Generate professional invoices from your tracked time and send them directly to Xero as draft invoices ready for final review and sending to clients.
ℹ️ Note: This guide assumes you're familiar with MinuteDock's invoicing process. For complete step-by-step invoicing instructions, see our main invoicing guides.
💡 Tip: Before creating Xero invoices, ensure you have connected your Xero account to MinuteDock and that your MinuteDock Contacts have matching Xero Contacts.
Starting Your Invoice
Access the invoicing feature through the Invoices tab in MinuteDock. You can create invoices for MinuteDock Contacts with unbilled time or start a new invoice for any MinuteDock Contact.
Create a new invoice in MinuteDock using either the ready to invoice section or the +New Invoice button. Select your Time Entries and format your invoice lines as needed.
Sending to Xero
After you have started your Invoice, follow the steps to select your time entries and format your invoice lines.
For detailed steps on starting invoices, selecting time entries, and formatting invoice lines, see our main invoicing guides.
After the formatting step, click Next Step to go to the final review stage.
Final Review
Review invoice details - Check line items, amounts, and customer information
Confirm accuracy - Ensure all details are correct before sending
Send to Xero
Send invoice - Click Send to Xero to create the draft invoice in your Xero organization
Complete in Xero - Switch to Xero to apply your branding, make final adjustments, and send to clients
✅ Success! Your invoice now appears as a draft in Xero with your branding and templates applied.
⚠️ Important: Once sent to Xero, the included Time Entries are locked from further editing in MinuteDock and marked as invoiced for reporting purposes.
Xero Settings/Options/Categories
When your account is linked with Xero, you’ll have a few extra options for each of the generated line items during the formatting step. These include:
Item: This is a list of Items imported from your Xero account. If you don’t see this option, it means you don’t have any Items set up in Xero.
Account: This is your general ledger account imported from your Chart of Accounts in Xero. We’ll only show you your Revenue ledger accounts.
Tax Rate: This is your standard tax rates configured in your Xero account. When you pick an Account, we’ll assign the default tax rate linked to that ledger account in your Xero settings, but you are able to override it if you want.
Tracking Categories: You can have up to two active tracking categories in Xero with their own name, letting you specify custom information on each line item - this is great for breaking down financial reports by custom criteria. For each tracking category you have set up, you should see an option on each line item. If you don’t see any tracking categories that means you haven’t set any up in Xero.
These options will all flow straight through to the Xero invoice that will be created. You’ll also be able to edit or tweak the choices once the Invoice is sent to Xero.
For a full rundown of how to set up your Xero Items/Tracking Categories/Account codes in MinuteDock, see our Xero Integration Settings guide.