Know when this workflow starts and who usually owns it

This workflow usually sits with the business owner, office admin, accounts person, or bookkeeper who is responsible for invoice control after the customer-facing billing step is already complete. In practical terms, the invoice may have been created manually from the invoicing area or generated from a project payment schedule or progress claim, but the accounting sync check begins only once that invoice is ready to be trusted as a bookkeeping record.

Before starting, make sure the invoice itself is commercially ready:

• the customer name and email are current
• the invoice amount, due date, and status are correct
• the invoice belongs to the correct project
• the office has finished any last-minute edits to notes or amounts
• the team knows which accounting platform is the live one for this account

That last point matters because Fencify supports Xero and QuickBooks for accounting sync, and the working connection should match the bookkeeping process your business is actively using. Treat sync as part of your financial control routine, not as an afterthought once invoices have already gone out.

Confirm the accounting connection before touching any invoice

Start in the Integrations area. This is where Fencify shows the current accounting connection and whether the account is connected or waiting to be linked. The Xero card and QuickBooks card both make the current state obvious, and the page also makes it clear when one provider must be disconnected before the other can be used.

A clean operating habit is to check the connection first, especially if more than one person works in invoicing or if the account has recently changed bookkeeping systems. The connection review should answer three questions:

1. Which provider is currently connected?
2. Is that the provider your business expects to use today?
3. Does the advanced integration area show normal queue and health information for that provider?

If Xero is connected, keep the workflow inside Xero for that review cycle. If QuickBooks is connected, keep the workflow there instead.

Prepare the invoice for sync from the invoicing list

Once the connection is confirmed, move to Invoicing. This is the operating screen where Fencify shows invoice number, client, amount, paid-to-date position, invoice status, and provider-specific sync notes for the latest queue item on that invoice.

Before sending anything to the connected accounting platform, review the invoice row and the invoice record itself with a bookkeeping mindset:

• the invoice status should make sense for the stage of billing
• the client email should still belong to the customer receiving the bill
• the amount should not still be changing because of unresolved scope or project finance adjustments
• the project association should be correct so later payment review stays clean
• the invoice should not already be duplicated in your office process under another draft or replacement record

If the invoice already carries a provider sync note, read that note before doing anything else. Fencify can recognise when an earlier sync is already queued, already processing, already retrying, or already safely mapped. That prevents the most common admin mistake in this area: treating silence as failure and pressing sync repeatedly.

When the invoice is ready and no warning tells you to stop, use the provider action from the invoice row. If your connected platform is Xero, use the Xero sync action. If your connected platform is QuickBooks, use the QuickBooks sync action. Keep the action aligned with the connected provider you confirmed in Integrations.

Read the invoice sync result the same way every time

Fencify surfaces the latest sync state at invoice level, which lets the office understand what happened without guessing from memory. The status note can show the provider name together with the current queue state, and if another attempt has already been scheduled it can also show the retry time.

The office should use these states as instructions, not decorations. Queued and Processing usually mean wait. Retrying means the system is already handling another attempt. Conflict and Failed mean pause, review, and decide what needs fixing before pressing anything again. Synced means the invoice can move into normal bookkeeping review.

Use the wider sync picture before deciding whether a problem is local or systemic

Invoice-level notes are only part of the story. Fencify also gives your team a broader operations view through the Integrations hub and the invoicing summaries.

Invoicing shows a queue health summary with counts for queued, retrying, conflicts, failed items, and due retries. This is useful when the office wants to know whether one invoice is misbehaving or whether several jobs are waiting for attention.

Integrations adds three more layers of review:

• Deterministic Sync Maps show how many customer, invoice, and payment links exist for each provider.
• Sync Queue Health shows the current volume of queued, retrying, conflict, failed, and due retry work.
• Integration Health Panel shows queue depth, the last success time, the last error time, and the latest success or error message for each provider.

Read these together. If one invoice shows a warning but the health panel is otherwise clean, you are likely dealing with a record-level issue. If several invoices are retrying and the provider panel shows a recent error, the problem is more likely affecting the broader connection or sync flow.

This wider review is especially important before month-end close, BAS preparation, or any time your bookkeeper expects the invoice ledger in Fencify to line up with the accounting platform cleanly.

Handle retrying, failed and conflict states with discipline

Retry should be a deliberate action. Fencify already avoids duplicate sync while a request is in progress, and it can also recognise when an invoice has already been synchronised.

When a queue note shows Retrying, read the scheduled retry time first. The system has already queued another attempt, so your main job is to decide whether to wait or whether the underlying invoice still needs review before that retry lands.

When a queue note shows Failed, review these points before retrying:

• the intended provider is still connected in Integrations
• the invoice details are complete and still accurate
• the client and project on the invoice are the correct ones
• the latest provider message in the health panel gives enough context to understand the failure
• the invoice is worth retrying now rather than after another bookkeeping check

When the state is Conflict, slow down further. Conflict means the invoice needs mapping review before another retry is sensible. In practice, that is the moment to compare the current invoice with earlier sync activity and confirm your bookkeeper is not already working from an existing linked record for the same job.

Know what Fencify updates after each sync attempt

Each sync attempt leaves a trace that helps the office work methodically. The invoice row can show the latest provider status note. The sync queue totals change as work moves from queued to processing, retrying, failed, conflict, or synced. Mapping summaries grow when invoice, customer, or payment links are recorded successfully. The health panel updates its last success or last error messages so the team can see the most recent outcome quickly.

That means a clean review cycle normally looks like this:

1. confirm the connected provider in Integrations
2. review the invoice in Invoicing
3. run a manual sync only if the invoice is ready and no in-progress warning is shown
4. read the invoice status note after the result returns
5. check the queue summary and health panel if the outcome is anything other than synced
6. retry only after the reason for failure or conflict is understood

Following that order keeps the workflow auditable and easier for another staff member to pick up later.

Practical fencing example and final review before you move on

Imagine a residential pool fencing job where the office has just issued the final invoice after practical completion. The invoice is correct, the customer details are current, and the bookkeeper is expecting it in QuickBooks. The admin first opens Integrations, confirms QuickBooks is the connected provider, and checks that the health panel is otherwise stable. Then they open Invoicing, review the invoice amount, and use the QuickBooks sync action from the invoice row.

The first attempt comes back as Retrying with a scheduled time shown. Instead of clicking again, the admin waits for that retry window and checks the queue health. If the invoice later moves to Synced, the bookkeeping process continues normally. If it instead lands on Failed, the admin reviews the provider connection, the invoice details, and the latest health message before deciding whether to retry manually. If the state lands on Conflict, they stop and review the existing mapping history with the bookkeeper before running anything again.

Before closing this workflow, run this final review checklist:

• the active provider in Integrations matches the bookkeeping system your business is using
• the invoice details were final before sync was attempted
• the latest invoice status note was read before any retry action
• queue totals and health messages were checked if the invoice did not sync cleanly
• retry was used only after the likely cause was understood
• the office did not keep sending duplicate sync requests while another attempt was already underway

The most useful supporting quick guides to keep near this workflow are Integrations overview, Xero connection status, Xero connection setup, QuickBooks connection status, QuickBooks connection setup, Integration entity mapping, Integration health events, Sync queue and retry states, Accounting sync status, and Retry failed accounting sync.