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How to Create and Send Invoices via Xero
Send full, deposit, balance, or ongoing (recurring) invoices to Xero from an opportunity. Covers Xero Repeating Invoices, schedule options, Mark as Paid, and payment status sync.
When Xero is connected to your workspace, you can raise invoices directly from an opportunity and have the payment status on each product line update automatically as Xero processes them. You can also set up ongoing (recurring) invoices — these use Xero's native Repeating Invoice feature so Xero generates the next invoice automatically on your chosen schedule. This article covers both flows. For the underlying status concept and manual tracking (which works whether or not you use Xero), see https://www.trustpager.com/help-center/track-payment-status.
Prerequisites
- Xero is connected for your workspace — set up at https://app.trustpager.com/settings/integrations.
- The opportunity has a Xero contact linked. If not, the Invoices section will prompt you to create or link one.
- At least one product is attached to the opportunity.
- Your role has the
invoices:writescope (Admin and Editor preset roles have it by default).
Sending a One-Off Invoice
- Open the opportunity. The Invoices section sits just below the Products card.
- Click Actions → Send Invoice. The Create Invoice modal opens.
- Choose the Invoice Portion at the top:
- Full — one invoice for the complete amount.
- Deposit — an upfront portion based on each product's deposit percentage.
- Balance — the remaining amount after a deposit has been raised.
- Review the line items. Tick or untick products to choose which go on this invoice.
- Set the due date, Xero account, tax rate, and reference. Optionally enable email to the contact.
- Click Create Invoice. The invoice is created in Xero and appears in the Invoices section on the opportunity.
Smart Line-Item Defaults
The modal pre-selects which line items should go on this invoice based on the portion you picked and each product's current payment status:
- Full or Deposit portion — all Unpaid items auto-check.
- Balance portion — only items that already have a Deposit Invoiced status auto-check, since those are the ones owing a balance.
- Items that are already Invoiced or Paid appear dimmed with a strikethrough price and a status label. You can still tick them to force-include (useful for credit notes or re-billing), but a small warning appears when you do.
The subtotal and total update live as you tick and untick items.
Ongoing (Recurring) Invoices
Selecting Ongoing as the invoice portion works differently to the one-off options above. Instead of sending a single invoice, TrustPager creates a Xero Repeating Invoice — a template in Xero that Xero uses to automatically generate and send invoices on your chosen schedule. TrustPager doesn't generate the individual invoices itself; Xero owns the cycle entirely.
Setting up an ongoing invoice
- Click Actions → Send Invoice and choose Ongoing at the top. The modal layout changes: the due date and status grid are replaced by the schedule block, and the standard email composer is replaced by a two-button email picker.
- Select the line items you want on the recurring schedule. By default all non-Usage-Based products auto-check. Usage-Based products are excluded from auto-select but can be manually checked — though they're typically billed separately.
- Configure the schedule:
- Weekly — Xero generates one invoice per week.
- Monthly — Xero generates one invoice per month.
- Yearly — TrustPager converts this to a monthly schedule repeating 12 times, since Xero's API only supports Weekly and Monthly natively.
- Set the Xero account, tax rate, and reference as usual.
- Choose your email behaviour:
- Auto-email each invoice — Xero emails the contact automatically when each invoice generates.
- Don't auto-email — Xero does not email the contact. (Prior to a recent fix this option was unreliable — it now correctly prevents Xero from sending.)
- Click Create Repeating Invoice. The first invoice generates one period from now — e.g. a monthly schedule set up today means the first invoice arrives in one month, not today.
How it works in Xero
TrustPager creates a single Repeating Invoice template in Xero (identified by a RepeatingInvoiceID). From that point, Xero takes over: it generates each individual invoice on schedule and handles all delivery. You can view and manage the repeating invoice in Xero at any time. If you need to stop the recurring cycle, do so directly in Xero.
Syncing Payment Status from Xero
After sending an invoice, click Actions → Sync Invoices any time to pull the latest from Xero.
- An invoice marked AUTHORISED / SUBMITTED / DRAFT in Xero promotes its line items to Deposit Invoiced (for deposit invoices) or Invoiced (for full and balance invoices).
- An invoice marked PAID in Xero promotes its line items to Paid.
- Sync is forward-only and per-product: each invoice remembers exactly which line items it covered, so a second opportunity sharing the same Xero contact won't accidentally mark this opportunity's products as paid.
- Invoices in VOIDED or DELETED status leave the status unchanged — manual reset is available in the Edit Deal Product modal.
Viewing and Editing an Invoice
Click any invoice card in the Invoices section to open it. Editable fields (status, due date, reference) write back to Xero. Locked Xero statuses (PAID, VOIDED, DELETED) appear read-only. The portion label (Full / Deposit / Balance / Ongoing) can be adjusted locally — it's metadata for display only, not sent to Xero.
If the invoice is in SUBMITTED or AUTHORISED state, a Send Invoice button appears to email the PDF to the contact via Xero.
Actions column
Each invoice card shows an Actions column with options based on the invoice's current state:
- Mark as Paid — available on AUTHORISED or SUBMITTED invoices. Records an actual payment against the invoice in Xero.
- Void — cancels the invoice in Xero. Available while the invoice has not been paid.
Mark as Paid
Use this to record a payment without leaving TrustPager. Click Mark as Paid on the invoice card. A confirmation dialog opens with two fields:
- Payment date — defaults to today. Change it if the payment was received on a different date.
- Bank account — a dropdown of the bank accounts from your connected Xero integration. Defaults to the last account you used; your choice is remembered for next time.
Click Record $<amount> to commit. Once recorded:
- The payment is written to Xero and the invoice is marked PAID in Xero.
- The invoice snapshot on the opportunity updates to reflect the paid status.
- The opportunity's Outstanding total clears for the amount covered by this invoice.
Individual product line payment statuses catch up on the next invoice sync, not instantly from this button. Run Actions → Sync Invoices if you need them to update right away.
Troubleshooting
No Actions → Send Invoice button. Either Xero isn't connected (check https://app.trustpager.com/settings/integrations), or your role lacks invoices:write (check https://app.trustpager.com/settings/permissions).
The Invoices section shows no Xero contact. Click Add Contact → New Contact to create a Xero contact from the opportunity's linked account, or Link Existing to attach one that already exists in Xero.
Sync didn't update status to Paid. Make sure the invoice is marked PAID in Xero (not just AUTHORISED), then hit Sync Invoices again.
Sync filters out invoices I just created in Xero directly. Invoices raised in Xero (outside TrustPager) don't have the product mapping TrustPager needs for per-product status promotion. They still appear in the Invoices section, but payment status sync skips them. Set the status manually via the Edit Deal Product modal, or create the invoice from TrustPager next time.
My recurring invoice is sending emails when I chose "Don't auto-email". This was a bug in an earlier version where the ApprovedForSending flag wasn't being set correctly. It has been fixed — if you're still seeing it, the repeating invoice may have been created before the fix. Delete it in Xero and set up a new one from TrustPager.
The first invoice under an ongoing schedule arrived later than I expected. This is expected behaviour — Xero generates the first invoice one full period after you create the repeating template, not on the day of setup.
Mark as Paid fails with an error message. TrustPager shows Xero's own rejection message when one is available, otherwise the generic message "Failed to record payment." Common causes:
- Partial payment already recorded — if a payment has already been applied to this invoice in Xero, Xero may reject a second full-amount payment. Check the invoice in Xero directly and apply the remaining balance only.
- Invoice not in Authorised state — Xero only accepts payments against invoices with AUTHORISED status. Draft, submitted, or voided invoices cannot be paid via the API. Approve the invoice in Xero first, then try again.
- Closed accounting period — if the payment date falls within a period that has been locked in Xero, the payment will be rejected. Change the payment date to one within an open period.
Product lines still show Invoiced after marking paid. This is expected — product line statuses update on the next sync, not instantly. Click Actions → Sync Invoices to pull the latest from Xero now.
Mark as Paid button is not visible. The button only appears on invoices in AUTHORISED or SUBMITTED state. Invoices that are already PAID, VOIDED, or DELETED will not show the option.
I don't use Xero — can I still track payment status? Yes. See https://www.trustpager.com/help-center/track-payment-status for the manual flow.
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