Xeroom Version 2.6.6 - Release Notes February 2023

Xeroom Version 2.6.6 – Release Notes

February 2023

To avoid releasing lots of updates this version has all the updates from versions 2.6.4 and 2.6.5 rolled into it.

Enhancements:
 

1. Bulk Send of Unsent Orders – We added the ability to decouple the checkout process from the Xero send process in the previous release with the orders being sent on a 5-minute schedule.  We have now added an automatic retry for any unsent orders.  Orders may fail due to their large size and associated issues.  This will make 5 attempts before leaving them.

 

2. Don’t Send Orders of Zero Value – This is now added to the Bulk Send selection sends (if set in Xeroom settings).  This is in additon to working for orders placed in the front-end or sent singularly in the back-end order.

 

3. WooCommerce Points & Rewards Plugin Compatability – Enable coupons generated by this plugin to work as they are >30 characters and would otherwise cause the order posting to fail in Xero.

 

4. Autocompletion of Orders - This will automatically set the WC Order Status to Completed once both the order and payment have been posted by Xeroom.  This is very handy especially for virtual products where there is no delay between Processing (payment made) and Completion.  

We have added with options for virtual and downloadable products only which means that if you sell both physical and digital products you can continue to leave the physical ones uncompleted since further processing usually needs to take place with those.

 

In the WC Order dash it is useful to be able to list all the orders by a certain status to check that everything has been processed.  This filter enables this to be done. 

For example here we list all the orders with Unsent Xero Status’s.

We have added a check on activation that WooCommerce is installed and activated to avoid any errors occurring.

What is does

We have had a lot of requests for this feature which will help even if you have the automated Stripe feed into Xero.  Xeroom will take the fee that is shown in WooCommerce for each order and post it into a Stripe Fees Expense or Overhead Account that you can create in Xero.   This occurs during the posting of the order which is either on checkout, manually or on a schedule.  It adds about 1 second to the processing time on checkout.  
 

If you use the Stripe automatic feed into Xero then this will help the reconciliations by matching up the transactions based on the date, name and reference.  If you don’t then this provides additional detail on the fees charged by Stripe on each transacton taken from the WooCommerce order.  It will allow you to use the Stripe Bank account as a clearing account to check that you have the correct payouts for all your orders and that the total fees are correct.

Stripe Fees Expense Account in Xero

When a fee is posted into Xero it creates a purchase bill for it (in the name of Stripe supplier that you create as a contact) on each transaction and posts the amount into the Stripe Fees account.  

 

Stripe Bank Account in Xero

This account is created and used in Xero as a mirror of all the transactions in your actual Stripe account.  It is used as a clearing account to ensure your receive payment for all the orders you have sold and to account for the fees payments made.  All your orders paid for in Xero will appear here.  With this new feature the associated fees will now appear too (which Stripe charge for each order).  If you have a bank feed you can set up rules to automatically match everything making the bank reconciliation very quick and easy.  

As part of the fee posting process Xeroom automatically applies the payment to it which is credited to the Stripe Bank Account (since these fees are paid to Stripe) all using the same reference.

The only thing not handled will be any fees paid on refunds (which Stripe kindly doesn’t refund) which you can simply post to this account.  You can also automate the matching of the payouts too which will show going to your main bank account or Wise bank account.  If you don’t have a Stripe bank feed then any payout to your actual bank from Stripe can be posted as a credit to this Stripe Bank Account so that it either clears or matches your balance in Stripe.  

The Stripe bank account will now show all of the sales transactions  as well as the fees associated with each one . 

How to Set Up the Posting of Stripe Fees
 

In Xeroom select this newly created account from the drop-down list and tick the checkbox to enable the Stripe Fee send.  If you don’t see the new account then the list will need refreshing.  To do this just click the Xero Authorise blue button in Xeroom General Settings at the top and click the Continue with Existing Organisation and the account will then show.  Select it and click Submit to save it. 

Do this by adding a contact named Stripe Fee.  This will be used to create the fee bills against.

No automated Stripe feed - The Stripe Bank Account transactions tab looks like below.   If you don’t use an automated feed there is nothing to reconcile but you need to check that the payouts you get to your actual bank account from Stripe are posted to this account so will show too and you can check for any missing payments or miscellaneous fees that might have been added.  You can also see what transactions make up the consolidated payments without having to go to your Stripe account.

 

Automated Stripe feed – If you do have the automated feed then the reconciliation process is to match up what is in Stripe with that is in Xero.  There are 4 types of transactions to match up. 1) The sale proceeds 2) The fees charged by Stripe on the transaction 3)The payout which is consolidated for a number of transactions per the payout schedule set in Stripe and in some cases 4) Any surcharge you apply to the customer to cover the Stripe fee .  

Xero can match most of these transactions up automatically and by setting a few simple rules can match up the rest.  For more info on how to do this please see Mark Cunningham’s very good explainer videos on how to set up rules to reconcile Stripe transactions in Xero https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zjJo6AIFgo.  

For further info:  See these Xero articles https://central.xero.com/s/article/Reconcile-Stripe-payments https://central.xero.com/s/article/Stripe-surcharging-UK

8. Global Inventory Synch Improvements – We have done a lot of testing with this to fix some reported errors and bugs and make it more stable.  We have also updated the libraries use and added a check to ensure that the log directory is present since it was sometimes missing on installation which prevented the synch process from running.

 

9. Global Product Synch Improvements - We have added similar improvements and fixes to this to make it far more stable.  We have also made any new product creation in Xero from WooCommerce to be with a zero costs price and for the product NOT to be tracked.  If you need to use it for inventory then it will need to be set to tracked in Xero.  It is easy to do but not easy to undo!  This is how a new product looks in Xero if it didn’t exist before the synch.   Existing products will just have their sales prices and descriptions updated.

The price only updates are useful to sweep an ongoing changes from your Master price list (whether in WooCommerce or Xero) into the other application as a hard ie permanent update.

 
 

10. "Other Income" - Type accounts added to Shipping Revenues drop-down list.

 11. WooCommerce Google Ads and Listings plugin - Compatibility added to prevent a critical error.

 

Bug Fixes

The main bug fixes in this version are:
 

1. Tax settings dropdown lists were empty – Now have been added.
 

2. PHP Fatal Error could not open file - phpspreadsheet and Excel libraries updated.

3. Order Completion on Payment and Virtual Products - WP Cron is not working properly under php8.1 so a work-around has been added in order for this feature to work.
 

4. WooCommerce Point of Sale Plugin Compatibility – This has been added which otherwise gives and E_Error in indexInit.
 

5. Cron Event List save error.

6. Tax settings drop-down lists not populating.