For wholesale businesses using Cin7 Core and Xero, managing accounts receivable can involve a surprising amount of manual work.
Invoices are created, payments are received, customer accounts need to be updated, and transactions eventually need to be reconciled in the accounting system.
When you’re managing hundreds or thousands of B2B customers, keeping these processes connected can become difficult.
A Cin7 Core payment integration can help connect your sales and inventory system with your payment and accounts receivable workflows, while Xero can continue to act as the accounting system at the centre of your financial records.
The result is a more automated process for invoicing, collecting payments and reconciling customer accounts.
What is Cin7 Core?
Cin7 Core is an inventory management and order management platform used by businesses to manage products, sales orders, purchasing and other operational processes.
For wholesalers, Cin7 Core can sit at the centre of the order-to-cash process.
A typical workflow might look like:
Customer → Sales order → Invoice → Payment → Reconciliation
The challenge is making sure each step connects properly.
If invoices are created in one system, payments are collected through another and reconciliation is handled manually in Xero, your accounts team can end up spending significant time moving information between systems.
What is a Cin7 Core payment integration?
A Cin7 Core payment integration connects the payment process with the systems a business already uses to manage customers, orders and accounting.
Rather than treating payments as a separate process, the integration can connect information across the customer lifecycle.
For example:
Cin7 Core → Invoice → Payment → Xero → Reconciliation
This can help reduce duplicate data entry and make it easier for your accounts team to keep customer accounts up to date.
For high-volume wholesalers, this is particularly important because even a small amount of manual work per transaction can become a significant workload when multiplied across hundreds of customers.
Why automate accounts receivable in Xero?
Xero provides powerful accounting functionality, but the accounting system is only one part of the accounts receivable process.
Your team may still need to:
- Send invoices
- Follow up overdue accounts
- Collect payments
- Manage payment methods
- Reconcile payments
- Update customer records
- Manage payment plans
- Review outstanding balances
When these processes are handled manually, Xero can end up being the place where your team records what happened rather than the system helping automate what happens next.
Connecting Xero with your payment and accounts receivable processes can help change that.
How does automated accounts receivable work?
A connected workflow can automate several stages of the customer payment journey.
1. An order is created in Cin7 Core
A customer places an order with the wholesale business.
The order and customer information are recorded in Cin7 Core as part of the normal sales process.
2. An invoice is generated
Once the order is ready to be invoiced, the relevant invoice information can flow into the accounting workflow.
Rather than manually entering the same information into multiple systems, integrations can help keep the systems connected.
3. The customer receives a payment option
The customer can be provided with a convenient way to pay their invoice.
For example, a payment link can allow the customer to pay directly from the invoice or payment reminder.
The easier it is for customers to pay, the less work your accounts team may need to do chasing outstanding balances.
4. Payment is collected
Once the customer pays, the payment information can be captured by the payment and accounts receivable platform.
This creates the connection between the payment and the customer’s outstanding invoice.
5. The payment is reconciled
The final step is ensuring the payment is correctly reflected in the accounting records.
Instead of manually searching through bank transactions and matching payments to invoices, an automated reconciliation workflow can identify and reconcile transactions.
This is particularly valuable for wholesalers processing large numbers of payments.
What does this mean for a business using Cin7 Core and Xero?
The key benefit is that each system can focus on what it does best.
Cin7 Core can manage operational information such as products, inventory and orders.
Xero can manage accounting and financial records.
A dedicated accounts receivable and payment platform can sit between these systems and automate the processes involved in collecting and reconciling customer payments.
The goal isn’t necessarily to replace either system.
It’s to connect them.
Automating payment collection
Getting an invoice into Xero is only the beginning.
The real accounts receivable challenge is getting customers to pay on time.
A payment integration can make this easier by giving customers a direct way to pay their outstanding invoices.
For example, instead of asking a customer to manually enter bank details and an invoice reference, a click-to-pay option can take them directly to a payment page.
This can reduce friction in the payment process and make it easier for customers to settle their accounts.
Automating recurring customer payments
Wholesale customers often purchase from the same supplier repeatedly.
Instead of asking customers to manually make a payment every time an invoice is issued, businesses can offer stored payment methods or direct debit.
With the right customer authorisation and payment setup, recurring payments can be collected automatically.
This can be particularly useful for wholesalers with customers who generate regular invoices.
Rather than relying entirely on customers remembering to make each payment, businesses can create a more predictable collection process.
What about overdue invoices?
Automating accounts receivable isn’t just about collecting payments.
It’s also about managing what happens when customers don’t pay.
A connected workflow can help identify overdue invoices and trigger appropriate reminders or collection activity.
For example:
Invoice issued → Payment reminder → Overdue reminder → Collections workflow
This gives accounts teams a structured process for following up outstanding balances rather than relying on spreadsheets or individual calendar reminders.
The result is a more consistent approach to collections.
Automated reconciliation is the final piece
One of the biggest problems with disconnected payment systems is that collecting a payment doesn’t necessarily mean the accounts receivable process is finished.
The payment still needs to be matched to the correct invoice.
For businesses processing hundreds of payments, this can become a major administrative task.
Automated reconciliation can help match incoming payments with outstanding invoices and update the relevant customer account.
Straightforward transactions can be reconciled automatically, while exceptions can be flagged for your accounts team to review.
This means your team spends less time processing routine payments and more time dealing with transactions that genuinely require attention.
What should you look for in a Cin7 Core payment integration?
If you’re looking for a payment integration for Cin7 Core and Xero, there are several important capabilities to consider.
Payment collection
Customers should have a simple way to pay outstanding invoices.
Click-to-pay invoices
Payment links can reduce the friction between receiving an invoice and making a payment.
Stored payment methods
For repeat B2B customers, securely storing an authorised payment method can make future collections easier.
Direct debit
BECS Direct Debit can provide another option for Australian wholesale businesses collecting recurring customer payments.
Automated reminders
Payment reminders can help accounts teams follow up outstanding invoices consistently.
Reconciliation
The payment doesn’t just need to be collected — it needs to be correctly matched against the customer’s account.
Xero integration
Your payment and accounts receivable workflow should connect with your accounting system so your financial records remain accurate.
Cin7 Core integration
The integration should also fit into the operational workflow already being used to manage customers, orders and invoices.
Why integration matters for growing wholesalers
A business might be able to manage 50 customers with spreadsheets and manual processes.
It becomes much harder when that number grows to 500.
And harder again at 2,000 or 5,000 customers.
The problem isn’t necessarily that any individual task is particularly difficult.
It’s the volume.
If your accounts team spends just two minutes manually processing or reconciling each payment, 500 transactions can represent more than 16 hours of administration.
Automation allows software to handle repetitive processes at scale.
Your team can then focus on exceptions, customer relationships and higher-value accounts receivable work.
How PencilPay connects payments and accounts receivable
PencilPay is designed specifically for wholesale businesses that need to automate their accounts receivable processes.
For businesses using platforms such as Cin7 Core and Xero, PencilPay can help connect invoicing and payment collection with the wider accounts receivable workflow.
Businesses can use features including:
- Click-to-pay invoice links
- Stored payment methods
- BECS Direct Debit
- Automated billing and payment plans
- Payment reminders
- Collections workflows
- Credit application forms
- Credit checks
- One-click bank reconciliation
This means businesses can move towards a connected workflow that covers more than simply accepting payments.
Customer onboarding → Credit approval → Invoicing → Payment collection → Reconciliation → Collections
Instead of managing each stage separately, the objective is to automate the accounts receivable journey from end to end.
The bottom line
For wholesalers using Cin7 Core and Xero, the biggest opportunity isn’t simply integrating another payment method.
It’s connecting the entire accounts receivable process.
A Cin7 Core payment integration can help connect orders and invoices with payment collection, while Xero can remain the central accounting system.
When payment collection, reminders and reconciliation are automated as well, your accounts team can spend less time moving information between systems and more time managing the exceptions that actually need their attention.
For wholesalers processing hundreds or thousands of B2B invoices, that can make a significant difference.
The goal isn’t just to automate payments. It’s to automate the journey from invoice to payment to reconciliation.