Getting started

From connecting Xero to your first invoice with sections: about ten minutes.

1. Connect your Xero organisation

Click Connect an organisation and sign in to Xero. Choose one organisation and confirm. You connect one organisation at a time; to add another, use Connect another organisation on the Organisations page of your dashboard. Your password goes only to Xero. We never see it.

Xero remembers the last login you used. If it skips straight to the wrong one, use Connect with a different Xero login: Xero then asks you to sign in again. Each Xero login has its own SectionTotal account.

When you connect, we add an item called SUBTOTAL to your Xero items (price £0, no tax), unless you already have one. You can use it for subtotal lines, or simply type "Subtotal" as the description. The free trial for that organisation starts the first time you connect it: 30 days, no card.

2. Create the SectionTotal branding theme (once)

In Xero, go to Settings → Invoice settings → New branding theme → Standard, and name it SectionTotal. The new theme starts without a logo: click Upload logo on it, because our PDF uses this theme's logo. Xero does not let apps create themes, so this one step is yours.

Only invoices with a theme whose name starts with "SectionTotal" are processed. Everything else is left alone.

3. Write an invoice with sections

• A section heading is a line with only a description, such as Room 104: kitchen.
• The lines of that section follow as usual.
• A line whose description is just Subtotal, with no quantity or price, ends the section, and we calculate the amount from the lines above it. With the SUBTOTAL item instead, you can write your own label, such as Kitchen total.

4. Approve with the SectionTotal theme

Pick the SectionTotal branding theme and click Approve, not "Approve & email": that would make Xero send its own version, and we leave invoices that are already sent alone.

Usually within a few minutes we email the PDF to the contact's email address in Xero, attach the same PDF to the invoice and mark it sent. The email shows your organisation's name, and replies go to the person who connected the organisation.

If the contact has no email address, we don't send anything and the invoice stays unsent in Xero. Your SectionTotal overview lists it. Add the email to the contact, then open the invoice in Xero and click Edit, then Update, and we send it.

A VAT invoice must show your client's name and address. Add the address to the contact in Xero, and the PDF shows it.