Hi readers, my name is Rowan Van Tromp and I’m Operations Director of App Advisory Plus. We provide a system to search for apps, build app stacks and get support with App Advisory, including scoping, research, and implementation.
We’re also certified Zapier Experts and offer support with implementing Zaps in your accounting practice and for your clients.
I want to help you to understand the Xero Zapier integration with the subscription management app Recurly.
Before you consider any integration using Zapier, it’s always advisable to check the native integration to see if it fits your requirements. This is because native integrations are generally cheaper and easier to set up.
In this use case the main requirement was to automatically add invoices and payments to Xero in appropriate payment currencies and to the correct payout accounts. So to begin with you would review this requirement against the Recurly documentation, and/or try it yourself (recommend using a test Xero).
Recurly to Xero Native Integration Overview
The integration is a one-way sync between Recurly to Xero with five points of integration. Records are synced in the following sequence:
- Recurly Items, Plans, Setup Fees, and Add-Ons with Xero Inventory Items
- Recurly Accounts with Xero Contacts
- Recurly Invoices with Xero.
- Recurly Payments with Xero Payments and Refunds
- Recurly Credits with Xero Credit Notes
The Recurly for Xero integration will sync the following fields from the account in Recurly to the customer record in Xero:
- Account Number
- Contact Person (First / Last Name)
- Email Address
- Postal Address (from Billing Address in Recurly)
- Phone Number
- All Recurly plans will sync to Xero as line-items.
Problems with the integration
In the context of the main requirement, as well as considering other potential out-of-scope requirements the native integration would not meet, here’s some problems:
- Payments can only be posted to a single payment account. This is not helpful if multiple currencies are accepted and payouts are in different currencies.
- Sales can only be posted to a single account, and there is no tracking category integration.
Benefits of the integration vs Zapier
Of course Zapier is not all upside. The native integration does have benefits in comparison:
- You are able to backdate it by choosing a start date for transactions to push across.
- It’s free, whereas in the context of this requirement you would either need to use Paths (a professional level subscription required – $61.25/m) or replicate the Zap for each different instance (starter level subscription $24.99/m)
Integrating with Zapier
Using the ‘New Transaction in Recurly’ trigger it’s possible to create an invoice and a payment to Xero. These can be set to different sales accounts, payment accounts, tracking categories, VAT codes, currencies, etc., depending on what the transaction in Recurly is.
