Xero Integration FAQ
Can I disable automatic invoice generation temporarily?
Yes. You can switch off automatic invoice generation so invoices are not sent to clients until your Xero settings (e.g., VAT rates) are fully configured. Clients will still receive payment confirmations.
Can I generate invoices retroactively?
Within the current financial year, yes. After you have finalized your Xero settings, you can go through existing bookings and generate invoices for past payments — so you can launch bookings first and sort out invoicing later.
Not into a previous year. Xero refuses invoices dated in a closed period, so Zooza cannot create last year's missing invoices for you now. If a period was never invoiced and the year has since closed, those invoices have to be entered in Xero by hand. Worth knowing before you postpone invoicing across a year end, and worth checking the connection has not expired — an expired Xero connection silently stops the sync until you re-synchronise it in Settings → Billing & Payments → Invoice profiles.
My invoices show "tax exempt" — how do I fix VAT settings?
VAT rates are managed in your Xero account. Make sure the correct tax rate is set up in Xero, then re-sync the connection in Zooza under Settings → Billing & Payments → Invoice profiles. After syncing, invoices will reflect the correct VAT rate.
Where do I manage Xero connection settings?
Go to Settings → Billing & Payments → Invoice profiles in Zooza. From there you can sync or re-sync your Xero connection and configure invoice settings.
Do invoices get marked as paid automatically?
Zooza can automatically mark invoices as paid in Xero when the corresponding payment is received through Stripe. This feature needs to be enabled — contact support if it is not working on your account.
A payment arrived in Stripe but there is no invoice in Xero — why?
Almost always because the payment never reached Zooza.
Zooza asks Xero for an invoice only once the payment is recorded in Zooza, and only once the debt for that period is settled. A payment taken outside Zooza — a Stripe payment link you sent by hand, a card machine, a transfer straight into your bank — is invisible to Zooza, so no invoice is ever triggered. Record it against the registration (Add payment on the booking) and the invoice follows.
This is also why chasing a mismatch by comparing your Stripe transaction list with your Xero invoice list rarely works. Two things break that comparison:
- Zooza combines several payments on one registration into a single invoice. Three instalments paid by card can be one invoice for the full amount. Counting transactions against invoices will always look wrong; compare total received against total invoiced on the registration instead.
- Reference numbers in a Stripe export are the client's reference, not a Zooza booking number. Matching them as booking numbers sends you to the wrong bookings.
A payment is missing from my Zooza payments export
Check which export you used. The Card transactions report contains only card payments taken through Zooza. Payments somebody recorded by hand — including "paid by Stripe link", cash, and bank transfers — sit under Payments → Transactions → Cash & transfer. A reconciliation that only looks at card transactions will be short by exactly those amounts, and this is the single most common reason a provider's Stripe total does not match their Zooza total.
If a payment appears in neither list, it was taken outside Zooza. Open it in Stripe to get the customer's name and email, then decide whether it belongs to a booking and should be recorded against it.
Does Zooza create credit notes in Xero when I refund someone?
No, and that is deliberate — credit note and refund treatment differs too much between countries and accounting setups for Zooza to guess. Credit notes are raised in Xero by hand.
What Zooza gives you is the refund record to raise them from: Payments → Refunds → Issued, filtered by date range and exportable. If your tax authority requires a separate credit note per refund rather than one monthly total, that export is the list to work from.
Stripe + Xero reconciliation
How do individual Zooza payments relate to what arrives in my bank account?
Stripe collects individual customer payments and pays them out to your bank in bulk (typically daily or weekly, after deducting fees). This creates a mismatch in Xero: many individual paid invoices, but one bulk bank transfer.
The correct way to handle this in Xero is with a Stripe Clearing account:
- Zooza → Xero: Each payment creates an invoice in Xero and marks it as paid. The payment is credited to your Stripe Clearing account (not directly to your main bank account).
- Stripe → Bank: When Stripe pays out, you record a bank transfer from the Stripe Clearing account to your main bank account.
- Result: The Stripe Clearing account nets to zero after each payout. Any remaining balance = funds collected by Stripe but not yet paid out.
This means reconciliation happens at two levels:
- Zooza / Xero — individual customer payments, matched to invoices
- Stripe payout summary — what Stripe actually transferred to your bank (use this to reconcile the Stripe Clearing account against your bank statement)
Where do I find the Stripe payout summary?
Go to your Stripe account → Balance section. For Stripe Standard accounts this is at dashboard.stripe.com → Balances. The monthly payout summary shows total payouts and the period balance — use this to verify your Stripe Clearing account balance in Xero at month-end.
What is the difference between Stripe Express and Stripe Standard?
Zooza supports both Stripe Express and Stripe Standard connections. The difference matters mainly for reporting access:
| Stripe Express | Stripe Standard | |
|---|---|---|
| Payment processing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Payout summary reports | Via Stripe Express dashboard | Via full Stripe dashboard |
| VAT invoices for Stripe fees | Limited (platform-dependent) | Available under Settings → Compliance and Documents |
| Recommended for | Simple setups | Companies needing full reporting and VAT invoices for fees |
If your accountant needs VAT invoices for Stripe processing fees, use Stripe Standard. To switch, disconnect the current Stripe connection in Zooza (Settings → Integrations → Stripe) and reconnect with your Standard account.
The invoice date in Xero doesn't match the booking date — is that correct?
Yes, this is by design. Zooza generates invoices based on the payment received date, not the booking creation date. If a payment was received in December but the invoice was generated in January, the invoice date will be in January with a December payment date. You can adjust the invoice date manually in Xero if needed.
Will I get duplicate receipts if Xero also pulls a bank or Stripe feed?
This depends on how the bank account is configured in your Invoice Profile. If set up correctly, there are no duplicates — but you need to understand the two-layer flow:
Layer 1 — Zooza payment sync (individual level): Each customer payment → Zooza creates a paid invoice in Xero → payment credited to your Stripe Clearing account in Xero (not your main bank account directly).
Layer 2 — Bank feed or Stripe payout (bulk level): Stripe pays out to your bank in bulk → your bank feed (or manual entry) records one bulk transfer → you match this to the Stripe Clearing account in Xero, not to individual invoices.
Result: No duplication. The two layers work at different levels — individual invoices vs. bulk payouts — and are reconciled against the same clearing account from opposite sides.
What causes duplication: Duplication occurs if you also connect Stripe directly as a bank account feed in Xero and let it import individual Stripe transactions. This creates the same transactions twice — once from Zooza, once from the Stripe feed. If you use Zooza's payment sync, do not connect Stripe as a separate bank feed in Xero.
Should I use Zooza payment sync or Xero's bank feed — which is the source of truth?
Use one approach, not both:
Option A — Zooza as source of truth (recommended for most companies)
- Zooza reports each payment to Xero in real time and marks invoices as paid.
- Your bank feed (Stripe or bank) reconciles bulk payouts against the Stripe Clearing account.
- Zooza + Xero = individual invoice records. Bank feed = payout verification only.
- Best for: companies that want client-level payment tracking and automatic reconciliation.
Option B — Xero bank feed as source of truth
- Payments flow into Xero via Stripe or bank feed directly.
- Invoices are matched to bank transactions manually in Xero.
- Zooza payment sync is turned off or not used.
- Best for: companies with an existing Xero workflow they don't want to change.
Most companies using Zooza + Xero use Option A. It keeps client payment data, booking status, and accounting in sync automatically.