Connecting your accounting software
Surfacely can send your invoices and payments straight to your accounting software, so you stop re-typing everything at tax time. Both Xero and QuickBooks Online are supported — which ones you can connect can depend on your country. You'll find them under Settings → Accounting.
Connecting Xero
- Go to Settings → Accounting
- Tap Connect Xero — you're taken to Xero's own login and consent screen
- Sign in to Xero and approve the connection
- You land back in Surfacely with the connection live
Once connected, the invoices you send from Surfacely are pushed into your Xero ledger automatically, and your confirmed payments are recorded in Xero too.
Connecting QuickBooks Online
- Go to Settings → Accounting
- Tap Connect QuickBooks Online — you're taken to Intuit's own login and consent screen
- Sign in to QuickBooks and approve the connection
- You land back in Surfacely with the connection live
QuickBooks connects to a single company, so there's no organisation-picker step — you go straight to the account mapping. From there it works just like Xero: sent invoices and confirmed payments flow through automatically.
Picking your organisation (Xero)
If your bookkeeper runs more than one set of books, Xero will have several organisations. Pick the one this painting business belongs to. You can switch later with the Change organisation link on the Accounting screen. QuickBooks uses a single company, so it skips this step.
Setting up your account mapping
After connecting, a mapping card appears so Surfacely knows where your figures should land in Xero. You'll confirm three things:
- Tax rate — which GST rate to apply to invoices
- Income account — the revenue or sales account your job income posts to
- Bank account — the account your payments reconcile against
Surfacely reads your live Xero account list and pre-fills sensible defaults, so for most painters it's a quick check and save rather than a setup chore.
Reconnecting or disconnecting
Connections to Xero expire from time to time — that's normal. When yours does, Surfacely shows a clear needs renewing — Reconnect prompt; one tap puts it right. You can disconnect any time from the same screen, and reconnect later without losing your mapping.
The CSV export never goes away
You don't have to connect Xero to get your numbers out. Even with no connection, you can download a CSV of your invoices formatted for Xero or QuickBooks import, plus a GST summary for the period. This is the always-works manual fallback — the live sync is an extra on top, never a replacement. You'll find it at Reports → Tax summary, and linked from the bottom of the Accounting screen.
Why it matters: double-entering every invoice into your accounts is dead time that's easy to get wrong. Connect once and it takes care of itself — and if you'd rather hand a file to your accountant, the export is right there.