Glossary

Use this page to look up terms you encounter while connecting your assistant and working with finance data. Terms are grouped by topic, with links to the relevant guides.

Your account and Workspace

xpnAI

The service that connects your Xero finance data to your AI assistant. Use xpnAI to manage your Workspace, Xero connections, assistant access and subscription.

User

A person with an xpnAI account. Each person signs in with their own account and may belong to several Workspaces.

Workspace

A shared place for a team’s connected Xero organisations and finance data. Your membership determines which Workspace data you can access.

Current Workspace

The Workspace selected in your xpnAI browser tab. Each tab keeps its own selection. Changing it does not change the Workspace connected to your assistant.

Member

A normal Workspace user. You do not need an administrator role to connect your own assistant and work with finance data. See Roles and access for the full permissions.

Workspace Administrator

A member who can invite people, change other members’ Workspace roles and remove their access. This role does not automatically include billing authority. See Add and manage users.

Subscription Administrator

A person who can manage billing, manage other Subscription Administrators and add Workspaces to a paid subscription. This authority does not automatically grant membership of every Workspace or permission to manage Workspace users. A person can hold both administrator roles.

Invitation

An email link inviting someone to join a Workspace with a specified role. The recipient must sign in with the Microsoft or Google account linked to the invited email and accept the invitation. Links expire after seven days. See Accept a Workspace invitation.

Subscription and trial

A subscription provides access and billing for one or more Workspaces. The MCP trial starts during setup without a payment method and supports one Workspace. Your assistant provider’s account and charges are separate. See Manage your subscription.

Connecting your assistant

AI assistant

The tool you talk to when asking questions or requesting work, such as Claude Code, ChatGPT or Codex. It connects to xpnAI to retrieve finance data or carry out permitted actions.

MCP

Short for Model Context Protocol. A standard that lets an AI assistant use tools and data supplied by another service. You do not need to understand the protocol to use xpnAI.

MCP client and MCP server

The client is the assistant or application making the connection. The server is the service providing tools and data. Your assistant is the client; xpnAI provides the server. See Connect an MCP client.

Server URL

The address entered in your assistant’s connection settings: https://api.xpnai.app/mcp. All xpnAI Workspaces use this address. You choose the Workspace during authorisation.

Streamable HTTP

The connection type used by xpnAI’s MCP server. Choose this option when your assistant asks how to connect to the server URL.

OAuth

The browser sign-in and approval process that lets an assistant connect on your behalf. You review and approve access in xpnAI rather than giving the assistant your password.

Authorisation and permissions

Authorisation is your approval for a connection. Permissions describe what it can do, such as reading finance data or creating draft journals. Connecting Xero and connecting an assistant require separate approvals.

Connector or custom app

A name your assistant provider may use for a connection to another service. For example, ChatGPT can use a custom MCP app to connect to xpnAI.

Prompt

A request you send to your assistant. Include the organisation, date range and result you need so it can find the right data.

Revoke access

Stop an assistant connection from making future requests. Use Revoke access under Connections > MCP. This cannot remove downloaded files, and existing export links remain usable until they expire.

Xero connections and data

Xero organisation

A business or other entity whose accounts are held in Xero. A Workspace can connect to several organisations. Name the organisation when asking your assistant for analysis or a change.

Xero connection

The authorised link between a Workspace and a Xero organisation. It allows xpnAI to refresh imported data and carry out supported, permitted actions in Xero. See Connect Xero.

Selected organisation

An authorised organisation you have chosen to import for Workspace analysis. An organisation listed as Available must be connected before its data is selected for import.

Import or sync

Copying or refreshing Xero data in your Workspace. Selected, connected organisations refresh hourly unless automatic sync is paused. Sync now refreshes one organisation; Sync all requests a refresh of all selected, connected organisations.

Last successful sync

The time the latest completed import finished. It tells you how current the data available for analysis is. A waiting or failed import does not make older data current.

Disconnect and delete data

Disconnect stops an organisation from refreshing but keeps imported data. Delete data permanently removes its imported data and mappings from the current Workspace, disconnecting it first if necessary. Neither action deletes the original records in Xero.

Finance and exports

Source Reference

An identifier used by xpnAI to refer to a source record or source line. Xero records use their original Xero UUID, without encoding or a prefix. Access remains limited to the connected Workspace.

Chart of accounts

The accounts used to classify transactions, such as sales, rent and bank accounts. Accounts have names, codes and types. An authorised assistant can read the chart and make supported changes.

General ledger

The accounting entries recording activity against an organisation’s accounts. Use them to investigate the transactions behind a balance or a period’s activity.

Accounts payable and accounts receivable

Accounts payable covers amounts owed to suppliers. Accounts receivable covers amounts customers owe the business. Specify whether you want supplier bills or customer invoices in your request.

Bank transaction

A spend-money or receive-money transaction in Xero. It is distinct from an invoice, bill, bank transfer or raw bank statement line.

Fixed asset

A long-lived business asset recorded in Xero, such as equipment. Available data includes asset details and current depreciation values. It is not a complete historical register for any date you choose.

Draft manual journal

An accounting entry prepared for review before posting. Journals created through xpnAI remain drafts. Review and post them yourself in Xero. See Create a draft journal.

NoTax

The tax treatment used for manual journals created through xpnAI. These journals do not calculate tax.

Tracking category and tracking option

A category classifies activity, for example Region. Its options are values such as North and South. An authorised assistant can manage supported tracking settings in Xero.

Reporting currency

The currency set for your Workspace’s reporting context. It does not change a Xero organisation’s base currency or automatically convert transaction amounts.

Financial year end

The month and day ending the Workspace’s financial year. Your assistant can use it as context for reporting periods. It does not change Xero’s settings. See Workspace settings.

Export

A downloadable file containing requested transactions. Exports support up to 100,000 rows. Narrow the filters and create separate exports for larger results.

Compressed CSV

A table of rows and columns packaged in a compressed file. Extract it before opening the CSV in a spreadsheet.

Parquet

A data-file format used by analysis tools. Choose it when your tool supports Parquet; choose compressed CSV for a spreadsheet-friendly export.

Download link

A temporary link to an export file. Anyone with the full link can download it until it expires. Ask for a new export if it has expired. See Export transactions.