XU Magazine - Issue 19

The independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users

ISSUE

19

magazine

COVER STORY

The Future Of Accounting

ISSN 2054-7226

19

Mission Ignition: Multiplying Inclusivity

9 772054 722009

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Plus lots more from Xero connected Apps

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Issue 19 / 1

The powerful financial project management software that over 10,000 businesses love.

Here’s 5 reasons why:

1 2 3 4 5

Powerful financial analysis with a suite of customised reports Track time, costs and profitability from quote through to job and invoice Staff allocation feature gives visibility on workflow, team productivity and capacity Everything in one system Manage business on-the-go, from anywhere Xero owned and integrated with robust customer support standards, and ongoing product development

Get started for FREE 2 / Issue 19

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XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

“When you have information, you have power. When you have power, you can make calls with authority and confidence. It allows you to really steer the ship in the right direction.”

Ryan Kagan, Director of BlueRock Digital

Follow BlueRock’s story and find out how WorkflowMax can help your business get profitable workflowmax.com/case-studies

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Issue 19 / 3

Welcome to issue 19...

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magazine The independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users

Issue 19 Main Contacts CEO: David Hassall (Co-Founder) Managing Editor: Wesley Cornell (Co-Founder) Director of Strategic Partnerships: Alex Newson Editorial/News Submissions: If you have any editorial content (news, comment, tutorials etc.) that you would like us to consider for inclusion in the next edition of XU Magazine, please email us at editorial@xumagazine.com Advertising: advertising@xumagazine.com

Cover Story The Future Of Accounting - Mission Ignition: Multiplying Inclusivity

8

Xero’s new payroll only plan - Helping Australia’s smallest employers embrace online payroll and STP

10

‘Xero’ is a trademark of Xero Limited (New Zealand). 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 2014-2019. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. XU Magazine is published by XU Magazine Ltd (08811842), registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 12 Jordan Street, Liverpool, L1 0BP, United Kingdom. All information contained in this magazine is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. XU Magazine cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant XU Magazine a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all/any editions of the magazine, 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 nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage. The views expressed in XU Magazine are not necessarily the views of XU Magazine Ltd, its editors or its contributors.

34

Business survival depends on digital transformation

36

Cloudy with a chance of...

Profits? Expenses? Sales?

Interview Adrian Blair, CEO, Receipt

Bank

14

How to gain buy-in from intransigent staff and clients towards digital transformation

18

T: +44 (0)116 340 0560 E: hello@xumagazine.com W: www.xumagazine.com

4 / Issue 19

6

Tutorial How to: Manage approval workflows across multiple Xero files in ApprovalMax

20

New Xero App Integrator Program Xero launches a trusted App Integrator program for the UK – why & how this is relevant?

26

Interview Jesse Burgess, Founder and CEO, OnPay

30

Building a platform to tip the balance in favor of small businesses and advisors

36

38

Event - FREE ticket Storm building for Xero as next wave of disruption builds

40 42

Meet: AccountancyManager

Marketing for Accountants - Part 1 It’s all about them: 3 things that lead you to great content and the right new clients

48

Meet Business Importer: The easiest way to import data from Excel spreadsheets into Xero

50

Dispelling automation myths and choosing the right service provider

52

Business MOT: Safety is important for your car, so why not your business’s cash flow?

54

Building a digital future through funding - How access to finance changes the advisory landscape

30

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Cover Story...

The Future of Accountancy

Mission Ignition: Multiplying Inclusivity

6

4 Reasons to Improve Onboarding and Increase

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96

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Industry Focus: Property Why should accountants integrate Xero with their clients’ management systems?

98

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Considerations to ensure a successful transition for your entire Accounting Practice or Bookkeeping business to Xero

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Get primed for growth: harnessing tech to drive

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70 72

Receipts can tell a story too!

104

Retention

success

Interviews...

Adrian Blair CEO Receipt Bank

Payroll Payroll and HR: A perfect first step toward your SME’s digital transformation Not getting paid isn’t a problem with your clients, it’s a problem with your processes

10

Jesse Burgess Founder and CEO OnPay

Xero App Partners of the month Xero makes it easy to offer Advisory - here’s

how...

82

Event - Singapore Driving the adoption of new technology in Singapore

84 86 90

App Advisory: 9 Pitfalls to Avoid

92

Apps Compared Compared: Debtor

Why are accountants quitting?

How accounting practices can stay on top of their Xero clients

26

EVENTS Check out our 2019 Event Directory > Page 113

The new definition of CFO: Creating Future Opportunities Case Study ApprovalMax helps lucent advisory scale new heights of customer satisfaction

Make business simpler: SuiteFiles + Xero Practice Manager Sustainability in modern restaurants: the great, hidden by-product of cloud technology

106

A real-time snapshot of your Xero accounts in

Google Drive

74

78 80

ShieldPay: certainty of payment - Know you’re getting paid, even before the job is done

108

How to help your staff accept and welcome change in your small accountancy practice

112

New Xero Connected Apps New to the Xero App Marketplace

113

Upcoming Events Check out the latest upcoming Fintech events

114

New Releases Updates and new releases from the Xero App Marketplace

118 126

App/Service Directory

...and finally Introducing... Xero’s new hospitality app playbook

Tracking

UPDATED WITH

NEW APPS

App/Service Directory Turn to page 118

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NOW OVER

7AP0PS0

Issue 19 / 5

Cover Story

The Future Of Accounting

Mission Ignition: Multiplying Inclusivity When you’re a startup and you decide to spend tens of thousands of dollars sponsoring the front cover of a magazine with a readership of 73,000+, you really want to make it count. You need to decide what message you’re sending to the world, and the kind of impact you want to make.

fter deliberating with our team and reviewing so many great campaigns to find the most authentic message for Practice Ignition, we decided that our money was best spent promoting a cause we truly feel is the future of accounting.

Our “Top 50 Women in Accounting” project...

What a privilege and joy it has been this year to celebrate the outstanding impact women are having in our industry.

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Guy is an entrepreneurial accountant that is passionate on removing bottlenecks from business processes in order to achieve scalability.

He’s a big believer in technology over outsourcing where possible and suitable.

With a background in accounting in public practice and self-taught knowledge of technology, Guy believes that any business can achieve a single point of truth for their ownership in dashboard form in order to make decisions on which levers to pull and push.

Guy is the CEO & Founder of Practice Ignition and his mission is to turn it into the single point of collaboration for small business owners and their advisors.

seeing this in action is what this cause is all about. To the Accountex organisers, hats off to you for leading by example.

Our Top 50 Women in Accounting project, launched in 2016, was started by a team at Practice Ignition who wanted to introduce a community focus to our brand.

Feedback from the industry showed that we are widely considered a catalyst for change, due to the way our proposal and payment platform works. Our product challenges a lot of accountants and bookkeepers to rethink their entire business model, especially around billing and client onboarding. So, we decided that we could also leverage our ‘catalyst’ brand to create important conversations amongst our global community.

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This is how our search for the Top 50 Women in Accounting was born.

From the outset, it was important to us that this project didn’t turn into a popularity contest. The judges made their decisions based on merit, impact in the community and authenticity. Also, the nominees’ names were kept anonymous throughout. Even I didn’t know their names.

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In April, we saw Accountex run the most diverse accounting conference we’ve ever seen – highlighting and showcasing a new age of female thought leaders in our industry, in front of 8000 delegates. Ideas are well and good, but practically

Guy Pearson, CEO, Practice Ignition

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@ignitionapp

6 / Issue 19

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

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In the two years of running this project, we’ve seen over 600 amazing women from across the world, nominated in this initiative.

Our event and community manager, Brooke, shared an inspiring new email or message daily in the lead up to International Women’s Day. These messages were filled with so much joy, shock and surprise: they simply couldn’t believe they’d been nominated by a peer!

I think we all have moments in our lives where we realise our yearning ambition to do something.

For me, it all started at Allan Hall Business Advisors in 2002. I was an undergraduate accountant, wet behind the ears, but keen to work hard and progress myself within the firm. This is where I first witnessed the kind of impact I could have, not just with small business owners, but with people as individuals. Real people, with real families, that were contributing to their local

communities and creating their own sense of impact in their own circles.

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able to create awareness around such an important issue, and the Practice Ignition team are drivers of this change movement.

We believe diversity is an important topic, but also that it does not become gratuitous diversity or just another buzzword.

Accountex leading the way is the first step, but this is just the beginning. It will be the small steps of firms towards inclusion, diversity and work life balance that will ultimately multiply the positivity that we’ve witnessed as a result of this project.

Our Top 50 Women campaign is important to our whole business. We believe in the mission of supporting women with better representation within the accounting community, and we’re committed to continue highlighting and celebrating this every International Women’s Day to come. We invite you to join us on the mission, and do your part by nominating the inspiring women in your workplace “I’m super passionate about when our the industry, love small campaign launches business, and know that again in February women have tremendous 2020. ability to be extraordinary

leaders in this space.”

Like us, if you feel that February is too long to wait, tell them today. Tweet them, encourage them, seriously – let them know. Let’s not wait for one day of the year to celebrate women in the workplace. We can have this conversation every single week.

Practice Ignition is on a mission to ignite the conversation in the lead up and on International Women’s Day #IWD2020, but it’s up to you (and me) to keep the conversation

– Amanda Newton, Head of

Community (Australia), Xero

It’s amazing to think that this all began when I (selfishly) set out to solve a problem within my accounting practice. The solution was a little onboarding tool called Practice Ignition, that now enables 2,500 accountants to engage with over 110,000 small business owners. But more importantly, we’re

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alive for the other 364 days of the year.

Finally, on a personal note, when I think about the people who have been mentors to me in life and in business, I think of a select few people. My early mentors at Allan Hall Pam and Jeanette; my

“Let’s make sure that there’s diversity at every level of the practice. It’ll help your practice survive and thrive, as every indicator shows that the more diverse an organisation the stronger it tends to be.”

senior at – Anna Curzon, Chief Product and my second Partner Officer, Xero job, Tammy; my current CFO, Ros; my first hire as a firm owner and former business partner, Lisa; current GM at Interactive, Charlotte; and my mum. They’ve all played an integral role in my personal and professional development over the years and I wouldn’t be the man I am today without the support, guidance and friendship I have with all of them. On behalf of Practice Ignition, I want to thank you for your involvement in this project as part of our wider community. Every nomination, every tweet, every mention and every conversation is all part of the journey towards the future of accounting: gender equality.

FIND OUT MORE...

To learn more about Practice Ignition, please visit: > practiceignition.com/ blog/top-50-women-inaccounting-2018

Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 19 / 7

New Payroll Only Plan - AU

Xero’s new payroll only plan:

Helping Australia’s smallest employers embrace online payroll and STP

@Xero

Matthew Prouse, Head of Industry, Xero Australia

From 1 July this year, Single Touch Payroll (STP) will apply to all employers in Australia. First announced in 2015, STP is an Australian Tax Office reporting regime that requires employers to report salaries and wages, PAYG withholding tax, and superannuation to the ATO each time they pay their employees...

A

ccording to the ATO, more than 400,000 small employers with up to four employees will need to adopt an STP solution before the end of September 2019. Many don’t currently use any software to manage their payroll.

Today, following months of development by our teams in Canberra, Wellington and San Francisco, we’re excited to launch our new Payroll Only plan.

Who is the new Payroll Only plan for?

Xero’s Payroll Only plan is designed for small businesses that employ one to four people in Australia, and their advisors. It is ideal for those who do not feel ready to adopt a comprehensive online accounting software but want to embrace online payroll to comply with STP. What does Payroll Only include?

Payroll Only offers complete payroll for up to four employees, including timesheets and leave requests.

8 / Issue 19

It means a small business employer or their trusted advisor can report Single Touch Payroll information to the ATO quickly and easily – adding less than two minutes to the usual online payroll process. And it’s just $10 a month.

Additional features that help businesses become more digitally connected – such as API support, invoices and bills, automatic super, and automatic import of bank statements – are available by upgrading to the Starter, Standard or Premium pricing plans.

If you’re a bookkeeper or accountant Payroll Only keeps the consistent look and feel of Xero Payroll so you can onboard and support small business customers with minimal difficulty and no internal retraining.

We expect a partner-only payroll plan, which will include additional bank reconciliation features, to be available before the end of June 2019.

If you employ one to four people If you’re an employer who needs to make the change to STP, there’s no need to worry. “There’s plenty of support out there, and you won’t be alone,” advises John Shepherd, the ATO’s Assistant Commissioner for the Single Touch Payroll Program.

“This is a big change, yes. But the software developers have done a really good job of building tools to meet the STP reporting requirements into their product so it’s really easy to do.”

Angela Simmons, Manager of Renew Australia, has already embraced online accounting for her small business. “As a team of four, we’re always looking for anything that helps reduce our hours and resources,” she says. “Xero has been a huge help for us.”

FIND OUT MORE...

Find out more about our new Payroll Only plan, available for small business owners, bookkeepers and accountants today. > bit.ly/30ehEVh

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

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Issue 19 / 9

Interview

Q&A Adrian Blair

CEO, Receipt Bank

ABOUT RECEIPT BANK...

Receipt Bank is the world’s leading pre-accounting tool.

We connect accountants, bookkeepers and small businesses across the world, digitising receipts and invoices to track, process and manage financial data in real-time. So you can work smarter, grow faster, and go further.

10 / Issue 19 17

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Interview

Meet Adrian Blair, the new CEO of Receipt Bank. With two decades of experience working for innovative brands, hear what Adrian’s planning for Receipt Bank and where he sees the future of the industry...

XU:

Before we talk all things Receipt Bank, how did your journey lead you here?

AB:

I love using technology to improve how people do things. And I love working for companies that are the best at what they do.

I started my career in consulting then joined Ask Jeeves (now Ask. com) right in the middle of dotcom bubble. At the time it was the leading search engine in the UK. Fast forward a year and Google overtook us. I quickly realised that was where I should be. I moved to Silicon Valley and worked with them for the next six years.

Then a friend of mine joined Spotify. As a passionate musician I was intrigued. From Google I appreciated the difference between downloading music and streaming it. Essentially, one was based on desktop and the other on cloud.

I joined Spotify and a year later got the call from Just Eat. It was bizarre to leave the glamorous world of Spotify and celebrities to essentially help sell kebabs.

Just Eat was all about digitising an old-school industry where we still ordered takeaways on the phone from flyers stuck to the fridge. I joined as COO and took it through many stages of growth from a startup to a FTSE 100 company over seven years. When I joined in 2011, it was generating £25 million in annual revenue. In 2019 that’s now a billion.

Nowadays there aren’t many industries where things are still manual. But in accounting, many small business owners are still walking into their accountants’ office with a shoebox of receipts.

It’s like having a pile of paper menus in the kitchen drawer. Like Spotify and Just Eat, Receipt Bank is the best solution to this problem.

And a similar opportunity of global growth is clearly ahead of us.

XU:

Has anything surprised you about Receipt Bank since you joined?

AB:

The biggest surprise has been how personal the feedback we get from partners is. I expected them to say ‘Thank you for saving me time’ or ‘It’s a great productivity solution’.

Instead, it’s ‘One of the best things I’ve ever done in my business’, ‘This app has transformed my life’ or even ‘My life’s now complete since I got Receipt Bank’.

The level of love out there for our product is incredible. It’s a tribute to what our remarkable team and community have achieved over the years, and a reflection of a company that cares about the details.

XU:

From your experience working in rapidly evolving industries, what advice would you give to accountants today?

AB:

Keep a positive and proactive attitude to the future. It’s about thinking about what technology can do to make life easier for you, your team and clients. Rather than fearing technological change, embrace it and help others benefit from it. That’s what Just Eat, Google and Spotify had in common: a fundamental optimism. It’s an evolution rather than revolution, so change takes baby steps rather than leaps.

XU:

What’s been the proudest moment of your career so far?

AB:

There have been many.

If I picked just one it would be the Just Eat IPO in 2014.

It was a public recognition of the value we’d built and the many, many challenges we’d overcome over the

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years. We’d built a company that investors had valued at £1.5 billion.

That moment was a great sense of achievement and pride in what we as a team had built.

XU:

Who’s been your biggest inspiration to help lead you to this point in your career?

AB:

In business terms, it would be the founders of Google: Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They always put the customer first and thought incredibly longterm about the business. Doing that consistently is really, really hard. They built a company with a distinctive culture and didn’t follow any precedent or textbook.

They designed it from their own principles.

XU:

Have you set yourself any personal goals on what you want to achieve?

AB:

For me, the hardest thing is getting the balance right between my job, which I love, and my family, who I love even more. I have a wife and three young children and the balance is never straightforward.

My goal is to compartmentalise more: to be fully at work without worrying about home and, when at home, not check my phone or worry about work. It’s much easier said than done but that’s what’s what I aspire to. It’s also something that ties into our mission at Receipt Bank.

XU: AB:

What’s next for Receipt Bank?

We want to build something that lasts and deliver even more to our partners. Our focus has always been around saving more time.

Time is the most precious thing there is. Money’s important yet you can always make more of it. But Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 19 / 11

Interview

when it comes to time - nobody can make more of it.

Today our product does a fantastic job of it. Yet there’s so much more we can do to save more time tomorrow. Our focus will certainly be on ease of use and the power of our integrations. We can’t do everything ourselves; if I played “Imagine” on piano, you’d still want to listen to John Lennon.

That’s why we’re lucky to be a part of the Xero Ecosystem and work with specialists who are incredibly good at what they do.

XU: AB:

We have a quarter of a million small businesses using Receipt Bank. For me success means helping many more.

And finally, what does success mean to you?

Success for me is doing what you love, to the best of your ability. Currently, we save a lot of people a lot of time.

FIND OUT MORE...

To learn more, visit: > receipt-bank.com

Next generation advisory has arrived Get to the WHY behind the KPIs

Ask real questions, get immediate answers for: • Weather effects on sales • Cash flow, budget, profitability analysis & more

chata.ai features: • Customizable dashboards & automated reporting • Collaborative client empowerment tools

12 / Issue 19

chat with your data started free XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users,Get

by Xero users. Find us onlineat at: www.chata.ai xumagazine.com

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Issue 19 / 13

How to gain buy-in from intransigent staff and clients towards digital transformation The first ‘run’ of Making Tax Digital for VAT clients are being processed in the UK. Some will be on cloud-based bookkeeping and MTD solutions that (hopefully) create a smooth path towards filing. This concept applies to any firm anywhere in the world where there is a need for regular

@AdvanceTrack

Vipul Sheth ACA CTA, Founder and Managing Director, AdvanceTrack Outsourcing Vipul Sheth is a UK based ICAEW Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor. Vipul trained with a regional UK firm before moving to Ernst & Young and KPMG. AdvanceTrack is a UK Headquartered Accountancy Outsourcing Company with offshore operational centres, delivering services around the globe.

filings of sales or tax returns.

O

thers, however, will literally be bridging the gap between going onto the cloud versus sticking with non-automated and non-cloud processes. As ICAEW Tax faculty manager Caroline Miskin previously told us: “I don’t think a spreadsheet option is futureproof.”

So, how do practices deal with getting the more stubborn and intransigent clients – and staff – on board with the newer and slicker way of doing things?

Drive a cultural shift Peter Gillman is the former executive chairman and MD of Price Bailey – serving at a time when it developed and grew into a top-30 UK firm. For him, the buy-in phase is the “opening gambit”, where strategic direction is set out and then months may pass as the firm’s key players are brought on board.

“You will always get a range of views, but you create a strategy broadly in line with what you want to achieve,” he explains.

Harwood Hutton managing partner John Brace believes that practice leaders will involve people in 14 / Issue 19

change, but often too late in the process and without getting them ‘onside’. “Change does indeed involve people and the key is to communicate plans in advance,” he says. “The challenge is to get team buy-in to change.”

the change. Firstly you must understand exactly why that person is against the process. Secondly, persuade those in favour of the project to help spread the message about the benefits of change.

Onboarding relevant staff

Gaining buy-in The future strategy is then broadened to outline what it involves in terms of change – but you must still allow contributions from a wide set of team members.

The roadmap also acts as a backstop, a governance tool for the leadership.

Once the direction is set at senior level, then further meetings with other staff are convened to spread the message.

Once the practice’s team members understand its direction of travel, you must keep a broad crosssection involved in implementation of any new systems or processes, says Bobby Lane, head of outsourcing at Shelley Stock Hutter.

Don’t forget: Good change management is not about the five people that are immediately or easily on your side – it’s how you persuade the one who is against

Those last involved in practice change can often be those undertaking the new processes.

And when you involve staff that understand their role and ‘place’, the likelihood of change will irritate and concern them. The focus should be on refocusing your staff rather than replacing them.

Working groups are key to implementations, representing all skill levels and departments.

And practices must speed up their change, he believes: “We’re in a transitional period within the profession at the moment. Look at cloud-based technology and the automation of processes, for example.”

Those in your practice delivering the service are vital in helping you understand how that process currently works.

Next to consider is education.

Who will be the pathfinders and

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

“Change does indeed involve people and the key is to communicate plans in advance. The challenge is to get team buy-in to change.”

John Brace, Harwood Hutton

innovators in your team, and clients as well, that will trial the new system or process? It would be nice to have IT managers and project leaders to coordinate and report back to a key board director about the implementation’s progress.

In reality, smaller practices will likely need several team members to ‘step up’ and add to their responsibilities to drive the change through. Thankfully, smaller practices are less encumbered by multiple systems and processes.

It’s good governance to split the implementing responsibility away from the person in charge of the service line or department. “Allow someone a layer above that with a critical eye,” says ICAEW technical manager Mark Taylor.

At AdvanceTrack we see great similarity in adoption of our offshoring/outsourcing solutions and the challenges of getting team members to recognise how these change their role. Persuasion and adoption go hand in hand where it can be demonstrated to normally intelligent team members how their role can change following the adoption of any new process or software.

Persuading clients How the client wants to be managed must also be considered, suggests ACCA head of advisory Glenn Collins. The premise of improving systems and processes to access more useful data, and leveraging that to provide clients with a better service does not necessarily mean the client wants everything to change.

“For example, some ‘digital’ practices still have a face-toface element to them for some clients,” he says. You can still use the improved information you’ve collated to present a better service – and ultimately higher fees.

Recent studies have suggested that maintaining communication on the benefits of moving to the cloud will improve sentiment for change.

This puts you in a position to use this information as part of your marketing arsenal – you can even work with early-adopting cloud clients as ambassadors for change.

And an ambassador could involve many things: Whether it is them providing you with a case study, or even speaking at events where they can help talk to clients that still require more persuasion.

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“Get champions on your side who can then relay messages about the positives of change to others. Bring round their hearts and minds.”

Vipul Sheth, AdvanceTrack

Measuring success ROI will be based on metrics, so it’s important to figure out what they are. These measures could include client service improvement. Ultimately, some will be quantitative and involve dialogue with staff and clients. Look for relatable and reliable process improvements.

Being able to demonstrate improvement in clients’ performance by keeping better records (and you then being able to provide more valuable advice) is again evidence you can share with those unwilling to make the move – be they clients or staff members.

FIND OUT MORE...

Book your web discovery meeting by visiting here: > advancetrack.com/start-here

Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 19 / 15

GREAT ACCOUNTING IS MORE THAN JUST NUMBER CRUNCHING That’s why we work with hundreds of accountants and bookkeepers to make business finance quick and easy for their small business clients. A client will never forget the accountant that helped them access funding to invest in growth, take on game-changing projects or develop innovative new products.

FAST, FLEXIBLE FUNDING With our solutions, your clients can get an advance against their outstanding invoices to unlock working capital, boost cash flow and accelerate growth. The best part? They can pick and choose which invoices to finance, flexibly accessing funds as and when they need to.

APPROACHING BUSINESS FINANCE DIFFERENTLY

Hassle-free experience

Fast funding

Help in real-time

Straightforward costs

Easy to use smart online platform

Quick decisions, easy set-up, fast access to funds

From application to on-going account management, our team is here to help

No hidden fees

16 / Issue 19

FIND OUT MORE marketinvoice.com / @marketinvoice

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

“I am always confident to refer clients to MarketInvoice because you know what they are going to get. A quick decision, the right decision and a relationship-driven approach. The process is always handled efficiently and with no surprises at the eleventh hour” BOBBY LANE / PARTNER BLICK ROTHENBERG

£2BN+

Worth of invoices and business loans funded

“Surely this is the future of finance - support and service unmatched from our previous experiences.”

JERRY, SEPTEMBER 2018

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Issue 19 / 17

Tutorial

How to: Manage approval workflows across multiple Xero files in ApprovalMax Best practices for multi-entity organisations as well as accounting and bookkeeping practices...

I

t is quite common for organisations to have a number of entities that need to be handled separately.

Therefore they set up separate Xero Organisations, and separate Xero files are used to capture and process the respective accounting data.

However, an aggregated financial view across all entities is often

required for making a proper cash flow prognosis, setting local budget thresholds for departments and, not least important, enforcing the same financial controls across all the locations.

ApprovalMax takes care of these needs by enabling multi-level and multi-role authorisation workflows, which automate the approval process and make paper redundant.

Being pre-integrated with Xero, ApprovalMax facilitates seamless work with multiple Xero files.

Support for Centralised Accounting For organisations that have a centralised accounting function but are set up as multiple entities with several Xero Organisations for each entity, Xero allows accessing and switching between these Organisations without having to log in anew.

Single Inbox for All Approval Requests

Similarly to Xero, ApprovalMax also keeps all Xero-connected Organisations under the same ApprovalMax account, which means you don’t have to log in and out every time you want to switch between Organisations.

Ease of Use for Approvers: Single Inbox and Unified Notifications A key benefit of ApprovalMax for 18 / Issue 19

@ApprovalMax

Konstantin Bredyuk, CEO and Co- Founder, ApprovalMax With his roots in business process management and optimisation software development, Konstantin has delivered hundreds of spend management workflow setups to ApprovalMax clients worldwide.

Konstantin has consulted multiple clients with profiles ranging from SMB to governments and industry tycoons, and holds unique knowledge of best case scenarios of company spend management and the most common process inefficiencies and fallouts both from the finance and technology perspectives.

Approvers is the single inbox, which shows all approval requests regardless of the Xero Organisation they originate from. That saves a lot of time because you don’t need to search for requests or switch between Organisations to find them.

Both the web version and the mobile app provide this feature.

Regardless of a document’s origin, Bills and Purchase Orders can be approved from the email notification – as long as you’re logged in with your email address and provided that you’re using the same email address for the different ApprovalMax Organisations.

Additionally, a notification email is sent automatically to all Approvers across the various Organisations, with a summary listing all requests pending their decision. Again, a great time saver, relieving you of remembering open requests and searching for them across multiple Organisations.

Simplified Purchase Order Raising ApprovalMax enables both raising Purchase Orders and approving them in the app. Once approved, Purchase Orders are pushed to Xero and also used for matching Bills and Purchase Orders in ApprovalMax.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Tutorial

PO Creation for a Xero-connected Organisation

Sometimes it is necessary to authorise the same Purchase Order Requester for multiple Xeroconnected Organisations. This is fully supported by ApprovalMax. Simply use the same email address in the Purchase Order Requester matrix of all the Xero-connected Organisations to which you want to assign this Requester.

To raise a Purchase Order within a particular Organisation, the Purchase Order Requester needs to select the respective Organisation beforehand.

Granular Approval Rights for Each Xero-connected Organisation Normally, each organisational entity has its own and particular list of Approvers; possibly with the exception of the Director and the CFO level. Local managers, supervisors, etc. have to be uniquely identified and their

individual approval rights need to be allocated.

Copying Existing Approval Workflows

ApprovalMax fully supports the option of specifying certain Approvers and granular approval rights in the Approver matrix of each Xero-connected Organisation.

A major advantage of introducing automated approval workflows lies in standardising the accounting authorisation process across the whole of your organisation.

Customised Cross-organisational Reports

In case of multiple entities, there is usually one approval workflow created first and then cloned for the other entities, modifying the specified Approvers if necessary.

Establishing a correct cash flow forecast or expediting audit preparations, for instance, often requires running a report across several Xero Organisations in order to compile the relevant data such as all Bills pending approval or all open Purchase Orders.

ApprovalMax provides professional services, which make configuring customised reports and running them either on demand or scheduled fast and easy.

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ApprovalMax provides professional services, which make copying and adapting a particular approval workflow for other entities fast and easy.

FIND OUT MORE...

To find out more visit: > approvalmax.com

Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 19 / 19

New Xero App Integrator Program

Get with the App Integrator Program Xero launches a trusted App Integrator program for the UK – why & how this is relevant?

After introducing the first cloud integrator program in Australia, Xero have now launched an App Integrator program in the UK. So what’s it all about and what does it mean for you? Paula Byers takes a look, along with gathering a few perspectives from those in the industry...

@LimeCloudLtd / @LimePaula

Paula Byers, Founder & Director, LimeCloud She has been involved in various businesses for more than 27 years, increasingly working with tech & business systems over the last 16 years. Moving into the Cloud 7 years ago precipitated the re-brand to LimeCloud in 2016. A STEM Ambassador, Business Mentor, local Chamber of Commerce President & Chair of DigitalND; she is passionate about supporting business and not-for-profits to develop, using creative and innovative cloud tech solutions.

F

irst up, what is an App Integrator I hear you ask? Well app integrator, cloud integrator; call us what you will; we are essentially part of the Advisor network to help Accounting & Bookkeeping Xero Partners, along with Xero-user businesses, get the most out of Apps in the Xero Ecosystem for their business. Readers may remember I previously wrote about our role in Issue 14 (March 2018) Value Added Cloud – Who needs a cloud integrator?

Essentially, we are technology specialists with the knowledge and experience to advise on the best Apps. So why do we need our own program? Well, the Accountants & Bookkeepers Advisor directory on the Xero website offers those who can help you with your Xero accounting & business advisory, however, it can be a little difficult to find our specialty, so having our own page so we can be found easily makes sense. But there is a little more to it than that. Enter Andy Muir, Xero Partnerships Manager – Business Platform (UK & EMEA): The Xero Perspective “Whilst the Xero App Integrator Program is primarily communicated to our partners, it’s also available for both existing and potential 20 / Issue 19

Xero users. The programme is suitable for small businesses, or accounting and bookkeeping firms, perhaps not currently using Xero but interested in moving away from legacy desktop software to a cloud solution like Xero.

A survey conducted last year, amongst Xero’s UK accounting and bookkeeping partner community, revealed that getting support with apps is their number one ask from clients. It also demonstrated they perceive adding value to their clients with apps as the second biggest revenue generating opportunity for their firm. When you compare these findings to some independent research we conducted last year (with 1.5k UK businesses), 56% of business owners told us they were willing to pay their advisors for the implementation of technology and

apps. Another proof point that Xero partners want access to a curated group of experienced Xero App Integrators, enabling their firm to

Andy Muir - Xero

fully digitise. This allows them to not only offer clients their expertise in Xero, but provide the tech services we know businesses want.

Technology implementation, at times, requires a specialised

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

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New Xero App Integrator Program set of skills such as scoping of requirements, mapping processes, tech implementation and ongoing evaluation and support. Not always easy when you’re running a business, so we feel very fortunate to have five App Integrators LimeCloud, Bluehub, OutserveWeb, Maxama and Foxability - who have a proven track record of working with Xero partners and their clients to achieve this.”

After having a program in the Australian market, why now for the UK? “Now feels like the right time to launch the Integrator Program for the UK market. We also have 700+ world class apps in our Ecosystem, meaning there’s a valuable app for every single one of our 1.6M users around the world.

The reality is that business owners want to concentrate on running and growing their business. However, as they become more tech savvy they’re seeking guidance from a trusted advisor, such as their accountant, on how they can adopt cloud solutions to more effectively trade, improve growth, save time, improve cash flow.

The recent launch of Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT - an HMRC initiative designed to make sure the UK tax system is effective, efficient and easier for taxpayers - has naturally resulted in firms using cloud accounting tools like Xero with apps to digitise various workflows. This, in turn, has enabled Xero’s accounting and bookkeeping partners to feel more confident using business apps.

As their small business clients are increasingly requesting support with technology, there’s a desire to either make recommendations themselves, or for those more complex needs, work with a specialist app integrator to provide the full project implementation work.”

How has it been received since the soft launch at the Kick Off event for App Partners at the end of March?

“The feedback so far has been 22 / Issue 19

really positive.

The App Partner Perspective

Within two weeks of going live, we had thousands of visits to the Integrator programme webpage, and our integrators have received a flurry of direct enquiries from both small businesses and accountants looking for support with various app projects. We also have some accounting and bookkeeping partners beginning to offer a ‘accounting + tech’ service proposition to their clients and prospects. This really excites us.

But it’s certainly early days for the programme, so we’ll continue to review where we’re adding value and iterating it over the coming months. Watch this space!”

Xero’s research last year confirmed businesses with Apps connected to their Xero, grow on average

Lisa Miles-Heal – Unleashed Software

30% more than those without, demonstrating Apps have a big part to play in cloud solutions.

Payment Solutions

Rachel Astall – GoCardless

What can Xero users get from App Integrators, that isn’t available online already?

“We’ve got educational assets, like our app playbook series (which has been incredibly popular), an improved online marketplace and a personalised in-app marketplace experience, along with the customer support Xero provides across its partner and customerfacing teams. But it’s worth noting that there will always be businesses and accounting and bookkeeping firms with more complex requirements, where a specialist will be required to implement a range of technology solutions. This is where our expert App Integrators can really add value.”

From this, it’s clear Xero are committed to supporting all their Advisors to enable small businesses to get the most from their Apps, but what do the App Partners think of the program?

GoCardless are a direct debit payment platform, one of a suite of finance tools essential for managing a business. They attended the Kick Off event in March and could see the benefit of the Integrator program straight away.

“We know that technology solutions can supercharge a business, but too many SMBs and accountants have been locked out of app based solutions - often simply through lack of expertise.” says Head of SMB Partnerships, Rachel Astall, “The launch of the App Integrator Program is fantastic news for SMBs and accountants who are looking to improve their business with technology. And with the endemic culture of late payment in the UK driven by 52% of businesses still being paid by manual bank transfer, the Integrators play a crucial part in improving cashflow for SMBs across the country by implementing best in class payment solutions.”

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XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

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Issue 19 / 23

New Xero App Integrator Program can have on a business and are hugely supportive of the Integrator program; “As we all know, products that are poorly implemented, are often perceived as a less valuable and your client’s business value isn’t maximised. So as such, we’re very excited about this program,” said Lisa Miles-Heal, General Manager and CTO of Unleashed.

“For us, the scale and extent of business transformation that is possible by using productivity apps like Unleashed can see a large business totally transform the way they drive profit, if the solution is implemented with a full understanding of the business processes. We also see the level of user adoption and user knowledge so much higher in a business that’s used a reputable implementation partner.”

confusing, especially for new Xero Partners coming on board.

The App Integrator Program is a really interesting proposition, as a resource we can access the specialist App knowledge and an impartial network to call upon for more complex integrations, without fear of being sold just on the basis of a feature list. It also helps that none are accountants, which removes any concern over competition. Having user knowledge and experience of an app which goes beyond just a feature list is key, especially with the rate of change & updates that happen in the cloud space.

Emma Jones – Enterprise Nation

interesting political time, it’s more important than ever that small businesses are supported to drive growth in the UK; to understand the tools and solutions that best suit their business, and to be connected to the peers and experts, through initiatives such as the Xero App Integrator Program, who can help make it happen.”

An Accounting Partner view So how do Accountants & Bookkeepers see it working? We spoke with Jonathan Bareham, Director & Co-Founder of Raedan, based in Covent Garden and specialising in creatives; from agencies, to media & arts, technology and e-commerce clients.

As Jonathan has a degree in both computing and accountancy, his was an interesting perspective: “We’ve been on the Xero journey for over 9 years now and would consider ourselves pretty advanced, given my training. When we started, there were far fewer apps in the Ecosystem and we chose the apps that fitted our business at the time. Over the years we’ve become fairly embedded with them, so it is a simple choice for us when new clients come on board as we have a standard App Stack of Xero, ReceiptBank & Fluidly.

There are a few Apps that we are comfortable using, such as payment services, CRM and some custom Zaps, so I would say out of the 750+ Apps, we are probably across less than 10% of them in detail.

With so many Apps that now integrate with Xero it is far more 24 / Issue 19

million small businesses operating in the UK, if each business grew turnover by just 10%, imagine the combined contribution this makes to the national economy. At this

Jonathan Bareham – Raedan

We look forward to seeing the App Integrators being a bigger part of the trusted Advisor network around the Xero Ecosystem.”

The Small Business Perspective So what does it all mean for business users of Xero? Well, as Andy says, they can access the Integrator program directly too, taking advantage of the specialist skills on offer. We discussed how this might impact small business with Emma Jones, Founder of Enterprise Nation and passionate advocate for small business across the UK. “We have seen over the past decade that small businesses who take advice and embrace digital tools grow better and faster than those who don’t.” enthuses Emma, “Companies can produce and sell more, manage finances, and have a motivated and wellinformed workforce through using solutions such as Xero and its ecosystem of apps. With over 5

LimeCloud were pleased to have been invited to become part of the program, after working with Xero for about 6 months prior to launch going through due diligence to become trusted App Integrators and helping shape the program along with our four counterparts, we are really excited to see it now live and look forward to seeing it develop.

So, talk to your App Integrators; as technology partners, we bring the craftsmanship, skill and yes, art to our discipline through our extensive field of study; in short, the physical manifestation of our skills. And we are ready to help you!

FIND OUT MORE...

For more information and to contact the App Integrators, please visit: > xero.com/uk/partnerprograms/app-integrators (or just google Xero App Integrators!)

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

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Issue 19 / 25

Interview

Q&A Jesse Burgess Founder and CEO

OnPay

About OnPay...

OnPay’s payroll software helps U.S. accountants and bookkeepers serve every small and medium-sized client, regardless of industry. It gives financial professionals the flexibility to run payroll however they want, set up customized integrations with Xero, and even help clients manage HR and benefits.

26 / Issue 19 17

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Interview

Since 2007, Jesse Burgess has worn every hat in the payroll world. He dreamed up OnPay (short for the then-novel idea of Online Payroll) while running an oldschool payroll service, and launched the company in 2009. Twelve years later, OnPay has around 10,000 customers, a new accountants’ program, an “Excellent” review from PC Magazine, and certification as a Xero app partner. As OnPay steps into the limelight, Burgess’s approach to building software is becoming clear to everyone who’s paying attention: Do way more for your clients.

XU:

With so many payroll providers that serve accountants, why did you decide to enter the fray?

JB:

We felt like we were meeting some needs for small businesses (plus their accountants and bookkeepers) that other providers couldn’t. It’s a long story, but OnPay was originally part of a traditional payroll company that had to figure out how to take care of every kind of company that came our way. When we launched our online product ten years ago, we felt like we couldn’t leave any of our existing clients behind, so our payroll simply had to be able to serve everyone.

And that’s the approach we took when thinking about accountants, too — no shortcuts.

XU:

How were you able to do that? It seems like you ultimately have to make some kind of tradeoff to get something out the door.

JB:

Well, we’ve never felt like it was OK to say “OnPay doesn’t do this or that.” So, the real tradeoff we had to make involved time.

XU:

Where do you think current providers came

up short?

JB:

You know, there’s been so much improvement in the market in the past five years — I think other providers do a lot of things well. For example, it’s become an expectation, rather than a luxury, to offer cloud-based payroll, automated tax filings, and accounting software integrations.

The thing is, we always kind of

viewed those things as tablestakes, and we didn’t — and still don’t — think it’s fair to charge more for them. We also think it’s important to address every niche case, and that a payroll provider is in a great position to do a lot more than just pay your employees.

XU: JB:

So, what is it that makes you different?

Our “do everything right” approach manifests itself in a few ways. First, we can serve clients of any size in any industry.

A lot of small business payroll providers struggle with paying 500 (or even 100) employees and contractors, but OnPay can handle them with ease. For example, we process pay runs faster, and we offer tagging and filtering options that make it possible to handle a larger team.

Next, we also had to make sure we could process payroll for overlooked industries that have special tax requirements, like farms, nonprofits, clergy, and restaurants.

And when it came to accountants, serving this broad cross-section of small businesses was a good first step because accountants usually have a diverse set of clients. When we took some time to figure out the specific needs of accountants, we saw a lot of providers that marketed to accountants with reseller discounts, but not that many really had an accountant-specific product. That’s where we saw an opportunity.

XU:

What did you feel like accountants weren’t getting from the available payroll providers?

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JB:

It looked to us like accountants and bookkeepers needed more help getting all their clients’ finances in one place, that they needed to be able to do it scalably if they wanted to grow, and that they needed a way to drive more revenue by adding additional services. Through our research, we also saw that small business owners expect their accountant or bookkeeper to be able to recommend payroll products, so we wanted to make sure we were there to make accountants look good, too.

In terms of features, we built a Partner dashboard that lets accountants see all their clients in one place. We also saw that some accountants are more actively involved in the payroll process than others, so we created six permission levels to allow accountants to run payroll themselves or let their clients take the reins.

Finally, we made sure our integrations with Xero, QuickBooks, and other software allowed extra flexibility.

XU:

What does OnPay’s integration with Xero

look like?

JB:

We’re a certified app partner, so first and foremost we’ve made sure everything we did was up to Xero’s specs. But we know different accountants like to do things differently, so we built in the ability to do lots of customization.

For example, OnPay’s integration includes custom item mapping.

Accountants can also track wage expenses by individual employee, Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 19 / 27

Interview

Department, Pay Type, or Tracking Categories. This advanced expense tracking lets Xero users set up custom reports and view their (or their clients’) finances in the way that makes the most sense for them.

We also hire payroll experts who are certified by the American Payroll Association for our support team. That way we can ensure accountants and bookkeepers are dealing with someone who’s basically a peer when it comes to technical payroll issues. And we also make our team available to help with account setup and migration. Time-consuming tasks

like migrating prior wages or setting up custom expense mapping in Xero also fall on our shoulders, not yours.

XU:

What else can your clients expect from OnPay in the coming months?

TSheets, Deputy, WhenIWork, and Tanda, but there are a lot more partners we’re working to add. And there are more payroll and benefits tweaks we plan to make to continue serving businesses in a way that nobody else can.

JB:

It’s our goal to set the new standard in payroll, and that means being more to our clients than just a piece of software. With that in mind, we just launched a complete HR product that will help clients automate a lot of regular HR tasks and stay compliant. In addition to Xero, we’re also integrated with QuickBooks,

FIND OUT MORE...

To learn more, visit: > onpay.com

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Issue 19 / 29

Building a platform to tip the balance in favor of small businesses and advisors Data is the currency of the 21st century economy. In our deeply connected, internet-driven economy, every interaction produces some sort of data. The biggest tech companies of our age — from Amazon to Apple to Google — have succeeded by building platforms that leverage data to deliver new products and services...

D

ata-driven innovation will only accelerate in the years to come. Headlines continue to flash bold predictions about a future in which technology that relies on massive data sets, such as AI and machine learning, will increasingly dictate the way we work, communicate and consume.

It’s clear how tech giants will continue to thrive in this new world. But what about the rest of the economy? How will small businesses — and the people who support them, such as accountants and bookkeepers — come out ahead?

At Xero, we’re hard at work building a platform that is tailor-made to deliver on the promise of leadingedge, data-driven technology on behalf of small businesses and their advisors. We want to connect millions of small businesses around the world so that their collective power is equal to, or greater than, the biggest companies.

Today, the reality is that despite huge advances in technology, 30 / Issue 19

small business owners continue to be at a distinct disadvantage compared to large corporations.

This disadvantage arises primarily because small businesses are isolated, and often left to tackle the huge challenge of building a business on their own.

This isolation and self-reliance is easy to see in the way small businesses go about handling their finances — managing cash-flow, getting paid on time, or securing a loan. According to a recent Federal Reserve study: 64 percent of US small businesses owners faced a financial challenge in the past year. The top challenges were: paying expenses (40%), accessing credit (30%), and managing debt (25%).

These financial challenges lead small businesses to making choices a big company would never have to confront — 67 percent used their own personal funds to compensate for shortfalls in their business.

These business owners also resorted to tactics such as taking on additional debt (39%), cutting staff

@Xero

Keri Gohman is Chief Platform Business Officer and President for the Americas at Xero. Keri leads a global team building innovative solutions that expand beyond Xero’s core accounting solution to areas such as payments, lending, and business insights. Keri also serves as the President of Xero Americas where she helps expand Xero’s businesses in North America.

or downsizing (33%), and make late payments on bills due (28%).

At Xero, we believe that we can use the power of technology to help solve these problems. Small businesses don’t need to be isolated or self-reliant. Through our global platform, we can create deep connections with millions of small businesses and their advisors.

And we can leverage the collective power of those connections and the trillions of data points that result to put the data-driven technologies tech giants are using, such as AI and machine learning, to work making small business, big business.

The Xero platform is already facilitating the flow of a massive amount of small business data. Our 1.6 million subscribers produce 62 million customer connections and $2.4 trillion in transactions each year. We are committed to acting as a trusted steward of this data, putting it to work on behalf of small businesses and their advisors.

We are already putting this data to work to deliver some tangible benefits to small businesses. For example, we recently announced that Xero has delivered more than one billion machine learning recommendations, making it easy to quickly code and reconcile transactions so that a small

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Issue 19 / 31

businesses books are always in order.

The future is even more dynamic and exciting. Truly putting the data in the Xero ecosystem to work means delivering breakthrough solutions that help small businesses and advisors tackle the biggest financial challenges: Money: Xero will make it easier for small business to get paid faster, access a loan when needed, and deliver a real-time view of their cash-flow position. For example, Xero automates the invoicing process and makes it easy to see

32 / Issue 19

whether a customer has seen an invoice and if it’s been paid.

Efficiency: Xero will increasingly automate mundane data entry task so that small businesses and advisors can focus on making sense of their data, instead of collecting it. For example, Hubdoc (a Xero product) auto-fetches financial documents from over 700 utilities, telecom providers, and online vendors.

Confidence: Xero will enable even more seamless collaboration between small businesses and their most trusted advisors. For example, the real-time data within a Xero account will integrate with all of the

solutions small businesses need, from payroll to tax to customer management.

We believe that technology shouldn’t exist to favor the big guys alone. Instead, we believe that it should be used as a force for good, enabling entrepreneurs and small businesses to succeed on a global scale.

With Xero, small businesses aren’t so little after all. They are connected through a global platform that, for the first time, will tip the odds in their favor.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

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Issue 19 / 33

Business survival depends on digital transformation K

urt Cagile, Contributing Writer at Forbes Magazine, sums up the whole area of the Digital (Transformation) journey perfectly: “Organizations run on data, and in the twenty-first century, your organization needs to be able to take advantage of all of that data to remain competitive in the marketplace. By transforming your company to work more digitally, all of that data can be leveraged to gain a deeper understanding of customers, markets, competitors and trends. This digital transformation is something that every company needs to do to not only survive but thrive in the new economy” Digital transformation, or ‘DX’, has been happening for many decades.

You may think of milestones like Apple’s first iPhone release in 2007 or when you first heard the term ‘cloud’, IOT (Internet of Things) or AI (Artificial Intelligence) as occasional leaps forward. The reality is the changes have been continuous and it’s the digital developments in between that have largely gone under the radar of mainstream business.

DX is about thriving. If you focus on disrupting your business from within, you avoid the need to react to external disruptive forces to survive.

Cultural change DX requires focusing on cultural 34 / Issue 19

change in organisations. Replacing or leveraging human processes with more efficient and effective digital processes is a mindset that all businesses need to embed into their DNA; the thinking, strategy and functioning to make digital transformation work. This doesn’t necessarily lead to redundancies; in fact, it’s likely to reduce staff turnover because DX should allow time to repurpose staff to more beneficial, and most likely more interesting, tasks that are not yet suited to DX. Explosive growth of new technologies such as elastic cloud computing and IOT is happening now along with rapid advances in technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence. So too are the vast array of software applications that reside on these technologies and connect them. This means the survival of businesses and careers depend on successfully navigating each journey within this digital ‘planet’.

In another Forbes article by contributor Bob Evans, he highlights the opinion of Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, who describes “tech intensity” in all business as: “a fusion of cultural mindset and business processes that rewards the development and propagation of digital capabilities that create end-to-end digital feedback loops, tear down data silos and unleash information flows to trigger insights and predictions, automated workflows and intelligent services”

@TidyInt

Kevin Mann, Founder and CEO, Tidy International Kevin is the Founder and CEO of New Zealand based Tidy International. The cloud software produced by Tidy is used globally to enhance project and stock management productivity for SME users. Kevin has more than 30 years global experience in data science and digital technologies starting his career with British Petroleum after graduating from Canterbury University with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He has specialised in the design, development and improvement of systems that have been critical in industries ranging from from oil and gas to banking and finance.

Digital transformation impact I recall the first time that Rod Drury said to Xerocon Australia that changes are happening to the financial accounting profession because of Xero and attendees should assess and evolve areas of their profession to manage the impact. Xero and its marketplace apps have advanced even further in the years since Rod made his comment and these apps are making easy work of tasks that were once ‘billable hours’.

But what about other industries like manufacturing, retail, construction, professional and non-professional services? All industries are affected, as are the staff they employ. If you ignore DX or choose to do nothing about it, then it’s only a matter of time before your competitiveness and value erodes.

In April 2019, Elon Musk, Founder and CEO of Tesla, announced plans he predicts will make Uber effectively obsolete in its current form starting 2020. That’s DX thinking!

Digital transformation needs to align with the goals of each business and the resources it has to achieve those goals. Businesses

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

need to take stock of their resources and how they can be used more efficiently, continuously replacing or enhancing what’s inefficient with digital solutions.

This is a cultural mindset, not a one-off exercise. It may start with a digital ‘stock take’ but must be repeated at regular intervals to keep leveraging digital technology as it evolves; as new products and technologies are released and as external impacts demand.

Why data is key In 2017 The Economist published an article titled “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data”. While this article talks a lot about the power of companies like Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft, the message is clear that making decisions on quality, analysed, data is now core to business longevity and growth. Leading businesses are likely to have embraced a quality DX approach that underpins their future success. Cloud datacentres are currently being built at incredible rates by Microsoft and Amazon to cope with this ‘silent demand’ of storing and processing information driven by digital transformation.

Each digital journey ‘map’ must be able to pinpoint the key focus areas across the entire operations of a business at any point in time.

The DX journey is like any other journey; determined by the quality of the map, the quality of the ‘local knowledge’ gathered, and advice given by sound, reputable authorities. In other words, the direction each business ‘points’ throughout its well-considered DX journey is costly if it’s not taken. The right team is critical to a DX journey that’s satisfying and rewarding.

Choosing an advisor Most businesses wouldn’t claim to be digital technology experts, so choosing a trusted DX advisor is key to a successful digital transformation journey. But it’s not

easy. Does the advisor using the ‘trusted’ badge have the full range of skills and experience to assist with the specialist area of digital transformation? An ‘advisor’ who makes blind recommendations of a mix of cloud software products that seem to work well for similar business types does not make them a DX advisor. Ask, “Would that advisor be qualified and respected within Microsoft, Apple, or Google to direct their respective DX journeys”?

To set a business on a DX journey and advise it along the way, the DX advisor must possess proven expertise to assess top-down business goals and capabilities and provide effective digital solutions. This is likely to include the selection of supporting third party (digital) managed services.

The advisor must have empathy and a full understanding of their client’s ecosystem; its environment, stakeholder needs, budget, ethics and values. The advisor must also be expert in data management and cyber security to ensure the business is not left vulnerable to specific operational, regulatory, reputational, or financial risks and how those risks might affect business continuity. Processing orders, manufacturing, distribution and ensuring projects keep running without disruption all depend on data security and are part of the DX journey.

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Business Intelligence (BI) and the aligned area of AI, robotics or VR in some business sectors, must also be assessed along the DX journey. For instance, what reporting, or automation can detect potential risks to be mitigated or opportunities to be explored?

Detecting patterns, including fraud, once relied on samples of data sets as it was too economic or impractical to work with all data. Now analysis of entire ‘big data’ sets stored in the cloud make statistical sampling progressively redundant. Sampling error is no longer a factor because the results are complete and in real time.

DX is a must, not an option Digital Transformation is not a simple, one-off exercise. It can start simply but must be part of a strategy and planned outcomes.

Controlled experimentation is a healthy element of DX. A piecemeal approach is likely to fall short of solving the DX issues at the lowest cost and in effective timeframes.

Rework is costly. Similarly, delaying DX indefinitely is a risk to business survival.

FIND OUT MORE...

To learn more about Tidy, visit: > tidyinternational.com

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Issue 19 / 35

Cloudy with a chance of...

Profits? Expenses?

Sales?

As an advisor, how often do you think about the impacts of the data you don’t know?

Introducing the hottest new topic in advisory: The weather.

When it comes to advisory in the accounting ecosystem, high-quality financial data serves as the foundation from which actionable insights and meaningful business advice are born. But financial data is only one piece of a much more complex puzzle. Optimizing access to other data – data that may otherwise be inaccessible or difficult to capture – can have profound and far-reaching implications for businesses.

A

dvisors, get your heads in the clouds

Have you ever thought about how the weather affects your decisions to buy certain products or when and where you buy them? Are you the type of person who loves to go to movies on rainy days? Ever bought a new fan or even an air conditioner unit after getting fed up with a seemingly never-ending heat spell?

Are you more likely to book a beach holiday on a hot summer day, or in the midst of being cooped up inside throughout the cold winter months?

Take this one step further.

Consider your own business, or the businesses you advise through your practice. What do you know about the consumer patterns or purchase decisions made in the context of the 36 / Issue 19

@thechataHQ

Erica Lister & Robyn Malcolm, Marketing Specialists, chata.ai Erica and Robyn – both proud dog-moms and born-andraised Canadians – collectively make up chata.ai’s marketing team. Drawing from Erica’s experience in advertising and Robyn’s background in project management, this dynamic duo brings fresh perspective and plenty of (mostly terrible) puns to the chata.ai brand. These two are keen to engage with customers and new audiences to explore the power of AI as a catalyst for client empowerment in the accounting ecosystem.

weather? Can your financial data tell you about these associations?

If you don’t have the foggiest idea, you’re not alone. And now, you don’t have to wait for a rainy day to find out.

This shift from the “what” to “why” is where meaningful insights are derived, and better business decisions are made.

chata.ai: Not just a fair-weather friend

Is your current advisory strategy destined to make it rain, or should you be worried that a storm is brewing? With chata.ai, all you have to do is ask.

chata.ai is a conversational business intelligence tool that allows users to access, report and analyze their business data in real time, simply by asking questions in their own words. Integrating with APIs such as Xero to dynamically pull client-specific financial data, chata.ai empowers users to move beyond the “what” – identifying KPIs – to delve into the “why” – analyzing the underlying factors that contribute to those metrics.

Let’s chata’bout the weather

• What are my monthly average sales by weather type for the last 3 months?

• What were my total sales of Product X on sunny days last year?

• What were my average sales on days above 20 degrees?

• What were my average sales on rainy days last quarter?

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Advisors can bring unique value to their service offering simply by asking chata.ai how the weather affects specific metrics over time, and the insights that stem from this new accessibility are profound.

And when an advisor shares these insights with their clients…

Well, they’ll be on cloud 9.

With chata.ai, users simply link their weather location to their business data and ask questions in their own words. There’s no need to dig through a painful number of transactions and cross-reference financial data with weather history in an effort to determine meaningful trends. Instead, chata.ai makes it possible to quickly and easily gain in-depth insights into the data to make powerful and informed business decisions.

If you’re thinking about exploring how the weather impacts your business, hopefully this has given you a little ray of sunshine. Try chata.ai for free to determine

18 -19 September 2019

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whether weather matters for your business...

FIND OUT MORE...

Helpful hint: it does!

Visit our website at: > chata.ai

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Event - FREE ticket

Storm building for Xero as next wave of disruption builds T

he past 12 months for Xero have felt relatively quiet as the new CEO Steve Vamos has settled into the saddle after picking up the reins from founder Rod Drury.

No major product announcements.

Slowing expansion of the ecosystem (in Australia, at least), now at 700+ apps globally. Some subtle changes in marketing.

It’s almost too quiet.

In fact, we could be seeing the very beginning of a new wave of disruption in accounting software.

This wave is breaking in three places, and threatens to chip away customers in each area.

The first is at the lower end of the SME market. The cost of making software is falling. Features which Xero released to great fanfare several years ago are now being given away.

The best example of this is the payments platform, Square.

Square provides credit card readers to small businesses and also integrates with ecommerce platforms – its goal is to increase the number of transactions it processes.

Square recently launched a free, standalone invoices app called Square Invoices. The mobile app is well designed and it is tightly integrated with Square’s payments.

38 / Issue 19

The payments platform already has a free point of sale app (Square POS). There are no monthly fees; users only pay for processing when they accept card payments, the standard rate of 2.2%.

The invoicing app includes premium features found in paid accounting software. For example it includes automatic payment reminders (which Xero added in 2015), tracks payment status of each invoice (opened, overdue and paid), and can attach documents and receipts to invoices.

If you are starting up a small business today as a field worker – say a plumber, carpenter or interior designer – why buy an accounting program for $25 or $50 a month if you can just use a free invoicing app?

Your accountant can track the transactions with a ledger, and everyone is happy.

The second area of disruption is in the killer feature of cloud accounting software, bank feeds.

Xero’s stroke of genius that made everyone sit up was adding feeds directly to the general ledger. This opened the door to automated coding for small businesses and higher efficiencies for accounting firms.

Nowadays you can’t launch an accounting app without bank feeds.

Xero spent a lot of money firstly with Yodlee, a financial data

@AccountechLive

Sholto Macpherson is an awardwinning journalist who has spent the past eight years researching SME accounting technology and its impact on the accounting profession. He is the editor of accounting tech blog DigitalFirst.com and is the head of content for the Accounting Business Expo and Accountech.

Live expos. He also contributes to In The Black and Acuity magazines, among other publications.

integrator, to get feeds from all the banks without their permission.

Then it spent a lot of money setting up direct connections with the banks.

The governments in Australia and the UK have both decided that banks don’t own that transactional data, businesses do. So the governments are forcing the banks to share those feeds for free. That’s a big barrier of entry that just disappeared in a poof of smoke.

There’s also disruption coming from the consumer end. Apple announced in March its Apple Card, a credit card that integrates with an iPhone app.

Apple Card works with Apple Pay on your iPhone like any other approved credit card, while the physical titanium card works in stores that don’t accept Apple Pay. Xero will be most interested in the software. It automatically categorises payments, adds map locations and colour logos to transactions, shows monthly expenditure in graphs, and has a dial interface to select the level of repayment and interest.

Free transaction coding for consumers is not a direct threat to bank reconciliation for business today, but where is Apple going with this? Where could it go?

Microsoft once tried to take on Intuit in the US and failed miserably.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Event - FREE ticket Apple is unlikely to roll out accounting software tomorrow. And yet it changes expectations about what accounting software should do – and how much you should pay for it.

The third wave of disruption is coming from the big end of town.

NetSuite is doing a lot of work to make its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software more appealing to smaller businesses.

It has released best-practice blueprints for a number of industries, has much easier multi-entity and multi-department reporting than the Xero ecosystem, and will sell the accounting module on its own as a starter package.

Xero is rumoured to be releasing a more expensive edition targeting larger businesses, as Intuit did with QuickBooks Online Advanced. It will face a tougher fight as NetSuite learns to understand the SME market.

Xero will no doubt have plenty to say on each of those fronts. One major advantage that Xero has

over all those challengers is its connection with the accounting profession.

Live in Melbourne, Australia this November. Xero and the ecosystem will most definitely be striking back!

Let’s hope for a strong counterattack that reinforces Xero as the best choice for accountants, and therefore their clients.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Just when you thought everything was settling down, it’s clear that disruption in accounting is far from over. We will be exploring these themes at Accountech.

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Issue 19 / 39

Meet:

AccountancyManager Award Winning CRM & Practice Management Software Work smarter with AccountancyManager, from automating record requests to sending professional clearance; time consuming tasks you could and should be automating. We cover it all below, as well as a little insight into our up and coming Xero integration...

@accountancymgr

Ashleigh Hall, Business Development Manager, AccountancyManager Before embarking on his current adventure, he was an accountant with experience in both practice and industry. Efficiency and continuous process development are parts of his ideology, making him and AM the perfect fit.

A

ccountancyManager was built by accountants for accountants and bookkeepers, aiming to reduce administration time to zero. How? By automating mundane tasks and generating powerful workflows, freeing up your precious time to spend growing the business or alternatively, holidays!

On average, accounting firms using AccountancyManager save 3 hours of administration time, per client, per year. This is achieved due to our time saving features and rethought processes, a few of which are as follows: Reinventing the client onboarding process

How does it work with Xero?

Terms of business, letters of engagement and

40 / Issue 19

Our much anticipated two way integration is now within touching distance!

Here’s a little more insight as to what we have planned; we hope you’re as excited as us, it’s going to drastically reduce administration time for practitioners giving our users the upper hand within the industry!

Clients - Our two way

integration means that when a client is added or amended on AccountancyManager, the same addition or change is made to Xero and vice versa. As a result you’ll no longer need to duplicate your data entry, both systems will constantly update one another with any changes you make. Say goodbye to bad data!

Invoicing - When an invoice is issued or adjusted on either

software, it’ll also be created or changed on the other. Combine this with AccountancyManager’s timesheet and WIP functionality, it then becomes a powerful tool for accountants that use time based billing to invoice without having to compile information from many different softwares.

One integration, two exciting features! Each assisting in our mission to reduce accounting administration time to zero.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Chasing Missing Information & Record Requests AccountancyManager will automatically send emails chasing for records in anticipation for you to begin work. Job done! If upon review of the records it turns out the client forgot something important, you can update the task to ‘Part records received’ kicking off a whole new automated process, requesting the additional documents.

professional clearance can all be sent automatically by AccountancyManager. With a built in and white labelled client portal they can be instantly sent and signed, making the process painless!

Anti-Money Laundering Checks Checking IDs has been made simple, clients can upload their own ID to the GDPR compliant client portal. Upon receipt, you can

effortlessly perform an electronic anti-money laundering check which will then be stored against the client’s file.

These are just a few of the automation processes AccountancyManager has successfully revolutionised and a fraction of what the software has to offer!

HMRC 64-8 Agent Authorisation Our HMRC integration allows users to apply for agent authorisation with the click of a button. Combined with an automated email, it’ll also chase for the code until received.

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FIND OUT MORE...

Be sure to sign up for a 30-day free trial on: > AccountancyManager.co.uk to see for yourself!

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Issue 19 / 41

Marketing for Accountants - Part 1

It’s all about them: 3 things that lead you to great content and the right new clients

@karenlreyburn

Karen Reyburn, Owner, The Profitable Firm Karen combines two skills that are rarely seen together: a qualification in accounting, and an artistic mindset. Originally qualifying as an accountant in the States, Karen moved to Scotland in 2001, where she began working with accountants (as well as running an international photography business).

In 2012, she set up PF which is a creative agency working exclusively with accountants all over the world.

PF inspire and educate accountants on the power of content marketing.

Members of their Accelerator marketing course work through a 12 step process to learn how to create great content, that will attract the type of clients they want. These sketchnotes highlight key points from the first 3 steps: just enough to get you started.

This is the first in a four-part series on the 12 elements of content marketing for accountants...

M

arketing hasn’t changed.

But the approach towards it has become far more relational.

You used to explain the services you offer and told people to contact you. Now it’s about sharing helpful information. Advice and ideas. Tips and hints. Great stories.

Your prospective client consumes this content over a period of time and when they are ready, they come to you because you’re top of mind. Or when they’re referred to you, they come to your content, consume it quickly, and make a faster quicker decision.

Sketchnotes created by PF’s Graphic Designer Chryzia Itay.

42 / Issue 19

It’s called content marketing. There are a variety of formats (video, blog post, social post, events), and at its core is your client. It’s all about

them: who they are, what they struggle with, how you approach it.

There’s a 12-step, stackable process to generate the very best of content (bringing you the very best of clients), and it goes like this: 1) Niche 2) Issues 3) Content 4) Brand 5) Design 6) Website 7) Email 8) Follow up 9) Blog 10) Events 11) Campaigns 12) Social media Each one builds on the one before.

If you tried to start at the end, with social media, you’d have to back up to create a campaign. In order to build the campaign, you need to know your audience, their issues, the content you’re sharing. You need to be clear about your brand and how you design things and have a website and email platform... and it all comes together!

The first three are covered in this article. (The others are coming in future articles!)

1) Niche Before you do any kind of marketing, you have to know who it is for.

Whether it’s whole-firm marketing,

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Issue 19 / 43

Marketing for Accountants - Part 1 This is why the category of “small businesses who want to grow” is not a niche. It’s not specific enough.

The person isn’t amazed, blown away, keen to buy. Everyone is talking to them.

The more specific you are, the more you stand out.

2) Issues Now that you know who you’re talking to, next up is, “what do I say?”

What goes in the PDF guide? The email, the website page, the blog post, the video?

You create content focused on their issues. or one campaign, you get the best results when you define your audience first.

Ideally, you have a niche.

A niche is a targeted, focused audience you serve particularly well. An industry niche is the obvious choice for many firms, but

44 / Issue 19

you can choose a niche defined in a different way. Like a certain type of person, or a geographical location, or a business size (or a combination of all of these).

Your niche needs to make your potential buyer say, “Oh - that’s me!! How did they know?”

“You’ve got to have a problem you want to solve, a wrong you want to right.”

Look at the questions you’ve been asked by clients or prospects.

Whatever they ask, answer it using different types of content. If they ask about tax issues, answer with a

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

These people could be doing data entry...

But instead they are setting

up meetings with what might turn out to be a new client. They are meeting up with family or friends, maybe they're walking the dog. They might be going home early (or on time) for once. They might be getting promoted.

One thing they all have in common is that they are all are working smarter, they are happier in their work because they are no longer stuck doing repetitive tasks, and they are now doing something much more valuable with their time.

Accounting firms make significant time savings on processing customer documents. Their staff are spending less time doing repetitive tasks and more time working on accounting tasks that are more valuable.

Their customers are happy because they can now process their documents when it suits them, saving everybody the end of season rush.

Small business owners get to spend a lot more time running their business.

AutoEntry has best in class integrations with all of the most popular accounting platforms. The Free Trial can be set up in minutes. The help centre is full of... help.

There is full support throughout the trial period and pricing is designed to flex with your business.

Automating your data entry is no longer for the early adopters, it is simply another tool that your business needs.

Find out how AutoEntry will help you to work smarter. Visit www.AutoEntry.com

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Issue 19 / 45

Marketing for Accountants - Part 1 blog post. If they ask whether they can buy a new building, answer t with a video. If they want to know how much accounting services cost, create a page on your website about your approach to pricing.

You can repurpose content, too.

Written a few blog posts on a particular issue? Combine the content into a PDF guide. Then record a video going through each item in the guide. Send out an email with the video embedded inside. It all works together.

3) Content Now you’re ready for the “Cornerstone Piece of Content”.

You develop one piece of content, core to just about everything you do in your firm.

It’s based on one of these three things (or a combination of them all): • Who you are (values) • Who you serve (niche) • How you work (process)

46 / Issue 19

The reason it’s a cornerstone is you can get so many other forms of content off the back of it, once this core one is created.

The cornerstone is usually in one of these formats: • PDF guide • Visual or graphic • Leaflet or brochure Say for example one of the core issues you’ve identified is clients who don’t know all the services you offer.

You sort this by creating a visual of your “onboarding journey”. It shows what happens on month one, month two, month three for new clients. (You make sure all your services are discussed at varying stages throughout the first 6 months of their being with you.)

Once the graphic is created, you put it on a website page and explain more detail. Add a video walking them through it. Write a series of blog posts about your process of bringing on a new client and why it’s set up that way. Send follow

up emails after each stage of the process.

Your cornerstone piece of content summarises a major issue in the firm - and all the content you create supports it, communicates it in different ways, and solves the underlying problem. Now all clients know all the services you offer, because your onboarding process makes sure of it. And they can see it, visually.

What’s next?

Armed with these three areas you’re ready to move on to branding, design, and website: the next three elements of the twelve!

FIND OUT MORE...

To learn more, visit: > theprofitablefirm.com

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Issue 19 / 47

Meet Business Importer:

The easiest way to import data from Excel spreadsheets into Xero There are issues every Xero user faces on a daily basis, spending hours on manual processes. The CEO of Business Importer’s parent company CloudBusiness Michael Astreiko talks to XU Magazine about the ways Business Importer automates those parts of business workflow that can and should be automated...

XU:

What is the biggest issue currently experienced by Xero users, in your view, and how do you tackle it?

MA:

After a thorough research-based experience we have realized that the majority of small businesses still manage their Invoices, Purchases, Bank Transactions etc in Excel, and then spend many hours daily on manually processing and entering the same transactions into Xero. The team behind Business Importer App, reinforced by recent initiatives such as MTD, has come up with a solution to convert that time into fulfilling more important tasks, while sales, expenses and even journals are digitized automatically.

XU:

Which issue does Business Importer resolve for Xero users?

MA:

Many businesses are comfortable recording their business activity into Excel sheets, but increasingly so, modern business rules require them to move things to the Cloud.

Business Importer offers its users to continue working with Excel, while seamlessly connecting the end-result to their digital

48 / Issue 19

accounting system. It also features the possibility to directly sync your e-commerce, CRM, online payment systems and other widely used cloud-based systems with Xero through automated data imports.

XU: MA:

How does it work?

You can upload Excel spreadsheets containing the information you would like to appear in Xero (there are certain fields that are required

by Xero, otherwise it is up to you what to import). Map the names of the columns in your file to Xero field names for instant recognition.

Preview what you are about to import and click on import, which will take several seconds, or minutes in case of an extremely large file.

Schedule your import to happen automatically on the background with a frequency of your choice from a cloud link (Google Drive).

XU:

How did you first come to developing Business

Importer?

MA:

I started out as a Java software engineer and spent 10 years working with

@CloudBusinessLt

Michael Astreiko, Founder & CEO, CloudBusiness LLC Being an architect of business automation solutions and having a diverse software engineering background of 10+ years, Michael founded CloudBusiness to help accountants and SMBs resolving their daily workflow challenges by integrating a cutting edge software solutions into their routine tasks.

CloudBusiness company specialises in cloud migration and business automation services for Small and Medium Businesses with a focus on the accounting domain.

different kinds of startups as a tech consultant. While working I observed how when people tried to realize their ideas, being too focused on marketing and technicalities - rather than thinking of their perspective clients prevented them from moving forward and actually serving the sector in focus.

At some point I came to the idea that I can launch my own products based on the “customer first” model. I knew that it is going to be a challenging path and that it would require a lot of patience and hard work. After all, I’m a software engineer and not an accountant. Inevitably though, while evolving our products, we were gaining a deeper knowledge of accounting as a sphere and a clearer understanding of real needs of businesses and accountants.

This led us to creating a tool that now many people tell us they were always looking for, and to me this is a confirmation that we are on the right track.

XU: MA:

What makes Business Importer special?

This is a great question! I think it’s something we decided to do

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

developers. early on and it’s to get to know our customers, their needs and I think that staying close to actual expectations and to be there for issues real accountants and them. I’ll give you an example: business owners face in their daily within our industry it’s quite business workflow and investing in common to have chat bots top talent is helping us to see one answering customer queries step ahead and keep our focus, based on generic FAQ. We, on the which has opposite side, invest in always been picking, training and to save time nurturing the Once one of our customers spent on best talent to said: “Pulled in 2 years of manual data make sure entry, while we answer data, like Thanos got rid of half providing a an online the Universe” - this is exactly great place chat within the idea our marvellous team to work seconds of keeps in mind while designing at for all a question new tools. Any task has to be members of being asked done at the snap of a finger. our wonderful and provide team. a solution as quickly as possible, most of the Which times right on the spot. type of customers will find Business Our team members, then, discuss Importer useful for their business the most interesting recent workflow? challenges at our weekly team meetings and each improvement Everyone from a in the app then is done based on small business owner this very first-hand experience of importing their invoices into Xero, customer’s needs passed on to our to bookkeeper or an accountant

XU:

XU:

What can Xero users expect in the nearest future from your application?

MA:

A lot is in store! After introducing great features such as being able to preview your import, schedule imports to run automatically from your cloud, we are working on more things, such as adding pre-select mapping for Amazon, Shopify and other common platforms, which will greatly speed up the process, especially for our new users who won’t have to think twice about.

FIND OUT MORE...

To find out more about CloudBusiness and their automation solutions for accounting, please visit: > cloudbusinessllc.com

#ThinkCloud

+27 87 250 2500

WWW.PAYSPACE.COM

MA:

working for a large accounting practice with many customers - all of them will find Business Importer to be a real time-saver, freeing up their time for more complex tasks.

From Cape Town to Cairo, the PaySpace built-in legislation will automatically ensure that your small or medium sized business remains tax compliant 100% of the time across 40 countries in Africa.

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Issue 19 / 49

Dispelling automation myths and choosing the right service provider How we do business has changed so much in recent years, and the accounting industry is no different.

The use of automation can be a powerful asset for accountants, enabling them to spend less time on manual processes and more time on practice development...

A

s with all technologies, some people are early adopters... some aren’t. For those of us that aren’t always looking for the next new thing, when a piece of technology is no longer a niceto-have and it’s time to step up, getting started can be challenging.

With so much to gain, what common misconceptions are holding practices back? And with so many service providers to choose from, what questions can help you choose the right one for your business?

Dispelling myths: Fact vs Fiction Myth: Automation will replace accountants and bookkeepers Fact: Technology will never replace the human touch. Automated technologies are designed to serve accountants and bookkeepers rather than usurp them. Skills based on years of experience and personal relationships built with clients, can’t be replaced by computers.

Myth: Using automated technologies and the cloud puts sensitive data at risk Fact: Cloud service providers typically offer extremely high levels of data security, meaning that your 50 / Issue 19

sensitive data is exceptionally safe when stored in the cloud (and much more so, than physical copies in your filing cabinets). However, whilst it’s generally safe to work in the cloud, not all service providers offer the same quality of data protection, so do your homework before using a new cloud solution.

Myth: Automation is difficult and expensive for smaller firms to get started with Fact: No matter what size your team is, it’s a mistake to believe that your practice can’t benefit from automation. Automation isn’t just available to larger practices with the deepest pockets, as automated solutions can typically flex to accommodate firms of all sizes to suit a range of budgets. In fact, automation can have an even bigger impact on smaller firms, where resources are stretched and time is limited.

How to find the right service provider From payments to payroll, cash flow management and data entry, you can find a range of apps to support most back office processes in the Xero marketplace. And with so much choice, here are a few questions to ask yourself before

@AutoEntry_OCREX

Brendan Woods is founder and CEO of AutoEntry Originally a software developer in the hedge fund space, he quit his job and started the company to automate data entry for accountants and bookkeepers.

AutoEntry automates data entry of sales and purchase invoices, bank and credit card statements, expenses, receipts and more, providing significant time and cost savings to users. AutoEntry is a trusted supplier to over 2,500 accounting firms worldwide.

choosing a new service provider: Is the solution quick and easy to get started with?

You want a solution that makes things easier - not more difficult!

Therefore, it’s important that you get a full demo of the solution and ask for a free trial of the software (if available) to make sure you and your team will be confident in handling it right away.

Is the service provider a good fit for my practice?

You should see your service provider as a trusted business partner, rather than just a third party, so having a good working relationship with the team behind the solution is important. They should take the time to get to know your business, and you should be satisfied with the speed and style of their customer support.

Does the software offer bang for my buck?

This won’t be a surprise... you should be looking for the software with the most competitive price, without compromising on the intelligence and features offered.

Compare monthly costs and check for any hidden fees, such as additional costs for adding new users.

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Strengthened by technology, they’ll be able to deliver superior customer experiences and advisory services, above and beyond their more traditional rivals.

Am I satisfied with the data security offered?

Since the introduction of the GDPR last May, data security has become an increasingly important topic. In essence, GDPR requires businesses to more carefully handle ‘personal data’ for businesses and third parties, that is, any information which can lead to someone being identified, such as banking and accounting information.

The good news is that cloud-based data entry software can help with this process. However, practices should carefully check the security offered by these types of solutions before using them.

Two elements that you need to know: • The software should offer ‘Advanced Encryption Standard’ (AES), so data is encoded and can’t be read by unauthorised third parties if a device is infiltrated, lost or stolen.

• Businesses should ask where their data will be stored, as

some solutions may process data in locations outside of the EU. Different territories will have different data security laws, which may not compliment the standards of the GDPR. We get asked about GDPR every day, we have a very high level list of FAQ’s here. If you want to know more, we have a GDPR specialist on the team who would be happy to answer any questions.

Strengthening your practice with automation Technology is reshaping the very foundations of business and what it means to be an accountant. Those who take the time to understand how to apply automated intelligence have much to gain.

Practices should take one step at a time to identify which manual processes are the most time consuming. They should be methodical in selecting the right service provider for their needs.

“Can I make payroll?”

Deliver the answer with cash flow forecasts your clients will LOVE.

AutoEntry and Xero AutoEntry works by capturing and analysing scanned and photographed bank and credit card statements, purchase and sales invoices, expenses receipts and more, automating data entry to Xero. AutoEntry captures tax summaries by default and if requested, full line item details including description, quantity and unit price. AutoEntry also remembers how users categorise expenses, such as the relevant supplier account, nominal account and tax code without ever creating duplicate supplier accounts or posting duplicate invoices in Xero.

AutoEntry even matches invoices to purchase orders.

Despite this extensive functionality, AutoEntry offers flexible pricing credit-based pricing. One pool of credits can be used across multiple companies and document types. These credits also carry over from one month to the next, so customers only pay for the documents they upload onto AutoEntry, as needed month by month, without any waste.

FIND OUT MORE...

Automate manual data entry with AutoEntry. A free trial is available for all new users. Find AutoEntry in the Xero App store or via: > autoentry.com/integrations/xero

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Issue 19 / 51

Business MOT:

Safety is important for your car, so why not your business’s cash flow?

@compleatp2p

Philip Douglas, CEO, Compleat Software Philip Douglas is the Chief Executive Officer of Compleat Software. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant with a deep and practical understanding of UK, European and US financial practices and how to optimise financial software to meet the demands of the business. Philip joined Compleat in May 2008 and his knowledge, technical and managerial skills led to his rapid promotion to Managing Director and his current role as CEO.

Cash flow impact and risk management are always key to a business’s success, the same way airbags and seat belts are key to ensure safety in your car. Philip Douglas looks at why businesses owners should be treating their businesses like their cars when it comes to safety and risk...

L

et me start with an analogy for you.

A modern car’s collision warning system is built to try and prevent a collision for you. If ignored, it takes over and applies brakes before an accident can happen.

This is technology widely used by consumers.

According to the Small Business Association (SBA) 50 per cent of businesses fail in their first five years. One contributing factor for this is cash flow management, due to businesses having limited systems in place to enable a view on risk prior to it happening. This technology exists and is rarely used by businesses.

So, why is it that these two situations, which are both rectified by the same solution, are treated so differently? It seems an odd statement, I know, but let me put some context behind it.

In the modern world, car safety is of the utmost importance. To facilitate this, manufacturers are introducing technology such as anti-drift, driverless parking and 52 / Issue 19

collision warning awareness.

Relaying back to my earlier analogy, you could say that these types of technology attempt to make us aware of potential collisions that you and I may never be conscious of. For example, a car veering off a roundabout as you pull away may identify a possible collision and break on your behalf before your brain has had time to process the risk. These types of technological advancements are being absorbed by consumers at a rapid rate because, put simply, why would you not invest in transportation that is safer than going without it?

I know what you’re all thinking, “OK great pitch Philip, we can tell you like cars but what has this got to do with business?”.

Circling back to my earlier point, it’s a well-known fact that 50 percent of businesses fail in their first five years of trading. One of the main reasons for this is cash flow. Business owners are fantastic at starting their businesses in the first place, but what some are not so strong at is anything orientated to finance, billing, cash flow or

compliance, a.k.a. the “admin stuff ” Some may employ an accountant to help and as they grow, they may bring the function back in-house for a dedicated finance resource to take onboard. For some businesses, this will work just fine, but where is the risk management? Has the risk simply been passed onto the accountant? Or in growing businesses, has the risk been passed onto the internal finance member? So hopefully my little analogy seems a bit clearer: both scenarios exist in their droves.

They say cash flow is king; always has and always will be. Most business owners, MDs or CEOs are typically experts in their field, and for some, they have or have had limited exposure to all the elements that make up good cash flow management because typically, this is managed and provided by someone else.

So, my point today is this: would you purchase a new vehicle knowing the manufacturer has not invested in technology to aid safety? It may not be one of your

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main considerations, but if you were to purchase a car without an airbag, are you not putting yourself at a higher risk of being injured than those with them? Simply put, investment reaps reward and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

As a business owner myself I want to know my risk even if someone else is managing it. Software must be a key part of this, as without it we are simply adding to the risk without knowing what we could have done to prevent the risk.

This leads to being unaware that a “crash” is coming and therefore having no opportunity to manage the risk prior to the “collision”.

Most businesses we speak to see invoice management as being key in their requirements, the reason being that it’s a pain for finance and approvers to manage the receiving, keying and authorisation of purchase invoices. Software, like ours at Compleat, facilities this at a level of automate like no other.

However, there is still an issue of managing risks in advance.

If your finance team receives an invoice today, it’s usually safe to assume goods and services have been delivered and the cost will hit the business today, as it needs paying. In my car analogy, this is the equivalent of an accident causing two blown out tires that have now worn down to the bare rim, which could have been prevented had the tyres been replaced.

So, if we’d have known that this purchasing decision could put our cash flow in the red, we may have made a different choice. The crucial element here is simply having the opportunity to make an informed decision and being consciously aware that you are doing so, versus remaining oblivious to future repercussions and therefore having no choice but to deal with the outcome when it happens.

The solution is simple. Purchase order automation with commitment accounting and real-time visibility of budget impact sitting inside current cash flow. This is exactly where business owners need to be.

Consider this, for the SME a business has outlined all intended costs into a budget, covering all indirect costs to support business activity as well as direct costs for company operation. This budget forms the basis on which the business can evaluate its progress throughout the year. Alongside this, the business empowers their users to raise a purchase order for every purchase they make.

Better yet, if a system styled in a simplistic Ocado or Amazon design is used, this will be more familiar to users as they are used to interacting with these platforms as consumers. Purchasing on behalf of the business should not be any different to that of a consumer, where best price and best service are always considerations.

By raising a PO that follows a simplistic workflow for authorisation (if required) budget holders and senior management have immediate real-time visibility of impact risk for placing orders.

This information, when viewed in conjunction with the budget, provides comfort or risk analysis, something that is non-existent without the use of software. Some may think using management accounts or a manual request from finance/accountants can provide this, but the reality is that this type of information is out of date the moment it has been issued.

For example, management accounts are typically issued two weeks after the month-end and provide the budget holder visibility of spend against budget for the previous

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month. Whilst this information is useful, it is important to have full visibility of the current budget and spend. In fact, the benefits of management accounts are just for finance processes only, they actually provide nothing that is meaningful to the budget holder as they’re not in real time.

To summarise, here’s my two cents for businesses. Using software, the business has a view of their commitments and can see the impact on cash flow. Once the invoice arrives the processing of this should be automated using 2-way (PO and invoice) or 3-way (PO, receipt and invoice) matching processes to allocate the invoice against the order. This then updates the spend view on the cash flow, so we can now understand the actual cost incurred versus the intended cost.

So, here’s my final thoughts. It’s important to remember cash flow impact and risk management are always key to a business’s success, the same way airbags and seat belts are key to ensure safety in your car should a collision occur.

When it comes to your business, ask yourself this: why wouldn’t you put the measures in now to avoid risk later?

FIND OUT MORE...

To find out more, visit: > www.iCompleat.com

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Issue 19 / 53

Building a digital future through funding

How access to finance changes the advisory landscape Access to funding has always been a key challenge for small businesses, and, historically, funding advice is an area that many accountants have shied away from.

But Anil Stocker, CEO and co-founder of MarketInvoice, believes there’s a golden opportunity for accountants to become the goto funding adviser for small business clients.

Here he lays out the benefits of including funding advice as a core element of your advisory proposition...

W

e’ve all seen the transformative changes that have taken place in the accounting industry over the past decade. Cloud accounting has replaced desktop software and integrated apps have replaced complex and unconnected practice tools. Automation has also driven the focus of revenue generation away from repetitive compliance work and towards advisory services.

We at MarketInvoice, along with a growing number of our accounting partners, believe there’s another change afoot in accounting; the emergence of the accountant as funding adviser. A role where you become the driving force behind clients sourcing additional finance.

So, is your firm ready to dive into the world of funding?

@MarketInvoice

Anil Stocker, CEO, Marketinvoice Anil Stocker is the CEO of MarketInvoice, the company he co-founded in 2011 to help small businesses raise funding and drive their businesses forward. His ambition is to use technology and data to completely reinvent how businesses go about financing their growth, and breathe fresh life into outdated financial products.

Setting the foundations for advisory services To successfully step into the world of advisory services, firms need the right strategy, an experienced team of people and the best in practice software solutions.

Firms that are making advisory work well are generally cloudbased, connected digital practices.

Xero’s most recent UK Accounting & Bookkeeping Industry Performance Report showed two key trends that are driving this growth in advisory services.

1. Firms that have larger numbers of online accounting clients grow faster and have an easier time signing on new clients.

2. Firms that provide advisory services earn considerably more revenue per client than firms that offer only compliance.

In a successful Xero practice, your

54 / Issue 19

basic compliance work is taken care of by the software. Integrated apps automate the bookkeeping, coding of transactions and cash collection. With the tech doing the heavy lifting, you and your team can focus on the important things. That means more time to get to know your clients, understand their goals and challenges and (crucially) spot the gaps where funding is required.

The big question for many Xero firms, however, was not whether the practice was digital ready but rather whether the UK’s small businesses were ready for digital.

The digital imperative for small businesses Small businesses account for at least 99.5% of UK business, across every main industry sector. But Xero statistics from 2017 showed that only 18% of UK accounting firms had virtually all clients using online accounting.

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providers to their clients • Half (50.8%) indicated that they would recommend their clients speak with a bank about their Highlighting the funding gaps finance needs • More than a third (36.3%) are A Xero accountant spends less time recommending pouring over historic an invoice finance ledgers, and more provider ahead of time looking at e MarketInvoic a business loan KPI dashboards believes there’s provider (33.66%) and cash-flow another change forecasts. So afoot in accounting; The traditional you’re ideally the emergence of routes to funding positioned Fortunately, the UK Government’s the accountant as (banks loans and to spot any Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative funding adviser. overdrafts) may still funding needs. has pushed the digital agenda to be there, but there’s the forefront for small businesses. also an ever-growing You know the Mandatory registration for MTD range of other complementary owner’s growth plans, you for VAT by April 2019 has pushed and alternative finance options. In understand the seasonal dips in businesses towards adopting the same way that accounting has their industry and you have the digital for their key accounting and real-time data to reveal their current evolved to meet the digital age, tax requirements. so has the funding sector. There’s financial health. This gives you the a far greater choice of financial While MTD may have mandated this ability to start asking meaningful products for your small business questions about where revenue, switch to digital, the benefits and clients to choose from. And many cash flow pipelines and capital are opportunities of becoming a digital are available through online going to come from. The deeper business have gone way beyond application, making the most of the your client relationships, the just streamlining the tax return connected efficiencies of being a easier it becomes to spot the gaps, process. digital business. highlight the need for finance and start helping clients to source this By switching to a cloud-accounting Ed Berks, Business Platform much-needed funding. platform, businesses have: Director EMEA at Xero, commented on the research: A third of UK small business expect • Better financial management accessing business finance to through digital accounting “It’s great to see accountants using become more difficult post-Brexit.

• A clearer view of key numbers, a variety of funding options for In this atmosphere of funding through real-time reporting their clients, but the opportunity uncertainty, now’s the time for your • A quicker way to analyse when to provide more value here is firm to step up to the plate. additional finance is needed significant. For accountants to remain relevant, they need to learn Streamlined access to a world of Accountants remain the most more about the funding options funding trusted adviser for most business available to their clients.” owners. You’re their So, how do confidant and the When your firm can easily source you source person who truly “It’s great to see a finance provider for a client, that the right understands accountants using a variety changes your perceived value. You funding for their longof funding options for their your ambitious can quickly and efficiently work a term vision funding solution into your ongoing small business and strategy. clients, but the opportunity planning conversations with clients, clients?

What digital to provide more value here and it’s this kind of solution-driven has done is is significant.” advisory work that cements your Recent search to make it Ed Berks, Business Platform reputation as an invaluable part of carried out by easier to drill Director EMEA, Xero this business’s advisory team.

MarketInvoice down into a showed that company’s finances.

How MarketInvoice helps accountants are That ability to review undoubtedly beginning to a client’s financial data at At MarketInvoice, we believe provide more in-depth support and a granular level, revealing the guidance around additional finance: that funding has the potential to patterns and trends, gives you the transform the future paths of small starting point for a new strand of businesses. To transform how • Two thirds (66%) of accountants advisory work. advisory services drive your own surveyed said that they practice growth and, ultimately, to recommend external finance You can now link funding directly Adoption of digital may have changed how some accounting firms operated but many small business clients still hadn’t made the switch to a digital approach for their core financial processes and accounting. To achieve the potential software efficiencies that cloud offers, a push towards digital was needed – driven by a mixture of education and relationship building.

into the whole business planning cycle.

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Issue 19 / 55

bring about transformative change in the world at large.

Our vision is for entrepreneurs to have the time to build the world we all want to live in. That’s why we’re making it quick and easy to get funding through our invoice finance and business loans. We make it easier to find the financial solution that fits your client’s needs – whether it’s a secured or unsecured business loan, or fast access to cash through invoice finance.

A current lack of funding doesn’t need to become a negative and destructive impasse for small businesses. With the right access to additional finance, a business can turn its vision into reality.

We believe Xero accountants can apply their experience, insight and funding connections to deliver access to positive finance and, by doing so, become a force for change.

As a funding expert and adviser, you can: • Keep cash-poor clients trading,

and funding services together and help them get through the and, by doing so, create a holistic tough times approach to advisory. With those • Fund the growth plans of solid foundations in place, and ambitious small businesses and a deep, personal and connected nurture their success relationship with your clients, • Help businesses cut crippling you’re set for a bright future – debt repayments by refinancing through funding. existing loans • Facilitate investment in new assets, bigger teams and larger premises If you see the future • Provide the financial of your Xero practice support as being one based that small in relationship-driven business work, funding advisory owners are has to be a key element crying out for

of that.

A bright future through funding If you see the future of your Xero practice as being one based in relationship-driven advisory work, funding has to be a key element of that.

Combine compliance, financial performance, business planning

FIND OUT MORE...

Visit our website at > marketinvoice.com

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Issue 19 / 57

4 Reasons to Improve Onboarding and Increase Retention The transition from new hire to employee is more important than you think. Without a structured, simple and effective process, you are at greater risk of losing employees in the first few months...

O

nboarding new employees can be a stressful time.

Documentation needs to be completed, forms filled in, records captured and the new employee must be happy to settle into the role in a short period of time.

Several steps of the onboarding process often get forgotten or put to one side. It is important to have a solution to manage a seamless transition from hire to employee.

The process of onboarding plays a much higher role in the long term employment of a new starter than you might initially think. The Society for Human Resources Management found that 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding.

Given that the cost of employment is so high, retention once you have chosen the perfect person is even more important.

HR Manager Naturally, the HR team have a large part to play in the onboarding of a new employee. This is both in terms of compliance and gathering the correct information, but also in keeping the new starter informed, happy and comfortable to join the business.

Using an HR system that supports onboarding allows you to request required information before the employee starts. This could be 58 / Issue 19

legal documentation such as proof of right to work or accreditation such as certificates for essential qualifications. If your business needs to have certain policies accepted in advance of the start date, these can be shared through an onboarding system and acknowledgments collected.

Once the employee has started their new role, onboarding is not yet over. It is crucial to continue the process of integrating the new starter into the company and ensuring they are fully trained on systems and feel at home as fast as possible.

Aside from the obvious benefits of a slick onboarding process, you never get a second chance to make a first impression - make sure that the first experience of HR is a great one!

Team Manager It is always exciting to have a new member in the team and it is usually up to the manager to keep that transition process as smooth as possible and get them up to speed quickly. It is important for the new employee to feel welcome and excited about working with their colleagues. One of the ways dedicated onboarding solutions can help with this is to encourage their manager to send an informative and friendly message before they join.

This can provide key information about the first day, or anything

@AppogeeHR

Charlotte Brown, Business Operations Manager, Appogee HR Limited Charlotte has an excellent knowledge of the HR challenges companies may face, with a proven record in understanding their needs with the ability to find ways to overcome them.

Having helped 100s of businesses move their HR and Leave Management to the Cloud, Charlotte is a fantastic source of innovative ideas to help organisations and their people.

else that may be helpful before the joiner actually steps into the office.

Having an option for open communication between the employee and manager can also be a great way to ensure any questions are answered in advance of the start date and everyone is on the same page.

Getting a feel for company culture and getting to know the team is essential to ensure a happy new starter. Sharing information about the team members within an onboarding portal can help to integrate them from the moment they have accepted the job offer.

New Employee A new starter in a business is going to be both excited about their new role and nervous about the first days and meeting their team.

When an employee accepts a new position, they are often taking a risk, maybe having left a different job, or making a physical move to a new town. It is crucial to make sure they feel at home as quickly as possible. A good onboarding process can alleviate their concerns and work towards making this a successful hire.

Providing access to an onboarding portal can give them the chance to update the company with key information such as bank details

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or address to ensure a smooth first payroll. If they have any pre-booked leave, they can request this before they join and let their manager know they would like to have that time off.

Post start date, it is important to continue the onboarding process and keep the employee aware of the steps they should be taking through checklists and training records. The first few months are both exciting and nerve wracking for the new employee, and it must not be overlooked as a crucial time for employee retention.

End to End Integration Find a solution that integrates with what you use, look for a mixture of HR Software and ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) such as Hire by Google that integrate with your current productivity suites like Office 365 or Google. Go one step further and ensure that you end up with a full suite of integrated systems that work with other core solutions such as Xero Payroll.

A set of solutions that work together will save time, effort and training whilst improving accuracy between systems. As a result your employees will work better between solutions and you will achieve cost savings by reducing time previously wasted on error and duplication.

Providing a new hire with access to

your onboarding solution straight away gives them the chance to become familiar with some of the tools you use, making them more comfortable right from their first day.

In summary A successful onboarding experience helps you turn a candidate into an employee. Once you adopt the idea that onboarding does not start and finish on the first day, but starts

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from the point of hire and continues into the lifecycle of the employee, you will increase retention, job satisfaction and productivity.

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Issue 19 / 59

Industry Focus: Property

Why should accountants integrate Xero with their clients’ management systems?

With the number of cloud based softwares growing exponentially over the last few years there is a growing desire amongst accountants to make use of these softwares to benefit their clients.

One such software provider is Arthur Online who integrate their financial module with Xero to provide a seamless transfer of data between the two platforms saving you countless hours of laborious administrative work...

W

hen it comes to managing any part of a business, you want your clients to have the best tools to deliver the most accurate and sophisticated results. Balancing the books may not be a property managers favourite routine task, however, this is what keeps their business going. As your clients’ portfolio grows, reliable management and accounting software helping coordinate accounts will provide a clear picture of their financial past and future.

What is property management software?

To aid property managers, software has been specifically created for property-related task management.

A growing number of satisfied property managers state that using property management software has changed the way they work. Arthur Online is one such online property management software designed to make life easier for property professionals. Through streamlining and automating key processes and bringing fundamental data to the fore, Arthur Online centralises every aspect of property management workflow, helping save time and improving business wide efficiency. This powerful property management solution has been 60 / Issue 19

built to help manage your clients’ portfolio effortlessly from initial viewings through to monitoring rent and paying contractors. The cloud-based technology gives users the freedom as well as the flexibility needed to manage properties irrespective of where they may be.

Why integrate?

Whilst Arthur offers an end-to-end property management solution, we understand that there are certain things that we are less able to perfectly execute. One of these is full business accounting. To remedy this, we integrate with Xero, giving users a view of their tenant data and financial accounts at all times.

Through this integration, users are able to handle all of their financials in one place in real time.

@ArthurProperty

Patrick Caulfield ACA, Associate Director, Arthur Online After graduating from Durham University with a Masters in Economics, Patrick joined EY (London) where he became a chartered accountant. He then spent 3 years in M&A and investment banking with Citi Group and an early stage VC. Patrick now works at Arthur Online where he manages everything finance and investor related, from fundraising to shaping and rolling out Arthur Online’s ambitious growth plans.

Arthur-Xero integration Cloud accounting’s sole purpose is to simplify. Whether your client is a landlord, letting agent or generally specialise in property management, it will benefit them to work with a software solution enabling them to get the most out of their portfolio. Financial arrangements for tenancies can often be complex and time consuming to keep on top of. The integration with Xero enables your clients to

As accountants, you benefit from from a reduced workload. No longer will you need to enter invoices, create contacts or add tracking categories; Arthur can do these for you. Your clients will also see the benefits of integrating. They will now be able to manage their properties and tenancies in Arthur whilst having the ability to manage their finances and submit their VAT returns to HMRC in Xero at no extra effort.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Industry Focus: Property effectively manage payments and remittances. It facilitates on time payments with ease of access and complete transparency. Whether its basic financials, tenancy financials, owner remittances, recurring bills, or setting up tenancy statements, Arthur Online offers the right tools to accomplish the task without the hassle. Furthermore, accountants can manage multiple accounts and clients from one login. This saves time on a daily basis, quickly switching between accounts to reconcile payments or pay a landlord.

Having property management software that integrates with your clients’ accounts not only saves on data entry, but also provides real time financial data allowing users to see how well their properties are being managed, helping them plan a clearer future.

The Arthur-Xero integration means that the double handling data is a thing of the past. The two systems work in tandem, with Arthur sending invoices one way and Xero sending receipts the other, making the transfer of information seamless. Simply put, all you have to do is match the payments. The integration provides users with access to a powerful combination of comprehensive accounting and property management functions. It is perfect for property professionals looking for a simple, effective way to save time, money and better track their portfolio financials.

Another benefit of integrating Arthur with Xero is that your clients

will be MTD (Making Tax Digital) compliant. The fundamental change to the UK tax system has been introduced in order to make the current process more efficient and simpler. With Xero being a HMRC approved accounting platform and Arthur an effective invoice generator, sending quarterly reports is a breeze. HMRC are building their functionality so that businesses and landlords will eventually be able to send information about all types of income, which Xero will be able to handle. The integration will help reduce data handling, saving you countless hours of tedious administrative work. No longer will you have to spend laborious hours entering invoices and bills; Arthur will provide all this data for you.

Setting up with a property management software and integrating with an accounting package should be observed as an investment in your business, which pays off within a short period of time. The advantages of the correct choice and use of property management and accounting

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software lead to more time to prioritise, allows you to efficiently delegate tasks, ensures you are MTD compliant and have up to date financial information.

Arthur Online was created by property owners and managers who understand the needs of landlords and property managers. The powerful Arthur-Xero integration simplifies and modernises the way property businesses automate tasks and allows you to check in from your phone or computer – connecting you wherever you are.

Streamline your clients’ workload with a seamless integration of accounting software with Arthur Online property management and Xero, creating a complete management solution.

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MORE MOMENTS THAT MATTER

62 / Issue 19

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Time is your biggest resource, so why waste it on receipts and invoices? Let Receipt Bank handle the data entry so you can spend it where it matters.

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Considerations to ensure a successful transition for your entire Accounting Practice or Bookkeeping business to Xero So you have decided that Xero is the way forward for your Accounting Practice or Bookkeeping business. It should be pretty easy to make that happen - right?

@JetConvert

Wendy Elms, Partner Relationship Manager, Jet Convert Wendy has over 20 years experience in marketing and relationship management with a career spanning Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd in Melbourne and ESP Print Management in Brisbane. Wendy is responsible for supporting and communicating with Jet Convert’s client base to keep them up-to-date on all the latest developments. Her driving passion is to ensure every client has a fantastic experience with their move to Xero.

However, change always brings with it some degree of pain, even though the end result is totally worth it. Following are some considerations in addition to the obvious technical and operational changes required for a successful conversion experience...

(The following equally applies to a business owner or manager wanting to move their organization to Xero.)

1.

Clarify Your Goals for an Optimal Outcome

For a successful project with a good return on investment, it needs to be well planned.

Is your main driver to reduce external costs? Do you want to reduce internal workload to free your team’s wasted time and increase productivity? Or are you keen to increase revenue by offering additional value added services to your clients?

There is no right and wrong in this. Depending on your particular circumstances any one, or a mix of these goals, might achieve your vision. Clarity about what you want to achieve just helps in making the right decisions along the way and communicating the importance of an operational change like this to your team.

2. Address the human element Any change of business systems 64 / Issue 19

is a serious investment of time, money and emotional energy. Why are we pointing this out? Because at first glance it might sound really simple to just set up Xero ledgers and start plugging in data.

If you have moved some of your clients from another accounting package to Xero you’ll know that even with the smoothest technical process, the human aspect needs to be looked after just as much.

Expectations need to be managed, and professional support made available to overcome the initial hurdles of learning a new system.

Make sure the leadership team is fully behind the move and the benefits it will bring for everyone in the practice. Appoint an overall “champion” to drive the change and ensure buy-in by critical team players.

Consider it best practice to not just add additional tasks to your already busy team. Instead show how it will reduce their time, benefit

them professionally or financially, or both.

3. Do it internally or externally?

There are many different pieces to a successful conversion of a Practice or Bookkeeping business to Xero. Which parts to do internally or externally depends on what you want to achieve. For cost minimisation, it is often better to outsource something to a specialist.

Recruit or engage experts such as an internal or Xero trainer to get everyone - both staff and clients - up to speed and using Xero effectively quickly.

Consult add-ons as how to maximise their benefits. Take advantage of conversion services such as Jet Convert to get the data across in its entirety to Xero.

On the other hand, where you are creating value for the clients, you want to maximise the benefit

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

of deepening your personal relationship. That is why client communication and decisions around structuring the data is usually better handled in-house.

4. Providing specific business plans It is surprising how often I hear from individuals that they do not understand their financial position.

At the same time I hear accounting professionals say that Ledgers are enough, instead of presenting their clients with the benefit of updated financial reporting on a quarterly, monthly or real-time basis.

Decide on the specific benefits you can offer to your clients. Group them into: • Annual tax clients (Ledgers) • Quarterly reporting clients (Cashbooks) • Monthly reporting clients (Cashbooks) • Invoicing clients (Business Editions) As an Accountant or Bookkeeper, consider taking on more valueadding tasks. Send your clients a report highlighting some of the areas to take care of. Ask some questions about the figures. Inspire your clients to excel.

The great thing is that it is so easy to test with minimal risk and costs.

Just pick a few and decide on next

steps based on their reactions.

5. Liberate yourself from Sunk Costs If you have already invested in an old server or software solution that is outdated, don’t throw good money after bad. Far more economical to quantify the costs to be saved in staff time, or the additional income from new client services when you switch to the right solution.

Ask yourself - are these sunk costs helping you achieve your goals?

6. Let’s move the Practice now!

Does that mean, just go for it? No, absolutely not.

would really benefit from the cost/ time-saving or reporting features that Xero has to offer. Learn from the experience and reap the rewards of having them on a single platform.

Once you are committed to making the big move, you will be far more likely to succeed if: • Your goals are clearly defined and you know why you want to achieve them • You can afford the initial investment in time, money and energy to pull it off • The team is 100% behind it because everyone sees the benefit for themselves and their clients.

We can help

Perhaps consider starting with the “early adaptor” clients or those who

Jet Convert has moved 40,000+ businesses onto Xero. One of our concepts was that data that exists electronically should never have to be re-entered by a human. Visit jetconvert.com to see how we can help you.

Special Offer for XU Magazine subscribers...

Register now to get one Accelerate* conversion for free, saving you AU$330. Visit: > jetconvert.com/xufreegift

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Get primed for growth:

harnessing tech to drive success An interview with Ryan Kagan and Josh Licence of BlueRock Digital: business system consultants and WorkflowMax implementers...

@WorkflowMax

Joe Salvati, Growth Manager - New Products for Xero Australia, WorkflowMax He enjoys working with SaaS companies, loves growing and managing high-performing teams and progressing the careers of great people. Joe is passionate about how he can help small business in Australia have all the benefits of big business through the use of cloud technology like Xero.

B

usiness system consultants and WorkflowMax implementers BlueRock Digital exist to help entrepreneurs and business owners use digital solutions to live better lives.

BlueRock Digital’s Ryan Kagan (Director of Digital) and Josh Licence (Business Systems Specialist) shared with us how they’ve helped businesses (including their own) harness WorkflowMax as part of a suite of technology-driven solutions, to generate growth and streamline how they work.

“WorkflowMax has empowered us in our own growth, maturity and evolution. Without it, we’d just be stabbing in the dark and hoping for the best.”

Founded on the vision of helping businesses leverage technology to move faster, smarter and better, BlueRock Digital walks the walk and talks the talk. BlueRock Digital was established to help small business owners and entrepreneurs take advantage of cloud-based systems and digital technologies – empowering them to find 66 / Issue 19

efficiencies in their day-to-day operations and reach the big goals they’re striving for: “It’s powerful to share our experience with clients, showing them what’s possible..how technology can help achieve something they’ve always dreamed of or aspired to, but not realised just how close it is with tools like WorkflowMax.” Describing themselves as a ‘connected community’ of more than 180 entrepreneurially-minded specialists. BlueRock Digital works within the broader BlueRock advisory firm to support their clients in every aspect of business, tapping into the specialised knowledge and resources of a team of business advisors with expertise across different business functions – from law to accounting, finance and data intelligence. BlueRock is a ‘one-stop-shop’ spanning broad solutions across all aspects of owning and running a business and with BlueRock Digital at the table, it’s all focused through a digital lens.

BlueRock Digital’s approach takes

a holistic ‘ecosystem’ view of a business, with services extending from back-of-house, or operational functions, to front-of-house or customer-facing solutions.

Not only do they help their clients implement and leverage technology to systemise, automate and streamline their business processes, but they’ll also help drive revenue growth through digital marketing and web activities to better connect businesses with their customers. This approach is a boon for time-stretched business owners who want confidence that all the moving parts of their business are moving together, in the right direction.

From the start, one of BlueRock Digital’s biggest challenges was making the complex concepts of technology simple for business owners – tangibly defining a service and its outcomes is a challenge that many service-based businesses face.

“Leveraging our own experience, we help clients grasp the concepts, implement, personalise, and see results very quickly. That’s the

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

The BlueRock Digital team - blending the rules and forging a new way of business advisory

reason we took WorkflowMax to market in the first place – we’ve been there, we’ve done it, we’ve tried and tested it.”

After validating their business model through their own startling growth during their first years in

business, their methodology has now been proven time and again through client success stories. Early on, they implemented powerful project management solution WorkflowMax to help them manage and track projects and process with rigour. This helped them guide and

manage their growth, and crucially, also demonstrate it to clients. As an outcome, they’ve now implemented WorkflowMax successfully for a range of SME clients across different industries, to help them achieve their goals.

“We chose WorkflowMax driven

BlueRock’s key tips for a successful software implementation Whether you’re implementing new software like WorkflowMax, or using data from that software to optimise systems and processes within your business, a few considerations can help you to optimise your results.

Empower your teams

Question the status quo

Take time to plan

BlueRock Digital has found implementing systems and software like WorkflowMax drives the greatest results when their clients’ teams are well-trained and empowered to take ownership of its use.

Start from scratch. Ask not just how things are done, but why, and how could they be done differently. Data-driven insights from WorkflowMax’s job tracking can help to uncover how things work, and how they could work differently.

Before you implement any solution, assess carefully and plot the process.

Map it out

Visually map out where your business needs to get to (and why).

While many businesses overlook this step, it helps to create a clear pathway and identify roadblocks. It is an invaluable step in effectively implementing systems and software like WorkflowMax and tailoring them to your objectives.

Approach it holistically

Taking an ‘ecosystem’ approach, and exploring your business and goals through a number of lenses, including people, processes, systems, marketing, accounting and financial performance, will give you a holistic view of the moving parts within your business and how to steer them.

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Issue 19 / 67

by the mechanics of what it takes to drive a proficient, operationally strong business”.

“From day one we had clearly identified functions and attributes we needed in our solution; for example, managing WIP, recording timesheets, the ability to manage a lifecycle of clients from lead through to invoicing. We needed something cloud-based, flexible, and driven by varying degrees of process and sophistication (that could stretch and adapt as a business grows), as well as the ability to link in with our preferred accounting platform – Xero. This all became part of our selection process.

“When we started out, we were collectively spending over 30 hours a month producing invoices...

Now, using WorkflowMax our support person spends just 15 to 20 minutes a week on that function –

freeing her to focus on higher value activities like sales and business development.

“The visibility and control the estimation tool gives us over job scoping and pricing is invaluable in empowering our teams to take more accountability for how we plan and deliver work, too.”

An example of success in action: they guided one client through a dramatic turnaround from a high degree of margin leakage and running at a loss, to a $60k profit the following year. And a year trading after that saw them well into six-figure profit. Simply by utilising WorkflowMax to enact “simple tweaks and changes in behaviour by way of better understanding the importance of time, and focusing on job and client performance”.

“It’s really all about information.

When you have information, you have power. And when you have

power you can make calls with authority and confidence. It allows you to really steer the ship in the right direction.”

BlueRock Digital and WorkflowMax are both in the business of using and organising information in a smarter way, to create insight and drive effectiveness. BlueRock Digital firmly believes that with the right tools and ambitious minds, they can truly take on anything.

With tools like WorkflowMax, we think they might just be right.

FIND OUT MORE...

To find out more, please visit: > workflowmax.com

Automated Reporting in Google Sheets

Award-winning app Powerful automation tools Bi-directional sync Build powerful reports Upload data to Xero

Google Sheets Add-On

68 / Issue 19

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30 November 2018 - 1 October 2019

Summary

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Receipts can tell a story too!

Donors who reach out to you through their pockets need to be reassured that the money they donate is being honoured in the way the funds were requested. They also want to be reassured that the money has significant value. In other words, it is helping deliver the significant change it was intended for...

A

ll of the above requires communications from the charity back to the donor – and there are several ways to do this: • ‘Thank you’ via email response at the time of donation.

• Statements & Receipts.

• Periodic newsletters.

• Annual reports.

• Website.

70 / Issue 19

Richard Smith, Founder and CEO, Infoodle Richard is the founder and technical lead for infoodle, a Xero Add-On for the Charity sector.

With experience in NGOs in Europe, Africa and New Zealand, he brings his technical expertise and software skills to this important sector to organisations around the world. He is one of those geeks who can translate tech into English!

need to capture this data.

• Messaging This is the words and pictures that provide the content you want to communicate to the donors.

Achieving this can be challenging as it relies on 3 pieces of content:

Having gathered these 3 things, you can envisage the challenges to get these together in a manageable way. Exporting CRM data and exporting transaction data then merging that together.

Building the template in some system or other that can then merge the CRM and transaction data. This, in general, is not for everyone. Sure, you can provide a simple donor receipt, but that’s missing a key communications opportunity.

• Accurate contact information This data is best stored in a CRM because on going interactions with the donors will ensure the data is maintained by the donor themselves or internal staff maintaining the database.

Having the data that the staff or donors interact with in your accounting package most often means additional effort to ensure it is maintained in more than one place.

• Accurate transaction information Xero provides all the tools you

Infoodle simplifies this process to a few clicks. It provides a hub for storing and managing your CRM data, it integrates with xero to automatically import transactional data. It provides tools so you can create attractive templates that are used in the receipting and statement functions which brings this all together. The statement and receipts can then be emailed or posted out as required.

Infoodle is all about reducing administrative effort to produce

We at infoodle see statements and receipts as a great way to communicate a charities messaging. It gives an opportunity to show the donor that the charity has honoured correctly the donors request by showing clear details on the transactions involved and an opportunity to focus on the campaigns donated to. They can also be used to communicate your upcoming campaigns.

@infoodle

great results so that the community you serve and are supported by are cared for. It’s all about people after all.

FIND OUT MORE... > infoodle.com

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THE NEW STANDARD IN PAYROLL

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Payroll that checks all the boxes

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Full service payroll + tax filings Free migration and Xero setup Handles W-2s, 1099s, 500+ employees, tips, farms, and more

Customizable Xero item Mapping A partner dashboard for all your clients Permissions to let you — or clients — run payroll

Built-in benefits and HR Automated onboarding, org charts, and more Health insurance in all 50 states Integrated 401(k) partners

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One Low Monthly Fee $36Issue+19 $4 Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine / 71

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Per Client

Per Person

Payroll

Payroll and HR: A perfect first step toward your SME’s digital transformation Time, as they say, is money. And anything that can help an entrepreneur with a growing SME streamline multitasking should be embraced with open arms. Payroll and HR functions are a prime example.

@PaySpace

Sandra Crous (Swanepoel), Managing Director, PaySpace Prior to joining PaySpace as Managing Director, Sandra Crous’s commercial acumen and industry expertise were critical in leading Sage’s business development across Africa. And with three decades under her belt at the large corporate, Sandra was able to apply her skills and knowledge in many different roles including Vice-President Midmarket, Africa & Middle East.

Sandra’s passion for HR and payroll is clear and her leadership skill set will be immeasurable in growing PaySpace while ensuring that the digital business remains a people-focused business.

T

oday, technology is taking out much of the complexity associated with digitising these functions in a fast-moving business landscape. Growing staff complements and complicated regulatory requirements used to mean small business owners spent hours poring over spreadsheets just to get salaries out on time – but not anymore.

Luckily, with the advent of cloudbased service delivery, even smaller businesses can make use of digital tools to simplify these functions. Most digital payroll and HR vendors, PaySpace included, have developed products and solutions appropriately scaled for even the smallest enterprise.

But what makes Payroll and HR such high-priority items on the road to digitisation, and what do practitioners need to do to ensure they are prepared?

Payroll is NOT Peripheral We are talking about a function 72 / Issue 19

that can sometimes amount to 50% of total business costs. Even the simple shift to becoming more efficient when it comes to managing employees’ leave days can make a remarkable difference to the bottom line.

Having been in the Payroll and HR industry for number of decades, it became evident to me right from the beginning that payroll and HR functions are among the most timeconsuming and labour-intensive in business – and they are functions that every business, regardless of their sector or their size, need to perform along strict regulatory guidelines.

Businesses looking to take their first steps into the digital world would be hard-pressed to find a single area that can deliver ROI quite like payroll and HR can. In today’s cloud-first environments, there are no specialised pieces of machinery required, no indepth training to go through or specialist skills to acquire, and no

hefty infrastructure cost outlays.

The software itself and every update it requires are delivered automatically, always ready to go when a business owner needs it.

Payroll and HR should align with the company’s strategy, and if focussed around developing and retaining talent, they can lead to boosted productivity companywide. A cloud-based HCM solution empowers Payroll and HR teams to fulfil their critical role as a part of an organisation’s overall strategic vision, bringing it out of the shadows and into a place where its contribution to business wellbeing can be exploited to the greatest possible effect.

Your Employees Expect it At this point in the game, a clear majority of the workforce is made up of digital natives – Millennials and younger generations. It’s expected that Millennials will compose around 75% of the workforce by 2030, and as a

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Payroll

generation, they simply expect more from their employers in terms of employee engagement, management and relations.

Their arrival in – and effects on – the job market, are another double-challenge that a savvy HR department will be able to handle only with the aid of technology.

Most companies today are struggling with growing levels of disengagement resulting from a mismatch between the processes in place and their expectations.

In the South African context of hard-to-find talent and global competition for top candidates, the convenience, ease and efficiency of a business’s Payroll and HR functions become key differentiators that tell employees they are cared about, that their career paths are actively being promoted, and that they have the kind of support from their employers that will make for a mutually beneficial relationship in the long term.

HR Practitioners Need to Upskill, or Face Being Left Behind Luckily for Payroll and HR practitioners, it seems unlikely for now that their roles will be made redundant by technology anytime soon. The human side of HR will always be of a social and interpersonal nature that simply cannot be replicated by machines.

That’s not to say, however, that practitioners can simply sit back and carry on with business as usual as the digital disruption takes hold.

New technologies necessitate new skills, and those that acquire them will find themselves in an excellent position to leave the repetitive tasks to computers while enhancing the human-centric parts that are so essential to good employee management and engagement.

Automated solutions are helping business owners do this more easily than ever before, taking care of keeping accurate records, generating reports, and responding to changes in the regulatory

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framework without missing a beat.

There’s no need to become IT experts – that’s what your vendors are for. But a working knowledge of the systems available is essential to getting the most out of your organisation’s investment.

Many cloud-based payroll systems – including ours – are easy to link with other applications and software in your digital ecosystem, including Xero’s accounting software and various ERP software.

This means that work is never duplicated, all related processes are streamlined and integrated, seamlessly transferring account numbers from one function to another with no manual entry required.

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Issue 19 / 73

Not getting paid isn’t a problem with your clients, it’s a problem with your processes I attended an event towards the end of last year and a stereotypical, what some might call “old school”, accountant got up and gave a presentation which contained a big piece on what makes up a “good” client. The type of client accountants and bookkeepers should be working with.

Here’s what it boiled down to: a good client is one who pays on time, and a bad client is one who doesn’t.

I

appreciate that historically this may have been a key factor but, as time and technology rapidly moves, this mindset also needs to. We’re in an industry now of cloud tech designed to make life easier. Does anyone use Spotify?

Netflix? Bought a ticket online and received it immediately, digitally?

is where my fun, controversial statement comes in. Not getting paid isn’t a problem with your clients, it’s a problem with your processes.

With this shift in tech comes tools to automate invoicing and payment collection and, as a result, it opens up a huge vista of new possibilities as to what the key traits of a good client are. The key then is removing the “paying on time” factor and that’s not entirely possible. Which

1. There’s software available for accountants and bookkeepers to create engagement letters with digital signatures, clearly stating the scope & pricing of their engagements

Here are 5 statements. Please let me know if you disagree with any of them:

In the previous world of

@ignitionapp

Hugh Walker, Head of Customer Success (Global), Practice Ignition Having spent almost five years working with hundreds of global accounting & bookkeeping firms on process refinement and improvement, Hugh Walker heads up the global Customer Success team at Practice Ignition. He and his team ensure that their customers are able to easily implement Practice Ignition’s suite of best-in-class tools for engagements, payments and workflow and are guided on the constantly-evolving industry best practices.

clunky desktop software and clients who only talk to their accountants once a year, getting an engagement letter signed wasn’t exactly a smooth process.

It meant first opening a template, editing it, printing it, signing it, and then either scanning it back in before sending it to the client to do the same or having to deliver it to the client to sign. This is not a quick process, or an easy process, or one that fills anyone with delight.

Counter to this, you can now easily, quickly create digital engagement letters which look great, clearly outline scope and pricing with pre-set service lists, and which clients can digitally sign on their computer, tablet or phone. Even right there in the meeting.

2. There’s software available for accountants and bookkeepers to automate their invoicing and payment collection Again, the old world will be getting paid by manually creating invoices, sending them to clients, waiting (and hoping) on the client to pay and then chasing them

74 / Issue 19

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Issue 19 / 75

when the payments are (over) due.

There’s software out there to automate all of this too. This is particularly so as more of the industry moves to monthly or weekly recurring fees, but you can automate billing at your hourly rate too.

If you’re looking for help identifying these tools and finding the most suitable for you from within the vast number of tools out there, I’ve got a blog post on my LinkedIn about how to do so.

3. There’s no good reason for clients to not agree to move to a billing model like this Clients are already used to automated/digital billing (eg Spotify, Netflix, utilities) for other services.

When I say “good reason” the kind of reasons clients will typically try and use either indicate an inability or unwillingness to reliably pay, or a lack of confidence in tech that will likely stop them using other tools that’d boost your efficiency.

4. There’s no good reason for an accountant or bookkeeper to work with a client who won’t agree to be billed automatically I’ve never worked with a halfwaydecent accountant or bookkeeper who struggled to find new clients, apart from those that are just getting started. Most of those who excel find their new clients via referrals, and turn away a large proportion of prospective clients due to capacity or lack of suitability. If you are just starting out, you definitely need to ensure you’re getting paid by your first clients.

5. Accountants and bookkeepers shouldn’t start work until a client has signed an engagement letter Hopefully, this one is selfevident. Otherwise, you’re not guaranteeing the client will sign and then you’ve just wasted a whole chunk of time on unpaid work. It also sets a dangerous expectation that you’ll work around your client’s laziness; it devalues what you do.

processes are set up according to best practices, you’ll have all clients signing engagement letters before any work commences, and automate your billing as a part of that onboarding process. Removing any manual invoicing, debtor chasing or debtor days.

So, we can see that if you aren’t getting paid reliably and on time the problem isn’t your clients - it’s your processes.

That’s a good thing too by the way.

Processes are a lot easier to change than clients! And if a good client isn’t defined as one who pays on time, that enables us to redefine what makes a good client.

FIND OUT MORE...

To learn more about Practice Ignition, please visit: > practiceignition.com

What all this points to is that if your

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Issue 19 / 77

Xero App Partners of the month March 2019

Xero’s app marketplace has over 700 apps which help small businesses and their advisors reach their goals.

Each month Xero celebrates an app partner who stands out for helping small businesses thrive... its Platinum partner plan, which allows accounting firms to offer operational cash flow forecasting at a fraction of the price per client.

F

loat was selected as Xero’s March App Partner of the Month due to recent product developments that enhance the forecasting experience for accountants and business owners alike. Among its newly launched Insights reports, you can now report on your budget vs actuals to flag areas of concern.

April 2019

Find out more at > floatapp.com

This recognition was also in response to customer growth and recent award wins from ICB Luca and AccountingWEB, as well as reaching ‘Recommended’ Xero app status. Float also recently launched

L

ightyear is an intelligent accounts payable (AP) platform which helps businesses and their accountants & bookkeepers save up to 80% of costs and time to process AP invoices and reconcile supplier statements.

Xero caught up with Lightyear’s co-founders, Chris and Roger Gregg, to learn why and how they are taking the Accounts Payable sector for inventory based businesses by storm.

Find out more at: > lightyear.cloud 78 / Issue 19

“In early 2017, we looked around the marketplace and couldn’t see anyone solving the accounts

Float specialises in short-to-mid term, accurate operational cash flow forecasting. Float allows users to quickly and easily model the effects of different future outcomes or decisions to their cash. You can use Float to answer questions that plague every business, such as “What if that invoice doesn’t get paid in the next five days?”, “How much cash am I going to have in the next three months?”, or “What happens if we lose a client?”

By answering these questions, Float helps accountants to better engage with their clients and build their advisory services.

payable problem for larger SMB’s well. There was no great solution at a good price point which was easy to get going, intuitive and ticked all the boxes for more robust businesses needs.”

Having started with a focus on retail and hospitality in Australia and New Zealand, Lightyear’s combination of line by line data extraction and robust approval workflow within one application is now growing rapidly in other business sectors across Australia, New Zealand and the UK. “We found our hospitality businesses were experiencing very similar problems many other businesses were facing; real-time automation, manual approvals, needing detailed line by line data, and a platform to collaborate with their accountant and bookkeeper.”

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May 2019

massive contributor to the culture of the ecosystem.

I

It’s not just the raving reviews and fun-filled events that got us here.

For those not familiar, Practice Ignition has a deep integration with Xero and Xero Practice Manager.

18 -19 September 2019

t’s with great pleasure that I announce Practice Ignition as Xero’s App Partner of the Month for May 2019! In light of this recent award, I thought I would take the opportunity to briefly talk about what our partnership with Xero means for our customers.

In short, clients are automatically created in Xero and your invoices are automatically raised and reconciled upon proposal acceptance in Practice Ignition.

When your client accepts a proposal, they accept your fee schedule - no more back-and-forth manual intervention is required.

The NEC, Birmingham

If you would like to try Practice Ignition, visit: > practiceignition.com

There are so many reasons why Practice Ignition was nominated, including our continued rapid growth of over 50% year on year, our commitment to providing best practice content in the form of webinars, interviews, resources and hosting award-winning events.

Alongside this, are our raving customer reviews (all 183 of them) on the Xero marketplace. In Xero’s own words, Practice Ignition is a

The integration with Xero Practice Manager means no more time manually creating jobs and workflows; connect your proposals, invoicing, payments and workflow and systemise your onboarding process.

18 -19 September 18 -19 September 20192019

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09/05/2019

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10:36:33 09/05/2019 10:36:33 16/05/2019 15:1

Issue 19 / 79

09/05/2019 10:36:3

Xero makes it easy to offer Advisory here’s how...

@mydryrun

Blaine Bertsch, Co-Founder & CEO, Dryrun Blaine Bertsch is Co-Founder and CEO at Dryrun which offers fast, flexible, beautiful and cloudenabled cash flow forecasts for bookkeepers, accountants and CFOs. He’s also the author of Pandemic Cash Flow – the mustread book of 2019 to help your clients’ business avoid a painful death by cash flow and instead, grow their enterprises.

Xero’s marketplace is full of new tools that reduce data entry and allow professionals to offer efficient and profitable advisory services...

A

dvisory services are transformative to your practice and to your clients’ business. With cloud tools, professionals can develop new, high-revenue channels in their practice.

According to the IFAC Global SMP Survey 2018, 86% of firms globally are providing some form of advisory service. What does that look like for your practice to get started?

There is a variety of types of advisory services, however one of the most requested, and easiest from which to drive action is cash flow management and forecasting.

Clients badly need this service, however when time is limited and barriers are high, cash flow forecasting is the first task to be deprioritized during the engagement.

However, current cloud-enabled tools that harness Xero data to make flexible and powerful cash flow management highly efficient and effective.

Identify clients with highly volatile cash flows and gross annual revenue of 1M+. Additionally, you’ll want to find: • A well-reconciled set of client data (thanks Xero!)

80 / Issue 19

• Tools and metrics that your clients easily understand • Your professional interest in client growth and strategy • A gap in client business where clients see the value in strategy • Client understanding that better managing cash flow means better managing crisis recovery, risk avoidance, measurement, growth planning, taxes and savings Cash flow advisory services using a clients’ Xero data are so well positioned that we see accounting practices boom into advisory. No wonder: 30% of businesses fail due to poor cash management and 70% of those businesses were profitable when they closed their doors. Cash flow management is critical to business success.

It’s easy for an accountant to default to static reporting on cash flow rather than active cash flow management and forecasting. Be sure to focus on real-time data and use historical reporting as little as possible in order to avoid ‘Same As Last Year’ Syndrome. Business clients see more value in looking forward.

of client accounts receivable and payable on a timeline that helps pinpoint potential shortfalls.

Standard reporting fails to show your clients where they’re at risk or how they can strategize to smooth out cash flow volatility or liquidity squeezes.

Advisory is transformative Advisory transcends the transactional. It builds fulfilling relationships that are highly valued for everyone. It’s exhilarating and it’s also in desperate demand by your business clients who face increasingly tight margins and aggressive competition on a global scale.

FIND OUT MORE...

Next steps for implementation Pull data into a collaborative platform that increases visibility

To find out more, visit: > dryrun.com

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Leading the modern restaurant revolution Sapaad is a cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) and restaurant management system, trusted by thousands of restaurants worldwide.

Designed for all restaurants

Total business solution

Seamless integration with Xero

Perfect for restaurants of every size and scale—from cafes and QSRs to food trucks and kiosks.

Cost-effective, easy to set up and use, and works on any device including tablets and mobile phones.

Fully-integrated system with cloud POS, inventory management & food costing, LIVE dashboard, kitchen display system, home delivery management, online ordering, in-built loyalty, and more.

Automatically syncs daily sales from Sapaad to Xero. No manual intervention required. Saves time and makes for hassle-free and efficient management of restaurant business finances.

TRY IT FOR FREE WWW.SAPAAD.COM Subscribe for FREE: Go to subscriptions.xumagazine.com

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Issue 19 / 81

Event - Singapore

Driving the adoption of new technology in Singapore An event bringing cutting-edge digital accounting and finance solutions to Singaporean SMEs

@accandfinshow

Laura Binns, Project Manager, Accounting & Finance Show Asia, Terrapinn Asia Having spent several years working with accountants and finance professionals, Laura joined Terrapinn in February 2018 to launch the Accounting & Finance Show Asia. She has been integral to the production of the Conference Programme, the recruitment of Sponsors & Exhibitors and engagement with Government Agencies across the show, now in its second year.

Digital innovation is revolutionising accounting and financial management across the globe, presenting an enormous opportunity for SMEs and accounting firms across Asia to streamline their businesses. In 2018, Singapore topped the Asia Cloud Computing Association’s 2018 Cloud Readiness Index rankings and as such has become host to the Accounting & Finance Show Asia, taking place in Singapore on 8-9 October. This show will bring together the latest technology and solutions, accountancy practices, experts, advisors, consultants, and SMEs to drive digital adoption across the region...

W

ith new technologies such as cloud accounting, and a plethora of cutting-edge applications, software and services, accounting processes are being streamlined and are becoming more efficient. These world-class financial solutions are low-cost, scalable and mobile – available to not only large enterprises with big budgets, but SMEs as well. Accounting and finance technology solutions providers who have had success in mature markets such as Australia and the UK should now look to Singapore and Southeast Asia as a key growth opportunity.

An event for SMEs For a market such as Singapore, where SMEs account for 99% of all enterprises and 65% of the total workforce, it is integral to provide the business owners and finance 82 / Issue 19

professionals with knowledge of the latest technologies and tools available to drive up adoption.

The Accounting & Finance Show provides an accessible and free to attend platform where SMEs can discover the opportunities for their business from a conference programme consisting of nine free to attend theatres. In addition, they will have the opportunity to meet with 100 local and international exhibitors, showcasing digital solutions to support their business.

Government Support for SMEs to go digital The event will take place alongside a range of Government initiatives, driving Singaporean SMEs and Accounting Firms to adopt digital technologies. Over the past two years, several major Government initiatives have been launched, making millions of dollars in grants

available to Singaporean SMEs to adopt such new technologies.

In February 2017 the Singapore Government launched its SMEs Go Digital Programme as part of its 2017 Budget, providing funding support for up to 70% of the qualifying costs to adopt new digital solutions. The Government has since pledged to continue and extend these plans beyond 2019.

In June 2018 the Singapore Accountancy Commission launched its Digital Transformation for Accountancy Programme investing $2.4m SGD to help Small and Medium Practices adopt baseline technologies. With such support available, thousands of SMEs have adopted new digital solutions.

Xero in Singapore Xero will be the Title Sponsors once

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Event - Singapore

again for the Accounting & Finance Show Asia this year. Having opened its Singapore office in 2016, Xero’s business has gone from strength to strength across Asia since putting a team on the ground just three years ago.

Singapore and Hong Kong to shed light on digitalisation trends, and how businesses and practices can leverage Xero’s growing ecosystem to achieve greater success.” - Kevin Fitzgerald, Regional Director, Xero Asia

The Accounting & Finance Show Asia has been a fantastic platform for Xero and its Connected App Partners, as Kevin Fitzgerald shared after the 2018 Launch Show:

What’s new for 2019 With a launch event in 2018 that attracted 2,788 attendees, 120 speakers, and 70 Sponsors and Exhibitors, the 2019 edition promises to be bigger and better on all counts.

As accounting firms and SMEs work to digitalise their accounting software, it’s evident that this throws up challenges and opportunities for them to upgrade systems and processes across their entire business. For 2019,

“So many accounting and finance professionals are in search of digital knowledge, trends and contacts, the Accounting & Finance Show is the perfect forum for them to learn, collaborate and share.”

– Esther Li, Partner Consultant, Asia, Xero

the Accounting & Finance Show will incorporate two new colocated shows: the HR & Learning Show Asia and the Business Financing Show Asia. These amalgamated events present a unique opportunity for attendees to explore a wider range of solutions to streamline their business along with information and support on how they can access the financing and grants available to enable them to invest in their business.

GET INVOLVED...

“Accounting and finance technology has evolved such that manual tasks have given way to efficiencies and timely business insights, signifying greater opportunities for accounting/bookkeeping professionals and business owners alike. The A&F Show has beautifully captured the transformation in this space, and we are delighted to join the show again this year in

The Accounting & Finance Show Asia will take place on 8-9 October at Suntec Convention Centre Singapore. The event and its conferences are free and a must-attend for SMEs and accounting firms with operations in Southeast Asia. For technology solution providers and Xero App Partners looking to explore the Asia market, this event offers a

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fantastic platform to meet with 3,500 finance decision makers from across Southeast Asia.

If you would like to find out more about how you can get involved as a Sponsor, Exhibitor, Speaker or Attendee visit: > www.terrapinn.com/ afshowxumag to find out more.

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Issue 19 / 83

App Advisory:

9 Pitfalls to Avoid The last few years have seen a number of players in the cloud app industry discussing the benefits of app advisory. While the rewards are clear, there are some common traps that may prevent accounting practices from making the most from advising their clients on cloud apps...

H

Haley Norton, AU Partner Channel Manager, Unleashed Software Haley is in Unleashed’s Australian Partner team. She’s an expert at advising how apps can solve specific business issues, and supporting organisations to make the most out of the cloud.

the best possible experience from the apps you recommend.

ere’s Haley Norton from Unleashed’s AU Partner team on nine common app advisory pitfalls — and how to avoid them:

are strong, but doing so without putting in the required resource and planning is often a step in the wrong direction.

1) Not doing enough research

3) Not being selective

Before setting up your app advisory service, you should know three things: • The type of clients (e.g., size, industries) you are targeting • Some common problems these clients are facing • Which tools will help solve those issues

Apps exist to perform a potentially limitless list of functions for your clients. Team up with too many, though, and you’ll only end up The best advisory overextending practices really get to early on.

One amazing thing about app advisory is that it enables you to get to know your clients even better. The research phase is a pivotal part of that process — but some practices don’t spend enough time on it.

2) Too much, too soon Offering implementation and support as part of your advisory service requires significant expertise. Attempting to do too much, too early is one error I see accountants and bookkeepers make far too often.

Get an implementation wrong, and you risk costing your client a lot of time and money. It will also be difficult to repair the damage that this will cause to your relationship with them. The incentives to offer implementation and support 84 / Issue 19

@unleashedteam

App providers should also be able to help with onboarding your clients onto their app. Plus, many of them will offer partnership schemes that offer exclusive support and training for accountants and bookkeepers.

5) Forgetting the client

Your clients’ needs should dictate how you plan, prepare and execute your advisory strategy. I’ve seen some practices forget this — for instance, by recommending an app that might not actually add value.

know the apps they work with — that way, you know precisely what you’re recommending to clients.

The best advisory practices really get to know the apps they work with — that way, you know precisely what you’re recommending.

The more partnerships you enter in to, the harder it becomes to maintain those strong relationships.

I’d recommend starting with a handful based on your research, then growing from there.

4) Going alone Keeping bias out of your advice is important, but that doesn’t mean you have to do things entirely solo.

For example, one way of ensuring that your clients get all the implementation support they need is to team up with a cloud integration specialist. That way, you have peace of mind that they’ll get

Sometimes, an app might offer powerful incentives as part of its partnership programme. But remember, these are only bonuses.

The primary factor in deciding which apps to work with is how they benefit your specific clients.

6) Undefined roles Where does your advisory service begin, and where does it end?

This is a key question that many accountants and bookkeepers overlook.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

FIND OUT MORE...

Are you starting out with app advisory? Download Unleashed’s ‘Upgrading to app advisory’ guide over at: > unleashedsoftware.com/xu

Once you’ve set out exactly what your service comprises of, put it into writing in the form of a service level agreement (SLA) making it clear what your role is. That should make it clear for both you and your clients, and ensure that you are ready to scale. Otherwise, you’re at risk of getting bogged down in minor requests when you could be growing your services.

7) Selling apps, not the cloud If your clients aren’t already using any cloud apps for their core functions, then your job should be easy. At this stage, though, it’s best to sell your client on the power of the cloud itself, instead of focusing on a few specific apps you work with.

Once your client is fully on board

with the revolution that cloud technology can bring to their business, then it’s time to start discussing which apps to use. Not the other way round.

8) Build it and they will come There’s probably one pitfall we see more than any other at Unleashed.

Practices will build out an amazing advisory service — doing thorough research, partnering with a few great apps and getting everything ready to help out lots of clients. But then, they don’t tell anyone about it.

A comprehensive marketing strategy will ensure that your clients know all about the help you can offer. But external communications aren’t the only thing to consider: all the staff at your practice need to be on-board and aware of the key apps

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you are recommending.

9) App evangelism Some of the cloud apps you’ll be recommending are amazing and can help your clients do some amazing things. But you’re an impartial advisor, not a spokesperson for the companies you work with. And just because you love one particular cloud tool, doesn’t mean that it’ll be of benefit to everyone.

Try to make sure that you know exactly what each app can and can’t do, so you can make recommendations based on real functionality and your client’s needs. If you get too attached to one solution, your entire service can suffer.

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Issue 19 / 85

Why are

accountants quitting?

If you’ve been too busy to notice – there’s been an outbreak of a severe itch to quit accountancy jobs. With the rise of the digital age, bookkeeping has now moved to the cloud and practices are too busy trying to metamorphose into advisories. But amidst all of the chaos your accounting staff are feeling left behind as unfortunate casualties of the modernity. But is abandoning the

@QXLimited

Chris Robinson, Founder and Executive Chairman, QX Ltd Chris is the founder of QX Ltd. and an ICAEW-qualified chartered accountant. He is the flag bearer of secure outsourcing practices and his company, QX, is the first and only GDPR-Certified company in India. His company provides offshore outsourcing services to accountants across the UK and the USA. Chris started from scratch with just five staff members but now leads a “family” of over 1200 people across India, UK and the US.

profession altogether the solution to the digital wave?

F

rom January through midApril, there’s a strange spike in junk food consumption in the Financial District of Midtown Manhattan. It’s no co-incidence, that it’s also the time of the year when accountants enter into an unspoken pact in that area: in exchange for a shot at finding solid ground in the morphing accounting landscape, they agree to endure four months of ceaseless tax processing and forgo anything resembling a normal life.

But does all the overwork really pay off in the end?

Maybe not. In fact, there’s a whole other side to the story.

While pizzas, 5-hour energy drinks and Chinese take-outs are fuel for the American tax filers; across the pond, four-in-ten British accountants are considering quitting the profession. According to the same Accountancy Age report, the reasons for quitting are mostly related to accountants worrying over jobs being obsolete in the future.

86 / Issue 19

decision to quit?

The climate at the moment is of uncertainty. And from the patterns, The reasons to watch out for it seems to be a fight or flight reaction from the accounting The first driving factor is – Fear. Let’s community. It’s clear: while some face it - we’ve all wondered about are considering abandoning the how automation profession altogether; has leapt out of others have adopted science-fiction overwork as their Quitting doesn’t novels and credential for sound like a bad idea firmly perched securing their after you’re made at the heart of futures. to process a few the industry. In hundred tax returns fact, it’s funny In these how technology seemingly for a few months at a is already taking nervous times, the stretch. care of what human most affected area of accountants are best accounting is turning out known for – taxes. The to be – resourcing. Between scepticism around automation is overwork and abandoning the such that for accountants – there’s profession altogether, the industry a pressure to act immediately. has witnessed an overwhelming number of quitting and hiring Advice is pouring in, unsought and of accountants. The constant unhelpful, from every nook and friction between an accountant’s cranny of the world – to upskill, aspirations for their future and the reality of disruption has spewed out transform into advisories, and take up consulting. But what’s clouds of indecisiveness in the air – even more perplexing – there is no directly affecting staffing. time for it. While there has been a lot of hype about transformation, But what precedents, if any, are accountants are barely getting impelling accountants in their

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

time to learn, upskill or prepare for gets affected. But the truth is, we the digital wave. Accountants need all know the pain of watching that time and there’s an easy way to do perfect employee leave, after we’ve it – separating complex, growth trained them and related tasks from the repetitive, seen them perform In fact, it’s funny mundane and predictable. This can their best. It’s Repetitive work be done through myriad of methods costly, it’s a chore how technology but one that’s proven to be effective and the departure It all leads into is already taking for decades is outsourcing. of a highly the second care of what human valuable team driving factor of accountants are Spinning off mundane accounting member causes a why accountants best known for – tasks so that it frees up time whole amount of quit – repetition. taxes. for practices to upskill their unintentional hurt to accountants by separating nonthe business.

Accountants are burnt core functions from core ones can out. Somewhere between easily be done with the help of Accountants have begun to think rolling out paychecks to crunching resource service providers. For that quitting is the only way to get out balance sheets, accountants ahead. They seem to have lost sight instance, a Deloitte study confirmed are losing interest because of that 57% organisations with over of their once pre-defined futures the repetitive workload. We are £770 million and buying benefits won’t entering into an era of knowledge annual revenue be enough to make workers yet a lot of accounting jobs Between overwork outsource so are still revolving around processing them stay anymore. and abandoning that it helps However, buying infinite numbers on reams of paper the profession them to focus on something more and going back and forth for errors. industry the core business. effective could do altogether, Outsourcing has the trick.

Monotony is killing the mood and has witnessed an surpassed the jobs. Quitting doesn’t sound like overwhelming number stereotype of just How to buy time a bad idea after you’re made to of quitting and hiring catering to small process a few hundred tax returns of accountants. businesses. Like a Stylishly late, but it’s for a few months at a stretch. sleeper hit, outsourcing time to throw light on got rapidly picked up by big how to kill all the birds with one Staff retention companies to grow even bigger. stone – buying time.

It was right here in front of us Cry me a river, you might say. all along. Rearranging where The common factor to quitting here Staff retention doesn’t bother us and how work is done has been is lack of time. There’s not enough unless the overall productivity the scope to prepare for the new business skillset or for some, the problem might be even be their current 9-to-5’s.

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Issue 19 / 87

going on ever since the first shepherd and farmer decided to barter milk for wheat on a regular basis. Outsourcing is merely an extension of the age-old story of specialisation and exchange, whether it is done within a village or country or across national borders.

Putting your needs first For a long time outsourcing has been synonymous with words like cheap and bargain – tailor-made for a culture that fetishes cutting costs. But there’s way more to outsourced services than just the cost factor.

It’s a solution for accountants to prioritise; put their needs first.

time to focus on long-term business strategies.

The idea is to change their perception of the old rat race and shudder. To give them time. To help them become the coming-ofage accountant and visualise their becoming: techsavvy and an expert, an advisor who makes sense of complex financial information with interpersonal skills that no technology can replace. The bottom line for accountancy practices, in

Monotony is killing the mood and jobs.

For practices, it’s a way to buy time for their employees to work on themselves. Freeing up your best employee’s to-do list by delegating the non-core tasks to offshore accountants will give them

88 / Issue 19

order to hold to on to their best employees is simple – you have some people who you believe are just very important; so you have to figure out what’s important to them.

FIND OUT MORE...

To learn more about building and growing an offshore team visit: > qxas.co.uk Introductory offer: 10-hour, noobligation free trial: > bit.ly/qx-free-trial

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Issue 19 / 89

How accounting practices can stay on top of their Xero clients

@xavieranalytics

Helen Lloyd, Co-Founder, Xavier Analytics Helen’s on a mission to prove that working with lots of data really can be an enjoyable, beautiful experience for accountants. She gets the ‘envious’ task of figuring out how to make this come true for all the technical tools the Xavier team devises. With her neuroscience education and design background, we think she’s up to the challenge.

Whether it’s knowing which clients need the most urgent attention, or looking to offer a more detailed service level to clients, Xavier has accounting practices covered. At Xavier, their goal is to keep Xero accountants providing value and thriving in the age of automation, empowering all practices with control and confidence in their data.

U

nderstand which clients need the most attention

If you have 5 clients or 500, there’s always something that needs to be done. Whether that’s performing a P&L review, doing a VAT Return or reconciling the fixed asset register.

However, sometimes you just don’t know where to focus your attention. Effectively prioritising your clients can save you time and headaches, and keep them feeling like you’re always one step ahead of their finances.

Xavier’s client list dashboard offers a way of identifying which clients have the greatest needs for your tasks that day.

The consolidated Health Score of your client indicates which client’s data needs the most attention; those with data issues including large numbers of unreconciled transactions, duplicate contacts, 90 / Issue 19

or contacts with multiple account codes under their transaction history will cause this health percentage to drop, relative to the client’s size. Why not gamify it, and go for the hi-score!

You can also sort the client list by

a number of metrics; e.g. turnover, debtor days or corporation tax for the year to date. This can be useful to group clients together compare them for your own performance reviews, or just want to see corporation tax accrued at a glance.

Housekeeping and data cleanup At Xavier, we believe that effective reporting starts with accurate data; by making sure that all transactions are recorded and coded correctly against the right contacts in Xero, you can be confident in any predictions or analysis you might want to make later. Much like tidying up your home, it’s easiest, and quickest, to deal with these small issues as and when they arrive instead of having to retrospectively identify the source of a discrepancy later.

These errors can occur from a slip of the mouse, well-meaning mistakes from junior members or outsourced teams, or changes to the way your clients send or receive invoices. Put your mind at rest and cast an eye over your Xavier dashboard to find and fix them, fast, through links directly to Xero.

You can use the dropdown metrics from the Client List (if you’ve a

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

specific cleanup task in mind) or simply click into a client to see their overview, where the monthly stats will direct you to anything that needs attention.

You can also monitor the Xero lock dates in Xavier to ensure they are set appropriately and have not been changed. This prevents unwanted changes to historical data (though if that happens, there’s a Xavier tool to detect those too).

Offering an expanded service to your clients In the age of outsourcing, AI and automation, many accountancies are considering how to stay indispensable. Accountants and bookkeepers are the interface between businesses and their finances, the best way to remain relevant is to use the years of business experience within your accountancy to provide advice and insight beyond the numbers.

Xavier is designed to give you the confidence and structure to provide additional services to your clients.

The Monthly Health Check in Xavier provides a collection of Xavier’s tools and specific stats to run through in a structured way with

your client, to ensure you’re hitting all the right touch points on a regular basis. This also ensures the client is up to date and prepared regarding any key liabilities due, accounts and financial control checks; a successful client is a happy client!

Onboarding a new client - Getting your pricing right When you’re bringing on a new client, it helps to know how much work that client is likely to take so you can price accordingly. Using Xavier’s statistics on data health and activity, you can get a realistic view of how ‘clean’ their historic data is, and you can then price on this basis.

Have you ever tried to estimate the transaction volume of a client, only to be proved wrong? With Xavier’s Activity Stats, you can quickly get an exact picture of the number of transactions, sales invoices, credit notes and journals that have been posted in Xero. Alongside other products such as GoProposal, you can price the client fairly from the onset, making the on-boarding and renewals process cleaner and more transparent - so you can focus on adding value.

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Summary Accountants are being expected to offer more personalised services.

With increased automation in cloud accounting systems the data they are being expected to manage is growing significantly, but not necessarily increasing in quality.

You can stay on top of your clients’ needs by using Xavier to prioritise those who need the most urgent attention. By managing any data issues regularly you can keep their Xero accounts up to scratch for accurate reporting, with the structure and confidence to offer more services to your clients.

Interested in how to save time and improve your service?

You can trial Xavier, free for 30 days, at: > app.xavier-analytics.com/register Xavier are offering a discount for XU Magazine readers, if you enter the code XU-19-OFFER when entering your payment details.

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Issue 19 / 91

Apps Compared

Compared:

Debtor Tracking Chaser

Debtor Daddy

ezyCollect

Satago

Customisable templates

ü

ü

ü

ü

Customer level bespoke editing

ü

-

ü

ü

Flexible scheduling

ü

ü

ü

ü

Email / SMS Reminders

ü

ü

ü

ü

Email tracking

ü

ü

ü

ü

Email and schedule previews

ü

ü

ü

ü

Dedicated sub-domain

ü

-

ü

ü

Ability to add logos and signature

ü

ü

ü

ü

Can send statements

ü

ü

ü

ü

-

-

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

-

ü

-

-

Debtor chasing

Can send remittance advice Free Customer Portal Follow up phone call service

-

(Not all Xero regisions)

CRM Conversation tracking

ü

-

ü

ü

Ability to add internal notes and reminders

ü

ü

ü

ü

View history of reminders sent

ü

ü

ü

ü

Full invoice history and summary status

ü

ü

ü

ü

-

ü

-

-

Aged debtor reporting

ü

ü

ü

ü

Customer risk profiling and reports

ü

ü

-

ü

-

-

-

ü

ü

ü

-

ü

-

-

-

ü

Integrate email reminder with leading CRM systems

Customer Insights

Recommended credit limits Alerting when your customer’s risk profile changes Review prospective customers before agreeing credit terms

Compiled by Matt Flanagan, Director, BlueHub (Web: bluehub.co.uk, Twitter: @Blue_Hub) This information was true and correct at the time of publishing. Releases happen all the time. Please contact the App for the latest release information.

92 / Issue 19

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Apps Compared

For more information, please visit: Chaser - chaserhq.com Debtor Daddy - debtordaddy.com ezyCollect - ezycollect.com.au Satago - satago.com

Chaser

Debtor Daddy

-

ü

Monitor call notes and recordings

ezyCollect

Satago

ü

-

(Call notes) Dedicated receivables specialist

ü

ü

-

-

-

-

(Not all Xero regisions) Escalate to debt collection & legal services

-

ü (Not all Xero regisions)

-

ü

ü

-

Xero

ü

ü

ü

ü

QuickBooks Online

ü

ü

-

ü

Sage Accounting

ü

-

-

ü

Freshbooks

-

-

-

ü

FreeAgent

-

-

-

ü

KashFlow

-

-

-

ü

Sage 50/200

-

-

-

ü

QuickBooks Desktop

-

-

-

ü

Over 300 desktop accounting packages

-

-

-

ü

ü

ü

-

ü

Free premium credit reports

-

ü

-

ü

Client Insights reports

-

-

-

ü

Fast Client onboarding

ü

ü

ü

ü

Internal user management

ü

ü

ü

ü

Dedicated Account Managers

ü

ü

ü

ü

-

-

ü

ü

Manage outdated credit card records

Cloud Accounting Integrations

Desktop Accounting Integrations

Accountants Support Free Accountants portal

Other Features Invoice Finance

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Issue 19 / 93

Apps Compared

For more information, please visit: Chaser - chaserhq.com Debtor Daddy - debtordaddy.com ezyCollect - ezycollect.com.au Satago - satago.com

Chaser

Debtor Daddy

ezyCollect

Satago

Free 14 day trial

Trial period

ü

Preferred Partner pricing on request

From £25 per month

Dependent on A/S and debtors

Help Centre

ü

ü

ü

ü

Phone Support

ü

ü

ü

ü

Online Support

ü

ü

ü

ü

Workshops

-

ü

ü

ü

Web Demos

ü

ü

ü

ü

Account Managers

ü

-

ü

ü

A/R advisory / Consulting service

ü

ü

ü

-

Pricing Free to use Price

Support

Sage vs Xero for your inventory clients

Sage

Xero

+ add-on

Accounting functions

Warehouse management

Accounting functions

Warehouse management

Bank feeds

Bill of materials

Bank feeds

Bill of materials

MTD ready

Flexible reporting

MTD ready

Flexible reporting

Accessible reports

Discount structures

Accessible reports

Discount structures

Sales order processing

Batch/serial control

Sales order processing

Batch/serial control

Purchase order processing

Ecommerce integration

Purchase order processing

Ecommerce integration

Quoting

Point of sale

Quoting

Point of sale

Do you have inventory clients on Sage but want to move them to Xero?

Read success stories of those who made the move: 94 / Issue 19

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Issue 19 / 95

Shieldpay: certainty of payment

Know you’re getting paid, even before the job is done At Shieldpay, we know that sometimes, getting paid is the hardest part. Certainty of payments is still one of the key issues for small businesses and their accountants alike. So what solution are to hand to help you fight late payment – or to fight fraudsters targeting your business?

A

t Shieldpay, certainty of payment is core to our mission - we protect both sides of any transaction by verifying the identity of both sides. Funds are held securely in escrow - the Shieldpay vault - and are only released when both sides agree they’re happy. We’re here to make getting paid more secure, more transparent and more efficient than ever before. And in today’s current climate – unfortunately, the costs continue to grow.

Late payment costs the UK £2bn every year The average small business in the UK is owed nearly £25,000 in late invoices. Tallied up across the year, late payments end up costing small businesses £2bn annually.

What’s more, the UK will lose £1bn to fraudsters this year With online fraud as much as £11bn annually and payment fraud increasing by 53% year on year, payment fraud is clearly a costly issue – and it’s continuing to grow.

96 / Issue 19

UK consumers and businesses alone with lose £1bn this year to fraudsters when making payments from their bank accounts – a cost that can be entirely avoided with the right secure payment tools in place.

By verifying the identity of both sides of any transaction with bank grade security checks – Know Your Customers/Know Your Business and PEPs and sanctions checks - both buyer and seller can be confident in who they’re dealing with – that they are who they say they are, and that they a genuine person, or legitimate business.

@shield_pay

Tom Clementson, Director of Consumer & SMB, Shieldpay Tom is a founding partner here at Shieldpay – making online payments more streamlined and more secure - for everyone.

As an alum of giants PayPal and eBay, Tom is an expert in all things payments. Tom is particularly well known for scaling businesses, working alongside platforms and marketplaces to create new revenue streams and business opportunities - powered by payments.

One of our power users, from Harwood, has experienced these issues first hand Launched in 2009, Harwood provide bespoke financial management solutions; all the way from bookkeeping to financial director services.

“We act as the financial cornerstone for all of their clients. We partner with Xero [and their apps] to provide our clients with all the benefits of real time financial reporting, in a user-friendly format.”

In addition to Escrow...

In addition to Escrow, we can do the standard payment piece, too.

Fast, direct payments for when you’re dealing with a trusted partner.

We still verify both parties with our bank grade security checks, but the payment isn’t held in escrow – it’s passed straight

through, like you’d be used to with other payment providers you might have used.

The payee will receive funds within 3 or 4 days of payment, rather than 8 to 10. So, once you’ve dealt with a new partner – if you want to pay Direct, you have that option, too.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

How does it work with Xero?

Shieldpay for Xero is a dedicated app that connects your Xero account with a Shieldpay account.

Once you have linked your accounts you can use Shieldpay for Xero to set up fast, secure invoice payments.

• Our ‘Pay with Shieldpay’ button will appear on your invoices.

• You’ll be able to instantly accept and verify payments by card, bank app and bank transfer.

• Your customers simply click the button and pay.

• You’ll both be able to see the payment is held securely in escrow – the Shieldpay vault.

• And when you’re both happy with the transaction, the payment is released with realtime payouts powered by Bank Transfer or Visa Direct - a fast, convenient and secure way to withdraw money to the cards you already carry.

With the funds held in Escrow until both sides are happy to release, both buyer and seller can enjoy total peace of mind in knowing they are protected by an independent third party – Shieldpay.

So, whether you’re a tradesperson, contractor, manufacturer or exporter with Shieldpay for Xero you can invoice for any size job over any period of time and have total confidence that you’ll receive payment on time, every time – with fast pay-outs when you’re done.

The challenge of cash collection Harwood notes that cash collection is a common challenge for many clients - both in terms of ensuring customers pay to terms, as well as having the confidence to win and deal with new customers with the knowledge that payment won’t be an issue.

A question of trust Harwood have a strong focus on embedding tech solutions to drive further efficiencies for their clients, and ultimately free up more time for

value added activities.

“While technology has helped to massively improve the efficiency of many of our business processes, getting paid from clients, particularly when the relationship is new can still be a slow process.”

it allows us to recommend [Shieldpay] as a payment solution with confidence, knowing that it will improve cash collection and business efficiency for our clients.”

Total confidence Many accountants are understandably weary of recommending apps and solutions to their clients, until they’re tried and tested, but as Will has experienced first-hand, “the platform and support around

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Issue 19 / 97

The new definition of CFO: Creating Future Opportunities The term “CFO level services” is frequently thrown around but it is often left as a vague idea. At the deepest level, CFO level services are meant to help Create Future Opportunities for your clients. We dive into the three steps you can take in order to successfully grow your services and focus on your clients’ futures...

T

he way accountants work with businesses is changing; it is changing rapidly across the globe. Improvements in technology and in information sharing mean that there is no way for your firm to avoid these changes and remain successful. Each year numerous small businesses close, and the main reason is cash flow, or lack thereof. Business owners are starting to understand that there is an opportunity to gain from the knowledge of finance professionals. And since most businesses already work with an accountant, their accountant is a logical resource for them to turn to.

Business owners say they want CFO level services because they understand that reactive, traditional services do not cut it in today’s business world. But what are CFO level services? CFO level services, at the deepest level, are focused on Creating Future Opportunities for the business. Accountants are now in the perfect position to start taking on a larger role in their SME clients’ future success.

A common definition understands a CFO to be a “Chief Financial Officer,” and while that is correct, it does not explain how accountants can start operating in this way.

Most large corporations have internal employees that operate as 98 / Issue 19

Controllers and CFOs. A Controller is in charge of managing cost control, monitoring operational efficiency, and providing historical financial information; these services use historical data and are largely reactive to what has happened. A CFO manages cash flow, understands the strengths and weaknesses in the company, monitors financial affairs, and creates business strategies to correct problems; a CFO is truly the key to long-term success in the corporation.

The good news is that most accountants are already operating as a Controller for their small and mid-sized business clients. But these SMEs can benefit from the same levels of proactive monitoring and strategic skills that they would get from a CFO. Accountants are able to leverage real-time data, which enables them to be flexible, dynamic, and most importantly, proactive.

When they act as advisors, they are able to truly make a difference to their clients and Create Future Opportunities.

Now, when an accountant says they will be providing CFO level services, we know that they mean they will act as an advisor for small and mid-sized businesses, focusing on ensuring the company’s future

@MyProfitSee

Brooke Roberts, Vice President of Global Marketing, ProfitSee As the Vice President of Global Marketing at ProfitSee, Brooke has worked with accountants and bookkeepers in the United States, Canada, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Australia. With over 6 years experience in the global accounting industry, she is passionate about understanding how technology impacts businesses and how advisory services can impact the global economy.

opportunities are profitable while mitigating risk. But how can you start offering these things to your clients? There are three steps to making this successful in your firm.

Start with improving efficiency in what you are already doing, then implement future driven services, and, most importantly, have proactive conversations with your clients.

Improving Efficiency in Controller Level Services Leveraging cloud technology and software tools will allow you to create efficiency in the Controller level services you may already be providing. Things like monitoring operational procedures, establishing budgets, and providing financial reports can be expedited and streamlined!

So where do you start? Xero has an amazing ecosystem of apps and tools that are designed to help you get your clients’ data faster.

Integrating your clients’ bank feeds into their Xero account is one example of how these technologies can work together to do some of the heavy lifting for you.

And while creating efficiency in what you are already doing in your firm doesn’t sound like a big challenge, it is, in fact, a major step towards revolutionizing your

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

firm and becoming more futureoriented. Evaluate the things you currently do and provide for your clients, and see which areas can be streamlined to save time.

clients’ companies. These futurefocused services are easy to implement when you have the right tools and the right support helping you.

Implementing Future Driven Services Once you’re saving time in the things you currently do, you are able to expand your services and start diving in deeper into helping your clients and focusing on their future.

Having Proactive Conversations with Clients

The things that all business owners want are financial stability, increased profitability, future growth, and succession planning.

These all remain true no matter what size the business is, the difference is that larger businesses have CFOs that are specifically there to help them achieve those goals.

This kind of security and peace of mind is what accountants are able to offer their small and mid-sized business clients.

Accountants, now more than ever, are in the position to establish budgets, monitor budgets against real-time actuals, project cash flow, and create business strategies to overcome limitations and strengthen the position of their

The technology and tools enable you to offer future driven services, but the entire point of being an advisor is to have conversations with your clients. One of the most important, and yet often overlooked, aspects of advisory is asking your clients what they want and helping them understand how to get there.

Helping a small business owner is not just about the numbers; when you help a small business succeed you are impacting the owner’s entire life. James Tobin, ProfitSee’s Director of Australian Operations, explains it best.

“Advisory is about helping clients get an outcome for their business.

It is easy to become caught up in giving them a report, a dashboard, or number, but that isn’t necessarily going to help the business in the end. The tangible piece is what enables the conversations. And the

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conversations are what make the biggest impact at the end of the day. As an advisor, the metrics you monitor culminate into a big picture goal, they go beyond the numbers on the paper.”

When you ask your clients what they want, you can better serve their needs. The accounting world is changing at a rapid-fire pace.

The way that technology has been improving and is evolving all aspects of business. The term “CFO level services” is frequently thrown around, but until now it’s been a very vague idea. Using these three steps and smart tools that come with amazing support, like ProfitSee, you will be able to successfully implement services that Create Future Opportunities for your clients.

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Start your complimentary trial and start creating future opportunities for your clients today: > www.myprofitsee.com/trial

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Issue 19 / 99

Case Study

ApprovalMax helps lucent advisory scale new heights of customer satisfaction Find out how one of Australia’s leading advisory firms streamlined their invoice processing using a powerful bill automation app stack...

T

his is the process transformation success story of a Xero Accounting Gold Partner going fully digital. By using ApprovalMax, lucent advisory achieved its highest ever level of customer satisfaction and efficiency for invoice processing.

Founded in 2005, lucent advisory belongs to the new generation of tech-smart, cloud-savvy business advisors. We provide a set of solutions which effortlessly combine Finance and HR - including outsourced and virtual solutions designed to maximise performance, improve processes, and deliver data that clients can trust.

Our ultimate goal is to help Managing Directors and CEOs of growing professional service businesses drive profit, deliver growth, take control of their numbers, and make better decisions.

And we do this via a range of services, including outsourced finance and bookkeeping, payroll, invoice processing, and bill payment.

The problem: An overwhelmed workflow To deliver our services in the most efficient way possible, we selected Xero as our anchor accounting solution. Additionally, we used an OCR solution to digitise invoices and push them into Xero, while the invoices themselves were forwarded to lucentby our clients.

However, it soon became apparent that this workflow was flawed.

Supplier invoices got stuck in client inboxes; manual approvals had to be chased; and missed, duplicate or unauthorised payments were all too common. As a result: • Our clients were overwhelmed with emails containing invoices and approvals.

• Reporting was increasingly unreliable, due to incomplete data.

• Budget forecasting was nigh on impossible, which led to poor cash flow management.

• Payments were often delayed.

• Our resources were stretched thin, as we were forced to chase clients for approvals, while also contending with full accounting

Fraser Barry, Manager Outsourced Finance Services, lucent advisory Fraser’s motivation comes from helping clients realise the true potential of their business by harnessing the latest accounting tools and technology, and supporting them along their journey.

responsibilities.

Here’s what our process looked like at the time (see Fig. 1 - Previous approval process).

The solution: ApprovalMax for bill automation It was clear that something was missing. We needed a single point for all invoice and bill-related approvals for clients, with an automatic routing of bills for approval according to predefined rules based on Xero data. The ability to work seamlessly with any Xero-connected OCR tool would be helpful too.

But where would we find such a platform? Well, we didn’t have to look far.

ApprovalMax had everything we required, and more. With its powerful bill automation capabilities, it transformed our process into the seamless and streamlined workflow you see below.

Fig. 1 - Previous approval process

100 / Issue 19

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Case Study

Fig. 2 - New approval process

It now works like this (see Fig. 2 New approval process): 1. All supplier invoices come directly to lucent advisory; 2. After digital invoice capture, the automated approval process grabs the bills from Xero; 3. Bills are then automatically routed to the appropriate clients’ personnel for approval; 4. And once approved, bills are marked as ready for payment.

The key benefits of this process are that bills are fully authorised for payment, payments are on time, the approval process is automated, and full audit logs are kept. This means maximum efficiency and minimum manual intervention. Our clients are no longer burdened with receiving supplier invoices, while forecasting and management reporting can be done in real-time with high accuracy. And by introducing ApprovalMax into the mix, gone are the days of missed, duplicate or unauthorised payments.

The workflow in action: An almost real-time process To give you an idea of the workflow in the real world, here’s a quick story about one of our construction industry clients.

They recently visited a supplier and placed an order for some building materials. The supplier’s cloudbased Point of Sale (PoS) system generated an invoice, which was sent directly to lucent advisory.

The invoice was picked up and processed (review and coding, added codes, etc.) by a member of our team. An approval request was then generated and automatically routed for approval.

By the time our client left the store and made his way back to his car, he had already received the approval request (complete with the invoice details) on his mobile app. He quickly reviewed and approved the purchase on the spot.

Once approved, the purchase was immediately accounted for as part of the budget forecast.

by welcome additional functions, such as purchase order creation and approval, bill to PO matching, and forecasting and budgeting. And the benefits are there for all to see.

Our approval process is now automated and visible, and with shared accountability, we can make bill payments on behalf of our clients with the utmost confidence.

Meanwhile, the improved realtime data quality and forecasting means everything is reviewed and approved by the appropriate people. Finally, thanks to the builtin audit trail, we spend less time preparing, while enjoying far more transparency.

All in all, the combination of Xero + ApprovalMax has helped us hit new heights when it comes to customer satisfaction and efficiency.

No delays. No bottlenecks. No worries.

The many benefits of ApprovalMax for data automation The core functionality of ApprovalMax has certainly changed the game for lucent advisory.

Features such as bill review and approval, compliance, and audit reports have been complemented

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Issue 19 / 101

Make business simpler:

SuiteFiles + Xero Practice Manager

@SuiteFiles

Molly Banister, Marketing Manager, SuiteFiles Molly is the resident marketing expert at SuiteFiles. She is passionate about communication and how technology can help create more effective channels for information storage and sharing, providing greater clarity in businesses.

You know what’s really confusing? Stepping into the world of cloud-based technology. Even if you’re a digital native, even if you’ve been an accountant for years, even if you consider yourself forward-thinking. Choosing the right mix of tech can save you hours each week, but where do you start?

I

’ll be honest, my background is not in technology, or cloud-based anything. This puts me in a unique position, because I firmly believe that if I can learn to use a piece of technology effectively, then anyone can. Across the last 6 months I’ve made my way through using cloud-based technology, looking for the best ways to save time (because we all need more time) without huge costs or complications. I’ve listed my key points when choosing what new technology to integrate into your business below.

Make sure everything works together There is nothing worse than a communication breakdown, and this applies to your technology as much as it does to human communication. SuiteFiles stores your files online, rather than syncing them to a file management system, which means that updates show in real time. There’s no risk that you’ll close your laptop before the changes sync, meaning no-one can see what you’ve just updated.

SuiteFiles also has a two-way integration with Xero Practice Manager (XPM). This means that when you add a client in XPM, a 102 / Issue 19

folder will also be created for them in SuiteFiles, without you having to leave XPM, or manually do the work. You can also browse your SuiteFiles documents from within Xero Practice Manager, giving you access to all the documents you might need for a specific client or job. Less clicks = less work.

Plus, with both applications fully integrated, you’re guaranteed consistent data across the platforms, removing errors and double work.

Choose the apps that work for you No-one knows your business, or how you work, better than you do. It sounds so simple, but don’t choose products that won’t work with that structure. SuiteFiles integrates with Xero deeply, but we also know you don’t just need data from Xero, which is why we support hundreds of file types, and why you can upload files into SuiteFiles from any source. If you’ve got clients in other systems, SuiteFiles can store their relevant documents and data too.

We also built Suite so that we can meet people wherever they are on their technology and cloud journey.

If you’re an advanced technology user, there’s powerful search and meta-tagging capabilities that mean

you can find your content quickly. If you’re newer to the cloud (like me) you can still browse your files in the file explorer through our Drive app. Files here look exactly like they would do if you were accessing a local drive, but they’re still stored and saved in the cloud, so that anyone can access them.

Improve access to information The biggest win from being cloud based? It’s improved the visibility of the work I do. My colleagues can log in at any point and see my communications with clients they’re also working with, the progress of our joint projects and what my plans are in the next six months for SuiteFiles marketing. This is because I can save emails in a single click, straight from Outlook.

I can easily share documents with them, and I can set user’s permissions so they can see everything they need to within the marketing folder, while restricting permissions to anything that might be confidential. It means if I’m away sick for a week, it’s easy for someone to step in and see what needs to happen, it’s all at their fingertips. It also means that I can access anything I need quickly, so if I’m on a plane, or remember something when I get home, it’s a

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

matter of two clicks to access what I need from quite literally anywhere that has wifi.

SuiteFiles, and changes made in XPM automatically show in Suite, removing the need for you to access multiple systems.

Keep it simple Technology should make your life easier, not more complex. Which is why Xero Practice Manager and SuiteFiles are built as simple but powerful tools, especially when combined. Their integration allows users to auto-populate your document templates and emails with any client data you have stored in XPM. Letters of engagement, end of financial year reminders, standardised follow-up emails, you name it, you can template it, and then automatically populate the client details in a single click. You can also automatically have job, client and quote folders created in

There’s also several simple but effective automations built into SuiteFiles. Your data backs up automatically each day, storing a copy as well as an audit trial should you ever require one. If anything is accidentally deleted, you can restore it yourself using the Suite Backups app, and you can see what a specific document looked like at any given point in time.

Our email tool, mentioned above, means that your emails are filed to the right place, every time, with a single click. None of these features require complex set-up, they’re all ready to go right from login/

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installation, meaning you start saving time from the beginning.

As technology advances, it is so easy to get caught up in the complexity of it all, and it can seem overwhelming. If I’ve learnt one thing in the past 6 months, it’s that if technology is truly intuitive and easy to use, the fundamentals shouldn’t take you too long to grasp. Make sure you take advantage of the training resources available and ask questions when you need! Support teams are aptly named, their role is to support!

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To get a free 30 day trial of SuiteFiles, connect with us at: > suitefiles.com/trial

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Issue 19 / 103

Sustainability in modern restaurants: the great, hidden by-product of cloud technology

@SapaadPOS

Stephanie Te is a Product Specialist at Sapaad, a leading cloud-based POS and restaurant management system that empowers restaurateurs worldwide to drive business growth and enhance customer experience with the power of the Cloud.

For restaurants, the shift to cloud technology is an easy decision to make: it increases overall efficiency while reducing operational costs.

But by embracing the cloud, restaurants unintentionally improve another aspect: their carbon footprint. The future of modern restaurants lies in the cloud. And by taking part in the revolution, the industry inadvertently paves the way to a more sustainable movement...

T

he modern world is dominated by tech innovations consumers never needed but now can’t live without.

From virtual AI assistants to cryptocurrency to self-driving cars, the market is saturated with novelties programmed to increase convenience, efficiency, and productivity.

As tech innovations took over the restaurant industry, a completely different trend started to emerge: sustainability. While one side focused on convenience and efficiency, the other prioritized

collaboration and conservation.

With contrasting goals, it’s easy to imagine a lack of overlap between the two. This, however, is not the case. A hidden by-product of certain tech products is its indirect positive effect on the environment. This is particularly evident in restaurants that make one minor change to their operations: switching to cloud technology.

Research has shown that cloud solutions can reduce energy use and carbon emissions by almost a third compared to on-premise

applications. By embracing cloud technology in their front and back offices, restaurants can drastically reduce their carbon footprint without compromising on convenience.

Reduction of Carbon Emissions Cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) systems offer many advantages for restaurants. It streamlines operations, improves order accuracy, and ensures data integrity. It is also easier to use and much more affordable compared to its on-premise counterpart.

These are the benefits that restaurants normally lean towards when deciding between the two.

Cloud POS systems, however, also improve other aspects, namely energy usage and e-waste.

The hardware setup of a typical on-premise POS involves terminals, local servers, proprietary hardware, and other miscellaneous equipment. On-premise POS systems are typically equipped with a large number of features—most of which end up unused—leading to an abundance of underutilized hardware. Regardless if only a fraction of their features is being used, they still require a massive amount of energy to maintain a

104 / Issue 19

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constant power supply.

When hardware reaches its endof-life, it turns into electronic waste (e-waste) and the issue of its disposal arises. With millions of tons generated annually, e-waste is one of the fastest growing segments and can be some of the most dangerous items to discard.

They contain harmful materials such as lead, cadmium, chromium, beryllium, and brominated flame retardants. While a large part of its components can be recycled, only a minuscule fraction end up getting reprocessed.

By moving to cloud technology, hardware requirements are versatile, typically allowing restaurants to use the devices they already have on hand such as tablets and smartphones. In reducing the reliance on costly, energy-guzzling hardware, restaurants reduce their carbon footprint. With a pay-as-you-go and self-service subscription model, restaurants are encouraged to only consume what they need, when they need it, and nothing more.

Paper Usage of FOH & BOH One obvious green benefit of cloud-based technology is that it promotes a paper-free operation.

The paper and pulp industry produces millions of tons of carbon dioxide annually. While recycling efforts can offset some of the damage, the fact remains that paper production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

Restaurants, especially those with high table turnover like quick service restaurants, generate a large amount of paper waste. From invoices to kitchen tickets, paper

usage can add up during a shift. By moving restaurant operations to digital platforms, such as a cloud POS or kitchen display system, restaurants can reduce their reliance on paper, inadvertently reducing operational costs and waste.

Environmental benefits of cloud technology don’t stop at the operational aspect of restaurants but also permeates to its back office. By integrating the pointof-sale with a cloud accounting software like Xero, data is seamlessly synced between the applications. Cloud POS systems that are connected with Xero offer restaurants a total business solution, improving efficiency and operations while minimizing costs and wastage.

As a cloud-based software, Xero allows restaurant owners to access their business finances anytime from any internet-enabled device as well as give collaborative access to their accounting and bookkeeping team. By automatically syncing the daily sales data, restaurants can track their cash flow in real time. Shifting to cloud accounting gives an easier and more accurate overview of finances and ensures the integrity of inputted data.

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Environmental Impact of the Cloud

By embracing the cloud, restaurants unintentionally improve another aspect: their carbon footprint.

Cloud technology is one of the best opportunities for restaurants to combat emissions and wastage caused by underutilized or unnecessary equipment. Cloud computing maximizes the versatility of infrastructures which leads to fewer hardware requirements for operations. The biggest winners are restaurants and other small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which can reduce their carbon footprint by more than half through automating processes and maximizing existing hardware.

By embracing cloud computing, restaurants can enjoy higher efficiency and stronger data security. A streamlined operation requires less equipment, less energy, less paper, and less costs— great for the restaurant and even greater for the environment.

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To find out more about Sapaad cloud POS & restaurant management system, visit us at: > sapaad.com

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Issue 19 / 105

A real-time snapshot of your Xero accounts in Google Drive

@G_AcconServices

Andrey Kustarnikov, Co-founder, G-Accon Andrey brought over 20 years of experience in software development and system integration in the financial and banking sectors. He has technical expertise in cloud technologies, system integrations and microservices architecture. Andrey’s MBA degree complements a strong engineering background.

A

s a small business accountant, you want to keep an eye on your cash flow, and this is why you are using Xero. Also, you are using Google Docs to create, edit and share documents in your Google Drive. Companies of all sizes are switching from office suites that run on desktop computers to cloud business apps like G Suite. One of the best features of Google Docs and Sheets is the real-time commenting and collaboration.

Have you ever wondered how great it would be if you could just edit a Google spreadsheet and all the data would get synced up with Xero automatically? Wouldn’t it be great if you could save time on tedious manual tasks (downloading reports from Xero, exporting data into the spreadsheets, emailing 106 / Issue 19

reports, etc.) by easily automating these tasks in Google Sheets and instantly sharing real-time reports with your clients?

For example, you may want: • Use Google Data Studio to visualize the dynamics of the cash flow.

• Automatically refresh these dynamics on the selected schedule.

• Have a Google Spreadsheet with automatically updated reports, so you can share these reports with a third party without giving access to Xero account.

• Download all Xero data into the spreadsheet for further analysis, custom reporting or sharing and collaboration in Google Drive.

• Using a Google Spreadsheet as a data source for updating your Xero account - create invoices,

transactions, purchase orders, contacts, etc.

• Consolidate Xero data and reports across multiple Xero accounts.

• Automatically generate and email reports to your clients in Google Sheets, Excel, CSV or PDF format.

• Use all the amazing tools of Google Sheets to analyze, visualize, and get the most out of your data: pivot tables, charts, functions, macros, explore, etc.

To achieve all of this and a lot more, we have created the addon for Google Spreadsheets, called G-Accon for Xero. This Google Sheets add-on turns your spreadsheets into a powerful web application.

The idea beyond the add-on is simple: we allow you to connect the

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

Google Spreadsheet to one or more Xero accounts and sync it with Xero Accounting, Payroll, Assets, Projects data. You will be able to refresh the data manually or automatically using the flexible schedule. Bidirectional sync capabilities will allow you to make changes to Xero directly from spreadsheets.

Also, the add-on allows downloading reports - both predefined by Xero (Detailed Account Transactions, Account Transactions, Profit and Loss, Income Statement, Balance Sheet, etc.) and custom, created by G-Accon (Purchase Orders, Purchase Orders Summary, etc.).

Moreover, using G-Accon for Xero, you will be able to seamlessly consolidate reports and data from multiple organizations, so you can have the real-time global picture of all your accounts.

So, how it works?

• After installing the add-on, you will be asked to login into your Xero account. On the successful login, Xero will call add-on back and provide a temporary authentication token, which will allow the add-on to execute requests on your behalf. In our code, we never have access to your password: all authentication provided by Xero itself. This is the standard and most popular

G-Accon for Xero flow chart

protocol called OAuth (Open Authentication).

• All further requests will be redirected by the add-on to our secure backend server. We utilize secured and reliable Amazon Web Services cloud platform, to provide the excellent Amazon out-of-the-box security and reliability.

• From the back-end server, the request will be redirected to Xero, the response will be processed and returned back to the add-on.

• As a final step, data will be formatted and displayed in your Google Spreadsheet.

G-Accon won Emerging App Partner of the Year award in Xero Americas Awards 2018. It’s becoming

increasingly popular in Xero and G Suite app marketplaces.

With G-Accon you will save hours by doing Xero data loads, queries, reports, mass updates and inserts not from Xero, but directly from your Google Spreadsheets.

FIND OUT MORE...

To find out more, visit: > www.accon.services

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How to help your staff accept and welcome change in your small accountancy practice

@HeatherTowns

Heather Townsend Heather is the author and founder of The Accountants Millionaires’ Club. She is the award-winning author of 5 books including The Go-To Expert. It is not unusual for members of the Accountants Millionaires’ Club to grow by £50200k per year.

Having a growth plan for your accountancy practice is essential to ensure that you’re moving forward. However, if your staff aren’t engaged and supportive of these plans, moving forwards can become difficult. This article, from Heather Townsend, Author and Founder of The Accountants Millionaires’ Club, outlines how you can engage and win the support of your staff to ensure that your efforts to grow don’t go wasted.

U

nderstand why your staff may resist change

will resist it.

As change triggers such an emotional response, logic and Only when you understand why reason won’t your staff aren’t being always be enough supportive can you to win your staff begin to engage them Growth plans for a over. You’ll be glad and more forward. business involve to hear however, change. And that there is a far Growth plans more effective for a business change, for many way to gain their involve change. people, is scary. engagement and And change, for support. many people, is scary.

Regardless of what you are Help them accept this change changing, whether it is big or small, or what you think of it, any change The idea of the Emotional Cycle of can elicit the ‘fear of the unknown’ Change, as identified by EliSzabeth in your staff and in response, they

108 / Issue 19

Kübler-Ross, is that most people going through change typically pass through five emotional stages.

1. Denial - this initial stage is brought on by fear of the unknown and denying that the change will come about is an attempt to protect oneself.

2. Anger - accepting the inevitable can lead to anger, especially if the person feels that the change is a negative one.

3. Rationalisation - once the initial emotions have been processed, the person can begin to rationalise the change to make sense of it.

4. Acceptance - once the change

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3

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they feel and addressing them appropriately • Not dismissing emotions or avoiding them • Working together on building your growth plans once your staff have started to accept the changes It is important to recognise that • Being available and approachable people need to go through this to answer any cycle in order to grieve for questions how things were and and provide progress through Only when all of your reassurance at the stages to staff are engaged and all times fully accept and supportive of your embrace the Only once you new. You can growth plans can you have helped actively help be sure that you’re your staff go your staff do moving efficiently through the full this by: towards success.

Emotional Cycle of Change (and • Openly everyone will do so communicating at a different rate), will you with them as much as find that you have gained their full possible, especially about what changes will be implemented and engagement and support with your growth plans. what they will mean for them and for the business Be prepared for staff who may not • Providing them with the support the change information they need to prevent them from filling in the blanks There is always a chance that themselves even after the Emotional Cycle of • Letting people express how has been accepted, the person can begin to embrace it and feel positive about it.

5. Advance - the person can now use the change to grow and progress into the future state.

Change, some people will still resist changes. If this happens, what can you do?

You can either try alternative methods of influencing them, such as telling an inspiring story about real-life people or situations to motivate them into helping you reach your business’ potential, or you can try all of the above and let them know that these changes are happening anyway.

If those staff members choose to leave, it may just be the best thing for your business as you need all of your efforts for growth to be moving in one direction. Only when all of your staff are engaged and supportive of your growth plans can you be sure that you’re moving efficiently towards success.

FIND OUT MORE...

For more tips on growing your firm see: accountantsmillionaire.club

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New Xero Connected Apps

New to the Xero App Marketplace New App shout-out Are you a new Xero-connected App? Let other Xero users know... email alex@ xumagazine.com

Avrium avrium.co.uk/xero A credit control and credit risk management tool for Xero targeted towards small business owners and accountants that are serving the SME market.

BigInja biginja.com/xero Realtime stock adjustments in Xero from the Big Inja stocktake barcode scanner app. Scan and count your stock items on hand and submit – that’s it!

Bridgement bridgement.com Bridgement simplifies finance for businesses across South Africa. We use smart tech and data science to offer flexible invoice finance and credit facilities up to R1million. Connect your Xero account and submit an application in minutes, without the need for any paperwork. Funds will be in your account within hours.

Connectably connectably.com/xero-crm Connectably is simpler, quicker, better connected CRM that improves workflows, gets you paid faster and helps you serve clients more professionally.

DOKKA dokka.com

Please note: this is not an exhaustive list of new Apps in the Xero App Marketplace. You can see all Xeroconnected Apps at www.xero.com/ marketplace

112 / Issue 19

DOKKA.com saves time with automated bookkeeping entries, and smart document management using Artificial Intelligence - the more you use DOKKA, the more it will understand your requirements.

DOKKA’s new technology makes OCR and data extraction look ‘Old School’. Also includes ‘Drag & Drop’ & Client/Bookkeeper ‘WhatsApp

like’ Chat functionality.

invoices and bills inside Xero.

Funancial funancial.com/xero

Octoboard octoboard.com/blog/add-xero-databusiness-dashboard

Unlock core financial intelligence encoded within your company’s accounting data to improve financial health, cash flow and business decision making. Available in UK, ZA, IE. Inventory Planner inventory-planner.com/platforms/ xero-inventory-planner Sales Forecasting, Purchase Orders, Financial Planning & More.

Inventory Planner allows you to create purchase orders based on the sales forecast and save them to Xero.

Jirav jirav.com Jirav delivers smarter financials and faster insights, helping you understand where your business has been and predict where you’re going. The system joins your cloud-based Accounting, HR, CRM and billing data together to automatically surface a sophisticated, interconnected reporting & planning portal that is unique to your business.

Octoboard is a real-time online dashboard and business performance reporting platform.

ProductiveIO productive.io/integrations/xeroaccounting Productive CRM is a one-stop-shop agency tool for running sales, projects, time tracking, resource planning, invoicing and monitoring profitability.

Quaderno quaderno.io Quaderno is a tax management platform for businesses who want to grow without memorizing all the tax policies at home or abroad. From tax calculation and tax receipts to threshold alerts and comprehensive tax reports, Quaderno automates sales tax compliance for US sales tax, VAT, and GST around the world.

Skynamo go.skynamo.com/xero-andskynamo

The platform is built for companies looking to empower their finance functions with real-time reporting & collaboration across - bookings, billing, revenue recognition, cash flow, and workforce/expense planning - to get the answers they need, fast.

The mobile sales app for Xero users to manage field sales, reduce admin for sales reps, access product, pricing, stock level and customer info on the road, and submit orders.

Link My Books linkmybooks.com/xero

Employee expense management automated simply and beautifully.

Link My Books automatically imports your sales data, fees and even cost of goods sold from Amazon into clear, understandable

SnapShot smesnapshot.com/addon/xero

SoloExpenses expenseondemand.com/xero.html

One place to view real-time

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Upcoming Events analytics on your business. Not just the Management Accounts, but also Peer Analytics and Regulatory Deadlines.

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Taxlab taxlab.co.nz/taxlab-xero-integration Taxlab is a tax management, reporting and filing application for practices. Taxlab helps facilitate tax compliance.

UpSheets upsheets.com Upload timesheets, leave and payslips to Xero, saving time and reducing errors.

Issues

1-19

Weava weava.co.uk/xero Accurately calculate VAT on your Amazon sales and costs. Integrate with Xero and your transactions can automatically be posted for reconciliation. UK only.

YourTradebase yourtradebase.com/xero

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YourTradebase is a no-nonsense online app helping tradespeople smash through paperwork, fast.

Estimates. Quotes. Invoices.

Reminders. Click, click, done.

available for download

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New Releases

Updates and new releases from the Xero App Marketplace New feature shout-out Are you a Xeroconnected App? Got a new feature or update you’d like to share with the Xero User community?

Email alex@ xumagazine.com

AdvanceTrack advancetrack.com AdvanceTrack announced the launch of their AdvanceTrack Prime service at their 2019 Conference in London. AdvanceTrack Prime is aimed at firms using Outsourcing strategically to deliver a higher level of service supported by AdvanceTrack. AdvanceTrack Prime users benefit from having a more dedicated team delivering higher levels of service as their work is processed more regularly.

This is in addition to the dedicated offshore service also now available to firms in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and US and Canada.

AdvanceTrack also announced the launch of their Accountants Growth Academy with Paul Shrimpling to enable their fast growing firms to deliver their growth plans.

Appogee appogeehr.com We’re further supporting the employee lifecycle with the introduction of the Onboarding Portal which will provide your new starters with access to Appogee HR before they’ve even stepped into the office. They’ll be able to provide you with key information, such as bank details and address, while HR Managers can be sure the new employee has read important company policies. Our integration with Hire by Google even further supports this smooth transition from recruitment to full HR Management.

ApprovalMax approvalmax.com ApprovalMax has released a new feature: the Price Checker, which identifies and highlights any discrepancies between a price stated in the Bill and the inventory

114 / Issue 19

list price of that particular item in Xero’s Products and Services catalogue.

Also, the “Any of ” condition has been enabled. The two approval conditions “All” and “Any of ” determine how many of the specified Approvers are required to complete an approval step.

Depending on which of these two is selected, that’s either all or only one of them.

Compleat Software icompleat.com Compleat Software, the company behind SaaS smart spend software, iCompleat and eCompleat, has expanded its product footprint to lead the digital transformation of purchasing, with two new solutions to help organisations and accounting firms add value to their teams and clients. These are iCompleatOrder, which adds purchase order capabilities to iCompleat, and CompleatProcure, a smarter purchasing solution that enables intelligent purchasing, leveraged by Compleat’s document data capture capability, CompleatCapture.

DryRun dryrun.com Dryrun is under continuous software development to deliver cutting edge, highly flexible and automated cash flow software to your clients. Released this spring, Dryrun’s Auto Forecast feature analyzes recent and relevant transactions across your bills, invoices, and recurring transactions and then intelligently and flexibly reflect them forward to predict your future. Toggle the feature independently across scenarios for visibility in your cash flow.

G-Accon accon.services Introducing bi-directional sync capabilities in Google Sheets Add-On for Xero. You can now use G-Accon to post data to Xero directly from Google Sheets using Update, Insert or Delete operations and avoid the hassle of importing CSV files.

We’ve created new reports based on the feature requests from our users: • Account Transactions • Customer Invoice Details • GL Export New data pulling templates: • NZ Payroll • Xero Projects Auto-convert to Excel, PDF, CSV formats are now available in Automatic data operations.

Infoodle infoodle.com We have now released our own infoodle phone app. Free, as part of the CRM package. Download infoodle from the app store and connect with your organisation.

• Push Notifications • Show upcoming events • Registration and other web forms • Blog or newsletter links • Directory contact, directions & communication • Add notes • Show rosters • Customise with your branding • + more For a small fee Steam Audio and Video and youtube live stream.

OnPay onpay.com Now OnPay’s top-rated U.S. payroll service has a comprehensive set of HR tools. It’s still easy for

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New Releases accountants and bookkeepers to offer their clients full-service payroll — even if they have contractors, more than 500 employees, run a restaurant, farm, or nonprofit. All migration to OnPay is done for free, and the OnPay team will even set up custom item mapping in Xero. In addition, OnPay’s new HR tools give clients a built-in HR department at no extra cost.

Sapaad sapaad.com Sapaad cloud POS and restaurant management system is excited to announce the launch of Sapaad KDS 2.0, our next-generation kitchen display system built to enhance kitchen operations with a streamlined order fulfilment process and LIVE kitchen performance insights.

Sapaad KDS 2.0 automatically routes orders by menu category to various kitchen stations in the operations and tracks menu item completion all the way to order fulfilment. Great for restaurants of all types; enabling faster ticket times and better customer satisfaction.

ShieldPay shieldpay.com With Shieldpay’s verified users, unlimited transaction size and funds held securely in Escrow, you’re in safe hands.

And in addition to offering an instant digital Escrow, we can do the standard payment piece, too.

We’ve recently launched Shieldpay Direct - Fast, direct payments for when you’re dealing with a trusted partner.

SuiteFiles suitefiles.com We’ve updated Suite Files Drive and our Outlook app to make them even easier for you to use. Email saving is even more intuitive, and you can manage your tasks, including pending signatures, easily from Outlook. We’ve also updated document signing to include customisable branding, so you can have signature requests sent to clients with your firms branding.

Search has also been updated, with more powerful tagging and filtering abilities, plus faster results!

Tidy International tidyinternational.com We’ve been working on some big updates to Tidy’s products to meet our users’ needs – especially for our customers in the food manufacturing and healthcare industries. These updates include: • A comprehensive batch number feature set for inventory management (available in TidyStock and TidyEnterprise).

This allows tracking of batches from purchase and assembly-to-

sale, handling multiple locations, expiry and production dates.

Components/Ingredients now have traceability throughout workflows.

• A major update to our mobile solution for project management (available for TidyWork, TidyBuild and TidyEnterprise). This solution is also available on preview for elements of TidyStock and includes enhanced barcode functionality.

Unleashed unleashedsoftware.com We’re constantly releasing more functionality in Unleashed, including new developments in our B2B eCommerce Store platform.

Our B2B platform clients will be able to personalise their Store with these new features: • Customised email templates • Showcasing feature products on a dedicated homepage • Creating content pages • Allowing their customers to place automated recurring orders

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App/Service Directory To advertise, please email the team at: advertising@xumagazine.com Compleat | @CompleatP2P

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OpenSauceSystem

Documents

opensauce.systems Red Arc Systems | @SystemsArc redarc.systems/xero Red Jungle Limited | @redjungle redjungle.com Sixtree | @sixtreeau sixtree.com.au Smudge | @smudgeio smudge.io

Basecone | @Basecone get.basecone.com/xero Boxkite | @getboxkite getboxkite.com DiGA - Xero Excel Reporting businessbackbone.co.uk Evernote by Zapier | @zapier zapier.com

syngency.com

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Issue 19 / 119

App Directory EZ Rent out | @EZRentOut

Formitize | @Formitize

ezrentout.com/xero

formitize.com/en

Handshake | @handshake

FYI | @fyidocuments

handshake.com/integration/xero

fyidocs.com

Intellibook | @intellibookapp

Google apps for work

intellibook.co/features/Xero

xero.com/uk/google

Loaded Commerce by Carry The One

Hubdoc | @Hubdoc

carrytheone.co.uk

hubdoc.com

Magento by OneSaas | @onesaas

i2B | @i2B_Limited

onesaas.com

i2b-online.com

Magento by Unleashed | @unleashedteam

Office 365 | @Office365 xero.com/uk/office-365

unleashedsoftware.com

PandaDoc | @pandadoc

Magento by Zapier | @zapier

pandadoc.com/integrations/xero

zapier.com

Proposify| @Proposify

Magento Integration (Fooman) | @foomanNZ

proposify.com

xero.fooman.co.nz

Qwilr | @Qwilr

MINDBODY | @mindbodyonline

qwilr.com

partner.mindbodyonline.com

Synkle | @SynkSimple

Neto | @netoecommerce

synkle.com

neto.com.au

Webrecs | @Webrecs

OneSaas for Opencart | @onesaas

webrecs.com.au/xero

onesaas.com OneSaas for WooCommerce | @onesaas

eCommerce

onesaas.com Opencart by Carry The One

A2X Accounting | @a2xaccounting

carrytheone.co.uk/xero

a2xaccounting.com/xero

Order Space | @orderspace

Airsquare | @airsquare

orderspace.com/integrations/xero

airsquare.com Amazon.com by Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs

carrytheone.co.uk/xero

stitchlabs.com

PayPal by Zapier | @zapier

Bigcommerce by Carry The One

zapier.com

carrytheone.co.uk

Pepperi

Bigcommerce by OneSaas | @onesaas

pepperi.com

onesaas.com Bigcommerce by Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs stitchlabs.com Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk Checkfront | @Checkfront checkfront.com Connex jmawebtechnologies.com CS Cart by 4Sprung | @cscart marketplace.cs-cart.com Dear Systems dearsystems.com Dremus | @dremus dremus.com eBay by OneSaas | @onesaas onesaas.com eBay by Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs stitchlabs.com eCC Cloud | @webgility webgility.com ecwid | @ecwid ecwid.com/xero ecwid by Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs stitchlabs.com Expandly | @expandly expandly.com ezimerchant | @ezimerchant ezimerchant.com

osCommerce by Carry The One

PrestaShop by Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk Rocketspark | @Rocketspark rocketspark.com/nz/xero/ Sendle | @sendle sendle.com Shopify | @Shopify shopify.com Shopify by Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk Shopify byonesaas | @onesaas onesaas.com Shopify by Pipemonk | @pipe_monk pipemonk.com Shopify By Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs stitchlabs.com Shopify By Tradevine | @TradevineTeam tradevine.com

TaxJar | @TaxJar taxjar.com TradeGecko | @tradegecko tradegecko.com Tradevine | @TradevineTeam tradevine.com Veeqo | @Veeqo veeqo.com/integrations/xero Vextras - Kiwi | @vextras vextras.com Volusion by Vextras | @vextras

MoolahSense | @MoolahSense moolahsense.com Moula | @MoulaMoney moula.com.au OFX xero.com/uk/financial-services/ofx SmartBiz Loans | @SmartBizLoans smartbizloans.com Validus validus.sg Waddle | @getwaddle

vextras.com

waddle.com.au

Web Widgets

Inventory

websitebuilder.nz Website Builder websitebuilder.nz WooCommerce onesaas.com Zapier | @zapier zapier.com/apps/xero Zen Cart by Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk

Financial Services Beyond Merchant Capital | @beyond_cap beyondmerchantcapital.com.au Credi | @CrediPlatform credi.com Equifax | @equifax equifax.com Everline | @everline everline.com Financiery | @financiery financiery.com Fundbox | @fundbox fundbox.com Fundera | @fundera fundera.com Funding Options | @FundingOptions fundingoptions.com

24SevenOffice | @24SOSupport 24sevenoffice.com Apparelmagic | @ApparelMagic apparelmagic.com CIN7 | @Cin7online cin7.com Current RMS | @currentrms current-rms.com DataQlick | @DataQlick dashboardstream.com DEAR Inventory | @DearInventory dearsystems.com Evopos | @evoposdms evopos.com Expandly | @expandly expandly.com Farmflo | @farmflo farmflo.com Fishbowl | @fishbowl fishbowlinventory.com Hike | @hikepos hikeup.com/xero-pos-integration Manu Online Ltd | @ManuOnlineLtd manuonline.com/xero MRPEasy | @mrpeasy mrpeasy.com OrderHarmony | @orderharmony

FundTap fundtap.co.nz/xero GetCapital | @Get_Capital getcapital.com.au

orderharmony.com simPRO | @simprosoftware simprogroup.com

iwoca | @iwoca

Stock and Buy | @StockAndBuy

iwoca.co.uk/xero

stockandbuy.com

Kabbage | @KabbageInc

TidyBuild | @TidyInt

kabbage.com liberis | @LiberisUK liberis.co.uk

tidyinternational.com TidyStock | @TidyInt tidyinternational.com

MarketInvoice | @MarketInvoice marketinvoice.com

Squarespace | @squarespace squarespace.com Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs stitchlabs.com Stock&Buy | @StockAndBuy stockandbuy.com Storbie | @storbiecommerce storbie.com Synergy 8 | @SynergyEight synergy8.com

BUSINESS FINANCE MADE EASY marketinvoice.com

STOCK MANAGEMENT tidystock com TradeGecko | @tradegecko tradegecko.com

120 / Issue 19

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

App Directory Unleashed Software | @unleashedteam unleashedsoftware.com

CheckVault | @CheckVault checkvault.com.au Cliniko | @Cliniko cliniko.com/xero Clio | @goclio landing.clio.com/xero Co-construct | @coconstruct global.co-construct.com commonsku | @commonsku

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT Become a Partner

unleashedsoftware.com/xu

commonsku.com Commusoft | @Commusoft commusoft.co.uk ConnectWise by Wise-Sync | @wisesync

Veeqo | @Veeqo veeqo.com Vend xero.com/uk/marketplace/app/vend Viberent | @viberenthq

wise-sync.com Copper | @copperproject copperproject.com Corecon corecon.com

www.accelo.com ActionStep | @Actionstep actionstep.com/xero Active Collab By Trio | @Trio_Tech

CONSTRUCTION

Acuity Scheduling | @AcuitySchedulin acuityscheduling.com AffinityLive | @affinitylive affinitylive.com Apparelmagic | @ApparelMagic apparelmagic.com ApprovalMax | @ApprovalMax approvalmax.com/xero AppsForOps | @AppsForOps appsforops.com AroFlo | @aro_flo aroflo.com Ascora | @ascoraapp ascora.com.au Autotask by My Accounting Toolbox myaccountingtoolbox.com aXcelerate | @aXcelerate axcelerate.com B2BGateway | @B2BGateway b2bgateway.net BookingBug | @bookingbug bookingbug.com/xero briefcase getbriefcase.net BriteBiz | @britebiz britebiz.com/xero-crm-integration BuilderTREND | @BuilderTREND buildertrend.com/xero BuildXact buildxact.com.au CarVue | @CarVue carvue.com/xero Chargebee | @chargebee chargebee.com/integrations/xero

goproposal.com getharvest.com Houston Medical houstonmedical.net i2B | @i2B_Limited i2b-online.com iCOS LIVE | @iCOSLIVE icoslive.com inForm | @getinformapp getinform.com Intellibook | @intellibookapp intellibook.co Invoiced | @InvoicedApp invoiced.com/xero

invoicetracker.com iTrade

SOFTWARE www.corecon.com

jobprocentral.com

jobadder.com JobPro Central | @JobProCentral JobReady | @JobReadyNSW

coreplus | @Intracore

jobready.com.au

coreplus.com.au

Jobsheet | @jobsheet

CurrentRMS | @currentrms current-rms.com Cushion | @cushionapp cushionapp.com Dentally | @DentallyApp dentally.co/integrations/xero DonkeyBean donkeybean.com EMAC | @EMACsoftware emac.com.au ePrint MIS | @eprintmis eprintmis.com etz Technologies | @etzTechnologies etzpayments.com Experieco experieco.com EZ Rent out | @EZRentOut ezrentout.com/xero Fergus | @FergusApp fergusapp.com Field Aware | @fieldaware fieldaware.com Fleetmatics WORK | @fleetmatics fleetmatics.com.au Foodstorm | @FoodStorm foodstorm.com Formitize | @Formitize formitize.com FreshBooks | @freshbooks onesaas.com/integrate/xero Friendly manager

Qwilr | @Qwilr qwilr.com RepairShopr | @RepairShopr repairshopr.com/xero-integration Roll | @rollhq rollhq.com/xero Salesin | @SalesInApp salesin.com/integration/xero Senddr | @senddirect senddr.com

itrade.net JobAdder | @jobadder

triotech.co.nz

quotientapp.com/integrations/xero

Harvest | @harvest

InvoiceTracker by eBillity | @eBillity

CLOUD-BASED

Quotient | @QuotientApp

GoProposal | @GoProposal

manage.invoiceasap.com/xero

vinsight.net

Accelo | @accelo

geoop.com

invoiceASAP | @invoiceASAP

viberenthq.com Vinsight | @VinsightSW

Invoicing & Jobs

GeoOp | @GeoOp

jobsheetapp.com/xero Kickserv | @kickserv kickserv.com/xero LEAP | @LEAP4LawFirms leap.co.uk Loc8 | @Loc8com loc8.com MechanicDesk | @mechanicdesk mechanicdesk.com.au/addon-xero Mindbody by QSSConnect | @QuoteStockSell quotestocksell.com MinuteDock | @minutedock

ServiceM8 | @ServiceM8 servicem8.com Simple Salon | @SimpleSalon simplesalon.com/xero simPRO | @simprosoftware simprogroup.com Smart Reports | @smartreports smartreports.com.au SmartTrade | @SmartTradeSW smarttrade.biz Synchroteam | @synchroteam synchroteam.com Synergist | @Synerg1st synergist.co.uk Syngency | @syngency syngency.com The Service Manager | @theservicemgr theservicemanager.com TidyBuild | @TidyInt tidyinternational.com

minutedock.com MyConstruct | @myconstructapp myconstruct.com MyTrucking | @MyTrucking mytrucking.com/integrations/xero NextMinute | @NextMinuteApp nextminute.com Okappy | @ok_appy okappy.com

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT tidybuild com

Order Space | @orderspace orderspace.com/integrations/xero Patchability time.patchability.com pay RIGHT AWAY | @PayRIGHTAWAY payrightaway.com.au Preno | @prenohq prenohq.com/xero ProWorkflow | @ProWorkflow proworkflow.com

TidyEnterprise | @TidyInt tidyenterprise.com TidyWork | @TidyInt tidywork.com Time Tracker by eBillity | @eBillity ebillity.com Total Synergy | @totalsynergy totalsynergy.com

friendlymanager.com

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Issue 19 / 121

App Directory Ag Profit | @AgProfitAus

Tradify | @tradifyhq

agprofit.com.au

tradifyhq.com

aider | @AskAider

Traffic Live

aider.ai/partners/xero

deltek.com

Arthur Online | @ArthurProperty arthuronline.co.uk

triotech.co.nz/xero

Cradle | @letscradlenz cradle.io/integration/xero imaginecurve.com

arlo.co

triggerapp.com/xero Trio Technology | @Trio_Tech

Customer Lobby | @CustomerLobby customerlobby.com EntryRocket | @entryrocket

Tsheets | @tsheets

entryrocket.com

tsheets.com/xero

ePrint MIS | @eprintmis

Union Square | @unionsquareltd

eprintmis.com

deltek.com Vinsight | @VinsightSW

Property Management Software

vinsight.net Vintrace | @vinx2

Bringing sanity to chaos

Eventbrite by OneSaas | @onesaas onesaas.com Eventbrite by Zapier | @zapier

Start your 30 day free trial www.arthuronline.co.uk +44 20 7112 4860

vworkapp.com

Expense Check | @expensecheck expensecheck.com.au ezyVet | @ezyvet

WHMCS for Xero | @edgehosting edgehosting.uk/whmcs-xero-addon

Avalara | @avalara

Work[etc] CRM | @WORKetc_support

trustfile.avalara.com

worketc.com/new_landing/xero

Backupmybooks | @backupmybooks

WorkflowMax | @WorkflowMax

backupmybooks.com

workflowmax.com

BizEquity | @BizEquity bizequity.com/xero Blendo | @blendoapp

It’s a match made in heaven.

ezyvet.com/xero-accounting/ Farmflo | @farmflo

flowrev.com/xero G-Accon | @G_AcconServices www.accon.services

G-Accon

getboxkite.com

xedi.com

Manufacturing

chata.ai

Get started free www.chata.ai

Google Calender By Zapier | @zapier zapier.com Imporex InView inviewapp.com JobReady | @JobReadyNSW

Tidy Enterprise | @TidyInt Cloudbusiness | @CloudBusinessLt cloudbusinessllc.com

jobready.com.au Kitomba | @Kitomba kitomba.com LEAP | @LEAP4LawFirms leap.co.uk LeaveCal

PROJECT & INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

finlert.com/leavecal-xero.html Lil Regie | @lilregie lilregie.com/xero LedgerBackup

tidyenterprise com

ledgerbackup.com MRPEasy | @mrpeasy

Other A2X Accounting | @a2xaccounting a2xaccounting.com/xero Acuity Scheduling | @AcuitySchedulin acuityscheduling.com

mrpeasy.com CloudDash vesvault.com/partner/xero ClubHub | @ClubHubSSL clubhub.co.nz Controlc control-c.com/landing-xero

122 / Issue 19

pocketsmith.com Podio by Phases Podio by Zapier | @zapier zapier.com Progressclaim.com | @progressclaim progressclaim.com PropertyTree | @PropertyTree RDvault | @rdvault rdvault.co.uk Re-leased | @re_leased re-leased.com re-view.com Real Estate Investar | @reiaustraila

RightSignature | @RightSignature rightsignature.com Salesin | @SalesInApp salesin.com/integration/xero SAT FXOnline | @satworldwide

imporex.com.au

aroflo.com tidyenterprise.com

Google Sheets Add-On http://www.accon.services

AroFlo | @aro_flo

pocketrent.com PocketSmith | @PocketSmith

rerunapp.com

Chata.ai | @thechataHQ

Conversational analytics and reporting

piesync.com/xero PocketRent | @PocketRent

Rerun | @Rerunapp

businesssorter.com/xero

XEDI | @xediLtd

pensionsync.com Piesync | @PieSync

realestateinvestar.com.au

Business sorter | @BusinessSorter

workshopsoftware.com.au

pennypipe.com/info/xero pensionsync | @pensionsync

Re-View | @Re_viewsoftware

Boxkite | @getboxkite

Workshop Software | @workshoponline

ozbizsolutions.com.au PennyPipe | @PennyPipe

propertytree.com

farmflo.com Flowrev | @flowrev

blendo.co

Start your FREE trial: workflowmax.com/xero

OzBiz Solutions | @OzBizSolutions

podio.com

zapier.com

vinx2.com vWork | @vWorkApp

Onsight | @Onsight_App onsightapp.com

nzi.co.nz

Curve | @imaginecurve

Arlo

TriggerApp | @triggerapp

CoverKit by NZI

MyFirmsApp | @MyFirmsApp myfirmsapp.com Office 365 | @Office365 xero.com/uk/office-365 OneSaas | @onesaas

satfxonline.co.uk Sendle | @sendle sendle.com Sharesight | @Sharesight sharesight.com/xero Sharesight Pro | @Sharesight pro.sharesight.com.au Synergy 8 | @SynergyEight synergy8.com Tax1099 | @efile1099 tax1099.com Track1099 | @Track_1099 track1099.com TransferMate | @TransferMate transfermateonline.com Vinosmith | @thevinosmith vinosmith.com Wise.NET | @WisenetLRM wisenet.co Workato | @Workato workato.com/xero Workshop Software | @workshoponline workshopsoftware.com.au Wufoo by Zapier | @zapier zapier.com

onesaas.com

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

App Directory Zapier | @zapier zapier.com Zendesk by Zapier | @zapier zapier.com Zenoti | @ZenotiSoftware zenoti.com/xero

Payments Acuity Scheduling | @AcuitySchedulin acuityscheduling.com Authorize.Net | @AuthorizeNet reseller.authorize.net Bill and Pay | @BillandPay billandpay.com Bill.com | @billcom bill.com

PennyPipe | @PennyPipe pennypipe.com/info/xero

CloudPayroll cloudpayroll.com.au

Pin Payments | @PinPayments pin.net.au

pages.paychex.com/xero Payescape | @PayescapeUK

app.plooto.co

payescape.com

POLi Payments | @POLiPayments

Payment Evolution | @payevo

polipayments.com

paymentevolution.com

Receivabl | @receivabl_es

PaysOnline | @paysonline

receivabl.es

paysonline.com.au

Rerun | @Rerunapp

PaySpace | @PaySpace

rerunapp.com

payspace.com

SAT FXOnline | @satworldwide satfxonline.co.uk Shieldpay | @shield_pay shieldpay.com

Crystal Payroll Deputy | @deputyapp

employmenthero.com

chargify.com/xero

enableHR | @enableHR

checkvault.com.au Debtor Daddy | @debtordaddy debtordaddy.com/xero

Protect your payments

Perfect for dealing with tradespeople, invoicing for manufacturing or contracts with long lead times. shieldpay.com/xero

Directli | @Directli directli.co.uk DPS Payment Express | @PaymentExpress paymentexpress.co.uk EazyCollect | @eazyCollect eazycollect.co.uk EzyCollect | @ezyCollect ezycollect.com.au eWay | @eWAY_ eway.io Ezidebit | @Ezidebit ezidebit.com.au GoCardless | @GoCardless gocardless.com IntegraPay | @IntegraPay integrapay.com.au InvoiceSherpa | @invoicesherpa invoicesherpa.com iZettle | @iZettle izettle.com

enablehr.com.au Ento | @entohq ento.com ePayroll | @ePayrollAus epayroll.com.au Flexitime | @FlexiTimeTeam flexitime.co.nz

Stripe | @stripe stripe.com Stripe by Commerce Sync | @commercesync commercesync.com Square | @SquareUK squareup.com/gb Transfer Mate | @TransferMate transfermateonline.com TransferWise | @TransferWise transferwise.com uCollect | @ucollect_biz ucollect.biz/xero Worldpay business.worldpay.com

Payroll & HR appogeeHR | @AppogeeHR appogeehr.com

Gpayroll gpayroll.com Gusto | @GustoHQ zenpayroll.com Happy HR | @happyhraus happyhr.com HR Assured | @HRAssured hrassured.com.au HR Partner | @HRPartnerApp hrpartner.io IMS Payroll imspayroll.co.nz Intertec TimePro timesheets.com.au iPayroll ipayroll.co.nz KeyPay | @KeyPayApp keypay.co.uk Microkeeper | @Microkeeper MyPAYE | @MyPAYE

kwanji.com

mypaye.co.uk

Midpoint | @MidpointLtd

OnPay | @onpay_payroll

midpoint.com

onpay.com

OFX xero.com/uk/financial-services/ofx

simplepay.ca Smart Payroll | @smartpayroll smartpayroll.com.au lps.surepayroll.com Talenox | @Talenox talenox.com Tanda | @TandaHQ tanda.co Thankyou Payroll | @ThankyouPayroll thankyoupayroll.co.nz The Payroll Site | @ThePayrollSite thepayrollsite.co.uk Workforce Guardian | @workforceguard workforceguardian.com.au ZUUS Workforce | @zuusworkforce zuusworkforce.com

Point of Sale Airsquare | @airsquare airsquare.com CIN7 | @Cin7online cin7.com ClickPOS | @ClickPOS_Online clickpos.com Deputy | @deputyapp deputy.com/gb Epos Now | @EposNow

Pay RIGHT AWAY | @PayRIGHTAWAY

The New Standard

payrightaway.com.au Payoneer | @Payoneer register.payoneer.com Payment Express | @PaymentExpress PayPal | @PayPal

Simplepay.ca | @simplepaycanada

SurePayroll | @SurePayroll

microkeeper.com.au

Kwanji | @KwanjiX

paymentexpress.com/xero

WWW.PAYSPACE.COM

Employment Hero | @EmploymentHero

Chargify | @Chargify

CheckVault | @CheckVault

CLOUD-BASE PAYROLL SOFTWARE AND SERVICE FOR AFRICA

crystalpayroll.com deputy.com

chargebee.com/integrations/xero

checkeeper.com/xero

parolla.ie Paychex | @Paychex

Plooto | @PlootoInc

Chargebee | @chargebee

Checkeeper | @Checkeeper

Parolla | @ParollaPayroll

citrusHR | @citrusHR citrushr.com/xero

paypal.com PayPal by Zapier | @zapier zapier.com

in Payroll Best Xero integration. Full HR suite. onpay.com/xero

eposnow.com Evopos | @evoposdms evopos.com Hike | @hikepos hikeup.com/xero-pos-integration Ikentoo| @iKentoo ikentoo.com Imonggo | @Imonggo imonggo.com/partners/xero Infinity RMS | @InfinityRMS infinityrms.com

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Issue 19 / 123

App Directory PayrollBee

iZettle | @iZettle

payrollbee.co.uk

izettle.com

Smart Assistant

Kounta | @kounta

smartassistant.co.nz

kounta.com MINDBODY | @mindbodyonline

Reporting

partner.mindbodyonline.com Nobly | @NoblyPOS

Ag Profit | @AgProfitAus

noblypos.com/xero

agprofit.com.au

Possboss | @posbosshq

Angeloop | @AgProfitAus

posbosshq.com

agprofit.com.au

Preno | @prenohq

Asset Guru | @Asset_Guru

prenohq.com/xero

asset.guru/xero

Redcat | @RedCatPOS

Benchmarking.com.au

redcat.com.au/xero

benchmarking.com.au

Retail Express | @RetailExpress01

Bizeo | @bizeo

retailexpress.com.au

bizeo.com.au

Sapaad | @SapaadPOS

BizEquity | @BizEquity

sapaad.com/lp/xero

bizequity.com/xero Blink Reports blinkreports.com Bode Tree | @BodeTree bodetree.com

Connect Xero & Sapaad cloud POS and restaurant management system for a total business solution.

BPM bpmglobal.com Brightgauge | @BrightGauge brightgauge.com/xero Bstar | @BstarAustralia

TRY IT FOR FREE WWW.SAPAAD.COM

bstar.com.au Btc | @BTCSoftwareUK btcsoftware.co.uk

Shogo

Businessbackbone | @BiznizBackbone

shogo.io

businessbackbone.co.uk

Shopify | @Shopify

Calxa | @calxa

shopify.com

calxa.com

Simple Salon | @SimpleSalon

Carbon Analytics | @co2analytics

simplesalon.com/xero Square | @SquareUK

co2analytics.com/xero

squareup.com/gb

Castaway | @CAforecasting castawayforecasting.com

tevalis | @tevalis_epos

Checkmybooks | @movemybooks

website.tevalis.com The Good Till Company | @TheGoodTillco thegoodtill.com Tower Systems | @TowerSystems towersystems.com.au You’reOnTime | @YoureOnTime youreontime.com/Xero Vend | @vendhq vendhq.com Zilch Consulting | @zilchconsulting

checkmybooks.co.uk Clear jelly app.clearjelly.net DataDear | @DataDearApp datadear.com Debtze| @DebtzeCollect debtze.com/xero DiGA | @BiznizBackbone businessbackbone.co.uk

zilchconsulting.com

DonkeyBean

Professional Services

Dryrun | @Mydryrun

AppsForOps | @AppsForOps

donkeybean.com/xero

Excel Int. Tools - QWD | @quickwindev quickwindevelopment.com Fathom | @fathomhq fathomhq.com Figured | @figuredapp figured.com Financial Driver | @FinancialDriver financialdriver.com Fivetran | @fivetran info.fivetran.com Float | @FloatApp floatapp.com Flowrev | @flowrev flowrev.com/xero Futrli | @Futrli futrli.com Grappster | @grappster grappster.com/dashboards/xero Grow | @goGrow grow.com/partners/xero Infoodle | @infoodle infoodle.com/xero joiin | @joiinreporting joiin.co Klipfolio Dashboard | @klipfolio klipfolio.com LivePlan | @liveplan scoreboard.liveplan.com Maus | @MAUS_Software maus.com.au Momentum atsora.com/xero My Cash Flow app | @MyCashFlowAppSa mycashflowapp.co.za My work papers | @myworkpapers myworkpapers.com My Own CFO | @myown_cfo myown-cfo.com Neatly | @go_neatly neatly.io/integrations/xero

bglcorp.com BGL Corporate Solutions | @BGLdot bglcorp.com Inform Direct | @InformDirect informdirect.co.uk instafile | @InstafileApp

linksolutions.co.nz

124 / Issue 19

qvinci.com/xero Recount recount.com/xero-homepage-uk Ranqx | @ranqxHQ ranqx.com Report Amigo | @reportamigo reportamigo.com/xero RESULTS.com | @RESULTSdotcom results.com Saasabi | @Saasabi saasabi.com/xero Sageworks | @SageworksInst sageworks.com Savvy Reports savvyreports.com SeederBoard | @seederboard seederboard.com Simple Numbers | @gregcrabtreecpa simplenumbers.me Simply Cashflow | @simplycashflow simplycashflow.com/xero StatX | @StatXapp statx.io Spotlight Reporting | @spotlightrep spotlightreporting.com Thomson Reuters | @TaxAccountingUK tax.thomsonreuters.co.uk Unleash unleash.us Visible | @VisibleVC visible.vc/integrations/xero Vistr | @VistrTeam vistr.co Wink Reports ;) | @WinkReports winkreports.com/connectors/xero Xavier | @xavieranalytics xavier-analytics.com

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Effective Accounting Starts With Accurate Data

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XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

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...and finally

Introducing...

Xero’s new hospitality app playbook Since launching the first editions of their app playbook series a year ago (almost to the day!), Xero have been overwhelmed by the response. After five app playbooks and 13,000 downloads, they’re as excited as ever to keep fueling the transition to business advisory with new content and support...

O

ne of the most commonly requested editions has been for a hospitality playbook.

The industry represents 8% of small businesses globally, and with the cloud driving rapid change in business models for hospitality clients, recommending the right apps to assist is critical to success.

Operational performance: Getting the basics right The pace and challenges of the hospitality industry brings new considerations to existing workflows. Hospitality businesses pay on average 40 additional invoices a month compared to other businesses**, while regulatory changes such as Single Touch Payroll and Payday filing in Australia and New Zealand require the right flow of data in and out of Xero.

maintaining healthy revenue. Xero’s hospitality playbook consolidates over twenty apps into feature comparison matrices to make it easier for you to identify and recommend the right app to your clients. These are designed to act as the perfect ‘next step’ for an advisory conversation around business performance.

Being proactive with change

expectations of hospitality customers and for your clients to stay current, they need to react. Whether you have one or fifty clients in the hospitality industry, we recommend reading the playbook to understand what this means for you as an advisor.

Using client scenarios we explore the different paths your clients can take to future growth, helping you guide your clients about how cloud technology can help their business.

The introduction of new consumer technologies are changing the

Sales performance: Using technology to grow revenue @Xero

Kaye Harding, General Manager Ecosystem Partner Experience, Xero

126 / Issue 19

From the effective use of a POS system to managing digital marketing and online marketplaces, getting the right sales and marketing stack is critical to

FIND OUT MORE...

You can download the playbook here. We hope you enjoy it! > xero.com/app-playbook-series

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com

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XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com