Intermediate

How to Create and Send Invoices via Xero

Send full payment, deposit, final balance, or recurring invoices to Xero from an opportunity. Covers custom line items, 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 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/auto/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:write scope (Admin and Editor preset roles have it by default).

Sending a One-Off Invoice

  1. Open the opportunity. The Invoices section sits just below the Products card.
  2. Click Actions → Send Invoice. The Create Invoice modal opens.
  3. Choose the Invoice Portion at the top:
    • Full Payment — one invoice for the complete amount.
    • Deposit — an upfront portion based on each product's deposit percentage.
    • Final Balance — the remaining amount after a deposit has been raised.
    • Recurring — sets up a repeating schedule instead of a one-off invoice. See Recurring Invoices below.
  4. Review the line items. Tick or untick products to choose which go on this invoice, and add any custom line items you need (see below).
  5. Set the due date, Xero account, tax rate, and reference. Optionally enable email to the contact.
  6. 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 Payment or Deposit portion — all Unpaid items auto-check.
  • Final 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.

Adding Custom Line Items

Beneath the deal products table, an Add custom line button lets you add manual line items that aren't tied to any product on the opportunity — useful for one-off charges, adjustments, or anything not already tracked as a product. Each custom line has its own description, quantity, unit price, and an optional percentage discount.

Custom line items work on every invoice portion — Full Payment, Deposit, Final Balance, and Recurring — and sit alongside any selected deal products. They're included in the invoice subtotal and total just like product lines.

Recurring Invoices

Selecting Recurring 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.

You can also jump straight into this mode from the opportunity: the Set up recurring invoice action (in the opportunity's Actions menu) opens the same Create Invoice modal already switched to Recurring, for any workspace with Xero connected.

Setting up a recurring invoice

  1. Click Actions → Send Invoice and choose Recurring at the top (or use Actions → Set up recurring invoice to open straight into this mode). 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.
  2. 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. You can also add custom line items here, the same as on a one-off invoice.
  3. 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.
  4. Set First invoice on to the date you want the first invoice to generate. This can be today or any future date — it no longer defaults silently to a full period from now.
  5. Set Ends to control how long the schedule runs:
    • Never — the schedule keeps generating invoices indefinitely, until you stop it in Xero.
    • On a date — pick an end date; no further invoices generate after it.
  6. Set the Xero account, tax rate, and reference as usual.
  7. 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.
  8. Click Create Repeating Invoice. The first invoice generates on the date you set in First invoice on.

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 Payment / Deposit / Final Balance / Recurring) 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/auto/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.

I want the first invoice to go out today, not next period. Set First invoice on to today's date when configuring the schedule. The first invoice is no longer forced to wait a full period after setup — you're in full control of when it starts.

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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