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Get Invoices from Xero to Power BI using Linx

I have a side project exploring low-cost and low-code ways of interfacing with Xero. I’ve extracted data using Linx from https://linx.software/ , a useful low-cost software solution.

You need to create a private Xero App at https://developer.xero.com/documentation/auth-and-limits/private-applications , this is actually fairly simple. Generating the certificate is the most difficult bit, see my blog https://mikeallen.com.au/post/Application-Authenticate-using-publicprivate-key-pairs.

Once that is done set up a Linx job with two steps:

1/ GetInvoices

2/TextFileWrite

It’s all pretty self-explanatory and it will generate a nice json file for you.

Import the json into Power BI using Power Query, the Date formats are a bit tricky because there’s a time zone in there. I’ve fixed the ‘Date’ column to make it just a Date.

Here’s the query:

let
     Source = Json.Document(File.Contents("C:\Users\Mike\Documents\LinxOutput\LinxInvoices.json")),
     #"Converted to Table" = Table.FromList(Source, Splitter.SplitByNothing(), null, null, ExtraValues.Error),
     #"Expanded Column1" = Table.ExpandRecordColumn(#"Converted to Table", "Column1", {"Type", "Contact", "Date", "DueDate", "Status", "LineAmountTypes", "LineItems", "SubTotal", "TotalTax", "Total", "TotalDiscount", "UpdatedDateUTC", "CurrencyCode", "CurrencyRate", "InvoiceID", "InvoiceNumber", "Reference", "BrandingThemeID", "Url", "SentToContact", "ExpectedPaymentDate", "PlannedPaymentDate", "HasAttachments", "Payments", "CreditNotes", "Prepayments", "Overpayments", "AmountDue", "AmountPaid", "FullyPaidOnDate", "AmountCredited"}, {"Type", "Contact", "Date", "DueDate", "Status", "LineAmountTypes", "LineItems", "SubTotal", "TotalTax", "Total", "TotalDiscount", "UpdatedDateUTC", "CurrencyCode", "CurrencyRate", "InvoiceID", "InvoiceNumber", "Reference", "BrandingThemeID", "Url", "SentToContact", "ExpectedPaymentDate", "PlannedPaymentDate", "HasAttachments", "Payments", "CreditNotes", "Prepayments", "Overpayments", "AmountDue", "AmountPaid", "FullyPaidOnDate", "AmountCredited"}),
     #"Expanded Contact" = Table.ExpandRecordColumn(#"Expanded Column1", "Contact", {"ContactID", "ContactNumber", "AccountNumber", "ContactStatus", "Name", "FirstName", "LastName", "EmailAddress", "SkypeUserName", "ContactPersons", "BankAccountDetails", "TaxNumber", "AccountsReceivableTaxType", "AccountsPayableTaxType", "Addresses", "Phones", "IsSupplier", "IsCustomer", "DefaultCurrency", "UpdatedDateUTC", "XeroNetworkKey", "SalesDefaultAccountCode", "PurchasesDefaultAccountCode", "SalesTrackingCategories", "PurchasesTrackingCategories", "PaymentTerms", "ContactGroups", "Website", "BrandingTheme", "BatchPayments", "Discount", "Balances", "HasAttachments"}, {"ContactID", "ContactNumber", "AccountNumber", "ContactStatus", "Name", "FirstName", "LastName", "EmailAddress", "SkypeUserName", "ContactPersons", "BankAccountDetails", "TaxNumber", "AccountsReceivableTaxType", "AccountsPayableTaxType", "Addresses", "Phones", "IsSupplier", "IsCustomer", "DefaultCurrency", "UpdatedDateUTC.1", "XeroNetworkKey", "SalesDefaultAccountCode", "PurchasesDefaultAccountCode", "SalesTrackingCategories", "PurchasesTrackingCategories", "PaymentTerms", "ContactGroups", "Website", "BrandingTheme", "BatchPayments", "Discount", "Balances", "HasAttachments.1"}),
     #"Changed Type1" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Expanded Contact",{{"Date", type datetimezone}}),
     #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Changed Type1",{"ContactID", "ContactNumber", "AccountNumber", "ContactStatus", "FirstName", "LastName", "EmailAddress", "SkypeUserName", "ContactPersons", "BankAccountDetails", "TaxNumber", "AccountsReceivableTaxType", "AccountsPayableTaxType", "Addresses", "Phones", "IsSupplier", "IsCustomer", "DefaultCurrency", "UpdatedDateUTC.1", "XeroNetworkKey", "SalesDefaultAccountCode", "PurchasesDefaultAccountCode", "SalesTrackingCategories", "PurchasesTrackingCategories", "PaymentTerms", "ContactGroups", "Website", "BrandingTheme", "BatchPayments", "Discount", "Balances", "HasAttachments.1", "Status", "LineAmountTypes", "LineItems", "TotalDiscount", "CurrencyCode", "CurrencyRate", "InvoiceID", "BrandingThemeID", "Url", "SentToContact", "ExpectedPaymentDate", "PlannedPaymentDate", "HasAttachments", "Payments", "CreditNotes", "Prepayments", "Overpayments"}),
     #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Removed Columns",{{"Date", type date}, {"DueDate", type datetimezone}, {"UpdatedDateUTC", type datetimezone}, {"FullyPaidOnDate", type datetimezone}}),
     #"Merged Queries" = Table.NestedJoin(#"Changed Type",{"Type"},INV_CR,{"Type"},"INV_CR",JoinKind.LeftOuter),
     #"Expanded INV_CR" = Table.ExpandTableColumn(#"Merged Queries", "INV_CR", {"INV_CR"}, {"INV_CR.1"}),
     #"Removed Columns1" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Expanded INV_CR",{"Type"}),
     #"Renamed Columns" = Table.RenameColumns(#"Removed Columns1",{{"INV_CR.1", "INV_CR"}})
in
     #"Renamed Columns"

I added a INV_CR table to convert Type 0 to CR and 1 to INV.

This is a work in progress, my aim will be to load data to a CosmosDB, and get it all into the cloud. Feel free to get n touch if you have questions about this.

That Power Query should work nicely in Excel as well, so there are a few possibilities here

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