Account list doesn't return account id for "grouped" accounts - xero-api

Question

I'm using the Xero API to do some integration and I'm using the accounts get feature to return a list of accounts. I'd like to join this to some of the reports, for example the profit and loss report which would allow me to then group the accounts returned by type. All looks good, other than some accounts have an extra "groupID" attribute. When an account has this extra attribute, the "account" attribute that usually contains a GUID which I can link to reports now contains what could be a GUID, only without the dashes, and doesn't link to any other report.
For example, this is an account that all works correctly...
{
"RowType": "Row",
"Cells": [
{
"Value": "General Expenses",
"Attributes": [
{
"Value": "8d631f87-7304-401f-a7cd-d1d42c1b458a",
"Id": "account"
}
]
},
{
"Value": "179.07",
"Attributes": [
{
"Value": "8d631f87-7304-401f-a7cd-d1d42c1b458a",
"Id": "account"
}
]
}
]
},
This one doesn't, and the GUID isn't formatted as a GUID anymore...
{
"RowType": "Row",
"Cells": [
{
"Value": "Directors' Remuneration",
"Attributes": [
{
"Value": "a02584cbb64e4c109b4355b292da0de5",
"Id": "account"
},
{
"Value": "a02584cbb64e4c109b4355b292da0de5",
"Id": "groupID"
}
]
},
{
"Value": "55737.84",
"Attributes": [
{
"Value": "a02584cbb64e4c109b4355b292da0de5",
"Id": "account"
},
{
"Value": "a02584cbb64e4c109b4355b292da0de5",
"Id": "groupID"
}
]
}
]
},
Any idea what would cause that? Is there a way I can list "grouped" accounts?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

At the moment, there is no current way to get the accountIDs in the Reports endpoints for accounts that have been grouped together.
But, there are 2 ways you can get that in the response. In the API request, if you send 'standardLayout=true', then that'll give you back the accountIDs.
Or on the Web app, in P&L edit layout mode, if you uncheck the 'Show Summary Only' box for the group of those accounts, that'll also work the same way and you should be able to see the accountIDs in the API response.
Thanks
Keertika

Answer 2

I believe that is due to the org having multi-currency for that account.
However I don't see much other documentation related to how to lookup the account from that. I will update this answer If I can find anything else out internally.
Multi-Currency System Accounts - FXGROUPID
For organisations in most regions, the standard layout of the profit and loss report will group multi currency system accounts into a single line with a Value of FXGROUPID (instead of an AccountID).
This is not the case for US organisations and Australian demo companies. Multi-currency system accounts will be displayed seperately with their respective AccountIDs.
Multi currency support could be seen here: https://go.xero.com/Setup/CurrencyRates.aspx
I think you can also just query the currencies endpoint to find out if an org may support mutiple.