Connecting Clokk to Xero

Push your staff hours straight into a Xero draft pay run — no CSV files, no double entry.

In plain English: connect once, then each pay period click Push to Xero and Clokk creates a draft timesheet for every employee. You review the penalty rates and approve the pay run inside Xero, exactly as you do now — Clokk just fills in the hours for you.

Before you start

You'll need three things in place:

A Business plan (or above) on Clokk. Direct Xero sync is a Business feature — every plan can still export a payroll-ready CSV.
A Xero account with Payroll switched on for your organisation, and admin access to it.
Matching emails. Clokk matches your staff to Xero employees by email address, so each person's email in Clokk should be the same one on their Xero employee record.

Step 1 — Connect your Xero account

You only do this once. It takes about a minute.

Open Settings in Clokk and scroll to the Payroll integrations card.
Click "Connect Xero". You'll be taken to Xero's secure sign-in page.
Sign in to Xero and choose your organisation. If you manage more than one Xero org, pick the one whose payroll you run.
Approve the connection. Xero shows you exactly what Clokk can access (employees, timesheets and payroll settings). Click Allow access.
You're back in Clokk. The Payroll card now shows Connected with your Xero organisation's name.

Clokk never sees your Xero password. The sign-in happens entirely on Xero's site, and Clokk stores only an encrypted access token on its server so it can send timesheets on your behalf. You can revoke it any time (see Disconnecting).

Step 2 — Push your timesheets

Do this each pay period, once the roster for the period is final.

Open the Payroll page in Clokk (from the admin dashboard).
Choose the pay period using the arrows at the top — the same period you're about to pay.
Click "Push to Xero". Clokk adds up each employee's hours day by day and sends them across as a draft timesheet.
Read the summary. Clokk tells you how many timesheets it created, and flags anyone it couldn't match in Xero (usually a different or missing email).

Step 3 — Review and approve in Xero

Clokk always creates draft timesheets — it never approves or runs your pay. That stays with you.

In Xero, go to Payroll → Timesheets. You'll see a draft timesheet for each employee Clokk pushed.
Check the hours and let Xero apply your penalty rates, loadings and leave as usual.
Approve the timesheets, then run your pay run the way you always have.

Troubleshooting

Some staff weren't matched in Xero

Clokk matches people by email. If someone shows up as "not matched", open their record in Xero and check the email there is the same as the one in Clokk. Add or fix it in either place so they line up, then push again — Clokk won't create duplicates for people it already pushed.

Xero rejected the timesheet with a date or pay-period error

Xero timesheets have to line up with the employee's pay calendar in Xero (weekly, fortnightly, etc.). If your Clokk pay schedule and your Xero pay calendar don't match, Xero will reject the timesheet. Make sure both are set to the same cycle — Settings → Pay schedule in Clokk, and the employee's pay calendar in Xero — then push again.

"No Ordinary Hours earnings rate found"

Clokk posts hours against your organisation's Ordinary Hours earnings rate. If Xero can't find one, add or rename an ordinary-time earnings rate under Payroll settings in Xero, then push again.

Do clock-in/out hours or rostered hours get sent?

Whichever your workspace is set to use. By default Clokk sends rostered hours; if you've turned on actual (clock-in/out) hours, those are sent instead. Either way the numbers match what you see on the Payroll page.

What about leave, overtime and penalty rates?

Clokk sends the hours worked per day. Penalty loadings, overtime rules and leave are applied by Xero against your pay settings when you approve the pay run — that keeps your existing Xero configuration as the single source of truth for how people are paid.

Disconnecting

To stop the connection, go to Settings → Payroll integrations and click Disconnect on the Xero row. Clokk immediately deletes its stored access token. Any draft timesheets you already pushed stay in Xero — disconnecting only stops future pushes. You can reconnect any time.

Need a hand?

Email support@clokk.com.au and we'll help you get connected — happy to jump on a quick call for your first pay run.