Creating a contact in Xero

[ross]

Hi Pete

When a contact is created in Xero from an order in Woocommerce it inserts the name of the person in to the company field rather than inserting the company name into the company field. Is this due to how we have the checkout set up in Woocommerce or how Xeroom pulls across the data?

Many thanks

Ross

[Peter Lloyd]

Hi Ross

Xero doesn’t have a company field it has a contact name and then address so we put the Company name as the first line of the address. So this in Woo http://prntscr.com/jh17he becomes this in Xero http://prntscr.com/jh160i.

Thanks
Pete

[ross]

Hi Pete

Thanks for the quick reply and thanks for the screen shots – this was very helpful.

This all makes sense and this definitely works when creating the invoice. I was wandering whether it could transfer to the contacts also?

I noticed that in Xero contacts the name in the company field (first field) is the same as the name in the Primary Person field (second field? I assumed the first field would autofill with the company name however it isn’t much effort to edit this once the contact has been created.

Cheers

Ross

[Peter Lloyd]

Hi Ross

A contact does get created in Xero for each new customer send across from Woo.

If it is an individual we put their name as the contact but if it is a company we put their company name as the contact name and the person’s name as the primary contact as that works best for most people in terms of displaying the address and using it. http://prntscr.com/jhjfsn

Thanks
Pete

[accountstheresilienceproject-com-au]

Hi Pete,

Even when the company name has been completed in the order when the invoice is sent to Xero it creates a new contact using the customer name (first name & last name). We need the invoice to come across and create a Contact Name in Xero being the Company Name or First Name Last Name only if the company name is blank.

Also, will the system pick up an existing contact in Xero if the Contact Name in Xero matches the Company Name in WooCommerce (Billing Company field)?

Is there a setting that needs to be flagged to do this?

Thanks,
Helen

[Peter Lloyd]

Hi Helen

We don’t have any rules in place to control this. If the name already exists in Xero then it will be updated with the latest address and company details in the billing fields of Woo.

Thanks
Pete

[laughingbuddha]

Hi Pete, I’m having trouble with this too. The client has all their customers in Xero and were previously using a different ecommerce platform. Now we are switching to WooCommerce and they want new orders to match up with existing customers in Xero, but when we export an order it creates a new (duplicate) customer in Xero. How can we map customers in WC to customers in Xero so that duplicates are not created. The client uses company name in the Contact Name field and the person’s name in the Primary Person field.

Thanks,
Dom

[Peter Lloyd]

Hi Dom – I have copied a Q & A for your question from another customer below which should hopefully explain things for you.
Thanks
Pete

Q. When I try to import some new order from already existing customer in xero, that other plugin create new customer each time when importing order.This is plain wrong, as a customer with given email already exist in xero. So the question is: does your plugin checks if some customer already exist in xero when importing order, and does it attach new order from existing customer to this customer? Creating duplicate customers with same emails and ID each time when you importing an order is not helpful at all.
A. Xeroom will check and use the existing customer in Xero but will update the contact details with those in the order.

Q. How do you check for existing customer in Xero, by ID or by their email?
A. By customer name.

Q. But how it would work for “John Smith” for example? There could be few customers with same names but different IDs and emails.
A. Xero will only allow one person with the same name so Xeroom would simply update that with the latest customer to order.

Q.Are you sure? This sounds wrong to me.
A.It isn’t logical but we had to do it as you cannot search on the Primary Person’s name in Xero so most people put it in the Contact name field. Then you have to ask where to put the company name so the next best place is in the first line of the address. We map the individual’s name if B2C to this field and the company name to the first line of the address. http://prntscr.com/rjg8b0

Q. And if some customer has outdated email address in woocommerce, but correct email in Xero, I suppose email in Xero would be overwritten, correct?
A. Yes but only when they place the next order in Woo

Q. Is it possible to disable contact update in Xero when importing orders?
A. No

To prevent this you could consider some workaround eg by adding a code or salutation to the original name in Xero. However it is best to consider to have just one master since if you have multiple data for the same name how do you know and manage which one is the true one?

[laughingbuddha]

Thanks Peter. So what’s involved in getting the company name mapped to the contact name? Can this be done with custom development?

The client is adamant that it has to be done that way as they already have thousands of customers set up in Xero that way. What about adding a feature in the UI to give Xeroom users a choice of where they map the company name?

Cheers,

Dom

[Peter Lloyd]

Hi Dom

That is a good idea – I will speak with my developers about it – the downside is that any contacts for a company mapped that way would NOT be searchable in Xero – would that be acceptable?

Thanks
Pete

[laughingbuddha]

Hi Pete, that’s good news. My client prefers to search by company name anyway so I think that would be ok. The scenario they would like in this situation is that billing Company (WooCommerce) will map to Contact Name (Xero), and billing First Name/Last Name (WC) will map to Primary Person First/Last Name (Xero). The more flexibility and options you can build in to the plugin the better.

Thanks and please keep me posted.

Dom

[nick]

This is a big issue for us as otherwise in Xero when you look at sending statements for account customers the statement is listed under the persons name who places the order not the company who owes the money. So in our case Sally Adams from Kings Caravans has placed an order on account. I want to send Kings Caravans a statement (out of Xero) but on the Xero statement screen it says sally Adams not Kings Caravans. Xeroom needs to use the woo commerce company name as the Contact name in Xero if it is filled out or the individual name if it is not.

[Author]

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