Before setting up Xero, you should have an accountant or bookkeeper on-hand. You should refer to them for accounting questions as our support staff are unable to provide accounting-related advice.

Set Up Tower Advantage Login

1. On the top menu bar of Retailer, click on Setup -> System .
2. Click on the Accounts tab.
3. In the Tower Advantage Login section, enter in your username and password.
4. Click Save .

GST free items

Due to limitations with how Xero imports data we cannot have GST and GST Free items in the same department importing to Xero. 

Any items without GST will need to be moved into a separate department and use different accounts in Xero setup to not have GST. In the following advice for Income, Stock on Hand and Cost of Sales, make sure you are using a different department and Xero account.

Xero will use the GST setting on the account to determine if there is GST, and the link cannot change this.

Set Up Accounting Link

1. From the main screen of Retailer, click on Tasks -> Export Accounting Data .
   NOTE: If you don't see this option in the menu, please contact your Tower Systems support.
2. If you haven't used Accounting Link before, the change date range screen will appear. Set the date and time range to the start and end of the first day of sales that you wish to transfer. This must be a previous day unless you have completed all sales and done an end of shift for today.
3. Click on  Setup Acc. Link .
4.  In Linking To , select Tower Advantage Link from the drop-down box. In Terminal ID , make sure the correct terminal name is selected to perform export (eg. MAIN or POS1).
5. Tick the Display the exported accounting entries report option.
6. Tick the Automatically archive a copy of exported accounting entries option.
7. In Export Directory :
1. Click on the magnifying glass icon next to Export Directory.
2. Double-click on C:\
3. Click on the New Directory button.
4. Type in Xero and click OK .
5. Click OK again and Export Directory should now show C:\Xero .

Income Column

In the list of departments, enter the Xero account code for each departments' sales in Retailer. These can be all the same account or separate accounts for each department depending how much sales details you want in Xero. Except for Gift vouchers.

Gift vouchers

The income column of Gift Vouchers is usually set to a Liability account, this is to hold the value until the gift vouchers are redeemed or expire. Sales and Redemptions of Gift vouchers should post to this account.

Cost of Sales

The option in the top right decides how cost of sales is exported (whether to export cost of sales when arrived, or when sold).

• Cost of Sales unticked. In the Purchase column, enter the cost of sales account. Retailer will post the value of any stock arrived to that account.
• Cost of Sales ticked. In the Purchase and Stock on Hand column, enter the Stock on Hand account code. In the Cost of Sales column, enter the cost of sale account code. Retailer will post the value of any stock arrived to the stock on hand account and then once sold, move the value to the cost of sales account.

Write-Offs

On the top right, you can set Write-Off Export price to Retail or Cost . We recommend using Cost.

Underneath this is Write-Offs Account Type (only when Cost of Sale is ticked)
You can send the Write-offs to an account based on the department the stock is in or the write-off expense reason used. Usually Expense is used.

In the Write-off column, an account needs to be entered for each department. If you are using the expense column these will not be used, however an account code still needs to be entered.

Click Close .

On the top left, under Default write-offs Expense Account, enter the account code where write-offs may default to.

Click on Other Accounts down the bottom.

Select Setup Write Offs then click OK.

Enter an account code against each write-off reason then click Close . These must be filled in but may not be used depending on settings above.

No Sales (Open Till)

Click on Other Accounts.

Click on Setup No Sales.

Enter an account code against each No Sale reason then click Close .

Paytypes

Click on Other Accounts.

Click on Setup Payment Types .

Enter an account for each paytype. This is usually a bank account or clearing account.

Using a clearing account can make reconciliation easy. For example; if you bank cash once a week and don't use a clearing account, you will need to reconcile the deposit with a cash transfer for each End of Shift.

Gift vouchers should use the same account for the gift voucher income above.

Once all the paytypes accounts have been entered, click Close .

Then at the top left, enter the account for Cash into the field for Clearing account.

Click Other Accounts.

Click on Setup Banking Accounts.

Click Add. Enter a name and the account code for the Cash account.

Click Close.

Further Settings

Ticking Arrivals Information will send invoice arrivals into Xero.

Ticking Returns Information will send stock returns (done via Stock Returns) into Xero.

Discrepancy Account is where Cash unders and overs are posted and any other discrepancies.

Freight Account is used for freight on goods purchased.

Balance Adjustment Account is for when a customer account balance is changed in Retailer, this is not the trade debtors account. It is not the same as the Debtor Charges account. It only records the amounts changed through Balance Adjustments.

Layby Liability account is where the value paid towards laybys is kept until the layby is paid. It is usually a liability account.

All of these need account codes from Xero entered.

Set Up Tower Advantage Link

1. Go to www.towersystems.com.au and log in to your Tower Advantage account.
2. Click on the Tower Advantage Link logo on the left panel.
3. On the Tower Advantage Link homepage, click on the Settings button.
4. Click on the Retailer - Xero Configuration tab.

General

1. In Debtor Charges Account Code , type in the account code from Xero for the Customer Accounts Asset account. This is the account that records changes to your customer balances.
   NOTE: You cannot use a system account, so check in the Xero chart of account if there is a padlock and when you put your mouse on it, if it says system account it cannot be used
2. In Cash Register/Till Variance Account , type in the account code from Xero for the account that records till variances from your End of Shift.
3. In Discrepancy Account Code , type in the account code from Xero for any small discrepancy's that occur, this will never be more then 10cents - can happen during rounding in sales.
4. Create Custom Fields and Gift voucher and corresponding account code from Xero.
   
   

Invoice Sales Options

The following options configure how the Tower Advantage Link treats your received monies each day. This depends on how you perform your banking for your business.

Do not import Cash/Cheque Line, Eftpos Line and Bank Line

• Imports the sale invoice for the day but with no paytypes - cash, Eftpos etc. 
• Requires extra work to manually pay off the invoice each day

Import Cash/Cheque Line, Eftpos Line and Bank Line into Sales Line

• When importing the sale invoice will import the paytypes - cash , Eftpos etc. - into line items on the invoice
• Cannot post to a bank account
• Is harder to reconcile

Import Cash/Cheque Line, Eftpos Line and Bank Line into Payment Line

• Processes the paytypes as payments on the sale invoice
• Is the recommended option
• Any Clearing account you use must have the option ticked in Xero to allow payments to the account.

Sales (Invoices)

1. In Name , type in a name that you want invoices to be recorded against in Xero. We recommend something descriptive such as POS Sales .
2. In Currency , select between AUD or NZD.
3. In Status , select between processing invoices created for your sales as Draft, Submitted or Approved. As a general rule, this should be set to Approved but note that approved invoices cannot be edited. (If you selected the option to import into Payment Line in the previous section, you must set this option to Approved).
   
   

Purchases (Bills)

1. In Currency , select between AUD or NZD.
2. In Status , select between processing supplier invoices created for purchases/credits as Draft, Submitted or Approved. As a general rule, this should be set to Approved but note that approved invoices cannot be edited or overwritten.
3. Click on Save .
   
   

Invoice Settings (Bills)

This setting is for old versions of Retailer and can be ignored.

Append Store Name to Invoices

Download from Xero

The Account information needs to be downloaded into Tower Advantage Link from Xero.

1. In Tower Advantage Link, click on  Dashboard.
2. Then, click on Download Account.
   
3. Then, click on Download.
   

  NOTE: This Download needs to be repeated anytime a setup change is made to the accounts in Xero.

Tracking Categories

1. Setup Tracking Categories in Xero.
   
2. Ensure you have turned on Append Store Name to Invoices
3. In Tower Advantage Link, click on Tracking Categories.
   
4. Click on Download Tracking Categories.
   
5. A list of your available Tracking Categories will appear and in the Name Field on the right enter the name of your business without spaces. 
   
6. Click Submit.
   

Email Notification

1. Click on the Email Notification tab.
2. Type in the email address that you want reports to be sent to.
3. Click on the icon on the right and change the status to  On  to receive confirmation of every upload or Off to not receive emails.
4. Click on Save .

End of shift setup

To export to Xero correctly, Retailer must be setup to have only one computer transfer all the sales at once.

If you already only do End of Shift on only one computer you can skip this section.

Choose one computer in the store to transfer the sales, this computer you must complete End of Shift everyday and after any other computers.

1. Click on End of shift
2. Click on Setup
3. Tick Transfer The end of shift sales
4. On the right, select All terminals

All other computers

1. Click on End of shift
2. Click on Setup
3. Untick Transfer The End Of Shift Sales

Once you've set up all the above, you are ready to begin exporting your data from Retailer to Xero. Click HERE to learn more about the export process.