Connect Xero, DWT and the Customer Portal

Three connections are optional, and you only need the ones you use: Xero for your accounts, Digital Waste Tracking for DEFRA, and the portal for your customers' own view of their work. This page covers each, and explains why it comes after your first job.

Before you start

• Your first real job is done. See Run your first real job. Xero and DWT send records to systems you cannot take back, so they come after you have seen the basics work. Once Xero is connected, authorising an invoice offers to create it in Xero, ticked by default, and switched-on DWT automation submits completed jobs to DEFRA. A first job that was wrong could have gone with them.
• You are an organisation Owner. Connecting Xero, mapping, DWT codes and Settings are open to organisation Owners only. See Set up your organisation and team.
• For Xero: a login to the Xero organisation you invoice from, and your nominal codes and tax rates as you want them. See Set up tax rates, payment terms and nominal codes. The mapping tables list the ones you have, so a code you add later arrives unmapped.
• For DWT: an API code from DEFRA, and your suppliers and their disposal sites. See Add your suppliers and transport. Container types come from step 6. See Add your container types.
• For the portal: a Paperwork role with Create on Portal, and the customers or suppliers you want to invite. See Add your customers and sites. A Portal invitation sender from step 10 makes the invitations come from your domain.

Open Settings under Admin in the Paperwork sidebar. The Email, DWT codes, Portal and Integrations tabs save themselves and have no Save changes button.

Connect Xero

Open Settings, then the Integrations tab and the Xero card.

Connect to Xero

Click Connect to Xero. Your browser goes to Xero to sign in and approve access. If your login covers more than one Xero organisation, Paperwork asks Which Xero organisation?. Pick the one this workspace invoices from and click Use this organisation.

Check the card

You will see Xero connected. The card shows a Connected badge, the Xero organisation's name, and who connected it and when.

Choose which PDF customers receive

Under Documents, choose Send Paperwork's invoice PDF or Send Xero's invoice PDF, with the online payment link. It saves the moment you click, and you will see Documents setting saved. With Xero's PDF, an invoice cannot be sent until it is in Xero.

Map every nominal code and tax rate

This is where most Xero problems come from. Paperwork has to know which Xero account and tax type each of your nominal codes and tax rates matches. The Xero mappings section shows a badge reading N unmapped or All mapped.

Set the two defaults

Under Defaults, choose a Default sales account and a Tax type for zero-VAT lines. They are used when an invoice line has no nominal code or no tax rate. Without a default sales account, a line with no nominal code fails. Without a zero-VAT tax type, a line with no tax rate fails.

Map nominal codes and tax rates

In Nominal codes → Xero accounts, choose the matching account in Xero account for each Code. In Tax rates → Xero tax types, choose the matching tax type in Xero tax type for each Rate. Paperwork pre-fills what it is confident about and marks it Suggested. A suggestion is only a pre-fill, so check each one.

Save the mappings

Click Save mappings. You will see Xero mappings saved. Nothing is stored until you do.

Link your customers. When you authorise an invoice, a tick box, Also create this invoice in Xero, is ticked by default. If the customer is not linked to a Xero contact, the dialog offers Link now. Paperwork does not create a Xero contact automatically, but Link now lets you pick an existing one or create it from the customer's billing details. See Link a customer to a Xero contact.

If an invoice does not sync, the Accounting card on it tells you exactly what is missing. Fix the mapping or the default, click Save mappings, and click Retry on the invoice. See Xero integration.

Connect Digital Waste Tracking

Open Settings and the DWT codes tab. DWT needs three things: an API code, the code linked to the right suppliers, and every container type mapped to one of DEFRA's. Automatic submission also needs the switch below.

Add the API code

Click Add API code. Paste the code from DEFRA into API code and give it a Description. Both are required. Under Suppliers, tick every supplier this code applies to. Paperwork takes the supplier of a job's disposal site and looks for a code linked to it. Click Save and you will see API code saved.

Use Testing for a DEFRA test code

If you have a code for DEFRA's test service, switch on Testing (sandbox) code for it. Jobs sent with it go to the test environment, not real records. Only one code can be the Default code.

Map your container types

Click References under Admin and open Container Types. Edit each one and choose a DWT container type (optional), then Save. Despite the "(optional)" on the form, a container type with no mapping blocks DWT submission for any job that uses it: "Container type '…' is not mapped to DWT container".

Switch on automatic submission, if you want it

Back on DWT codes, switch on Automatically submit and update jobs in Digital Waste Tracking. You will see DWT automation enabled.

The cut-off. Automation never submits a job whose Waste received date is before the UK day you switched it on. A job received on that day, or later, is eligible once it is Completed, Ready to Invoice or Invoiced, and Paperwork then submits it to DEFRA on its own. That cannot be undone, so switch automation on the day after your first job's waste was received, or later. A job with no waste received date is never submitted automatically, and neither are imported or back-dated jobs from before the cut-off. A job Paperwork has already submitted keeps being updated whatever its date. If you switch automation off and on again, the cut-off moves to the new date. To send an earlier job, submit it yourself from the job's Job actions menu with Submit to DWT.

Invite customers to the portal

The portal is a separate, read-only app where one of your customers or suppliers signs in and sees only their own records. There is no switch to turn it on. You give access one person at a time.

Open the record

Click Customers or Suppliers under Relationships, then open the customer or supplier. Open the Portal access tab. It only appears if your Paperwork role has View on Portal.

Invite the person

Click Invite to portal. Enter their Email address, choose All sites or Specific sites, and tick what they can see under What they can see. Click Send invitation and you will see "Invitation sent to" and the address.

The person signs in with the address you invited, and the invitation lasts 30 days. People you invite are never members of your organisation and never use a Paperwork seat. For the permissions, the statuses, revoking and what they are shown, see Set up the customer portal.

If you skip this

All three are optional. Skipping them blocks nothing.

• Not connecting Xero — invoices stay in Paperwork and you enter them in your accounts yourself.
• Connecting Xero without mapping everything — an invoice with an unmapped nominal code or tax rate fails to send, and shows Xero sync failed with the code that is missing.
• Not setting up DWT — nothing is submitted to DEFRA through Paperwork.
• Switching DWT automation on without a linked supplier — Paperwork does not submit a job automatically when its disposal site's supplier has no linked code.
• Not using the portal — nothing changes. Your customers keep getting their documents from you as they do now.

Check it worked

• Xero: the Xero card shows Xero connected and the badge reads All mapped. After you authorise your next invoice, its Accounting card shows In Xero with a Xero number.
• DWT: each container type you use shows a DWT container type, each supplier you submit for is linked to a code, and the switch shows DWT automation enabled.
• Portal: the person you invited shows on the customer's Portal access tab, first as Invited and then as Active once they have signed in. Settings, then Portal, lists everyone.

What to do next

That completes the setup. There is no next page in this section, so use the guides below for the day-to-day work.

• Introduction to Paperwork — the whole product in one read
• Xero integration — fixing sync problems and linking contacts
• DWT settings — codes, containers and the automation cut-off
• Set up the customer portal — permissions, resending and revoking access
• Invoicing and purchase orders — raising and correcting invoices
• Jobs — submitting a job to DWT from its Job actions menu