Xero integration
How AIRR can help you with accounting data
Once the tenants are enabled, it is time to map them to Xero Companies at the level of AIRR. This separate step is required not to lose any information at the level of the AIRR portal mappings (see below), in case a Xero Tenant changes later.
After the mappings are created (again, it has to be done only once, if the charts of accounts don’t change), we start to observe the benefits of this data granularity. Now we can calculate virtually any metric for LP, company or services provider, as all the transactions are now imported automatically and mapped to them. There is just one more extra step connected with Master Data Management mentioned above.
As a next step, you enable Xero Tenants that you would like to have access to. In Xero there is a concept of Tenant, which means an organisation that has its separate chart of accounts, base currency, financial year, reporting, bank accounts and user base. In the case of management accounting there might be several legal entities within the scope of a single Tenant, and the accounts are needed only at a consolidated level.
1. Basic access setup and Xero Companies
First, you need to enable Xero integration in the Apps section, which will make all the necessary buttons/tabs visible:
2. Mapping Charts of Accounts
The next step in the setup process is probably the most tedious one, but it’s an inevitable part of any consolidation system: we have to join & link the charts of accounts. In the case of AIRR this means that we go through the names of accounts of every Xero Company and mark down what kind of information is there. For instance, is it a distribution or a drawdown account? Which investment vehicle, investment and round does it relate to? If it’s an expense, who is the counterparty we paid etc.?
3. Contacts mapping
We need to create mappings between Contact Names in the source system and Investor & Service Provider Names in AIRR to tell who is who. If the names match, it is done automatically, but if they don’t we have to check and link them carefully one by one.
4. Automated metrics based on accounting data
Now we’re all set. The transaction data is being pulled into AIRR, once it appears in Xero, and all the LP reporting is updated automatically in the investor portal thereafter.
You can find more information on Xero integration in our Blog: