Lockerbie Estate builds a custom invoice to Xero integration in days with Affinda

Lockerbie Estate builds homes – not back-office systems. But invoices and sales quotes were all being manually keyed into Xero, the company's cloud accounting platform, and matched to the right job. Finance admin was consuming time the business couldn't afford to lose.

The team needed a platform that could extract data from documents reliably, match each one to the correct job using master data in Xero and send the validated data straight through. Affinda Platform delivered the extraction and validation – and the AI Integration Agent made the Xero connection possible in days, not months. The finance team described what they needed in plain language to build their custom Xero integration, without writing a line of code or involving a developer. They've since used the same approach to automate two other document types.

Fast facts

Business: Lockerbie Estate
Industry: Property development and residential construction
Challenge: Manual accounts payable processes consuming finance capacity, as no off-the-shelf tool was flexible enough to match documents to job-level data in Xero
Solution: Affinda Platform’s AI Integration Agent enabled Lockerbie Estate’s finance team to build a custom invoice to Xero integration using natural language
Results:

• >50% reduction in time spent on invoice processing per week
• 3 document types automated
• Zero developer resources required
  

The challenge

Lockerbie Estate is a property developer and home builder based in Morrinsville in New Zealand's Waikato region. The company designs, builds and sells quality new homes as part of a master-planned community. The team manages everything from construction and supplier relationships through to sales and settlement.

With multiple active developments and a growing pipeline, the volume of documents flowing through the business was increasing. Each one had to be manually reviewed, keyed into Xero field by field and matched to the correct job.

"We were spending more than half our working week just getting invoices into Xero," says Louis Wright, Finance Manager at Lockerbie Estate. "That kind of manual overhead doesn't scale. It takes focus away from the financial planning and job costing that ensures we're delivering quality homes on time and on budget."

The risk went beyond lost time. In property development, margins are tracked at the project level. An invoice matched to the wrong job distorts the cost reporting that leadership relies on. One misallocation doesn't just sit quietly – it undermines the accurate job costing data that keeps builds on budget and buyers confident in what they're paying.

The team explored Xero's native tools and marketplace options. None had the precision Lockerbie Estate needed.

That precision was required at two levels: accurate extraction from variable supplier documents, and exact delivery into Xero – data matched to the correct job code, validated and landed correctly, every time.

The Affinda difference

The Affinda Platform, our AI document processing solution, delivered the data extraction accuracy and validation that Lockerbie Estate needed. Their finance team used the platform to handle the full document workflow from ingestion to extraction, validation and export.

For that final step, Lockerbie Estate used Affinda’s Integration Agent to create a custom integration with Xero that matches exported data with corresponding job codes – without outsourcing a developer or engaging in a lengthy integration project plan.

Rather than scoping a custom development project for the integration, the finance team connected Affinda to their Xero account by describing their requirements in plain language and Affinda’s Integration Agent built the integration logic from that description.

A few refinements followed – testing with real invoices, adjusting how job codes matched against Xero's master data. Within days, the team had a working, production-ready pipeline. No developer involvement required.

That same self-service process made expanding straightforward. Lockerbie has since automated two additional document workflows – a second invoice workflow and sales quote processing, using the same approach: connect, describe, refine and go live.

"We had a working integration without waiting on a costly, time-consuming IT roadmap. When we're scaling a development pipeline and every project needs accurate financials, that kind of speed and reliability is what gives Lockerbie Estate the foundation to keep building quality homes on time and on budget."

Louis Wright, Finance Manager at Lockerbie Estate

The outcome

With Affinda Platform automating invoice data extraction, validation and delivery into Xero, Lockerbie Estate has halved the time spent on document processing, reclaiming hours that were previously lost to manual data entry. That time now goes toward financial planning, job costing analysis and supporting the next phase of growth for the development pipeline.

Data quality also improved. Invoices are validated and matched to the correct job automatically. The leadership team gets more reliable project-level reporting with accurate cost data to drive sharper decisions development-wide.

Our focus should be on building quality homes and delivering for our buyers – not on back-office bottlenecks. With Affinda, accurate financial data flows from invoices into Xero automatically. We have better visibility across our projects and more confidence in the numbers we're working with."

Louis Wright, Finance Manager at Lockerbie Estate