With the Yokoy expense integration for Xero, you can streamline your workflows by automating spend management data flows, reducing manual work, and ensuring accurate account associations.

With this integration, you can import Xero Tracking Categories as cost objects and Accounts as expense categories in Yokoy. Xero Contacts are synced with users in Yokoy, allowing any changes in names or status to be automatically updated in Yokoy.

When you export reviewed expenses from Yokoy, they are automatically posted in Xero accordingly:

The Yokoy integration sends the corresponding tax rate from Yokoy so that tax amounts can be calculated in Xero.

The approval flow for expenses is managed entirely by Yokoy using either a standard workflow such as cost object or line manager approval or a custom workflow.

The Yokoy integration for Xero is an API-based integration that exchanges data bidirectionally. Tracking categories and Accounts are imported into Yokoy and synchronized on a daily basis. Users, Company cards, and Tax rates are also synchronized on a daily basis, but must first be manually created within Yokoy.

Once expenses are processed within Yokoy and are triggered for export, they are exported to Xero.

When you configure the Yokoy integration, you need to grant Yokoy the following access to Xero:

The Yokoy integration for Xero allows you to synchronize employee and accounting master data from Xero for use in Yokoy. Data is synchronized at company level, rather than for the entire organization.

When setting up the integration for the first time, the Yokoy team needs to configure a synchronization job to create or update objects in Yokoy. Once set up, the job runs daily to check for any changes.

You can synchronize the following data objects from Xero:

A unique identifier is used to determine whether or not the corresponding object (i.e. expense category, cost object, user, or tax rate) already exists in Yokoy. If found, the integration tries to update the existing object with changes in the data.

In the case of Accounts, Tax Rates, and Tracking Categories, if the integration does not find the corresponding object in Yokoy, it creates a new category or cost object in Yokoy. For other master data such as company cards cards and users, you need to first create these manually in Yokoy.

Only certain values are updated in Yokoy if changes are made to these objects in Xero. For example, for tax rates, only the status is updated.

An expense account is mapped to a Yokoy expense category on a one-to-one basis. In other words, you can only create one expense category for each expense account.

The Xero account must have the account type Expense or Bank, and also have Show in Expense Claims active; otherwise, it will be ignored by the integration.

The integration synchronizes any changes in accounts, updating the corresponding object in Yokoy. For example, if you archive an account in Xero, the corresponding expense category is flagged as inactive in Yokoy and the synchronization will update the category’s status accordingly.

If a Xero account type changes to any type other than Expense or Bank, further updates made to the Xero account will not be synced with the existing Yokoy expense category.

Yokoy cost objects for cost controlling are created from Xero Tracking Categories. The integration synchronizes any changes in Tracking Categories, updating the corresponding object in Yokoy. Archived tracking categories are also included in the sync.

Users must first be created in Yokoy before they can be mapped with Xero contacts. These users are mapped to Xero contacts using the email address. Therefore, it is important that the email address is identical in Xero and Yokoy for correct synchronization.

After the initial sync, if a Xero contact’s email address changes, you must manually update the email address in Yokoy in order for that user to remain “in sync” with the Xero contact.

The synchronization job can update any changes made to the user’s first name, last name, status, and Contact ID. If a contact is not active in Xero, the user is considered to be inactive in Yokoy and the synchronization will update the user’s status accordingly.

Tax rates can be imported from Xero into Yokoy. After the initial sync, if the rate percentage of the tax rate is modified in Xero, you must manually update the corresponding percentage of the tax rate in Yokoy. The synchronization job only updates changes made to the status of the tax rate. In other words, if a tax rate is not active in Xero, the tax rate is considered to be inactive in Yokoy and the synchronization will update the tax rate’s status accordingly.

If your company uses Yokoy Platinum Visa cards or another third-party card integration, company cards must first be created in Yokoy before they can be linked with Xero. These company cards are mapped to Xero Credit Card Accounts using the Code (Xero) / ERP Code (Yokoy).

After the initial sync, when a Credit Card Account is modified in Xero, you must manually update the corresponding company card data in Yokoy.

Once set up, the synchronization job only updates changes in status made to the Xero Credit Card Account. In other words, if a Credit Card Account is not active in Xero, the Company Card is considered to be inactive in Yokoy and the synchronization will update the Company Card’s status accordingly.

The Yokoy integration exports data including employee information, tracking categories, accounts, tax rate reference (for calculation in Xero), amount, and currency.

By default, expense data is only exported when a finance users clicks Export in Finance > Export. However, you can configure the integration to automatically export expenses at a regular interval. See Set up an automatic export for expenses.

The following Yokoy expense types are supported:

Reimbursable expenses are exported as approved Bills in Xero. Yokoy credit notes are exported to Xero as Draft vendor credits.

The following expense data is exported to Xero:

The applicable tax rate used for privately paid expenses varies depending on whether it is a credit note or not.

Expenses paid by company card and travel expenses are exported as Spend Money Bank Transactions, since they do not generate any payment in Xero for these transactions. Company card and travel expense refunds are exported as Receive Money Bank Transactions.

The data for expenses paid by company card is export to Xero is as follows:

The data for expenses associated with a travel provider integration is exported to Xero as follows:

Depending on the posting strategy determined the company settings, the Yokoy integration exports expenses in either:

Yokoy sends the selected tax rate(s) in the expense export payload to Xero and Xero then calculates the tax based on these inputs.

Credit notes for reimbursable expenses (i.e. privately paid expenses) are treated like regular expenses in terms of export features; however, they are reflected in Xero as a Vendor credit in Draft status.

Credit notes of non-reimbursable expenses (i.e. paid by company card) are treated like regular expenses in terms of export features; however, they are reflected in Xero as a Receive money bank transactions.

Expense receipts and any files attached to the expense as supporting documents can be sent to Xero if required. You configure the Yokoy integration to determine whether you want to send receipts only, all documents (receipts and attachments), or choose not to any documents.

Receipts and supporting documents are displayed in the File column in Xero. You can preview these files when you click on the file. They are also visible in the View Bill view, when you click on the file icon.

The bill history includes the action Attached the file through the Xero API using Yokoy Business App.

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