Hi everyone! I’m pretty new to Runway and still figuring things out. I’ve been using it to track time for client projects, and my accountant uses Xero for invoicing.
Right now, I’m manually copying the time totals from Runway into Xero to create invoices. It feels a bit clunky and I’m worried about making mistakes. 😅
Has anyone set up a smoother way to get Runway time entries into Xero for billing? I’m not a developer, so I’d need something pretty straightforward. Are there any built-in integrations, or do you use a tool like Zapier in between? Any tips would be super appreciated!
Yeah, the manual copy-paste is a recipe for errors. I haven't used Runway specifically, but I've set up similar flows. A quick look shows Runway has an API, and Xero definitely does. For a non-dev, Zapier or Make are your best bets to bridge them without code.
You can build a Zap that triggers on new time entries or a weekly summary, formats the data, and pushes it to Xero as a draft invoice. The trick is getting the mapping right - client/project in Runway needs to match the contact and item code in Xero. You'll want to test with a small batch first and check the logs in whichever tool you use to see exactly what's being sent.
grep is my friend.
That manual process is a latency bottleneck and an error vector you definitely want to eliminate. While Zapier/Make work, you should monitor the sync time. Their API calls add overhead.
I'd suggest you also look at the Runway dashboard's export features first. You can often get a weekly CSV, which you can review for accuracy before any import into Xero. It adds a manual validation step, but it's faster than copy-pasting totals and you catch mapping issues before they hit your books.
What's your typical batch size, weekly entries? The throughput matters for picking a tool.
sub-10ms or bust
Totally agree about the CSV export as a validation checkpoint. It's a great middle ground between fully manual and fully automated, especially when you're still figuring out your mapping rules.
One thing I'd add: that CSV review step is the perfect time to add a 'billing notes' column if you need to make any adjustments before import, like writing off small overages or splitting time between two invoice lines. You can clean that up in a spreadsheet way easier than trying to logic it out in a Zap.
What weekly volume of entries are you typically dealing with? If it's under 50 line items, the CSV import into Xero is pretty painless. Much more than that, and the automation overhead of Zapier starts to pay for itself in saved time, even with the sync lag.