If you are recording timesheets in XPM and want to report on your profitability then it’s important to meet the right conditions so that client invoices can synchronise from Xero into XPM and allocate to the correct client job to accumulate negative WIP.

This article will guide you through the setup required to ensure invoices are synchronising between Ignition, Xero and XPM seamlessly and provides a troubleshooting checklist to work through if any allocation issues arise.

Please also refer to Xero's help articles for more information.

When Ignition creates invoices in Xero it will populate a reference number on the invoice.

If you are using the proposal editor this number will either be a Proposal reference number i.e. ‘PROP - XXXX’ or a Client reference number i.e. ‘CLI - XXXX’ depending on which billing grouping you have selected in the proposal’s Automation tab.

If you are using the Classic Proposal Editor then Ignition will use the proposal reference number to populate the Invoice reference number.

When Ignition creates a job in XPM for the client it will also automatically populate the Client Order Number field on the job which will match the Xero invoice reference number.

If you are using a Client Billing Job, the Billing Group setting will default to a Non-Billing job. If you want invoices to allocate correctly, you must update this setting to Client Billing Job.
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Like in the image below, ensure you have set the Proposal Billing Group field to Proposal Billing Job when using a proposal grouping or Client Billing Job when using a client grouping.

Finally, when Xero and XPM sync overnight, XPM will check to see if any new Xero Blue invoices have a reference number that matches the client order number on an XPM job. (XPM also checks for any existing invoices which have been edited in the past 14 days.)

If so, the Xero invoice will be automatically allocated to the financial tab of that XPM Job as a negative WIP credit.

If the Xero invoice can’t find a job with a matching client order number then the invoice will allocate against the client’s file in XPM as a miscellaneous invoice or create a new Adhoc job depending on your XPM settings (see this section of the article below for more information).

If your invoices are not allocating to the correct client job in XPM please use this 8-step checklist to help identify possible allocation issues:

✅ Xero invoice import setting enabled in XPM (find instructions here)

✅ Client Name is matching on Xero invoice & XPM job

✅ Xero Invoice Reference number matches XPM Job Client Order Number

✅ The invoice has been created or edited within the last 14 days

✅ The invoice is not already in XPM

✅ Ignition Client is mapped to the correct XPM Client

✅ XPM Job is a standard Job State

✅ Check the Invoice hasn’t diverted to another XPM Client

✅ Check there isn't an existing invoice in Xero with a matching Invoice Number

If you have met each of the checklist items above please raise a customer support ticket directly with Xero Support so they can investigate further as this may be a bug.

Once a ticket has been raised please share the case number with your Ignition Account Manager so we can keep track of these issues and their frequency internally.

To find out more information on how you can ensure you have met the conditions of each point in the checklist above continue reading the troubleshooting guide below.

There are a few reasons that your invoices aren't allocating to your XPM job. Please check the following:

In order for invoices to import from Xero and allocate to XPM jobs you will need to enable the Xero invoice import function in your XPM settings. To enable this setting you can follow the steps in this support article.

To import invoices, client names in Xero and XPM must be the same. We recommend keeping one name in both systems and also enabling Client Name Sync in your Xero App settings in Ignition.

To rectify this, change the name on the invoice (or name in XPM) and follow Xero's instructions to re-import the invoice here.
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The Xero Invoice Reference number must match the XPM job’s Client Order Number field in order for invoices to allocate to the financial tab of the correct job.

If these fields aren’t matching, you can copy and paste the invoice reference number into the client order number field of the relevant client job in XPM.

You can do this by navigating to the client’s Job in XPM → Edit Job → Paste the Invoice Reference Number into the Client Order Number field → Save.

If the invoice has already allocated to the wrong place in XPM, make sure to delete the XPM invoice first and ensure all other checklist items are ticked off so the that invoice enters the Xero & XPM overnight sync flow again.

Please note: Deleting an invoice in XPM only deletes the invoice in XPM, not in Xero. Make sure to avoid the "Cancel" button which will also remove the invoice from Xero

When invoices sync from Xero into XPM overnight, any invoices with reference numbers that match the client order number on an XPM job will allocate to the financial tab of that job.

If any Xero invoices don’t have a matching reference number to an XPM job’s client order number, the invoices will still import into XPM however they will either allocate as a Miscellaneous invoice under the client’s file in XPM or if you have enabled the ‘create an ad hoc job’ setting (details below), then the invoice will create a new ad hoc job in XPM on import.

To check whether this setting is enabled navigate to your XPM Business menu → Settings → Xero → scroll to the heading KPI/WIP Reporting → check to see if the ‘Create an Adhoc job when no current job matches the Xero reference field’ setting is checked.

If this setting is checked currently, your invoice may have allocated to an Adhoc Job like in the image below.

If this setting is already unchecked, then it is likely that the invoice has been allocated as a Misc invoice on the client’s Invoices tab in XPM like in the image below.

In either scenario, the invoice will need to be deleted from XPM so that the invoice flows through the overnight Xero & XPM sync again.
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​Please note: Deleting an invoice in XPM only deletes the invoice in XPM, not in Xero. Make sure to avoid the "Cancel" button which will also remove the invoice from Xero

To ensure the invoice correctly allocates once deleted, make sure all other checklist items from this article have been met.

In order for an invoice to sync correctly between Xero to XPM, it must have been created that day or edited within the last 14 days. There are also a few other conditions including references to the lock out date detailed in Xero's help article here.

To edit the invoice and reset the 14-day timer, you'll need to change an aspect of the invoice and change it back.

Click Invoice Options → Edit → Copy and remove the reference number → Update.

Then, click Invoice Options → Edit → Paste and add the reference number back in → Update.

Then, delete the invoice from XPM and wait for the overnight sync.

Note: The reason why we do this is because we need a new timestamp for XPM to look for this invoice.

If your Ignition client isn’t mapped to the correct XPM Client then the invoice will not allocate to the correct job and client in XPM. This could be due to having duplicate clients in XPM with the same name.

The easiest way to check is to look at the client XPM identifier in Ignition and whether this is the same as the ID in the URL of the client in XPM. You can find the client XPM identifier in the client record when you click Edit Client → Apps tab.

See the screenshots below for more detail.

Invoices cannot be imported by XPM to a Job where the job state type is not a Standard or On Hold state (see this article for more information on Job States).

The most common scenario is a completed job, but you may have other non-standard job status states as well (e.g., cancelled, deleted, archived...etc.).

In this case, the invoice will be imported to the client and will not be allocated to a job.

To rectify this, change the job state and follow Xero's instructions to re-import the invoice here.

Finally, ensure the settings on your XPM client aren’t set up to divert invoices from one client to another.

To check this, navigate to the client’s file in XPM → Options → Edit → Billing → 'Add different billing details' → check if a different client has been selected for invoicing.

If yes, update the field to the correct client mapping.

Check for any existing Xero invoices in your ledger with the same Invoice Number as the newly created one.

If found, it is important to update the invoice number on the new Invoice to differentiate it from the existing one to allow the new invoice to sync to the correct XPM job.

To resolve this issue, find and edit the new invoice to assign a new unique Invoice Number, such as by adding a letter at the beginning of the number.

This issue may occur if you have recently merged Xero files with another firm, where an invoice with a duplicate Invoice Number may exist.
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If you find you are getting overwhelmed with the number of invoices not finding their jobs in XPM, we suggest that you enable the ‘Create an Adhoc job’ box under Business → Settings → Xero.

This means that whenever XPM imports an invoice from Xero but can't find the correct job for it, it will create an Adhoc job. This holds it all unallocated invoices in one area.

Then, you can set up a Filter in the Business → Work in Progress section of your XPM file (see below) so that you can quickly find and deal with misallocated invoices: