Xero Plugin?

[Support Team]

Re: Xero Plugin?

Shouldn't we ask you this :-) I mean... I see above that you considered writing this integration yourself and others were willing to assist...

From our end we haven't done much progress with this XERO integration, while we've received some requests for it (as seen here) it is (still) by far less popular than other items on our list. However, we see how this may help and have it on file. We will review and consider this again. Thanks for asking and in case you will want to proceed with developing it, maybe outsourcing it to someone, we'll be happy to assist.

Hope this helps.

[DynamicIT]

Re: Xero Plugin?

Hi Team,

I've been keeping half an eye on this thread for a while. Partly because no progress has been made, I have been looking at alternatives to CommitCRM.

While CommitCRM is far from perfect, and I was keen to move to a Cloud solution, I am not really inspired by some of the alternatives I have looked at recently. So I now I find myself ready to talk to a developer about creating a bridge between CommitCRM and Xero.

If anyone would like to contribute to the development process by assisting with thoughts on the workflow process or other specifications as to how you would picture it working for you, now is the time.

You are also welcome to leave your thoughts on how much you might like to contribute to a development fund (split into milestone payments) to move the development along faster and receive in return a long term license, or how much you would be prepared to pay for an annual license.

Feel free to contact me directly on mike at dynamicit dot co dot nz (actually I would encourage this in order to gain faster feedback about design/workflow).

Cheers
Mike

[DynamicIT]

Re: Xero Plugin?

My 'tame' developer just emailed me back and says he's just working on his second Xero integration project now, finishing in a couple of weeks. Not bad timing...

[lpopejoy]

Re: Xero Plugin?

If you do this, I would talk to Commit to make sure that you can mark a charge as "billed" AND set it's invoice # (like they do with Quickbooks) AND that when you do those items, it won't throw the ticket into the inbox since it was touched by the API.

[DynamicIT]

Re: Xero Plugin?

Thank you Luke that is a valuable suggestion.

Team, could you please consider subscribing to this thread if you have not done so already. This will give you email notification of updates. Look for "Thread Tools" near the top right hand corner (just above the very first post in the thread).

[highpointIT]

Re: Xero Plugin?

Very interested in this as well.
DynamicIT what sort of timings are you hoping for?

paul

[sudogreg]

Re: Xero Plugin?

im gaining interest here as well -

[NZCOMMS]

Re: Xero Plugin?

We are prepared to put money up for a working plugin.
We are going to have to look at an alternative CRM if i cant get to XERO so happy to talk to anybody who is serious about putting up and moving it forward

[DynamicIT]

Re: Xero Plugin?

Hi Team,

I assumed everyone was ignoring me after subscribing to this thread resulted in no new posting notifications. Upon review, I ticked the wrong box and was just not getting notified. I've fixed that now.

My developer has just given me a demo of his first draft, and he's done pretty well with minimal instructions. Bulk selection of multiple items for multiple clients within a date range (where you can also select/deselect individual items) now generates a Draft invoice in Xero.

He has followed the Xero 'run from anywhere' theme and has built it using HTML and IIS (no database required, Win7/8 can be used as the server). Before we get too far down the track, can I have some thoughts on this vs a desktop application? I was expecting a desktop application, but of course a non-technical Accounts person should be following a standard billing procedure and not actually have to look at CommitCRM itself so a web app should be fine.

I'm currently compiling a couple of scenarios for him to allow for. These (the strategies we use) are:
- All unbilled billable charges within a date range for all clients (should we be able to filter by labour/parts/expenses?) - Xero generates Invoice Number.
- Same but for only 1 selected client
- Specific ticket number to bill. (Do we put in a tickbox to have the CommitCRM Ticket as the invoice number in Xero?)

What other billing scenarios should we allow for?
- All COMPLETED tickets with unbilled charges? This would generate one Xero invoice per ticket with the CommitCRM ticket number as the invoice number?

I'll post some screenshots and/or a video in the next 2-3 weeks so you can have a look.

Our web site is linked in my forum profile. You are welcome to email me directly if you like.

Cheers
Mike

[hayden]

Re: Xero Plugin?

The way we manually do it now is:

Ticket number in reference field.

Item charges with notes as each line item.

It's pretty straight forward.

Would need some error handling around account names as they are not the same in some instances, or maybe mapping of accounts.

[Julesrulez]

Re: Xero Plugin?

Another vote for Xero.

Isn't customer service and selling your product all about offering your client options?
I am using Reckon/QB, because of CommitCRM, not through my own choosing. A great percentage of your clients use Reckon because quite simply that's all that is offered without huge drama!

We love using CommitCRM, but seriously Reckon is not the best out there. They have many small niggling issues that quite simply could be fixed easily, but they just cant be bothered. Xero is quite simply of a more professional standard.

Commit, if there was a CRM out there up to your standard for IT we would have changed for this one simple reason! Don't hold back for too long or there may be competition that beat you to it!

Rant over :) x

[Support Team]

Re: Xero Plugin?

Thanks for your feedback, it has been noted and we will add your vote to this feature request. We definitely understand what you're saying. Thanks!

[DynamicIT]

Re: Xero Plugin?

Hi Team

I got off track on this development, but have restarted the project earlier this week. I am meeting with my developer this afternoon to look at a few changes and will post an update. From there I'll keep you up to date weekly on changes. I plan to be using it in-house before the end of August.

Cheers
Mike

[DynamicIT]

Re: Xero Plugin?

Just had a Skype session with my semi-tame developer, and I'm impressed with the result. He's going to tweak a few things and I get version 0.5 installed to our live system tomorrow so we can start to have a play with it.

If you happen to want to look at some screenshots I took, email me - mike@ <my forum profile name> .co.nz

[DynamicIT]

Re: Xero Plugin?

I have a first draft running on our server. System requirements were IIS and .Net 4.5 which were already on the Server 2012 Essentials machine.

In the Charges area (i.e. billing charges within a date range), we can see the list of Accounts in Commit, we can search for changes within a date range for one client or all clients that are billable but unbilled. Getting these into Xero is not currently working as expected. Response time is slow, though without putting a stopwatch on it this may not be any slower than compiling similar reports within Commit itself. I have asked for some sort of progress indicator so I am not left wondering whether or not something is happening.

In the Tickets area, we can search for a ticket number and with one click successfully turn this into a Draft Invoice in Xero, and optionally with that same click we can mark the Commit charges as billed and download a draft invoice pdf for review. The first ticket is currently taking 30 seconds to display, but the next ticket is taking only 2-3 seconds.

At present the Xero invoice is only having the Item line entered. We'll add the Description of the item a little further down the track.

Cheers
Mike