Skip to main content

Setting Up and Using Xero Contact Sync

Seamlessly connect Karbon and Xero contacts. Set up two-way sync, prepare data, and troubleshoot issues for consistent client info.

Erin Jamison avatar
Written by Erin Jamison
Updated this week

This guide provides a comprehensive walkthrough on setting up and effectively using the Xero contact sync integration with Karbon. By connecting these two platforms, you can automate the flow of client contact information, ensuring data accuracy and saving valuable time. This article covers the initial setup process, managing the synchronization of contacts, resolving any conflicts that may arise, and understanding how to keep your contact data up-to-date in both systems.

Index:

    • How the Integration Works: Contact Matching Explained

    • Review and Cleanse Xero Contact Data

    • Identify and Resolve Duplicate Contacts

    • Remove Unnecessary Contacts

    • Verify Billing Email Consistency

    • Consider Contact Segmentation (Optional)

    • Understand your Xero ContactType groups

    • Access Karbon Settings

    • Connect to Xero

    • Authorize Karbon

    • Assign Contact Type Filter

    • Assign Default Contact Type

    • Initiate Initial Sync

    • Importing and Syncing Contacts

    • Interacting with Matched Contacts

    • Resolving Conflicts

    • Continuous Syncing on Matched Contacts

    • Unsyncing Matched Contacts

    • Re-syncing Contacts

    • Creating Contacts in Xero and Pushing to Karbon

    • Creating Contacts in Karbon and Pushing to Xero

Prerequisites

  • You must have an active Karbon account with administrator privileges.

  • You must have an active Xero (General Ledger) account with Primary Admin credentials.

  • Ensure you are logged into the correct Xero account that you wish to connect to Karbon.

1. Prepare Your Data for Xero Contact Sync

Ensuring a smooth and accurate synchronization of your client contact data between Xero and Karbon starts with preparing your data in Xero. This process minimizes matching issues and ensures data integrity in Karbon.

How the Integration Works: Contact Matching Explained

When you connect Karbon to Xero and start the contact sync, Karbon attempts to match your contacts using two key pieces of information:

  • Contact Name: The exact name of the contact in both Xero and Karbon.

  • Billing Email: The primary email address in Xero, which Karbon uses as the Billing Email for matching.

Based on these two criteria, here's what happens:


Does the Contact Name match?

Does the Billing Email match?

Result

Action Required?

Yes

AND

Yes

Full Match: Contacts are linked.

No

Yes

AND

No

Partial Match (Conflict): Name matches, email differs.

Manual Review Required

No

AND

Yes

Partial Match (Conflict): Email matches, name differs.

Manual Review Required

No

AND

No

No Match: A new contact is created in Karbon from the Xero contact.

Usually No

Additionally, contacts excluded by the ContactType filter in Xero will not be imported during sync, even if they partially or fully match a Karbon contact. Karbon will notify users of excluded matches through new UI banners on the Karbon contact card, allowing manual sync override if needed.

Review and Cleanse Xero Contact Data:

Carefully review your Xero contact list, focusing on:

  • Full Names: Verify complete and accurate full names for each contact. Consistent naming is crucial for matching.

  • Primary Email Addresses: Ensure the primary email field is accurate for all contacts. This is a primary matching field for Karbon.

  • Phone Numbers: Check for accuracy and consistency in phone numbers for comprehensive contact information in Karbon.

  • Billing Addresses: Standardize the format of billing addresses for more accurate data in Karbon.

Identify and Resolve Duplicate Contacts:

Find and address any duplicate entries in Xero. Merge or archive duplicates before syncing to avoid issues in Karbon.

Best Practice Tip: Use Xero search and reporting to find potential duplicates by name, email, or phone number.

Remove Unnecessary Contacts:

Delete any test, placeholder (e.g., "[email address removed]"), or outdated contact records to keep your Karbon environment clean.

Verify Billing Email Consistency:

Remember Karbon matches using the billing email from Xero against the Billing Email field in Karbon. Ensure the primary email in Xero is the correct billing email for each client.

Consider Contact Segmentation (Optional):

If you plan to segment clients differently in Karbon later (e.g., different ContactTypes), consider if any Xero data attributes can aid this post-sync. Clean data facilitates easier organization in Karbon.

Understand your Xero ContactType groups:

  • Customers (contacts with sales invoices/customer credits)

  • Suppliers (contacts with bills/supplier credits)

  • Null (no qualifying transactions)

Prepare your data accordingly, knowing that the ContactType filter will limit which contacts sync into Karbon.

2. Set Up the Xero Contact Sync

The following video demonstrates how to use the Xero contact sync Smart Import filters to help you bring in only the desired contact types from Xero into Karbon.

1. Access Karbon Settings: Navigate to Settings in your Karbon account and click on Connected Apps.

2.Connect to Xero: Locate Xero in the list of available apps and click the Connect button.

3. Authorize Karbon: You will be redirected to Xero. Log in with your primary administrator credentials again and click Allow access to authorize Karbon to connect to your Xero account.

4. Assign Contact Type Filter: You will be prompted to select a ContactType filter to apply to your Xero contact sync: Customers only, Suppliers and Customers, or All contacts. This filter determines which contacts will be imported during the initial sync.

5. Assign Default Contact Type: Once the connection is established, you will be prompted to select a default ContactType in Karbon. This type will be automatically assigned to any new contacts created in Karbon as a result of the Xero sync. Choose the most appropriate ContactType from the dropdown menu (e.g., Client-VIP).

6. Initiate Initial Sync: After assigning the ContactType, Karbon will automatically begin the initial synchronization process, importing all contacts from your Xero account.

3. Manage Contact Sync

Importing and Syncing Contacts

Once the connection is established, Karbon automatically imports only those contacts from Xero that match your selected ContactType filter and attempts to match them with existing Karbon contacts based on name and billing email. Imported Xero contacts are categorised as follows:

  • Full match: Both the name and billing email match an existing Karbon contact. These contacts will be automatically synced.

  • Conflict: Either the name or the billing email matches a Karbon contact, but not both. These require manual review in the "Resolve Match Issues" screen.

  • No match: Neither the name nor the billing email matches an existing Karbon contact. These will result in the creation of new Karbon contacts.

Xero Contact Name

Xero Primary Email

Karbon Contact Name

Karbon Billing Email

Result

John Smith

John Smith

Full match

Sam Brown

Sam Brown

Conflicts - Email doesn't match

James Morgan

Josh Morgan

Conflicts - Name doesn't match

Thomas Richardson

-

-

No Match

Please keep in mind, the initial sync, Karbon will not create new contacts in Xero.

Contacts with No Match

Xero contacts who have been imported and cannot be matched with a Karbon contact will result in a new Karbon contact being created, the contact who is created will inherit the ContactType selected on the sync set-up screen and inherit the following data from the Xero contact if available;

  • Contact Name

  • Primary Email Address

  • Primary Phone Number

  • Billing Address

Please Note:

  • Newly created Karbon contacts will be matched with the Xero contact that triggered its creation.

  • Karbon will automatically create a Karbon contact as either a person or organization using AI, If this classification was incorrect please refer to the following FAQ's on how to remedy and change the classification: Xero Contact Sync: FAQ

Fully Matched Contacts

When a contact match is found, any differences in billing address or phone number will be overridden with data from the Xero contact.

Example:

If there is a conflict in the billing address on a matched contact, the Karbon contact will be updated to match the Xero contact field.

For a full list of synced data points, see the table below.

Xero Contact Data Point

Karbon Contact Data Point

Contact Name

Contact Name

Primary Email

Billing Email

Primary Phone Number

Primary Phone Number

Billing Address

Billing Address

Please Note: Once a contact is matched, any changes made to the above data points in one system will automatically update the corresponding data in the other. (e.g., if the billing email address is updated in Karbon, the primary email address in Xero will be updated.)

Interacting with Matched Contacts

To view your synced contacts, navigate to the View Client List from the Connected Apps settings.

You can click on a contact name to view the Karbon contact details or click the three-dot menu (...) next to a contact and select Open in Xero to view the corresponding contact in Xero.

Resolving Conflicts

Contacts where only the name or email matches are listed under Resolve Match Issues on the Connected Apps page.

Here, you can review each partial match and choose to:

  • Confirm Match: Link the contacts, and Xero data will overwrite Karbon data for the synced fields.

  • Create New Contact: Create a separate Karbon contact using the data from the Xero contact.

Once a conflict is resolved, the contact will be added to the synced client list.

Continuous Syncing on Matched Contacts

Once a contact is successfully matched, a continuous bi-directional sync is established for key data points. Additionally, if a contact’s ContactType changes in Xero after initial sync, Karbon will not evaluate and sync the contact accordingly based on your selected filter.

  • Contact Name

  • Billing Email

  • Billing Address

  • Primary Phone Number

Any updates to these fields in either Karbon or Xero will automatically update the corresponding field in the other system.

Unsyncing Matched Contacts

You can choose to stop the synchronization for a specific contact. To do this, navigate to the View Client List, click the three-dot menu next to the contact, and select Unsync Contact. Once unsynced, changes made to the contact in either Karbon or Xero will no longer affect the other.

Re-syncing Contacts

Previously unsynced contacts can be found under the Unsynced tab in the Resolve Match Issues screen.

To re-enable synchronization, you can either Re-match the contact to an existing Karbon contact or Create New Contact using the data from either system. Once resolved, the contact will be added back to the synced contact list.

Creating Contacts

Creating Contacts in Xero and Pushing to Karbon

Any new contact created in your connected Xero account after the initial sync will be automatically imported into Karbon only if it matches the selected ContactType filter. Imported contacts are processed through Karbon’s matching algorithm. To determine whether the contact is created as an Organisation or a Person, the integration analyses the Contact Name field using an intelligent classifier. If no match is found, a new Karbon contact is created.

Creating Contacts in Karbon and Pushing to Xero

Contacts created directly in Karbon do not automatically sync to Xero. To create a new Xero contact from a Karbon contact:

  1. Open the desired contact in Karbon.

  2. Scroll down to the Xero Client section.

  3. Click the Create Contact button.

This action will create a new contact in Xero using the following information from the Karbon contact:

  • Contact Name

  • Billing Email

  • Primary Phone Number

  • Billing Address

You can verify the creation of the Xero contact in the Xero Client section of the Karbon contact details.

Further Reading 📖

Did this answer your question?