Invoice Batch Processing gives your school an accounts-receivable workflow in edge: every invoicing run is grouped into an invoice batch, and each batch can be exported to Xero as a manual journal against your nominated Accounts Receivable account. This feature is feature-switched and must be enabled for your school — contact support if you cannot see the Invoice Batch Processing page. Your school must also be connected to Xero (see the Xero Integration article).
Invoice Batch Processing gives your school an accounts-receivable workflow in edge: every invoicing run is grouped into an invoice batch, and each batch can be exported to Xero as a manual journal against your nominated Accounts Receivable account. This feature is feature-switched and must be enabled for your school — contact support if you cannot see the Invoice Batch Processing page. Your school must also be connected to Xero (see the Xero Integration article).
How invoice batches are created
You do not create invoice batches manually. Each time billable items are confirmed and invoiced (for example from Finance > Processing > Assign Billable Items), all the invoices generated in that run are grouped into a single invoice batch. While the feature is enabled for your school, new batches are created as exportable and will appear on the Invoice Batch Processing page until they are exported.
Before you export
- Connect your school to Xero from Finance > Configuration > Finance Settings.
- Nominate an Accounts Receivable account at the top of Finance > Configuration > Maintain Ledger Number. The picker offers Current Asset accounts from your Xero chart of accounts. Exports fail with "An Accounts Receivable account has not been nominated" until this is done.
Exporting invoice batches to Xero
- Go to Finance > Processing > Invoice Batch Processing (requires the Manage Financials permission).
- The Current Invoice Batches view lists every exportable batch that has not yet been exported, with a ledger (GL) summary line for each account in the batch. Ledger numbers shown in red have been deleted or may not exist in Xero — the journal can still be created, but you will need to alter the journal entry manually in Xero.
- Tick the batches you want to export.
- Leave Export with Draft Status ticked to create the journal as a draft in Xero (the default), or untick it to post the journal immediately.
- Click Export to Xero. edge creates one manual journal covering the selected batches, dated with the latest invoice date, with a line per ledger number balanced against your Accounts Receivable account. Any warnings returned by Xero are shown on screen.
After a successful export the batches are marked as exported, recording the date, the user and the Xero manual journal they were sent to.
Screenshot: Current Invoice Batches view with batches ticked and the Export to Xero button
Managing invoice batches
Click Manage Invoice Batches to switch to a paged list of all invoice batches, newest first. Click Details on a batch to see:
- The invoices in the batch and the ledger summary.
- Whether the batch is exportable, and whether it has been exported (with date, time and who exported it).
- A link to open the batch's manual journal in Xero, if exported.
From the details panel you can:
| Action | When available | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Make Exportable / Make Non-Exportable | Batch not yet exported | Controls whether the batch appears in Current Invoice Batches for export. Mark unneeded batches as non-exportable |
| Reset Exported Status | Batch already exported | Clears the exported flag so the batch can be exported again. Tick Reset all Invoice Batches in the same Manual Journal to reset every batch that was exported in the same journal (recommended when they were exported together) |
After a reset, if the manual journal still exists in Xero, edge warns you: "The Manual Journal has not been deleted from Xero" along with its current status — delete or void the journal in Xero before re-exporting to avoid duplicates.
Screenshot: Manage Invoice Batches details panel showing exported status and reset options
How invoice batches interact with payment Batch Processing
When Invoice Batch Processing is enabled, payment batches (Finance > Processing > Batch Processing) and invoice batches are linked:
- On a payment batch's ledger summary, a warning marker appears against any line that relates to an invoice batch that has not been exported.
- A payment batch cannot be exported to Xero while it contains payments relating to un-exported invoice batches. Export all outstanding invoice batches first, or mark any unneeded invoice batches as non-exportable.
- The Accounts Receivable ledger must be configured on the Maintain Ledger Number page before payment batches can be exported.
This ordering ensures the revenue is journalled to Accounts Receivable before the payments that settle it are exported.