Schedules
Drafts and schedules from Xero bills
Finish drafts you saved yourself and drafts Prepaidly creates from approved Xero bills and invoices.
Where
Who
Anyone with access to the organisation.
A draft is a schedule that is not finished yet. Drafts are never posted to Xero and don’t count towards your plan. They appear on the DRAFT tab of the Schedule Register and in the Dashboard’s Recent Schedules, without a schedule number.
Where drafts come from
You saved one
You selected Save Draft on New Schedule because something was missing.
Prepaidly created one from Xero
An approved bill in Xero has a line coded to your Default Prepayment Asset Account, or an approved sales invoice has a line coded to your Default Unearned Revenue Liability Account.
Prepaidly drafts one schedule per matching line shortly after the bill or invoice is approved.
A draft from Xero is filled in with what the bill already tells us:
| From the Xero bill or invoice | Becomes |
|---|---|
| Contact | Contact |
| Reference (or the invoice number if there is no reference) | Invoice Reference |
| Date | Invoice Date |
| Line description | Description |
| Line amount, excluding tax | Total Amount |
| Line account | Deferral Account |
You add the rest: the period dates and the expense (or revenue) account, plus the method and tracking if you want them.
Finish a draft
Open the DRAFT tab of the Schedule Register and select the draft
It opens on the Edit Schedule page.
Fill in what is missing
Usually Period Start Date, Period End Date and the Expense Account, which is outlined in amber with the note Required to convert this draft to an active schedule. Check the amount and Deferral Account too.
Select Preview Schedule to check the periods
Select Create Schedule
The draft becomes an active schedule, gets its number and moves to the IN PROGRESS tab.
Edit Schedule
Schedule Type & Invoice
Type, contact and invoice details
Expense paid upfront, recognised monthly
Revenue received upfront, recognised monthly
Schedule Period & Posting
Dates, accounts and amortisation
Same amount each period
Pro-rata by days in each period
Required to convert this draft to an active schedule.
1Prepayment asset account this schedule is released from. Defaults to your settings, and applies to every journal once saved.
2Summary
Preview schedule totals and period breakdown
Nothing has been posted for this schedule yet, so every field — including the deferral account — can still be changed. Journal entries are regenerated when you save.
- 1Required before the draft can become a schedule.
- 2Taken from the bill line’s account. You can change it while nothing has been posted.
- 3Create Schedule turns the draft into an active schedule.
- 4Delete Draft removes it for good.
Delete a draft
Open the draft and select Delete Draft, then Delete Draft again to confirm (or Keep Draft). The draft is deleted permanently. Nothing in Xero changes.
Why didn’t a bill create a draft?
- The bill is still a draft or awaiting approval in Xero. Approve it.
- No line is coded to your Default Prepayment Asset Account (or, for a sales invoice, your Default Unearned Revenue Liability Account). Check the account on the line and the defaults in Settings.
- The organisation is disconnected. Reconnect it; bills approved while it was disconnected won’t be drafted, so create those with New Schedule.
One bill created two drafts
Each line coded to the deferral account gets its own draft, because each can cover a different period. Finish both, or delete the one you don’t need.