When publishing an invoice from Ruddr to Xero via the Xero integration for Ruddr, you may receive an error message that says "Account code or ID must be specified". This happens when an invoice line item uses a Ruddr Invoice Item that is not properly mapped to a Xero Product Service type.
What are Products and Services in Xero?
The Products and Services in Xero represent the inventory of products and services that you sell to your clients. These are optional in Xero, so they may not currently be in use within your Xero instance. Ruddr's integration with Xero allows you to map each Invoice Item in your Ruddr workspace to a Product Service type in Xero. Ruddr requires this mapping in order to connect an invoice line item with the appropriate income account within your chart of accounts.
What causes the "Account code or ID must be specified" error?
This error occurs upon publishing an invoice that is being saved to Xero. The error occurs in the following two scenarios:
- There is no mapping at all from the Ruddr Invoice Item to a Product Service type in Ruddr. This mapping can be created within the Xero integration settings within Ruddr.
- The mapping exists, but the Product Service type within Xero is not of type "Sell". There are three types of Product and Services in Xero. These are "Sell", "Purchase", and "Track inventory item". The Invoice Items in Ruddr must be connected to Product Service types in Xero that are of type "Sell".
Adding a Product and Service Type in Xero
To get to the Products and Services list within Xero (Figure 1), simply click on the Business menu option and then select Products and Services. From there, click on the New item button at the top-right of the screen to create a new Product Service type.
Figure 1 - Product Service Types List Screen in Xero
This will bring up the New Item window. On this window you must uncheck the "Purchase" and "Track inventory item" checkboxes and check the "Sell" checkbox. You then need to select the sales income account from your chart of accounts that will be associated with this new Product Service type.
Figure 2 - The "Sell" Product Service Type
At this point, an invoice in Ruddr that uses an Invoice Item that is mapped to this new Product Service type, will publish without error.