Book your payouts in Xero

This guide is for merchants, installers and their accountants who use Xero UK. Each month, Installer.com gives you import files with your invoices. You import them, mark them as paid, and match the payouts in your bank.

You are	You do
A merchant	All sections of this guide.
An installer	The two setup sections, and steps 1, 2, 4 and 5 of Book a month. You get only the sales invoices file.
An accountant	Read For your accountant before the first import.

The monthly files

File	Holds	For
Xero Sales Invoices (CSV)	The invoices and credit notes that you issued in the month	Merchants and installers
Xero Supplier Invoices (CSV)	The invoices and credit notes that installers issued to you in the month, and the monthly transaction fee invoice from Installer.com	Merchants

Each file holds the documents of one month, by their issue date. A document is in one month only. Invoices and credit notes do not change after they are issued.

The files for a month show in Wallet → Payout overview, in the Monthly Statement menu of that month. They show when the month has ended and the bank has booked all payouts that Installer.com sent in that month. This is usually on the 1st of the next month. From then, the transaction fee invoice normally does not change.

You mark all documents as paid through one clearing account, INSTCLR. Each payout goes from your bank to INSTCLR through a bank rule.

Set up Xero once

Go to Accounting → Chart of accounts and select Add Account.
Set Account Type to Current Asset.
Set Code to INSTCLR, Name to Installer.com clearing and Tax to No VAT.
Tick Enable payments to this account, and save the account.
Go to Accounting → Bank rules and create a Receive money rule.
Set the rule to Any text field contains INST-PO.
Set the contact to Installer.com, the account to INSTCLR and the tax to No VAT. If the contact does not exist, create it from the rule.

Do not make INSTCLR a bank account. You must be able to mark invoices as paid through it.

Set up Installer.com once

Go to Wallet → Settings and find the Accounting card.
Set Accounting system to Xero and select Save.
Account codes opens. If your account codes are different from the defaults below, enter your codes.
Choose the Transaction fee tax rate with your accountant. Then select Save. The Xero files show only after you choose it.

Xero is available for organisations that operate in the UK. If you do not see it, contact support. To change the account codes later, select Edit next to Xero on the Accounting card.

Field	Default account	Tax rate	Used for
Customer sales account	200	The VAT rate of each line	Your invoices to customers
Installation sales account	200	The VAT rate of each line	Your invoices to merchants, as an installer
Installer costs account	310	The VAT rate of each line	Invoices from installers
Transaction fees account	404	Your choice: Exempt Expenses or No VAT	The transaction fee invoice from Installer.com

For your accountant

Make these decisions before the first import. Installer.com is the payment and invoicing platform. Your accountant decides how you book and report VAT.

Account codes. The defaults follow the standard chart of accounts in Xero UK. They are suggestions.
The transaction fee invoice. It charges no VAT and states reverse charge. You choose its Transaction fee tax rate in Account codes: Exempt Expenses or No VAT. Installer.com does not decide your VAT treatment. For any other treatment, change the tax rate on the draft INST-TFI- bill before you approve it.
Construction services. Installer.com invoices use the VAT rate of each line. They do not support the domestic reverse charge for construction services, or CIS. If these apply to you, contact support before your first import.
Installer invoices. The platform issues each installer invoice automatically, from the installer to the merchant. Installers do not send their own invoice for the same work.
Invoice dates. Each invoice has its issue date, the same date as on its PDF. Your VAT return uses that date.
The fee invoice date. Its PDF has the date of the 1st of the next month. In Xero, its date is the last day of the month that it charges for, so the fees fall in the month when they were taken. Your accountant decides if this date is correct for you.
The month. Installer.com uses UTC for the month. An invoice issued between 00:00 and 01:00 UK summer time on the 1st is in the previous month.
Payment dates. Deposits and payments use the last day of the month. If you use the VAT cash accounting scheme, your accountant decides the date.
Currency. The files use your payout currency. Import them into a Xero organisation with that base currency.
Payments outside Installer.com. Installer.com invoices only the payments that it collects. Book a payment that a customer made on site as you do today.

Before your first month

Start with a month that you did not book by hand.
Book each document one time. The invoices and the fee invoice are also available as PDF files, and Installer.com emails you a statement for each payout. Keep these files as records, but do not enter them in Xero.
If a tool reads your email and sends bills to Xero, make sure that it does not send the payout statements to Xero.

Book a month

In each step, use the last day of the month as the date for deposits, refunds and payments.

Xero shows 25 rows on each page. Before you select documents, set the number of items on each page to 100 at the bottom of the list.

1. Import the sales invoices and mark them as paid

Download Xero Sales Invoices (CSV).
In Xero, go to Sales → Invoices → Import.
Choose the file and select Tax Exclusive.
If a customer already exists in Xero with a different name, change the name in Xero to the name in the file. Then complete the import.
Select all the imported drafts and select Approve.

Do not use Approve & email or Email. Your customers paid these invoices through Installer.com and already have them.

On the Awaiting Payment tab, select Search and enter INST-.
Select up to 50 invoices and select Deposit. Xero accepts a maximum of 50 invoices for each deposit.
Set the account to INSTCLR and the reference to the month, for example Installer.com 2026-07. Then save the deposit.
Do steps 6 to 8 again until only credit notes stay in the list. You settle the credit notes in step 2.

If Xero shows It looks like there’s a tax adjustment on this invoice, do not change the invoice. The VAT is the same as on the PDF.

2. Settle the sales credit notes

Xero does not include credit notes in a deposit. Settle each credit note:

Open the credit note.
Select Add cash refund.
Set the account to INSTCLR, and save.

No money goes out of your bank. Installer.com took the refund from your payout.

3. Import the supplier invoices and mark them as paid

This step is for merchants. Xero calls a supplier invoice a bill. Installer.com already paid these invoices from your payouts. In Xero, you only record that payment.

Download Xero Supplier Invoices (CSV).
In Xero, go to Purchases → Bills and search for the first invoice number in the file.
If a bill with exactly that number exists, the file is already in Xero. Stop here. Xero does not stop a second import of a bills file.
Go to Purchases → Bills → Import.
Choose the file and select Tax exclusive.
If an installer already exists in Xero with a different name, change the name in Xero to the name in the file. Then complete the import.
Select all the imported drafts and select Approve.

If the file has a credit note from an installer, settle it before you pay:

Open the next unpaid bill from that installer.
Select Credit this bill, enter the credit amount and select Allocate Credit.
If that installer has no unpaid bill, open the credit note. Select Add Refund and set the account to INSTCLR.

Then mark the bills as paid:

On the Awaiting payment tab, search for INST-.
Select up to 50 bills and select Make payment.
Select Continue with manual payment.
Set Pay from to Installer.com clearing and Payment method to Mark as paid.
Set the date and select Create payment.
Do steps 11 to 15 again until no INST- bills stay in the list.

The transaction fee invoice is one of these bills. Its number starts with INST-TFI-. If its total is negative, Xero imports it as a credit note. Settle it as in step 10. It also holds the fee of a payment that was refunded in full before it was invoiced. Installer.com keeps that fee, so the payout is lower by the fee. The fee bill books this difference.

Do not enter these invoices again by hand or from email. If you do, Xero records the cost and the VAT two times.

4. Reconcile the bank

Each payout comes to your bank from Adyen, with its payout reference, for example INST-PO-ABC-12. A payout of 0.00 or less sends no money.

In Xero, open Reconcile for your bank account.
For each payout line, Xero suggests the bank rule. Select OK.

5. Close the month

Run Reports → Account Transactions for INSTCLR.
Make sure that the table below explains the balance.
Check the balance when you book the next month. Download the Monthly Statement (CSV) of the next month.
Take the rows that have an InvoiceDate in this month. Add up their NetPayoutContributionIncVat and TransactionFee.
Add the payouts of this month that your bank received in the next month.
Take off the Balance carried forward on the Monthly Statement PDF of this month, if there is one. This is a deficit.
Make sure that the result is equal to the balance of INSTCLR at the end of this month.

If your statement CSV has no InvoiceDate column, do only steps 5 to 7.

Balance of `INSTCLR`	Cause
0.00	The month is booked.
A debit	Money of this month that your bank receives in the next month: invoices from the last days of the month, and payouts that reach your bank after the month ends.
A credit	A payout ended with a deficit. The next payout takes the deficit off.

When the balance is not explained

A payout can include money that has no invoice of your own. This is rare:

An invoice that another company issued, on an order with more than one merchant.
An installer that Installer.com paid without an invoice.

Find the payout in the Monthly Statement PDF. The statement shows each amount and its order. Book the amount by hand to the correct account.

When the files do not show

If a payout of the month is still in progress, the files show after the bank books it. If the files do not show after a few days, contact support.

When an import fails

Xero says	Do this
An account code does not exist	Create the account in Xero, or enter your code in Account codes.
A tax rate does not exist	The files use the tax rate names of Xero UK. Contact support to set your tax codes.
The file is too large	Copy some invoices to a second file, and import the two files. Keep all lines of an invoice in the same file.
An invoice number already exists	The invoice is already in Xero. Do not import that file again.