1. Configure Your Xero Settings
Go to Entity Settings → Integrations → Xero
Open the Xero configuration panel
Under Direct Expenses, choose your preferred sync settings.
Click Activate to save.
💡 Recommended Setting
Self-Prompt (recommended for new entities)
tofie learns from your accounting data and applies rules automatically. You can enable it before clicking Activate in the Xero configuration settings, or after activation by going to Entity Settings → Knowledge Base → Select Direct Expense → Self-Prompt, then choose Xero Connected or Upload CSV/Excel to use your own transaction file.
Want tofu to publish for you? Auto-Publish now lives in Document Lifecycle under Entity Settings → Features → Extraction Types. See section 4 below.
2. Upload Direct Expense
Direct Expense is turned on by default, so you can start uploading right away. tofu can extract already-paid expenses such as receipts, cash purchases, or card-paid expenses.
Go to the Source Documents panel
Click Upload document
Select a receipt or expense file
tofu will extract the document as a Direct Expense.
💡 Recommended: Connect Whatsapp, Google Drive, SharePoint or Email
For the easiest Direct Expense workflow, we recommend integrating Whatsapp, Google Drive, SharePoint or Email with tofu. Once connected, any direct expense you upload to your chosen folder or send via email attachment will automatically sync into tofu, so you don't have to upload documents manually every time.
3. Review the Extraction and Publish
Open the extracted Direct Expense from the Extractions panel
Review the extracted details such as:
Contact
Bank account
Date
Line items
Tax rate/code (if applicable)
Tracking categories (optional)
Once everything looks correct, click Mark Ready.
If an expense has a New contact label, a Duplicate label, or a validation error, it stays in Draft until you resolve it.
💡 Tips:
Account Type Visibility:
1. Go to Entity Settings → Features → Accounting
2. Enable Account Type
3. Return to review — Account Type will show automatically.
If this setting is disabled, click the "+" icon in the Account column to view Account Type.
Changed a synced Direct Expense to another extraction type?
Changing the extraction type creates a new transaction. The original one may still need cleanup in Xero. Learn more: What Happens When You Change an Extraction Type After Syncing to Your Accounting Software
Optional: Combined Line Items
If Aggregate Line Items is enabled for your organization, you'll see a Combined Line Items button during Direct Expense review.
Use this to merge multiple line items into a single summarized line
Helpful when receipts contain many small line items
The combined line description uses the first line item's description
Multiple Receipts in One File
If a file contains multiple receipts:
Use Multi-Receipt Cropping before extraction
Each receipt will be created as its own Direct Expense
4. Publishing Direct Expenses to Xero
A Bank Account must be selected before a Direct Expense can be published.
Select the Bank Account used to pay the expense
Make any necessary adjustments and click Save Draft.
Click Mark Ready, then Publish
You can also publish in one of these ways:
On a Draft expense, click Ready & Publish to mark it Ready and publish it in one step. You'll see this button when Auto-Publish is on.
Turn on Auto-Publish to publish Ready expenses automatically. Go to Entity Settings → Features → Extraction Types, select Direct Expenses, and open Document Lifecycle. You can also turn on Auto-Ready and Auto-Done there.
After publishing, a link to the Xero record appears in tofu, and the expense moves to Published. Click Mark Done once you've confirmed everything looks right, or turn on Auto-Done to skip this step. For more details, see Understanding Extraction Lifecycle in tofu.
💡 Tip: Train tofie to Auto-Select Bank Account
You can teach tofie to choose the correct bank account automatically.
Click tofie in the top-right corner
Set Extraction Type to Direct Expenses
Enter an instruction, for example:
"Always select Main Bank Account for Direct Expenses."
Click Generate, then Save
Future Direct Expenses will automatically use this bank account.
5. Editing Direct Expenses after publishing
If you need to make changes to a Published expense, open it in tofu and click Edit. Since the expense already exists in Xero, tofu first deletes it there, then returns the expense to Draft so you can edit it.
Click Delete & edit to continue.
Make your edits and click Save Draft.
Mark the expense Ready and publish it again. This creates a new transaction in Xero, not an update to the old one.
If the expense has been reconciled in Xero, it can't be deleted there. You'll see options to Try again, Skip (updates the status in tofu only and leaves the Xero record untouched), or Close.
✅ You're All Set
Your Direct Expenses are now flowing from tofu to Xero and staying in sync.
This allows you to work efficiently, keeping your expense records accurate and up to date.