Key takeaways
- Xero codes spend to an account and up to two active tracking categories, such as department and region.
- Credit card feeds bring transactions in daily; bank rules and reconciliation suggestions match by payee and amount.
- Xero Expenses handles employee claims and mileage on the Established plan; Smart Document Capture is on every plan.
- Vergo proposes account and tracking from your history, texts for receipts and records coded transactions with receipts through Xero's API.
Where should you go next?
How do you automate expense management in Xero, step by step?
- Connect Xero. Vergo connects directly through Xero's public API, reads your accounts and tracking categories. Nothing else is needed from your team.
- Connect your existing cards. Connecting your existing cards involves no card applications, no re-issuing and no banking change.
- Collect receipts by text. Employees handle everything by text message — no app to download, no portal login — and Vergo chases missing receipts itself instead of waiting for a report.
- Code the transaction. Vergo proposes the account and both tracking categories for each receipt line, with the reason.
- Record in Xero. The coded transaction lands on the card account with its receipt, so reconciliation is a match, not a data entry task.
What does Xero need on each card transaction?
- Account: the expense account from your chart.
- Tracking categories: Xero allows up to four, with two active, so most companies pick their two most important dimensions.
- Tax rate: set from the account default in most cases.
- Receipt: attached to the transaction.
Where do Xero's tools stop and automation start?
Xero is good at getting card data in and suggesting a match. Bank rules code by payee, and Smart Document Capture reads receipts you send it. What Xero cannot know is that a charge from the same office supplier belongs to the Auckland office one week and the Denver office the next. With only two active tracking categories, getting those two right is the whole job. Vergo reads the receipt itself, line by line, and predicts the coding from what was actually bought — the account and tracking categories — not just the vendor name on the header.
A practical example
A design agency on Xero tracks by department and client. An art director buys stock images and a monitor on the company card. Vergo texts for the receipts, proposes the software subscriptions account with the creative department and the client for the images, and the computer equipment account with the studio department for the monitor. The finance manager confirms, and both transactions sit in Xero coded and receipted before the feed line even needs reconciling.
How Vergo handles this
Vergo proposes the coding by inference from your own accounting structure and history — no rule library to build, no keyword lists to maintain, and new vendors are coded on first sight. Approval workflows are optional and fit how you already control spend: route by GL account or by amount — or skip approval flows entirely and let policy flags catch only what breaks a rule. Card spend, employee reimbursements and AP invoices run through one coding model — same coding, same review, one reconciliation — and payment stays on the rails you already use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we still need bank rules in Xero?
Keep them for recurring bills if you like. Card transactions coded by Vergo arrive ready to reconcile.
Does Vergo fill both tracking categories?
Yes. Vergo proposes a value for each active tracking category from how similar spend was coded before.
Do we need the Xero Established plan?
No. Vergo connects through Xero's public API on any plan. Xero lists its own employee expense claims under Established.
Are receipts attached in Xero?
Yes. Each transaction carries its receipt.
Do we need to change cards?
No. Connecting your existing cards involves no card applications, no re-issuing and no banking change.
