Getting started with Xero accounting system and Amaze Connect

Amaze Connect acts as an integration between the Xero accounting system and eefacta Server, the document exchange server, and helps deliver electronic invoices to the Peppol network in commonly used document standards, such as Peppol BIS 3.0 (based on EN 16931), Peppol BIS 2.0, and the Norwegian EHF, or by email.

The European Standard on Electronic Invoicing EN 16931 is a semantic eInvoicing standard that will be mandatory in all EU Member States according to the EU directive 2014/55/EU. The EN 16931 standard is intended for use by public procurement contractors for receiving and processing of electronic invoices, but it is also suitable for commercial transactions by enterprises.

By defining the data that needs to be contained in an electronic invoice, the aim is to ensure interoperability, reduce operating costs, and simplify handling electronic invoices. In addition, the EN 16931 standard is consistent with related international standards and tailored to be easily incorporated in electronic invoicing systems.

The instructions provided here should help you set up your Xero account and your Amaze Connect account. Configuring both of them correctly before using Amaze Connect to send messages and documents is essential to ensure smooth functioning.

I. Configuring your Xero account

Before using Amaze Connect to send messages and exchange business documents, you need to configure your Xero account correctly. If you do not have an account with Xero online accounting system, go to Xero to register.

If you are already using the Xero accounting system, read this guide carefully in order to review your settings and make sure that they are correctly configured before continuing.

1. Setting up your Xero account

Start by reviewing your organization information and checking that your account details are properly configured. This is key to ensuring correct integration.

1.1. Setting company information

The information provided here is used in electronic invoices and is necessary so that eefacta Server can successfully process the documents even if Xero does not explicitly require these details.

Click your company name in the menu bar in the upper-left corner of the page.

Select Settings from the drop-down menu, and then select Organisation details.
Enter all the necessary information. Make sure to verify the following:
- Legal / Trading name
- Business Registration Number
  
  The Business Registration Number must be specified without any punctuation marks.
- Postal address (must include full address details)
- Email
Save all changes before continuing.

1.2. Setting accounting information

The Tax ID Number is used to represent the VAT number on the electronic invoice.

The VAT number must be specified without any punctuation marks.

It must not be prefixed with a two-character ISO country code.

Go to Accounting, select Advanced and then Financial settings.
Enter the Tax ID Number and the Tax ID Display Name.
Save changes before continuing.

For Norwegian companies using electronic invoices, the Tax ID Number must end with “MVA”. If you do not include "MVA" in the Tax ID Number, it is inserted automatically during processing.

1.3. Setting tax rates

Tax rates need to be mapped in Amaze Connect for proper use in the electronic invoice. For more information, refer to 2.2. VAT mapping.

Go to Accounting, select Advanced, and then select Tax rates.
To set up a tax rate, click New Tax Rate.

Provide a Tax Rate Display Name, at least one Tax Component, and a percentage value.
Save changes before continuing.

1.4. Specifying customer endpoint

The information provided here is used in electronic invoices and credit notes. Eefacta Server needs this information to successfully process the documents even if Xero does not explicitly require these details.

To add a customer, go to Contacts and select All contacts.
Click Add Contact, then enter all the necessary information. Make sure to verify the following:
- Contact Name
- Account Number
  
  To display the Account Number box, click Add account number. Here you need to provide the business registration number of the customer according to the ISO 6523 ICD list of business participant identifiers.
  
  The following format is used: {ICD-code}:{registrationNumber}, such as 0196:XXXXXXXXXX. Currently, instead of an ICD identifier number code, KT (Icelandic identifier kennitala) and GLN (Global Location Number) codes are also supported, for example, KT:XXXXXXXXXX or GLN:XXXXXXXXXXXXX.
- Postal Address
  
  This corresponds to the billing address and must include full address details, as well as the name of the country. For Country, you need to use one of the predefined values, as shown here:
  
  Denmark
  
  Danmark
  
  DK
  
  Finland
  
  Suomi
  
  FI
  
  Iceland
  
  Ísland
  
  IS
  
  Norway
  
  Norge
  
  NO
  
  Sweden
  
  Sverige
  
  SE
  
  International bank transfers require special handling.
  
  If you are working with international customers, contact us for assistance at info [at] unimaze [dot] com.
- Email
  
  If the customer’s receiving endpoint cannot be discovered, the business document is sent through email instead. To verify that a partner exists, see the Business identifier lookup.
  
  For business participants using ICD identifier numbers, the document is formatted according to the BISENUBL-3.0 document specification. For other identifiers, the document uses NESP4-2.0 document format for invoices and NESP5-2.0 for credit notes.

1.5. Specifying delivery location

Providing a delivery location does not change where the business document is delivered but can be useful for document handling on the receiver’s side.

To set a delivery location for the customer, when adding contact information (Contacts > All contacts > Add contact), add the delivery location identifier as the second element in the Account Number box, for example 0196:XXXXXXXXXX / 0088:XXXXXXXXXXXXX. The delivery location identifier must also comply with the ISO 6523 ICD list.

To separate the two identifiers, use any of the following:

(space)
- (dash)
/ (forward slash)

When the delivery location identifier is provided, the delivery location is included on the invoice. In this case, you need to specify the following:

Postal Address: The customer’s billing address.
Street Address: The address of the delivery location.

You cannot provide a delivery location if there is no billing address. The customer’s billing address is entered as Postal Address. In case Postal Address is empty, the information given in Street Address is used as billing address instead.

1.5.1. Example: setting up customer’s delivery location

The following example shows you how to add a delivery location for a customer.

Go to Contacts, select All contacts, then click Add contact.

If you need to edit the information for an existing contact, click the company name, then select Edit.
Start by configuring the identifier. In this example, the customer is National Health Services Supply Chain (NHSSC).

Enter Contact Name and Account Number as shown here.
In Postal Address, set the billing address, which is the address for Accounts Payable in this case.

In Street Address, set the delivery location.
Save changes before continuing.

1.6. Submitting documents

To create an invoice or a credit note, go to Business, then select Invoices.

The tax rates that you provide here when creating an electronic invoice are mapped to standardized tax codes in the electronic invoice. Make sure to review the information that you have entered before finalizing the document.
Depending on whether you want to create an invoice or a credit note, choose New Invoice or New Credit Note.
In the To box, search for a contact and select your customer.
Enter the following information:
- Issue date (Date)
- Due date (Due Date)
- Currency
- Invoice number (Invoice #) or credit note number (Credit Note #)
- Reference
  
  Set this to the identifying number of the purchase order based on which the invoice is issued. Although optional in Xero, the purchase order number is mandatory in the Peppol BIS 3.0 document syntax. If this information is omitted, the document will not be valid and therefore will not be sent to the Messaging Server.
Add items to your business document.

To create a new item, expand the Item field. Select New Item from the drop-down menu and enter the information required, such as the item code and the name, unit price, description, and a tax rate.

Save the item before continuing.
Add any attachments.

Attachments must be inserted before approving the document. For more information, see 1.7. Adding attachments.
When you are finished, click Approve.

Clicking Save creates a draft that you can edit later.

1.7. Adding attachments

You can add one or more attachments to your invoice or credit note. This can be done when creating a new business document (Business > Invoices > New Invoice or New Credit Note) or when editing a draft of an existing document (Business > Invoices, then select a document from the list).

When editing a business document, click Add document in the upper-right corner of the document pane.
Select the file that you want to attach. You can either choose a file from the Xero file library or upload a file from your computer.
Next to the file name, click and select Include with invoice.

If you skip this step, the file will only be uploaded but not attached to the document.
When you are finished creating the invoice or the credit note, click Approve.

Clicking Save creates a draft that you can edit later.

II. Configuring Amaze Connect

Amaze Connect connects the Xero accounting system to the Messaging Server so that invoices and credit notes created in Xero are fetched and transferred to the Messaging Server. This way, thanks to the Messaging Server, users can send invoices to their contacts as e-invoices adhering to electronic business document standards.

To access Amaze Connect, follow these steps.

Go to the Amaze platform.

To sign in, use your Amaze credentials or your Íslykill login details.
Choose the profile that you want to use.
Expand the application menu in the upper-left corner of the page and select Connect.

To learn more about how to use the application, see Connecting with Xero accounting system.

1. Connecting with Xero accounting system

To link your Xero account to Amaze Connect, sign in to your account on Amaze Connect. Expand the drop-down menu in the upper-right corner of the page and select Settings.
Go to the Connect tab, then select Connect to Xero.
If you have multiple companies associated with your Xero account, select the company for which you are granting access, then select Allow access for 30 mins.

If you are not signed in onto Xero, you will be redirected to the Xero login page.
Next, you are returned to Settings in the Amaze Connect application.

2. Configuring settings

On the Settings page in Amaze Connect, you need to enter information about your company.

It is very important to configure all settings correctly before proceeding to use Amaze Connect.

Make sure your organization is set up correctly in Xero because your company information is provided by the Xero accounting system.

These settings must be configured before starting to use Amaze Connect.

Here, you should see the Registration Number and the VAT number, as well as the tax rates specified in Xero. On the same page, you also provide and verify your Messaging Server credentials.

Make sure to save all changes before continuing.

If your settings in Amaze Connect are missing any information, refer to the section I. Configuring your Xero account.

2.1. General

General settings show your business registration number and your VAT number and let you specify your accounting period.

Choose the Registration number type and the VAT number type from the drop-down menu.

Define when your accounting period starts.

The date set here is the first day starting from which you want to fetch the invoices and credit notes from Xero.

It is important to set the starting date correctly before use because this helps prevent importing too many messages into Amaze Connect.

This way, invoices and credit notes that have been issued before this date will not appear in the list of sent items in Amaze Connect.

2.2. VAT mapping

You must register the mapping of the VAT categories.

To do this, in the Settings page in Amaze Connect, locate the VAT Mapping section.
Map each tax rate to a corresponding rate type. You can define certain categories as Not mapped so that they are excluded.

Make sure to set the correct mapping of VAT categories before use.

If a mapping is missing when sending an invoice or a credit note, an error occurs.

2.3. Messaging Server credentials

Here you configure which Messaging Server account you want to use to send messages.

To link your Messaging Server account to Amaze Connect, go to the Settings page in Amaze Connect, then find the section Messaging Server credentials.
Enter your username and password for the Messaging Server.

To check that the credentials are correct, click Verify messaging server credentials.

3. Viewing and handling documents

The Documents view displays your imported business documents. For each document, you can see the following information:

Direction: Shows whether the document is inbound or outbound.
Status: Provides information about the current state of the document. Before sending, documents are wrapped in messages that contain additional information on how the document needs to be handled and let you track the document.

A document can have one of these statuses: New, Pending, Parked, Processed, Failed. For more information, see Filtering documents by status.
Document type: The type of the document (invoice or credit note).
Party: The receiver of the document.
No: The identifying number of the document.
Issue date: The date when the document was issued.
Amount: The total amount stated in the document.
Due date: The date when the document is due for payment.
Actions: Here you can send the imported documents.

If a document has been sent, you can view the document or the message details or park the message.

You can search for documents by using one of the search boxes:

Document number: To find a specific document, enter the identifying number of the document.
Party: To show all the documents sent to a particular receiver, enter the ISO identifier of the receiver.
Start date: Select the date starting from which the documents have been issued.
End date: Select the date up to which the documents have been issued.

To filter documents by their status, use the drop-down menu in the upper-right corner. The status indicates whether the document is ready for sending or has been sent and whether the sending was successfully completed.

(All): Shows all documents.
(Active): Shows the documents that have New, Pending, or Failed status.
New: Includes the documents that have been imported during your last session and have not been sent yet.
Pending: The status is set to Pending while the messaging server is processing the message that contains the document.
Parked: Displays messages that have been parked. For more information, see Parking messages.
Processed: These are the documents that have been successfully transferred to the messaging server.
Failed: Messages have this status when the document could not be sent successfully.

3.1. Sending messages

To send a message to the Messaging Server, click Send next to the appropriate document. This creates a message envelope with the document and dispatches it to your receiver through the Messaging Server.

When a message has been transferred to the Messaging Server, it is initially marked as Pending and then moves to the Processed state. This does not indicate whether the message has been delivered to the receiving party or not.

To track a sent message, click Details. Each message trace consists of the time when the event occurred during the message processing, the name of the party responsible for the event, and a message providing more information about the event.

If there is an issue during sending, the message status is set to Failed. This can happen if the document you are trying to send is missing key information as Amaze Connect will prevent you from sending documents that are not valid. To see the error message that describes the issue, open the message’s Details.

To view the invoice or the credit note transmitted in the message envelope, click View. This opens the document displayed using a stylesheet.

To view any attachments that the message might contain, click the three dots and select the document that you want to see.

When sending, Amaze Connect queries the eefacta Server Messaging Server to check which document formats are supported by the receiving party. Amaze Connect then formats the message accordingly and delivers it to the Messaging Server.

If the receiver cannot receive messages electronically in the formats that Amaze Connect supports, the receiver’s email address is transmitted together with the invoice to the Messaging Server. The Messaging Server then sends an email containing links to view the invoice.

The delivery of the email to the receiver cannot be guaranteed since emails might be blocked by mail proxies or end up in the receiver’s junk mail folder. In such cases, it is convenient to send an email to yourself and then forward it to your customer from a personal mail application.

3.2. Parking messages

To avoid sending messages, you can park them. This moves the message from the list of Active messages.

To park a message, find the message in the Documents view and click Park.

You need to provide a reason for parking messages, which is useful for tracing messages. The reason for parking the message can be seen in Details.

3.3. Handling attachments

Attachments joined to invoices or credit notes in Xero can be sent as attachments to the Messaging Server.

Supported formats for attachments are PDF files and images in BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, or TIF format. Word, Excel, or other files that might contain viruses need to be saved in PDF format before attaching. The system issues a warning if you try to send attachments that are using an incorrect format.

For an attachment to be sent with a business document, make sure to add it to the document in Xero using Include with Invoice or Include with Credit Note. Skipping this step will only upload the file to your Xero file library.

An attachment cannot be added after the invoice or the credit note has been submitted to the Messaging Server.

After the document has been transferred to the Messaging Server, you can view the attachments after the Documents view.

For more information on adding attachments to a business document in Xero, see 1.7. Adding attachments.