Xero integrations: what Stripe, Shopify, Square and HubSpot actually sync.

Which Xero integrations are worth having?

For most small businesses, the Xero integrations worth having are a payments connection (Stripe for invoices, Square or Shopify for sales), your job or CRM app, and a bank feed for each account. Each one should remove a job someone does by hand every week. If it does not, it is just another login.

Xero lists hundreds of apps on its Australian app store, and almost every tool a business buys claims to "integrate with Xero". Some send every sale across line by line, some one lump sum a day, and some push invoices one way and never hear back when they are paid. Before you connect anything, ask one question: what will this stop us typing?

In our sales calls this month, Xero came up in about 20 of 32 conversations, almost always as one of four to seven tools that do not talk to each other properly. The table below is what the common connections actually do, checked against each vendor's own page.

How does the Stripe Xero integration work?

Stripe connects to Xero as a payment service on your invoices. Customers click Pay Now on an emailed invoice and pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. The money lands in Stripe, then pays out to your bank, and a Stripe bank feed brings payments and fees into Xero so you can reconcile them.

According to Xero's Stripe listing, there is no setup or monthly fee; you pay per transaction. Xero's Stripe fees page lists 1.75% + A$0.30 for domestic cards, 3.5% + A$0.30 for international cards, and 1.3% + A$0.30 capped at A$5 for PayTo, all GST inclusive. Fees come out of each payment, and the fee is not returned if you refund a customer.

It also supports auto pay on repeating invoices, which suits retainers and monthly service fees. What it does not do is tidy up payments you take in Stripe outside Xero, like a booking page or a Stripe checkout on your website. Those arrive through the feed and still need matching to an invoice. That gap is where most "Stripe is not reconciling" complaints start.

Can you still add a card surcharge to Xero invoices?

Not on Visa, Mastercard or eftpos cards. The Reserve Bank removed card surcharging from 1 October 2026, and that applies to card payments made on or after that date even if the invoice was issued earlier. American Express, UnionPay and PayPal have also moved to drop surcharging. Recover the cost through your prices instead.

The Reserve Bank's FAQ says card acceptance costs should be reflected in a business's overall pricing, and that discounts for a particular payment method are still allowed. If an old surcharge setting is still switched on in your invoicing or payment app, check it with your provider now rather than at the end of the quarter.

What does the Shopify Xero integration sync?

Xero's own Shopify integration sends sales, payouts, fees and taxes from your Shopify online store and Shopify POS into Xero. You choose between a daily summary or a separate transaction for each sale with customer details and product lines. It is free on all Xero plans and can pull in up to 90 days of history.

The Shopify listing on Xero's app store also lets you map Shopify taxes to Xero tax rates, which matters for GST.

Pick the sync style on purpose. A daily summary keeps Xero clean and is all most stores need. One transaction per sale gives you customer-level detail in Xero, but it fills the ledger quickly. If you need stock and cost of goods tracked against each sale, the listing does not promise that, so test it in a trial before you rely on it, or look at a dedicated inventory app.

How does the Square Xero integration work?

Square sends Xero one summary sales invoice each day covering the previous day's Square sales. You can break that down to individual transactions instead. You then set your own reconciliation rules in Xero, depending on how payments show up in your bank feed. Square's fees arrive when Square deposits your money.

Per Xero's Square partnership page, the integration was built for Xero and Square by an integration partner, which also supports it. Two things catch people out. Sales do not appear until the next day, so do not expect today's takings in Xero tonight. And if your bank rules are wrong, the daily invoice and the deposit never match, and someone ends up fixing it by hand every month. Spend the half hour getting the rules right in week one.

What does the HubSpot Xero integration sync?

HubSpot's Xero data sync moves contacts and products in either or both directions, plus invoices and the payments applied to them. HubSpot to Xero changes show within a few minutes; Xero to HubSpot changes are checked every 30 minutes. It works on all HubSpot plans, with custom field mapping needing Data Hub Starter or above.

HubSpot's own guide lists the limits plainly, and they are the usual source of trouble:

• Draft invoices do not sync. An invoice has to be open before it reaches Xero.
• Edit where it was made. A HubSpot invoice edited in Xero fails to sync back.
• Change a product code and old invoices stop syncing. You have to remove and re-add the line.
• Tax rates made in HubSpot do not go to Xero, and HubSpot cannot import taxes from a multi-entity Xero setup.
• Card fees on invoices do not sync, which leaves a reconciliation job. HubSpot suggests turning that setting off.
• Contact names must be unique in Xero, and contacts are matched by email.

Sync contacts first, then products, then invoices. Do it in that order and most of the errors never appear.

What about job apps like ServiceM8, Tradify and simPRO?

Most trade job apps sync customers, items, invoices and payments with Xero, and that part usually works well. The gaps sit around the edges: supplier price files, purchase orders, timesheets across several apps, and job profit, which needs costs from three places in one view.

ServiceM8's Xero page is a good example of a solid one: customers and items sync both ways, payments taken on the job flow to Xero and back, and staff timesheets go across in Australia. Where trades get stuck is the work around the job. A plumbing owner we spoke to this month wanted the two big supplier price files compared each week, the cheaper one bought from, and the dearer one used to set the markup. No marketplace app does that. It is a small custom build that reads the files and updates Xero.

What breaks most often?

Duplicate contacts, tax codes that do not match, payments landing in a clearing account nobody checks, and connections that quietly stop after a password or permission change. Most failures are silent. Nothing alerts you; the numbers just drift until month end.

• Silent disconnects. A login change or a staff member leaving can cut an app's access. Check each connection monthly.
• Two apps sending the same sale. A POS and a payments app both posting income doubles your revenue. Decide which one owns each number.
• GST mapped wrong once, repeated forever. Check the first week of synced transactions with your bookkeeper before you trust it.
• One person who knows how it works. A concreting business told us their accounts payable and receivable stopped for four weeks while the accounts person was on leave. Integrations should be written down, not remembered.

When is a custom Xero connection better than an app?

When the job crosses more than two systems, needs a judgement call, or involves several Xero organisations. Apps are good at moving one record type between two tools. They are poor at reading a supplier price list, chasing an overdue invoice in your voice, or reporting across three companies.

Xero treats each organisation separately and has no built-in consolidated reporting, so groups with more than one entity either export to spreadsheets or add a consolidation app. A custom connection reads each entity through the Xero API and builds the one report the owner actually looks at. Our automated reporting work is mostly this. The same goes for invoices: reading supplier bills, coding them and chasing payment is a better fit for invoice automation than for another marketplace app.

AI tools can now work inside Xero too. Our guide to connecting Claude to Xero covers what that can safely do, and Xero pricing in Australia covers which plan you need before you add apps on top.