This article walks through exactly how to set up your Products and services inside Xero, to make them easy to use inside ScaleXP Invoicing.

Want to learn more about Products in ScaleXP Invoicing? Check out this guide first.

Introduction

This article will walk you through the steps of how to create and configure your Xero products for use with ScaleXP Invoicing. You'll need access to Xero in order to complete these steps.

We'll show you where to find products in Xero, what information to fill out when setting up new products, or updating existing ones, and how to sync between Xero and HubSpot.

How to find products in Xero

Your product library in Xero can be found under the "Business" menu item; when clicked, you'll see a menu item named "Product and Services" at the bottom of the list. This will show you the configuration page for your Xero Products, from here you can create new products, edit existing ones and archive or delete old ones, as well as see transactions that include your products.

What information to fill out on your products

When creating or editing a product you'll see the following options:

• Code - This is the item code or SKU code for the product. It should be a unique code and needs to match the SKU code for products or line items inside HubSpot (you can import this product to HubSpot later)
• Name - This will be shown to users when selecting the product inside ScaleXP Invoicing
• Track inventory item (optional) - This allows you to track the quantity of products that have been sold. When using ScaleXP Invoicing, the quantity will be adjusted when a product is synced in an invoice. Note that at the moment, ScaleXP Invoicing will not prevent you adding an out of stock product to an invoice.
• Sell (required) - check this box to enable the product to show up in ScaleXP Invoicing
• Sale price (optional) - this price will only be used if you are adding a product manually in ScaleXP Invoicing, otherwise we will use the price for the line item that you have set inside HubSpot
• Sales account (recommended) - configure a GL account for the product - we strongly recommend adding this, as this will be filled out automatically by ScaleXP Invoicing, saving you lots of time. 
• Tax rate (recommended) - configure a tax rate for the product. Again, we strongly recommend adding this to save you time. This will be filled out automatically by ScaleXP Invoicing, though it can be changed or overridden when creating the invoice, for example if a customer has a custom tax rate applied.
• Description (optional) - this is only used if you are adding a product manually in ScaleXP Invoicing, otherwise we will use the description set inside HubSpot

More tips for adding products

• You can import products in bulk - just follow the instructions on the Xero support site 
• You can duplicate products to save time on data entry
• Due to a quirk in Xero's platform, if you archive a product, it will still show in ScaleXP Invoicing. Most of the time this is not an issue as products should match automatically, but if you need to remove the product from view you will have to delete it completely. 

What's next: sync your products with Xero

Once you've created your product in Xero, it will show up right away inside ScaleXP Invoicing.

The most important things for ScaleXP Invoicing are:

• Your SKU codes in your HubSpot line items match the Item Codes inside Xero
• Accounts and Tax rates are set on your Xero products

If you have a small number of products, it may be easiest to just ensure the SKU codes are matching, but if you have many products or need to sync them, read on. If you have no products set up – then we generally recommend starting in Xero. This is because you need to enter more info inside Xero to add the accounts and tax rates.

Option One – Export from Xero and Import into HubSpot

This is our recommended option as HubSpot has a much easier import flow than Xero as it doesn’t rely on you having fixed columns.

• Go to Xero and choose Business > Products and Services from the Menu
• Choose Export and CSV
• Open the CSV and remove any rows with the Status column “Archived”
• In HubSpot, go to Commerce > Products and click “Add Data”
• Choose “Import a file” and select “Products” when choosing which type of data 
• Upload your file and map the fields below

Option Two – Export from HubSpot and Import into Xero

If you’re using this option you will still need to make sure that account and tax rate are set in Xero, you can do this either in the import, or add it later in Xero.

• Go to HubSpot and choose Commerce > Products 
• Check that the columns you’d like to import are showing in your view (We recommend SKU, Name, Price)
• Choose Export and CSV
• Go to Xero and choose Business > Products & Services
• Click “Import” and “Import Items” 
• Download the template provided by Xero
• Copy your HubSpot data into the columns, keeping the column titles the same
• Read more about mapping the Xero data on the Xero website

Option Three – Use HubSpot’s Xero Data Sync App

Remember, ScaleXP Invoicing will take the pricing from your HubSpot line items on your quotes or deals, so you only need to keep the products in sync if you are adding and removing products often. 

HubSpot have a free app on the App Marketplace that will allow you to sync Products and Contacts. It’s safe to use alongside ScaleXP Invoicing.

You can choose to sync data in either direction. If you are Syncing to Xero you will still need to make sure that account and tax rate are set in Xero, you can add it later in Xero.

When mapping the columns the most important things are to make sure Xero’s Code is mapped to HubSpot’s SKU. This is one of the default settings.

If you need to map extra columns, you’ll need a paid HubSpot Operations Hub subscription.

Find out more about the Data Sync settings on the HubSpot Knowledge Base and in this article.