Xero reconciliation examples

In this article we explore several account reconciliation examples to clarify in more detail how the Xero integration works

Lauren Hose avatar
Written by Lauren Hose
Updated over a week ago

Let’s have a look at several common examples of payment scenarios that you may encounter and see how these payments are recorded in Hello Club and then reconciled in Xero.

We will look at the following three examples:

  1. Single payment via bank transfer

  2. Multiple online payments (members pay for fees)

  3. Multiple online payments (club pays for fees)

Note: In all cases, it is important to not reconcile incoming payments against your revenue accounts manually. Hello Club will already do this for you, and if you do this as well, it will lead to double ups in your recorded revenue.

Example 1 – Single payment via bank transfer

For this example, consider a member who has to pay $100 for membership renewal. Let’s say they renewed their membership via Hello Club, but opted to transfer the money directly into the club's bank account instead of making an online payment.

This will result in the following payment:

Payment 1

  • Membership fee: $100

  • Payment processing fee: $0

  • Member pays: $100

  • Club receives: $100

Let’s check how this payment is recorded in Hello Club and reconciled in Xero.

Recording the payment in Hello Club

The first step in the reconciliation of this payment is to record it in Hello Club. There should be an outstanding (unpaid) transaction for the $100 membership fee recorded against the member’s account. An administrator can find this transaction and then manually mark it as paid, selecting Bank transfer as the payment method.

The integration will then push this payment to Xero the next time it syncs, creating an invoice and corresponding payment of $100 for membership fees in Xero:

Xero will record a $100 credit entry against the membership fees revenue account, and a corresponding $100 debit entry against the clearing account nominated for bank transfer payments.

Reconciling the payment in Xero

Once the bank transfer shows up in Xero, you can reconcile it against the bank transfer clearing account to indicate the money has arrived:

Here is an example of how to process this in Xero, assuming that 660 is your Bank Transfers clearing account:


Xero will record a $100 debit entry against the bank account the money was deposited into, and a $100 credit entry against the clearing account.

This means the clearing account is now balanced again, and the net result is a $100 increase in both your revenue account and bank account.

Tip: You can also set up an automatic bank rule to automatically reconcile these type of transactions to the corresponding clearing account.

Note: It is important to not reconcile incoming payments against your revenue accounts manually. Hello Club will already do this for you, and if you do this as well, it will lead to double ups in your recorded revenue.

Example 2 – Multiple online payments (members pay for fees)

For the second example, consider two members who both make an online payment through Stripe using their credit or debit cards. The first member is paying $100 for the renewal of their membership, and the second member $50 for attending an event.

In this example the club has chosen not to cover payment processing fees, meaning the members will pay a little bit extra on top of their membership/event fees:

Payment 1

  • Membership fee: $100

  • Payment processing fee: $3

  • Member pays: $103

  • Club receives: $100

Payment 2

  • Event fee: $50

  • Payment processing fee: $2

  • Member pays: $52

  • Club receives: $50

Let’s see how these payments are recorded and reconciled in Xero.

Recording the payment in Hello Club

Since both members paid online through Hello Club, these payments are automatically recorded and there is no need to mark these transactions as paid.

The integration will push these payments to Xero the next time it syncs. For the membership fee, an invoice and corresponding payment of $100 will be created:

And for the event fee, a second invoice and payment of $50 will be created:

Xero will record a $100 credit entry against the membership fees revenue account and a $50 credit entry against the event fees revenue account. Corresponding $100 and $50 debit entries will be recorded against the clearing account nominated for online payments.

Reconciling the payout in Xero

Once you receive the payout from Stripe a few days later, it will show up in your bank account as a bulk payment of $150.

You can set up an automated bank rule to reconcile these payouts automatically against the clearing account for online payments:

Xero will record a $150 debit entry against the bank account the payout was deposited to, and a $150 credit entry against the online payments clearing account.

This means the clearing account is now balanced again, and because the revenue accounts were already adjusted previously, you don’t need to worry about splitting the bulk payout and mapping it against different revenue accounts by hand.

Where did the payment processing fees go?

Since in this example the payment processing fees were paid by the members and deducted from your payout by Stripe automatically, they are not recorded in Xero.

Check out the next example to see what happens if the club covers these fees.

Example 3 – Multiple online payments (club pays for fees)

In this example we'll look at the same situation as in Example 2, except now the payment processing fees will be fully covered by the club. That results in the following payments:

Payment 1

  • Membership fee: $100

  • Payment processing fee: $3

  • Member pays: $100

  • Club receives: $97

Payment 2

  • Event fee: $50

  • Payment processing fee: $2

  • Member pays: $50

  • Club receives: $48

Let’s see how these payments are recorded and reconciled in Xero.

Recording the payment in Hello Club

As before, both members paid online through Hello Club, so these payments are automatically recorded and there is no need to mark these transactions as paid.

The integration will push the payments to Xero the next time it syncs. For the membership fee, an invoice and corresponding payment of $100 will be created:

And for the event fee, a second invoice and payment of $50 will be created:

Xero will record a $100 credit entry against the membership fees revenue account and a $50 credit entry against the event fees revenue account. Corresponding $100 and $50 debit entries will be recorded against the clearing account nominated for online payments.

So far, this is exactly the same as in Example 2.

Handling the payment processing fees

Since the payment processing fees are covered by the club, these need to be recorded in Xero as well.

The combined fees for the two payments are calculated and the integration creates a bill and corresponding bill payment of $5 as follows:

Xero will record a $5 debit entry against your payment fees expense account and a corresponding $5 credit entry against the clearing account for online payments.

Reconciling the payout in Xero

Once you receive the payout from Stripe a few days later, it will show up in your bank account as a bulk payment of $145 (which is $150 minus the $5 payment fees).

You can set up an automated bank rule to reconcile these payouts automatically against the clearing account for online payments:

Xero will record a $145 debit entry against the bank account the payout was deposited to, and a $145 credit entry against the online payments clearing account.

This means that the clearing account is now balanced again, and the payment processing fees have automatically been accounted for as well.

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