This article walks through exactly how to set up your Products and services inside Xero, to make them easy to use inside ScaleXP Invoicing.  By using products, you can report on sales of these products in bulk, even if the description of the line item varies from invoice to invoice. This gives you more consistency in your reporting, and also saves on data entry.

Want to learn more about the use of products in ScaleXP Invoicing? See ScaleXP Invoicing: HubSpot Set Up - Step 2 of 2 - Invoicing. 

In this article, we'll walk you through the steps to add products in Xero and HubSpot, and show you how to use them to create invoices that are tracked in both systems.  You'll need access to Xero in order to complete these steps.

We'll show you where to find products in Xero, what information to fill out when setting up new products, or updating existing ones, and how to sync between Xero and HubSpot.

What are products?

Products refer to individual line items that represent a product, service, or category of services you provide. In HubSpot, they are called products, and in Xero, they are called items. You can use products to record physical products that you sell, or discrete services that you can categorise and group together. By using products, you can report on sales of these products in bulk, even if the description of the line item varies from invoice to invoice. This gives you more consistency in your reporting, and also saves on data entry.

Now, let's dive into how to add products in Xero and HubSpot.

Adding items to Xero

In Xero, navigate to the "Business" tab and click on "Products and Services." Click the "Add Item" button to create a new item. The Code field is crucial, as it's a unique code of numbers and letters that links to the SKU code in HubSpot. You can choose to track inventory, but note that HubSpot won't alert you if inventory gets to zero. If you think you might need inventory tracking, get in touch with our team.

Your items can be bought and sold. If you're a service-based business, you can untick "Purchase" and move to "Sell." Here, you can set some defaults. The Sale price is a default sale price, and it will only show in ScaleXP Invoicing if you don't already have a price for that line.

Next, add the Sales account and tax rates, which are optional but can save you a lot of data entry by automatically filling them out when creating invoices. Finally, if you'd like to use a different description on invoices than the internal name above, type it here. This is also optional.

What information to fill out on your products

When creating or editing a product you'll see the following options:

• Code - This is the item code or SKU code for the product. It should be a unique code and needs to match the SKU code for products or line items inside HubSpot (you can import this product to HubSpot later)
• Name - This will be shown to users when selecting the product inside ScaleXP Invoicing
• Track inventory item (optional) - This allows you to track the quantity of products that have been sold. When using ScaleXP Invoicing, the quantity will be adjusted when a product is synced in an invoice. Note that at the moment, ScaleXP Invoicing will not prevent you adding an out of stock product to an invoice.
• Sell (required) - check this box to enable the product to show up in ScaleXP Invoicing
• Sale price (optional) - this price will only be used if you are adding a product manually in ScaleXP Invoicing, otherwise we will use the price for the line item that you have set inside HubSpot
• Sales account (recommended) - configure a GL account for the product - we strongly recommend adding this, as this will be filled out automatically by ScaleXP Invoicing, saving you lots of time. 
• Tax rate (recommended) - configure a tax rate for the product. Again, we strongly recommend adding this to save you time. This will be filled out automatically by ScaleXP Invoicing, though it can be changed or overridden when creating the invoice, for example if a customer has a custom tax rate applied.
• Description (optional) - this is only used if you are adding a product manually in ScaleXP Invoicing, otherwise we will use the description set inside HubSpot

More tips for adding products

• You can import products in bulk - just follow the instructions on the Xero support site 
• You can duplicate products to save time on data entry
• Due to a quirk in Xero's platform, if you archive a product, it will still show in ScaleXP Invoicing. Most of the time this is not an issue as products should match automatically, but if you need to remove the product from view you will have to delete it completely. 

Adding Products in HubSpot

If you have no products set up – then we generally recommend starting in Xero. This is because you need to enter more info inside Xero to add the accounts and tax rates.

Once you've created your product in Xero, it will show up right away inside ScaleXP Invoicing.

The most important things for ScaleXP Invoicing are:

• Your SKU codes in your HubSpot line items match the Item Codes inside Xero
• Accounts and Tax rates are set on your Xero products

If you have a small number of products, it may be easiest to just ensure the SKU codes are matching, but if you have many products or need to sync them, read on. 

In HubSpot, navigate to the "Settings" tab and click on "Products." Click the "Create product" button to create a new product. Enter a name and a SKU code that matches the code in Xero. The description you add here will show on quotes but not invoices. Then, add your pricing, and if you're creating repeating invoices, billing frequency, and terms.

You can also use the Xero Data Sync module from HubSpot to sync products between HubSpot and Xero. You can choose to use Xero as the source of truth or HubSpot, but remember that you may need to add those accounts and taxes inside Xero if you've imported from HubSpot.

Creating an invoice with products in ScaleXP Invoicing

To create an invoice with products in ScaleXP Invoicing, open up your deal in HubSpot and add some line items. You can do this through the quotes tool as well, and it works the same way. 

Select your product from the product library.  You can now edit any descriptions or pricing, and it's done.

Note that there is a user permission to disable the "Custom Line Item" option, which can stop your teams from skipping the product selection. 

Open up ScaleXP Invoicing, and all your lines are filled in. They have been matched with the Xero Items using the SKU code and completed with the accounts and taxes. 

If you're not using HubSpot products, you can easily build your invoice by selecting a product when you add new lines, by choosing from the list or searching. This will fill in the default pricing, description, and the accounts and taxes.

Options for syncing Xero and HubSpot products

Option One – Export from Xero and Import into HubSpot

This is our recommended option as HubSpot has a much easier import flow than Xero as it doesn’t rely on you having fixed columns.

• Go to Xero and choose Business > Products and Services from the Menu
• Choose Export and CSV
• Open the CSV and remove any rows with the Status column “Archived”
• In HubSpot, go to Commerce > Products and click “Add Data”
• Choose “Import a file” and select “Products” when choosing which type of data 
• Upload your file and map the fields below

   

Option Two – Export from HubSpot and Import into Xero

If you’re using this option you will still need to make sure that account and tax rate are set in Xero, you can do this either in the import, or add it later in Xero.

• Go to HubSpot and choose Commerce > Products 
• Check that the columns you’d like to import are showing in your view (We recommend SKU, Name, Price)
• Choose Export and CSV
• Go to Xero and choose Business > Products & Services
• Click “Import” and “Import Items” 
• Download the template provided by Xero
• Copy your HubSpot data into the columns, keeping the column titles the same
• Read more about mapping the Xero data on the Xero website

   

Option Three – Use HubSpot’s Xero Data Sync App

Remember, ScaleXP Invoicing will take the pricing from your HubSpot line items on your quotes or deals, so you only need to keep the products in sync if you are adding and removing products often. 

HubSpot have a free app on the App Marketplace that will allow you to sync Products and Contacts. It’s safe to use alongside ScaleXP Invoicing.

You can choose to sync data in either direction. If you are Syncing to Xero you will still need to make sure that account and tax rate are set in Xero, you can add it later in Xero.

When mapping the columns the most important things are to make sure Xero’s Code is mapped to HubSpot’s SKU. This is one of the default settings.

If you need to map extra columns, you’ll need a paid HubSpot Operations Hub subscription.

Find out more about the Data Sync settings on the HubSpot Knowledge Base and in this article.