Evolution reads payments back from Xero overnight, so an invoice paid in Xero shows as paid here the next morning without anyone doing anything. Where that has not happened — an old invoice, a payment entered well after the fact, a night the sync could not reach your Xero organisation — the Sync from Xero button on Invoice Entry goes and gets it, for that one invoice, straight away. The same press also brings in any credit note Xero has applied to the invoice. Supplier bills have the same button for credit notes.
Why a Payment Goes Missing
The overnight sync is built for volume, so it only looks at the invoices most likely to have moved: recent ones, still carrying a balance. That keeps it fast, but it leaves a few gaps:
- The invoice is old. The nightly project works within a rolling window of recent invoices. A payment that lands against an invoice older than that window is never looked for.
- The invoice already looked settled here. The project concentrates on invoices with an outstanding balance, so a later adjustment in Xero against an invoice Evolution already considered closed can be passed over.
- The sync could not reach Xero that night. If the Xero authorisation had lapsed, or Xero was unavailable, that night’s run is simply skipped — and the next run picks up from where it left off rather than going back over the gap.
The button avoids all of that by asking Xero a much narrower question: “show me every payment you hold against this one invoice” — with no date limit at all. Anything Evolution does not already have is brought across.
Where to Find It
Open the invoice in Invoice Entry and find the Payments panel. The Sync from Xero button sits in the panel heading, next to the + used to enter a payment by hand.
On a supplier bill, the button is in the same place: the Payments heading in Bill Entry. On a bill it checks credit notes only; supplier payments still come across with the overnight sync.
Press it once. Evolution contacts Xero and reports back underneath the heading; the whole thing normally takes a couple of seconds.
What You Will See
Nothing was missing
The usual answer, and a good one — Evolution and Xero already agree on this invoice. The message tells you how many payments and credit notes Xero holds against it, so you can see the check really happened.
Payments were brought across
Evolution tells you how many payments it applied and what they came to, then reloads the invoice so the payment list, the balance and the paid status are all up to date in front of you.
When a credit note comes across too, the message says so, and a blue box underneath lists each change, for example Imported Xero CN-95349 as Evolution credit note 412 and Applied $8.86 of Xero CN-95349 to invoice 40561. Anything that needs checking is listed in a yellow box, and the invoice is flagged for review (see When Evolution asks you to check).
Payments brought in this way are recorded exactly as the overnight sync records them: posted to the bank account that matches the Xero account the money went into, committed to the ledger, and marked in the payment list so you can tell where they came from.
Something stopped it
If Evolution cannot reach Xero, or the invoice is not in a state it can check, it says so in red and does nothing else. Nothing is part-applied — either the payment comes across in full or the invoice is left exactly as it was.
Payments Deleted in Xero
The check runs both ways. If a payment was entered in Xero, came across to Evolution, and has since been deleted in Xero, pressing the button reverses it here too — the payment is backed out, the ledger entry is reversed and the invoice goes back to owing the money.
That is the point of the button: after you press it, this invoice reads the same in both systems.
Credit Notes from Xero
Applying a credit note to an invoice in Xero is not a payment, so the payment sync alone would never see it. Every time the sync runs, it also reads the credit notes that changed in Xero and brings them across for both customer invoices and supplier bills:
- A credit note raised in Xero is created in Evolution, committed to the ledger, and applied to the same invoice or bill it was applied to in Xero. Its number is the Xero number, and its history notes that it came from Xero.
- A credit note applied in Xero is applied here too, including one that was first raised in Evolution and sent to Xero.
- An application removed in Xero is removed here, and the invoice or bill goes back to owing that amount.
- A credit note voided in Xero is reversed and deleted here, with its applications removed.
Credit notes brought across this way are recorded exactly like the ones you raise in Evolution. Nothing is sent back to Xero, because it is already there.
Credit used in Xero on something Evolution does not have
In Xero, one credit note can be split across several invoices or bills, and some of them may never have been in Evolution. Part of the credit may also have been refunded in Xero. Evolution applies the parts it can to its own invoices or bills. Each other part is listed on the credit note’s Allocations tab as a Xero only line saying where it went, for example Applied in Xero to INV-40561, not in Evolution, or Refunded in Xero. That way the remaining credit in Evolution is the same as in Xero.
- A Xero only line does not change any invoice or bill in Evolution.
- It can only be removed in Xero. Once it is, the next sync removes it here and the credit is available again.
- The whole credit note is posted to the ledger as usual, but the Xero only part reduces no Evolution invoice or bill. So the Accounts Receivable (or Payable) account in Evolution will be lower than the total owing on Evolution's open invoices (or bills) by that amount.
A credit note in Xero that is not applied to any Evolution invoice or bill is not brought across, because there is nothing in Evolution for it to credit.
This financial year only
The overnight sync only brings across credit notes dated in the current financial year. The year end comes from your company preferences. If an older credit note in Xero credits an Evolution invoice or bill, that invoice or bill is flagged for review. To bring the credit note in, press Sync from Xero on that invoice or bill (see Bringing In an Older Credit Note).
When Evolution asks you to check
A change is only brought across when it fits the figures in Evolution. If it does not, Evolution changes nothing for that credit note and flags the invoice, bill or credit note for review, with the reason in its review note. The usual reasons are:
- The invoice is already credited or paid here. Xero applies more than the balance Evolution shows, which usually means the same credit was entered in both systems. Check that you do not have it twice.
- The credit note was voided in Xero but has been used in Evolution. It is applied here to something Xero does not know about, so it cannot simply be removed.
- The credit note was deleted in Evolution but is still live in Xero. The invoice it credits in Xero is flagged.
- Its lines cannot be matched. A line whose tax matches no Evolution tax rate (the review note shows the line's amount and tax), or a total that does not come out the same.
- A Xero account code Evolution does not have. No Evolution account carries the account code used on a line in Xero. Open the account in the Chart of Accounts and enter the Xero code as its External Reference, then clear the flag. The credit note comes across on the next sync.
- The remaining credit would not match Xero. After applying everything, Evolution would have a different amount of the credit left than Xero shows.
Fix the difference in whichever system is wrong and clear the flag. If the fix is in Xero, the corrected credit note comes across on the next sync.
Bringing In an Older Credit Note
Press Sync from Xero on the invoice or bill. Evolution asks Xero for every credit note applied to that one document, whatever its date, and brings across any it does not already have. Each one is checked exactly like the overnight sync checks it:
- The credit note is created in Evolution with its Xero date and number, committed to the ledger and applied to the invoice or bill.
- Credit used in Xero on something Evolution does not have is listed as a Xero only line, as above.
- If it does not fit the figures in Evolution, nothing is changed and the reason goes on the review note.
Once the credit note is applied, the “before this financial year” reason is taken off the invoice or bill’s review note. If that was the only reason, the review flag is cleared too.
When the Button Is Not There
| What you see | Why |
|---|---|
| No sync button at all | Xero is not switched on for your company, or you do not have Accounts Receivable access (Accounts Payable for a bill). See Settings → Company Setup. |
| No sync button on this invoice or bill | It has not been committed, or has not been sent to Xero yet, so there is nothing over there to check against. Commit it and send it first. |
| “Commit this invoice before syncing payments from Xero.” | The invoice is still a draft here. A payment has to be applied against a committed invoice, so commit it and press the button again. |
| “Could not connect to Xero.” | The Xero authorisation has expired or been revoked. An administrator needs to reconnect on Settings → Company Setup. This is the same thing that stops the overnight sync. |
| “…sent to a Xero organisation that is no longer connected.” | This invoice lives in a Xero organisation that has since been disconnected. Reconnect that organisation to check it. |
Checking a Payment Against Xero
Click any payment amount on a customer or supplier’s History tab to open Payment Distribution Detail. It lists every line the payment was split across, and now shows the Account each line belongs to, with a Xero column that opens the matching record in Xero in a new tab:
- Payment — the payment itself, as Xero holds it.
- Invoice (or Bill) — the document the line was paid against, so you can see which contact Xero has it under.
A line shows -- in the Xero column when Evolution holds no Xero reference for it — typically a payment entered in Evolution, or one sent to Xero before references were being recorded.
Batch payments
When a single bank deposit is matched to several invoices in Xero, Xero records it as one batch payment, and Evolution keeps those lines together under one payment. A batch can cover invoices for different customers — Xero allows this, for example when one deposit is reconciled against several invoices at once. When that happens, a banner at the top of the page names each account and its share of the total, so you can see at a glance who the money was applied to.
Each account’s History tab only ever shows that account’s own share of a batch. Payment Distribution Detail is where you see the whole batch.
Common Questions
Do I need to press this on every invoice?
No. The overnight sync still does the work for you. This is for the invoice in front of you that you know has been paid in Xero and does not show it here.
Will it change anything in Xero?
No. It only reads. Nothing is created, changed or deleted in Xero by pressing it.
Does it check the whole invoice or just new payments?
The whole invoice, every time, with no date limit. That is deliberate — the payments the overnight sync misses are usually the old ones.
Can I use it on a supplier bill?
Yes, for credit notes. On a bill, the button brings in any credit note Xero has applied to it. Supplier payments are still brought across by the overnight sync.
It said “nothing missing” but I can see the payment in Xero.
Check that the payment in Xero is allocated to this invoice and is not still sitting unreconciled in the bank feed. Evolution asks Xero for the payments against this invoice specifically — a receipt that has not been matched to the invoice in Xero yet will not be found.
Is there a record of it?
Yes. Anything the button applies, reverses or flags is written to the invoice or bill’s history, with who pressed it and what changed. A credit note it brings in also records on its own history that it came from Xero.
Related Pages
- Xero Integration — connecting Evolution to Xero and mapping branches to organisations.
- Control Accounts & Tax Accounts — the bank and control accounts payments post to.
- Credit Notes (AR & AP) — the other way an invoice balance is reduced.
- Credit Limits & Stop Credit — what an out-of-date balance affects.