The Problem
Every time a purchase order was created or changed in Xero, someone on the team had to manually copy the details over to the company’s “POs / Shipments” table in Airtable — supplier name, product, delivery dates, market, container size, bottle and case counts, shipping method, and more.
With purchase orders coming in and being revised regularly, this meant constant manual data entry, double-checking whether a record already existed, and re-typing detailed shipment information by hand. It was slow, repetitive, and left room for mismatched or outdated records whenever a PO changed after the fact.
What We Did
We built an automated workflow that watches Xero in real time for any new or updated purchase order. The moment a change is detected, the system:
- Pulls the full purchase order details automatically — supplier, product, delivery date, market, container size, and shipping type
- Checks Airtable to see if a matching record already exists for that PO
- Updates the existing record if the PO was simply changed, or creates a new one if it’s new
- Cleans and formats the data along the way — separating out fields like PO number, product code, bottling date, and bottle/case counts so everything lands in the right place
- Automatically links each record to the correct product family and supplier by cross-referencing Airtable’s product and supplier tables
No one on the team has to open Airtable and manually re-enter a thing.
The Result
- Zero manual data entry for purchase order tracking between Xero and Airtable
- Real-time accuracy — Airtable reflects the current state of every PO the moment it changes in Xero
- Eliminated duplicate and mismatched records, since the system checks for existing entries before creating new ones
- Freed up hours per week previously spent on manual copying, formatting, and cross-checking shipment details
