How Does The Sync Process work?

  1. Review this entire article as well as any linked articles.
  2. Complete the setup steps.
  3. Let support know that the setup has been completed.
  4. A support agent will review your system.
  5. Once your system is ready a support agent will send a link to schedule a web meeting.
  6. A support agent will join you on a web meeting to perform your 1st sync.


Overview

This article will guide you through the process of setting up Xero and CoreBridge to prepare for a data sync.

  • If you have not Gone Live! with CoreBridge you can still perform these setup steps, however, the actual sync will not occur until you are Live and the sync requirements have been met.
  • A CoreBridge support agent will perform the first sync with you on a web meeting. We don't recommend performing the first sync on your own.
  • If you are entering orders or payments in a program other than CoreBridge, we recommend not entering that data again in CoreBridge so that you don't get duplicate data in Xero.
  • If you are entering payments in a program other than CoreBridge, we recommend keeping those bank deposits separate from your CoreBridge deposits.
  • If your CoreBridge system has more than one Location, data from all locations will sync to the same Xero company. The sync does not provide a way to separate location data in Xero.
  • The sync and the reconciliation are 2 distinct processes. Reconciliations should be performed once your system is Live. The sync will happen after that.
  • The sync is one-direction only, from CoreBridge to Xero.


Sales Tax

  • The sales tax report in Xero will not work with Summary Sync. 
  • It doesn't work because the report doesn't pull sales numbers from journals.
  • The CoreBridge sales tax reports will need to be used when preparing sales tax forms.


Table of Contents


Sync Requirements

Before the sync can happen the following requirements must be met.

  • Xero subscription. LINK: Accounting Export Options
  • The Summary Sync export method is being used.
  • Your system must be Live.
  • One or more Completed orders.
  • One or more payments.
  • One or more Reconciliations that contain payments.
  • One or more Reconciliations that contain income.


Related Articles

Please take a few minutes to review these articles. They provide helpful details about the sync.
There is manual work to perform in Xero after a sync is run.


3rd Party Integration Requirement

  • Pressero: Lump Tax Agencies option must be selected (Step 4)
  • XMPie: Lump Tax Agencies option must be selected (Step 4)
  • TaxJar: Lump Tax Agencies option must be selected (Step 4)
  • Avalara: Lump Tax Agencies option must be selected (Step 4)

STEP 1 – Perform a CoreBridge Reconciliation

Is this step optional or required? Required
If your system is live and you have already been performing daily reconciliations, please review READ ME then proceed to Step 2. 


READ ME

Each Reconciliation contains the data that will be used to create the Xero journal. Without Reconciliations there will be no data to export. The data will sync to Xero as a journal and will contain income, payments, and other financial data needed to manage your books. For each Reconciliation in CoreBridge there will be a corresponding Journal in Xero.


A Reconciliation should be performed at the end of each business day to capture that day's data and to catch any payment entry errors. If wrong payment amounts are captured on the Reconciliation the wrong amounts will sync to Xero.


Performing Reconciliations daily produces the following results:

  • Payment entry errors are caught the same day they happen so that they can be corrected in a timely manner, especially errors that are in the customer's favor.
  • Credit card payments are captured for the day which is how your merchant likely batches them for a deposit. When you deposit the day's credit card payments in Xero they will match the merchant deposit on your bank statement. The only difference will be any merchant fees. You want as many matches as you can get to your bank statement so that a monthly bank reconciliation is easier to perform.
  • You get a clean break between months in Xero when you compare income between Xero and CoreBridge.


INSTRUCTIONS

Please refer to these articles for instructions:

STEP 2 – Match Income Accounts

Is this step optional or required? Required 


READ ME

The only accounts needed for the sync are the accounts in CoreBridge. Be sure not to add your entire Chart of Accounts to CoreBridge.


If there is an account in CoreBridge that does not exist in Xero, it will be created automatically in Xero during your 1st sync so there is no need to add it manually. The new account in Xero will be created exactly as displayed in CoreBridge (account number, account name, account type). Xero does not have child accounts so if there is a child account in CoreBridge the sync will ignore the hierarchy and the child account will be created in Xero with no hierarchy.  If you prefer to add an account manually to Xero, be sure it matches exactly to CoreBridge. 


ACCOUNT NAMING AND STRUCTURE

  • Special characters may cause sync errors. Some examples are $, &, and quote symbols. Please use only letters and numbers for account names. If a special character causes a sync error, the account name will need to be changed in both CoreBridge and Xero for the sync to be successful.

  • Each account must have a unique account number and a unique name. Numbers and names cannot be the same between Income and Reconciliation accounts. If you want the sync to create an account for you during the 1st sync, be sure that an account doesn't already exist in Xero with the number or name of the account that will be created.

  • Xero requires account numbers. If there is an account in CoreBridge without an account number, the sync will fail when attempting to create an account or when matching to the account in Xero. If there is an inactive account in CoreBridge without a number, the sync will fail if the account was used on an order before the account was made inactive.


INSTRUCTIONS

ACCOUNT MATCHING

  • Match Income accounts between CoreBridge and Xero. 
  • Account number, account name, and account type must match exactly.
  • The Xero Account Type needs to be "Revenue" or "Sales". Using type "Other Income" will create sync errors causing data to not export.
  • In CoreBridge, navigate to Accounting Module > Manage Accounts > Income Accounts tab.

WORKING WITH ACCOUNTS




  • The column headings can be used to sort accounts. Try clicking GL Code once or twice to put the accounts in number order.

  • Once sorted, start with the first account in CoreBridge. Compare it to Xero. Account number and account name must match between CoreBridge and Xero. If the CoreBridge account matches exactly to Xero move on to the next account in CoreBridge. (You don't want to start with the first account in Xero because all of your accounts in Xero don't need to be in CoreBridge)

  • If the CoreBridge account represents an account in Xero but it doesn't match exactly, change the account in either Xero or CoreBridge to get them to match. 
    • If you are a Franchisee, CoreBridge is populated with the Franchisor master Chart of Accounts so any change may need to be made in Xero.
    • The goal is to get the account to match perfectly between CoreBridge and Xero. Account number and account name must match.

  • If a CoreBridge account needs to be changed, click edit, make any needed changes, then click save before moving to the next account.

  • To create a new account use this section of the page.
    • If you are a Franchisee, your accounts may be locked preventing new accounts from being created.


STEP 3 – Select an Accounting Export Option in CoreBridge

Is this step optional or required? Required only if a support agent has not already saved the setting for you.
If an agent has already saved the setting for you, skip this step and proceed to Step 4.


IF YOU HAVE ALREADY SYNCED

If you have already synced with a different accounting application than Xero or a with a different export method, stop here and contact CoreBridge support. Changing this option after data has been synced will create erroneous data in Xero if a sync is performed with the new setting.


INSTRUCTIONS

If you have been in contact with a support agent this step will probably have been done for you.


  1. In CoreBridge, navigate to Accounting Module > Accounting Export.
  2. Select the following options:
    • Select Export Type: Sync with Online Application
    • Application Name:Xero Sync
    • Sync Type: Lump Data Sync

    • Lump Sync and Summary Sync are the same things.
  3. Click the Save button. A warning dialogue may appear. Since you have never synced you can safely click OK.

STEP 4 – Choose Sync Options

Is this step optional or required? Required


In CoreBridge, navigate to Accounting Module > Accounting Export > Account Setup tab. 


4-A. Lump Tax Agencies

This option controls whether or not CoreBridge sales tax gets posted to a single account or multiple accounts.

  • If the option is selected:
    • Sales Tax will post to a single account regardless of the number of Tax Agencies in CoreBridge.
      • We recommend selecting this option if all sales tax is paid to a single taxing authority.
  • If the option is not selected:
    • An unique G/L account can be matched to each Tax Agency.
    • Each time a new Tax Agency is added to CoreBridge you will need to click Sync Tax Agencies then match the new agency to an account in Xero. (See Step 5)
    • We recommend not selecting this option if sales tax is paid to various taxing authorities and you want each to have it's own account in Xero.
  • If either of these integrations are being used now or will be used in the future, Lump Tax Agencies must be selected:
    • Pressero
    • XmPie
    • TaxJar
    • Avalara


4-B. Ignore non-completed orders

This option controls whether or not these 3 accounts post on the journals that get created in Xero from each CoreBridge Reconciliation.

  • WIP (Asset)
  • Built (Asset)
  • Orders Not Complete (Liability)


Do you want to see WIP and BUILT values in Xero?

  • If No, select this option
  • If Yes, do not select this option 


This option is a one-time choice before your 1st sync. If you want WIP and BUILT values in Xero you need to have starting balances. Un-selecting the option after your 1st sync will not provide Xero with the values from prior Reconciliations which are needed for the account balance to match between CoreBridge and Xero.

STEP 5 – Tax Agencies

Is this step optional or required? Required if the Lump Tax Agencies option was not enabled in Step 4-A.
If the Lump Tax Agencies option was enabled, skip this step and proceed to Step 6.


INSTRUCTIONS

  1. In CoreBridge, navigate to Accounting Module > Accounting Export > Account Setup tab.
  2. Click the Sync Tax Agencies button and wait for the web page to refresh.

    • This pulls in all Tax Agencies from the Management Module with rates higher than 0%.
    • If no Tax Agencies exist or they all have a 0% rate nothing will happen.
    • Tax Agencies with rates need to be pulled into this window so that they can be matched to a G/L account. 

STEP 6 – Match Reconciliation Accounts

Is this step optional or required? Required 


  1. In CoreBridge, navigate to Accounting Module > Accounting Export > Account Setup tab.
    • The collection of accounts displayed here are referred to as Reconciliation Accounts. These accounts need to be matched to Xero just like income accounts.

    • My CoreBridge Accounts
      The section titled "My CoreBridge Accounts" contains the internal names for the accounts along with the account type. The account type noted needs to match the account type in Xero. This section is for reference only to show what Account Type to use when matching accounts to Xero. Use of the names shown is not required.

      Don't use this section to match accounts to Xero. The section to match to Xero is named My Accounting Software Accounts.
      Since CoreBridge exports to various accounting applications, the Account Type name is used generically. Please refer to the Cross-Reference table which shows the actual name of the Account Type in Xero.


    • Cross-Reference Table
      ACCOUNT TYPE CROSS-REFERENCE
      IN COREBRIDGEIN XERO
      ExpenseExpense
      Accounts ReceivableCurrent Asset    
      LiabilityCurrent Liability
      TaxCurrent Liability

    • My Accounting Software Accounts
      This is the section of the page where you will match CoreBridge to Xero.
      The account numbers shown in the screenshot are completely random. Use of the numbers shown is not required.


    • Reconciliation Account Matching
      Accounts need to match between CoreBridge and Xero for the sync to be successful. Account number, account name, and account type have to match.

      If there is an account in CoreBridge that does not exist in Xero, it will be created automatically in Xero during your 1st sync so there is no need to add it manually. The new account in Xero will be created exactly as displayed in CoreBridge (account number, account name, account type). If you prefer to add an account manually to Xero, be sure it matches exactly to CoreBridge.

    • Account Naming and Structure
      Special characters may cause sync errors. Some examples are $, &, and quote symbols. Please use only letters and numbers for account names. If a special character causes a sync error, the account name will need to be changed in both CoreBridge and Xero for the sync to be successful.

      Each account must have a unique account number and a unique name. Numbers and names cannot be the same between Income accounts and Reconciliation accounts. If you want the sync to create an account for you during the 1st sync, be sure that an account doesn't already exist in Xero with the number or name of the account that will be created.

  2. Before matching accounts, please read these Xero articles:
    • Locked and system accounts in your chart of accounts
    • Record movements in system accounts

    • If a system account is locked, Xero does not allow the account to be used in a journal. If you use a locked account in CoreBridge, that will cause the following issues:
      • When the sync tries to map the account to Xero, the mapping will fail with an error that cannot be fixed.
      • The journal will be recorded but the line using the locked account will not have an account assigned. 
      • When posting the Journal Entry in Xero, you'll see an error "Account must be valid" preventing from being posted.
    • When matching Reconciliation accounts, we advise against using locked accounts. In order for the sync to work without locked accounts, you should create a new account in Xero for each locked account. The new account should be matched to CoreBridge since it won't be locked.
    • These are the most common locked accounts:
      • Accounts Receivable
        • When creating a new Accounts Receivable account in Xero, the type should be Current Asset.
      • GST (VAT)
        • When creating a new tax account in Xero, the type should be Current Liability.

  3. Match each account in CoreBridge to an account in Xero.
    • The accounts listed under "My Accounting Software Accounts" must be matched to Xero.
    • Account number, account name, and account type must match.

    • Compare each account to Xero. 
    • If the CoreBridge account represents an account in Xero but it doesn't match exactly, change the account in either Xero or CoreBridge to get them to match.
    • If a CoreBridge account needs to be changed, click edit, make any needed changes, then click save.

  4. OPTIONAL – If you want to keep your CoreBridge accounts separate from existing accounts you can create new accounts. This can be helpful if you are in the process of closing out a previous POS system and don't want to commingle numbers in a single account.

Examples:

  • CB A/R (instead of Accounts Receivable)
  • CB Deposits (instead of Deposits)
  • CB Bad Debt (instead of Bad Debt)


For a detailed explanation of these CoreBridge Reconciliation accounts, please review the following support article:  Reconciliation Account Details

STEP 7 – Add a new Contact in Xero

Is this step optional or required? Required 

A Contact (Customer) is needed to process payments.


INSTRUCTIONS

Create a new Contact in Xero. The Contact Name can be anything you want to use. We recommend using this name: CoreBridge Import

STEP 8 – Notify Support That All Setup Steps Have Been Completed


Once the entire setup has been completed, notify support by replying back to your "sync setup" ticket. 


"The sync setup has been completed and I would like to proceed to the next step." 


The agent assigned to your ticket will review your system to ensure that you have a successful First Sync. If any issues are found during the review that will cause the sync to fail, the agent will let you know what the issues are so that they can be fixed. Once the review is successful the agent will send a scheduling link that you will use to arrange your First Sync meeting. 


The 1st Sync to Xero will be performed with a CoreBridge Support specialist on the scheduled meeting.


We do not recommend performing a first sync on your own.