How your EPOS posts to Xero

This article explains how your EPOS will post to Xero. Once you have an understanding of this you can connect to your Xero account.

Once your EPOS is connected to your Xero account, it will post your sales and payments information to Xero following every cash up on your EPOS.

Sales

By default the sales are split between wet, dry and other sales. If you need a more granular sales tracking than this, you can add these on the Xero mapping screen and then allocate them to the products that should post to them.

Payments

Payments are posted against each sales invoice in Xero using control accounts. A current asset account is set up for each payment type (e.g. "cash onsite", "inflight card transactions") and this account is debited when payments are declared at cash up and then credited when the funds are deposited in the bank account.

Note: These payment accounts should not be bank accounts. If bank accounts are used for the payment accounts the system will not be able to post tips & service charge, deposits, or overpayments.

This means it is not necessary to allocate funds against each invoice they apply to as part of your bank reconciliation. Instead, a bank rule can be set up in Xero for each payment type that automatically allocates any deposits to the correct control account.

The debit amounts on your control accounts should always match any amounts that have been declared, but not yet deposited.

If there seems to be an issue with the amounts on any control account, you can reconcile these in more detail by ensuring the debits match the credits (bearing in mind multiple debits may match one credit depending on how your funds are deposited).

Variances

Payments posted to Xero are based on the actual payment figures declared on the relevant cash up, not on the total payments keyed through the till. This ensures any cash up differences are accounted for and it means your payments may not match the invoice.

To track any cash up differences we post to a current asset account, usually called "Variance":

• When declared payments exceed the sales for the day (in the invoice total) an overpayment is posted to the variance account (debiting the cash account).

Note: Overpayments will not post to the variance account if the payment accounts are set up as bank accounts.

• When declared payments are short of the sales for the day the invoice will remain in "Awaiting Payment" for the amount of the shortfall. Once you have checked these for any cash up errors, you can pay these invoices using the variance account. 

You can pay multiple invoices in one go using the batch deposit feature in Xero. 

Select the invoices you need to pay.

Press "Deposit" and then enter a reference and select your Variance account.

When any payment shortfalls have been checked and allocated to the variance account, you will have a record of the cumulative impact of any positive and negative cash variances.

Booking Deposits

If you take booking deposits, these will be posted to a current liability account to track deposits. This account will be credited when deposits are lodged and debited when deposits are refunded or redeemed.

Lodged deposits are posted as a manual journal that debits the payment account and credits the deposits account.

Redeemed deposits are posted as a normal payment against an invoice (which debits the deposit account).

Note: Booking deposits will not post if the payment accounts are set up as bank accounts.

Gift card balances

If you take sell gift cards, these will be posted to a current liability account to track gift card balances. This account will be credited when gift cards are sold and debited when gift cards are redeemed.

Gift cards amount issued are posted as a manual journal that debits the payment account and credits the gift card account.

Redeemed gift cards are posted as a normal payment against an invoice (which debits the gift card account).

Discounted gift cards

If you sell gift cards at a discount, the amounts added to the gift card will still be posted to the gift card account so that your total gift card liability is tracked. The debit for these postings will be posted to an account set up to track gift card discounts - essentially a dummy payment account.

This is like any other payment type but tracks the gift cards that have been purchased using a discount. When gift cards purchased at a discount are then redeemed the discount will be applied to the sale and a manual journal will be applied to the gift card account in Xero to remove the related balance (credit the gift card payment account and debit the gift card account).

Note: Gift cards will not post if the payment accounts are set up as bank accounts.

Tips & Service Charge

If you take tips or have a service charge, these will be posted to a current liability account to track tips & service charge. This account will be credited to account for tips and you should debit this account when tips are distributed. 

Note: Tips & service charge will not post if the payment accounts are set up as bank accounts.

Petty cash purchases

If you declare any purchases on your cash up, these will be posted to Xero as a bill. 

You can configure any number of expense accounts to appear on the cash up for staff to allocate expenses against.

If your staff don't know the correct account, they can assign expenses to a default account for them to be re-allocated at a later point. We usually call this account "Onsite Purchase", but you may already have a general or miscellaneous expenses account that you would like to map these to.

Required Accounts

For your EPOS to post to Xero you will need the following accounts set up for it to post to. Where an account type is specified in brackets, the account needs to be of this type.

• Wet Sales (Revenue or Sales)
• Dry Sales (Revenue or Sales)
• Other Sales (Revenue or Sales)
• Cash (current asset)
• Card (current asset)
• Any other payment types you accept (current asset)
• Variance (current asset)
• Any expense accounts you would like staff to be able to allocate expenses to
• An onsite purchase or miscellaneous expenses account 
• An account to track deposits lodged and redeemed (current liability)
• An account to track gift cards issued and redeemed (current liability)

If you are ready to connect your account to Xero you can now do so here.  Alternatively if you have any questions or you would like our team to assist you in connecting Xero, email [email protected] or ask on your Telegram support channel.