Connecting Chaser with Xero

Use Xero’s leading credit control app partner to better personalise, schedule and track your accounts receivable.

 

Table of contents

• Getting started
• Connecting Chaser to Xero
• Choose your Chaser account settings
• How does the Chaser's integration with Xero work?
• Syncing Chaser with Xero
• What information does Chaser pull from Xero?
• Using the integration
• Troubleshooting

Getting started: Sign up for a free trial with Chaser

 

Before connecting to your Xero account, take out a free trial by filling out the following short form:  https://www.chaserhq.com/signup

 

 

 

Connecting Chaser to Xero

 

Once you have filled out the free trial form, you can then start connecting Chaser to your Xero account. Fortunately, it only takes 2 minutes, follow these steps:

 

1. After filling out the form, the initial integration page will appear where you choose your accounting software. Click 'Xero' and then click 'Connect with Xero'.
2. The Xero page where you will need to log in to your Xero account will appear.
3. Choose the organisation you would like to connect to Chaser
4. Click 'Allow access' and Chaser will launch 
5. Chaser is now connected to Xero and you can now choose your Chaser account settings

 

Choose your Chaser account settings

 

After connecting Xero to Chaser,  you can choose your Chaser account settings to tailor your accounts receivable process to best suit your business’ needs:

 

 

Complete the following settings to personalise your Chaser account:

• Confirm your business name that you would like displayed on your Chaser account
• Confirm your country
• Confirm your timezone
• Confirm your currency
• Confirm whether you would like to start chasing a few of your customers or all/most of your customers (this will decide whether customers are set to Chasing/Not Chasing, to begin with).
• Click 'Get Started' 

 

How does the Chaser's integration with Xero work?

 

Chaser has a direct integration with Xero’s API. When Chaser connects with your Xero account, Chaser is provided with a unique API token that allows access to the Organisation and Accounting data in your Xero account. Once Chaser has the API token from Xero, Chaser can request information to be pulled from your Xero account into Chaser. Xero’s API uses OAuth 2.0 to authenticate API tokens. 

In order to have the most up to date data, we regularly pull Accounting data from your Xero account. These syncs fetch data that has been created or updated since the last sync.

 

Syncing Chaser with Xero

 

Chaser syncs with Xero once every day and before payment reminder emails are sent out. This ensures that all information is up to date before Chaser emails are sent out. 

You can also sync Chaser with Xero at any time in the Chaser app by clicking the 'Sync now' button in the top right of your screen, should you require data to be synced immediately.

 

What information does Chaser pull from Xero?

 

Contacts

Through the Xero API, Chaser retrieves your contacts from your Xero account. Chaser pulls through the emails addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses and invoices associated with a customer contact in Xero. 

Go to the Customer page in Chaser by navigating to Receivables and then clicking on a relevant customer.

On the Receivables page, you can see the following information for a customer:

• Total overdue amount
• Total outstanding amount
• The schedule a customer is on
• Their status (whether or not they are set to Chasing)

Chaser pulls through all the email addresses under a contact in Xero. This means that you can have multiple recipients in Chaser. You can have a ‘Normal’ sender and an ‘Escalated’ sender. You can also get directed straight to the customer in Xero by clicking the 3 dots on the right of the customer and clicking 'Edit in Xero'.

Invoices

 Chaser pulls your customer's invoices (and the invoice PDFs) directly from your Xero account. You can choose whether to attach these invoices to your invoice payment reminder emails, or alternatively, you can insert a Payment Portal link into your Chaser emails and your customers will be able to download their invoices at any time.

With the invoices, Chaser draws the due date and the creation date from Xero and uses these to calculate how many days overdue an invoice is. In Chaser, on the Receivables tab under 'Invoices', you can see the due date of an invoice, the outstanding amount and the expected payment date.

You can also go directly to the invoice in Xero from Chaser by going into the invoice page by clicking through an invoice in the Receivables tab and clicking the icon in the top right to 'View in Xero'.

Expected payment date

Through the Xero API, Chaser is able to both set and retrieve the expected payment date for an invoice in Xero. 

This allows you to choose whether or not to chase an invoice prior to an expected payment date. This means you don't have to worry about stopping or starting chasing disputed invoices.

Payment portal

 

The Chaser Payment Portal allows you to attach a customised portal to Chaser emails. This portal pulls live information from Xero, displaying your customers outstanding invoices and payment options. 

This means that your customers can download and pay for invoices directly through Chaser emails, meaning that you will get paid sooner and will receive less disputed payments.

 

Using the Integration

Once the integration is connected, you can start using Chaser to get paid sooner with human-like receivables automation.  With Xero’s leading credit control partner, you can better personalise, schedule and track your receivables. To help you get started quickly, your Chaser account comes with 5 best practice payment reminder email templates and a best practice invoice chasing schedule.

You can use these pre-prepared templates and schedules, customise them, or you can choose to create your own templates and schedules to send automated reminders that look hand-typed to your customers, at the best times to encourage payments. Follow this 5-step quick start guide. Alternatively, you can use Chaser’s default settings that are outlined here.

 

Personalised invoice chasing

Using the information pulled from Xero, you can personalize your invoice reminders. Chaser allows you to personalize your templates using placeholders that pull information straight from your Xero account (for example; first and last names, company name and job reference).

You can use Chaser’s schedules to categorize your customers and send them personalised and tailored payment reminders specific to them.

It is also possible to use your exact email signature so that your automated invoice reminders look like they have been hand-typed every time.  

Chaser also generates customers statements for you so that you can automatically send monthly statements on a specific day of the month. You can upload your logo into Chaser and customise the statements to your preference.

 

Troubleshooting

 

Why am I not able to connect Xero to Chaser?

If you are having issues connecting Xero to Chaser, please ensure that you have a valid Xero login and have the Advisor or Standard user role in Xero.

If you meet the above criteria and are still experiencing difficulties connecting Chaser to Xero, please get in touch on support@chaserhq.com or via live chat.

 

Why aren’t changes I made in Xero pulling through to Chaser?

If changes that you have made in Xero aren’t updating in Chaser, please follow these steps:

1. Click ‘Sync Now’ in the top right corner of your Chaser screen.
2. Wait 10-15 minutes. When you sync Chaser with Xero, Chaser checks for all changes in Xero and this can take time.
3. Double-check the changes in Xero were completed and have been saved.
4. If the problem persists, please get in touch on support@chaserhq.com or via live chat.

 

Why isn’t my expected payment date pushing through into Xero?

If using Xero as your accounting system, the expected payment date will push into Xero and be saved against the relevant invoice. However, there are cases in which this will not be possible:

• The invoice has a part payment, prepayment or credit note applied against it within your accounting system
• The invoice was created within an active 'lock period' within your accounting system

 If these cases occur, the expected payment date will be saved within Chaser but NOT updated in Xero. Chaser will notify you of this.

 

Why is contact information different in Chaser and Xero?

If some contact information in Xero is different from Chaser then please follow these steps:

1. Check that there are no duplicate or archived contacts in Xero. These duplicate / archived contacts could have incorrect information.
2. Check that the correct fields in Xero have been filled. For example; check that both first name and last name fields have been filled in. 
3. Check that Xero has been synced with Chaser recently.

 

Why did Chaser disconnect from Xero?

When Chaser connects with your Xero account, Chaser is provided with a unique API token that allows access to the information in your Xero account. All API tokens have an expiration date and when they expire, Chaser no longer has access to your Xero account and Chaser will pause chasing activity on your Chaser account.

In these situations, Chaser will notify you that you need to reconnect your Chaser account. To do this, when you log in to Chaser, click the ‘Reconnect to Xero’ button at the bottom right of your screen. 

You will then need to login to Xero and allow access again, this will provide Chaser with a new API token and your chasing activity will resume. 

 

Need support?

For any more questions on Chaser's integration with Xero, please get in touch on support@chaserhq.com or message us on live chat, we would be happy to help.