Running a Manual Sync with Xero Practice Manager and Additional Notes on Syncing

In addition to the automatic sync with Xero Practice Manager, users can request a manual sync when required. An entry will be displayed in Practice Activity each time a manual synchronisation is requested.

Refer also to Synchronising Clients, Staff, Jobs, Time, Tax Returns with Xero Practice Manager.

Requirements for Manual Syncs

User Permissions

The steps required to perform a manual synchronisation will vary depending on the permissions of the user.

Maintain Jobs in FYI

When the Xero Practice Manager option Maintain Jobs in FYI is set to "On", the Sync function will not be available on the Jobs List, Jobs Board, or the Client - Jobs tab in the Client workspace.

This setting ensures that changes made to Jobs in FYI, such as the Job State, are not reverted to their original state in Xero Practice Manager, even if a manual Job Sync is initiated before the changes in FYI have synchronised with Xero Practice Manager.

Running a Manual Sync

Click on each of the sections below for more details on running a manual sync.

Pending Sync Status

Once a manual sync has been requested, Jobs and Clients will be marked with a 'Pending Sync' tag while waiting for the updates to be synced with Xero Practice Manager. The tag prevents updates from being overwritten by a user selecting the Sync from PM button. For example, custom field changes made in XPM will not be synchronised.

The Pending Sync tag is located beside the Job Name in the Job Summary, or the Client Name on the Client Summary. 

Once the updates have synced to Xero Practice Manager, the tag will be cleared.

Additional Notes on Syncing

Leads set up in Xero Practice Manager

Leads that are set up in Xero Practice Manager sync through to FYI as a Client.

You can also use Update Client or Update Job in an Automation Custom Process to update custom fields in clients in FYI (refer to Process Step Details - Creating and Updating Clients and Process Step Details - Creating and Updating Jobs).

Changes are synced within 15 minutes.

Note: The automatic sync of Custom Fields to FYI can be disabled in the Xero Practice Manager Settings by setting the Sync Custom Fields From XPM option to "Off". When this is disabled, Client and Job Custom Fields are maintained in FYI and synced to Xero Practice Manager. Refer to Resetting your connection between FYI and Xero Practice Manager.

Client and Job Custom Field Definitions

Any changes to the Custom Field definitions are synced from Xero Practice Manager during a manual synchronisation and automatic overnight synchronisation.

Note: The automatic sync of Custom Fields to FYI can be disabled in the Xero Practice Manager Settings by setting the Sync Custom Fields From XPM option to "Off". When this is disabled, Client and Job Custom Fields are maintained in FYI and synced to Xero Practice Manager. Refer to Resetting your connection between FYI and Xero Practice Manager.

As well as syncing changes to Custom Field definitions from Xero Practice Manager, an FYI Admin can maintain these in FYI  Practice settings - General - Custom Fields. Refer to Managing Custom Fields.

Changes are synced within 15 minutes.

Archived Clients

For information on Archived clients and about archiving a client that is part of a Client Group, refer to Archived Clients.

Client Contacts

Client Contacts are also synced when the Client sync is run, including the Primary Contact. Contacts are displayed in FYI on the Client Contacts tab.

The following fields will default to the Primary Contact's details, or remain blank if a Primary Contact is not selected:

• Contact
• Email
• Mobile
• Salutation

For practices where FYI as Primary for Client Maintenance is enabled, editing the client to add an Email, Mobile, or Salutation will override the default Primary Contact details. The Client Mobile and Salutation will not be synchronised with Xero Practice Manager, while Contact Mobile and Salutations will continue to synchronise.

When a change is made to a contact in FYI, a Pending Sync tag will be displayed while waiting for the updates to be synced with Xero Practice Manager. This tag is located beside the Client Name on the Client - Summary tab, and prevents updates from being overwritten by a user selecting the Sync from PM button. Once the updates have synced to Xero Practice Manager, the tag will be cleared.

Users (Staff)

• When new users in Xero Practice Manager are synced to FYI automatically they are assigned to the user group "Standard User". The user status will be marked as either Active or Inactive depending on the practice settings. Refer to the "New Users" setting in Managing Practice Settings. Users will be unable to log in until their status is marked as Active. An FYI Admin will need to update the user as required. Refer to Managing Users.
• Changes to the user's name or email address can only be done in Xero Practice Manager and these changes are then synced to FYI.
• Users/staff will only synchronise between Xero Practice Manager and FYI if the user is active i.e. the Currently Working option in Xero Practice Manager has been selected
  
  
• Making a user inactive in Xero Practice Manager (by unticking "Currently Working"), or deleting the user, will not make the user Inactive in FYI. The user needs to be changed to "Inactive" directly by an FYI Admin. Refer to Managing Users.
• An FYI Admin can also add a user directly to FYI. This can be used if you have a user such as financial planners that you do not want to add and pay for as users in Xero Practice Manager, but you want them to have access to information in FYI. Refer to Managing Users.

Jobs

At the time of your FYI trial creation, FYI will bring in only your active Xero Practice Manager jobs.

After the initial migration of data, any jobs that are inactive in Xero Practice Manager will be picked up by FYI and marked as inactive in FYI.

If the "State Type" of a job is changed in Xero Practice Manager to "On Hold", "Completed" or "Cancelled", the job stops being synced in FYI. If you make any changes in Xero Practice Manager, such as to the Job Name or the due date, and the job is not current in Xero Practice Manager (that is where the "State Type" is not "Standard"), this update will not be changed in FYI. If any such changes are needed to a completed job, change the state in Xero Practice Manager so it is not completed and make the change, sync it to FYI then set it back to completed. 

When Job States are synced to Xero Practice Manager, if the State cannot be changed in Xero Practice Manager for any reason, this is reported in Practice Activity (refer to Practice Activity).

An FYI Admin, or a user in a User Group that has Permissions enabled for Edit Jobs, can update the Partner and Manager for the Job. The Job Name, Budget, Start Date, Due Date and Job Custom Fields can also be updated in FYI and these changes will sync to Xero Practice Manager.

You can use Create Job in an Automation Custom Process to create a Job in FYI and Update Job in an Automation Custom Process to update the Status, Manager or Partner, Job Custom Fields (refer to Update Job in Process Step Details - Creating and Updating Jobs). You can use Bulk Update to update the Job (refer to Editing Jobs using Bulk Update).

For any jobs added in FYI with the Create Job function, these are synchronised with Xero Practice Manager. These are queued and can take up to 15 minutes to sync.

Note: Updates made to Jobs using Bulk Update in FYI are run with an Automation Process. Updates made to individual Jobs and Jobs created in FYI are normally synced to Xero Practice Manager immediately unless there is a delay due to traffic on the queue.

Workflow Jobs
Not all of the changes made to Workflow Jobs in FYI are synced to Xero Practice Manager. For details, refer to Synchronising Clients, Staff, Jobs, Time, Tax Returns with Xero Practice Manager.

After the initial sync is complete, updating the Estimated Hours on the XPM Task is synced to FYI. The name of the XPM Task can be updated in Xero Practice Manager by adding a Label. The text in the Label, preceded by a hyphen, is appended to the XPM Task Name in Xero Practice Manager. If a Label is added or changed in Xero Practice Manager, when the Jobs are synced (automatic or manually) the change is synced to FYI and the Name of the Workflow Job is updated in FYI.

Job Category

If any changes are made to the options for Job Category in Xero Practice Manager, FYI can only sync with those that have been applied to Jobs in Xero Practice Manager. If a Job Category option has been deleted in Xero Practice Manager, FYI cannot determine this.

Jobs States

If the Job State for a Job is changed in FYI, this is queued to synchronise with Xero Practice Manager immediately, and will be processed typically within 15 minutes.

If the Job State is changed in Xero Practice Manager, these changes are synced with FYI automatically during the synchronisation overnight, or if Jobs are manually synced.

For practices on the Elite plan, when Job States are created either directly in FYI or synchronised from integrated Practice Management platforms, any Job State with the Type of "Completed" will have the Lock for Time & Disbursements setting automatically enabled. This setting prevents users from adding any more Time or Disbursement entries against a Job once it reaches that state. 

Tasks for the Jobs

Any XPM Tasks created or changed for jobs in Xero Practice Manager are synchronised as part of the Jobs sync.

Time

When Time entries are entered or bulk created in FYI and set with the Status as "Submit", these are synchronised to Xero Practice Manager. Time entries are queued and can take up to 15 minutes to sync.

Depending on the XPM Staff Allocation setting in Practice Settings, FYI may perform additional synchronisations to assign and remove the user from the Task when submitting time entries. 

Refer to Time Overview

Tax Returns

Any tax returns created in Xero Tax will be imported into FYI. The document in FYI includes a link to the return, the return status and notice of assessment. By default, the Xero - Tax Return process is "Off". Refer to Xero Tax Return AutoFile (Australia Only).