Note: We strongly recommend you contact the Customer Success Team for guidance when setting up Xero Integration.
To get started with the enableHR-Xero integration, you need to execute the following actions:
1. Authorise the relationship between the Xero and enableHR: Xero Employee Import;
2. Configure the integration in enableHR by following the steps below;
3. Understand what is synchronised and the limitations:
What Employee Information can be updated and created with the EnableHR-Xero 2-Way Connector?
How can I configure the integration?
Before you get started, please consider which scenario is relevant to your organisation.
After establishing the link between Xero and enableHR (see Step 1 above), it is important to complete some configuration steps to ensure that the correct automation is in place.
There are different options and considerations to executing these create/update operations, which are explained in the sections below:
- The Authoritative System to set the source of truth in case of a conflict;
- Automatic imports with the scheduler;
- Automatic exports with the scheduler;
- Matching Xero records to existing enableHR employees and enableHR candidates;
- Using branches when importing Xero employees into enableHR and allowing for the transfer of employees between branches (Can be found here: [refer to article])
Before we start the steps: It is recommended during se-up that you should follow this whole configuration process before running the connector for the first time. Pay particular care to the Authoritative System option.
Reminder: Your Xero connection with enableHR will be depended on your Xero user access, please ensure you have the highest Xero user access before you set up the integration. Your Xero user access will need to remain the same all the time to ensure the integration runs smoothly. Any changes to your Xero user access will impact the integration's connection.
Configure the Xero-enableHR Integration
To access the configuration page, click on “Settings ” and then “Account Settings”.
Click on the “Account Details” tab and then the “Integration” sub-tab. Select “Edit”. You are now in the integration tab, where the Xero configuration can start.
Authoritative System - The ‘source of truth’
The enableHR-Xero Connector is a two-way integration, which means that data flows from enableHR to Xero and vice versa.
Because of this, it is possible to be in a situation where some data has been updated on both systems and needs to be synchronised. In these cases, we need to know what data should be treated as the source of truth - this is called a merge conflict. Below is an example of a conflict.
As you can see, a conflict only occurs when the same data was updated on both systems between two Import/Export cycles.
We handle these situations by using an Authoritative System, a mechanism by which we define what system is to be considered the source of truth when dealing with merge conflicts.
The Authoritative System can be set to one of the three following options:
-
Unselected (blank): In the case of a merge conflict, nothing is done (neither system is updated). An email is sent to the account administrator who needs to manually fix the mismatch. This is the default value;
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Xero: In case of a merge conflict, Xero is considered the source of truth and therefore the Xero version of the data will be used. An email is sent to the account administrator with the before and after values (for reference);
- enableHR: In case of a merge conflict, enableHR is considered the source of truth and therefore the enableHR version of the data will be used. An email is sent to the account administrator with the before and after values (for reference).
Below is an example of a merge conflict is managed.
To setup your Authoritative System please navigate to “Account Details” and then select “Integration” and “Authoritative System”.
Note: The Authoritative system is only activated when some data was modified on the two systems since the last import. If this data was only activated on one system, whether it is Xero or EnableHR, this update will be synchronised to the other system.
Automatic import with the scheduler
Once you have configured the Xero integration, you can select to automatically run the import process every 3 hours. In this case, you will not have to regularly do the import manually.
This is done by selecting “Automatic Import” in the configuration page.
Automatic export with the scheduler
Once you have configured the Xero integration, you can select to automatically run the export process every 3 hours. In this case, you will not have to regularly do the export manually.
This is done by selecting “Automatic Export” in the configuration page.
IMPORTANT: Matching Xero records to existing EnableHR employees
When you first run the import process, your Xero employees are going to be created in enableHR. This is fine if they do not already exist in enableHR, but what happens if the employees already exist in enableHR?
The import process can try and match Xero employees with records already in EnableHR. If there is an employee record in enableHR with the same “First Name”, “Last Name” and “Birth Date”, then it is a match and the update will merge into the existing record. If there is no match, a new employee record will be created.
Matching Xero records to existing EnableHR candidates
enableHR also uses the notion of candidate records.
When the import process is running, a Xero employee might not exist as an enableHR employee, but it could be a candidate. In this case, you can instruct the import process to convert the enableHR candidate into an enableHR employee. The search for an existing candidate will be done using the “First Name”, “Last Name” and “Birth Date”.
This is done by selecting “Merge Candidates” in the configuration page.