Dx5 + Xero: Preparing for Integration

Preparing your DISTILL x 5 System

Before you take steps to connect DISTILL x 5 with Xero, it’s important to review your Dx5 system’s inventory and costing information for accuracy. This helps to ensure the accuracy and relevance of the financial data that will be sent to your Xero account. Use the following checklist to ensure your Dx5 system is ready to integrate with Xero:

• Batch Costing has been enabled and utilized in your system (Admin > System Settings > Change Settings).
  
• All Bulk and Barreled Spirits (everything from Mash/Cook to Bulk Processing, and everything in between) has a batch cost. The easiest way to check this is by running a current inventory report under Inventory > Reports > Generate Current Report.
  
• All Finished Products and/or Value Added Products have Attached Supplies and have an accurate Total Inventory Value.
• All Raw Materials and Supplies have at least one Default Supplier and have an accurate Total Inventory Value.
• Recipes, if applicable, exist under Operations > Setup for ease of raw material application.
• All Contacts (Customers, Suppliers, and In-Bond Recipients) are unique – no duplicate contacts may exist when mapping to Xero. For more information on how contact mapping works, see Preparing Contacts below.
• No single Finished Product contains more than one of the same size (i.e. a Gin can only have one 750mL, one 375mL, one 50mL, and so on).
• Fulfillment Orders and Purchase Orders are actively being utilized (or you plan to once integrated).

Preparing Accounts

Dx5 requires specifically designated destination accounts in Xero to properly track financial data. Users may choose to link to existing Xero accounts or to create new accounts during the integration process. Account linking is based on the Xero account ID; renaming or otherwise adjusting accounts in Xero will not affect the integration, though account types may not be changed once transactions have been recorded. Deleting a required account will result in integration errors until a new destination account is linked.

While users are welcome to use any accounts of the specified category and type for the Dx5 + Xero integration, for ease of tracking it is highly recommended that new accounts are created specifically for the integration to allow for easy identification of integration transactions and reconciliation.

Note: Throughout this document, accounts will be referred to by their description (i.e. Ingredients, Supplies, WIP Losses)

Preparing Contacts

The integration creates a one-to-one contact link to Xero for any Dx5 customers, suppliers, and/or in-bond recipients. As Xero contacts may be both a customer and a vendor, users may link both a customer/in-bond recipient and supplier to a single Xero contact, but a Dx5 contact may not be linked to more than one Xero contact.

If a contact exists in Dx5, but not Xero, users may create a new Xero contact through the integration process. If a contact exists in Xero but not in Dx5, Fx5 recommends adding that contact to Dx5 before integrating.

Preparing Inventory

Users should have previously enabled Batch Costing and therefore should have inventory unit costs and batch costs prior to initiating integration. Requirements:

• All inventory items on hand (quantity > 0) should have average unit costs set prior to integration. While possible to set average unit cost at time of integration, Fx5 recommends ensuring accuracy of costing prior to integration.
• All WIP (active bulk and barreled batches) should have batch costs. If not set, batch costs may be adjusted via Batch Actions > Edit.
• Before initiating integration, a Dx5 inventory report can be generated to provide opening balance information for inventory integration.