Automatic Expenses Syncing with Xero: How it works

Automatic Expenses Syncing allows your card transactions with receipts to sync directly to Xero without manual review. Once a cardholder uploads a receipt (via mobile or web) and submits it, the transaction automatically syncs to your default expense account in your Xero settings.

Key benefits:

• No manual categorisation needed for standard expenses

• Receipts uploaded by cardholders from mobile or web sync automatically

• Transactions appear in Xero within minutes of receipt upload

• Reduced bookkeeping time for routine expenses

How does Automatic Syncing work?

When a cardholder uploads a receipt to a card transaction and saves it, Wise does the following:

1. Scans the receipt using AI to extract the VAT rate

2. Applies your default expense account and vendor settings

3. Syncs to Xero automatically within minutes

No manual review step is needed. The transaction bypasses 'Needs Review' and 'Ready to Sync' statuses.

Setting up Automatic Expenses Syncing

Prerequisites

To use the Automatic Expenses Syncing feature, you must first have connected Wise and Xero for transaction syncing. If you haven't connected them, please follow the steps in Managing Your Xero Connection with Wise.

• This feature requires a Xero plan that supports multi-currency. How to turn on multicurrency in Xero.

• You must also have configured Expenses bookkeeping with a default Expense Account and Vendor. See Card Expenses Bookkeeping with Xero: How expenses sync to Xero.

Enable Automatic Syncing

1. In the Expense settings page in Wise, find Auto-sync expenses to Xero.

2. Toggle it on

3. Confirm your default expense account and default vendor selections are correct

4. Save changes

What gets synced automatically?

Syncs automatically:

• Card transactions with a receipt uploaded saved by a cardholder (via mobile or web)

Requires manual review:

• Card transactions without receipts

• Expenses that need custom categorisation (different from default account)

How can I categorise expenses?

If you need to categorise expenses with different accounts or vendors (instead of using the default settings), a team member with the Download statements permission can edit the categorisation before the expense syncs on any receipt they upload.

To apply custom categories on a cardholder’s transaction, the cardholder can upload and save the expense receipt and expense description and save it for review and syncing by an admin or bookkeeper.

How cardholders upload receipts

Cardholders can upload receipts via mobile or web. Once uploaded, the transaction syncs to Xero automatically within minutes (if auto-sync is enabled).

For detailed steps on uploading receipts, see How do I upload expense receipts to Xero bookkeeping?

Disabling or pausing Automatic Syncing

To return to manual categorisation:

1. Go to Settings, then choose Accounting integrations and Manage Xero

2. Under Expense settings, select Manage

3. Toggle off Auto-sync expenses to Xero

4. Save changes

All future expenses will require manual review and categorisation before syncing.

Note: Disabling auto-sync doesn’t affect transactions that have already synced.