After announcing a partnership with Intuit QuickBooks last Fall, Square is debuting a new integration with rival accounting software Xero. Similar to the announcement with QuickBooks, this API deal allows for the mobile payment service to feed data from transactions into their financial books on Xero.
The payments company is also announcing an official software partner platform, which formalizes Square’s focus to collaborate with third parties to build new applications that complement Square’s suite of business services. The launch also extends Works with Square, a program launched earlier this year which allows developers to build accessories for Square businesses.
The new Xero integration is Square’s second available in the U.S. The company says the QuickBooks integration has been successful, and since November, thousands of sellers have connected their Square accounts with QuickBooks, importing their Square sales data into the accounting software.
With the Xero partnership, merchants can now pull past Square sales data into Xero and each day’s transactions will automatically import, summarize, and populate the appropriate account within Xero’s general ledger.
We’re told that last week Square Japan also integrated Japanese accounting software freee.
This second accounting integration is just another example of the company’s ambitions and strategy to extend its own touchpoints with consumers and make its service more useful to merchants. With these deals (and potential future ones) with software products that merchants are already using, Square is positioning itself to potentially gain more adoption and reducing friction, which merchants will certainly enjoy.