Importing from Payroll

If you already use Xero Payroll, you can import your existing employee records into StaffBrik rather than re-entering them manually. This saves time, reduces errors, and ensures your staff data matches what your payroll provider holds.

Connecting to Xero

Before you can import employees, you need to connect your Brikly organisation to Xero.

1. Go to Settings > Integrations.
2. Click Connect Xero.
3. You will be redirected to Xero's authorisation page. Sign in with the Xero account that has access to payroll.
4. Grant Brikly permission to read your Xero payroll data.
5. Once authorised, you will be returned to Brikly with a confirmation that the connection is active.

info

Brikly requests read-only access to your Xero payroll data during the import process. It does not write to or modify anything in Xero.

Starting an Import

Once connected, navigate to StaffBrik > Employees and click Import from Xero. The import runs through four steps:

Step 1: Check Availability

StaffBrik connects to your Xero payroll and retrieves the list of active employees. You will see:

• The total number of employees found in Xero.
• A summary of the data fields available (name, email, pay rate, start date, etc.).
• Any issues detected (e.g., missing email addresses or phone numbers).

If the connection fails or no employees are found, check that your Xero account has payroll enabled and that employees are marked as active.

Step 2: Preview Employees

A table shows every employee retrieved from Xero, with columns for:

Column	Description
Name	First and last name from Xero
Email	Email address on file
Pay rate	Current hourly or salary rate
Start date	Employment start date
Status	Whether StaffBrik has detected a matching existing employee

Review the list to make sure the data looks correct before proceeding.

Step 3: Map Decisions

For each employee in the preview, choose one of three actions:

• Create new - import this person as a brand-new employee in StaffBrik. Use this for staff who do not already have a StaffBrik profile.
• Update existing - link this Xero record to an existing StaffBrik employee and update their details with the Xero data. Use this when the employee already exists in StaffBrik but you want to sync their information.
• Skip - do not import this person. Use this for employees you do not want in StaffBrik (e.g., office-based staff who are not involved in venue operations).

tip

For a first-time import, most employees will be set to Create new. If you have already added some staff manually, use Update existing to link them to their Xero records and avoid duplicates.

Step 4: Confirm Import

Review your mapping decisions on a summary screen:

• Number of new employees to be created.
• Number of existing employees to be updated.
• Number of employees to be skipped.

Click Confirm Import to proceed. StaffBrik creates or updates the selected records.

Duplicate Detection

StaffBrik automatically checks for potential duplicates during the preview step. It matches on:

• Email address - if an employee in Xero shares an email with an existing StaffBrik profile, they are flagged as a potential match.
• Name - first and last name matches are highlighted for your review.

When a match is detected, StaffBrik suggests the Update existing action by default. You can override this if the match is coincidental (e.g., two different people with the same name).

caution

Always review duplicate matches carefully. In hospitality, it is common to have employees with similar names - do not blindly accept all suggested matches.

Location Assignment

Employees imported from Xero are not automatically assigned to a location. After the import completes, you will be prompted to assign each new employee to one or more of your locations.

If you operate a single location, all imported employees are assigned to it automatically.

For multi-location businesses:

• You can bulk-assign employees to a location during the post-import step.
• Alternatively, assign locations individually by editing each employee profile.
• An employee can be assigned to multiple locations if they work across sites.

Selective Import

You are not required to import all employees from Xero. The mapping step lets you pick and choose:

• Import only front-of-house staff for now and add kitchen staff next week.
• Skip head-office employees who do not need rota scheduling.
• Import employees for one location at a time.

You can re-run the import at any time to bring in additional employees. StaffBrik remembers which Xero records have already been imported and marks them accordingly in the preview.

What Gets Imported

The following fields are pulled from Xero when available:

Field	Imported?	Notes
First name	Yes
Last name	Yes
Email	Yes
Phone number	If available	Not all Xero records include a mobile number - you may need to add this manually
Start date	Yes
Hourly rate	Yes	Converted to hourly if Xero stores a salary figure
Date of birth	If available
Gender	If available

Fields not available in Xero - such as NI category, qualifying days, pension opt-in, employment type, and access level - will need to be set manually in each employee's profile after import.

tip

After importing, review each employee's profile to fill in the fields that Xero does not provide. At a minimum, set their employment type, NI category, and access level so that rota costing and compliance features work correctly.

Ongoing Sync

Once you have linked employees from Xero, Brikly can keep their details up to date automatically. You do not need to re-run the import every time a pay rate changes in payroll.

What it does

Each night, Brikly checks Xero for changes to employees who have already been linked through the import wizard. If anything has changed, the matching StaffBrik record is updated. Typical changes picked up by the sync include:

• Pay rate changes (e.g., a pay rise processed in Xero).
• Updated contact details such as email or phone number.
• Updated personal details such as date of birth.

When it runs

The sync runs once a night, at around 03:30 UK time. Only one sync runs per Xero connection per night, so there is nothing to schedule or manage yourself.

Turning the sync on or off

The ongoing sync is on by default once you connect Xero.

To change it:

1. Go to Settings > Integrations.
2. Find the Xero card.
3. Toggle Keep in sync with Xero on or off.

When the toggle is off, linked employees stay exactly as they are in StaffBrik until you turn the sync back on or run a fresh import.

What stays in scope

The nightly sync only updates employees that were linked during a previous import. New employees added in Xero after that point are not pulled in automatically, you still need to run the import wizard to bring them into StaffBrik. This keeps you in control of who appears on the rota.

How conflicts are handled

If the same field is changed in both Brikly and Xero between syncs, Xero wins. For example, if you adjust a pay rate in Brikly and someone else adjusts it in Xero, the Xero value will overwrite the Brikly value on the next nightly run.

For most cafes this is the safer default, payroll is usually the system of record for pay. If you want a Brikly-side change to stick, make the matching change in Xero too, or turn the sync off temporarily.

Effective dates

When a new pay rate is applied through the sync, it takes effect from the date of the sync, not from Xero's historical effective date. In other words, if Xero records a pay rise as effective from the 1st of the month and the sync picks it up on the 5th, Brikly will use the new rate from the 5th onwards.

If you need rota costing to reflect an earlier effective date, edit the rate manually in the employee profile before the next sync runs.

Reviewing What Changed

Brikly keeps a record of every sync so you can see exactly what has been updated and when.

Where to find it

Go to Settings > Integrations and scroll to Recent sync activity below the Xero card.

What it shows

The panel lists the last 20 syncs for your Xero connection, with one row per sync:

• When it ran (date and time).
• Status (success or failed).
• Source (Scheduled for the nightly sync, or Manual if you triggered it from the wizard).
• Counts showing how many employees were checked and how many had changes applied.

Expanding a row

Click a row to expand it. You will see a per-employee breakdown showing each field that changed, with the old value and the new value side by side. This makes it easy to spot a pay rate update or a corrected email at a glance.

The StaffBrik badge

A small number badge appears next to StaffBrik in the sidebar when there are recent syncs you have not yet reviewed. The badge clears as soon as you open the Recent sync activity panel.

Failed syncs

If a sync fails, the row shows the reason. Most transient failures retry automatically once, about an hour after the first attempt. If both attempts fail, you will see the failed row and the next scheduled retry is the following night's run.

Common causes of failure:

• Your Xero connection has expired or been revoked. Reconnect Xero from Settings > Integrations.
• Xero is temporarily unavailable. These usually clear on the next run, no action needed.

If failures keep happening night after night, reconnecting Xero almost always resolves it.

Re-importing

The import wizard is still the right tool for adding new employees from Xero into StaffBrik, or for linking employees you originally added by hand. Run it whenever:

• You have hired someone new in Xero and want them in StaffBrik.
• You added a member of staff manually and now want to link them to their Xero record so the ongoing sync can keep them up to date.

For existing linked employees, you no longer need to re-import to pick up changes, the ongoing sync handles that for you.