Use your account settings to control account-wide defaults, leave approvals and notifications, public holidays, role access, and your Xero connection. Most settings are available to administrators; access to Xero settings may also depend on your account permissions.
Getting there
Open Settings from the main navigation.
From Company Settings, choose the area you want to manage:
Leave Types
Public Holidays
Role Permissions
History
To manage Xero, open the Xero settings area. From there, select Sync logs to review previous Xero activity.
The main settings page also links to Induction Types and Competency Types, which are managed in the training areas.
Key concepts
Company Settings apply across your account. They include the financial year start, the standard staff break deduction, the default manager for new jobs and integrations, leave approval rules, notification recipients, safety-submission recipients and verifiers, quote recipients, meeting agenda recipients, KPI recipients, and notification redirects.
The New Zealand default for Financial Year Start is 1 April. You can change it for your account; this overrides the 1 April fallback used by dashboards.
Global Staff Breaks (hours) is automatically deducted from each labour entry on a timesheet. For example, 0.5 represents a 30-minute break. The value can be from 0 to 8 hours and can be entered in quarter-hour steps.
Approvals Required accepts between 1 and 5 approvals. Leave Approvers identifies the staff who can approve leave requests; the notification lists determine who is told when leave is requested or approved.
Public holidays are used in leave calculations and are maintained in the app. They are not synchronised with Xero.
Role access has three states: Allow, View Only, and Deny. Administrator access is locked in the permissions grid. Separate capabilities control whether a role can see financial information and wage information.
Xero can exchange payroll-related reference information and timesheets with the app. Each synchronised item can show as Synced, Diverged, or Local only, depending on its relationship with Xero.
How to review settings history
Open Settings and select History.
Each entry shows who made the change, when it was made, whether it was an update or revert, and how many fields changed.
Select Details to compare the previous and new values.
To restore the complete account settings to the state immediately before an entry, select Revert to this and confirm.
To restore only one visible field, expand the entry and select Revert field beside that field.
A complete revert also rolls back later changes to other fields. Reverting does not delete history; it creates a new revert entry. Sensitive values may be shown as “changed — hidden” and cannot be restored individually.
History is shown 20 entries at a time. Use Previous and Next to move through older entries, and ← Back to Settings to return.
How to manage leave types
Open Leave Types.
Select Add Leave Type.
Enter the required name. You can also add a description, choose an app calendar colour, and mark the type as Paid leave (synced to Xero).
Select Create Leave Type.
To change an existing type, use its edit control, update the details, and select Save changes.
To remove a type, use its delete control and confirm Delete.
Leave types can be Sync from Xero or pushed with Push to Xero. The push action shows how many local-only types are eligible. Local colours are used in calendars and are not sent to Xero.
A leave type that is already used by leave records cannot be deleted. Deleting a type in the app does not delete it in Xero. If a synchronised type is edited, it is marked Diverged until it is reconciled in Xero. Xero Payroll NZ does not support updating an existing leave type from the app, so edits to already-synchronised types cannot be pushed back.
How to manage public holidays
Open Public Holidays.
Select Add Public Holiday.
Enter the holiday name and date. Region and an app calendar colour are optional.
Select Create Holiday.
To amend a holiday, use its edit control and select Save changes.
To remove one, use its delete control and confirm Delete.
Public holidays are marked Local only because they are used for leave calculations and Xero does not provide public-holiday data for this connection.
How to manage roles
Open Role Permissions.
Find the page or capability you want to change.
Click a permission badge to cycle through Allow, View Only, and Deny.
Review the View Financials and View Wages capabilities for each role. These control access to sensitive financial and wage information.
Select Save Changes. Unsaved changes are shown before you save.
The grid covers Staff, Foreman, Manager, and Admin. Admin access is locked and cannot be changed in the grid. To discard custom page permissions and restore the system defaults, select Reset Defaults, confirm Reset, and then review the resulting permissions.
How to connect and use Xero
Open the Xero settings area.
If the status is Not Connected, select Connect to Xero and complete the Xero consent process, including choosing the organisation.
When connected, check the organisation name and connection date. You can select Disconnect to end the connection.
Use the available sync controls to update:
Time sheets with Sync time sheets.
Staff with Sync employees. Active staff need a date of birth and a complete home address, including address line 1, city, and postcode. Tablet-only staff are not included in the pending count.
Payroll earning rates with Sync earning rates.
Payrun calendars with Sync calendars.
For leave types, use Sync from Xero or Push to Xero from the Leave Types area.
The Xero page shows the number of items and the last sync time where available. After connecting, reference information—earning rates, calendars, and leave types—starts synchronising. If staff are linked to a previous Xero organisation, the app skips them until the old link is cleared from each staff record and they are synchronised again.
How to review sync logs
From Xero settings, select Sync logs.
Review the time, operation, status, number synced, skipped and failed, duration, and person or system that started the activity.
Select View for the full record.
In the detail view, review the Total, Synced, Skipped, and Failed counts. Expand Failed, Skipped, or Synced sections to inspect individual items and reasons.
Statuses include success, partial, failure, and in progress. In-progress logs update automatically. The log list keeps up to 100 recent entries and automatically removes entries after 90 days.
Tips & things to know
Save company settings after changing any value by selecting Save Settings. A successful save refreshes the page.
If you have not configured agenda recipients, the app starts with active Foreman, Manager, and Admin staff selected. Clearing that list makes it fall back to all active Foreman, Manager, and Admin staff.
Notification redirects apply only during the manager’s approved leave dates. Use Add redirect to send a manager’s notifications to a chosen delegate, or Remove to delete a redirect.
Quote recipients can include managers and administrators. If none are selected, only the quote owner is notified.
Sales KPI CC recipients can only be administrators. If none are selected, all active administrators receive the copy.
Keep leave-type names and paid-leave choices aligned between the app and Xero. A Diverged status means the local and Xero details differ.
Do not start another sync while an earlier one is still in progress unless you have confirmed that the first run has finished.
Use the sync detail view to distinguish skipped items from failed items; a skipped item is not necessarily an error.
FAQ
Who can manage settings?
Company settings, history, leave types, public holidays, and role permissions require administrator access. Xero settings and logs require the relevant Xero settings permission.
Does changing a role permission change administrator access?
No. Admin access is locked in the role permissions grid.
Can I restore just one setting?
Yes. In History, open an entry with Details and use Revert field. You can also restore the whole account settings state from immediately before that change with Revert to this.
Are public holidays sent to Xero?
No. Public holidays are maintained locally and used for leave calculations.
What does Diverged mean for a leave type?
The app and Xero have different details for that leave type. Reconcile the difference in Xero; changes to an already-synchronised leave type cannot be pushed from the app.
Why is a staff member not included in the Xero employee sync?
The staff member may be inactive, tablet-only, missing a date of birth or complete home address, already linked to Xero, or still linked to a previous Xero organisation.
How long are Xero sync logs available?
The Xero log list is automatically pruned after 90 days.
Troubleshooting
I cannot open a settings area
Confirm that you are signed in with an administrator account. For Xero areas, ask an administrator to check that your role has access to Xero settings.
My settings did not save
Check for validation messages, especially that the break value is between 0 and 8 hours and approvals are between 1 and 5. Correct the fields and select Save Settings again. If the problem continues, refresh the page and retry.
A leave type cannot be deleted
It is probably referenced by an existing leave record. Keep it and use a different leave type for future requests, or contact your administrator for help reviewing the existing records.
A Xero connection attempt fails
Start again from Connect to Xero in a clean browser tab. Make sure you select an organisation on the Xero consent screen and that your session has not expired. If the message says the account does not have permission, ask an administrator to connect it. If the problem persists, contact your administrator or support.
A sync shows failed or skipped items
Open View for that run and inspect the Failed and Skipped sections. Correct the reason shown for each item—such as incomplete staff details or an old organisation link—and run the relevant sync again. A partial result means that some items completed while others did not.
A sync remains in progress
Leave the detail page open for a short time; it refreshes automatically. You can safely leave the page and return to Sync logs. If it remains in progress unexpectedly, avoid starting duplicate runs and contact your administrator or support with the run time and operation shown in the log.