The Tradify to Xero integration is good at exactly one thing, invoices and the money attached to them. Tradify's help centre says an invoice edit shows up on the other side in under a minute, and it describes payments and credit notes on approved invoices flowing across too. It does nothing with quotes, timesheets, purchase orders or job profitability, it maps everything to four Xero account codes, and deleting a synced invoice in Xero deletes it from Tradify for good. For a small NZ trades firm the invoicing part is worth switching on today; the reporting gaps need a feasibility check before I quote a build.
What syncs, and in which direction
| Record | Direction | Trigger | Certainty | Source and check date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invoices | Both ways | Tradify to Xero when approved and sent, shown as "Sent to Xero"; edits sync either way. Edited line descriptions in Xero do not come back. Invoices created before you connected stay put unless you open each and choose Send to Xero. | Confirmed | Tradify add-on page, Xero listing, Tradify help; 2026-10-11 |
| Payments | Both ways on Approved invoices | A payment added in either system shows in the other; Tradify marks the invoice paid | Check: Tradify help says both ways, the Xero listing shows Tradify to Xero only | Tradify help excerpt, Xero listing; 2026-10-11. Test with one real invoice |
| Credit notes | Xero to Tradify confirmed; Tradify to Xero not stated | Raised in Xero against an approved invoice, appear in Tradify | Check: Xero listing and Tradify add-on page both say "invoices, payments and credit notes" in a two-way sync but neither lists credit notes in its shared-data table | Tradify help excerpt, both vendor pages; 2026-10-11 |
| Bills (supplier invoices) | Tradify to Xero | A send action, not automatic. Posted to the Purchases account code you mapped. Requires the four account codes to be set. | Confirmed | Tradify add-on page; 2026-10-11 |
| Customers | Xero to Tradify at import and on re-authorisation; Tradify edits update Xero per Tradify | An import you run at setup, and Tradify says it repeats whenever you re-authorise Xero, which can overwrite details held only in Tradify. Tradify's page says customer edits in Tradify update Xero, Xero's listing says contacts only come the other way. Test with one customer. | Check: Xero listing says Xero to Tradify only | Tradify help excerpt, add-on page, Xero listing; 2026-10-11 |
| Suppliers | Xero to Tradify at import and on re-authorisation; shared with Xero per Tradify | Import, then re-login | Check | as above |
| Price list items / Xero inventory | Xero to Tradify at import; Tradify to Xero on invoices sent when the inventory preset is on | Preset on, invoice or bill sent | Check: the Xero listing says items are shared both ways | Tradify help excerpt, Xero listing; 2026-10-11 |
| Chart of accounts | Xero to Tradify only | At setup and re-login | Confirmed by the Xero listing, not mentioned by Tradify | Xero listing; 2026-10-11 |
| Tax rates | Xero to Tradify only | At setup and re-login | Confirmed by the Xero listing | Xero listing; 2026-10-11 |
| Branding themes | Xero to Tradify only | At setup and re-login | Confirmed by the Xero listing | Xero listing; 2026-10-11 |
| Invoice attachments | Tradify to Xero | Optional preset; files on the invoice's notes go to the Xero invoice | Confirmed | Tradify help excerpt; 2026-10-11 |
| Quotes, timesheets, purchase orders, job costs | Not listed by either vendor | None | Neither page lists them | Tradify add-on page, Xero listing; 2026-10-11 |
| Cancel and void | Both ways | Void in Xero shows as Cancelled in Tradify; Cancel in Tradify voids in Xero. | ||
| Invoice numbering | Optional preset | Let Xero own the sequence if you raise invoices in both; until Xero assigns it, the Tradify invoice sits as a draft. |
Field by field, from the vendors' own pages
Two public pages describe the sync, and they do not say quite the same thing. This table takes only what each states, read on 30 September and again on 11 October 2026: the Tradify add-on page and the Xero App Store listing. Where they differ I say so rather than pick one.
Neither page gives a sync interval or a list of excluded records. The "within a minute" figure and the delete warning on this page come from Tradify's help centre. On 11 October 2026 I confirmed both from the help centre's own search excerpts, though the article itself still blocks automated readers, so check both against your own Tradify account before you rely on them.
What you still do by hand
- Quotes. They live in Tradify. Xero Quotes are a separate thing and nothing connects them.
- Timesheets and labour cost. Timesheets are not part of the integration. Tradify's help centre says they must be exported to a file and keyed into Xero Payroll by hand. Labour reaches Xero's sales side only as an invoice line at the sell rate, under one account code.
- Purchase orders. A PO in Tradify is not a bill until the supplier invoice arrives; only the bill posts to Xero. Committed cost is invisible in Xero until then.
- Job profitability. Xero sees revenue and purchases in two buckets. It does not know which job they belong to, so margin per job stays a Tradify question, and Tradify's version of it does not include everything. This is the gap most firms feel first; Xero job costing for trades goes into it.
- Tracking categories, departments, branches. The mapping is four account codes: labour sales, material sales, bank, purchases. Anything you split further in Xero, you re-code by hand.
- Historic invoices. Everything raised before the integration is a manual Send to Xero, one at a time.
- Partial and split payments across jobs. Sync handles a payment against an invoice. A customer paying three invoices with one transfer is a Xero bank reconciliation job, as it always was.
The one action that destroys data
From Tradify's help centre, in their words: deleting a Tradify invoice in Xero removes it from Tradify as well, with all its details and payments, and it cannot be recovered. Voiding is different and safe. So the rule for the office is simple and worth writing on the wall: never delete a synced invoice in Xero; void it in Xero or cancel it in Tradify. If a bookkeeper who does not use Tradify has Xero access, tell them this on day one.
Setting it up without pain
- Ask your accountant for the four account codes before you start: sales of labour, sales of materials, the bank account, purchases. The integration will not post without them.
- Import customers, suppliers and price list items from Xero first. Expect that import to run again whenever Xero asks you to log back in, and keep your Tradify-only details (notes, custom fields) somewhere you can restore.
- Decide who owns invoice numbers. If anyone will ever raise an invoice directly in Xero, turn on the Xero numbering preset.
- Turn on inventory sync only if your Xero inventory is tidy. If it is not, the preset will faithfully copy the mess.
- Do the historic invoices last, or not at all if the debtors are clean in Xero already.
Where a small automation fills the gaps
The gaps above are reporting gaps, not integration gaps. Whether I can build the fix depends on how I can get your job, quote and timesheet data out of Tradify, because I have not found a published Tradify API or Power BI connector. So the first job is a feasibility check: which Tradify plan you are on, what Tradify can export and how often, which fields come out, and whether each job has a stable ID I can match to Xero. If that works, the Xero side and the reporting list or Power BI dataset are straightforward and do not touch the invoice sync at all. The running cost is not always zero: depending on the connectors, where it runs and who views the Power BI report, it can add licences on top of the Microsoft 365 you already pay for, and I will price that before you commit. What it cannot do is make Xero understand a quote or a timesheet, because Xero has nowhere to put them. The comparison of what an integration costs when there is no native one is in Xero integration cost in NZ, and if you are still choosing job software, Tradify pricing in NZ has the current numbers.
Common questions
What does the Tradify Xero integration sync?
Invoices from Tradify to Xero once approved, with edits to references, dates and line items syncing both ways; payments on approved invoices, both ways per Tradify's help (Xero's own listing shows Tradify to Xero only); credit notes raised in Xero, which appear in Tradify; and cancel or void status both ways. Bills raised in Tradify post to Xero. Customers, suppliers and price list items are imported from Xero at setup and again on re-authorisation, which can overwrite details held only in Tradify. Invoices created before you connected do not sync unless you send each one manually.
What does Tradify not sync to Xero?
Quotes, timesheets, purchase orders as purchase orders, job costing and job profitability, and anything you track by Xero tracking category. Line descriptions edited in Xero do not come back to Tradify. The integration maps to four Xero account codes (labour sales, material sales, bank, purchases), so anything finer than that is manual.
Is it safe to delete a Tradify invoice in Xero?
No. Tradify's own documentation says that deleting a Tradify-created invoice in Xero removes it from Tradify too, including all its details and payments, and it cannot be recovered. Void it in Xero or cancel it in Tradify instead. This is the single most expensive mistake in the integration.
Can a small automation fill the gaps between Tradify and Xero?
Yes, for the reporting gaps, if the Tradify data can be exported or read in a way I can use. A flow or small script can pull Xero data and whatever Tradify will give up into SharePoint or Power BI for job profitability, aged debtors by job, or a weekly cash view. I check what Tradify can supply before I quote, and I price any licence or connector costs separately. It cannot make Xero understand quotes or timesheets, because Xero has nowhere to put them.
Want the margin-per-job number Tradify and Xero each show half of?
Tell me which Tradify plan you are on and whether your accountant uses tracking categories. One free 30-minute call and you know whether it is a reporting build or a workflow change, and what it costs.