AI Receptionist for
Xero
Connect Xero to your AI voice and chat receptionist. Four capabilities are on the moment you connect — recognizing callers from your Xero contacts, checking invoice status, adding a new caller to your contacts, and logging calls against the record. Everything that speaks money or gates a caller is off until you switch it on. It answers invoice-status questions, emails invoices to the address already on file, and takes a message on anything it can't finish.
Recent calls
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+1 555 555 0142Emergency transfer4:15 PMyour on-call line
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+1 555 555 0118Transferred3:57 PMJohn Smith
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+1 555 555 0173Booked3:48 PMinvoice review, Thursday 10:00
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+1 555 555 01063:42 PMoffice inbox, for: Jane Doe
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+1 555 555 0187Spam3:31 PMautomated dialer, closed in one line
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+1 555 555 0159Completed2:58 PMquestion answered
Illustrative log. Numbers shown are examples.
What happens on a call
Every situation your receptionist handles, what it does, and how the call ends. Rows in blue depend on something you set: switch this on means the capability ships off, and the rest name what has to be configured first. Everything else is on the moment you connect Xero.
| The caller | What your receptionist does | How it ends |
|---|---|---|
| Existing client, calling from a number on file | Recognizes them from your Xero contacts on the line they are calling from and greets them by their first name, before they have explained anything. It does not ask for a callback number or an email address the record already holds. | A normal call, with no identity questions. |
| Nobody on file with that number | Never says it could not find them and never mentions the accounting system. Takes their name, the best number for them and briefly what it is about, then adds them to your Xero contacts. If it cannot rule out a duplicate it refuses to create one and takes a message instead. | New contact in Xero, and the call carries on normally. |
| More than one contact shares the number | Discloses nothing about what it found, does not argue, and does not create a second record. Takes their name, number and what they need. | Message to your inbox, so a person can route it. |
| Asks whether an invoice is paid | Confirms who it is speaking to first, then answers from your sales invoices only: the invoice number, its status, when it was due, and whether it is overdue. Bills your practice owes suppliers are never looked at or mentioned. | An answer, and a message if they want something done about it. |
| Asks how much is outstanding switch this on | With reading amounts aloud off, no amount is ever put in front of the AI, so it cannot say one however the caller asks. Switch it on and a confirmed client hears the amount, the currency and what has been paid. | An answer, or a message to your accounts team. |
| Asks for a copy of an invoice switch this on | Emails the invoice as a PDF to the email address already on the contact record, under your practice's name. The caller is never asked for an address and cannot redirect it to one. If the record has no email on file, it offers a follow-up from your team rather than explaining why. | Invoice PDF sent to the address on file, or a message to your team. |
| Asks about tax, filings or deadlines | Says nothing. The receptionist has no financial information about any caller beyond the invoice status it just looked up, and it is instructed never to state, confirm or imply anything else — not even to somebody it has just greeted by name. | Message to your accounts team. |
| Every call | Writes a short note of the call on that contact's history in Xero. Only ever on a record the calling number resolves to on its own — the AI is never handed a record to write to. | A call note on the Xero contact. |
| Wants to book a meeting needs a connected calendar | Books on your connected Google or Outlook calendar, inside your hours and around what is already there. Xero holds no calendar, so bookings never touch it. | Confirmed appointment on your own calendar. |
| Wants to book, and you require verification switch this on | Only a caller confirmed against your Xero contacts is offered a time. Anyone else is not turned away and is never told they failed anything: the receptionist takes their name, number and what the appointment is about. | A booking, or a message for reception to arrange and call back. |
| Your meetings are by phone, not in person switch this on | Describes every booking as a telephone meeting when it offers times and when it confirms. If the caller asks to come in instead, it does not book and does not say it cannot — it takes their details for your team. | Booked as a phone meeting. An in-person request is emailed to your team. |
| “Put me through to my accountant” needs a transfer list | You keep the list of people it may transfer to. It confirms the name once before dialing, so a half-heard or mispronounced name never sends a caller to the wrong line, then puts them through. | That person's line, or a message for them if nothing answers. |
| Asks for a person, and you require verification switch this on | Only a confirmed client is put through to a named person. Anyone else is offered a message instead, without being told why and without being told who they were going to reach. Your reception and emergency lines are never affected. | A transfer, or a message for the person they asked for. |
| Wants to leave a message | Takes it in full, and asks in an order that survives a hang-up: who it is for, then their name, then the best number, then the message itself. | Message emailed to your practice. |
| Message for a named person, with verification on switch this on | A confirmed client's message goes straight to the person they asked for. Anyone else's goes to your main inbox with that person named in the body, so a human can route it. Verification decides where a message goes, never whether one is taken. | Message delivered either way. |
| Complains about your practice, or threatens a professional-body or fee complaint switch this on + alert recipients | Takes the message with the same neutrality as any other, never argues, and never confirms or denies anything. Your alert list is emailed immediately. Complaints about HMRC, the IRS or Companies House are not treated as complaints about your practice. | Message to your practice plus an instant alert email — which fires even if the caller hangs up without leaving a message. The caller notices nothing. |
| Robocall / automated dialer | One line and hangs up — no information given. | Marked Spam call on your dashboard. |
| Request your receptionist can't handle | One brief factual sentence, then takes a message — never argues and never repeats a refusal. | Message emailed to your practice. |
Existing client, calling from a number on file
Nobody on file with that number
More than one contact shares the number
Asks whether an invoice is paid
Asks how much is outstandingswitch this on
Asks for a copy of an invoiceswitch this on
Asks about tax, filings or deadlines
Every call
Wants to book a meetingneeds a connected calendar
Wants to book, and you require verificationswitch this on
Your meetings are by phone, not in personswitch this on
“Put me through to my accountant”needs a transfer list
Asks for a person, and you require verificationswitch this on
Wants to leave a message
Message for a named person, with verification onswitch this on
Complains about your practice, or threatens a professional-body or fee complaintswitch this on + alert recipients
Robocall / automated dialer
Request your receptionist can't handle
How It Works
Get your Xero AI Receptionist up and running in minutes.
Connect Xero from the FONE app with OAuth. One Xero organization per receptionist — the connection sees exactly what the person who authorizes it can see, and nothing else.
Choose your posture in the FONE app. Four capabilities are already on. Reading amounts aloud, emailing invoices, AI Invoice Collection, the three verification gates, complaint alerts and telephone-meeting framing are each off until you switch them on.
Your receptionist starts handling calls — on the phone, web chat, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram — and takes a message on anything it can't complete, 24/7.
Key Features
Everything your AI needs to handle Xero inquiries like a pro.
You decide what it can say
Connecting Xero turns on four things: caller recognition, invoice status, adding a new caller to your contacts, and logging the call on their record. Reading an amount out loud, emailing an invoice, calling clients about overdue invoices, and every verification gate ship OFF and stay off until you switch them on. Turning a capability off removes its tools from the receptionist entirely — on phone calls, web chat, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram alike.
Recognition, not questions
Callers are matched on the line they are actually calling from against the phone numbers on your Xero contacts — never on a number they read out. Recognition needs exactly one matching contact: none, or two, and the receptionist discloses nothing at all and takes a message instead. A recognized caller is never asked for a phone number or an email address the record already holds, and is greeted by first name only — the surname is never spoken, because it is what the receptionist asks for when something actually needs verifying.
Amounts stay off until you say so
The enforcement is in the handler, not in the wording. With "read invoice amounts aloud" off, no amount is ever put in front of the AI, so nothing a caller says can talk it into one. It can still say whether an invoice is paid, outstanding or overdue and when it was due — which is what people actually ring to ask.
Invoices go to the address on file, only
There is no field anywhere in the tool for an address a caller supplies, so sending an invoice somewhere else is structurally impossible rather than merely forbidden. The receptionist will not ask for an address and will not offer to send one to a caller who volunteers it. If the contact has no email on file, it offers a follow-up from your team instead.
Verification never blocks a message
This is the part firms most often get wrong elsewhere. A caller who cannot be confirmed still gets their message taken, and it still reaches your inbox with the person they asked for named in it. The message gate only decides where a message lands, never whether one is taken.
The only writes are contacts and call notes
The receptionist can add a genuinely new caller to your Xero contacts, and write a short note of the call on the contact's history. It never creates, edits or voids an invoice, never records a payment, and cannot take one. If it cannot prove a caller is new, it takes a message rather than risk a duplicate in your ledger.
Verification you control
Three separate gates, each off until you switch it on, each enforced at a different point in the call. Switching one on never switches on another.
The three gates
- Before a transfer — require a caller to be confirmed against your Xero contacts before the receptionist will put them through to a named person. Reception and your emergency line are untouched.
- Before a booking — require confirmation before a single appointment time is quoted. An unconfirmed caller is not refused; their details go to reception to arrange.
- Before a message reaches a named person — decide whether a confirmed client's message goes straight to the person they asked for, or to your main inbox with that person named in it.
Confirmed means the caller states their first and last name and both match the record on the number they are calling from. A first name on its own is not enough — your receptionist already said it when it greeted them, so repeating it confirms nothing.
All three are off when you connect. If the Xero connection ever lapses they go quiet on their own rather than demanding a check that cannot happen — a dead connection never takes your transfers, bookings or messages down with it.
A message is never blocked
The message gate decides where a message goes. It never decides whether one is taken.
A caller who cannot be confirmed still has their message taken, and it still reaches your practice with the person they asked for named in the body. The receptionist will not refuse, defer, or re-ask for a message because it could not confirm somebody.
It also asks in an order that survives a hang-up: who the message is for, then the caller's name, then their number, then what they want to say. Somebody who gives their name and drops off still leaves your team something they can return. And a client it has already recognized is never asked for a number or an email your record already holds.
AI Invoice Collection
Off until you switch it on. Your receptionist rings the clients whose invoices are past due, with your wording, on your schedule.
Switch it on in the Xero card, then create a campaign in the FONE app. Your receptionist calls the clients who have approved sales invoices still awaiting payment, using the same voice that answers your phone.
You set the cadence and the script
- How overdue before the first call — seven days to begin with, and yours to change.
- How long between calls — five days to begin with, and never closer together than two.
- How many calls per invoice — three to begin with, anywhere from one to ten.
- What it actually says — you write the opening in your own words, in a box on the campaign. Your receptionist says it once it has the right person, in your wording.
The frame you can't switch off
- It confirms who it is speaking to first. The opening line asks for the person by name and says nothing else. Nothing about an invoice, an amount or an account can be said until they have confirmed. If it is the wrong person, or unclear, it closes politely and gives no information at all.
- A voicemail is a call-back request and nothing more. Who called, from where, and the number to ring back. Never why. An answering machine is the least controlled surface there is, so no detail reaches one.
- Weekdays only, 10am to 6pm, in your own time zone.
- Every invoice is re-checked in Xero at the moment of dialing, against your current settings — not against whatever they were when the call was queued. Anything paid, extended, or no longer past your threshold is dropped, and the reason is recorded rather than tidied into “already paid”.
- One call per client per run, however many invoices of theirs are overdue — and never a second dial while one is already in flight.
- “Stop calling me about invoices” is permanent. The receptionist acknowledges once, never asks why, and never argues. The number goes on a list you can see on the card and only you can clear, and it is checked again at the instant of every future dial.
- Amounts follow the same switch as everywhere else. With reading amounts aloud off, the call is about an overdue invoice and never about a figure. Offering to send a copy rides your email-invoices switch: with it off the receptionist does not promise a send it cannot make.
- Asking for a person transfers them to your own list, exactly as an inbound call would. There is no appointment pitch on a collection call.
What you see afterwards
The campaign card carries a call history — when, which client, which invoice, and the outcome — with the full transcript one click away on any call that has one. Outcomes are the honest ones: Reached, Voicemail, No answer, Wrong person, Asked not to be called, Skipped — already paid, Skipped — no longer past due and Skipped — invoice dates unclear. Anyone not called is listed with the reason — no phone on file, an unusable number, already called too recently, the attempt limit reached — because a skip is only useful if it says what to go and fix.
Preview runs every one of those rules and dials nobody, so you can see exactly who would be called before anyone is. Pause holds queued calls where they are and releases them when you resume. Delete closes them, in the same moment, so a deleted campaign can never ring anybody.
What it does not do: there are no payment links, no card details are taken, and no payment is ever processed on the call. If a client wants to pay, query or dispute anything, the receptionist takes a message for your team.
Alerts and oversight
The calls you want to hear about the same day, not at the end of the month.
Complaint alerts
Off until you switch it on, and you set the list of addresses that receive them.
Alerts are sorted into two levels: a threat to complain to a professional body or regulator — ICAEW, ACCA, AAT, CIMA, ICAS, the AICPA or a state board, the FRC, an ombudsman — or to bring a negligence claim or report your practice to an authority; and serious dissatisfaction with your own service to them, such as an accountant not returning calls, a filing they say was late or wrong, an escalating fee dispute, a demand for a different accountant, a threat to move their books elsewhere, or a stated intention to leave a bad review.
Complaints about HMRC, the IRS, Companies House or any other tax authority are not treated as complaints about your practice, and neither is somebody simply asking what a fee was for. Only an escalation counts.
The alert fires even when the caller hangs up without leaving a message — which is exactly the call a practice would otherwise never hear about.
Nothing about the caller's experience changes. The receptionist takes their message with the same neutrality as any other, never tells them they have been flagged, never argues the merits, and never tries to talk them out of it.
Honest outcomes on every call
Every call in your dashboard carries what actually happened to it, so the log is something you can act on rather than something you have to interpret.
Transferred and Emergency transfer mean the line you dialed answered — a person or their voicemail — and show you which line it went to. Booked and Message mean an appointment was made or a message sent. Completed means the caller's question was answered and the call closed normally. Spam call is an auto-dialer dismissed in one line; it reached nobody and needs nothing from your team.
Caller hung up now means one thing only: the caller left mid-conversation. A successful transfer, a screened robocall, and a fully answered question each used to land in that bucket, which made a working system read as a failing one.
Outbound invoice calls are logged separately, on their own campaign card rather than as one of the badges above, because what matters about them is a different set of answers — reached, wrong person, asked not to be called, or skipped and why.
Frequently Asked Questions
Built for Accountants
Your receptionist recognizes your clients from your own Xero contacts, answers the invoice questions that fill your phone line, and writes every call back to the record.
For your practice
- Stay on deadline work. The "is my invoice paid?" and "can you resend that?" calls are answered without anyone being pulled off prep.
- Nothing falls through. Every call is written to the client's Xero contact as a short note, so the whole team sees the same history.
- Coverage that scales. Evenings, weekends and overflow are handled without adding a front desk as your book grows.
For your clients
- Recognized, not interrogated. Clients calling from a number you already hold are greeted by name and never asked for details you have.
- A real answer on invoices. Whether something is paid, outstanding or overdue, and when it was due — on the spot, not after a callback.
- Always reachable. Questions get answered outside office hours, and anything the receptionist cannot finish becomes a message rather than a dead end.