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Export payroll and push to Xero
CSV downloads, pay-item mappings, draft payslip preparation, automatic export and safe retries.
Last updated · 10 November 2026
The download icon above the grid, Export CSV, opens Summary CSV, By-category CSV and, when available, Push payroll to Xero. CSVs include every worker in the displayed week, regardless of View or search filters. They use current calculations for an open week and frozen figures for a finalised week. Payroll read access is enough to download; sending to Xero needs Payroll Add permission and the enabled, connected integration.
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Payroll export menu offers Summary CSV and By-category CSV with descriptions; neither export is run.
Download the CSVs
- Summary CSV downloads
payroll-week-[weekStartIso].csv: worker, SCHADS classification, daily and total hours, sleepover hours and gross pay, plus Included calculated allowances (AUD) and Included manual items (AUD). An unclassified worker’s gross pay is blank. - By-category CSV downloads
payroll-week-[weekStartIso]-by-category.csv: worker, classification, pay category, hours, rate and amount. Additional columns identify quantities, units, allowance coverage and rate evidence where applicable. It includes applicable penalties, Public holiday overtime, manual pay items and allowance amounts. Allowance rows use dollar amounts rather than worked hours.
Prepare Xero before exporting
Connect and map pay items
An owner connects Xero and reads the separate Billing and invoicing and Payroll connection checks under Account›Integrations and configures payroll pay-item mappings there. The connection needs payroll access, including permission to update pay runs. If the export asks you to reconnect, reconnect and approve the required access.
By default, worked pay categories match their full penalty description; mappings let you use your own Xero pay-item names. Worked hours require Rate per unit items so the finalised hours and hourly rates are preserved. Public holiday overtime has its own mapping.
Sleepover, broken-shift and vehicle allowance amounts require matching Fixed amount allowance items. Configure their tax and super settings in Xero for your circumstances. These allowance dollars are included in the export; do not enter them again by hand.
Prepare the draft pay run
Match each worker to exactly one Xero employee by first and last name. The employee needs a payroll calendar and must be included in an existing draft Xero pay run, with a draft payslip. Use a Monday-based weekly or fortnightly period that matches the OneForce payroll weeks.
Finalise every OneForce week covered by the Xero period. For a fortnight, both weeks must be finalised before the full period can export. OneForce updates the prepared draft payslips; it does not create the draft pay run or new draft timesheets.
Export the frozen pay
Select Push payroll to Xero from Export CSV, or Push to Xero beside Reopen. The menu describes the action as Updates draft Xero payslips with finalised hours, rates and allowances. It is available for a connected workspace, a finalised week and workers still needing export.
Success reads 1 draft payslip updated in Xero payroll. or N draft payslips updated in Xero payroll. Skipped workers are reported separately. Fix their employee, calendar, draft payslip or pay-item setup and retry; workers already successfully exported are retained.
Automatic export after finalising
When Xero is enabled and connected and the week has not been pushed, finalising still attempts the export automatically. Prepare the Xero draft pay run and mappings first. A fortnightly period may need the second week finalised, then a retry.
If export fails, the week remains finalised. The warning still reads Week finalised. The Xero timesheet push failed, push from the export menu. Open the Push to Xero detail and hover affected workers’ cloud icons in Sync & pay for the reason. Some checklist wording still refers to timesheets; the current export transfers frozen pay to draft payslips.
Resolve a rejected export
| Message | Action |
|---|---|
| Finalise the week before exporting payroll to Xero. | Finalise the OneForce week first. |
| Use a Monday-based weekly or fortnightly Xero pay run matching the OneForce pay weeks. | Correct the Xero calendar and draft period. |
| Add this employee to the draft Xero pay run before exporting. | Include the matched employee in the prepared draft pay run. |
| This draft Xero payslip already has earnings for a mapped pay item. Clear or reconcile those earnings before exporting to prevent duplicate pay. | Reconcile existing mapped earnings before retrying. |
| The Xero pay run is no longer a draft. No payroll amounts were changed. | Review the pay run in Xero before taking further action. |
| This week was exported as timesheets. Reconcile the existing Xero export before transferring full payroll amounts. | Reconcile the earlier hours export before attempting full payroll. |
An export also stops for incompatible item types, different frozen hourly rates using one Xero item, negative adjustments, changed draft earnings or totals that cannot match the frozen pay. Read the specific reason and reconcile it before retrying.
Check the draft payslips
Review the hours, rates, allowances and gross totals in Xero before authorising pay. Reopening and re-finalising a OneForce week does not remove or replace earnings already exported to Xero. Reconcile the existing payslips before another export to avoid duplicate pay.
Xero pay status is refreshed periodically in Sync & pay. Payment recorded in OneForce remains a separate audit record; it does not transfer money.
Keep versions and exports separate
A CSV from an open week is a current calculation. A CSV or Xero push from a finalised week uses that week’s saved hours, rates, allowances and manual items. Dated worker settings, rate changes and new shift edits do not rewrite that snapshot.
In Account > Integrations, wait for the Payroll connection check to show Ready, then open Payroll pay item mappings from its row/arrow. Select compatible items and Save payroll mappings. This drawer configures mapping; it does not create the employee calendar, pay run or payslips in Xero.
If only some worker exports succeeded, inspect each cloud status and the Xero draft before retrying the remainder. If the run was processed, the organisation changed, or frozen values no longer match a previous export, reconcile it rather than creating another pay run or duplicate earnings to force the retry through. Payment markers in OneForce remain separate from Xero’s pay-run state.
Choose the file that answers your question
| Question | Use |
|---|---|
| How much is each worker’s week, with daily totals? | Summary CSV |
| Which ordinary, penalty, overtime, allowance or manual lines make up that amount? | By-category CSV |
| What will Xero pay from the frozen record? | Review the finalised breakdown and prepared draft payslip, then the export result |
If you search for Jordan before opening the menu, the CSV still includes all workers in the selected week. Confirm the week and protect the whole file accordingly. To reconcile a dollar difference, compare categories, rates and allowances instead of treating every row as worked hours. An open-week download can change after source corrections; keep the finalised version when you need the frozen pay record.