Xero/Loft - Common FAQ's

Xero/Loft - Common FAQ's

Xero Support

For General Xero help, please visit https://central.xero.com

User Roles in Xero

Setup a bank feed 

You can set up automated bank feeds in Xero https://central.xero.com/s/article/Set-up-a-Yodlee-feed

Support for bank feeds

As much as we'd love to assist with this, your Xero feeds are provided by the Yodlee integration within Xero itself. You will need to reach out to Xero's support to assist with this https://central.xero.com

Manual bank statement importing

Bank feeds are not necessary to see your banking transactions in Xero.  Xero offers manual bank statement imports https://central.xero.com/s/article/About-manually-importing-bank-statements

How Data is shared between Loft 47 & Xero

Bidirectional Sync

  1. Agents/Organizations in Loft47 sync with Contacts in Xero.
  2. Offices & Locations / Tax Types in Loft47 pull data from Tracking Categories / Tax Rates in Xero.
  3. Agent Account Balances are synchronized between both platforms.

Data Sent from Loft47 to Xero

  1. Payments to brokers, agents, escrow, trust, release, and accounts payable are sent as Unpaid Bills.
  2. Payroll Journal Entries appear as Bills with “Paid” Status in Xero.
  3. Bank Transfers are represented using Spend Money and Receive Money entries.
  4. Account Payments from Commissions are sent as Unused Credit Notes.

What Journal Entries does Loft47 post to Xero

Loft47 syncs key financial data to Xero using journal entries. These include deposits (credited to trust accounts), commissions and brokerage income (categorized as revenue or costs), payments to agents or external brokers (as expenses), and fund transfers between accounts. Each transaction is matched to its appropriate Xero account using mapping rules.
Learn more about how mapping entries work  https://support.loft47.com/portal/en/kb/articles/how-real-estate-transactions-work

Deposits

Bank deposit: Debits the Bank account (Receiving account), credits an offset Liability account –– Trust liability and/or Commission Payable Liability depending on the Receiving account. Each entry links to the related deal in Loft, and can be reconciled with your bank feed when the transaction appears.


Transfers Between Bank Accounts

When you transfer funds between bank accounts in Loft, two Xero entries are created. In this example there's a transfer between the Trust/Escrow account and the Commission Account)

Spend transaction – Credits the Spending account (Trust/Escrow Account) and debits its offset account (Trust/Escrow Liability or Commission Payable Liability).

Receive transaction – Debits the Receiving Account and credits its offset liability account.

Loft only provides the account/transaction posts to your accounting, it does not physically transfer any funds to/from your bank accounts. You must transfer the actual funds via online banking. Loft47 emails a daily transfer report  summarizing the transfers for your ease of use when reconciling. 

Payments/Bills to Agents or External Brokers
Per Trust/Escrow rules, payments to external brokerages must be made from the Trust account. During onboarding, Loft47 helps you:
  1. Set up the correct payment accounts
  2. Configure agent deductions and split fees, each linked to a specific GL account
  3. Mark deductions as payables (if applicable), triggering bill creation in Xero
Each deduction is linked to a specific general ledger account. If marked as a payable, Loft47 creates a bill for the amount owed.  Loft47 records commissions, applies deductions, and clears any payables from the deposit. 
Bills appear in Xero under “Bills Awaiting Payment” and can be paid by check or any integrated digital payment method. Journal entries include clearing the payable balances

A pay stub for each agent is available within the deal in Loft.


How Gross Commissions appear on your Xero Income Statement

Commission Mapping Overview

When setting up your Brokerage, we use a standard commission mapping that a majority of Brokerages use. This setup allows for easy comparison between gross commissions and Expenses (outgoing payments) and helps calculate your Brokerage's true income as a percentage of gross commissions.

Default Accounting Mapping (for systems like Xero/QuickBooks Online)

Income Accounts

Commission Income – Total gross commissions on all deals.

Income to the Brokerage – Fees retained by the Brokerage from agent commissions.

Cost of Sales / Expense Accounts (“Direct Cost” or “Expense” )


Commissions Paid to Agents – Full commissions allocated to agents (not net pay).

Commissions to Outside Brokers – For payments made to third-party brokerages (if applicable).

This structure ensures clarity in reporting and simplifies income tracking.

Sample Profit & Loss Statement

A typical Profit and Loss (P&L) statement—also called an Income Statement—shows a business's revenues, costs, and expenses over a specific period (e.g., monthly, quarterly, or annually). It provides insight into the company’s profitability.

Here’s a standard structure of a P&L statement, broken into common sections, see image below

1. Revenue / Income

  • Gross Sales or Revenue

  • Commission Income

  • Other Income (e.g., referral fees, consulting income)

Total Revenue

2. Cost of Sales (Direct Costs)

  • Commissions Paid to Agents

  • Commissions to Outside Brokers

  • Referral Fees Paid

Total Cost of Sales

3. Gross Profit 

(Total Revenue – Total Cost of Sales)

4. Operating Expenses

  • Salaries & Wages (non-commission)

  • Office Rent

  • Marketing & Advertising

  • Technology & Subscriptions

  • Professional Fees (Legal, Accounting)

  • Travel & Entertainment

  • Insurance

  • Office Supplies

  • Other Operating Expenses

Total Operating Expenses

5. Operating Profit

(Gross Profit – Operating Expenses)


Xero Account Grouping

Some clients prefer to group accounts to clearly separate actual Brokerage income from gross commissions and commission expenses. Xero’s customizable reporting makes this easy https://central.xero.com/s/article/Edit-layout-of-a-new-financial-report
Below is a sample P&L showing how you can group top-line commissions separately from Cost of Sales—same data, just organized differently. 😊 

Sorry, QuickBooks Online does not offer this feature. 😔

Can't see your transaction from Loft47 in Xero?

If you're unable to see your transactions in Xero after you've done a completed batch has processed in Loft47, there could be a couple of reasons for this.
1. You haven't let the batch fully run.  Wait until it's run and check the status.
2. You have multiple browser tabs open and you need to refresh the tab you have Xero is in to see the transactions updated in Xero
3. There's a transaction error in the batch.  90+% of errors are because a contact is a duplicate either on the Loft47 side or in your accounting software's contacts and/or the contact in Loft47 is incorrectly linked to their respective contact(s) in your accounting software. 
You ​​​​​will need to know how to identify and troubleshoot those errors using this article https://support.loft47.com/portal/en/kb/articles/accounting-batches 
If the contact is a duplicate in Loft47, you will need to follow the steps in this article https://support.loft47.com/portal/en/kb/articles/merge-contacts#How_to_merge_contacts
If the contact is incorrectly linked, you will need to follow the steps in this article https://support.loft47.com/portal/en/kb/articles/accounting-batches#INCORRECTLY_LINKED_CONTACTS

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