When you create a new Brixx forecast, you can choose to connect to your Xero company at the same time.


Note: Brixx can work completely independently of Xero if you wish.


Connecting will give you a starting point that reflects your Xero chart of accounts. This means that components will be created that are named after your revenue accounts, expense accounts etc. 


Read more about components here 


You’ll also go through matching your chart of accounts to Brixx report headings. The matching you do will define where Xero actual figures will appear in actuals vs forecast reports.


Once you’ve connected your company it follows these steps:


  1. Connect to a Xero company

  2. Choose your plan settings

  3. Match your Profit & Loss Accounts

  4. Match your Balance Sheet Accounts


Step One - Connect to a Xero company


From your ‘My plans’ area click, +NEW PLAN. 


You have two choices, 'Start in Brixx' or 'Start from Xero'. Click the 'Start from Xero' option:



Now click the ‘Connect to Xero’ button.


This will take you to Xero and ask that you sign in to your Xero account. Once you’ve signed in, you’ll be able to choose any of your companies to connect to. 



Note: Brixx only ever references this data for reporting. It will never change any of the data in your Xero company.


When you have chosen a company to connect to, you’ll be taken back to Brixx where you will see the first screen in the plan creation sequence:



Here you’ll see all the companies you’ve connected to Xero with. If you only have one, you can proceed with that company selected to the next step.


If you have multiple companies connected, you’ll need to choose which one to proceed with for this forecast. If you want to create multiple Brixx plans for different companies (or multiple Brixx plans for the same company) you can by starting at the beginning with the +New Plan button again.


Once a Xero company has been connected, it will stay on this screen for future plans.


Step Two - Choose your plan settings


Plan name

By default, this will be the name of the company you’ve connected to. If you want to, you can change this to reflect the purpose of your plan such as ‘2021-24 Company forecast’.


Plan start date and length

The default is to start your forecast immediately. However, you can set it to start further in the future should you want to start planning next year's forecast or a new project (for example).


Tax system

Choose from VAT, GST or Sales Tax as your tax system. This means that components in your plan will have the tax option on by default (you can adjust this on a case by case basis in your plan). 


You can leave the tax system ‘off’ if you aren’t registered for Tax in your country. This will mean that the tax option will be turned off by default in all your components (but can be turned on later should you need to).


Fill your forecast by extrapolating Xero historical data



If this option is left off, your forecast will start as a blank canvas for you to enter forecast data once your plan is created. 


Turning this option on will give you some starting forecast data to work with for your revenue and expenses.


The default option here is to reference the previous 12 months of data in your Xero accounts and replicate that in the future periods of the plan. You can adjust this up or down by entering a positive or negative % figure into the adjustment column.


This is intended to be a simple starting point for your forecast that will save you some data entry in. However, you shouldn’t rely on this for decision making until you’ve spent time making more precise adjustments after plan creation.


Step three - Profit & loss matching


On this screen, you’ll see a list of your revenue and expense accounts matched up to the headings from the standard Brixx Profit & Loss report.


Each separate box has a heading which you’ll find on the Brixx report. Your Xero accounts will have been placed under these headings using a set of default placement rules. 


You can move any account by clicking the move icon on the right end of the row. This provides a list menu of all the headings for you to choose from.


For example:

Your Xero account ‘Rent’ is appearing under the heading ‘Other Operating Expenses’. This means that when you go to your Profit & Loss report and turn on actuals - you’ll be able to open up the ‘Other Operating Expenses’ and see your Rent account there.


You’ll see the total of all accounts matched to ‘Other Operating Expenses’ in that line. When you drill into that row, you’ll see all of these accounts broken down. 


If you were to move ‘Rent’ to the ‘Cost of Goods Sold’ heading, you’d then see Rent under the CoGS heading on the Profit & Loss report.


Step four - Balance Sheet matching


This screen works in exactly the same way as the previous Profit & Loss screen. This time you are dealing with your Asset, Liability and Equity accounts.



Notes about subheadings on the matching screens

On both screens some headings are further split into subheadings. For example, the Balance Sheet splits Assets into Asset type and Accumulated Depreciation


This is a further level of classification used to order your results coherently in reports. It also plays a role in the available matching options inside specific types of components.


For example, the Asset component outputs all calculations related to the purchase, value, depreciation and sales of assets. It will match up these outputs against multiple Xero accounts.


Read more in these guides:

  • How to Matching Components to Xero Accounts Works

  • How to Compare your Xero Actuals with your Brixx Forecast

  • What’s the difference between a Component and a Xero Account Category?