Xero Transformation dbt Package (Docs)
-
Produces modeled tables that leverage Xero data from Fivetran's connector in the format described by this ERD and builds off the output of our Xero source package.
-
Provides analytics-ready models, including a profit and loss report, general ledger, and balance sheet report.
-
Generates a comprehensive data dictionary of your source and modeled Xero data through the dbt docs site.
The following table provides a detailed list of all tables materialized within this package by default.
| Table | Description |
|---|---|
| xero__general_ledger | Each record represents a journal line item. Use the ledger to create the balance sheet and the profit and loss statement. |
| xero__profit_and_loss_report | Each record represents a profit and loss line item at the month and account level. |
| xero__balance_sheet_report | Each record represents the state of the balance sheet for a given account on a given month. |
| xero__invoice_line_items | Each record represents an invoice line item enriched with the account, contact, and invoice information. |
Each Quickstart transformation job run materializes 35 models if all components of this data model are enabled. This count includes all staging, intermediate, and final models materialized as view, table, or incremental.
To use this dbt package, you must have the following:
- At least one Fivetran Xero connection syncing data into your destination.
- A BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, PostgreSQL, or Databricks destination.
Include the following xero package version in your packages.yml file:
TIP: Check dbt Hub for the latest installation instructions or read the dbt docs for more information on installing packages.
packages:
- package: fivetran/xero
version: [">=0.9.0", "<0.10.0"] # we recommend using ranges to capture non-breaking changes automaticallyDo NOT include the xero_source package in this file. The transformation package itself has a dependency on it and will install the source package as well.
By default, this package runs using your destination and the xero schema. If this is not where your Xero data is (for example, if your Xero schema is named xero_fivetran), add the following configuration to your root dbt_project.yml file:
vars:
xero_schema: your_schema_name
xero_database: your_database_name Currently, our dbt models for Xero have limited support for multi-currency accounting, particularly for handling unrealized currency gains and losses and bank revaluations, as they require historical or current exchange rate data that is not available in the Xero connector to fully calculate.
Thus, while all realized current gains will be brought through in our end models, unrealized currency gains and losses and bank revaluations will not. So we cannot provide full multi-currency support at this time.
If you have multiple Xero connections in Fivetran and would like to use this package on all of them simultaneously, we have provided functionality to do so. The package will union all of the data together and pass the unioned table into the transformations. You will be able to see which source it came from in the source_relation column of each model. To use this functionality, you will need to set either (note that you cannot use both) the union_schemas or union_databases variables:
# dbt_project.yml
...
config-version: 2
vars:
xero_source:
union_schemas: ['xero_us','xero_ca'] # use this if the data is in different schemas/datasets of the same database/project
union_databases: ['xero_us','xero_ca'] # use this if the data is in different databases/projects but uses the same schema nameWhen setting up your Xero connection in Fivetran, it is possible that not every table this package expects will be synced. This can occur because you either don't use that functionality in Xero or have actively decided to not sync some tables. In order to disable the relevant functionality in the package, you will need to add the relevant variables.
By default, all variables are assumed to be true. You only need to add variables for the tables you would like to disable:
# dbt_project.yml
config-version: 2
vars:
xero__using_credit_note: false # default is true
xero__using_bank_transaction: false # default is true
xero__using_invoice_line_item_tracking_category: false # default is true
xero__using_journal_line_tracking_category: false # default is true
xero__using_tracking_categories: false # default is trueFor additional configurations for the source models, visit the Xero source package.
By default this package will build the Xero Source staging models within a schema titled (<target_schema> + _stg_xero) and the Xero final transform models within a schema titled (<target_schema> + _xero) in your target database.
To overwrite this behavior, add the following configuration to your dbt_project.yml file:
# dbt_project.yml
...
models:
xero:
+schema: my_new_final_models_schema # leave blank for just the target_schema
xero_source:
+schema: my_new_staging_models_schema # leave blank for just the target_schema
If an individual source table has a different name than the package expects, add the table name as it appears in your destination to the respective variable:
IMPORTANT: See this project's
dbt_project.ymlvariable declarations to see the expected names.
vars:
xero_<default_source_table_name>_identifier: your_table_name Expand for details
Fivetran offers the ability for you to orchestrate your dbt project through Fivetran Transformations for dbt Core™. Learn how to set up your project for orchestration through Fivetran in our Transformations for dbt Core setup guides.
This dbt package is dependent on the following dbt packages. These dependencies are installed by default within this package. For more information on the following packages, refer to the dbt hub site.
IMPORTANT: If you have any of these dependent packages in your own
packages.ymlfile, we highly recommend that you remove them from your rootpackages.ymlto avoid package version conflicts.
packages:
- package: fivetran/xero_source
version: [">=0.7.0", "<0.8.0"]
- package: fivetran/fivetran_utils
version: [">=0.4.0", "<0.5.0"]
- package: dbt-labs/dbt_utils
version: [">=1.0.0", "<2.0.0"]The Fivetran team maintaining this package only maintains the latest version of the package. We highly recommend you stay consistent with the latest version of the package and refer to the CHANGELOG and release notes for more information on changes across versions.
A small team of analytics engineers at Fivetran develops these dbt packages. However, the packages are made better by community contributions.
We highly encourage and welcome contributions to this package. Check out this dbt Discourse article on the best workflow for contributing to a package.
- If you have questions or want to reach out for help, see the GitHub Issue section to find the right avenue of support for you.
- If you would like to provide feedback to the dbt package team at Fivetran or would like to request a new dbt package, fill out our Feedback Form.