Xero integration for wholesale invoices

Why a small brand needs this

Independent stores mostly buy on account. You send the stock, they pay in 14, 30 or 60 days, and some of them pay late. For a small brand that is your cash tied up in someone else's till, and chasing it by hand is the job everyone puts off. The Xero integration is one of our integrations for exactly this, alongside Stripe for stores that pay by card and Cin7 for orders.

From order to Xero invoice

Connect Xero by signing in and approving LaunchPal. When a store orders, from your line sheet or an order you add yourself, you create the invoice from the order. It goes into your Xero on the store's terms (Net 7, 14, 30 or 60), with the order lines, and Xero can email it to the buyer. It sits in your books like any other invoice.

A line sheet order can go on account through Xero, or be paid by card through Stripe. You choose per store.

Knowing when they paid

LaunchPal checks your Xero for payments every six hours, and again right before any reminder is due to go. When an invoice is paid, the reminders stop, the open tasks close, and you get a short note saying who paid and how late.

A store replying "we paid" does not close the invoice. Either Xero shows the payment, or you mark it paid yourself.

Reminders, drafted for you

In Flow, each open invoice gets a short run of reminders, written in your voice and sent from the mailbox that emailed the store. Nothing goes until you approve it, and you can hold or edit the run at any point. The default timing:

• 3 days before the due date, for terms of 14 days or longer.
• On the due date.
• 3 days late.
• 7 days late.

When it gets serious

You hear from us at 3, 14 and 30 days late. At 30 days nothing more goes to the store automatically. You choose: a final notice, putting new orders on pay-now, or writing it off. A store that pays part of an invoice holds the reminders until you decide what to do with the rest, and a disputed invoice stops them.

Each store also builds up a payment record. A store that pays within a couple of days of the due date reads as on time. One that is usually a few days to two weeks late reads as late, and one that averages more than two weeks late, or has gone past 30 days more than once, gets flagged on the board. You see it before you send the next order, and you get a short note suggesting pay-now for new orders. LaunchPal never changes a store's terms by itself.

What it looks like in a normal week

Say you have twenty stores on account. On Monday a deli orders two cases from your line sheet and you put it on Net 30 through Xero. The invoice is in your books before lunch. Three weeks later nothing has come in, so a short, friendly note is drafted for three days before the due date. You glance at it and approve it.

The deli pays two days late. Xero shows the payment, the rest of the reminders are cancelled, and you get a one-line note: paid, two days late. The store's record on the board now shows how it pays, so next time you know whether to offer terms again or ask for payment up front.

Before the first invoice

Invoices come after orders, and orders come after a store hears from you. See who would stock you to find the independent stores that fit your product, then work out a wholesale price that leaves room for their wholesale margin.