Create Xero Bill from MemberPress “Offline Payment” using Zapier

If you are using the WordPress plugin MemberPress to handle your subscriptions and one of the payment gateways is “Offline Payment” and you use Xero as your accounting software automatically creating a Bill in Xero is a REAL time saver.

This cannot be done within MemberPress, it needs the assistance of Zapier, an online service that automatically connects apps together.  So when a member signs up in MemberPress it triggers a “Zap” that uses data from the member in MemberPress to create a Bill in Xero.

Pre-requisite: To use Zapier with MemberPress you must have the MemberPress Plus or Pro plan as it is part of their Development tools.

Step 1. Sign up to Zapier

You can sign up to Zapier for Free with a 14-day full trial. After that timeframe you will need to Upgrade to a paid plan to work with Xero as it is classified as one of their “Premium” platforms. Zapier plans start at US$25/month or US$240/year if paid upfront.

Step 2: Login to Xero

Log in to your Xero account as you will need access to it if this is the first time using Xero in Zapier.

Step 3: Create a Zap

1. Log in to Zapier and click Make a Zap!
2. On the “Choose a Trigger App” page click on Webhooks.
   
3. On the ‘Select Webhooks by Zapier Trigger’ page choose Catch Hook. Then click Save + Continue.
   
4. On the left of the screen under “Catch Hook”, click on Set Up Webhook. A webhook is how MemberPress and Zapier will communicate. Click Copy to clipboard to save the URL to the clipboard.
   
5. On the WordPress admin page for your website go to MemberPress > Developer > Webhooks. Paste the contents of the clipboard into the Webhook URL text field, or if you already have a Webhook click on the + button and paste it into the new text field.
   
6. Click on the Advanced link to show all the events.
7. By default the All Events checkbox is selected/ticked. You don’t want to trigger the event for all events so click on All Events to unselect it, then click on Member Signup Completed checkbox so that the zap is triggered only when a new member completes the signup and payment is accepted.
   
8. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Save Webhooks.
9. To send a test sample from MemberPress to Zapier go to MemberPress > Developer > Events and select the event Member Signup Completed. Click Send Test. (This test data will be used shortly within Zapier.)
   
10. If the test was successful a message will be shown to the right of the Send Test button.
    
11. In Zapier click Continue three times, or until you get to the “Pick a Sample to Set Up Your Zap” page.
12. As we already sent test data from MemberPress click on OK, I did this.
13. This will attempt to access those samples. If all went well the data will then be loaded and can be viewed by clicking on the down arrow next to the sample.  Click Continue.
    
14. If you have multiple payment options a filter needs to be added so that only “Offline Payment’s” are processed. If there is only “Offline Payments” skip to step 19. On the left of the screen click on the + symbol after the “Catch Hook”. Click Filter.
15. On the “Select Filter” page there is only the “Only continue if” option so no change is required. Click Save + Continue.
16. On the “Filter Setup & Testing” page set up the filter for “Offline Payments”, The first box is the value from the Catch Hook setup earlier. For the third box go to WordPress admin site then MemberPress > Options > Payments and  copy the ID of the offline payment. (It will be something like xxxxxx-xxx.)
    • First box: [Data Recent Transactions]
    • Second box: Text (Contains)
    • Third box: gateway: ** MemberPress Gateway ID goes here **
17. Click Test & Continue. There may not be a match as the test data may have a different payment type. To enforce a match create a new subscription with an “Offline Payment” and go back to “Pull in Samples” from “Catch Hook” action to try again.
18. Click Continue.
19. On the “Choose an Action App” search for “Xero”, or if Xero used previously it should be on the dashboard already.
20. On the “Select Xero Action” page select Create Bill. Click Save + Continue.
21. Select Xero account, or if this is the first time using Xero in Zapier click Connect an Account and follow the prompts. When ready click Continue.
22. The “Set up Xero Bill” page is where you set how fields from MemberPress can be exported to Xero. Clicking on the icon on the right of each text field will show all the options from the Catch Hook that were loaded earlier. This is customised to your requirements but I used
    • Contact Name: [Data First Name] [Data Last Name]
    • Email Address: [Data Email]
    • Status: Approved
    • Due Date: [Data Registered At]
    • Line Description: **Manually type in your line item. Eg. Membership**
    • Line Quantity: 1
    • Line Unit Price: **Manually enter unit price**
    • Line Account Code: **Your Xero account**
    • Line Tax Type: **Your Tax Type**
23. Click Continue.
24. The next page allows for the Zap to be tested. This is optional but recommended to make sure it works as expected. Click Send Test to Xero.
25. If happy with how it tested click on Finish.
26. As a final step give the Zap a name like “Create Xero Bill from Offline Payment in MemberPress”.
27. If you are ready to turn it on and for all new membership signups to seamlessly be copied from MemberPress to Xero click on the OFF switch to turn the Zap “ON”.

Once the Zap is turned on Zapier will poll for any new membership subscriptions every 5 – 15 minutes, depending on the plan you sign up to.

So with just a little bit of a setup one of those boring tasks can be automated saving you time and ensuring data accuracy.