Workshop HQ's Xero Integration Is Live for Australian Workshops

Workshop software and accounting software answer different operational questions. Workshop HQ holds the booking, vehicle, repair order, technician work, checksheets, photos and video, customer decisions, invoice and workshop history. Xero holds the accounting organisation and the financial records the workshop, bookkeeper and accountant use.

The integration joins those responsibilities at the point where the workshop has a final commercial record. It does not ask reception to rebuild the invoice in Xero or ask technicians to work inside accounting screens. The Workshop HQ invoice number, customer, vehicle reference and line values become the basis of an authorised Xero sales invoice.

That boundary preserves the operating authority behind each charge. Labour and parts begin in the repair order, approved work remains attached to the customer's decision, and the final invoice is sent only after the workshop finalises it. Xero receives the accounting result rather than a disconnected draft assembled before the repair story is complete.

Connection begins with the workshop signing in through Xero's authorisation flow and choosing the relevant Xero organisation. Workshop HQ does not ask the workshop to hand over its Xero password. Xero's OAuth 2.0 model gives an approved application scoped access to the selected organisation after the user grants permission.

The workshop then chooses two accounting destinations: the sales account for invoice lines and the bank or clearing account that receives the matching payment. Those choices matter because charts of accounts differ between businesses. Workshop HQ does not assume that every mechanical workshop uses the same revenue code or payment-clearing arrangement.

Automatic finalised-invoice sync can be enabled or disabled. A workshop can also process outstanding finalised invoices after connecting, including a controlled batch of up to fifty records at a time. Disconnecting removes the active Workshop HQ connection rather than leaving an unexplained background sync running.

A draft is still being prepared and should not become an approved accounting invoice merely because someone opened it. Workshop HQ therefore excludes draft and void invoices from the released Xero flow. Finalising the invoice is the operational boundary that allows the authorised sales invoice to be created in Xero.

The Xero invoice carries the Workshop HQ invoice number, issue and due dates, customer contact, line descriptions, GST-inclusive line amounts, selected sales account and a vehicle reference where one exists. The invoice is created as an authorised accounts-receivable record rather than another draft that has to be approved a second time in the accounting system.

Standalone parts or counter-sale invoices use the same finalisation principle. A genuine sale that does not require a vehicle repair order can still reach Xero after it becomes a finalised Workshop HQ invoice. The integration does not force the workshop to create a fake vehicle job to account for a counter sale.

Customer matching is part of the accounting handoff, not an afterthought. Workshop HQ uses a contact number derived from the Workshop HQ customer record to look for the corresponding Xero contact. When no matching contact exists, the integration creates one with the available customer or company name and relevant contact details.

That approach avoids relying on a customer name alone. Names can be shared, reformatted or changed, and Xero's own developer guidance recommends using identifiers rather than assuming the contact name will remain unique. A stable Workshop HQ contact number gives the integration a clearer relationship to test and reuse.

The released flow creates or reuses the contact required for the invoice. It is not described as a general two-way customer-database synchronisation. A change made directly in Xero does not currently claim to overwrite the Workshop HQ customer or vehicle record.

Finalising and paying are separate events. An issued Workshop HQ invoice can reach Xero as an authorised invoice while remaining unpaid. When the invoice later becomes fully paid in Workshop HQ, the released flow can apply the matching payment to the Xero invoice using the payment account selected by the workshop.

The payment carries a Workshop HQ reference and the recorded paid date. Before creating it, the integration checks whether the Workshop HQ invoice already has a Xero payment identifier and searches for an existing payment with the same stable reference. That allows a retry to recover without deliberately posting the same payment twice.

Partial-payment transfer is not claimed as part of this release. Workshop HQ can record part-paid invoice state operationally, but the Xero payment described here is created when the Workshop HQ invoice is fully paid. A workshop that needs each instalment transferred separately should treat that as a current requirement to verify rather than infer it from the word integration.

Retries are unavoidable in a real integration. Credentials expire, an account mapping may be missing, a remote service can reject a request, or a staff member may run a manual recovery after an automatic attempt. A safe retry must determine what already exists before creating another accounting record.

Workshop HQ retains the Xero invoice and payment identifiers after a successful sync. If an invoice identifier is not yet stored, the integration also searches Xero using the Workshop HQ invoice number. Payments use their own Workshop HQ reference. These checks combine local state with remote lookup instead of assuming that a failed browser response means nothing was created.

The integration also compares the amount due calculated by Xero with the Workshop HQ invoice total. If the values differ, the sync stops and identifies the likely sales-account tax-rate problem rather than silently accepting two different totals. GST-inclusive line handling is explicit, but the selected Xero account still needs the correct tax configuration for the workshop's circumstances.

A connected logo is not enough for the person responsible for the books. Workshop HQ records when an invoice last synced and whether that invoice needs Xero attention. Connection-level error state is also retained so the workshop can see that the accounting handoff is not healthy.

Missing account mappings prevent finalised invoices from being sent and produce a specific corrective message. API failures, rejected values and expired authorisation can be surfaced against the invoice and connection. The controlled sync action can then retry outstanding finalised invoices after the underlying issue is corrected.

This does not remove the need for normal accounting review. The workshop or its adviser should still reconcile the Xero organisation, confirm tax treatment, review bank activity and handle credits or accounting corrections under its own process. The integration's responsibility is a traceable, recoverable transfer of the released records—not an unsupported promise that every accounting task is automatic.

The live release sends finalised sales invoices and the contacts they require from Workshop HQ to Xero, then adds the matching full payment when the Workshop HQ invoice is paid. It does not currently claim two-way invoice editing, separate partial-payment transfer, supplier bills, purchase orders, credit notes, payroll, bank feeds, reconciliation or BAS lodgement.

Those boundaries do not make the connection incomplete for its stated purpose. They define what a workshop can rely on today and what must still be handled in Xero or verified as a future requirement. Clear scope is especially important during migration because an accounting integration can be mandatory even when the wider workshop platform is a strong fit.

Xero is the first live accounting connection in Workshop HQ's permanent integration program. Burson EzyParts and Repco Navigator Pro remain in active setup and are not labelled released. Further high-value supplier and accounting connections will continue, with the same standard: provider access, correct record direction, commercial accuracy, visible recovery and end-to-end testing before an integration is called live.

The strongest proof is a controlled end-to-end test using a non-production Xero organisation. Connect the organisation, select the two accounts, create a Workshop HQ invoice containing labour and parts, finalise it and inspect the resulting contact, authorised invoice, line values, GST-inclusive total and vehicle reference in Xero.

Then record full payment in Workshop HQ and confirm the payment is attached to the same Xero invoice using the selected account. Repeat the sync and verify that a second invoice or payment is not created. Finally, introduce a safe configuration error, confirm the failure is visible, correct it and retry successfully.

That sequence tests authentication, account ownership, field scope, tax totals, state transition, duplicate prevention and recovery. It is the standard Workshop HQ asks buyers and independent reviewers to use because it proves the released workflow more reliably than a feature table.