Planday Xero Integration Guide [2026 Updated]

Connecting your workforce management and accounting software is one of the most effective ways to reduce administrative work and get a clearer picture of your labor costs. If you use Planday for scheduling and time tracking and Xero for accounting, integrating them automates the flow of payroll data directly into your general ledger. This guide provides a detailed walkthrough of how to set up the Planday and Xero integration, customize the data sync, and troubleshoot common issues.

Why Connect Planday and Xero?

While manually exporting CSV files from one system and importing them into another is possible, it’s a time-consuming process prone to human error. A direct integration between Planday and Xero creates a reliable connection for a fraction of the effort. It eliminates redundant data entry and ensures your financial records are always accurate and up-to-date.

Here are the primary benefits of connecting the two platforms:

• Increased Efficiency: Automatically transfer approved employee hours, wage data, and overtime calculations directly from Planday to Xero Payroll. This cuts down the time spent on payroll processing from hours to minutes, freeing up your team to focus on more strategic work.
• Improved Accuracy: Manual data entry is a common source of payroll errors, leading to incorrect payments and compliance issues. The integration ensures that the exact hours worked, including any shift differentials or supplements, are pushed to Xero without modification, significantly reducing the risk of costly mistakes.
• Better Financial Visibility: Syncing Planday's labor cost data with Xero gives you a real-time view of your spending. You can track labor expenses against specific departments or locations using Xero's tracking categories, helping you make more informed budgeting and staffing decisions.
• Simplified Compliance: With accurate and timely data records in both systems, producing reports for audits or verifying compliance with labor laws becomes much simpler. The integration provides a clear data trail from the employee's clocked time in Planday to the final payslip in Xero.

How the Planday to Xero Integration Works

The integration acts as a bridge, allowing specific data from your Planday portal to flow directly into your Xero organization. The primary function is to prepare your payroll data in Planday, where you manage schedules and approve timesheets, and then export it to Xero, which handles the final wage calculations, tax withholding, and payments.

Here’s a breakdown of the key data that syncs between the two systems:

• Employee Data: While you'll need to create employee profiles in both systems, the integration helps by matching employees between Planday and Xero. To ensure a smooth sync, employee names or payroll numbers should be consistent across both platforms.
• Timesheets and Worked Hours: Once a pay period ends and you've approved all employee timesheets in Planday, the integration transfers the total approved hours for each employee. This includes standard hours, overtime, and leave.
• Wage and Pay Information: Planday can send specific pay rates and earnings categories to Xero. You can map Planday's Salary codes and supplements (e.g., "Overtime 1.5x," "Weekend Rate") to the corresponding Earnings rates you've set up in Xero Payroll.
• Labor Cost Allocation: If you use departments in Planday to track labor costs for different parts of your business, you can map these to Xero's tracking categories. When the payroll data is exported, labor costs will be automatically assigned to the correct location or department in your general ledger.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up the Planday Xero Integration

Planday offers a native integration with Xero that is straightforward to set up. Before you begin, confirm you have administrator access to both your Planday and Xero accounts.

Step 1: Locate and Activate the Xero Integration in Planday

Log in to your Planday account. Navigate to Settings in the top menu bar, then find Integrations in the dropdown menu. On the Integrations page, look for the Xero option and click "Activate." You may be prompted to add it for your specific country (e.g., an AU, NZ, or UK-specific version).

Step 2: Authenticate and Connect to Your Xero Account

After activating, you will be prompted to connect to Xero. A new window will open directing you to the Xero login page. Enter your Xero credentials and select the organization you wish to connect to Planday. You will need to click "Allow access" to grant Planday permission to read and write data to your Xero account. Once authorized, you'll be redirected back to Planday.

Step 3: Configure Your Integration Settings

This is the most important step for ensuring data flows correctly. You will need to match—or "map"—your Planday settings to their equivalents in Xero.

• Employee Matching: The integration will attempt to automatically match employees in Planday with employees in Xero based on their name. Review the list to ensure everyone is matched correctly. If an employee exists in Planday but not Xero Payroll, you must add them in Xero first for the data to sync.
• Map Earning Rates: Go to the "Earnings" tab in the integration settings. Here, you'll see a list of your Planday Salary codes. For each code, use the dropdown menu to select the corresponding earnings rate in Xero (e.g., map Planday's "Normal hours" to Xero's "Ordinary Hours"). You must do this for every pay type you use, including regular wages, overtime, and any special allowances.
• Map Departments to Tracking Categories (Optional): If you use tracking categories in Xero to segment costs by location or department, go to the "Tracking" tab. Here, you can map each Planday Department to the appropriate Xero tracking category. This automatically posts labor expenses to the correct accounts, saving you from manual journal entries later.

Step 4: Prepare and Export Payroll Data from Planday

Once the integration is configured, you're ready to process payroll. Follow your normal workflow within Planday:

1. Ensure all employee shifts for the pay period have been approved.
2. Go to the Payroll section in Planday and click on Xero Export.
3. Select the date range for the pay period and choose which employees to include.
4. Click "Show details" to preview the payroll data before sending it. This preview should show employee names, hours, and pay rates. Carefully review it for any obvious errors.
5. Once you're satisfied, click "Export to Xero." A confirmation message will appear once the data has been successfully sent.

Step 5: Process the Payslips in Xero

Log in to your Xero account and navigate to the Payroll tab, then select Pay Run. You will find a draft pay run populated with the timesheet data from Planday. All the hours and mapped earnings rates will be there automatically. You can review each employee's payslip, make any final adjustments (like adding one-time deductions or reimbursements), and then post the pay run to finalize it.

When to Consider Third-Party Connectors

For most businesses, Planday's native integration offers all the functionality needed. However, if you have complex workflows or require data to be synced in a way the native tool doesn't support, you can explore third-party automation tools.

Platforms like Zapier or Make allow you to build custom "Zaps" or "Scenarios" between apps. For instance, you could create a custom workflow that triggers a specific accounting entry in Xero every time a particular shift type is completed in Planday. These tools add a layer of flexibility but also require more technical setup and may come with an additional subscription cost.

Common Problems and How to Fix Them

Even with a well-designed integration, you may encounter occasional issues. Here are a few common ones and their solutions:

• Authentication Failure: If the connection to Xero fails, it's often because your Xero access token has expired. Simply go to the integration settings in Planday, disconnect from Xero, and immediately reconnect to re-establish the authorization.
• Employee Data Doesn't Sync: The sync will fail if an employee listed in the Planday payroll export does not exist in Xero Payroll. Check that the employee has been added to Xero and that their name is spelled exactly the same in both systems.
• Hours Are Incorrect or Don't Appear: This usually happens when timesheets in Planday were not approved before the export was run. Go back to Planday's scheduling or timesheet section, ensure you've approved all shifts for the pay period, and then try the export again.
• Earnings Are Mapped to the Wrong Category: If wages are appearing under the wrong category in Xero (e.g., overtime is coded as regular pay), revisit your integration settings in Planday. Go to the "Earnings" tab and check that all your Salary codes are correctly mapped to the appropriate Xero earnings rate.

Final Thoughts

Integrating Planday with Xero transforms your payroll process from a manual, error-prone task into an efficient, automated workflow. By properly configuring the settings to match your business's structure, you can gain accurate, real-time insight into your labor costs while saving significant administrative time.

While the integration handles a lot of the heavy lifting for data transfer, complex questions surrounding payroll compliance—like multi-state wage laws or the taxability of specific employee benefits—often require dedicated research. Our tool, Feather AI, provides accounting and tax professionals with instant, accurate answers backed by IRS and state tax code citations, helping you navigate these challenges with confidence.