What happened to the Xero Import? How can I import my transactions now?

*Update* 9 February 2022. We have come to an arrangement with Xero to re-instate the import functionality. It’s just a matter of finding funding to do the extra work involved now to turn it back on!

Recently Xero updated their oAuth requirements for software to connect to theirs, and also changed the certification for any software providers wanting to become a certified app. Previously Donation Manager was able to be an uncertified ‘private’ application, with a 30 minute ‘token’ to access donation transaction in Xero. Since Donation Manager has updated to the new oAuth requirements for connecting to Xero, we are now no longer allowed to be uncertified.

New certification requirements imposed by Xero, while mostly reasonable, now include a requirement to allow charities to sign up for our software with Xero credentials from the Xero website. This is incompatible with our current sign up process which limits the free version of our software to NZ charities only, and so we are unable to become certified, and thus unable to provide a direct connection to Xero.

We will endeavor to work around this issue and hopefully provide a Xero connection in the near future.

There is still however an easy way to import your transactions, by using the CSV import feature. Essentially it breaks down to:

1. Run an account transaction report in Xero for the date range and donation income account(s) you require, with at least the date, contact name, and credit amount columns. You can also include description and reference columns.
2. Run the report and export it to Excel.
3. Download the donation transactions import template file and copy each of the Xero file columns into the relevant columns in the Donation Manager template file. Don’t change the heading names or orders in the template file.
4. You can now import the template file using the CSV import button.

I sincerely apologise for this issue, as being an ex-Xero employee I always intended this software to work as seamlessly with Xero as possible!