation name.
Screenshot: Xero Settings section on the Finance Settings page showing the Connected status panel
The connection status panel shows:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Connection Status | Current state of the Xero connection (see table below) |
| Organisation | The connected Xero organisation name |
| Last Updated | Date and time of the last connection attempt |
| Last Connection Message | Result of the most recent connection attempt |
| Period Lock Date | The period lock date read from your Xero organisation |
| End of Year Lock Date | The end-of-year lock date read from your Xero organisation |
Possible connection statuses:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Connected | All required tokens exist. If the token has expired, it shows "(expired - auto-refresh enabled)" and refreshes automatically |
| Expired | The connection has expired — re-connect to Xero |
| Requested but not Authorised | A connection was started but not completed in Xero |
| Denied or Revoked | Access was denied or revoked — check the Last Connection Message, then re-connect |
| Please select a Xero Tenant | Connected, but a tenant (organisation) has not been chosen yet |
Use Disconnect to remove the stored Xero tokens, and Refresh to re-read your organisation details (including the lock dates) from Xero.
What syncs between edge and Xero
Ledger numbers (chart of accounts) — Xero to edge. Synchronising imports each Xero account's code, name, description, GST/tax rate, account type and active status into the ledger numbers list in edge (Finance > Configuration > Maintain Ledger Number). Accounts that have been deleted or archived in Xero are deactivated in edge (your nominated special ledgers are kept). Ledgers are also re-synchronised automatically as part of every batch export.
Payment batches — edge to Xero. Exporting a closed batch from Finance > Processing > Batch Processing creates:
- Bank transactions (receive or spend) on your nominated Bank account, coded to the Bank Clearing account — one per bank line in the batch, referenced "Batch [number]".
- A posted manual journal named "Batch [number] - Coding" containing the GL coding lines for the batch, balanced against the Bank Clearing account.
After a successful export the batch is marked as exported and a View in Xero link to the manual journal is shown.
Invoice batches — edge to Xero. If Invoice Batch Processing is enabled for your school, invoice batches are exported as a manual journal against your nominated Accounts Receivable account. See the Invoice Batches article for details.
edge does not create individual sales invoices in Xero — exports are summarised as bank transactions and manual journals.
Checks made before a batch is exported
edge validates each batch before sending anything to Xero. The export is blocked if:
- The batch is not closed, is empty, or has already been exported.
- Any ledger number used in the batch is missing or inactive in Xero — re-activate or create the accounts in Xero, then synchronise again.
- The batch contains a transaction dated earlier than your Xero Period Lock Date — change the lock date in Xero, then use Refresh Organisation Data on the Finance Settings page so edge picks up the change.
- The Bank and/or Bank Clearing ledgers have not been nominated on the Maintain Ledger Number page.
If an export fails part-way through, edge deletes any bank transactions it had already created in Xero for that batch, so nothing is left half-exported.
Nominating special accounts and account type restrictions
At the top of Finance > Configuration > Maintain Ledger Number you nominate the special accounts used by the integration. When edge knows your Xero account types, each picker only offers accounts of the matching type:
| Special ledger | Xero account type |
|---|---|
| Bank | Bank |
| Bank Clearing | Current Liability |
| Unallocated | Current Liability |
| Accounts Receivable (only shown when Invoice Batch Processing is enabled) | Current Asset |
Similarly, when creating billable items (Finance > Configuration > Create Billable Item) the ledger number search is restricted to Revenue, Sales and Other Income account types. If your school needs to code billable items to other account types, this restriction can be removed by a feature switch — it must be enabled for your school, so contact support.
Screenshot: Maintain Ledger Number page showing the special account pickers
Troubleshooting
- Connection problems are recorded against your school, and the support team can review your recent Xero connection history (organisation, lock dates, last connection result and time) — contact support if your connection repeatedly fails.
- If the status shows Denied or Revoked or Expired, disconnect and re-connect from the Finance Settings page.
- If ledger numbers show warnings on the batch screens, synchronise ledger numbers and check that the accounts are still active in Xero.