TailrideXero
Automatically create and populate bills in Xero with Tailride.
Overview
Tailride creates bills in Xero automatically — with coded line items, tracking categories, tax rates, contact matching, and the original document attached.
Prerequisites
- An active Xero account on a paid plan
- A Tailride business account (Xero can only be connected from a business account)
- Authorization for Tailride to access your Xero organization
Setting Up the Integration
In Tailride, open the Integrations tab and click Connect on the Xero card — this triggers the Xero authentication flow
Select your organization and agree to the required permissions
After connecting, the setup dialog opens: sync your chart of accounts, optionally import coding history, and configure automatic export. See Accounting Software for the full setup flow.
Several Organizations on One Xero Login
A single Xero login often reaches several organizations — for example, an accountant who manages every client from one practice login. Tailride connects the organization you pick on Xero's authorization screen, and the Xero card shows its name (Connected · Organization name).
If Tailride cannot tell which organization you meant, it asks instead of guessing. This happens when you pick an organization that this Xero login has already connected to Tailride before, or when you tick several at once. A Choose your Xero organization page lists the organizations. Nothing is preselected, and the one currently linked to the workspace is labelled Currently linked. Pick the organization whose books this workspace should send documents to and click Connect organization. Cancel leaves the existing connection unchanged.
When you tick several organizations at once, Tailride disconnects the ones you didn't choose, so they don't stay connected without a workspace using them.
The choice waits for 24 hours. Until then, the Xero card in Integrations shows a Finish connecting Xero link that takes you back to it. After that, connect Xero again.
Accountants: One Workspace per Client
Connect Xero from inside each client's workspace and check that the Xero card shows that client's organization. If a client shows another organization:
Open the client's workspace and click Change organization on the Xero card. You don't need to disconnect first.
Select the client's organization in Xero and authorize. If Tailride then shows the Choose your Xero organization page, pick the client's organization there too.
In the setup dialog, sync the chart of accounts and set the default account again. The default account belongs to the previous organization, so it is cleared and automatic export pauses until you set a new one.
Bills already exported stay in the organization they were sent to, and Tailride skips them on later exports. Remove them from the wrong organization in Xero, then re-upload each affected invoice individually.
Disconnecting Xero in one workspace doesn't affect other workspaces that use the same organization through the same Xero login: Tailride keeps that login's Xero connection as long as another workspace still needs it.
Export Settings
- Create bills as drafts in Xero — when enabled, bills land as Draft; otherwise they are created as Awaiting Payment (authorised)
- Default account — the expense account used for uncoded or adjustment lines (coded lines keep their own accounts)
Tracking Categories
When tracking categories exist in your Xero organisation, sync them under Cost tracking and assign options with rules or by hand on each line. Assigned options are sent with each bill line on export.
The manual Add to Xero dialog shows a read-only Cost tracking summary of what will be sent. Edit tracking on the invoice preview, not in the export dialog.
If an option was renamed or removed in Xero, or Xero's tracking catalog cannot be read at export time, Tailride still creates the bill and omits the unavailable tracking rather than failing the export.
How Export Works
Tailride checks if the contact exists in Xero — matched by tax number, then email, then name. New contacts are created and existing ones enriched with missing details.
A bill (accounts payable invoice) is created with line items, each carrying its account code, tax type, and any tracking category options. Amounts in currencies not enabled in Xero are converted to your base currency (optional, at the invoice-date rate).
The original PDF is attached to the bill.
A quick-access link appears in Tailride to open the bill in Xero. Credit notes are created as Xero credit notes.
Exports run automatically when auto-export is enabled, or manually via Add to Xero in the invoice actions menu — the manual dialog lets you override the account and tax rate per batch.
Security
What We Access
- Basic organization information
- Chart of accounts
- Tracking categories
- Contacts list
- Tax rates
- Bill transactions
We Don't Access
- Sales data
- Customer information
- Employee data
- Banking details
- We use Xero's official OAuth 2.0 authentication — Tailride never stores your credentials
- You can revoke access at any time through Xero or disconnect from the Tailride dashboard
Limitations
- We can't modify or delete existing Xero data
- Already-exported invoices are skipped (a single invoice can be re-uploaded explicitly)