Instead of Xero Practice Manager
Xero Practice Manager tracks the job. Own what the ATO says after it.
Enterprise DNA builds your version around the way your team opens ATO mail, checks it and tells clients, brings your XPM client list across, and runs it for you. Keep XPM for jobs and timesheets if it suits you; the post-lodgment record lives with your practice.
Xero includes practice management free for Silver, Gold and Platinum partners. New and Bronze partners pay A$163.90 a month for up to 10 users, GST included, after a 14-day trial.
- check_circleYour data in a database you own
- check_circleOpen source, no lock-in
- check_circleBuilt and run by Enterprise DNA
What XPM really costs you
Free at Silver, paid at Bronze, and tied to Xero either way
For a Bronze practice the subscription is A$163.90 a month, A$1,966.80 a year with GST. For a Silver practice and above the price is your partner status. In both cases the system is built around jobs and invoices, not around the letters that arrive after lodgment.
A price set by your partner status
Practice management is excluded at Bronze and included from Silver up. Drop a level and the job system you depend on becomes a monthly subscription.
Ten users on the paid tier
The A$163.90 monthly subscription covers up to 10 users. The size of your team is written into the plan.
Practice records inside the partner platform
Clients, jobs, time and billing history live in Xero Partner Hub. Leaving means exporting and rebuilding, not just cancelling.
A workflow that stops at lodgment
Job status sits beside tax return progress. The ATO letters that come back after lodgment are not what it is built to track.
No register of ATO letters
Debt letters, payment plan notices and audit letters land in practice mail and someone's inbox. XPM shows the job, not whether each client was told.
Reports built for billing
Work in progress, recoverable costs and staff time come ready made. Which clients owe the ATO this fortnight without knowing is not one of them.
What you get instead
The part after lodgment, in records your practice keeps
After lodgment
Every ATO letter tied to the client and the return it answers
Save practice mail from ATO Online and scans of paper letters into one folder. Each is read, matched to the client from your XPM list, and logged with its amounts and dates.
- check Your XPM client export is the starting client list, brought in with one import
- check A letter it cannot place waits for a person, confirmed against the last three TFN digits
- check Oldest unseen letters first, so nothing sits in a shared inbox for a month
- check A turnaround target your practice sets, with anything past it flagged
Checking
The assessed figure set against the figure you lodged
The lodgment record keeps what you expected back. When the notice of assessment arrives, the difference is shown and needs a written reason before the client hears a number.
- check Differences shown in dollars, each with its recorded reason
- check Anything unresolved after 30 days raised, because objection windows run out
- check No client letter drafted for a notice nobody has checked
- check Practice rules, each citing its source, run across every record in one pass
Clients
What each client owes the ATO, and whether they know
One list of every amount due to the ATO across the practice, with the due date and a plain yes or no on whether the client has been told.
- check Due within 14 days and the client not told, at the top every morning
- check Payment plan instalments followed one by one, so a missed one is flagged
- check Client letters drafted in your practice's name for a person to read and send
- check Questions XPM does not answer, such as which family group has the most open ATO items
Ownership
Records that stay yours whatever your partner status
Plain records in a database the practice owns, on one laptop or shared across the office. No status level, user count or subscription decides whether you can open them.
- check Only the last three digits of a tax file number can ever be stored
- check No cap on how many of your team use it
- check Works alongside XPM, or carries on if you move away from Xero
- check Open source under the MIT licence, so there is nothing to unwind if you stop
Make it yours
Design your own Xero Practice Manager replacement
Everything starts from the open-source base. Then it gets your name, the parts you run, your rules and your data from Xero Practice Manager. Try it here, and we build the real one.
2. What it runs
3. Make it fit
4. Your colour
Answered from your own database
Good morning. Here is what needs you today.
We build it from the open-source base, bring your Xero Practice Manager data across and run it for you.
Switching
How to switch from Xero Practice Manager
The move involves bringing over your XPM client list, choosing which ATO letter history to add, and checking the new register alongside your current process before deciding what to keep.
- 1
Export your client list
Export your client list from Xero Practice Manager. The free version can import an XPM client export directly. Export what your account allows and check with Xero Practice Manager if you are unsure. You can also gather the past ATO letters you want to bring across from the PDFs you already hold.
- 2
Test the import first
Have the person setting up the register run the import's test option before loading your records for real. This gives you a chance to confirm that the client details are being read as expected. The import is designed for an XPM client export, while past ATO letters come from the PDFs you hold. Jobs, timesheets and billing history stay in XPM.
- 3
Load records and check results
Once the test looks right, load the client list into the register. Review the import report, including whether it shortened any tax file numbers to their last three digits. Follow up on anything the import reports before relying on the register. Add the past ATO letters you chose to bring in from your stored PDFs.
- 4
Run both side by side
Keep your current XPM process running for a short period while your team starts using the new register for ATO correspondence. Check that the client list is usable and that the letters you add are recorded against the right clients. XPM continues to hold jobs, timesheets and billing history, so do not treat the new register as a replacement for those records.
- 5
Decide whether to switch XPM off
ATO Correspondence for Claude Code takes over the ATO correspondence register, not XPM's jobs, timesheets or billing. Many practices keep XPM for that work. Only switch off XPM if you have separately moved the work and records you still rely on. If you are keeping XPM for practice management, there is no need to switch it off to use the new register.
Where the real effort goes
The main work is usually mapping your own fields and rules, then deciding how much history to bring across. Your XPM client list imports directly, but jobs, timesheets and billing history stay in XPM. Past ATO letters come from PDFs you already hold. When Enterprise DNA installs and runs the system for you, it handles this setup and migration work.
Not ready for a call?
Get your Xero Practice Manager switch plan by email
We will send you the step-by-step plan for moving your business off Xero Practice Manager, what the move really involves, and how we would do it for you.
Sent. Check your inbox.
Your Xero Practice Manager switch plan is on its way.
Rather talk it through? Book a call arrow_forwardChoose how you start
Try the free version, or have Enterprise DNA build and run yours
Open source
Do it yourself
Free
- 1 Get the free version from GitHub
- 2 Run the demo practice and open the folder in Claude Code
- 3 Ask which clients owe the ATO and have not been told
- 4 Import your XPM client export and start registering your own ATO mail
Omni by Enterprise DNA
Have Enterprise DNA build and run it
One setup fee, then a monthly retainer
- check We bring your XPM client list across and check every client landed
- check Practice mail downloads and scanned letters routed into the intake folder
- check Checking standards, turnaround targets and letter wording set for your practice
- check Run for you inside Omni, our managed Command Center, beside the rest of your practice
Questions
Instead of Xero Practice Manager, answered
Do we have to stop using Xero Practice Manager? expand_more
No. Many practices keep XPM for jobs, timesheets and invoicing. This takes over the part XPM does not hold: the letters the ATO sends after lodgment, the check against what you lodged, and the record of what each client was told. If you later move off Xero, the register comes with you.
Can our XPM client list come across? expand_more
Yes. The free version reads an XPM client export directly, in one import step. Jobs, timesheets and billing history stay in XPM; past ATO letters come in from the PDFs you already hold.
XPM is free for us at Silver. Why pay for anything? expand_more
The free version costs nothing either. What you pay for at Silver is staying Silver, and what you get is a job system, not a register of ATO letters. If you want the register set up and looked after, we will say on the call whether our fee is worth it at your size.
Does it pull ATO reports the way Xero does? expand_more
Not the free version, and it holds no ATO credential. It works from the practice mail your team downloads from ATO Online and from scanned paper letters. If you want a direct feed, Enterprise DNA builds one under your practice's own access.
What happens to tax file numbers? expand_more
The database refuses anything beyond the last three digits. An XPM export that carries TFNs is cut down on the way in, the import tells you how many it shortened, and no client letter ever shows one.
Keep the job system. Own the ATO's side of the story.
Thirty minutes with Sam. We look at your Xero partner status and what XPM costs you, how ATO letters reach your team after lodgment and who follows them up, and what your own register would look like. If it fits, we build it and run it. If not, the free version is yours to keep.
ATO Correspondence for Claude Code is free and open source, published by Enterprise DNA.
Done paying for Xero Practice Manager?
Get your version built