Tradify to Xero Connector: two systems, one version of the truth
Two systems holding different versions of the same job is not a data problem. It is an argument with a customer, waiting to happen.
Job management
Accounting
What it actually does
A small stateless service sits between two platforms, owns the field mapping in both directions, and reconciles them on a schedule so neither drifts.
ServiceM8, simPRO, Tradify, AroFlo and Fergus joined to accounting, messaging and the rest of your stack. In practice, Tradify to Xero Connector is the version of that we deploy when a business needs the result rather than a project. Built by us against both platforms' public APIs, with job-to-invoice mapping agreed up front.
Why businesses ask for this
Australian trades already run a job management system and an accounting system. The money leaks in the gap between them, and so does the time.
The people who get the most out of it: smaller trades running Tradify who are outgrowing manual invoicing.
- Job to invoice without re-keying anything
- Customers messaged from the job record, in your business name
- Timesheets, materials and margins that reconcile
How we build it, step by step
The sequence below is the one we follow on every system connector build. It is deliberately boring, because the interesting version is the one that breaks in month three.
- Agree the field mapping in a table both sides sign off on
- Build against a sandbox or a copy, never against live data first
- Respect the rate limits and back off rather than hammer
- Reconcile nightly and report anything that did not match
What we change before it goes live
A reference implementation is a starting line, not a product. Every one we deploy gets the same treatment:
- Your numbers, your sender identity and your wording, so nothing reads as generic
- Secrets moved out of the code and into managed configuration
- Retries, rate limits and idempotency, so a hiccup never sends twice
- Structured logging and alerting, so a failure is noticed by us and not by a customer
- Consent, opt-out and record-keeping built in rather than bolted on
- Source control, a staging environment and a rollback that takes a minute
Compliance and risk
Every one of these platforms has its own rate limits, field quirks and sync gotchas. We build against the API, test on a sandbox or a copy, and never let a sync run unattended without alerting.
The technical foundation
Your job management platform's API, your accounting platform's API, and a small stateless service we run and monitor between them.
What it costs
Three ways to buy this, and the honest recommendation is usually the middle one:
- Starter build, from $2,500 — we build it, hand it over and warrant it for 30 days. Suits a business with someone technical in-house.
- Managed, from $390/mo — we build it and then own it: monitoring, changes, compliance upkeep and a monthly report. Suits everyone else.
- Platform, from $2,400/mo — when this is one of several systems and you want them designed as one layer instead of five.
Platform usage is billed at cost on top and itemised on the invoice. There is no margin on it and no minimum spend.
Common questions
How long does Tradify to Xero Connector take to build?
One to two weeks. Most of the variance is not the code, it is how quickly we can get sandbox credentials and an agreed field mapping out of both vendors.
What does it cost to run each month?
Two lines: our managed plan from from $390/mo, and platform usage billed at cost. Usage for this kind of system usually lands between $30 and $300 a month depending on volume. You see both itemised, and the platform account stays in your name.
Do we own it, or are we locked in?
You own it. The account, the numbers, the phone history and the source code are yours, and the foundation is open source. If you take it in-house, we hand over the repository and the runbook and that is the end of the conversation.
What if it breaks at 6pm on a Friday?
It is monitored. Failures raise an alert, the system degrades to something safe rather than silent, and hello@betr.agency is the inbox that answers. That is what the managed plan buys.
Can it work with the systems we already use?
Usually yes. Your job management platform's API, your accounting platform's API, and a small stateless service we run and monitor between them. Where a system has no API, we look at whether an export, a shared inbox or a scheduled sync gets you 90 percent of the value for 10 percent of the cost.
Where to next
The product page for this build lists the specification, the timeline and what is included: Tradify to Xero Connector. If you want to talk it through against your actual process, a scoping call is 30 minutes and costs nothing.