If you use Xero Payroll alongside HR Partner, managing employee information is now a lot simpler.
We’ve rolled out full two-way employee syncing with Xero Payroll for Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Employee records now stay aligned across both systems automatically.
Until now, Xero was the source of truth for employee information. That worked fine for payroll-first workflows, but plenty of you told us you wanted more flexibility, especially when onboarding new hires or updating employee details inside HR Partner.
With this update, changes flow both ways.
Employee updates now sync in both directions
Once an employee record is linked between HR Partner and Xero, updates to core employee details sync automatically between the two systems.
Less double handling, fewer manual updates, and far less chance of employee information drifting out of sync between your HR and payroll systems.
Create new employees in HR Partner and push them straight to Xero
You can now create a new employee in HR Partner and have the matching record created in Xero at the same time.
This one’s particularly handy for onboarding, where HR teams often kick off the employee setup well before payroll gets involved.
If you have multiple Xero payroll entities connected, you can also choose which Xero company the new employee should be assigned to during creation.
And don’t forget about leave
Worth a quick reminder while we’re on the subject of what the Xero sync can do: approved leave requests already flow from HR Partner to Xero.
Combined with the new two-way employee sync, it means your HR and payroll systems can stay in step on the things that matter most: who’s on the team, what their details are, and when they’re away.
Built for teams with a lot of moving parts
In a lot of small and mid-sized businesses, employee information gets updated by different people across HR, operations, payroll, and finance.
Two-way syncing cuts the friction that comes with managing employee data across separate systems, particularly for businesses with remote teams, multiple locations, or admin responsibilities spread across a few people.
Instead of re-entering the same information in multiple places, your systems stay aligned in the background.
A few things worth knowing
There are still some payroll-specific details that need to be completed directly inside Xero after an employee is created, including:
- Tax and payroll declarations
- Pay rates and calendars
- Superannuation or pension setup
HR Partner creates the employee shell record and syncs the supported details, but payroll onboarding still needs to be finalized inside Xero itself.
Sync updates also run in the background on a regular cycle rather than instantly, so changes may take a few hours to show up across both systems.
Available now
Two-way Xero employee sync is live now for HR Partner customers using the Xero Payroll integration. If you’re already connected, you can turn it on in your integration settings.
For the full setup walkthrough, head to our knowledge base.
New to HR Partner?
If you’re using Xero Payroll and still wrangling employee records, onboarding, and leave in spreadsheets (or another HR system that doesn’t talk to Xero), this is a good moment to take a look at HR Partner.
Book a demo to see it in action, or start a free 14 day trial.