The Xero integration for Karbon offers a powerful solution for accounting firms and businesses to streamline their client management and financial processes. At its core, the contact sync feature ensures that your client contact data is consistently and accurately shared between your Xero account and your Karbon workspace. This eliminates the need for manual data entry, reduces the risk of errors, and ensures that everyone on your team has access to the most up-to-date client information, regardless of which platform they are using. This overview will explore the key functionalities and benefits of both the Xero contact sync and the new invoice sync.
Key Features/Benefits
Contact Sync:
Effortless Contact Import: Upon initial connection of Xero to Karbon, you will be prompted to select a ContactType filter. Karbon will then import only contacts matching your selection (Customers only, Suppliers and Customers, or All contacts). Contacts excluded by this filter will not sync.
Intelligent Contact Matching: Karbon employs a smart matching system that analyzes incoming Xero contacts and compares them with your existing Karbon contacts. This matching process primarily relies on the contact's name and billing email address to identify potential links. Contacts are categorized into three groups:
Full Match: Both the name and billing email perfectly align with an existing Karbon contact.
Conflict: Either the name or the billing email matches a Karbon contact, but not both. These require manual review.
No Match: Neither the name nor the billing email corresponds to any existing Karbon contact.
Seamless Bi-directional Synchronization: For contacts identified as a "Full Match," the integration establishes a continuous, two-way synchronization for key contact fields. This means that any changes made to the following information in either Karbon or Xero will be automatically and immediately reflected in the other system:
Contact Name
Billing Email
Primary Phone Number
Billing Address
Intuitive Conflict Resolution: When the system identifies a "Conflict," these partial matches are flagged for your attention in a dedicated "Match Issues" screen. Here, you can review the potential matches and decide whether to confirm the link (allowing Xero data to overwrite Karbon data for synced fields) or create a new, separate Karbon contact. This ensures you maintain data integrity and avoid accidental merging of disparate clients.
Automatic New Contact Creation in Karbon: Contacts from Xero that meet the ContactType filter but have "No Match" will trigger new Karbon contact creation. Contacts excluded by the filter will not be imported or visible until the filter changes. This new Karbon contact will inherit the available data from Xero (Name, Primary Email, Phone Number, and Billing Address) and will be assigned the default Contact Type that you specified during the initial sync setup. Importantly, Karbon's AI will also attempt to classify the new contact as either a person or an organization.
Manual Contact Creation from Karbon to Xero: While Xero contacts are automatically pulled into Karbon, contacts created directly within Karbon do not automatically sync to Xero. However, you have the flexibility to manually push a Karbon contact to Xero at any time. Within the Karbon contact's details, in the "Xero Client" section, a "Create Xero Contact" button allows you to initiate this one-way sync, transferring the contact's Name, Billing Email, Primary Phone Number, and Billing Address to create a new contact in Xero. Creating contacts in Karbon and pushing to Xero bypasses ContactType filtering and ensures immediate sync.
Flexible Unsyncing and Re-syncing: You have control over which contacts are actively synchronized. At any point, you can choose to "unsync" a matched contact. This will break the synchronization link, and future changes in either system will no longer affect the other. If needed, previously unsynced contacts can be found in the "Unsynced" tab within the "Match Issues" screen, allowing you to re-match them and resume synchronization or create a new contact based on either the Karbon or Xero data.
Invoice Sync:
Seamless Karbon to Xero Invoice Synchronization: The new Karbon and Xero Blue Invoice Sync enables you to create invoices in Karbon and automatically sync them to Xero Blue. This ensures your accounting records are accurate and up-to-date with minimal manual effort.
Configurable Account and Tax Mapping: Set default revenue and expense accounts in Xero, map specific Karbon Service Types to Xero accounts for detailed reporting, and link Karbon tax rates to corresponding Xero tax rates.
Flexible Sync Start Date: Control which invoices sync to Xero by setting a specific start date. Only invoices issued on or after this date will be synchronized.
Automated Status Updates: Once an invoice is sent in Karbon, its status automatically updates to 'Awaiting Payment' and triggers the sync to Xero, streamlining your invoicing workflow.
Use Cases/Examples
Onboarding New Clients: When you onboard a new client, it is recommended to create the contact in Karbon first and push it to Xero. This ensures the contact appears correctly in Xero.
Maintaining Up-to-Date Information: If a client changes their billing address or primary contact number and updates this information in Xero, the corresponding fields in the linked Karbon contact will be automatically updated, ensuring your team always has the correct details.
Resolving Data Entry Discrepancies: The conflict resolution feature helps identify situations where a client might be listed slightly differently in Karbon and Xero (e.g., different abbreviations or a maiden name vs. married name). You can then review these potential matches and ensure the systems are aligned.
Centralized Client View: By synchronizing contact information, your team can rely on Karbon as a central hub for all client-related activities, knowing that the core contact details are consistent with your financial records in Xero.
Efficient Communication: Accurate email addresses and phone numbers, kept in sync by the integration, ensure that your client communications reach the intended recipients without errors.
Streamlined Invoicing: Create invoices in Karbon and have them automatically synced to Xero Blue, ensuring consistent and accurate financial records without manual re-entry.