XU Biweekly - Issue 70 - 16 December 2023

Saturday 16th December 2023 | No. 70

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PayPal Names Suzan Kereere as Celebrating 10 years of XU & our President of Global Markets biggest year ever!

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AYPAL HOLDINGS, INC. (NASDAQ: PYPL) TODAY ANNOUNCED THE APPOINTMENT OF SUZAN KEREERE AS PRESIDENT, GLOBAL MARKETS, EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2024.

She will have end-to-end accountability for leading PayPal's local businesses and growth strategies in the markets around the world where the company operates to ensure seamless execution and drive profitable growth. This includes overseeing the global sales and distribution of PayPal's products and services, helping to drive PayPal's position as a leading digital payment partner for businesses and consumers around the world.

"Suzan is a highly accomplished executive with extensive experience lead-

ing global payments and technology platforms and businesses at Fortune 100 companies around the world," said Alex Chriss, President and CEO of PayPal. "Throughout her more than 30-year career, she's led successful transformation, sales, and customer initiatives with a proven track record of championing a more inclusive culture in the workplace, maximizing value for customers, and driving growth. I'm thrilled to welcome Suzan to the PayPal team."

Kereere will join PayPal from Fiserv where she currently leads Global Business Solutions, the company's merchant-focused offerings.

Kereere previously served as Fiserv's Chief Growth Officer, leading strategy and business development to enhance customer value and

accelerate growth the enterprise.

across

Prior to Fiserv, she held executive leadership roles in global merchant sales and acquiring at Visa from 2016 to 2021, which included scaling Visa's value-added services with new client segments, as well as leading small business recovery efforts over the course of the pandemic.

Kereere served in leadership positions at American Express from 1988 to 2016, including as head of its U.S. National Merchant Business and Global Network Business. She earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Tufts University, and an M.B.A. from Columbia University Business School.

Kereere serves on the board of directors for 3M and the and on the board of trustees of the Alvin Ailey American

Dance Theater.

"I've dedicated my career to driving innovation in the payments industry and have long been inspired by PayPal," said Kereere. "I'm delighted to join PayPal to serve this iconic brand and deliver on the mission to empower consumers and businesses to reach their full potential."

Peggy Alford, who currently serves as PayPal's Executive Vice President, Global Sales and Merchant Services, will transition from her current role at the end of the year and depart PayPal in January. Alford has worked at PayPal for more than 11 years and during that time has made meaningful contributions through numerous senior leadership roles across the business.

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HE CLOUD-BASED ACCOUNTING PLATFORM HAS INTEGRATED CREZCO’S TECHNOLOGY TO OFFER ON-PLATFORM BILL PAYMENTS USING OPEN BANKING TO ITS UK-BASED SUBSCRIBERS. Crezco, a UK fintech company using open banking to make B2B invoice and bill payments as convenient as B2C card payments, has achieved several major business milestones through securing funding and integrating its technology into global small business platform Xero.

Additionally, its recent agreement with Xero has resulted in the technology being integrated into its bill payment feature which will be launched to UK small businesses at the end of the month.

By leveraging Crezco’s technology and API, Xero’s new bill payments feature can help small businesses have a more accurate view of their cash flow.

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Crezco has secured $12m in Series A funding from MMC Ventures and fintech-focused 13books Capital to enable further growth.

AccountKit Partners with Annature to Revolutionise eSignature Workflows for Accounting Professionals

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CCOUNTKIT, THE LEADING COMPLIANCE AUTOMATION PLATFORM IN ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, AND ANNATURE, A TRUSTED NAME IN ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES, ARE EXCITED TO UNVEIL A GROUNDBREAKING NEW INTEGRATION AND PARTNERSHIP.

This integration is designed to modernise and expedite the eSignature process for accountants

and bookkeepers, thereby eliminating the cumbersome manual data exchange between platforms.

In this state-of-the-art integration, AccountKit will directly transmit documents and associated recipient information—such as e-signer names, contact numbers, and email addresses—to Annature.

This eradicates the need for manual data input, a long-standing bottleneck in

the process. Once the documents are in Annature, users can effortlessly configure e-signature fields prior to sending them out for signatures.

Annature will keep AccountKit's dashboard up-todate in real-time, displaying the latest status of all active envelopes and individual recipient actions, be it opened, cancelled, or signed.

Upon finalisation, users receive instant notifications

via multiple channels like email, Slack, or Teams, and the signed documents are auto-archived back to their originating location, irrespective of the Document Management System (DMS) in use.

Corey Cacic, CTO for Annature, said: "This integration is a huge advancement for the industry. The hassle of manually moving data between systems was always a drain on productivity. Now, this seamless integration

allows professionals to concentrate on their core tasks while reducing administrative overhead. I'm thrilled about the new levels of efficiency and precision this will introduce."

Key Advantages of the Integration: 1. Streamlined Efficiency: Eradicates manual data input, freeing up valuable time.

2.

Saturday 16th December 2023

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Enhanced

Accuracy:

Minimizes human errors that come with manual data handling.

3. User-Friendly: Enables professionals to manage and authorize documents within a unified platform, improving user satisfaction.

4. Robust Security: Guarantees the protection of sensitive financial data throughout the transfer and eSignature process.

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Updates

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Saturday 16th December 2023

Hurray, it’s another agency rebrand! Why Journey’s Know-it November relaunched brand is more re-energised than rehashed

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EBRANDS CAN BE SUCH A BORE! WOW, YOU CHANGED YOUR LOGO AND CHOSE A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT CORPORATE BLUE PANTONE FOR YOUR WEBSITE – *SLOW HAND CLAP* WELL DONE YOU! BUT EVERY NOW AND THEN, A REBRAND COMES ALONG THAT DOES IT RIGHT. A rethink that’s not just a cosmetic airbrushing of the existing brand, but a complete rethink of the style, attitude and ethos of the brand.

Journey is launching its new brand with a bang. We’re the same cutting-edge growth marketing agency we always were – with a razor-sharp focus on the accounting technology market. But now we’re wearing new threads and walking a new walk. Dive into www.letsjourney.io and see just why we stand out from the crowd, and how we’re more motivated than ever to help accounting tech startups become industry rock stars.

XU BIWEEKLY - No. 70 Newsdesk: If you have any news or updates that you would like us to consider for inclusion in the next edition of the XU Biweekly, please email us at: newsdesk@xumagazine.com CEO: David Hassall Managing Editor: Wesley Cornell Chief Revenue Officer: Alex Newson Account & Partnership Assistant: Robyn Consterdine Creative Assistant: Aidan McGrath Advertising: advertising@xumagazine.com www.xumagazine.com ‘Xero’ is a trademark of Xero Limited (New Zealand). XU Biweekly and XU Magazine is collaboratively produced by an independent group of Xero users and is not affiliated in any way with Xero. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © XU Magazine Ltd 2014-2023.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

XU Biweekly is published by XU Magazine Ltd (08811842), registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Office 1, Brunswick House, Brunswick Way, Liverpool, L3 4BN, United Kingdom. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. XU Magazine Ltd cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information.

If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant XU Magazine Ltd a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all/any editions, including in any physical or digital format, throughout the world. Any material you submit is sent at your risk and, although every care is taken, neither XU Magazine Ltd nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage.

The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily the views of XU Magazine Ltd, its editors or its contributors.

A refreshed brand with a punk-rock attitude A rebrand isn’t about commissioning an expensive new logo. A good rebrand builds on previous successes by re-focusing the mission, vision and clarity of what your brand’s about. So, if you’re going to do more than just tick the usual boxes, you need a sharp focus on your customers.

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Round Up

EAD ALL ABOUT NOVEMBER WITH US AND THE EXCITING THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN GOING ON.

Our New Mobile App

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N ENGINEER DEDICATED TO SECURITY JOINED THE TEAM THIS WEEK.

Our new brand is all about blending the rebellion and disruptive spirit of these punkrock innovators, with clear, no-nonsense visuals and content that tells it how it is.

Our app is now available to download on iOS and Android via the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

I’m particularly excited by this new role as it represents both the culmination of 18 months of work focusing on certain aspects of our security posture, while also setting us up to pursue a number of security-based initiatives I will discuss in depth in the coming months. With the changing security landscape, driven in particular by some of the large Australian security incidents in recent years, having internal staff dedicated to our security over and above our network of third party security consultants sets us up well moving forward. Note: If you use Google to sign in and have the toggle ‘Only allow Google sign in’ under Account preferences set, then you do not require 2FA.

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Journey’s customers are accounting tech founders, disruptive innovators who’ve shaken up the industry. They spot a niche, develop never-before-seen technology and disrupt the market. It was only fitting to match that energy with the new Journey brand and to crank it up to 11.

We are excited to announce we have released a brand new mobile app!

Sharesight product updates – December 2023

You can now receive live credit management updates via the app so you are always kept in the know.

Get notified about changes to your customer’s credit report, alerts to potential customer risks including liquidations or insolvencies and get live updates on your commercial debt recovery cases on the go!

Product Updates RAVE’s New Branch Level Sumday Product Flowlens – December 2023 Transaction Report Release Update

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EY TEAM, YOU’VE BEEN THROWING IT OUT THERE, AND WE’VE LISTENED! CHECK OUT THE LATEST AND GREATEST FROM RAVEOUR BRAND-SPANKIN’NEW BRANCH-LEVEL TRANSACTION REPORT. NOW, YOU CAN CASUALLY PEEK AT THE PRICES YOU’VE SHELLED OUT FOR DIFFERENT ITEMS AND THE AMOUNT OF PRODUCTS OR LABOUR YOU’VE WRANGLED OVER TIME. IT’S YOUR SECRET WEAPON FOR THOSE YEARLY SUPPLIER MEET-UPS. REBATE OR DISCOUNT NEGOTIATIONS? THIS REPORT’S YOUR SIDEKICK, DISHING OUT THE CLARITY YOU NEED TO HAGGLE LIKE A PRO. CHEERS TO SMARTER DEALS!

The Branch Detailed Transaction Report The Branch Detailed Transaction Report (along with a large range of other

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HESE UPDATES WILL GO LIVE ON WEDNESDAY 13TH DECEMBER.

Branch Sales and Financial Reports) is available from our Reporting portal. You can access these (with user permissions) via your profile dropdown – that is, clicking on your name in black and white to the top right of the screen, selecting the Reporting option.

You can access the branch detailed transaction report, by clicking on the Branch level, Financial Reporting tab – then the Detailed Transaction Report sub-tab – to display the Branch Detailed Transaction Report table.

Here you will find all of your Bill and Credit Note line items – which are then able to be sorted by Reference, Category, Contact, Transaction Date, Due Date, Code, Description, Quantity, Cost Price, your Total (excluding GST) and your Chart of Account codes.

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E'RE THRILLED TO UNVEIL A HOST OF IMPROVEMENTS IN OUR LATEST RELEASE, DESIGNED TO ELEVATE YOUR CARBON ACCOUNTING EXPERIENCE AND MAKE YOUR WORKFLOW EVEN MORE SEAMLESS. HERE'S A GLIMPSE OF WHAT'S NEW:

Form Updates

• Improved layout of form header block to make it more consistent with other outputs.

• Addition of two new forms answer types for single and multiple image uploads.

Carbon Ledger Improvements

Sales

• Click Anywhere Convenience: Effortlessly select or unselect transactions in the Carbon Ledger with a simple click, eliminating the hassle of hunting for tiny checkboxes.

• Smart Transaction Search: Easily locate specific transactions with our enhanced search functionality, allowing you to explore and filter transactions based on any non-editable column – be it text or amount and bulk select.

• Efficient Handling of Transactions: Enjoy the capability to manage a larger volume of transactions seamlessly, thanks to updates in the Carbon Ledger that improve data handling.

• Contact Block as been added to Sales Quotation PDFs. • Bug resolved to show Quotation revisions correctly in the Activity Log.

Assessment Updates • Full Cradle-to-Grave Assessment Functionality

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MRP Requirements • Where a PO has been issued for a particular line on the MRP Requirements page, the relevant Supplier Name now appears beneath the PO reference in the Purchase Order column.

Dispatches – Delivery Tracking URL • Where available, a web address (URL) can be added to dispatch notes. This is presented in the Dispatch Note PDF and also in dispatch note emails sent from Flowlens.

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News

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Karbon appoints New integration: effortless bookkeeping 2023: Powering $2.1B in revenue for Elizabeth Blass as with Soldo and Microsoft Dynamics 365 7,000+ customers Chief Customer Officer

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GNITION CONTINUES TO BOOST REVENUE, INCREASE PROFITABILITY AND DRIVE EFFICIENCIES FOR 7K+ CUSTOMERS

Key highlights • Over 7,000 Ignition customers generated US $2.1 billion in revenue using the Ignition platform.

• Ignition processed over 2.3 million client payments for our customers – amounting to more than US $1.3 billion.

• Ignition customers engaged more than half a million clients who accepted nearly one million proposals via Ignition.

• Ignition launched over 90 new features and enhancements including Instant Bill, Bulk Proposals and Proposal Renewals.

In the past year, over 7,000 accounting and professional service businesses harnessed the power of Ignition to generate billions in revenue. How? By automating and optimizing their businesses to operate more efficiently, expediting payments to boost cash flow, and billing for all their work to grow profits.

This year marks Ignition's 10th anniversary, and it's the perfect time to highlight the amazing successes our customers have achieved in 2023.

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EET ELIZABETH BLASS, KARBON'S NEW CHIEF CUSTOMER OFFICER.

Karbon, a global leader in accounting practice management software, today announced Elizabeth Blass assumed the position of Chief Customer Officer effective December 1, 2023.

The newly created role will support a growing customer base and strengthen Karbon’s position as the accounting practice management leader.

“Karbon is the leader in accounting practice management due to a world-class software solution and ongoing investment in our customers,” said Karbon Chief Executive Officer Mary Delaney. “With the record growth that Karbon is experiencing, we needed a leader who would not only enable us to maintain our high customer value but to elevate it even further. Elizabeth is a recognized leader who’s made a career of ​​consistently exceeding customer satisfaction goals and managing large-scale projects. We couldn’t have found a more trusted and experienced individual for this role.”

Despite a challenging economic environment.

“I’m thrilled to join an organization where a commitment to customers shines so strongly through its mission, product, and culture,” said Blass. “My father owned a small accounting practice and he worked long hours. The fact that Karbon’s solution helps hard-working accountants become more efficient and provide an exceptional experience for their clients really connects to me."

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Ignition customers generated over $2 billion in client revenue

Xero collaborating with AWS to help small businesses digitise T HAT’S RIGHT — WE’VE JOINED FORCES WITH AMAZON WEB SERVICES (AWS) TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND GET STARTED ON THEIR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY THROUGH THE AWS LIFT PROGRAM.

New and existing AWS customers that join the AWS Lift program will receive a starter pack of AWS Credits over 12 months to help them get started on the cloud.

The availability of AWS credits enables small businesses to try out over 200 AWS cloud services using extensive cloud infrastructure and deep functionality.

We’re collaborating with AWS to help bring this opportunity to our small business customers and ecosystem community. We know that small businesses do better when supported by technology, but we also know that they are more likely to approach technology adoption with caution. While cost can certainly be a barrier, our One Step research has identified several mindsets that

also play a big part.

AWS Lift can help alleviate some of the financial and mindset barriers for small businesses through reduced cost and buoyed

by AWS’s suite of educational and support materials. This opens the door for small businesses and ecosystem developers to take a step towards digital transformation.

What is AWS Lift?

AWS Lift is a program launched by AWS to help small businesses to digitise their operations through the power of cloud computing. It provides AWS Promotional Credits to eligible small businesses when they join the program and get billed through AWS Cloud services. These credits can be used to offset costs, and experiment with products from across AWS Cloud’s suite of services. AWS Lift can help alleviate some cost pressures faced by small businesses. With a minimum billing fee of just USD $1 and no lock-in periods or hidden fees.

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E’RE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT YOU CAN NOW INTEGRATE SOLDO WITH MICROSOFT DYNAMICS 365 BUSINESS CENTRAL TO MAKE YOUR BOOKKEEPING EFFORTLESS.

“At Soldo, our goal is to simplify tasks for our customers. Recognising that many of our users rely on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, we’ve integrated the two platforms, accelerating the reconciliation process and enhancing financial reporting and analysis.” – Martina Paolicchi, Integrations Product Manager at Soldo This integration is available on Soldo Pro, Premium and Enterprise plans today at no additional cost.

Why integrate Soldo with Microsoft Dynamics 365?

Soldo’s direct connection to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central syncs your expense data for accurate accounting and easy reconciliation.

Save time and effort: Sync your Soldo expense data to Microsoft Dynamics 365 in a single click. This integration seamlessly transfers financial information without the risk of human error.

Speed up month-end: Close your books faster with the data you need for easy reconciliation. The Soldo mobile app captures receipts, lists, and notes at the point of purchase. Validate and effortlessly send this data to Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Improve accuracy: Eliminate the risk of manual data entry errors for hassle-free, accurate reporting. Make more informed decisions based on precise, real-time financial data.

How can you connect Soldo and Microsoft Dynamics 365?

To connect Soldo to your Microsoft Dynamics 365 account, simply log in to Soldo and look for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in the search box of the Marketplace section.

Next, select Microsoft Dynamics 365 and authorise the connection. Then, choose whether you want to export transactions to Microsoft Dynamics 365 as journal lines or purchase invoices. And you’re ready to go!Connect today for seamless and accurate financial reporting with Soldo and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

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Top 20 NZX trades by Sharesight users – November 2023 W ELCOME TO THE NOVEMBER 2023 EDITION OF SHARESIGHT’S MONTHLY NZX TRADING SNAPSHOT, WHERE WE LOOK AT THE TOP 20 TRADES SHARESIGHT USERS MADE ON THE NZX DURING THE MONTH.

In this snapshot, trades were strongly led

by Smartshares’ US 500 (NZX: USF) and NZ Top 50 (NZX: FNZ) ETFs. In terms of individual stocks, trades were led by Infratil Limited (NZX: IFT), which more than doubled its first-half net profit; followed by Air New Zealand (NZX: AIR), which is set to continue discounting fares due to a lack of demand.

Let’s look at the news behind the key stocks in this month’s snapshot:

Infratil Limited (NZX: IFT) • Infratil more than doubles first-half net profit to NZ$1.2 billion • Announces reduced dividend for December • Infratil’s CDC reportedly seeking additional NZ$1.08 billion for five-year expansion plan Air New Zealand (NZX: AIR) • Maintenance issues expected to cause up to two years of Air NZ flight disruption • Virgin Australia and Air NZ to work together again on trans-Tasman flights • Air NZ poised to continue discounting flights due to reduced demand

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News Top 20 US trades by Sharesight Lightyear Invests £3m into Doubling its Workforce with Record Year of users – November 2023 Growth and Innovation W L 6 XU Biweekly | No. 70

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ELCOME TO THE NOVEMBER 2023 EDITION OF SHARESIGHT’S MONTHLY USA TRADING SNAPSHOT, WHERE WE LOOK AT SHARESIGHT USERS’ TOP 20 TRADES IN US STOCKS ON THE NASDAQ, NYSE AND NYSE AMERICAN MARKET (AMEX) OVER THE MONTH.

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) • Tesla visits Indonesian nickel plant for potential investment • EV car registrations surpass diesel for first time in Europe • Analysts predict ‘major growth’ for Tesla rival General Motors

In this snapshot, buy and sell trades were strongly led by Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), which is currently seeing strong competition from rival companies such as General Motors (NYSE: GM).

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) • Microsoft hires Sam Altman after he fails to return to CEO position at OpenAI • Microsoft share price reaches all-time high after hiring Sam Altman • Microsoft unlikely to get seat on OpenAI board, say experts

Trades were followed by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which has been in the spotlight since hiring former OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman.

Let’s look at the news behind some of the key stocks in this month’s snapshot:

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) • Apple share price up 45% since beginning of 2023

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IGHTYEAR, A LEADING FORCE IN ACCOUNTS PAYABLE AUTOMATION, ANNOUNCES IT HAS INVESTED £3M IN 2023 AFTER DOUBLING ITS WORKFORCE ACROSS ITS GLOBAL OPERATIONS. 2023 has been Lightyear's most successful year to date, marked by record growth, groundbreaking innovation, and further focus on community engagement.

With a commitment to the development of its best-in-class technology, Lightyear doubled its global workforce from 30 employees to 60 across its offices in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Sydney, Australia.

Moving into new Belfast offices in February of this year, the rapid growth comes as the result of a £3m investment into local talent, spanning various business units, including software development, sales and marketing, operations and customer support.

The recent investment and growth trajectory has garnered notable recognition.

Lightyear was awarded Northern Ireland’s Fast-Growing Fintech business in the FT1000 Awards earlier this year. The success was followed by the company ranking in the top three fastest growing technology companies in Northern Ireland at the prestigious Deloitte Technology Fast 50 awards for the second year running.

And its new array of talent has proven successful with the company celebrating its biggest feature release so far. Smart Extract, an AI data extraction tool, which uses

The latest and greatest features to boost financial controls with ApprovalMax

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OIN US AS WE RECAP THE APPROVALMAX 2023 – YEAR IN REVIEW WEBINAR, WHERE WE SHARED THE LATEST UPDATES, OUR FRESH NEW LOOK, AND WHAT’S COMING SOON. On the 22nd of November 2023, ApprovalMax Product Experts, Alex Keselman, and Justin Campbell hosted two webinar sessions to a global audience that recapped the year’s new product releases.

It was great to see so many of our partners, customers, and potential customers tune in to both sessions around the world.

This year we rolled out the highest number of comprehensive feature updates, surpassing all previous years! It was a pleasure to celebrate this with accountants, bookkeepers, CFO’s and finance team members, far and wide.

For those who couldn’t make it, fear not – we’ve got you covered with a thorough recap of the groundbreaking features and functional enhancements we unveiled. Keep reading to learn more!

2023 in Numbers Justin gave an overview of how many bills, purchase orders, invoices, batch payment approvals, vendor requests, and budgets were processed in ApprovalMax this year!

As you can see in this diagram, there are some huge numbers here that represent just how much ApprovalMax is helping organisations automate their approval processes and

build robust financial controls.

Major Releases for 2023 Alex jumped in to start discussing the biggest updates to ApprovalMax that landed in the product this year.

Goods Received Notes (GRN) The first major release Alex started sharing was the long awaited Goods Received Notes feature. He explained that this provides the flexibility to update the status of received items—whether it be fully received, partially received, or pending. This functionality is complemented by the ability to add comments and attach relevant documents, enhancing the record-keeping process. Picture a scenario involving a recent delivery; by promptly updating the status, users experience a significant boost in efficiency and can find out faster when goods are received.

The updated status is prominently displayed on the request page at the bottom of the screen, seamlessly integrated into the audit trail. Moreover, users can easily navigate to the main menu, where an additional tab highlights the status of received parcels.

This newfound control extends to reporting capabilities, allowing users to generate reports based on the current status of their goods. The GRN feature offers a transformative way to manage and monitor goods, providing users with enhanced visibility and control over their inventory.

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machine learning, has helped businesses boost efficiency by up to 80% since its release 2 months ago. Lightyear customers have welcomed the addition, calling it “a game-changer” in the world of finance automation. Offering faster processing and enhanced data quality, Smart Extract enables users to work much more efficiently and is set to continue in development, with phase 2 scheduled to be released early next year.

With a robust product roadmap for 2024, the team at Lightyear has set ambitious goals for the development of its progressive platform. Next year the business will launch its biggest and most impactful feature to date which will see the product expand into payments, facilitating both domestic and international bill paying from within the Lightyear app.

It’s an exciting time for the team which has been shaking up the AP software industry since its inception in 2018. Its recent product development has been recognised by leading software comparison provider, Gartner, which awarded the business multiple awards in 2023 for its quality of support, feature development, functionality and value for money. And its expansion isn’t stopping there.

Next year, Lightyear plans to increase its workforce to more than 100 globally. This year, the business was shortlisted for Best Place to Work in IT at the Belfast Telegraph awards, competing against long-established technology companies for the spot.

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A year in review: Chaser's impact on businesses in 2023

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S WE APPROACH THE END OF ANOTHER REMARKABLE YEAR, I WANT TO TAKE A MOMENT TO EXPRESS MY HEARTFELT GRATITUDE TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU, OUR TEAM, CONSULTANTS, CONTRACTORS, INVESTORS, SHAREHOLDERS, PARTNERS AND CUSTOMERS. YOUR UNWAVERING SUPPORT AND DEDICATION HAVE BEEN THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND OUR COLLECTIVE SUCCESS. As we stand on the threshold of a new chapter, it's essential to reflect on the milestones we've achieved together. This year has been marked by numerous accomplishments, and it's through your hard work and commitment that we've reached such heights.

Let us take this opportunity to collectively celebrate our achievements and recognise the invaluable contributions that have propelled us forward. Your efforts have truly made a difference, and I am sincerely grateful for the privilege of working alongside such a talented and dedicated team.

Key achievements Chaser’s mission is to help SMEs worldwide get paid in a friendly and effective way, aiming to significantly improve their cash flow.

A vast majority of businesses, especially SMEs, struggle with late payments. Research

suggests that around 87% of businesses frequently experience delays in payments (2022, Chaser). Cash flow delays can severely impact a business's cash flow by hindering the ability to hire essential staff, obstructing timely payments to suppliers, and disrupting financial forecasting accuracy. In some cases, these challenges can even escalate, leading to the severe consequence of insolvency.

In October 2023, The Financial Times reported that company insolvencies in England and Wales were at the highest level since 2009. Needless to say, it’s been a difficult year for businesses.

At the start of 2023, Chaser set an ambitious target to get $5 billion USD collected for businesses in 2023 to help combat the issue of late payments. By the start of October, not only was the $5 billion USD target met, but it was significantly surpassed with Chaser now having helped businesses collect over $7.2 billion USD in 2023.

Even though Chaser has reached and exceeded this milestone, it will continue to ensure all businesses get paid efficiently and in a friendly manner, so that they can improve their cash flow.

Meanwhile, we’ve seen the following benefits achieved for customers in 2023: Maximised revenue and cash flow Streamlined receivables tasks

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Lorem ipsum Increase accuracy by up to 99%.

No contract, plus fair and reasonable monthly pricing.

Integrates seamlessly with Xero and others.

Automate everything: create rules for even more time saving.

Get all features from day #1 at no extra cost—including unlimited companies* & users.

* relevant for accountants and bookkeepers

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2023 in review and what’s in store for 2024!

Open Banking for Airwallex and Woo Australian Business partner to power cross-border G commerce for A global merchants RANT AUGUSTIN, FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR OF SISS DATA SERVICES, WEIGHS IN ON A SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE IN THE EVOLUTION OF OPEN BANKING IN AUSTRALIA, NOW ACCESSIBLE TO BUSINESSES THROUGH THE CONSUMER DATA RIGHT'S NEW 'BUSINESS DISCLOSURE' REVISION.

“Today marks the day that Open Banking finally goes large in Australia," said Augustin. "From today, businesses have the freedom to securely share their bank data with third parties, enabled by the Consumer Data Right’s new ‘business disclosure’ provisions.”

The expansion of Open Banking in Australia, now extends its benefits for the business sector.

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IRWALLEX, A LEADING GLOBAL PAYMENTS AND FINANCIAL PLATFORM FOR MODERN BUSINESSES, TODAY ANNOUNCED ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH WOO, A LEADING OPEN-SOURCE ECOMMERCE PLATFORM BUILT ON WORDPRESS, TO BECOME AN OFFICIAL PAYMENT EXTENSION ON THE PLATFORM.

This leap in Open Banking capabilities is set to transform how businesses make financial decisions. Access to a wider array of data promises more informed and strategic decision-making.

This Airwallex integration enables Woo merchants to accept cross-border payments within minutes by leveraging global cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and 60+ popular local payment methods at checkout, thereby opening up the potential to access shoppers from millions of Woo stores, without the sting of high FX conversion fees. On a mission to connect merchants to shoppers around the world, Woo has become one of the largest ecommerce platforms globally, powering more than 3.5 million ecommerce stores. Starting today, the Airwallex extension will be available on Woo’s official Marketplace.

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This enhancement allows businesses to integrate their banking data with a broad range of financial tools such as ERP and accounting software, facilitated by a Network of Accredited Data Recipients.

Spotlight Reporting in 2023: A Year of Innovation

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S WE SAY GOODBYE TO 2023 WE REFLECT ON WHAT’S BEEN A PIVOTAL YEAR FOR US, DEFINED BY THE EAGERLY AWAITED INTRODUCTION OF OUR ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE (ESG) REPORTING TOOL, SPOTLIGHT SUSTAIN. THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, WE’VE EMBARKED ON A JOURNEY OF INNOVATION, PUSHING BOUNDARIES AND EMBRACING NEW POSSIBILITIES TO BRING TOP-TIER REPORTING TOOLS TO YOU.

We’ve released some highly-demanded updates to the user experience of our flagship product, had the opportunity to sit down and speak with industry experts, including Will Farnell, Amanda Watts, Joe David and more, and we’ve been on the road, attending well-known industry events around the globe, including the Xero Roadshows, Accountex London, Xerocon Sydney and The Digital Accountancy Show.

To showcase what we’ve achieved this year, here are my top five favourite product releases:

effortlessly create comprehensive reports that showcase these objectives and your journey toward achieving them.

2. Main Screen Improvements We incorporated your feedback to improve our main screen experience in Spotlight Reporting and Dashboards.

You can now search for organisations in real-time, pin your favourites to the top of the screen, and conveniently sort columns.

3. Text Panels including Colour Customisation You asked, and we listened. Insert an easily editable text panel alongside your charts, to add commentary, insert auto-text or custom tags, and format to your liking.

Make your commentary stand out by customising the colours of the fonts and backgrounds in text panels. Choose a colour from our palette or use RGB and Hex codes to set the perfect combination for your organisation.

1. Spotlight Sustain 4. Two-step Authentication Environmental, Social and Governance reporting has become an increasingly necessary aspect of business activity in 2023 and beyond. Not only are enterprises recognising the need to be involved in ‘measuring what matters’, beyond the bottom line, but they are seeking solutions to the problems that organisations and communities face in this modern world.

Recognising this need, we launched Spotlight Sustain. Crafted with you in mind, it’s designed to radically simplify setting and tracking your ESG objectives. Now, you can

To help ensure your Spotlight Reporting account is more secure, we made two-step authentication (2SA) a requirement for all users logging into Spotlight Reporting.

With security front of mind for many, we also added support for 2SA using an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator.

SMS has been removed as a 2SA option. No changes are required if you use Single SignOn (SSO) to log in.

Keep reading

RLO IS THE #1 TRAINING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN THE WORLD, AND WE’RE STILL GROWING. WITH OFFICES IN THE UK, CANADA AND NZ, WE’RE PROUD TO BE THE PLATFORM BEHIND TRAINING ORGANIZATIONS ALL OVER THE WORLD. BUT WE DON’T TAKE OUR POSITION FOR GRANTED – WE WORK HARD TO DELIVER A GREAT PRODUCT AND SERVICE FOR OUR CUSTOMERS. 2023 WAS NO EXCEPTION.

Join us as we take stock of everything that’s been rolled out this year, and look ahead to what’s coming through the pipeline in 2024.

What did we see in 2023?

Continued investment in platform security and reliability We worry about platform security so you don’t have to. This year we increased our engineering headcount and put in after-hours rosters for global support. We replaced older technology libraries with newer versions to increase security. And we made a number of other enhancements to ensure your Arlo platform can continue to support your growing number of courses and registrations.

Enhancements galore Not every release is worth shouting from the rooftops about, so forgive us if you’ve missed any of the many enhancements we’ve rolled out this year. Just to name a

few; we’ve added new fields to our contact and organization reports, added new webhooks for leads, merges, and credit notes so you have more flexibility connecting to external systems, and support for higher volume Zoom meetings with automated attendance tracking.

New Salesforce integration This year, we’ve been working on a new Salesforce plugin to make your lives easier and it’s jam-packed full of new features: • We’ve rebuilt the plugin from the ground up using the latest Salesforce coding standards. This means that it’s more performant, more reliable, and is fully compatible with Salesforce Lightning.

• With the implementation of webhooks, synchronisation of entities (excluding leads) now happens in real time. Leads will still sync in batches, around every 15 minutes.

• For contacts and organisations, there is now a 2-way sync meaning that your data in Salesforce and Arlo will always be up to date, no matter where you make the change.

• You can also manage duplicate records detected within Salesforce and choose which record should be synchronised.

• The new integration allows you to choose whether you would like Arlo leads to be pushed to Salesforce as leads or opportunities.

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Top 20 ASX trades by Sharesight users – November 2023 W ELCOME TO THE NOVEMBER 2023 EDITION OF SHARESIGHT’S MONTHLY ASX TRADING SNAPSHOT, WHERE WE LOOK AT THE TOP 20 TRADES SHARESIGHT USERS MADE ON THE ASX DURING THE MONTH.

In this snapshot, buy trades were strongly led by Vanguard’s Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS). In terms of individual stocks, buy trades were led by Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS), which continues to be targeted by short-sellers. Over the same period, sell trades were led by BHP (ASX: BHP) and Fortescue Metals (ASX: FMG), both of which saw their share prices rise throughout November.

Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) • Short-sellers make huge bets against Pilbara Minerals • Pilbara Minerals rumoured to be buying shares of Azure Minerals • Share price has dropped 26% over the past six months Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS) • Woodside CEO appears in court over violence restraining orders against climate activists • Woodside blames poor customer uptake for slow progress on clean energy goals • CEO warns regulation uncertainty could jeopardise WA’s energy security Macquarie Group (ASX: MQG)

Let’s look at the news behind some of the key stocks in this month’s snapshot:

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Features

10 XU Biweekly | No. 70

Saturday 16th December 2023

Navigating the new: Tips on transitioning from WorkflowMax by Xero to WorkflowMax by BlueRock

By Chris Galt, Head of Product, WorkflowMax by BlueRock

F

OR ACCOUNTANTS, BOOKKEEPERS, AND BUSINESSES EVERYWHERE, CHANGE IS A CONSTANT COMPANION. WITH THE RAPID ADVANCEMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY, OUR TOOLS, METHODS, AND PROCESSES HAVE BEEN UNDERGOING A TRANSFORMATIVE JOURNEY. ONE SUCH SIGNIFICANT SHIFT IS THE MIGRATION FROM WORKFLOWMAX BY XERO TO WORKFLOWMAX BY BLUEROCK WHICH CUSTOMERS WILL BE CONTEMPLATING EARLY NEXT YEAR. IF YOU’RE READING THIS, CHANCES ARE YOU HAVE CLIENTS WHO HAVE EVALUATED THEIR OPTIONS AND ARE ON THE CUSP OF THIS TRANSITION. At first glance, migration might seem like a daunting task. But fear not, because the WorkflowMax by BlueRock team is dedicating immense time and resources to ensure that the upcoming change period is nothing short of a breeze for you and your clients.

The rationale behind the move On 23 March 2023, Xero announced that WorkflowMax would be retired on 26 June 2024 and that BlueRock acquired the Work-

flowMax brand to build WorkflowMax 2.0. or WorkflowMax by BlueRock.

ready for go-live. This isn’t just a change; it’s an upgrade.

Since then, we’ve been working round the clock gathering user feedback, and planning our development pathways, and we’re now almost 90% through the build and focused on launching a beta version in December 2023.

So how can you best navigate this upgrade?

In fact, we’ve gone from a team of one to almost 40 in a matter of months. Adding key roles across marketing, partnerships, design, product development, product experience, customer success, customer service, and sales. All to ensure that our new customers transitioning from WorkflowMax by Xero get the very best experience and support throughout the migration period and beyond.

Between February and June 2024, the migration window will open for all (who choose) to transition to the enhanced WorkflowMax by BlueRock platform.

If you’re wondering, ‘Why make the shift?’, the answer lies in progress.

The new platform retains the best of the old and improves it with a modernised interface and a roadmap including many updates and new features that will be

Laying the groundwork: The key to a smooth migration The initial migration stages are all about preparation and planning. Investing time to understand how the migration works can prove invaluable. Dive deep into our resources, watch the migration tutorial, and acquaint yourself with the migration wizard. If you’re uncertain about anything, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team or partner community. We’re here for you.

Where to start Start by setting clear goals and scope. When do you plan to migrate? Do you foresee any process improvements that could streamline operations in the new application? What outcomes do you anticipate post migration?

Map out a detailed migration timeline and allocate the necessary resources – team members, time, and funds, and decide if you want to work with an expert implementation partner or advisor. Project tools like Work-

flowMax, Asana, or Trello can help you keep tabs on your migration milestones.

Establishing these parameters will serve as a compass, ensuring everyone is aligned and on the same page.

Let the migration wizard do the heavy lifting There have been many questions about ‘What data comes across?’. The short answer is almost everything!

We’ve developed a tool called the migration wizard that connects with your old WorkflowMax by Xero account to pull your data into your new account.

We’ve built the wizard to transfer everything that’s possible. WorkflowMax by BlueRock comes equipped with bulk actions to help manage your data post migration, so it will be easier and quicker to do the spring clean in the new system.

Please note: There are a few elements that won’t make the automatic jump.

These include custom reports (you’ll need to rebuild them due to the huge reporting improvements), custom print templates, and third-party integrations that will need to be reconnected and reconfigured. These are straightforward processes, and our team will guide you along the way.

Test runs: An essential step From February 2024, you’ll be able to set up a trial account on WorkflowMax by BlueRock.

We recommend that all businesses planning to move across spend time exploring the new product and features. Test it out with some real-life job data – the in-product prompts will show you what has changed and what’s new.

Check out the performance, ease of use, and integration capabilities.

Migration best practice Here are some best practice tips to help with migration.

Anticipate downtime: The downtime period is when you temporarily halt operations in your old system while the migration is happening.

Essential activities like time entries, invoicing, and purchase order receipting should be completed prior to initiating the migration.

The migration could take anywhere from 2 hours to 24 hours, depending on the amount of data to come across, so think about the

timing of your migration in relation to the peak and slower times in your business.

Reconnections: Post migration, you’ll need to reconnect WorkflowMax by BlueRock to your third-party apps like Xero or Google Drive. Don’t forget to make sure all your login details are in a password manager for easy access to make the process quicker.

Security first: The user initiating the migration will need to have the necessary privileges (administrator and API access) enabled in your old account to successfully launch the migration.

For an added layer of security, get your team to enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) in Xero before the migration.

Checks and balances: Review the migration audit and run a handful of tests to ensure the integrity of your data.

Going forward: Once migration is complete and you’re happy, all activity should be in the new WorkflowMax by BlueRock account. Changes made in the old system post migration won’t be transferred to the new system.

Keep reading

Features

XU Biweekly | No. 70

Saturday 16th December 2023 11

INTERNAL FINANCIAL CONTROLS Your Guide to WITH APPROVALMAX: A GUIDE Consolidations with TO THE FUTURE OF ACCOUNTING Spotlight Reporting A N

By Trent McLaren, Accounting Industry Leader

By Matt Kekena, Product Lead, Spotlight Reporting

EW TO CONSOLIDATIONS IN SPOTLIGHT REPORTING AND NOT SURE WHERE TO START? WE’LL WALK YOU THROUGH THE BASICS SO YOU KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT ALONG THE WAY. You’ve no doubt heard of consolidation. It’s a part of effective management and essential to providing insightful information to all stakeholders to keep a business scaling.

As businesses grow, it’s often inevitable that additional entities will be needed. Typically these will arise from international expansion into new markets or for legal and risk mitigation. Whatever the reasons, you need to be able to prepare consolidated reports based on their group performance and position.

Our team has consolidations down pat, and we want to share our expert-level experience with you.

Why Consolidation?

First things first, consolidation serves three simple but exact purposes: 1. Consolidations empower stakeholders to get a complete overview of the overall group 2. Consolidation = less paperwork. There’s less effort involved in assessing the overall group’s financial health, i.e. you don’t have to prepare a set of reports for each entity!

3. Consolidation cuts out all transactions that occur between entities and the parent company. These things essentially cancel each other out. Eliminating these transactions

gives a simplified view of business performance.

Our CEO and Founder, Richard Francis (FCA), advocates that consolidation needs to be regular, achievable, and scalable. Let’s break that down: Regular: stakeholders should see regular, up-todate and accurate information for decision-making.

Achievable: if consolidated accounting was less time-intensive, it would be both cost-effective and a win-win for both the preparer and consumer.

Scalable: as entities or currencies are added, they should be able to be easily folded into the existing reporting framework.

Sounds easy, right? Depending on yours or your client’s business model, consolidation can quickly become complicated using traditional methods – we’re talking spreadsheets here, with their manual transposition risk and outdated reporting options.

beautiful, outputs.

understandable

For those needing consolidation functionality, Spotlight Reporting’s products offer ease of use, speed and clarity.

1. Making sense of Spotlight Multi vs. Spotlight Reporting Before we get started, let’s talk about the differences between the two Spotlight Reporting products that can be used for consolidation: Spotlight Reporting was designed for company consolidations. You can use it to consolidate up to 75 entities, and to create consolidated and entity comparative Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet reports.

Spotlight Multi is more suited for franchises and not-for-profits which need to aggregate up to 500 entities. Along with creating group Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet reports, you can also rank/benchmark the entities and highlight underperforming entities.

2. Build your first report To make consolidation easier on you, we’re going to walk you through the basics of creating a consolidated report in Spotlight Reporting, including the process for importing data, through to visualising and sharing your first report.

Building your first report can be daunting, but trust us, it’s easy. I’ve put together a great how-to video (3min) taking you through the steps to build a consolidated report that will delight your stakeholders.

Using Spotlight Reporting for Consolidations

3. Level-up with these features

Being able to prepare consolidated reports is a ‘must’ for advisory accountants.

Spotlight Reporting was developed to not only provide faster creation of advanced management reports – great for the CFO, CEO Board and/ or Advisor – but to present

We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve to enhance your consolidated reports: Spotlight Reporting will complete multi-currency conversions using xe.com.

Keep reading

S BUSINESSES WORK TO PLUG LEAKS IN SPENDING IN THE FACE OF A CHALLENGING FINANCIAL OUTLOOK, NEW ACCOUNTING TECHNOLOGY STEPS IN TO TIGHTEN THE GRIP ON FINANCIAL CONTROLS.

respond to increased regulatory scrutiny and evolving accounting standards.

Business and accounting are adapting to pressure with new tech

• Financial information can be trusted – controls ensure financial information’s accuracy, reliability, and integrity.

There’s now plenty of tech in the clever accountant and bookkeeper’s scope, from automated accounting systems and data analytics to cloud-based solutions.

With a squeeze on company profits, businesses are looking for smarter ways to manage their budgets. With that has come greater realisation that internal financial controls have a big part to play. Here we share the trends in how the accounting industry responds to this pressing issue and the accounting technology playing a significant role in this shift in focus.

• Assets better protected – businesses can monitor and track the flow of assets, reducing the risk of mismanagement or loss.

This is the reason for adopting better financial controls Streamlining how businesses buy from suppliers affects the bottom line in more ways than one. A growing emphasis on internal controls offers ways to

• Fraud deterrence – separating the roles of approving purchases, receiving goods, and making payments helps prevent employees from misusing company funds or diverting assets for personal gain.

• Better compliance with regulations – can meet tougher ATO, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and accounting standards around financial reporting and disclosure with more accurate records and simpler auditing procedures.

Different countries are quick to innovate, while others are more cautious. All though are welcoming the tech discussion, and achieving tighter financial controls in a few ways: • Efficiency – Clearer rules and processes enhance accuracy and real-time monitoring.

• Risk management – New tech is making it easier to protect finances against fraud, cybercrime, data mishandling and compliance errors. This ultimately enables protection from penalties, legal liabilities, or reputational damage.

Keep reading

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FinTech News

12 XU Biweekly | No. 70

Saturday 16th December 2023

Easily move to Tide with the PayPal Ventures Co-Leads Mine’s Expensify Announces Business Current Account Switch Service $30 Million Series B Funding Round Travel Integration With Booking.com for Business E VER FELT LIKE YOU’RE STUCK WITH A BANK ACCOUNT THAT JUST DOESN’T SUIT YOUR NEEDS ANYMORE? DON’T WORRY, YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE TRAPPED WITH IT.

lets you switch your current account from one bank to another (like us at Tide!) in seven working days – without the stress and endless forms you might expect.

Plus, you get to pick the switch date that works for you.

Just like our ad campaign “Tide means business” echoes, we know business and we’re confident that we’re the perfect match for SMEs.

It’s backed by the Current Account Switch Guarantee

That’s why we’ve signed up to the Current Account Switch Service (CASS), so that you can easily move your other bank account to Tide. All your banking will be in one place, with no hiccups or lost pennies.

The full switch option is covered by a guarantee.

This means your new bank will transfer all your incoming and outgoing payments seamlessly to your new account, while your old bank will take care of closing your old account once everything’s moved over.

After all, life’s too short to be with the wrong banking provider!

So, what is the Current Account Switch Service?

Though it’s unlikely, if something goes wrong during the switch, this guarantee ensures you’re never out of pocket.

CASS is a free service that

Keep reading

F

UNDING CO-LED BY BATTERY VENTURES AND PAYPAL VENTURES WITH PARTICIPATION FROM NATIONWIDE VENTURES.

Mine, a pioneering company disrupting the data privacy market, announced today that it has raised $30 million in Series B funding, co-led by Battery Ventures and PayPal Ventures, with significant investments from Nationwide Ventures and with the participation of all existing investors including Saban Ventures, Gradient Ventures (Google's AI), MassMutual Ventures and Headline Ventures.

This substantial investment will propel Mine's mission to redefine data privacy and governance management for companies glob-

ally, enabling them to gain better control over their data and simplify regulatory compliance processes to get peace of mind.With this investment, the company will scale its B2B enterprise-grade product, MineOS. MineOS distinguishes itself with its intuitive, nocode experience, seamlessly integrated with advanced AI technology. This integration not only sets a new industry benchmark in automation and accuracy but also revolutionizes the data discovery process, making it more accessible and efficient for businesses of all sizes to automatically discern the apps and infrastructure they employ, identify personal data within these systems, and grant individuals control over their data usage.

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E

XPENSIFY INTEGRATES WITH BOOKING.COM FOR BUSINESS TO PROVIDE A SEAMLESS RECEIPT INTEGRATION FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS.

Expensify, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXFY), a payments superapp that helps individuals and businesses around the world simplify the way they manage money across expenses, corporate cards and bills, today announced a powerful new integration between Expensify and Booking.com for Business.

Powered by Traxo, the Booking.com for Business and Expensify integration is the first expense integration to bring significant benefits to business travelers using

the Booking.com for Business platform. The integration enables an effortless and streamlined process where business travelers can automatically upload travel receipts from Booking. com for Business directly into Expensify at the time of booking. The seamless integration will eliminate the need for manual data entry and reduce the potential for errors, marking a major step forward in enhancing the experience of Booking.com for Business customers.

“Business travelers expect comfort and a no-hassle approach when they travel." says T.J. Ferris, Head of Strategic Partnerships for Expensify

Find out more

GoCardless partners with Swoop honoured with Acre to help mortgage and Wise Platform and Allica Deloitte Fast 50 win protection brokers save time Bank Announce Partnership

to Boost Cross-Border F Payments for UK Businesses

IRST TIME AWARD MADE TO FEMALE-FOUNDED COMPANY

W

ISE PLATFORM, WISE’S GLOBAL PAYMENT INFRASTRUCTURE FOR BANKS AND MAJOR ENTERPRISES, TODAY ANNOUNCES A NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH ALLICA BANK TO PROVIDE UK BUSINESSES WITH A TRANSPARENT AND LOWCOST WAY TO SEND MONEY INTERNATIONALLY. Allica Bank – a challenger bank specifically focused on serving established businesses with 10-250 employees – entered into the partnership to enable their customers to make global payments directly and seamlessly to 160 countries supported by Wise. This is a significant step for Allica’s business customers with ambitions to expand and operate internationally, allowing them to use their

current accounts to send international payments with transparent fees and no exchange rate markups. The Wise Platform integration means that Allica customers can complete the whole process of making an international payment quickly and conveniently within their own banking app. Customers will know upfront the total fees for making an international payment and be able to guarantee the exact amount is received by their recipient.

Nida Sattar, Head of Product – Payments, Allica Bank said, “Partnering with Wise Platform provides our business current account customers with an even broader range of tools to help their business thrive.

Find out more

Swoop has been named as the winner of the Deloitte Fast 50 for 2023 at a ceremony in Dublin’s Mansion House. Swoop was founded by Andrea Reynolds and Ciaran Burke in 2018. It now employs 25 people in Ireland and one hundred globally. It has offices in the UK where it has five locations; Canada; US; Australia; and South Africa. In Ireland, it is located at Dubin’s Dogpatch Labs.

Each year the Deloitte Fast 50 highlights the fifty fastest growing tech companies in Ireland. This year marks 24 years of the programme which celebrates innovation and entrepreneurship across Ireland’s indigenous and vibrant technology sector.

Swoop’s win is a landmark, as it is the first time the award has been won by a female-founded company.

Save up to 90% on data entry processing time Try for free

Andrea Reynolds, CEO, Swoop said: “This is a great endorsement of the work we do, our approach to innovation and our use of technology; but mostly of the fantastic team we have at Swoop, which is now active across four continents. Core to our operation is our sustainable and efficient approach, which will drive the future growth of the business, with capital efficiency at the centre of all our decisions.

G

and get paid faster

OCARDLESS, THE BANK PAYMENT COMPANY, HAS ANNOUNCED A PARTNERSHIP WITH ACRE, AN ALLIN-ONE PLATFORM FOR MORTGAGE AND PROTECTION BROKERS, TO HELP THEM COLLECT SERVICE FEES FROM THEIR CLIENTS IN A MORE SEAMLESS AND COST-EFFECTIVE WAY.

This year’s Deloitte fast 50 includes some really remarkable Irish businesses and it is a fantastic achievement for Swoop to be singled out amongst a range of such incredible entrepreneurial talent. Thanks to Deloitte for acknowledging Swoop and the work we do, and congratulations to the other companies in the Deloitte Fast 50, and particularly the winners in the other categories.”

As the only platform brokers need to manage a client’s mortgage journey from start to finish, Acre is changing the way people buy homes. It’s designed to make the mortgage and protection process more streamlined, with easy case management capabilities and smart dashboards all in one place, so brokers can spend less time on admin and more time growing their business.

Find out more

The GoCardless integra-

tion accelerates the payment process.

Previously, brokers had to look up how much the client owed in Acre, collect the fees off-platform, and then go back to Acre to reconcile the payment.

By integrating Direct Debit for recurring payments and Instant Bank Pay, GoCardless' open banking payment feature for one-off payments, directly into the Acre platform, this threestep process is shortened to one -- enabling brokers to manage, collect and reconcile their payments with ease.

This will also eliminate expensive card payments, while creating a smoother payment experience for the customer.

Keep reading