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.

Re-importing and Syncing

The Xero import is a one-time pull, not an ongoing sync. If employee details change in Xero after import (e.g., a pay rise is processed in payroll), those changes are not automatically reflected in StaffBrik.

To update StaffBrik with changes from Xero:

1. Run the import again.
2. Employees already in StaffBrik will be flagged as potential matches.
3. Select Update existing for those you want to refresh.
4. Confirm the import to apply the updated data.

This intentional design keeps StaffBrik as your operational source of truth for scheduling, while Xero remains the source of truth for payroll.