HitPay Xero Integration Guide [2026 Updated]

Connecting your HitPay sales data with your Xero accounting software eliminates tedious manual data entry and maintains accurate financial records. This automation ensures your sales, refunds, and payouts flow directly into your books, giving you a clear, real-time view of your business's performance. This guide will walk you through setting up the integration, show you exactly what data syncs, and provide solutions for common troubleshooting issues.

Why Connect HitPay to Xero?

Integrating HitPay and Xero is about more than just convenience; it’s about creating an efficient and accurate financial workflow. For e-commerce stores, service providers, and any business using HitPay to collect payments, this connection automates critical accounting tasks and provides significant operational benefits.

Here’s what you gain from the integration:

• Automated Data Entry: Sales transactions, customer details, tax information, and refunds are created in Xero automatically. This eliminates the need to manually key in every sale, saving you hours of administrative work and reducing the risk of human error.
• Simplified Bank Reconciliation: HitPay payouts, which batch multiple customer payments together, are often difficult to reconcile manually. The integration can automatically record these payouts and associated processing fees, making it easy to match the deposits in your bank account with the records in Xero.
• Real-Time Financial Reporting: With sales data flowing directly into Xero as it happens, your financial reports are always up-to-date. You can confidently check your profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and accounts receivable reports to make timely business decisions without waiting for month-end manual updates.
• Improved Accuracy: Automation ensures consistency. Tax rates, discounts, and customer information are transferred accurately, preventing the small mistakes that often accumulate during manual data entry and lead to inaccurate financial statements and tax filings.

How to Set Up the HitPay and Xero Integration

Connecting HitPay to Xero is a straightforward process managed directly within your HitPay dashboard. HitPay provides a native, built-in integration that handles the data flow without requiring a third-party tool. Follow these steps to get your accounts connected and configured.

Prerequisites Before You Begin

Before starting the setup process, ensure you have the following:

• An active HitPay account with administrator access.
• An active Xero account with Standard or Advisor user permissions to authorize app connections.
• Your login credentials for both platforms readily available.

Step-by-Step Connection Guide

Follow this detailed walkthrough to authorize the connection and configure your sync settings.

1. Log in to your HitPay Dashboard
Start by logging into your HitPay account. From the main dashboard, navigate to the left-hand menu and find the "Integrations" section.

2. Select the Xero Integration
In the Integrations marketplace, you will see a list of available software connections. Locate the Xero logo and click "Connect." This action will redirect you to the Xero authorization page.

3. Authorize HitPay to Access Your Xero Account
You will be prompted to log in to your Xero account. Once logged in, Xero will ask for your permission to allow HitPay to access your organization’s data. This is a standard OAuth process that securely links the two platforms without sharing your password. Review the permissions and click "Allow access."

4. Configure Your Synchronization Settings
After authorizing the connection, you will be redirected back to HitPay to configure how data syncs.

• Map Your Bank Account: Choose which Xero bank account HitPay sales and fees should be recorded in. Many users create a new clearing account in Xero (e.g., "HitPay Clearing") to manage this. Sales revenue goes into this account, and when HitPay sends a payout to your actual bank account, you simply create a transfer in Xero from the clearing account to your business bank account.
• Map Income Accounts: Select the default Xero income account where your sales revenue will be posted. For better tracking, you can set up specific income accounts in Xero for different product types or services first.
• Map Tax Rates: Match the tax rates you have set up in HitPay with their corresponding tax rates in Xero. Correct mapping is very important for accurate tax reporting.
• Configure Payouts: Specify how HitPay processing fees should be categorized by selecting the appropriate expense account in Xero (e.g., "Bank Fees" or "Transaction Fees").

5. Save and Start the Sync
Once you are satisfied with your configuration, save your settings. The integration will be active, and HitPay will begin syncing new transactions to Xero based on your settings. Depending on the settings, it may also perform a one-time historical sync. Check the integration details for this option.

6. Verify the Data in Xero
After the first sync is complete, log in to your Xero account to verify that the transactions have appeared correctly. Check an invoice or sales receipt created by the integration. Ensure the customer details, amounts, tax rates, and account mappings are all correct. This confirmation step helps you catch any configuration issues early.

What Data Syncs Between HitPay and Xero?

Understanding which data points are transferred helps you appreciate the scope of the integration and manage your bookkeeping effectively. The native integration syncs a comprehensive set of data to keep your financial records complete.

• Sales Transactions: For every successful payment processed through HitPay, a corresponding sales invoice is created in Xero. This invoice includes the customer's name, the date of the transaction, line items with descriptions, quantities, unit prices, and the total amount. The invoice is automatically marked as paid.
• Customer Data: New customer information from HitPay is used to create a new contact in Xero. If a contact with a matching name already exists, the integration will link the invoice to the existing contact, preventing duplicates.
• Refunds and Chargebacks: When you process a refund in HitPay, a credit note is automatically generated in Xero and applied to the original sales invoice. This keeps your revenue and accounts receivable reports accurate.
• Tax Information: The integration pulls the tax rates applied to each line item in a HitPay sale and matches them to the corresponding tax rates you configured in Xero. This ensures your sales tax liability is recorded correctly.
• Payouts and Fees: The integration creates a bank transfer or journal entry that reflects the net payout deposited into your bank account. It also records the HitPay processing fees as a separate expense, giving you a clear picture of your net income and transaction costs.

Troubleshooting Common Integration Issues

While the integration is generally reliable, occasional issues can arise. Here are solutions to some of the most common problems users encounter.

Sync Errors or Delays

Sometimes, transactions might not appear in Xero immediately. This can be due to temporary API connection issues between HitPay and Xero or a momentary heavy load on their servers. If the delay persists for more than a few hours, first check the integration status in your HitPay dashboard. You can also try disconnecting and reconnecting the integration. This process re-establishes the authentication token and can often resolve syncing problems.

Incorrect Data Mapping

If you notice transactions being assigned to the wrong accounts in Xero, the issue is likely in your initial configuration settings. To fix this:

1. Go to the Xero integration settings in your HitPay dashboard.
2. Review all account mappings, including the bank account for payments, the income account for sales, and the expense account for fees.
3. Ensure the tax rate mappings are correct. A common mistake is mismatching standard tax rates with tax-exempt or zero-rated codes.
4. Save your changes. The updated mappings will apply to all future transactions. You may need to manually correct any transactions that synced with the wrong settings in Xero.

Duplicate Customer Contacts

The integration tries to match customers by name, but slight variations (e.g., "John Doe" vs. "Jonathan Doe") can lead to duplicate contacts in Xero. To resolve this, use Xero's "Merge Contacts" feature. You can select the duplicate contacts and merge them into a single, primary contact record. Regular review of your Xero contact list can help keep your customer data clean.

Handling Alternative Integration Methods if Needed

While the native integration serves most needs, some businesses require more customized workflows. In these cases, tools like Zapier or Make can connect HitPay and Xero. These platforms allow you to build custom "Zaps" or "Scenarios" that trigger specific actions based on HitPay events. For example, you could create a workflow to add customers who make a purchase over a certain amount to a specific contact group in Xero. This method offers greater flexibility but may involve subscription costs and a more complex setup.

Final Thoughts

Integrating HitPay with Xero transforms your accounting workflow from a manual, time-consuming process into an automated, efficient system. By automatically syncing sales, refunds, and payout data, this connection reduces errors and provides you with an always-accurate view of your financial health, empowering you to focus on growing your business.

Getting your systems to talk to each other is the first step, but complex questions can still pop up. Whether you're determining how to record revenue from a new international market or researching the tax implications of different payment fees, getting fast, accurate answers is important. This is where Feather AI helps. Ask any complex tax or accounting question in plain language, and get an instant, citation-backed response from authoritative sources like the IRC and IRS publications, helping you handle compliance with confidence.