This guide will provide an overview of your Expenses integration with Xero. For more information, please check out other articles on Expenses and Xero. 

What is the difference between Xero Bank Feed and Xero Expense Data?

While related, the Xero Bank Feed and Xero Expense Data integrations are slightly different.

The Xero Bank Feed integration enables you to automatically sync all your Airwallex wallet transactions to Xero on an hourly basis. 

The Xero Expense Data integration is an add-on to the Xero Bank Feed integration. It enables you to:

1.  Import your expense information (e.g., chart of accounts, tracking categories etc) from Xero into Airwallex and;
2.  Sync expenses and receipts back to Xero for reconciliation against the bank feed. 

Importing information like your chart of accounts into Airwallex allows you to delegate tasks like expense categorisation and receipt upload to your cardholders. They’ll be able to log in to Airwallex to categorise expenses and upload receipts. When the expense syncs to Xero, it will sync with all the relevant expense information and receipts. 

What happens after an expense is approved?

Once an expense is approved, it will automatically begin the syncing process to Xero. The expense will be synced to Xero as a bank transaction and will include the following information:

• - Transaction details
• - Attached receipts (if any)
• - Merchant selection (if any)
• - Description (if any)
• - Expense category selection (chart of account)
• - Tracking category selection (if any)
• - Tax rate selection (if any)
• - Comments (if any)

To check the status of the expense sync to Xero, refresh the page. If the expense status is “Synced”, then the expense has completed syncing to Xero. If the expense status is “Sync failed”, then there was an issue that prevented the expense from syncing to Xero.

Can expenses be amended after they have been approved?

Expenses can not be amended or edited on the Airwallex platform once approved, however the notation can be changed in Xero by navigating to Options > Edit Transaction.

Important notes: 

1. Expenses that are still pending when approved will only begin syncing to Xero once the transaction settles.
2. Note when importing assets from your chart of accounts to Airwallex, you cannot import accounts that are marked with the “Inventory” asset type in Xero
3. When syncing expenses to Xero, if the expense is assigned to an existing Xero contact, the expense will be synced to the selected contact. If a new merchant value is entered that is not an existing Xero contact, the expense will sync to a default “Airwallex Expenses” contact.
4. Individual comments synced to Xero will be displayed at the bottom of the bank transaction, under History & Notes.