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Import employees from my Xero platform

Updated

Available for the following Payroll plans: Standard, Premium, Core Payroll, Unlimited+Payroll
Available for the following user access levels: Admin 

You can use the Employee Importing feature in the payroll Settings module to import the employee data stored in your Xero platform. Using the Xero Payroll import feature will import the following data: 

  • Employee details
  • Leave Categories
  • Pay Categories

Warning

When using any Xero integration features in the payroll platform, you need to have at least Standard + Payroll admin access on your Xero platform.

Important

If you have used an external ID before, you cannot save and reuse this data point if you have enabled the Unique External ID setting. You can read further information on this setting in this article.

The payroll platform does not import leave balances when setting up new employees.

Manage data

Import my Xero employees
    1. Log into your Employment Hero Payroll platform.
    2. Click the  Business Settings menu.
    3. Click the Payroll Settings submenu.
    4. Click the Import Employees button.
    5. Select the Xero option in the Import Employees From drop-down.
    6. Under Do Not Import, tick the items that you do not want to import into Employment Hero Payroll:
      • Pay categories
      • Deduction categories
      • Leave categories
      • Pay schedules

Important

By default, the above items will be ticked, which means that these will not import into Employment Hero Payroll.

  1. Click the Import button.
    Xero_1.jpg 
  2. Enter your Xero login information and click the Log In button.
    Xero_2.jpg 
  3. Enter your 2 Factor Authentication code and click the Confirm button.
    Xero_3.jpg 
  4. Click the Allow Access button.
    Xero_4.jpg 

  5. Click the Import button.
    Xero_5.jpg

     

    Helpful Hint

    You will now see a status message that shows the successful upload of your Xero employee data into your Payroll platform.

    Xero_6.jpg 

Troubleshooting

Import discrepancies

When importing employees from Xero, there may be potential discrepancies in the Leave and Pay Categories. Any categories imported from Xero will be 'Blank' and therefore may not align with the compliance standards, particularly in terms of STP (Single Touch Payroll) Phase 2 regulations.

To avoid problems, such as having incorrect data being sent to the tax office, we recommend you take the following actions:

  1. Assign Native Pay Categories and Leave Accruals: Before proceeding, assign the appropriate native categories to employees.
  2. Delete Imported Categories from Xero: After assigning the correct categories, delete any categories that were imported from Xero to prevent them from being mistakenly used. Categories Imported from Xero will include a long External ID.

Failing to follow these steps could result in issues with tax reporting and employee payment processing. For instance, pay categories imported from Xero might be blank from a tax reporting perspective. This could lead to the platform treating them as regular wages by default.

Unwanted inclusion of terminated employees in upload

When importing employee data from Xero into the Employment Hero Payroll platform, terminated employees may also be included in the import by default.

If you do not want to import terminated employee data, manually remove these employees from the CSV file before proceeding with the upload. This will ensure that only active employees are imported into the Employment Hero Payroll platform.

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