Deputy's standard integrations with Xero and MYOB do one job well: they move approved timesheets into payroll so you can pay people. They also keep employee details and leave balances in step, and can tag hours with a single area or job code. Where they stop is everything after the pay run. Getting labour cost onto the right job, billing a client for the hours your people worked on their site, and comparing labour cost against revenue are not what the connector is built for. If those are the problems you have, the fix is usually some combination of better set-up, a tighter approval process, and a proper connection between Deputy and your job or invoicing system.
The problem in plain English
For many growing businesses, Deputy becomes the place where the truth about hours lives. Managers approve shifts there, award rates and penalties are worked out there, and the hours are exported to Xero or MYOB for payroll.
That part usually works. The trouble shows up later, in questions like these:
- "What did labour actually cost on that job?" The hours are in Deputy and the pay is in Xero or MYOB, but the job cost report lives somewhere else, often a spreadsheet.
- "Did we bill the client for all those hours?" In labour hire and contract services, the same hours that go to payroll should also go on a client invoice, at a charge rate rather than a pay rate.
- "Why is payroll redoing timesheets that were already approved?" Someone approves in Deputy, and then the payroll officer adjusts hours, rates or codes in payroll because something didn't map.
- "Are we making money on this site or this client?" Answering it means pulling labour cost and revenue from different systems and lining them up by hand.
None of these are payroll problems. They sit between rostering, payroll, job costing and invoicing, which is why a better payroll export alone rarely fixes them.
What the standard Deputy connectors do well
Based on Deputy's own integration pages and help articles (checked October 2026), here is what you get out of the box. Deputy changes its integrations from time to time, so confirm the details for your account with Deputy.
Deputy and Xero
- Employee details can be imported from Xero into Deputy, and some details can go the other way. Employees are matched on name and email, so spelling has to be identical in both systems.
- Approved timesheets export to Xero Payroll. Timesheets have to be approved in Deputy first.
- If you use Deputy's Pay Rate Library (its award rates), matching earnings rates are created in Xero on the first export. Deputy advises against renaming them in Xero afterwards, or you can end up with duplicates.
- Approved paid leave exports to the matching Xero leave type, and leave balances sync from Xero back to Deputy.
- Deputy Areas can be mapped to options in a Xero tracking category, as long as the Area export code matches the tracking option name exactly.
Deputy and MYOB
- MYOB Business (formerly AccountRight Live) has a direct connection. Deputy's integration page describes file-based exports (TXT or CSV) for MYOB's desktop product and for MYOB Exo.
- Staff records can be imported from MYOB. Employees are matched on Payroll ID (the Card ID or employee number in MYOB), first name, last name and email.
- Approved timesheets export with award pay rates and approved leave. Leave balances sync from MYOB to Deputy overnight.
- For MYOB Business, Deputy creates matching pay items. For the desktop product, export codes have to match existing payroll categories.
- Deputy Areas can be mapped to MYOB job codes, but the job must already exist in MYOB before the export.
We couldn't find MYOB Advanced or MYOB Acumatica listed on Deputy's MYOB integration page, so if you run one of those, ask Deputy directly what is supported rather than assuming.
If your business has one award, a handful of locations and no need to bill hours on to clients, the standard connector may be all you need.
Where the connector stops
The connector's job is to get people paid. These are the common places it runs out, particularly for construction, labour hire and multi-site service businesses.
Labour cost by job, site or client. Mapping Areas to a Xero tracking category or a MYOB job code tags the payroll cost. That helps, but Xero tracking is limited to a small number of categories, and the job code has to exist in MYOB first. If your jobs live in a job management or project system, that system usually doesn't see the labour cost at all. Someone ends up exporting hours from Deputy and pasting them into a job cost spreadsheet.
Award interpretation vs pay items. Deputy works out award rates, overtime and penalties. Xero or MYOB then needs a pay item for every rate Deputy sends. When the two drift (a renamed earnings rate, a new allowance, a pay category that doesn't match), the export fails or lands on the wrong item, and payroll fixes it by hand.
Approved in Deputy, reworked in payroll. If payroll regularly edits hours or rates after export, the approved timesheet in Deputy is no longer the record of what was paid. That causes disputes with staff, makes back pay harder, and under Payday Super leaves less time to fix things before super is due.
Charging labour hire hours to clients. The standard connectors send hours to payroll, not to accounts receivable. A labour hire business needs the same approved hours turned into client invoices at charge rates, often with the client's purchase order and site on each line. The Deputy to Xero payroll export doesn't do that.
Labour cost against revenue. Payroll cost sits in payroll journals and revenue sits in invoices. Comparing them by job, site or client means joining data the connector never brings together.
Your options, simplest first
Start at the top. Many businesses solve most of the problem in the first two steps.
- Fix the set-up and mapping. Make names, emails and payroll IDs identical in both systems. Use Deputy's Pay Rate Library as the one place rates are set, and stop renaming earnings rates in Xero. Give every Deputy Area a clean export code that matches the tracking option or job code exactly. Much of the rework in payroll comes from small mismatches.
- Fix the approval process. Decide who approves timesheets, by when, and what happens to late changes. If an approval is wrong, fix it in Deputy and re-export, rather than editing in payroll. That keeps one record of what was worked and paid. It is a process change, not a software one.
- Use what your other systems already offer. Some job, labour hire and project systems have their own Deputy connection or timesheet import. Check first.
- Build a proper connection to your job or invoicing system. When hours need to reach job costing, client invoices or a labour cost report, a connection that reads approved timesheets from Deputy and sends them where they are needed is the reliable answer. Payroll keeps using the standard connector. The new connection handles the other side: hours to jobs at cost, hours to client invoices at charge rates, and a regular report of labour cost against revenue by job, site or client.
Costs vary widely depending on the size of the business, how many systems are involved and how much needs to be custom-built, so we scope every project first and give you a fixed quote after a free initial chat.
How a proper connection works
This is the technical part, for whoever looks after your systems.
Deputy has an API that exposes approved timesheets, including the employee, the Area, the hours and the costed amounts. A connection reads timesheets once they are approved, looks up the job or client each Area belongs to, and then does one or more of the following:
- Posts labour cost to the job in your job costing or project system.
- Creates or updates draft client invoices in Xero or MYOB, at the charge rate for that client and role, with the site or purchase order on each line.
- Writes the hours, cost and revenue to a reporting database so a dashboard can show labour cost against revenue without anyone exporting spreadsheets.
The important design choices are where charge rates live (they don't belong in Deputy's pay rates), how the connection treats timesheets changed after approval, and what happens when a job or client doesn't exist yet. Failed records should go to a person, not be silently skipped. See our third-party software integration service for how we approach this, and the Xero and MYOB integration guide for related reading.
If you run labour hire, our labour hire industry page and the post on labour hire payroll under Payday Super cover the wider picture. If the real issue is that every system holds part of the story, see disconnected business systems.
Frequently asked questions
Does Deputy integrate with Xero?
Yes. Deputy exports approved timesheets to Xero Payroll, syncs employee details and leave balances, creates earnings rates from its Pay Rate Library, and can map Deputy Areas to a Xero tracking category. It is built for payroll, not for job costing or client invoicing.
Does Deputy work with MYOB?
Yes. MYOB Business (formerly AccountRight Live) has a direct connection, and Deputy describes file exports for MYOB's desktop product and MYOB Exo. Deputy's integration page didn't list MYOB Advanced or MYOB Acumatica when we checked, so confirm with Deputy if you use either.
Can Deputy send hours to client invoices for labour hire?
Not through the standard Xero or MYOB payroll connector, which sends hours to payroll. Turning approved hours into client invoices at charge rates needs a separate connection or a labour hire system that does it.
Why does our payroll team keep changing timesheets after export?
Usually something doesn't match: a name, earnings rate, pay category or Area code. Fix the mapping and make corrections in Deputy, then re-export.
Can we see labour cost by job in Xero or MYOB from Deputy?
Partly. Mapping Areas to a Xero tracking category or a MYOB job code tags the payroll cost. Comparing that cost with revenue by job, site or client usually needs a report that brings timesheet, payroll and invoice data together.
If approved hours in Deputy still aren't reaching your jobs, invoices or reports without someone retyping them, book a free initial chat. We'll tell you plainly whether a set-up fix will do or a proper connection is worth it.