---
title: "Xero 1: Prepare Xero Before You Connect"
url: "https://epona-support.ardex.tech/en/article/xero-1-prepare-xero-before-you-connect"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2026-09-28T05:13:30.042Z"
---

# Xero 1: Prepare Xero Before You Connect

The accounts, tax rates and settings to have in place in Xero before connecting EPONA

EPONA reads your chart of accounts, tax rates and default payment terms from Xero at the moment you connect. Anything added in Xero afterwards does not appear in EPONA until the connection is disconnected and reconnected, so it is worth getting Xero ready first.

This step is done in Xero, usually by the accountant or bookkeeper.

## The Xero organisation

-   The Xero organisation's country must match the country of your EPONA workspace. EPONA refuses the connection otherwise.
-   Decide which Xero organisation this workspace will use before anyone clicks Connect.

**IMPORTANT - one Xero organisation per workspace.** Once connected, the workspace can only ever be reconnected to the same Xero organisation. Changing it needs EPONA support.

## Chart of accounts

EPONA brings across your active income and expense accounts (revenue, other income, expense, overhead and direct-cost types). Bank, asset, liability and equity accounts are not brought across. EPONA reads up to 200 accounts and 200 tax rates.

-   Make sure every income account you want to post to exists in Xero and is active. Each product and service in EPONA posts to one of them.
-   Keep account 200 (Sales) and account 300 (Purchases). EPONA uses them as its default income and expense accounts. Without a 200, products set up in EPONA before connecting lose their account, and each product needs an account chosen.
-   No clearing, control or debtors accounts are needed for EPONA. Invoices post to Xero's own Accounts Receivable, and GST to Xero's own GST account, exactly as an invoice raised in Xero would.

## Tax rates

-   For income, EPONA uses Xero's standard GST rates: GST on Income and GST Free Income (for a New Zealand organisation, 15% GST on Income and Zero Rated). Rates must be active in Xero.
-   BAS Excluded, GST Free Exports, and any custom tax rates created in Xero, are not available on income lines in EPONA.
-   The standard expense rates, such as GST on Expenses and GST Free Expenses, come across for use on bills.

## Payment terms

The first time you connect, EPONA copies the default due date for sales invoices from Xero into Settings/Financial Settings as the invoice Due Date. After that the two are independent — change the due date in EPONA's Financial Settings, not in Xero.

## Invoice numbering

EPONA numbers its own invoices and credit notes from one shared sequence, using the Invoice Prefix, Credit Note Prefix and Next Number in Settings/Financial Settings (for example INV-EP10001, then CN-EP10002). If invoices are also raised directly in Xero, keep Xero's own invoice prefix different from EPONA's so the two sequences never collide.

## Before you move on

-   Organisation country matches the EPONA workspace
-   Income accounts created and active
-   Accounts 200 and 300 present
-   Standard GST rates in use for income
-   Default sales invoice due date set in Xero
-   Someone with admin access to EPONA and permission to connect apps in Xero is ready to connect

Note - if accounts or tax rates are added or archived in Xero after connecting, disconnect and reconnect under Settings/Accounting Settings to bring the change into EPONA (see Xero 2). An archived account or tax rate is removed from EPONA at the next reconnect: products still using an archived tax rate can't be charged, and invoices using an archived account are rejected by Xero, until the product is given another one.