Ontraport has been steadily refining how invoices and payments work on its platform — and one recent change was made specifically with accounting software like Xero in mind. If Ontraport is your sales engine and Xero is your source of financial truth, here’s what’s changed and what it means for your books.
Refunded invoices can now match Xero’s language
The change we’re most pleased about: Ontraport now lets you update the status of refunded invoices from “refunded” to “closed” — explicitly to match how QuickBooks and Xero treat them. Accounts created after 9 September 2025 get the new behaviour as standard; older accounts can switch it on under Administration → Legacy features → “Update refunded invoices to closed” (details in Ontraport’s invoices overview).
It’s a small toggle with a real benefit: when your CRM and your accounting platform describe the same event in the same terms, reconciliation arguments disappear. A refund in Ontraport, a credit note in Xero, and a closed invoice on both sides — one story, told once.
The invoicing features worth (re)discovering
Beyond that alignment change, a few of Ontraport’s payment-management features quietly do bookkeeping work for you:
- A secure customer portal — clients can view past and overdue invoices, see their payment history, update their card and pay outstanding amounts themselves, which means fewer awkward chase-up emails and faster cash collection.
- Automatic payment reminders — Ontraport can remind customers ahead of upcoming due dates and notify your team when an invoice goes past due.
- Flexible selling structures — subscriptions, payment plans, free trials, deposits and one-time fees are all first-class, and each generates proper invoice records.
- API improvements — transactions now support updating the external order ID via API, useful for keeping outside systems traceable back to the source order.
What this means for your Xero file
Every one of these features generates or changes financial records — invoices issued, payments collected, refunds processed, subscription charges renewed. The question is how those records reach Xero.
Done manually, each improvement on Ontraport’s side is more volume for whoever keys the books. Synced automatically, they compound in your favour: the portal collects a payment at 9pm, the sync records it against its Xero invoice minutes later, and your sales reports are already correct when you open Xero in the morning. Refunds flow through as credit notes that mirror the original invoice, so the new “closed” status on the Ontraport side lines up with a properly balanced Xero file on the other.
That’s the job XOSync does: it watches Ontraport continuously and turns every sale, payment and refund into an accurate, line-itemised Xero invoice — taxes, coupons, shipping, gateways and multi-currency included, with duplicate protection throughout.
Using Ontraport’s invoicing already? Then your Xero file is one connection away from keeping itself current. Try XOSync for 30 days for $1 — guided setup, test invoices before you go live, US$29/month after.
Sources: Ontraport — Invoices overview, Ontraport — All-in-one payment management.