Getting started: from sign-up to a synced invoice in an afternoon

A new NamaCor company takes an afternoon to set up, and most of that is deciding how you want your costs coded. Here is the order that works.

1. Connect Xero

In Settings, click Connect Xero and authorise the organisation. If you want to try first, authorise Xero's Demo Company with Xero Projects enabled. NamaCor reads your tax rates, chart of accounts, tracking categories and Projects users, and tells you if the plan does not include Xero Projects (bills and invoices still work; time entries need Projects).

The owner then confirms the organisation on the card that appears. Nothing syncs before that click.

2. Map the settings

• Choose or create the tracking category named Project. Each project gets one option, used to break down invoices and bills in ledger reports.
• Pick the GST and QST codes for sales and purchases, and the exempt codes.
• Set the default revenue account and how invoices and bills are published: draft is a good start, approved once you trust it.
• Choose when the Xero project is created (when the project is submitted or when it becomes active).
• Create a user named Field in Xero and select it as the default Xero user. Workers without a Xero account are recorded under it, with their name in the description of each time entry.

3. Set your cost codes

NamaCor seeds a Quebec general contractor's structure: labour by role (labourer, carpenter, crew lead, project manager) as Xero Projects tasks billed by the hour, and materials and subcontracts by MasterFormat division, each tied to an expense account in your chart. Edit it to match your chart of accounts, then set a charge rate on the labour codes if you bill time and materials.

4. Invite the team

Team › Invite sends an email link. Office users get the owner or office role; crews get the field role and are assigned to projects, or simply planned on them, which gives the same access. Field users never need a Xero account.

5. Run the first project

1. Create the client and the project; set it active.
2. Build the quote from the catalog, send it, have the client approve it in the portal. The budget is now set.
3. Crews log hours in My week; the office approves them on Friday.
4. Forward the first supplier bill to the inbox address; code it; send it to Xero.
5. Issue the first progress invoice. Check it in Xero: PDF attached, taxes equal to the cent.