Xero Contacts Management

Overview

Contacts are the foundational entity in Xero, representing customers (clients you invoice), suppliers (vendors you pay), or both. Every invoice, payment, credit note, and bank transaction is linked to a contact. For MSPs, contacts typically represent managed services clients, hardware vendors, software suppliers, and subcontractors.

Anti-triggers

• The CRM view of the same organization — Xero contacts carry AR/AP balances but no pipeline, owner, or activity history; use hubspot-companies or salesbuildr-companies-contacts.
• The billing target on the payment rail — use alternative-payments-customers.
• Chart-of-accounts entries — a Xero "account" is a general ledger code, not a customer account; use xero-accounts.
• The same operation in QuickBooks — use qbo-customers.

Core Concepts

Contact Types

Xero contacts can be customers, suppliers, or both. The type is determined by usage rather than a fixed field:

Role	Description	MSP Example
Customer	Contacts you create sales invoices (ACCREC) for	Managed services clients
Supplier	Contacts you receive bills (ACCPAY) from	Software vendors, ISPs
Customer & Supplier	Both roles	Partner MSPs, distributors

Contact Status

Status	Description
ACTIVE	Active contact (default)
ARCHIVED	Archived contact (hidden from lists)
GDPR_REQUEST	GDPR deletion requested

Contact Groups

Contacts can be organized into groups for reporting and filtering:

Group	MSP Use Case
Managed Services	Clients on monthly contracts
Break-Fix	Ad-hoc support clients
Vendors	Hardware and software suppliers
Partners	Co-managed or referral partners

Key Fields

Name is the only required field and must be unique. AccountNumber and ContactNumber are free-text and are the natural place to store your PSA client ID. IsCustomer/IsSupplier and the Balances.* totals are read-only and derived from invoice history.

See references/fields.md for the complete field reference, including address, phone, and balance fields.

API Patterns

Every request needs both Authorization: Bearer ${ACCESS_TOKEN} and xero-tenant-id: ${XERO_TENANT_ID}. Xero-specific quirks:

• Updates use POST, not PUT, against /Contacts/{ContactID}, and the body must repeat the ContactID.
• Filters go in a URL-encoded where clause with doubled quotes around string literals, && for AND, and .Contains() / .StartsWith() for partial name matching.
• /Contacts is paginated at 100 records per page — pass page=N.

# Search by name (partial match)
curl -s -X GET "https://api.xero.com/api.xro/2.0/Contacts?where=Name.Contains(%22Acme%22)" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
  -H "xero-tenant-id: ${XERO_TENANT_ID}" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

See references/api.md for the full endpoint catalog and create/update/archive/search examples.

Common Workflows

MSP Client Onboarding

1. Create contact with company details and billing address
2. Set account number using your PSA or internal reference
3. Add to contact group (e.g., "Managed Services")
4. Set default currency if multi-currency
5. Create first invoice for onboarding or first month

async function onboardMspClient(clientData) {
  const token = await auth.getToken();

  const contact = await createContact(token, {
    Name: clientData.companyName,
    ContactNumber: clientData.psaId,
    AccountNumber: clientData.accountCode,
    EmailAddress: clientData.billingEmail,
    Addresses: [
      {
        AddressType: 'STREET',
        AddressLine1: clientData.address,
        City: clientData.city,
        Region: clientData.state,
        PostalCode: clientData.zip,
        Country: clientData.country
      }
    ],
    Phones: [
      {
        PhoneType: 'DEFAULT',
        PhoneNumber: clientData.phone
      }
    ],
    DefaultCurrency: clientData.currency || 'USD'
  });

  return contact;
}

Client Offboarding

1. Verify all invoices are paid - Check outstanding balances
2. Create final invoice if needed for remaining services
3. Archive the contact - Do not delete for audit trail

async function offboardClient(contactId) {
  const token = await auth.getToken();

  // Check outstanding balance
  const contact = await getContact(token, contactId);
  const outstanding = contact.Balances?.AccountsReceivable?.Outstanding || 0;

  if (outstanding > 0) {
    console.log(`WARNING: ${contact.Name} has $${outstanding} outstanding.`);
    return { status: 'blocked', reason: 'outstanding_balance', amount: outstanding };
  }

  // Archive the contact
  await updateContact(token, contactId, { ContactStatus: 'ARCHIVED' });
  return { status: 'archived', contact: contact.Name };
}

PSA Cross-Reference

Use the ContactNumber field to store your PSA system's client ID:

async function findByPsaId(psaId) {
  const token = await auth.getToken();
  const where = encodeURIComponent(`ContactNumber=="${psaId}"`);
  const response = await fetch(
    `https://api.xero.com/api.xro/2.0/Contacts?where=${where}`,
    {
      headers: {
        'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}`,
        'xero-tenant-id': process.env.XERO_TENANT_ID,
        'Accept': 'application/json'
      }
    }
  );
  const data = await response.json();
  return data.Contacts?.[0] || null;
}

Bulk Contact Report

async function generateClientReport() {
  const contacts = await fetchAllContacts();

  return contacts
    .filter(c => c.IsCustomer && c.ContactStatus === 'ACTIVE')
    .map(contact => ({
      name: contact.Name,
      accountNumber: contact.AccountNumber,
      email: contact.EmailAddress,
      outstanding: contact.Balances?.AccountsReceivable?.Outstanding || 0,
      overdue: contact.Balances?.AccountsReceivable?.Overdue || 0,
      city: contact.Addresses?.find(a => a.AddressType === 'STREET')?.City
    }))
    .sort((a, b) => b.overdue - a.overdue);
}

Gotchas

• Contact names must be unique tenant-wide, including archived contacts. A "Name must be unique" 400 often points at an archived record, so search before assuming the name is free.
• POST to /Contacts upserts. Including a ContactID in the body updates the existing contact rather than creating a new one.
• Balances are only returned on the single-contact GET, not consistently on list responses — fetch the contact directly when you need AR/AP totals.
• Archived contacts still appear in filtered queries unless you constrain on ContactStatus=="ACTIVE".

See references/errors.md for the complete error-code table.

Error Recovery Pattern

async function safeCreateContact(data) {
  try {
    return await createContact(data);
  } catch (error) {
    if (error.message?.includes('must be unique')) {
      // Contact exists - find and return it
      const existing = await searchContactByName(data.Name);
      return existing;
    }

    if (error.status === 401) {
      // Token expired - refresh and retry
      await auth.refreshToken();
      return await createContact(data);
    }

    throw error;
  }
}

Best Practices

1. Use unique names - Xero requires unique contact names; include location if needed
2. Set AccountNumber - Map to your PSA client ID for cross-referencing
3. Use ContactNumber - Store PSA or internal reference numbers
4. Include billing email - Required for emailing invoices directly from Xero
5. Add both addresses - STREET for physical, POBOX for mailing/billing
6. Use contact groups - Organize clients by service tier or type
7. Archive, don't delete - Preserve historical data and audit trail
8. Set default currency - Important for international MSP clients
9. Check balances before archiving - Ensure no outstanding amounts

Related Skills

• Xero Invoices - Creating invoices for contacts
• Xero Payments - Payment tracking by contact
• Xero Reports - Aged receivables by contact
• Xero API Patterns - API reference