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Customize Xero Tracking Category Name

Xero Tracking Category Name

Chee Hian Chng avatar
Written by Chee Hian Chng
Updated over a week ago

Customize Tracking Category Name

The names of these tracking categories can be customized to match your Xero configuration. This is useful when your Xero organization uses different names for these concepts.

The Default Names:

  1. Branch tracking category: `Branch`

  2. Cost Centre tracking category: `Cost Centre`

Steps to set up Customize Xero Tracking Category Name

  1. Navigate to Settings > Integrations > Xero Integration

  2. Enable Tracking Category

  3. Customize the tracking category names:

  4. Enter your Xero's branch tracking category name (e.g., "Location", "Office", "Site")

  5. Enter your Xero's cost centre tracking category name (e.g., "Department", "Division", "Team")

  6. Save settings

Important Points to take note of

  1. Exact Match Required: The names you enter must exactly match the tracking category names in your Xero organization

  2. Case Sensitive: Tracking category names are case-sensitive

  3. Maximum Length: 50 characters per name

  4. Applied to Exports: These names will be used in all future payroll exports

  5. Backward Compatible: Existing exports with default names will continue to work

How Tracking Categories are Applied

Export by Employee
​

When exporting grouped by employee, both tracking categories can be applied:

Branch: Always included (employee's branch)

Cost Centre: Included only if employee has exactly one cost centre assigned

Export by Cost Centre

When exporting grouped by cost centre:
Cost Centre: The cost centre name for that group
​
​Export by Branch

When exporting grouped by branch:

Branch: The branch name for that group

Example Scenarios

Scenario 1:

Using Default Names - Your Xero uses "Branch" and "Cost Centre" as tracking category names


No configuration needed - defaults will work

Scenario 2:
​
Custom Names - Your Xero uses "Location" instead of "Branch"

Your Xero uses "Department" instead of "Cost Centre"

Configure: Branch → "Location", Cost Centre → "Department"

Scenario 3:

Different Language - Your Xero uses tracking categories in another language

Configure the names to match your Xero's language

How to troubleshoot?

Common issues and solutions:

  • Verify tracking category names match exactly in Xero

  • Check that tracking categories exist in your Xero organization

  • Ensure tracking category names are case-sensitive matches

  • Verify maximum length (50 characters) is not exceeded

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