Reconcile your VPA Connect payouts in Xero
Updated 9 min read
This guide is for your business's Admins and anyone who does your books. It explains how to match the deposits Stripe makes into your bank against the payments VPA Connect has already put in your Xero.
Set up Xero first. Connecting Xero and choosing your accounts are in Connect Xero and fix sync problems. The choice you made there under Which account are releases paid into? decides which part of this guide you follow.
Don't raise your own invoice in Xero for VPA Connect jobs. VPA Connect issues the invoice when your payment is released, and with Xero connected it appears in your Xero automatically, already paid. Raising your own as well records the income twice.
How it works
When the agency releases one of your payments, VPA Connect puts it in Xero straight away: a paid sales invoice for the job, with its payment recorded in the account you chose (VPA Stripe Clearing, or the bank account Stripe pays out to). If a platform fee was taken, a Spend Money for the fee comes out of the same account. VPA Connect doesn't charge suppliers a platform fee at present. If Xero can't take a payment (for example the connection has expired), it's marked Failed or Skipped in Sync activity instead, and isn't in Xero until you retry it (see Sync problems).
A few days later Stripe deposits the money in your bank. One deposit can pay for one job, part of a job, or several jobs released around the same time. Reconciling a deposit means telling Xero which of those payments it was, so the income is counted once.
A worked example
Ondessa Photography (a made-up business) has two jobs released in the same week and chose A separate clearing account. The figures are examples.
| Date | What happens | In Xero | VPA Stripe Clearing balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 12 Oct | The agency releases the photography job at 2 Macquarie St, Sydney: $650.00 | A paid invoice for $650.00; its payment goes into VPA Stripe Clearing | $650.00 |
| Tue 13 Oct | The agency releases the photography job at 1 The Terrace, Fremantle: $480.00 | A paid invoice for $480.00; its payment goes into VPA Stripe Clearing | $1,130.00 |
| Wed 14 Oct | Stripe deposits $650.00 in the bank, reference VPAConnec_Q4mT8vRa. The Payouts page shows it paid the Macquarie St job | You reconcile the bank line as a Transfer from VPA Stripe Clearing for $650.00 | $480.00 |
| Thu 15 Oct | Stripe deposits $480.00, reference VPAConnec_J2kW5nXe, for the Fremantle job | You reconcile it as a Transfer from VPA Stripe Clearing for $480.00 | $0.00 |
Between a release and its deposit, the clearing balance is money Stripe hasn't paid out to you yet. Once every deposit is reconciled, it's back to $0.00 (if a deposit had something deducted, record that too: see Checking your work).
If Stripe had paid both jobs in one $1,130.00 deposit, you'd reconcile that one bank line as a single $1,130.00 transfer, and the balance would go from $1,130.00 straight to $0.00.
With the bank account choice instead, the two payments go straight into your bank account in Xero on 12 and 13 Oct, waiting to be matched. On 14 Oct Xero suggests the $650.00 payment for the $650.00 deposit and you confirm it; on 15 Oct the same for $480.00. A single $1,130.00 deposit would need Find & Match, ticking both payments. There's no clearing balance to watch; instead, nothing from VPA Connect should be left unmatched in the bank account once the deposits are in.
Part 1: Find which jobs a deposit paid
Your bank line shows only Stripe's payout reference (for example "Direct Credit VPAConnectPtyLtd VPAConnec_H3on6bx5"), never the property. Anyone on your team can look it up. Open Payouts in VPA Connect, type the reference into the search box, then select the deposit.
- Check the payout date against the date of the bank line.
- Check the deposit amount against the bank line's amount.
- Check Reference on your bank statement against the reference on the
bank line, for example
VPAConnec_H3on6bx5. This is what tells two deposits of the same amount apart. - Read Items in this deposit: each job the deposit paid, with its invoice number and property. The invoice number is the same one the job has in Xero.
- Note every job listed. This deposit paid two, so in Xero it covers two payments.
A deposit still on its way may show "Not available yet" until it reaches your bank. More on this page: The Payouts page.
Part 2: Reconcile with VPA Stripe Clearing
Follow this part if you chose A separate clearing account. Each deposit is one transfer, however many jobs it paid.
- In Xero, open the Reconcile tab of the bank account Stripe pays out to, and find the bank line for the deposit.
- Choose the Transfer tab on that line.
- Pick VPA Stripe Clearing as the other account. The amount is the deposit's amount.
- Select OK. The bank line is reconciled and the VPA Stripe Clearing balance drops by the deposit's amount.
Don't use Find & Match for these deposits: the invoices are already paid into VPA Stripe Clearing, so Xero won't offer them against your bank line.
VPA Stripe Clearing is a holding account. Xero shows it as a bank account, but it has no bank feed and its account number is 000000; that's expected. If you later change your mapping to your bank account, payments already in VPA Stripe Clearing still need a transfer each. Archive VPA Stripe Clearing only once its balance is $0.00 and no business is mapped to it, or payments will fail to sync.
Part 3: Reconcile with the bank account Stripe pays out to
Follow this part if you chose The bank account Stripe pays out to. The payments are already in that bank account in Xero, waiting to be matched to the deposits.
- In Xero, open the bank account's Reconcile tab and find the bank line for the deposit.
- If the deposit paid one job, Xero suggests that payment beside it. Check the invoice number and the property (the invoice's Reference) against Part 1, then select OK. The line is reconciled.
- If the deposit paid several jobs, or Xero suggests nothing, select Find & Match on that line.
- Tick the payment for each job Part 1 listed until the total matches the deposit. If a platform fee was taken, also tick Show Spent Items and tick the fee line.
- Select Reconcile. The line is reconciled and those payments are matched.
The payments are dated the day the agency released them, and the deposit a few days later, so the dates differ. Match on the amount, invoice number and property, not the date.
What's in Xero for each job
Every payment that synced is already in Xero, so don't code the bank deposits to income again.
Where to find them: in Xero's list of sales invoices, they're on the Paid tab, not Awaiting payment, because VPA Connect records the payment at the same time as the invoice. To open one, select its invoice number in Sync activity on your Integrations page. You can also search Xero by the invoice number, the seller's name or the property.
Each synced job is a paid sales invoice:
- its contact is the seller (the property owner billed for the job). VPA Connect matches an existing Xero contact by email address, or creates one if there isn't one. If you already have a contact with that name but a different email, the new one is named "Name (email)";
- its invoice number is the same as the invoice PDF's number, which the Payouts page shows for each job;
- the Xero invoice's Reference field is the property address, so you can search by property in Xero;
- its line reads the service, the property and your legal name, for example "Property Styling — 2 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000 (Tessaly Styling Pty Ltd)";
- it's dated the day the agency released the payment, and amounts include GST, with the same GST treatment as the invoice PDF: GST on Income if your invoices include GST, BAS Excluded if they don't;
- each released payment, partial or final, is its own invoice with its own number, so a job paid in two parts has two invoices.
If a platform fee is charged, it appears as a Spend Money to the contact VPA Connect, from the same account as the payment, coded to your platform fee expense account (GST on Expenses), with the platform fee invoice number as its Reference. The deposit is then smaller than the job by the fee, and the payment less the fee comes to the deposit. It's already recorded, so don't also enter VPA Connect's platform fee invoice as a bill.
Checking your work
| You see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| VPA Stripe Clearing's balance isn't $0.00 | Most often a deposit hasn't been reconciled yet. A balance above $0.00 can also be a payment Stripe hasn't deposited yet (your Payouts page shows it as Pending or In transit), or a deposit coded somewhere else instead of transferred. A balance below $0.00 means a deposit was transferred for a payment that isn't in Xero | Reconcile any VPA Connect deposits left on your bank account's Reconcile tab (Part 2). If the balance is below $0.00, check Past payments not in Xero and Sync activity on your Integrations page for a payment that didn't sync (see Sync problems). If a deposit was coded elsewhere, undo it as in the row on deposits already coded to income, then transfer it |
| Every line in VPA Stripe Clearing's Account transactions says "Unreconciled" | Expected. The account has no bank feed, so Xero has no statement lines to reconcile its payments and transfers against | Nothing. The balance is the check: $0.00 once every deposit is reconciled |
| A job on your Outstanding page shows an amount as "pending", and it isn't in Xero | Expected. A pending amount is a payment request the agency hasn't released yet. Nothing reaches Xero until it's released | Wait for the agency to release it (see The Outstanding page). It appears in Xero, already paid, when they do |
| Xero suggests no match for a deposit | The deposit paid several jobs, part of a job, or had a fee taken off, so no single payment equals it. With VPA Stripe Clearing, Xero never suggests these | With VPA Stripe Clearing, use the Transfer tab (Part 2). With your bank account, use Find & Match (Part 3) |
| A deposit was already coded to income, or matched to an invoice you raised yourself | The income is counted twice: once by VPA Connect's paid invoice and once by your entry | In Xero, open the reconciled transaction and use Remove & Redo (Xero: fix an incorrectly reconciled bank statement line). If you raised your own invoice, void it once its payment is removed. Then reconcile the deposit again (Part 2 or Part 3). Ask your accountant if the period is locked |
| A deposit on your Payouts page has a line "deducted from this deposit" (a refund or a Stripe adjustment) | The deposit is smaller than the payments it covers, and VPA Connect doesn't send these deductions to Xero. With VPA Stripe Clearing, the balance stays above $0.00 by the deducted amount; with your bank account, the payments add up to more than the deposit | Record the deducted amount in Xero yourself, as money spent from the same account (VPA Stripe Clearing, or your bank account in Find & Match), coded as your accountant advises. Then the deposit reconciles and the clearing balance returns to $0.00 |
| You can't tell which jobs a deposit paid | The bank line shows only Stripe's reference | Look the reference up on your Payouts page (Part 1, and The Payouts page) |
For your accountant
The export (see
Export your jobs for your accountant)
has payout-summary.csv, which lists each deposit with the invoice numbers
it paid, and payout-data-raw.csv, which lists each invoice with its
property, fee and net payout. If you're connected to Xero, use the export
only for these summaries. Don't import its invoices or bills files into the
same Xero, because those payments are already there.