Setting up Xero¶
A one-time job, best done with your accountant in the room. Ten minutes of their time, and the numbers land where they expect for good.
Where: Sales → Bookkeeping → the gear icon (Chart of accounts).
The account codes¶
Every line of the journal posts to a Xero account code. Two of them already exist in any New Zealand Xero org. The rest do not — they are suggestions, and you either create them in Xero or repoint them at accounts you already use.
| Line | Code | In a fresh Xero org? |
|---|---|---|
| Sales income | 200 | Yes, Xero's standard NZ chart |
| GST collected | 820 | Yes |
| Wastage offset (COGS/purchases) | 310 | Yes |
| Discounts given | — | Create it. Contra-revenue. |
| Loyalty rewards redeemed | — | Create it. Contra-revenue. |
| Cash clearing | — | Create it. Asset, reconciled against cash banked. |
| Card clearing | — | Create it. Asset, reconciled against the terminal settlement. |
| Card surcharge income | — | Create it. |
| Customer accounts (AR) clearing | — | Create it. |
| Gift voucher clearing | — | Create it. Liability movement. |
| Rounding | — | Create it. NZ 5c cash-rounding gains and losses. |
| Cash over/short | — | Create it. Till variance against the counted cash. |
| Wastage expense | — | Create it. |
Reset to NZ defaults puts every code back if you lose your place.
Then do a trial import into a Xero demo organisation before the real one.
The daily routine¶
- Pick the day. It opens on yesterday, because today is usually still trading.
- Read the badges, and check it says Balanced.
- Export Xero CSV and send it wherever suits.
- In Xero: Accounting → Manual journals → Import, review, post.
Re-exporting a day is fine. But if you have already posted that day in Xero, void the old journal there first or you will have it twice.
Why the figures look the way they do¶
Your accountant may ask about these. Short answers:
Discounts and loyalty are their own lines, not a smaller sales figure. Sales post gross and ex-GST, with what you gave away as explicit debits. Your P&L then shows the cost of doing business instead of hiding it.
Wastage is a reclass, not a new expense. The stock was already an expense when you bought it. Wastage debits a visible wastage line and credits COGS/purchases, so total expenses do not change — only visibility does. One line per reason, because staff meals and spoilage may be treated differently for deductibility. If your accountant runs perpetual inventory instead, point the offset at the inventory asset account.
On-account sales are income on the day of the sale, with the amount owing parked in accounts clearing. Paying the account off later clears that balance; counting it again would double-count.
Gift vouchers are the mirror image. Selling one is not income — GST falls at redemption. Spending one is.
A part-paid tab posts on the day it fully settles, all its payments together. Overnight it shows as a small cash-over.
Every CSV row says "No GST" on purpose. GST is already its own explicit line; without that flag Xero would calculate tax again on top and double it.
What this version does not do yet¶
- Export is a CSV through the share sheet. Posting straight into Xero is a possible later step.
- One GST rate (15%). Income is a single line, not split by category or by zero-rated and exempt rates.
- No COGS, stock movement or supplier bills. Those arrive with inventory; wastage is already in, as a cost reclass.
- One journal per site per calendar day. Trading past midnight splits a session across two of them, and the cash-up lands on the closing day — treat the over/short line with care on those days. A per-cash-up journal is the planned fix.