What is a WooCommerce payment clearing account in Xero?

It is a Xero account used to hold gateway sales and payment movements before they are reconciled against bank deposits and fees.

Can BACS be treated differently from card payments?

Yes. Payment mappings can leave BACS orders unpaid while card or gateway-paid orders are posted as paid where appropriate.

Can payment methods be skipped?

Yes. Users can decide per store and payment method whether to create an invoice only, invoice plus payment, daily summary, or skip where appropriate.

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WooCommerce mapping

Map each WooCommerce payment method to the Xero account that represents it

Payment clearing in ClearCommerce is a configuration problem: identify the WooCommerce method, choose the Xero account and choose what that method should do when the store exports.

Review your mappings What is a clearing account?

Payment methods should stay as source data

WooCommerce may call a method Stripe, PayPal, card, BACS or use a custom gateway identifier. ClearCommerce keeps that identifier with the order rather than converting it into a fixed account too early.

The business chooses the accounting destination

In the mapping layer, each source method can point to the Xero account used by that company. Two customers using the same WooCommerce gateway do not have to share the same chart-of-accounts code.

The mapping can influence posting behaviour

A captured card method may join a daily summary and use a clearing account. A BACS trade order can instead remain as an unpaid individual invoice. A method that should not export can be skipped deliberately.

Example mapping table

One store can use several accounting treatments

Stripe

Map to the Stripe clearing account and include captured retail orders in the paid-date summary.

PayPal

Map to a separate PayPal clearing account so its balance and transfers remain distinguishable.

BACS

Route eligible trade orders to individual unpaid invoices instead of inventing a payment.

Questions people ask

FAQs

Can one WooCommerce store use different clearing accounts for different gateways?

Yes. Each payment method identifier can map to its own Xero account, so Stripe, PayPal and BACS can all post to different clearing accounts on the same store.

What happens to a payment method that has no mapping configured?

It can be flagged for review or explicitly skipped, rather than defaulting silently to an incorrect account.

Does payment clearing mapping affect VAT treatment?

No, they are configured independently. Payment clearing controls which Xero account represents the money; tax mappings control the VAT rate applied.

Need to reconcile the later gateway settlements as well?

The gateway reconciliation page explains the timing difference between captured sales, processor payouts and bank deposits.

Gateway reconciliation