represents in your accounting system. For example, a Customers collection might link to Contacts, a Products collection to Items, and a Jobs collection to Invoices.

First time setting up? Connect Xero or QuickBooks before following this guide.

1. Open the Accounting Pane

In the sidebar, right-click the collection you want to configure (or open the collection and click the three dots ⋯) and select Configure.
In the configuration sidebar, find and click Accounting.

If no accounting integration is connected, the pane shows an empty state with a Connect Accounting button that takes you to Settings → Integrations → Accounting Integration.

2. Choose an Accounting Record Type

The first setting in the pane is Accounting record type, with the description: Choose what records represent in Xero / QuickBooks.

Not Linked

Records in this collection have no relationship to the accounting system.

Customers & Suppliers

Each record can be linked to a contact in the accounting system. Outstanding balances and overdue amounts appear in the record details panel.

Products & Services

Each record can be linked to a product or service. Sales and purchase pricing appear in the record details panel.

Invoices

Track invoices created from each record's line items. Coverage, payments, and outstanding amounts appear in the record details panel.

Bills

Track bills created from each record's line items. Coverage, payments, and outstanding amounts appear in the record details panel.

Changing the type later prompts you to confirm with a Change accounting linking? dialog. For Invoices and Bills, switching away will lose any existing transaction configuration and coverage data.

3. Map Fields Between Kinabase and Your Accounting System

When you pick Customers & Suppliers or Products & Services, a Synced fields section appears:

"Choose which fields to sync between records and Xero / QuickBooks."

Each row pairs an accounting system field on the left with a Kinabase field on the right. For each pair, choose the sync direction:

None

Don't sync this field in either direction.

Inbound

Pull the value from the accounting system into Kinabase. Useful for fields you maintain in Xero or QuickBooks (such as outstanding balance).

Outbound

Push the Kinabase value to the accounting system. Useful for fields you maintain in Kinabase (such as a primary phone number).

Once you are happy with your inbound and outbound field mappings - changes save automatically.

Contact Fields You Can Map

Name, Email, Phone, Status (Active / Archived)
Is Customer, Is Supplier flags
Street address and Mailing/PO Box address
(full address with line, city, region, postcode, country)
Accounts Receivable - Outstanding and Overdue
Accounts Payable - Outstanding and Overdue
Currency code

Item Fields You Can Map

Name, Code (SKU), Description
Unit price (sales) and Purchase price
Sales tax code and Sales ledger code
Purchase tax code and Purchase ledger code
Is sold and Is purchased flags

4. Configure Invoices or Bills

When you pick Invoices or Bills, three extra sections appear: line items, completion, and default codes.

4.1 Line Item Source

Choose what becomes a line on the invoice or bill:

One line per [record]

The record itself becomes a single line on the transaction. Use this for simple, one-off charges.

One line per [list item record]

Each record in a chosen list (subcollection) becomes its own line. Use this when a Job has many Tasks, an Order has many Order Lines, etc.

The 'list' (or subcollection) option only appears if the collection has at least one list (or subcollection).

4.2 Completion Tracking

When you use list (subcollection) line items, you can track how much has been invoiced or billed:

By count of line items

A line item is "covered" as soon as it appears on at least one transaction.

By amount

Track the cumulative monetary value invoiced or billed against each line.

By quantity

Track the cumulative quantity invoiced or billed against each line.

4.3 Line Item Fields

The Line item fields section maps fields from the collection or subcollection onto the line item sent to the accounting system. Common mappings include:

Description - what appears as the line description.
Quantity - the number of units.
Unit price - price per unit.
Line amount - total for the line (when amount is calculated outside Kinabase).
Tax code and Ledger code - line-level overrides.

4.4 Default Tax Code and Default Ledger Code

To save time when creating transactions, you can set defaults that apply when a line does not specify its own:

Default tax code - filtered to Output tax codes for invoices, Input for bills.
Default ledger code - filtered to Revenue accounts for invoices, Expense accounts for bills.

Both have a No default option if you'd rather choose every time.

5. Permissions

Collection configuration is restricted to System Administrators. End users with write access to the collection can:

Link and unlink records to existing contacts, items, invoices, and bills.
Sync linked records to refresh their data.
Create new contacts, items, invoices, and bills in the accounting system from a record.

End users with read-only access can see the sidebar data but cannot link, unlink, sync, or create.

6. Use Accounting in Automations

Kinabase includes a Create in accounting system automation step. When a record is created or meets a condition, Kinabase can:

Create a contact for the record in Xero or QuickBooks, and link it.
Create an item for the record, and link it.

Configure it on the collection's automations as you would any other step. Pick the integration, the entity type (Contact or Item), and the field where the new link should be stored.

Invoice and bill creation is manual - this preserves the line item review step. You can't create invoices or bills automatically from an automation.

7. Real-World Examples

Examples you can copy

Customers Collection → Contacts

Link your CRM customer records to Xero or QuickBooks contacts. Map Outstanding inbound so your account managers see balances at a glance. Map Phone outbound so the accounting team always has up-to-date contact details.

Products Collection → Items

Maintain master pricing in Kinabase, push it outbound to the accounting system, and pull the latest stock or service status inbound.

Jobs Collection → Invoices (Lines Per Task)

Each Job has Tasks as a subcollection. Configure invoices with subcollection line items and By amount coverage so you can see exactly which Tasks are still un-billed.

Purchase Orders Collection → Bills

Each PO has line items. Push them as a bill to the accounting system, with a default ledger code that books them to the right expense account.

Connecting your Kinabase to your accounting system helps streamline your day to day activities and align your operations and financial processes.

Ready to get started? Connect Xero or QuickBooks, then follow our guide on configuring collections for accounting.

For more help contact your System Admin or our Support Team.

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