This is the second article in our Xero Guide, which explains how to successfully connect Moss and Xero.
Before you start connecting Moss and Xero, please ensure that you meet all the requirements and have the necessary data ready—these topics are covered in the first article in the Xero Guide.
General information
Connecting your Moss account to Xero will allow you to automatically import your chart of accounts, Suppliers (Contacts), VAT rates and tracking categories and to easily sync your transactions (card transactions, AP Invoices and employee reimbursements) from Moss into Xero with just a couple of clicks. This article explains how you set this connection up.
To connect Moss with Xero, you need a Moss user account with either the Accountant role (internal or external) or the Administrator role.
1. Open Moss and navigate to “Settings” > “Accounting”
2. Click “Setup Accounting”
3. You’ll be asked whether you’re responsible for accounting and have access to all necessary bookkeeping functions in your company.
If you do, please proceed with the setup. If not, please assign this task to the appropriate person and invite them to Moss if they haven’t joined yet.
4. Select Xero as your accounting software from the list and press “Continue”
5. Confirm you have the right permissions and Xero is set up for the connection, then “Connect to Xero”
6. In this step you get redirected to the Xero login page.
Once you are logged in with your user name and password, you need to select the organisation you want to connect to
7. Then “Allow access” for the Moss application.
8. You get redirected to the Moss <> Xero setup flow.
Please validate that you have selected the right entity to connect. Then “Sync and continue”. This imports the chart of accounts, suppliers (contacts) and VAT rates from Xero. Once the import is complete you can continue with the next step. The sync may take a while. Please wait until it’s complete.
9. Map your balance account
Once the sync is complete, you are asked to map your Moss balance account from Xero and the top-up account (your bank account you are sending funds from to top up your Moss Wallet balance). Then continue
If you are a Moss Credit customer, you have to map two mock bank accounts. One for your Moss Credit balance and one for your Moss Wallet balance.
10. Map your Moss default supplier
In the next step you have to either map your Moss Default Supplier for card transactions or enable supplier accounting. If supplier accounting is enabled, credit card transactions are posted against the respective suppliers of the merchants you pay. If disabled, all credit card transactions are posted against the Moss Default Supplier mapped here.
Now continue to the next step.
11. Organisation is VAT registered
In the next step you can set a toggle if your organisation is VAT registered and if you want to enable VAT override for transactions
12. Map Xero tracking categories
In this step, you need to map your Xero Tracking Categories to Moss Cost Center and Cost Carrier dimensions - Dimensions can be re-named to Xero names in a later step.
13. Integration settings
The next screen is an overview page of your Xero integration settings.
Here you can review the setup and add additional configuration
Configure the line description in the field “Line description export type”: Either use our standard description with additional information on the transaction or sync the note field only as description into Xero
Set your Prepayments account if you want to use Moss to automate prepayment postings
Select your “Bank Fees” account to post conversion and payment fees separately into Xero (if left blank, Moss will include fees in the conversion rate of the bill and payment we create in Xero).
Enable or disable supplier creation from Moss (do you want to create or manage supplier accounts (and contacts) from Moss and sync changes instantly into Xero or should suppliers be managed in Xero exclusively
Enable or Disable if you are subscribed to Xero premium. This will change the way we post FX transactions into Xero. If you are subscribed to Xero premium we will post transactions with their original currency (e.g. EUR or USD) with the conversion rate Moss has applied. If you don’t subscribe to Xero premium we will post all expenses in your Xero home currency (GBP), converted by Moss
14. Chart of Accounts
Now you will find the imported chart of accounts. You can mark accounts inactive if you don’t want to use them in Moss by selecting them, click “Edit” and set status to “Inactive”. Continue to the next step.
15. Supplier contacts
In the next step you see the imported suppliers and contacts from Xero. You can mark those inactive which you don’t want to use in Moss. For suppliers, we sync the following fields with Xero:
Supplier Name
VAT ID
Currency
Account Number
Sort Code
Address (Country, Street, Post Code and City)
16. VAT codes
n the next step you find the imported VAT codes from Xero. We recommend marking Income VAT codes inactive as they are not used in expenses from Moss.
17. In the next step you can manage the first imported tracking category.
Continue. In the last step you can manage your second imported tracking category. Then finish setup.
18. Manage your tracking categories
If you want to manage your tracking categories and want to align the Moss name with the name from Xero, open “Dimensions”, hover over the dimension you want to change and press “Edit dimension”. You can now edit the display name and save.
19. Billable expenses
If you want to import customers to record billable expenses directly in Moss, please follow our “Billable expenses” article.
You have now successfully connected Xero to sync transactions from Moss.
Your bookings will now be exported directly from Moss to Xero together with the document images, including the audit log protocol.
You have now successfully connected both tools.
In the next article you will learn how to export your data from Moss into Xero.