Connecting your software to Xero, MYOB or Zoho Books: what's actually involved

Short answer: connecting a website or app to Xero, MYOB or Zoho Books means four things: getting permission to access the account (OAuth), mapping your data to theirs (contacts, invoices, tax codes), handling GST correctly, and dealing with failures gracefully. A one-way sync of invoices or contacts is usually a one- to two-week job; two-way sync with payments and reconciliation is a bigger project. Budget for it separately from the rest of the build.

Why integrations are underestimated

On a demo, an integration looks like a button: "Send to Xero". Underneath, the developer has to authenticate, keep the connection alive when tokens expire, match your customers to theirs without creating duplicates, apply the right GST treatment, and decide what happens when Xero is down or rejects a record. Each of those is small; together they're the most time-consuming part of many small-business builds.

The four parts

1. Authentication. All three platforms use OAuth: your business owner clicks "Connect", logs in to the accounting platform, and grants access. The app receives tokens that expire and must be refreshed. If refresh fails silently, invoices stop syncing and nobody notices for a month. Good integrations alert you.

2. Data mapping. A "customer" in your app has to become a Contact in Xero, a Customer in MYOB, or a Contact in Zoho Books, with the right fields. Same for products, invoices, line items and payments. The unglamorous work is deciding the rules: match on email or ABN? Create if missing? What's the default account code?

3. GST and Australian specifics. Tax-inclusive versus tax-exclusive line items, GST-free items, the ABN on invoices, BAS periods. Getting this wrong creates work for your bookkeeper, which is the opposite of the point.

4. Errors and edge cases. Duplicates, deleted records, a customer renamed in one system, a partial payment, a refund. Decide in the brief which direction is the source of truth for each record type.

Xero, MYOB or Zoho Books?

• Xero has the most mature API and the most developers who've used it. Rate limits are the main constraint for busy apps.
• MYOB works well but has fewer developers with hands-on experience, so ask for examples.
• Zoho Books is straightforward if you're already in the Zoho ecosystem; its API is generous.

If you haven't chosen yet, pick the platform your bookkeeper prefers. The integration will follow.

One-way or two-way?

• One-way (app → accounting): your app creates invoices or contacts in the accounting platform. Simplest, and enough for most businesses.
• Two-way: payments recorded in Xero flow back to mark orders as paid, contact edits sync both ways. Much more valuable, and much more complex, because conflicts have to be resolved.

Start one-way unless a two-way feature is the whole reason for the project.

What to ask a developer

1. Have you built against this platform's API before? Can I see it working?
2. What happens when the connection expires or the platform is down?
3. Which system is the source of truth for customers, invoices and payments?
4. How is GST handled on each line item?
5. Is the integration priced separately, and what does ongoing maintenance cost when the API changes?

What it costs

From Australian studios, a one-way invoice or contact sync typically sits between A$1,500 and A$4,000 on top of the app it lives in. Two-way sync with payments and reconciliation starts around A$5,000. Always get it as its own line on the quote.

We build accounting integrations for Australian businesses, and our own bookkeeping product, Reckonly, syncs receipts to Zoho Books. Ask us about yours.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a Xero integration cost?

A one-way integration — for example, pushing paid orders into Xero as invoices — usually costs between A$1,500 and A$4,000 as part of a web app or website build. Two-way sync, contact matching and reconciliation logic add to that. The Xero, MYOB and Zoho APIs themselves are free to use.

Can my website send invoices to Xero automatically?

Yes. When an order or booking is paid on your site, a small piece of integration code can create the contact and invoice in Xero, mark it paid and attach the payment. The same is possible with MYOB and Zoho Books; the main difference is how each handles contacts and tax codes.

Xero vs MYOB vs Zoho Books integration

All three have documented APIs. Xero has the largest developer ecosystem and the smoothest OAuth setup, MYOB is common in established Australian firms and needs more care around its company-file model, and Zoho Books is cheapest and integrates tightly with the rest of Zoho. Pick the one your accountant already uses; the integration cost is similar.