Instead of Xero Projects
Keep Xero for the books, drop the Xero Projects upgrade. Own your job and time records.
Enterprise DNA builds your business its own job costing and time system around the way you quote, track and bill work, brings your project history across from Xero and runs it for you. Your accountant keeps working in Xero as before.
In Australia, Xero Projects is excluded from Grow (A$78 a month) and Comprehensive (A$107 a month) and included only on Ultimate 10 at A$143 a month, covering 10 users, then A$7 a month for each extra projects user. In New Zealand it sits on Ultimate at NZ$135 a month plus GST.
- check_circleYour data in a database you own
- check_circleOpen source, no lock-in
- check_circleBuilt and run by Enterprise DNA
Where the money goes
With Xero Projects, you buy the whole top plan to track a job
Xero sells job tracking as part of a plan tier, not as a product. To track time against a job you move the whole organisation up to Ultimate, A$143 a month in Australia, which is A$1,716 a year before any extra projects users.
An accounting upgrade to count hours
Grow and Comprehensive mark project time and cost tracking as excluded. The ledger you need may be on the cheaper plan; the job tracking is not.
Ten people, then A$7 each
Ultimate 10 covers ten projects users. The eleventh person who logs time adds A$7 a month, and Xero bills that usage a month in arrears.
The discount skips the extras
Xero's introductory offer applies to the base plan only. Add-on and usage charges, extra projects users included, are billed at full price from the first month.
Three reports to choose from
Project summary, project details and project financials. A question such as which clients' fixed price jobs ran over on the same task twice in a year sits outside them.
Job data shaped like accounting data
Projects lives inside the ledger, so its fields follow the ledger.
History that is hard to lift out
Xero users have asked on Xero's own ideas forum for a CSV export on a project's time tab and a bulk import of time.
What you get instead
A job ledger that sits beside Xero, not inside it
Jobs and budgets
Every job with its budget beside it
Each job carries its client, budget, fee type and rates. Ask how any of them is tracking and get the answer in a sentence.
- check Hours and value used against each job's budget, for every job you run
- check Fixed price jobs measured against the hours they took
- check Work logged against each job this week, by person
- check Your own job stages and fields, described in plain English and added for you
Logging work
Time goes in the way people talk
Someone types who, which job and how long. It lands on the right job at that person's rate, with no seat count to watch.
- check Durations written any way: 2h15
- check Job names matched, with the options listed when two fit
- check A weekly list of who has logged nothing
- check A seasonal hire or contractor costs nothing extra to add
Margin
What a job earned after the hours
Every entry holds a charge rate and a cost rate, so margin per job, per client and per person is arithmetic you can ask for.
- check Gross margin per job, per client and per staff member
- check The real hourly rate on fixed price work once every hour is counted
- check Billable share of each person's week
- check Questions the three standard reports were never built for
Billing
Ready to invoice, then into Xero
Ask what is ready to bill and get every unbilled hour and expense by client, then a draft invoice to raise in Xero.
- check Unbilled work ranked by value and by age
- check Draft invoices grouped by task and rate from the entries themselves
- check A covering note for the client, saved as a draft, never sent for you
- check Xero stays your ledger, so your accountant's month end does not change
Make it yours
Design your own Xero Projects replacement
Everything starts from the open-source base. Then it gets your name, the parts you run, your rules and your data from Xero Projects. 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 Projects data across and run it for you.
Switching
How to switch from Xero Projects
The move involves exporting the project records your account allows, mapping them into the new database and checking that the totals match.
- 1
Export your project records
Export the jobs, hours and expenses you want to bring across using the options your account allows, usually CSV or Excel, and check with Xero Projects about what you can export. Decide which parts of your history you need before you start, since the export may not include everything.
- 2
Map and load the records
The free version does not read Xero Projects data directly. Its import is shaped for Harvest, so your Xero records need to be mapped to the new database. Enterprise DNA can do this as part of building your version, or you can ask Claude Code to map the data yourself. If your chosen import process offers a test run, use it before loading the full set.
- 3
Check exceptions and totals
Review any records the import or mapping identifies as exceptions, then compare the totals for jobs, hours and expenses with Xero Projects. Check that the records you chose to bring across are represented and that the totals match. Resolve differences before your team starts relying on the new database for current work.
- 4
Run both side by side
Keep Xero Projects available while your team starts using the new database for current work. For a short period, compare the records and totals in both systems so you can spot missing entries or mapping problems. Keep Xero for your accounting, including bank feeds, GST and payroll. This change is for the project and time tracking layer only.
- 5
Switch off Xero Projects
Once the new database holds the records you need and the side-by-side checks are satisfactory, stop entering new work in Xero Projects. Keep Xero as your accounting system. Before changing your Xero plan, check which other features your business uses and discuss the change with your accountant.
Where the real effort goes
The real work is usually mapping your own fields and rules, then deciding how much project history to bring across. The available records may need checking and reconciliation. Enterprise DNA handles the mapping and checks when you have them build your version.
Not ready for a call?
Get your Xero Projects switch plan by email
We will send you the step-by-step plan for moving your business off Xero Projects, what the move really involves, and how we would do it for you.
Sent. Check your inbox.
Your Xero Projects switch plan is on its way.
Rather talk it through? Book a call arrow_forwardTwo ways to start
Try the free version, or have Enterprise DNA build yours
Open source
Run it yourself
Free
- 1 Download the free version from GitHub
- 2 Load the demo business and open the folder in Claude Code
- 3 Ask which jobs are over budget
- 4 Map your Xero project history in when you are ready
Omni by Enterprise DNA
Have Enterprise DNA build it for you
One setup fee, then a monthly retainer
- check We bring your Xero Projects jobs, time entries and expenses across and check the totals
- check Your job stages, rate cards and fee types set up the way you quote
- check Invoices posted to Xero if your team wants them
- check Run for you inside Omni, our managed Command Center, with the rest of the business
Questions
Instead of Xero Projects, answered
Do we have to leave Xero? expand_more
No. Xero stays your accounting system: bank feeds, GST, payroll and your accountant's access are untouched. This replaces only the job and time tracking that Xero puts on its Ultimate plan.
Could we then move to a cheaper Xero plan? expand_more
Possibly. In Australia, Grow is A$78 a month and Comprehensive A$107, against A$143 for Ultimate 10. Ultimate carries other features too, so check with your accountant what you use before you change plans. On the call we will look at it with you.
How does our project history come across? expand_more
Pulling your jobs, hours and expenses out of Xero and checking the totals match is part of what Enterprise DNA does when we build your version.
Will the free version read our Xero data as it is? expand_more
Not directly. The free version reads the Harvest time export out of the box, and Xero's project data is shaped differently. We map it for you, or you can ask Claude Code to map it yourself.
Xero Projects has a timer, location tracking and invoicing. What about those? expand_more
The free version records time after the fact in a sentence, has no phone app and drafts invoices rather than posting them. When Enterprise DNA builds your version, invoices that post straight to Xero can be added if your team needs them.
Keep the ledger in Xero. Keep the jobs in your own hands.
30 minutes with Sam. We look at which Xero plan you are on and why, how your team tracks and bills jobs today, and what your own version would look like beside Xero. If it fits, we build it and bring your history across. If not, the free version is yours to run.
Time Billing for Claude Code is free and open source, published by Enterprise DNA.
Done paying for Xero Projects?
Get your version built