Use the Wise-Xero integration to streamline your card expense accounting directly within Wise. This feature allows your accounting and finance team to review, categorise, and sync Wise card transactions directly into Xero with minimal clicks and maximum control.
By connecting your Wise account to Xero, we automatically import your Chart of Accounts, Vendors (Xero Contacts), and VAT Rates. This lets the person in charge of bookkeeping easily code transactions in Wise before they hit your Xero ledger, saving time and eliminating the need to jump between systems or chase down receipts.
1. How to Set Up the Expenses Accounting Automation
The Wise Card Expenses Accounting experience is only available on the Wise web platform.
Prerequisites: Connect Wise and Xero. To use the Expenses accounting automation 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.
Step 1: Enable the Feature
Select the business name in the top corner and under the Settings, go to Accounting integrations
Find the Xero integration in the Connected sub-section and select Manage
On the Xero settings page, go to the Expenses section
Click the toggle to enable expenses bookkeeping
Select Manage next to Expenses settings
Select the default Expenses account and Vendor (Xero contact)
Disconnecting Xero from Wise: disabling the integration will cause all accounting data entered (expense account, VAT rate - see below) but not yet synced to Xero to be lost. This excludes your uploaded receipts, which remain linked to the corresponding transaction in Wise.
Step 2: Sync and Configure Default Accounts
Once Review and categorise expenses in Wise is enabled, Wise will automatically sync your entire Xero Chart of Accounts to Wise.
Your chart of accounts syncs from Xero automatically every 4 hours. You can also refresh it manually at any time by clicking Update.
Only expense-type accounts from Xero can be selected, so accounts of other types won't appear as options when selecting the default expense account or categorising.
Tip: If you realise a required expense account is missing, create it in Xero, return to Wise, and click Update to force a new sync.
You'll then be asked to select two default accounts:
Default Expense Account: This account will be pre-filled on every transaction's accounting form in the Transactions page
Value: This speeds up categorisation. You can use it as a temporary holding/clearing account for transactions where you're waiting for a receipt or clarification, allowing you to create the transaction in Xero and finalise the categorisation later in Xero
Default Vendor: This is set to Wise Expenses, a new Xero Contact that Wise creates when you enable the feature. You can also select your preferred existing Xero Contact
Value: If a merchant on a card transaction is new (doesn't exist as a contact in Xero), we'll map it to Wise Expenses to prevent the creation of unnecessary or duplicate vendor contacts in Xero.
Note: Your Wise bank fees will be automatically categorised under a new account 405 - Bank charges (Wise).
Automatic Expenses Syncing
Automatic Expenses Syncing allows your card transactions with receipts to sync to your default expense account in Xero without manual review. Learn more about automatic syncing
2. Reviewing, Categorising, and Syncing Expenses
Where to Find the New 'Expenses' View to categorise card transactions
Click the Expenses item in the left-hand navigation to expand the sub-pages.
Note: Any user with an active Wise card or the View all transactions permission can access the Expenses tab.
Click on any transaction line to open a side panel with details and the Accounting details.
Categorising a Transaction
In the Expense transactions table (under Transactions), any user with a Wise card or View all transactions permission can:
Filter expense transactions: Filter by accounting status (Needs Review, Ready to Sync, Synced) or receipt attachment.
View receipts: Click on any expense transaction to view the transaction details, accounting details and receipt side-by-side. Receipts will sync to the Xero transaction together with the accounting data below.
Input accounting data: Use your Xero Chart of Accounts to fill in the required fields:
Vendor: Select an existing Xero Contact or use the default Wise Expenses (this is a mandatory field to sync to Xero).
Expense Account: Choose the correct Xero expense account (this is a mandatory field to sync to Xero).
VAT Rate: Select the applicable Xero Tax Rate (optional)
Description: This will sync to the Xero transaction Reference (optional)
Smart suggestions: Wise will scan uploaded receipts and suggest expense accounts and vendors based on receipt data and historical categorisation. Note that we use AI to power our suggestions — avoid uploading sensitive details like full credit card details. Learn more here
Save changes: If the user doesn't have the permission to sync (Download statements permission), or if they need to wait for more information (like creating a new expense account in Xero), they can click Save changes. The data is saved, but the transaction status remains Needs Review.
Mark as Ready: Mark an expense transaction as Ready to sync to Xero (requires Download statements permission).
Syncing to Xero
The final step — marking a transaction as ready to sync and triggering the sync — is restricted to users with the Download statements accounting permission.
Tip: Make sure the currency you want to sync is mapped to one of your Xero bank accounts under Manage your Xero connection. Wise only syncs transactions from currencies that are connected. See Why isn't my Wise account syncing with Xero? for more information.
Mark as Ready: Once the Expense Account and Vendor fields are complete, a user with the required permission can change the transaction status to Ready to Sync.
Note: Once marked Ready to sync, a user with Download statements permission can click Edit, modify the inputs, then mark as ready to sync.
Sync expenses to Xero: On the main Expenses tab in the transactions page, select all transactions in Ready to Sync status.
Tip: Filter transactions by Ready to Sync status and desired date range, then check the header box to select all filtered transactions (including those not visible if many).
Click Sync to Xero at the top
Real-Time Sync: Data should appear in your Xero interface within minutes, allowing you or your accountant to finalise any remaining details.
Potential sync failures: If for any reason some specific transactions fail to sync to Xero (Xero is down, the Wise data doesn't match the Xero data, etc.), the transaction status will be Failed to Sync. You can double check the data inputted in the form, and then mark the transaction as Ready before syncing again.