Establish a connection between Dext, ApprovalMax and Xero

How to establish a connection between Dext, ApprovalMax and Xero

Overview
Integrating Dext with your ApprovalMax Bill workflow enables Dext to push cost items directly to ApprovalMax. ApprovalMax will then run the predefined Bill approval workflow for such Bills and, after their final approval, push them to Xero in the status Awaiting Payment. 

NotesPlease note: If you also need to push your Credit Notes from Dext to Xero, you can set the Dext-Xero connection as the primary one and the Dext-ApprovalMax for Xero as an additional connection.
Prepare ApprovalMax for the connection to Dext
For this connection, you must either have an active ApprovalMax subscription, or start a new trial Organisation.
You can use your existing Xero Organisation, or connect a new Organisation to Xero.
Prepare Dext for the connection to ApprovalMax - Option 1
Connect your Dext account to your ApprovalMax Organisation. 

  1. In Dext, go to Business Settings > Connections > Accounting software and click on Connect:
      

  1. Find ApprovalMax for Xero and click on Connect:
          

  1. Log in to your ApprovalMax account, if not yet done, then click on Connect software:
         

  1. Select a valid Organisation with an active Xero connection and click on ALLOW ACCESS:
            
Once the connection has been established, all relevant Xero information will be synced to your Dext account so that you can select the respective values in the drop-down fields. 

Here's a quick video overview of setup option 1:
Prepare Dext for the connection to ApprovalMax - Option 2
  1. In ApprovalMax, go to your Organisation in the left-hand menu and open Organisation settings and connections under Workflows and settings. There, click on CONNECT next to the Dext Prepare logo:
               
  1. Sign in to your Dext account:
              
  1. Find ApprovalMax for Xero and click on Connect:
             

  1. In the pop-up window, click on Connect software:
    
 
  1. Select a valid Organisation with an active Xero connection and click on ALLOW ACCESS:

  1. To complete the setup in Dext, click on Finish:
        
Once the connection has been established, all relevant Xero information will be synced to your Dext account so that you can select the respective values in the drop-down fields.

Here's a quick video overview of setup option 2:


 

Configure the default settings in Dext
In Dext, configure the default settings for this integration (including tax and publishing preferences):



NotesPlease note: We currently only support Expenses.
NotesImportant note: Please do not use GST on imports as a default tax rate because this is not supported by Dext and will lead to document pulling errors.
Define additional settings for documents captured with Dext
  1. Go to Business Profile, here you can set your preferred currency:
       

  1. Under Extraction >Tax, you can chose your tax extraction preferences:










Set up payment methods for documents to be published as Paid or Awaiting Payment
Whether documents are pushed to Xero in the status Awaiting Payment or Paid depends on the payment status of the cost item in Dext.

You should specify the available payment methods at this point:
  1. Go to Lists > Payment Methods and click on Add payment method:

  1. You can add a new payment method by providing a name and (optionally) a reference. Click on Add to save:
       

  1. Once a payment method has been entered, you can select the required Xero bank account from the drop-down list:
          
  1. Dext-ApprovalMax-Xero - Awaiting Payment: if you publish a transaction as Invoice, the Bill (after its final approval in ApprovalMax) will be created in the connected Xero Organisation as Awaiting Payment.

  2. Dext-ApprovalMax-Xero - Paid: if you flag a transaction as Paid and add a payment method (which is a reference to a valid bank account in the connected Xero Organisation), it works as follows:
    During this document's approval, it will be highlighted that this request has been published as Paid. So, after its final approval in ApprovalMax, the Bill in Xero will also be created as Paid. (Technically, it gets created as a Bill with the status Awaiting Payment. However, as the respective Payment is created simultaneously, the Bill moves on to the Paid status.)

  3. Dext Spend Money bank account transaction in Xero: if you select Bank Account as the publishing destination, you'll need to specify the payment method (which is a reference to a valid bank account in the connected Xero Organisation). Consequently, the approval workflow in ApprovalMax will be skipped, and the document gets published as a Spend Money bank account transaction directly to Xero.
The steps above are the minimal requirement for this setup and a prerequisite for enabling the publishing of documents from Dext to ApprovalMax.
Video Tutorial
You can also refer to this video for more information on how to set up the connection between Dext, ApprovalMax and Xero: