Smartworks and Xero
What Smartworks reads from your Xero organisation, what it writes back, and when each happens.
Smartworks works on top of your Xero organisation. It reads your customers, suppliers, products and settings from Xero. When you create a quote, invoice, purchase order, bill or credit note, it creates that document in Xero. Xero stays the record of every financial document, and Smartworks opens each one from Xero when you look at it.
Xero is the source of truth for documents
Every quote, invoice, payment, purchase order, bill and credit note that Smartworks makes is created in Xero first. Lists and detail screens for these documents ask Xero each time you open them, so they show what Xero holds, including changes made in Xero.
Smartworks keeps a small local record beside some documents. It holds what Xero cannot store, such as which job a purchase order line is for, the cost price on a quote line, and which job lines an invoice billed. Each page in this guide says what is kept and why.
Master data works the other way. Smartworks keeps a copy of it in memory so screens open quickly, and refreshes that copy from Xero on a timer or when you ask. See The Xero connection and cached data.
Every page in this guide
| Page | Direction | When it happens |
|---|---|---|
| The Xero connection and cached data | Both | Connected once by an admin. Cached data refreshes on a timer or on request. |
| Customers and suppliers | Xero to Smartworks, and new customers and notes to Xero | Cached for 2 hours. Saving a job with a new customer creates that contact in Xero. |
| Products and items | Xero to Smartworks | Cached for 2 days. Stock is kept in Smartworks only. |
| Tax rates | Xero to Smartworks | Cached for 2 days. |
| Tracking categories | Xero to Smartworks, then onto invoices | Cached for 2 days. Chosen on each invoice. |
| Chart of accounts | Xero to Smartworks | Cached for 2 days. |
| Branding themes | Xero to Smartworks, then onto documents | Cached for 2 days. Applied when a document is created or saved. |
| Quotes | Both | Written when you save. Read live. |
| Invoices and payments | Both | Written when you create an invoice or add a payment. Read live. |
| Purchase orders and bills | Both | Written when you save or receive. Read live. |
| Credit notes | Both | Written when you save the credit note. Read live when opened. |
| Known limitations | - | Every limitation from this guide in one list. |
What Smartworks never changes in Xero
Smartworks does not create, edit or delete Xero items, tax rates, tracking categories, accounts or branding themes. It does not edit existing contacts, apart from adding notes to them. Make those changes in Xero, then update the data set in Smartworks if you need the change straight away.
See also
- Connect Smartworks to Xero - the first-time connection, step by step.
- The Xero connection and cached data - how long each copy lasts and how to refresh it.
- Known limitations - what to expect where Smartworks and Xero differ.