Five steps from signup to your first live sync. Sign up, connect ConnectWise, connect Xero, configure the schedule and SMS settings, then run a dry-run cycle. Once you are happy with the dry-run output, flip to live. Most customers are running their first live cycle inside an hour.
Tenant provisioned on AU infrastructure
Dedicated integration user, AES-encrypted
OAuth-2, payroll scopes only
Schedule, mapping, Twilio SMS
Review output, flip the switch
Visit the trial signup URL and create your tenant. You will need a business email, a tenant name (usually your MSP's name), and your primary timezone. The 30-day trial does not require a credit card. Once the tenant is created, you land in the Connect Zero dashboard with three product modules to choose from. Select Timesheets to enter the Timesheets module setup. If you already have a Connect Zero tenant for the invoice-sync product, you can add Timesheets to the same tenant, no second tenant required.
The tenant is provisioned on Australian infrastructure. Your data stays in AU jurisdiction. The tenant comes with a sample dataset pre-loaded so you can see the dashboards working before you connect your real ConnectWise and Xero. You can clear the sample data at any time.
From the Timesheets module setup, click "Connect ConnectWise". Enter your ConnectWise public API key, private API key, member ID, and company URL. We recommend creating a dedicated integration user in ConnectWise with permissions scoped to time-entry read, member read, and pay-period read. This keeps the integration's access narrow and easy to audit. Connect Zero validates the credentials immediately, if anything is wrong, you see the error inline and can correct without leaving the page. Once validated, the connection saves and the next step unlocks. The credentials are encrypted at rest using AES-256.
If you do not have a dedicated integration user yet, the setup walkthrough shows you how to create one in ConnectWise (member type "API", role profile with the read scopes above). Allow 2 minutes for the ConnectWise side. If you get stuck, AU support is on chat from the dashboard during business hours.
From the same setup wizard, click "Connect Xero". You are redirected to Xero's OAuth flow. Sign in with your Xero credentials and authorise Connect Zero with the payroll.timesheets and payroll.employees.read scopes. If you have multiple Xero organisations under one Xero login, you choose which org to connect to this Connect Zero tenant. If you need multi-org mapping, connect the primary org first and add the others from the Xero settings panel after setup completes. The refresh token is stored encrypted and rotates per the standard Xero 30-day cycle.
After the Xero OAuth handshake completes, you land back in the Connect Zero setup wizard with the Xero org name confirmed. The next step is automatic mapping, Connect Zero attempts to match ConnectWise members to Xero employees by email address.
The schedule defaults to every six hours and most customers keep that. If you want faster or slower, set it in the schedule panel, anywhere from hourly to twelve-hourly. The mapping panel shows the auto-matched ConnectWise-to-Xero staff records; review and confirm each one. If a staff member shows "no Xero match", add them manually by selecting the right Xero employee from the dropdown. Multi-org tenants pick the Xero org per staff member here. Bulk-import via CSV is available for tenants onboarding more than 20 staff at once.
For SMS reminders, enter your Twilio account SID, auth token, and the phone number you want to send from. If you do not have a Twilio account, you can skip this step and add SMS later; email-only reminders work without Twilio. Configure the reminder schedule (default Wednesday 4pm and Friday 2pm), the threshold (default behind by 4 hours triggers a reminder), and the message template.
Dry-run mode is on by default for new tenants. With dry-run on, Connect Zero performs every step of a normal sync, reads from ConnectWise, computes the mapping, builds the Xero timesheet payload, but stops short of writing to Xero. Instead, it writes the would-be payload to the audit log so you can review exactly what the live sync would do. Click "Run first cycle (dry-run)" to trigger an immediate cycle outside the regular schedule. Within a minute, the audit log shows the entries that would have flowed, mapped to staff and pay periods, with any flags (missing mapping, no matching employee, etc.).
Review the dry-run audit log. If the output looks right, toggle dry-run off in the settings panel. The next regular cycle (or an immediate manual cycle) will run live and post to Xero. After the first live cycle completes, check Xero payroll directly, the timesheet lines should appear under the current pay period for each mapped staff member.
AU support is on chat from the dashboard during business hours, Adelaide time. Or browse the FAQ, most setup blockers are covered there.
Summarize your business so the visitor can learn about your offerings from any page on your website.
