Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

After creating your PayPal subscription you should have been redirected back to CarryTheOne in order to create your Control Panel account. If this did not happen/you have not yet created a Control Panel account, please check your email. You should receive an email with a link after 20 minutes of creating the subscription. If you do not see this email, please check your spam folder.

Once you have a Control Panel account, please click on 'add a new integration' in the Control Panel to begin creating the connection between your apps.

That's it: your integration will automatically import orders when they are triggered for import by the 'trigger' order status you have set in your configuration (e.g. you might have set 'Confirmed', 'Paid' or 'Shipped' as the trigger status).

Please keep an eye on the email address you used to register for your Control Panel account, as notifications about your integration will be sent there. In particular, if your store is brand new, you may still need to configure a payment method before the integration can import its first order - if that is the case you will be notified with an email.

Please check your email (the account for the email address you use to log into CarryTheOne) - there will be an email explaining the problem. If you cannot see an email, please check your spam folder.

In Xero: click Accounts > Sales > See All

The Sales dashboard in Xero does not currently provide a summary of "paid" invoices, so if your integration is creating invoice payments automatically, it might seem like no invoices have been imported! But if you click "See All", you should be able to find them. If not, please read the next FAQ...

Important Note: Notifications about the status of your integration are delivered to you by email, to the email address registered in your Control Panel account. Therefore, please check for any messages in your email account from "CarryTheOne". (Please check your SPAM folder in case the email got misplaced there. You can add CarryTheOne's email address to your contacts to prevent this from happening.)

1. Please first check that your integration is active: log into your Control Panel account and check the status symbol next to your integration - if the integration is live, you will see a green tick.
   
   
   1. If there is a red exclamation mark '!', your integration requires configuration and you can resume the integration from where it left off by clicking 'configure', making the necessary configuration and clicking 'save'. Please note: you should have received an email explaining what needs to be done (e.g. configure a new payment method you started using recently) - you can change your registered email address from the 'Your Account' section of the Control Panel.
   2. If you see a 'pause' icon (two vertical bars), your integration is paused and you can resume it by clicking "options" and selecting "Resume".
   3. If you see a 'stop' icon (square), with either 'Under Review' or 'Integration Inactive' you will need to get in touch unless you are aware of what is happening (e.g. a customisation is being implemented or an error is being resolved).
2. The majority of enquiries about missing invoices arise because the order(s) in question have not yet been triggered for import by the 'trigger' order status. When you configured the integration, you chose a trigger order status for every payment method that tells the integration when to import orders. An order will only import if it has had the trigger order status set at some point in its history. If the trigger order status you have set for a payment method is not appropriate, please change it to one that all orders (of the payment method) pass through at some point in the order cycle.
3. If you have just configured your integration and it has been paused for a while, please allow some time for it to catch up importing your orders. This shouldn't take too long and will depend on just how long your integration has been paused and the number of orders that need to be imported.
4. Have you looked properly for the invoices in your Accounting App (especially if your integration has been paused for a while)? Imported invoices are dated using the order date, not the date the invoices are generated so they may be mixed with invoices created from other sources. Invoices are usually listed in invoice date order by default in Accounting Apps, so please check you are not overlooking them.
   
   The best thing to do is to search for the order number in your Accounting App (the order number is usually added as reference on the invoice).
5. New Integrations: Have you linked your integration with the correct Accounting App account? You may have multiple accounts (e.g. one for testing, one live) and have mistakenly linked the wrong account. If you think this might have happened, please check your other account(s) to see if the invoices are there. If so, you can re-link the integration to the correct account by clicking 'options' next to the integration in the Control Panel and selecting 'Re-link'.
6. Were the orders placed before you set up the integration? If so, please get in touch to ask about a historical import.
7. Have you recently changed a trigger order status in your configuration? If so and the orders in question have previously had the new trigger status set, you may need to re-set this status for these orders to trigger their import. If there are too many or otherwise this is inappropriate, please contact us as we should be able to help.
8. If you have checked through all of the above and have not yet found the cause, please contact us, stating the order number of one of the orders that has not imported. It is very important that you provide an example of such an order to help us quickly resolve your case.

Please contact us to enquire about a historical import.

If you are not importing your existing orders back into your new installation, you should deactivate your existing integration (Control Panel > options (next to integration) > Deactivate) and create a new one for your new installation. If you do not do this, some orders from your new store may not be imported because of overlapping order ids.

Please beware that simply setting initial order numbers in your new installation so that new order numbers do not overlap with your existing order numbers is not sufficient as the integration uses order ids, not order numbers, to track what it has imported.

In your Control Panel, click "options" next to the integration and select "Re-link". You will then be able to enter your new Accounting App account credentials / authorise your new Accounting App account.

If your Accounting App's bank reconciliation function allows you to assign multiple invoices/invoice payments to a single bank transaction (e.g. Xero), simply select those invoices/invoice payments corresponding to the batch deposit made by your payment provider and assign any difference as a fee.

Xero: It is recommended to configure your integration to create invoice payments automatically* as you will be able to choose the form of the payment reference so that bank reconciliation is fastest/simplest for you. (*Bank transactions will then simply be matched against invoice payments rather than invoices - this will not cause your payments in Xero to double up.)

Alternative Method:

The following method involves configuring your integration to create invoice payments automatically and setting up a "bank account" in your Accounting App to mirror the merchant account you hold with your payment provider. This way the integration will do the bulk of the work for you, while you will need to enter a few transactions manually from time-to-time to account for payment fees and withdrawals (which will match the deposits into your main bank account) - a monthly summary should be obtainable from your payment provider's online administration/management center/control panel or via the paper statements you receive. Suggested procedure:

1. In the Accounting App: create a dedicated "bank account" for the payment method, e.g. called 'MyPaymentProvider' (or if you hold balances in multiple currencies, create a bank account for every currency account you hold with the payment provider, e.g. 'MyPaymentProvider-USD', 'MyPaymentProvider-AUD', 'MyPaymentProvider-NZD', 'MyPaymentProvider-GBP'). This account is to mirror the 'merchant' account you hold with the payment provider.
2. In your integration's configuration: select a 'trigger' order status for the payment method such that payments are confirmed by the point of import, i.e. so that you are sure payment has been successful by the time the order is imported. E.g. A trigger order status like shipped/sent/dispatched would be a pretty safe bet since you are unlikely to send out an order that hasn't been paid, though an earlier status like 'paid' or 'confirmed' should be just as good.
3. In your integration's configuration: select to automatically create payment receipts in the dedicated 'merchant' bank account you set up in step 1 for the payment method in the Accounting App. (If you hold multiple currency balances with the provider, depending on the Accounting App, you will be able to select the corresponding bank account for each currency. If you need assistance with multiple currencies, please get in touch using the contact form.)
4. In the Accounting App (ongoing): periodically (e.g. monthly), create records in the merchant bank account in the Accounting App to offset fees and batch payments made to your actual bank account (your 'current' account), which you should have set up in your Accounting App (hopefully with an automated feed). Depending on the frequency of batch payments it may be much less tedious to enter a summary record for your period rather than individual records for every batch payment, though please check with your accountant that this is acceptable.

Note: It is better to handle fees separately (as described above) rather than having them deducted from the customer payment receipt (and therefore having to account for the resulting discrepancy on the invoice) because the fee corresponds to a transaction between you and the payment provider, not you and your customer.

No. Bank Reconciliation in your Accounting App will first try to match imported statement lines with existing payment transactions before giving you the option of creating new ones.

In case you do see payment transactions being duplicated, you can configure the integration not to create invoice payments automatically for that particular payment method, but this should not be necessary and is generally not advised as bank reconciliation automatic matching is generally improved thanks to the payment transactions.

The integration is compatible with Tracked Inventory functionality in Xero, in that stock levels will be reduced in Xero as orders with Tracked Items are imported. As with the integration's basic (optional) function to utilise Xero items*, this relies on the SKU in your store matching the item code in Xero. If an item does not yet exist in Xero, the integration will create it automatically when an order with the item is imported, however, the integration will not automatically enable inventory tracking for the item. This means that if you intend to track inventory for an item, you should first set up the item in Xero.

(*This option - "Use Xero's inventory system (set item codes)?" on page 1 of the Configuration Panel - must be enabled for Tracked Inventory compatibility.)

You may nevertheless be able to use the integration to help set up your inventory in Xero with the following workaround (if feasible):

1. Use the integration to import your products as regular /untracked/ items in Xero by placing a test order in your store for all of the products you want to track (you can break them down into several orders if necessary) and "trigger" the order for import. When it imports, all the products in the order will be added to the Xero Inventory as untracked items. (Don't forget to delete/void the test invoice(s) that are generated.)
2. In Xero click Accounts > Inventory > Export > CSV. Edit the CSV file in your favourite spreadsheet program, adding the accounts you want to use in the "InventoryAssetAccount" and "CostOfGoodsSoldAccount" columns - this will enable inventory tracking for the item. Re-import the edited CSV in Xero. (Xero will update the existing items, not duplicate them.)
3. Finally, in Xero: Accounts > Inventory > Import > Opening Balances, follow the instructions to set your inventory opening balances.

Please also be aware of some important general notes about Tracked Inventory in Xero that are particularly relevant to the integration:

1. Xero's Tracked Inventory does not allow negative stock-on-hand. I.e. it is not possible to approve an invoice that would reduce the stock held of an item below zero. In such a case the integration will still create the invoice but won't (if applicable) be able to approve (and add a payment) automatically. You will be notified by email if this happens.
2. Xero updates Item quantity and value on hand when a transaction is approved, not as at the transaction date. Therefore it is quite important to keep the integration "live" by resolving any configuration requirements promptly.

The integration can create items/products in your Accounting App "on-the-fly" as orders with those items are imported (excluding FreshBooks integrations for which this option is not currently available).

The integration cannot import items/products from your Accounting App into your store.

The integration cannot sync inventory levels between your store and Accounting App, however inventory levels in your Accounting App will be reduced accordingly as orders are imported. Depending on your set-up and requirements it may be feasible to maintain satisfactory inventory synchronisation with a manageable level of manual input. Two possibilities are as follows:

1. If your items do not fall out-of-stock frequently... Do not track inventory in your online store (or alternatively set artificially high stock levels without displaying stock to customers). Monitor your Accounting App for items falling out of stock and manually disable them in your online store until they come back into stock. There is a risk that customers will order out-of-stock items and this would need to be managed (e.g. with a disclaimer about availability on your website).
2. If items frequently fall out-of-stock / accuracy of stock status as displayed on your website is essential... Providing all of your sales are processed through your online store (the orders may come from other channels, e.g. eBay, but must be process through the online store that is being integrated, as the central stock database), it may be feasible to simply add stock both in your Accounting App (as a purchase) and in your online store. This obviously involves a duplicity of work, but the additional time should be small with some web browser multi-tasking, copying/pasting providing both updates are performed at the same time.

The integration does not set the invoice number in your accounting system because of complications resulting from unavailable invoice numbers. Your accounting system will automatically increment invoice numbers (add 1 to the last invoice number created) for new invoices and if using external order numbers this could result in conflicts where for example, you are creating invoices from other channels or enetering some manually (and you accidentally forget to manually change the auto-incremented invoice number).

The order number is however added as the invoice reference and this is usually highly visible in accounting systems.

However, if you believe there is a compelling reason why the invoice numbers need to be set by the integration, please get in touch.

Most Accounting Apps have a PayPal feed that automatically accounts for payment fees. However, if it does not, or you would prefer to use CarryTheOne's automatic payment receipt feature instead (see "My Accounting App does not have a feed for my payment provider, how do I account for fees, etc?"), you can obtain a summary of fees in your PayPal account: History > Reports > Monthly financial summary; select your desired period and click 'View Report'. You will see a summary of fees under the 'Fees' section of the report.

In your Control Panel, click "options" and select "Pause". When you are ready, you can resume the integration in the same way.

In your Control Panel, click "options" and select "Remove". If you no longer wish to use the service, please be sure to read the next section which explains how to cancel your subscription so that you are not charged / continue to be charged.

You can cancel your subscription / free trial at any time from the 'My pre-approved payments' section of your PayPal account (in PayPal: Profile > My Money > My pre-approved payments).

If you are paying directly by credit/debit card and you do not have a PayPal account, please send us a quick message and we will process the cancellation for you. Please mention in your message that you are paying directly by credit/debit card. (In the unlikely event that a scheduled subscription payment is collected between the time you make the request and the time we process the cancellation, this payment will of course be refunded to you in full.)