Integrations / ERP / Xero
Does Xero Have Production Scheduling? Xero vs SkyPlanner APS
No. Xero is accounting software. It runs quotes, invoices, purchase orders, bills and tracked stock for small businesses, and it does this well. It has no bills of materials, routings, machines or production orders, so it cannot tell you what runs where, or when. Manufacturers that need that plan run SkyPlanner APS beside Xero.
Xero itself has not planned to add assembly. On its product ideas forum, the Xero team wrote in May 2026: “This is something we’re interested in solving longer term, however there is a bit of complexity involved in the work and it hasn’t been roadmapped at this stage.” (source)
How Xero handles production, step by step
1. Products and services
Every product you make or buy is an item. Items are tracked or untracked. “If an item is tracked it means Xero tracks the available quantity and value of the item.” (source) A tracked item carries a quantity on hand and an average cost.
An item has a code, a name, prices and accounts. It has no components, process steps, machine or time.
2. Quotes as the order book
Most workshops on Xero run their order book as quotes. A quote moves from Draft to Sent to Accepted, and then to Invoiced. (source) Xero has no production order, so the list of accepted quotes is the production queue.
3. Invoices
A sales invoice bills the customer when the goods are delivered. Invoicing a tracked item lowers its quantity on hand.
4. Purchase orders and bills
A purchase order records what you ordered from a supplier. It carries a delivery date, “Date the goods are to be delivered”, and an expected arrival date, “The date the goods are expected to arrive.” (source) When the goods arrive, the purchase order becomes a bill and quantity on hand rises.
5. Projects and time
Xero Projects records time and costs against a project and its tasks. Each time entry belongs to a Xero user and a task, with a date and a duration. (source) This records hours after the work is done. It does not plan them.
6. Inventory apps
Xero’s own inventory page sends businesses that need more to apps: “Apps include Cin7 Core, Unleashed, and ZapInventory”. (source) In the US, Xero also offers Xero Inventory Plus for multichannel stock and locations. These apps sit beside Xero and manage stock and orders. Xero itself still holds no machine or capacity data.
What stays with the planner
- No machines or work centers. Xero has no object for a lathe, a press or a sewing line, so it cannot show how loaded one is.
- No bills of materials or routings. Components, steps and run times live in a spreadsheet or in someone’s head.
- No capacity. Nothing in Xero checks whether the machines and people are free to finish an accepted quote by a date.
- No sequence. Which order runs first on which machine is decided on a whiteboard.
- No changeovers. Setup time that depends on the previous job is not modeled.
- No shifts. Working hours, leave and overtime are payroll data, not planning data.
- Dates by experience. The delivery date you promise is the date someone guessed.
In practice: the owner or a lead hand keeps the plan on a whiteboard or in Excel, checks it against Xero stock by hand, and calls the customer when a date slips.
When Xero is enough
Xero alone does the job when:
- You run one or two machines and a few people, and the queue fits on one whiteboard.
- Most jobs take hours, not days, and rarely wait for each other.
- One person decides the order of work and knows the workshop well.
- Your real constraint is cash or stock, not machine time.
If that is your workshop, keep your items and quotes clean in Xero and plan by hand.
When you need a finite capacity scheduler
You have outgrown the whiteboard when several of these are true:
- Several machines carry different loads, and one is booked for weeks while another waits.
- Shifts, overtime, holidays or absences differ by machine or team.
- Changeover time depends on which product ran before.
- One order passes through several machines, and the slowest step sets the delivery date.
- Rush orders and breakdowns force you to rebuild the plan by hand.
- You promise delivery dates before you know if the capacity is there.
What to look for
- Per-resource capacity with shifts, leave, absences and overtime.
- Process steps per product held in the scheduler, since Xero has none.
- Whole-schedule sequencing of every open order by priority and due date.
- A setting time matrix with sequence-dependent, asymmetric changeover times.
- Tools as finite shared resources and multi-operator jobs.
- Material-aware scheduling that uses stock and the arrival dates on Xero purchase orders.
- Automatic rescheduling when production progresses or orders change.
- A concrete write-back to Xero. The Xero API can add a note to a quote, create a draft sales invoice, move an accepted quote to Invoiced and post project time entries. Ask every vendor which of these their schedule writes.
The options fall into three groups:
- Xero alone keeps everything in Xero and plans by hand.
- Inventory and MRP apps that sync with Xero, such as Katana, MRPeasy, Fishbowl Manufacturing, Cin7 Core or Unleashed, move stock and orders into a second system that posts to Xero.
- A cloud APS beside Xero, where SkyPlanner sits, schedules every resource from your Xero quotes and writes finished work back.
Where SkyPlanner fits
SkyPlanner APS fills each gap above. You define workstations, people, shifts and each product’s process steps in SkyPlanner once. Every workstation and person gets its own shifts, leave, absences and overtime shifts. The Arcturus engine places each job on a real time slot on the Gantt timeline, in seconds, by job priority, completion date, customer priority, Fast Track and Dynamic Priorities.
The setting time matrix holds the changeover time between each pair of products in both directions, and the engine picks the order with the least setup. Tools are finite shared resources, and a job can need several operators at once. When a workstation or person is unavailable, the engine uses the alternatives you define.
Material-driven scheduling simulates future inventory from stock and incoming purchase orders. Work is planned only when material is there. Autopilot reschedules automatically when production changes, and Running Time Lock keeps started jobs in place. Operators log work with Mobile Confirmations, Production Timer and Quick Log Mode.
Choose SkyPlanner when you want to keep Xero as your system and add a real production plan beside it.
Choose SkyPlanner when several machines, shared tools or crews decide what can run next.
Choose SkyPlanner when finished work should reach Xero as a draft invoice without retyping.
Start with a CSV import in the 30-day free trial (up to 20 workstations, no credit card). After that, pricing is from 199 € per month with 5 workstations included, billed monthly. The integration is quoted up front for your process and needs, together with your plan.
SkyPlanner integrates with Xero in both directions through the Xero Accounting API. Contacts, tracked items, accepted quotes and purchase orders flow in. The planned finish date, draft invoices for finished orders and project time entries go back. The SkyPlanner team configures the integration during onboarding, or your Xero advisor or developers build it on SkyPlanner’s documented REST API (API reference).
Read the overview on the SkyPlanner for Xero page, go to the Xero integration guide, learn the basics in production scheduling, or compare all integrations.
SkyPlanner reviews from manufacturers
2 hsaved every week
“SkyPlanner has taken our production planning from Excel spreadsheets to real-time production optimization.”
Kalle Kalliomäki, Supply Chain Specialist
UTU · Electrical switchboards and switchgear
Production planning saves 2 hours of working time every week, and a new work queue reaches the line in seconds.
+90%production efficiency
“Efficiency has gone up 90% in production.”
Abdul Rucyinga, Head of IT
Laboratory & Allied · Pharmaceutical manufacturing
Production efficiency is up 90%, and a three-month optimized plan across all workstations takes under 30 minutes.
98%delivery reliability, up from about 50%
“SkyPlanner plays a decisive role in maintaining our delivery reliability.”
Hannu Lahtinen, Managing Director
KJH-Comp · Sheet-metal mechanics and contract manufacturing
Delivery reliability rose from around 50% to as high as 98%, and scheduling now needs one supervisor instead of two.
6 monthsof free capacity visible to sales
“SkyPlanner creates the foundation and reliability for all production planning.”
Anu Järvinen, Production Manager
Fredman Operations · Food-safe packaging papers
Sales sees free capacity six months ahead, and schedule-change requests that took an hour or more are answered in seconds.
FAQ
Can Xero schedule production?
No. Xero holds no machines, routings or production orders. It records quotes, invoices, purchase orders, stock and time. A scheduler such as SkyPlanner APS plans the work beside it.
Does Xero support bills of materials or assemblies?
No. Assembly inventory is a product idea that Xero says “hasn’t been roadmapped at this stage.” Manufacturers add an inventory or MRP app, or keep product structures in a scheduler such as SkyPlanner.
Is Xero an ERP?
No. Xero is accounting software for small businesses. Manufacturers on Xero add an inventory app, an MRP or a scheduler such as SkyPlanner APS for production.
Do we need an MRP before we can use SkyPlanner with Xero?
No. SkyPlanner holds your workstations, process steps and shifts and reads quotes, items and purchase orders straight from Xero. If you already run an MRP such as Katana or MRPeasy, SkyPlanner schedules from it instead.
What does SkyPlanner send back to Xero?
The planned finish date as a note on each quote, a draft sales invoice with the quote’s lines when the order is finished, the quote’s move to Invoiced, and logged hours as project time entries.
