Getting started

You need an xpnAI account, access to a Workspace with an active MCP subscription or trial, and an assistant that supports MCP connections.

During Workspace setup, select Setup guide below the setup steps to open this guide in a new tab and keep your place.

To have your assistant guide you through sign-in, the free trial and its MCP connection, paste this request into it:


Use https://help.xpnai.app/onboarding.md to get started on the free trial with xpnAI

The onboarding guide opens xpnAI’s guided setup. xpnAI takes you through sign-in, billing or trial setup, Workspace setup and connecting Xero in your browser. Once you’ve connected your first Xero organisation, return to your assistant and type done. It then uses the MCP connection guide to connect, checks your Workspace and explains what the available tools can do before asking where you’d like to start. Your first import can continue while you connect the assistant. The connection guide hands off to the agent instructions for ongoing finance work, carrying forward the verified Workspace.

1. Create or join a Workspace

If you have an invitation

Open the invitation email and sign in with the invited email address. Review the Workspace and select Accept invitation. You do not need to create another Workspace or start your own subscription.

Follow Accept a Workspace invitation if your link has expired or you are signed in with the wrong account.

If the Workspace’s Xero data is already ready, skip to step 3. If setup is still in progress, open Connections > Xero to follow the first sync. You can invite your team and manage Workspace settings while the data is prepared; finance data queries remain unavailable until an organisation is Ready.

If you are setting up xpnAI for your team

Open xpnAI and select Sign up for a new account or Sign in for an existing account, then continue with Google or Microsoft in the same dialog. If you already belong to a Workspace, xpnAI opens it.
If you do not have a Workspace, setup opens after sign-in. Check your name and email. If they are wrong, select Sign out and use the intended account.
Enter a Workspace name and check the free trial duration shown above the button.
Select Create Workspace. xpnAI creates your Workspace and starts the MCP trial, then takes you to Connect Xero. When your signed-in account has an email address, xpnAI also sends a welcome email there. You can continue without waiting for the email, and no payment method is required.

You become the first Workspace Administrator and Subscription Administrator. The trial supports one Workspace. See Manage your subscription for payment and additional Workspaces.

If setup says the subscription price is unavailable, contact xpnAI support. Your Workspace is retained; retry starting the trial after support resolves the problem.

If setup says your trial is being activated, wait a moment and select Start free trial again. xpnAI resumes the same trial, keeping your Workspace and its original trial dates.

2. Connect your Xero data

If you started by connecting xpnAI from your assistant, select Sign up or Sign in in the browser window it opened, then continue with Google or Microsoft. Existing Workspace members go directly to permissions. New users create their Workspace once in the setup checklist and complete Xero setup. After your organisations are selected for import, the checklist ends with Assistant permissions, where you approve the assistant’s connection. The import continues in the background without a sync status screen in this flow.

Setup is a checklist of four steps that stays on the left of the page: Workspace, Connect Xero, Confirm what to sync and First import. When you start from an assistant connection, Assistant permissions replaces First import. Completed steps show a tick and a summary. The current step is shown on the right.

Under Connect Xero, the page lists what you need and what xpnAI asks Xero for. Select Connect to Xero, sign in to Xero and approve access. Xero connects one organisation at a time. If someone else manages your Xero, select Someone else manages our Xero, enter their email and select Send invitation. They join as a Workspace Administrator with a link to this step, and the checklist shows Invitation sent until they connect. You can select Open Workspace to set up your team while you wait, or Connect Xero myself instead to take the step back.

Under Confirm what to sync, every organisation Xero approved is ticked, with its type and currency beneath the name. Untick any you do not want in this Workspace. The line under the list shows how many are selected, how many your plan includes and the monthly cost of any extras. Select Import to start, or Add another organisation in Xero to approve one more. When Xero approves exactly one organisation, xpnAI confirms it for you and moves straight to the first import.

Under First import, each organisation shows its status, a bar with one segment for each of the 16 import steps, and the current step number. The bar does not show a percentage because the total size is only known when the import finishes. Expand Sync details to see record counts by type. As soon as the first import is queued, select Open Workspace. You can invite your team and manage Workspace settings while the import continues in the background. Finance data queries remain unavailable until an organisation’s first sync completes and it shows Ready. Select Change beside Confirm what to sync to change which organisations import.

For the full steps, adding more organisations or resolving a failed import, see Connect Xero.

3. Connect your assistant

If you already have a Workspace, open Connections > MCP and copy the Agent prompt above the MCP server URL. It tells your assistant which existing Workspace to connect to. You do not need to repeat Workspace or Xero setup.

Use https://api.xpnai.app/mcp as the MCP server address in your assistant.
Follow the instructions for your assistant in Connect an MCP client.
When xpnAI asks you to authorise the connection, check the assistant name and choose the Workspace. Read and export access is required. Select any optional journal or account and tracking permissions you want to grant, then select Allow access.

Each member connects their own assistant. You do not need a Workspace Administrator or Subscription Administrator role to do this.

4. Ask your first question

Start with a check that your assistant can see the right data:

Use xpnAI to show me the connected Workspace, its Xero organisations and when their data was last refreshed.

Then try a request with a clear organisation and date range:

For our Australian organisation, summarise last month’s general ledger expenses by account. State the currency and date range, and show the transactions behind the largest balance.

You can also open Home in xpnAI and use Copy prompt under Try this with your assistant.

Choose from For Your Business, Manage Xero Org or Month End Tasks, with six examples in each column. The copy button on the right copies a full request with more detail than the short description. A brief notification confirms the copy and dismisses automatically. Paste the request into your assistant and supply any details it asks for. Examples adapt when your Workspace has more than one connected Xero organisation, including comparisons and chart alignment. Changes to Xero still need the appropriate connection permissions and your approval.

Work with your finance data explains available data, exports and optional changes in Xero.

Return to your Workspace

Sign in to xpnAI to see your connections. If you belong to several Workspaces, choose the one you need. You can change it later using the Workspace selector in the product header.

Each browser tab keeps its own Workspace selection. Switching the browser Workspace does not switch an assistant’s connection. Check the Workspace in your assistant before starting work for another team or client.

If your trial ends during setup, access pauses and your data is retained for 30 days from the trial’s end. A Subscription Administrator can follow the billing prompt, add payment details and confirm billing before the displayed recovery deadline. Follow Manage your subscription for the activation steps.