Connecting your services

Why this exists

Features like email, video lessons and payments depend on outside services, and without a clear place to connect them, a centre owner cannot tell why something is not working. This page and its checklist show every service, what it is for, who pays and whether it is working. You connect each one yourself and can test it on the spot.

Your centre connects its own services under Settings > Integrations. Nothing is connected until someone at your centre saves it, and a feature that needs a service stays off until then.

Before you start

You need the integrations.manage permission. Changing a connection may ask you to confirm with two-step sign-in.

Start with the checklist

Settings > Connections checklist groups every service as Essential, Recommended or Optional. Each card says what it is for, who pays, whether your centre needs it, what works without it, the steps, and the last test result.

Email is the only essential one: invitations, invoices, reminders and password resets all go by email.

Ours, or the platform's

Some services can run on the platform's own account:

• Use the platform's, and bill us for it: nothing to set up. Your usage is measured and appears on your bill. Available for email, video (LiveKit), the AI service, the voice service and Google Maps.
• Ours: enter your own account's keys. You pay that company directly and can change the key yourself.

Payment services, Xero, HubSpot, Teachworks, Microsoft Teams and Twilio (SMS and calls) are always your own account.

Connect a service

1. Open the service from Settings > Integrations.
2. Choose Ours or the platform's, if offered, and fill in the fields. A saved secret is never shown again; leave a field blank to keep the saved value.
3. Save, then press Test connection. The test uses what is saved, not what is typed.
4. A green status means it works. Failing means the last test failed, with the reason.

Email, Twilio and HubSpot are tested for you when you save, so saving is all that is needed to start receiving mail, calls and webhooks.

Connect Xero

Xero connects by signing in, so there is nothing to type. Anyone with the Manage integrations permission can connect it, and it always asks for two-step sign-in. You cannot connect it while viewing the portal as another role.

1. Open Settings > Xero integration and press Connect to Xero.
2. Sign in to Xero and choose your centre's Xero organisation.
3. Xero sends you back to your centre's Xero page, which says Xero is connected.

Xero asks to allow invoices, contacts and payroll. If your Xero has no payroll, or you leave payroll off, invoices still connect and the page says payroll is not connected. To add payroll later, disconnect, connect again and allow payroll.

Finish in the same browser you started in, signed in as the same person, within 10 minutes. If it took longer, press Connect to Xero again. Disconnect removes the connection; your Xero organisation keeps everything already sent to it.

What goes to Xero

• When you send a family an invoice, the family's Xero contact and the invoice are sent to Xero.
• A credit note is sent too, when the family already has a Xero contact.
• Exporting an approved pay run sends it to Xero as a journal.
• Each night, and when you press Resync now, families are matched to Xero contacts with the same email.

Nothing is changed in the portal by what you do in Xero. The page's sync history lists every item sent and any that failed.

Statuses

• Connected, Not tested, Failing, Not connected.
• Switched off: the keys are kept but nothing uses them.

Good to know

• Online payments open your centre's own Airwallex account from Settings > Online payments. There are no keys to paste; the platform opens it for you.
• Microsoft Teams is only for centres that already run lessons in Teams. The portal's own online classroom does not need it.

Related

• Choosing your email domain
• Online lesson settings
• The setup checklist