Setting up Xero Salesforce Integration: 4 Easy Steps

Every business, regardless of the products or services it provides, requires successful Marketing Campaigns to raise brand awareness among customers. Such Marketing Campaigns generate a massive amount of data from which the firms seek to extract useful insights in order to better understand their customers’ mindsets and expectations. The outcomes of this Data Analysis servers as the foundation for the Sales Teams’ actions, as well as assisting in the planning of the company’s future decisions. Despite its importance, this procedure can take a significant amount of time and resources for any firm.

Salesforce is a prominent Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution used by businesses to manage Customer and Sales data. Business managers can use Xero Accounting Software to keep track of their company’s financial transactions.

Both of these platforms are excellent at offering answers to their customers, but businesses are now aiming to improve their results even further by implementing the Xero Salesforce Integration. This combination is producing exceptional results, and organizations that have effectively implemented it have experienced a significant improvement in their customer relationships as well as the performance of their Sales and Marketing teams.

This post will provide an overview of Xero and Salesforce, as well as a discussion of their important features. It also includes step-by-step instructions for configuring your Xero Salesforce Integration.

Table of Contents

• Introduction to Salesforce
  • Key Features of Salesforce
• Introduction to Xero
  • Key Features of Xero
• Introduction to Apex 
  • Key Apex Terms
• Steps to Set up Xero Salesforce Integration
  • Step 1: Create Authentication Provider
  • Step 2: Create New Xero App
  • Step 3: Create New Salesforce Credentials 
  • Step 4: Retrieve and Access
• Limitations of Using Apex Method in Xero Salesforce Integration
• Conclusion

Introduction to Salesforce

Salesforce is a Cloud-based Customer Relationship Management platform with simple business apps that may help you build a fantastic customer experience. Salesforce is a software platform that allows you to stay in touch with Customers, Prospects, Partners, Sales, and Marketing services from all over the world. Sales, Services, Finance, Marketing, Company Development, Supply Chain Management, and other business verticals that require external and internal relationships use Salesforce Cloud CRM software and applications.

It helps the user to store information on current and potential clients on a single platform. Furthermore, it allows the user to track Sales and Marketing Campaigns by utilizing the valuable data accessible. It’s a one-stop-shop for businesses looking to manage consumer data across several platforms like email, chat, and social media.

Key Features of Salesforce

Since its inception, Salesforce has managed to evolve and give clients a wide range of unique features. The following are some of Salesforce’s most important features:

• Collaboration Tools: Salesforce Collaboration Tools allow employees from several teams to communicate in real-time. Each team stays up to date on the progress of its connected teams thanks to constant communication. Chatter and Sales Cloud are two examples of Salesforce Collaboration Tools.
• Task Management: Salesforce can help you organize your tasks, allocate assignments to team members, and keep track of work events and goals.
• Reports and Dashboards: Salesforce Dashboards give you a visual representation of your business’s performance in real-time. It allows businesses to create and view thorough reports that are accessible to all team members.
• Workflow and Approvals: Companies can swiftly build and automate all business processes with Salesforce Visual Workflow’s drag-and-drop feature.

For further information check out the official website on Salesforce.

Introduction to Xero

Xero is an easy-to-use Accounting solution for growing businesses that are hosted in the Cloud. Businesses can now manage Invoices, Payroll, Bank reconciliation, Purchasing, Expenses, Bookkeeping, and more, all in one application, thanks to Xero. Xero is a popular choice for over 2 million users owing to its compatibility with over 800 add-on apps and features such as sophisticated, easy-to-use Accounting tools and unrestricted user access.

By automating operations like reporting and invoicing, Xero can help organizations function more smoothly. By integrating your bank account to Xero, you can track transactions and get a better sense of your cash flow. Because Xero operates in near real-time, your data is always up to date.

Key Features of Xero

The key features of Xero are:

• Infinite Users: You can add an unlimited number of individuals to your account at each membership level. The account owner can also grant permission levels to each new user while adding them.
• Collaboration: Xero’s collaboration functions make it simple for small businesses and advisers to connect and interact. You can create a user for your accountant and grant them permission.
• Management and Expense Tracking: Xero keeps track of your inventory, and you can effortlessly create and submit purchase orders if you need to reorder. You can simply categorize and split transactions by connecting your bank and credit card accounts directly to Xero.
• Ease to Use: Connecting your business bank account, adding a customer, and creating your first invoice are all straightforward and quick processes. A Customizable Dashboard is also available in Xero, which is a time saver.
• Financial Reports: Users may transform their data into meaningful actionable insights that can be mapped into 100 different financial reports, including Budgets, Balance Sheets, and Income Statements, using Xero’s stunning interface. Customize your reports by changing the formatting and adding your own calculations and categories.
• Online Invoicing: You can get your cash flow statements from any system by logging in. Invoices can also have files attached to them, such as documents or photos.

For further information check out the official website on Xero.

Introduction to Apex

Apex is a Strongly Typed, Object-Oriented Programming language that allows developers to use Salesforce servers to perform flow and transaction control instructions in conjunction with API requests. Apex allows developers to apply business logic to most system events, including button clicks, related record updates, and Visualforce pages, using syntax that resembles Java and functions like database stored procedures. Web service requests and triggers on objects can both start Apex code.

Key Apex Terms

Apex has built-in support for the Lightning Platform’s most frequent idioms, such as:

• Data Manipulation Language (DML) calls with built-in DmlException handling, such as INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE
• Inline Queries that return lists of sObject records in Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) and Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL).
• Looping allows you to process a large number of records at once.
• Record Update conflicts are avoided by using a locking syntax.
• Apex Methods can be used to create custom public API calls.
• When a user tries to update or delete an Apex-reference custom object or field, warnings and errors are displayed.

Steps to Set up Xero Salesforce Integration

The steps to set up Xero Salesforce Integration manually using Apex codes are:

• Step 1: Create Authentication Provider
• Step 2: Create New Xero App
• Step 3: Create New Salesforce Credentials 
• Step 4: Retrieve and Access

Step 1: Create Authentication Provider

The first step in Xero Salesforce Integration is creating an authentication provider within your Salesforce Account. To do so, navigate to Setup, then click on Security Controls. Navigate to Authentication Providers and select New. Now enter the credentials in the similar manner given below: 

Now, Save and Copy the generated URL.

Step 2: Create New Xero App

The next step in Xero Salesforce Integration is creating a new Xero App. Open the Xero App website and navigate to My Apps and create New App. Give your App a unique name and Salesforce URL. Now paste the URL copied in the above step. A Client Id and a Client Secret will be generated. Copy these credentials and paste them into the Authorization Provider created above. 

Step 3: Create New Salesforce Credentials 

The next step in Xero Salesforce Integration is to go to the official Salesforce website and navigate to Setup and click on New Named Credential. Give the New Named Credential a Label and Name. Now, provide the following remaining details: 

Step 4: Retrieve and Access

This is the last step in Xero Salesforce Integration. Now, install the Apex package given below for Xero Salesforce Integration in the Salesforce environment.

https://githubsfdeploy.herokuapp.com/app/githubdeploy/benedwards44/Apex-for-Xero

Now, you need to retrieve the Xero Tenant Id and you need to make a Custom Label using the Tenant Id. To get the Tenant Id use the following Apex Method:

XeroAPI.getXeroTenantId();

Copy the returned value from the above method. Navigate to the Custom Labels and click on the Xero_Tenant_Id and paste the copied value under Setup. 

You have successfully completed Xero Salesforce Integration.

Limitations of Using Apex Method in Xero Salesforce Integration

The limitations of using Apex Method in Xero Salesforce Integration are: 

• Using this method for Xero Salesforce Integration requires you to make API calls and use code custom workflows. Hence it requires strong technical knowledge. Also, it is very time-consuming.  
• Since, all the APIs are not provided in the Apex package, for unlisted Actions to take place, new triggers need to be made. Hence, APIs need to be made and set up for every Action in this method of Xero Salesforce Integration. 
• Updating the existing API calls and managing workflows across both platforms requires immense engineering bandwidth, and hence can be a pain point for many users.

Conclusion

This detailed guide provided insights on Xero Salesforce Integration. Due to the restrictions of the Xero Salesforce Integration, manually syncing data is time-consuming. Users/business teams should have Xero Salesforce accounts and authorize appropriate permissions to set up Xero Salesforce Integration for such procedures. This is where Hevo saves the day.

Visit our Website to Explore Hevo

Hevo Data provides its users with a simpler platform for integrating data from 150+ Data sources such as Xero and Salesforce for Analysis. It is a No-code Data Pipeline that can help you combine data from multiple sources. You can use it to transfer data from multiple data sources into your Data Warehouse, Database, or a destination of your choice. It helps transfer data from Salesforce and Xero to a destination of your choice for free. It provides you with a consistent and reliable solution to managing data in real-time, ensuring that you always have Analysis-ready data in your desired destination.

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