XU Magazine - Issue 23

The independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users

ISSUE

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  COVER STORY

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Putting the Client

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at the Core see page 8

ISSN 2054-7226

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9 772054 722009

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Plus lots more from Xero connected Apps

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Welcome to issue 23...

FREE!

magazine The independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users

Issue 23 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 E: hello@xumagazine.com W: www.xumagazine.com ‘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 2014-2020. 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.

4 / Issue 23

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8

COVER STORY Practice Ignition Putting the Client at the Core

10

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CASE STUDY WorkflowMax Early cloud adoption helps global architecture firm dwp thrive

2020 Xero Helping Xero subscribers in challenging times

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AdvanceTrack Accounting Beyond the Pandemic

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INTERVIEW Xero Tony Ward, President (Americas)

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TUTORIAL ApprovalMax How to use the Receipt Bank to ApprovalMax direct integration

MyDocSafe Staying rational in the time of a pandemic

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VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE Receipt Bank “The world we are entering will not be the same” - Virtual Roundtable: How to Navigate Your Exit Strategy

GoCardless Protecting cash flow right now: Advice from a CFO CASE STUDY Tidy How a promise to always deliver great customer service boosts business confidence during a pandemic

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G-Accon Getting in sync: G-Accon’s global growth journey

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MinuteDock Making the Most of Working From Home

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HR Partner Struggling to manage your employee records? Streamlining your HR records and processes is easier than you think.

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Zivora Micro-messaging with ZivaBot - unlocking uplift

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

Cover Story...

Putting the Client at the Core 

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8

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Steve Vamos CEO Xero

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CASE STUDY ApprovalMax Moving a client’s approval process from their inbox to their phones

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APP DIRECTORY Over 700 Xero connected Apps

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...and finally Virtual Summit raises ÂŁ44,500 for the UK NHS

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Sapaad Cloud Technology and the Seamless Shift to Online Ordering & Delivery - A New World Order for Restaurants Amidst COVID-19

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infoodle Keep calm and infoodle on - Helping charities adapt to the new situation

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CloudPayroll Why the Xero App Marketplace is so important

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NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS New to the Xero App Marketplace

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Cover Story

Putting the Client at the Core The next stage of Practice Ignition’s product development puts the accountant-client relationship at the center of everything they do.

For the past seven years, the team at Practice Ignition have been pretty vocal about what they believe in. And now they’re gearing up for what will be their most exciting stage yet... 

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@Ignitionapp

Guy Pearson, CEO, Practice Ignition Guy is an entrepreneurial accountant that is passionate about removing bottlenecks from business processes in order to achieve scalability. With a background in accounting in public practice and a self taught knowledge of technology, he believes that any business can achieve a single point of truth for their ownership in order to make decisions on which levers to pull and push. Guy is currently 100% focused on turning Practice Ignition into the single point of collaboration for small business owners and their advisors.

8 / Issue 23

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

Cover Story

W

e’ve always been strong proponents of fixed-fee proposals, engagement letters, monthly recurring revenue, ledger, and workflow automation.

preferences, needs, or budget — you need to have a certain degree of flexibility if you’re going to successfully cater to their specific needs.

Why? Because they’re critical for success and sustainable growth.

With these methods in place, you focus less on business operations and more on your clients.

How This Impacts Practice Ignition

However, we recognise that these strong foundations are just that: foundations. In order to help practices grow, we also need to increase the depth of our offerings — so we’re currently building the next stage of our platform.

More freedom, more functionality, and more flexibility.

The Cornerstone of All Successful Practices We know that the key to running a successful practice isn’t based on having a rock-solid proposals process and relying upon fixed fees (as useful as they might be).

Instead, there’s one major thing that sets the best practices apart from the competition.

They put their clients first: recognising that no two are alike and offering the flexibility to cater to each of their clients’ specific needs. Clients are at the heart of every professional services business. Without them, you wouldn’t have any revenue, gain any referrals, or be able to achieve a modicum of growth. In fact, you wouldn’t even have a practice in the first place.

We believe that this renewed focus on customer-centricity and flexibility will make us the ideal partner for forward-thinking practices. It’s not simply enough to change our beliefs — we also have to continue to innovate and grow: helping accountants and bookkeepers the world over transform their client relationships.

We’re in the process of transforming Practice Ignition into a platform that can support a wide range of strategies, allowing you to: • Instantly see a summary of your client relationships, pricing and billing information, plus insights into how these are changing over time • Be more flexible with how you price & bill clients • Clearly present phases of work and projects • Easily add additional services as the scope of work changes • Easily manage renewals and price increases We recognise that our future relies on adding value at every single stage of the lifecycle between accountants and their clients — it’s as simple as that.

But there’s no one way of doing this. There’s no formulaic template that you can simply follow to achieve amazing results, so this is where flexibility comes in. No two customers have the same

We’ve distilled the upcoming roadmap into helping our customers achieve four main goals across these product values: 1) Decrease risk Compliance is becoming increasingly complex — that’s why you need to keep things simple by having an up-to-date system of record that you can always rely on.

2) Save time/save money By automating your back office processes like sending and managing proposals and engagement letters, and handling billing and collections, you’ll save a significant amount of time, money, and sanity.

3) Retain/increase knowledge Use all the knowledge at your disposal. Our system of record, combined with on-the-go-metrics, helps you make better business decisions going forward.

4) Make money Not only will we help you make the initial sale, but we’ll be there every step of the way while you build long-lasting, meaningful client relationships. Happier customers plus a more efficient practice equals more money — simple.

What the Future Holds

A point-in-time proposal and signature is not the full story, as client relationships are complex and changing. It’s crucial that firms have an audit-ready system of record for 100% of their engagements.

So what does this mean?

Client-centricity is King. Practices need to expertly cater to each individual client relationship and ensure that they’re making their customers’ lives easier.

• Help me to automate my business processes?

• Help me to provide an exceptional client experience?

• Ensure I can measure metrics that matter to make better business decisions?

Aligning Goals with Product Values Going Forward At PI, all product development needs to stack up against our core product values. As we plan new features we look through our customer’s eyes, and ask; Does this: • Help me to make the sale with an impressive proposal?

• Ensure I get paid for my work?

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We’ve laid the foundations, but it’s now about making the next steps.

That’s why we’re currently underway creating a range of exciting new features to make Practice Ignition even better. It’s not enough to simply be the best accounting and bookkeeping automation as of now — we want to help pave the way for the future.

Stay tuned for more updates.

FIND OUT MORE...

See what’s new at Practice Ignition: > practiceignition.com/whats-new

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10 / Issue 23

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

2020 Xero

Helping Xero subscribers in challenging times

By Steve Vamos, Chief Executive Officer, Xero

T

here is no doubt we are facing big challenges due to COVID-19 so I hope you, and those you care about, are safe, healthy, and doing as well as you can at this difficult time.

The environment has evolved quickly over the past couple of months and is being felt in every aspect of our lives. This is particularly the case for you, our small business customers, bookkeepers, accountants and ecosystem partners, who are facing significant pressure to adapt the way you operate.

In addition to making sure our people are safe and effectively working from home, our focus continues to be on maintaining the quality and continuity of our cloudbased products and services so you have access to your data anytime on any device.

We have quickly shifted our priorities and implemented several initiatives and changes in the way we deliver information, product

features and capabilities on the Xero platform to help. We created a dedicated Business Continuity Hub, bringing together crucial information from governments around business stimulus packages in many of the regions we operate.

We also assembled a dedicated 24/7 Customer Response Team, available through Xero Central, to provide guidance on government support packages and Xero subscription options.

Xero has become a trusted source of advice and insights for the government and remains a key advocate for small businesses impacted by COVID-19. We have also committed to paying our small business suppliers within ten days, because we know how important cash flow is to many right now.

Behind the scenes, our teams are building and delivering the products and features that help small businesses and advisors with their immediate needs. You can take a closer look at the work underway on the next page.

With current restrictions on travel and large-scale inperson events, we recently made the tough decision to cancel our annual Xerocon event, planned for September in Sydney. While we are all disappointed not to be coming together this year, we’ll be back in person in Sydney in 2021 and are planning on bringing you news and product updates in new and innovative ways throughout the year.

I’m proud of the effort that Xero people have made over these past few months, working around the clock to help our customers and partners. I am also very appreciative of the broader Xero community that inspires us with their resilience and determination to respond and get through these challenging times.

I’m looking forward to meeting and speaking with many of you again in person in the near future.

Steve Vamos, May 2020

Product Update New ways to show business owners and advisors the way forward Cash flow is always important, especially so for small businesses who may not know when their next invoice will be paid. To help, we accelerated the development and global availability of several tools and pilots that do just that.

We first announced the Business

Snapshot pilot (see Fig. 1) at Xerocon London last year and are now making the pilot available for free to Xero Business Edition customers until August. The pilot tool provides a visual dashboard of key financial metrics including profit and loss, revenue, expenses and cash balances, so advisors can help their small business clients understand crucial health metrics quickly and discuss business performance, possible

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risks or opportunities. We are also accelerating availability of a Short-Term Cash Flow pilot tool (see Fig. 2), so businesses can project their bank balances 30 days ahead, showing the impact of existing bills and invoices if they’re paid on time.

Accountants and bookkeepers using Xero HQ can also quickly download a monthly revenue export of client organisations to get a high-level view of the health of their Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 23 / 11

clients. The report shows year-onyear revenue changes, current cash balances and their primary banking relationships, giving advisors oversight on which clients are impacted most, potential eligibility for banking support packages.

Making government stimulus and support measures easier to adopt Governments around the world are working hard to help support small businesses and their employees through stimulus and support packages. We have prioritised our work in tax and payroll in recent months to give eligible businesses the greatest chance of accessing these packages.

Fig. 1

In Australia, we’ve made it easier for businesses to work out if they might be eligible for JobKeeper payments, by building a GST turnover calculator within Xero. For those who apply, and are accepted, Xero Payroll now helps businesses process JobKeeper payments made to employees by automatically creating a pay item so they can accurately report these payments to the ATO. We also provide a way to process the JobKeeper payment and report it to the ATO. Most of this happens seamlessly in the background when filing Single Touch Payroll obligations.

Fig. 2

In the United Kingdom, we’ve streamlined the process for creating termination pay items, so businesses can easily pay and report on Class 1A National Insurance Contribution (NIC) on termination payments above £30,000 to HMRC.

Fig. 3

We also added furlough leave in Xero Payroll so UK small businesses can more easily manage and report information about employees who have been furloughed. This makes it easier for businesses to apply for 80% of an employees’ regular earnings, with flexibility to record furlough periods as and when they occur.

In other regions, we have added 12 / Issue 23

in-app prompts and reminders for customers about available stimulus measures in their country, and have of course ensured all relevant information is available in our Business Continuity Hub. Invoicing made easier for Australia, New Zealand and the UK This month we became the first major provider of small-business

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

accounting software to offer e-invoicing (see Fig. 3) in Australia and New Zealand, with more advanced functionality being added over time. Rather than manually creating and sending invoices, this means small businesses in those countries can now send electronic invoices to participating businesses and it will arrive in their accounting system as a pre-populated bill.

From this month, Australian and New Zealand businesses who work with participating government agencies will be able to send e-invoices to them. Participating Australian government agencies have committed to paying e-invoice sent by small businesses in as little as five days. The New Zealand Government is also using e-invoicing as a core part of its pledge to pay 95% of domestic invoices within 10 days.

E-invoicing is starting to gain traction around the world as a way to reduce errors, speed up payment times, and streamline account receivable. We are working with governments, international standards bodies and organisations around the world to increase e-invoicing capabilities and can’t wait to bring more functionality to the platform.

For UK small businesses, we launched Pay with TransferWise, a new solution that helps businesses pay and manage multiple bills quickly. It means businesses can pay all their bills through Xero regardless of which bank they use, and reconcile transactions easily.

This removes the hassle and time spent dealing with batch payment files, or checking the status of individual payments in an account.

And UK small businesses in the construction industry can now deduct Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) payments automatically from invoices on the Xero mobile app, so contractors know exactly what to pay.

ShipIt initiative brings more to the fold Xero employees across the company have been itching to help out wherever they can to support our customers during this time, from improving platform features to creating support resources.

We launched the internal ShipIt challenge in April to give product teams not directly involved in immediate feature enhancements a way to contribute to the cause.

determine new ways to help, and quickly settled on seven distinct product enhancements.

These included the COVID-19 Support page now available in Xero HQ, a new way to find duplicate bank transactions in Xero, enhancements to extend course deadlines in Xero Learn, and a platform to help connect small businesses to an accountant or bookkeeper and help them through these situations. These improvements and initiatives are being rolled out in the coming weeks and form part of our broader effort to prioritise everything we do at Xero on those in need.

Over the course of a month, product teams around Xero came together to brainstorm and develop new features and capabilities designed to help small businesses and advisors focusing on business continuity. Working in close collaboration with Xero executives, the ShipIt teams looked at customer feedback data to

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Accounting Beyond the Pandemic People, Processes...

Profits?

We’ve all heard and read many doomsday scenarios being discussed for economies around the world following the impact of major lockdowns across the globe resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This will of course have an impact on accountancy businesses as their clients have reduced levels of activity, at least, in the short term.

What does that mean to firms? And what actions are necessary to ensure that your firm remains relevant?

I @AdvanceTrack

Vipul Sheth ACA CTA, Founder and Managing Director, AdvanceTrack Outsourcing Vipul 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.

AdvanceTrack demonstrates compliance with international security laws including GDPR through certification to ISO27001:2013 and BS10012 audited by BSI.

14 / Issue 23

must step up.

nnovation and Communication

Accountants are in a unique position to provide real value to the people they work for – above and beyond a basic and narrow ‘service’.

Accountants must not rest on their laurels. I tell our clients that “The Wow of Today is the Normal of Tomorrow,”

Don’t compare yourself with what other accountants do – consumers and clients are driven by other experiences they have – that represents their expectation.

So why do you do what you do? You have to deliver value.

While the coronavirus crisis Accountants must not has proved incredibly rest on their laurels. disruptive, it has I tell our clients that forced accountants “The Wow of Today and clients to is the Normal of communicate more – Tomorrow”. albeit via digital online platforms.

The exponential improvements in Amazon’s service provision and constant innovation, and the day-to-day consumer experiences influence what people expect from professional services organisations – and they

The importance of relationships never goes away. Now we see our

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

people increasingly moving up the value chain – with clients and in our own business. If you weren’t using Zoom or Teams a month ago, you are now – and these tools are helping you have conversations.

You might have had two or three client meetings in a day; now you can have ten or 15 – hopefully all incredibly valuable to you and clients. Being digital allows you to do that. You’re doing things a lot quicker, communicating more – so take the digital journey.

Invest in relationships Karen Reyburn, founder of The Profitable Firm, says you need to focus on the relationship-building you will inevitably be doing at the moment.

And that, while billing and charging is both a difficult and thorny task at the moment, you are investing in potentially keeping clients for a lifetime.

“Some things have changed in the crisis, some things haven’t,” she said. “Relationships… it’s always important to invest in client relationships.”

Putting yourself ‘out there’ will also engender positive sentiment towards you and your firm from potential clients and other working partners.

“So many of you are already spending time on the things that build relationships – sharing information, blogs, videos… just get it out there!

You will get enquiries if you’re doing those things.

You are on the front line of saving businesses,” Reyburn added.

the tool they use? This is why video is so powerful: you’re connecting with them faster – the number of accountants who are realising that it doesn’t have to be perfect, but doing so builds relationships faster.”

Efficiency and trust As founder of presentation training business Speaking Ambition, and MD of Blue Arrow Accounting, Alexandra Bond Burnett is well

“Some firms are fearful of giving too much valuable information away in the public domain, via their website or on social media. However, Reyburn’s approach is very simple: “Give information away, charge for implementation.”

If people think that undertaking a task will be exhausting or difficult, they will come to you, whether you’ve given them the basic information or not, she suggested.

“The more you share, the more they’ll want to work with you,” she said. “Use content to build assets. What can I build so that when they have problems, this is

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Issue 23 / 15

placed to talk about how you build trust with existing and potential clients.

considering who do you think about when you’re communicating?” she said.

“How do you give someone the green flag that you’re the best person to choose to help them?” asked Bond Burnett.

“It’s more than likely that it’s ‘what will someone think of me?’ Don’t focus on yourself – turn it around and think about the client.

Breaking down the elements that are required to create trust was a key part of Bond Burnett’s presentation.

“How can they be helped right now, and then next week and then the week after that… then start communicating that to them.

The hero is the client; make them the centre of the story.”

The trust equation is: credibility; reliability; and intimacy.

Service clarity Credibility – “Demonstrating your experience, be that talking about things you know and understand, having conversations with people and presenting your qualifications.”

Reliability – “This is about ‘showing up’. Doing what you said you were going to do. To be there so your clients don’t need to worry.”

Intimacy – “You can be credible and reliable, but you have to build that level of rapport. People make logical decisions but with a dollop of emotion. How do you make someone feel? Safe, challenged, that they can do anything?”

Bond Burnett pulls this together by discussing ‘self orientation’. “It is a funny phrase – but essentially we’re

16 / Issue 23

“How do things get done?” asks Trent McLaren, global head of accounting and sales at Practice Ignition.

Accountants need to be clear about understanding the work entailed both internally for your practice, and what you do for your clients.

For McLaren, this ultimately means you are looking for a balance between the work your people undertake, the technology used as a tool and the processes put in place to make the work flow.

“When the customer and employee experiences work well, then you

as a practice gain a competitive advantage,” he said.

“It means you’re completing work faster, with fewer resources, improving quality and hopefully improving customer satisfaction.”

Another key task is to ‘map’ the customer journey. Do you understand the path a client takes, and the touchpoints they have with you, as you work together? From them becoming a lead/prospect to becoming your client and beyond, think about how you communicate with them and the services you provide.

By doing this you create a ‘blueprint’. McLaren referenced an article by the Nielsen Norman Group on this very topic, which can be found here.

FIND OUT MORE...

All of this is part of a series of webinars by AdvanceTrack to help firms to Move “Beyond the Pandemic” available at > advancetrack.com/webinars To talk through your outsourcing and offshoring needs, book a call: > advancetrack.com/start-here

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

Practice Ignition turns your proposal, terms of service and invoicing into a single smart contract. It’s fast, efficient and your clients will love it!

Practice Ignition automates our onboarding and engagement processes. Our clients love the digital sign-off, and we love that it kicks our bills directly into Xero. Practice Ignition has boosted our team’s efficiency significantly. ” Peter Magner, Marketing Director, Iridium Book a Demo landing.practiceignition.com/moretime Subscribe for FREE: Go to subscriptions.xumagazine.com

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Issue 23 / 17

Interview

Tony Ward President, Americas Xero

18 / Issue 23

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

Interview

XU:

3. They didn’t know who to call when something went wrong.

TW:

I basically whitelabelled support through a New Zealand company called DataCom out in New Zealand to do my support. Great idea... but then Google and Optis came out with virtually the same idea for cheaper and I thought I’m never going to compete with them, so I decided that wasn’t going to work long term.

Tony, I just wondered if you could start by telling me a little more about yourself and how you came to be in the role of President of the Americas at Xero?

I started in May 2019, so it’s been just over a

year!

I’ve been in technology for 25 years in one way, shape or form. I started tech life in a small New Zealand firm - actually the firm that bought one of Rod’s first companies. We were called Advantage, which bought ‘Glazier Systems’, which I think was Rod’s first start up in about ‘99. The internet was really just starting to kick off and I thought, ‘This is the future’. So I went to work at New Zealand’s internet service provider called ‘Xtra’. I did that for a couple of years and then I thought I’ll go and do a start-up because it was kind of a dot com, it was really happening. There was an opportunity at Microsoft New Zealand, and I thought ‘Oh, here’s a real opportunity to learn from a marketing machine. I’ll go to Microsoft for a couple of years, and then I’ll go and work in a start-up’...

10 years and two countries later, I was still at Microsoft.

I did a few different things at Microsoft - moved to Sydney, and effectively ended up as their CMO and COO. That’s where I met Steve Vamos, who was running Microsoft Australia and he became a mentor of mine, so we stayed in touch.

I tried to do my own start-up in 2010. The plan was to effectively bundle Office 365, something like either Salesforce, SugarCRM and Xero, for small businesses. I was a Xero customer, that’s what I was using. I could see that small business was really underserved by everybody, and they had 3 main problems: 1. They were never up to date on the latest software, obviously, SaaS fixes that.

2. They couldn’t afford big unplanned expenses, such as the need to go and buy a mail server or a bunch of laptops. Obviously, SaaS fixes that too.

I thought SaaS and Social was really the future and looked at Facebook and LinkedIn. I went to work at LinkedIn and did that for a couple years. I ran the third biggest business at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, and then went to SurveyMonkey and Dropbox. I kept in touch with Steve, and had lunch with him once or twice a year.

We’d catch up and I heard about the amazing opportunity at Xero to run the Americas. I had many conversations with different people and got really excited about the difference we could make for North American small businesses and their accountants and bookkeepers.

I never intended to live in the US, I was really happy in the southern hemisphere, but I’d known about Xero for a long time, known Rod for a long time and really trusted Steve as a leader. I loved the idea of being a challenger brand and we’re definitely a challenger brand in North America. Next thing you know, I’m working for Xero and moving my family to the US!

XU:

I think when I saw you at Xerocon you were in the process of moving your family over.

TW:

Yes, I was basically commuting from May last year and then we moved over in January. It was 7 months of just 3 weeks here, 10 days home, 2 weeks here, 1 week home. So that was really, really tough.

XU:

The first time we (at XU) heard you speak was at Xerocon San Diego (2019).

How have the first 12 months in the job been for you? Do you have any

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highlights you could share?

TW:

The business is in such better shape.

We’re doing many more deals with many more partners. Partners who had started with maybe 10 subscriptions, then went to 100 and are now looking at 300-500. If you look at our FY20 results, in North America we have 241K subscribers, and we estimate we now have just under 1.5 million small businesses connected with our accounting and bookkeeping partners.

There is a lot of opportunity to grow our subscribers in that base. We’re really focused on getting a lot of new partners and we’re building a lot of momentum. We’re building up to Xerocon in May ‘21, which is in New Orleans. We’re going to plant the flag - ‘Hey, we’ve arrived’ in North America’. Everything we’re doing in terms of recruiting partners, training the people that we have, the product marketing… everything is geared towards May ‘21. We’re building towards that.

XU:

It was great to see the latest Xero annual report for FY20. The growth in Xero subscriptions worldwide was so impressive. To see the growth up to 241K (+24%) in North America was awesome. What was the game plan to achieve this and have you done anything particularly different from other years?

TW:

I think our strategy hasn’t changed. If you’ve been through the investor deck and you listened to Steve’s recording, he talks around the 3 main strategic priorities in terms of driving cloud accounting, growing the small biz platform and then building for global scale and innovation. Those things are going to be persistent for the next 3 to 10 years. As things unfold we’ll see what we started to buy, build and partner on. It will become clear that’s what we’re really focused on.

During one of my first times in the US, I said I don’t have a magic wand. I can’t all of a sudden turn where we are into where we want to be. Ben Richmond runs the US

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Issue 23 / 19

Interview and Will Buckley runs Canada.

They’ve been here for 7 odd years.

We’ve stuck to the playbook the playbook works, right? You get partners, you make them successful, and then they grow. I think before my time, they recruited quite small partners that had maybe 10 - 40 small businesses.

That’s a high cost to acquisition, without a lot of ability to scale. So they stopped and really focused on going direct to small business and spent a pile of money on marketing and all the rest of it.

But the problem was that Xero is designed to work with your accountant or bookkeeper to set it up. If you go direct and they don’t have an accountant or bookkeeper, they struggle. So you spend a lot to acquire customers, and it would be challenging. You have to do both. You have to recruit partners, train them and help them to be successful, and you have to create demand on the small business side.

So I think all we’ve done is had the fortitude to stick with the plan and just execute it.

The UK has been an overnight success after 10 years. Gary Turner’s been around 10 years and it takes a long time to really get it to work, but it’s magic when it does. It just becomes this machine that throws off new customers, and you get the whole virtuous cycle of accountants talking to accountants, small businesses talking to accountants.

There is a point where it really starts to get momentum. That hasn’t changed.

I think one of the things that has become clear to me over the past 6 months or so is that we have a two sales motion - one of them is the small business side of the house with small accounts, and then there’s an enterprise sales motion, which are verticals and large accounting firms, so say the global 30. And then strategic partnerships, so the large tech companies that are reaching out to us on a regular basis saying “Hey, we want to figure out how to work together to go after a small business with you”. That is definitely an area where we’ve seen growth. If you look at our 20 / Issue 23

results, K-Coe is a new partner, one of the largest food and agriculture consulting and accounting firms in the United States. And MNP, one of Canada’s largest national accounting, tax and business consulting firms that serves 150,000 small business customers.

XU:

How important are the Xero team for achieving

this growth?

TW:

I think that is the magic ingredient to be completely honest. I think at the end of the day, people buy from people they like. Like is about trust and trust is about having your back.

We met Shayne Dueck, a partner from MNP at Xerocon San Diego. We don’t bill in Candian dollars at the moment, we were missing things like GST and PST and HST, missing some real core functionality. Yet they signed the deal with us.

Shaynewas really clear that it was the people component at Xero that got us over the line. Even though Shayne knew our product wasn’t as feature complete, he bought from us because he fundamentally believes we will get there and take care of him and help his business to grow, and we will! Tanner Hoffman, who is in Nebraska, looks after the farming vertical and is a farmer. He lives and runs a farm in Nebraska, which has been in his family for about 75 years. He went up to Winnipeg Manitoba in Canada and met with the partners to talk about his experience of running a farm, how Xero figured in and worked in the farming world. I think the difference is having somebody that really understands what they are trying to do for their clients

versus somebody who is just selling software. It’s that nuance, but it’s important.

Even in the COVID-19 world, we made it really clear to Ben & Will that April was not to be a selling moment. This is a caring moment, this is a human moment. Every single one of our partners in the Americas was either spoken to directly, or emailed in April to make sure they’re okay. Are you okay as a person, is your family okay? And then we’ll talk about the business and all the rest of it. That is not a sales opportunity and I was really, really adamant that it was most important to see if they’re okay. You imagine they’re hearing all these really difficult stories people losing their family business or potentially their house, they can’t afford to send their kids to school or to do sports. They’re hearing these terrible, terrible stories and just seeing if they’re okay was obviously super important for us.

Almost everybody at Xero, if they haven’t been an accountant or bookkeeper, then they’ve actually run a small business, or their family has been in small business in one shape or form. Everybody has empathy for small business and is passionate about small business, which is super important.

We went really hard, really early with education around how you access some of the government programmes available. Because let’s face it, governments generally don’t make information easy to consume.

My mom was a hairdresser, and she owned her own business for 25 years. I just imagine my mom trying

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

Interview to consume the information around the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) here or the programmes in the UK, or Canada - wherever. So how can we make this simple? How do we help these people get access to these programmes? We worked with all of our partners. You would have seen all of the webinars from Xero around the world, not just us.

Our partners were doing it as well and we were supporting them.

I was saying earlier today, we were looking at our customer experience helpdesk tickets and thinking ‘Oh my gosh, people are going to be writing in about how they want subscription relief ’. We were really clear about it - people can suspend their subscription and when they come back, all their data is still there. All the money we basically bring in, which you can see in our results, goes back into building these things. But you know, we have 241,000 customers in the US, and in the past 2 months we’ve had about 10 negative support tickets… out of 241,000! I was nervous when we had our weekly leadership team meeting here in the US as to what the numbers were going to say... what’s going on out there? I was blown away by the fact there were only 10 that were negative... 10 is obviously 10 too many! But 10 over 241,000 is pretty close to nil.

XU:

Well, you’d definitely take that.

TW:

I gather it’ll grow, but 10 is pretty negligible as the numerator, for sure.

XU:

Definitely. One of the things we have observed Xero in America do is a pivot from their original game plan, which now seems to be paying off.

What would your advice be to other businesses where the old way of doing things isn’t working now or they need to pivot their service/ approach to ensure continuity and growth? Especially as the first step to do this can seem so scary.

TW:

The first thing I would do if I didn’t have an accountant or a bookkeeper, would be to get one.

Number two, if I had an accountant or bookkeeper, I would be calling them and asking them for advice and being willing to pay for it.

Number three, I would be really focused on cash flow. We recently released a new short term cash flow feature. We’re going to push that out globally so people can get access to cash flow forecasting. I would be looking at my accounts receivable every single day and focusing on how I can get as much revenue in the door as possible.

Then, obviously I’d be looking at the cost side of the equation. How do I reduce my costs and potentially

apply some of those savings to marketing to get more business in the door? If I’m bricks and mortar, I’d be working out how to get an online shop ASAP. I’d be working out whether I can sell through Amazon or another marketplace. I would be figuring out how to sell on one of those marketplaces, because they’re going like crazy.

XU:

That’s some great advice. Xero is a global brand with exciting differences between countries and regions.

Are you able to explain in more detail your route to market in the Americas? Has this been plain sailing and how has the plan had to adapt and evolve since you jumped on board?

TW:

Our route to market is exactly the same accountants and bookkeepers.

We sell direct as well, the same as all our other markets. I think the nuances are that we didn’t do both at the same time, we’ve only done that the past two years. If you think about it, Xero Americas in its actual proper form is really only 2 - 2 1/2 years old, even though we’ve been here for 7 years.

I’ve lived in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US now, and my Dad was British. All 5 of those countries are largely 99% the same. There’s local nuance for sure, but business is business in those 5 countries, so what works in Australia and New Zealand, works in the UK and it will work in Canada and it works in America well. I think stick with what’s worked, then look to accelerate that as we start to scale.

XU:

Following on from that, what differences does Xero Americas face trying to help accountants, bookkeepers and SMEs compared with other parts of the world?

TW:

Obviously the US is different with 8,000 banks and a much more complicated tax filing system. There is something like 16,000 different sales tax rates. It’s no different than the commonwealth markets, it just

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Issue 23 / 21

Interview has more complexity. One of the pieces of information from some research we just commissioned is how America is very much a DIY market. People think they can do it themselves. What that means from a small business perspective is there are a lot who don’t have a bookkeeper or accountant, something like 60-70% who just do it themselves with their shoebox and Excel.

TW:

I think what COVID-19 has done is highlighted that. My comment before was that if you don’t have an accountant or bookkeeper, get one.

We’re trying to have a conversation about how we move American small business from DIY to DIT - ‘Do It Together’, with an accountant or bookkeeper. Remember, if you’re a small business, it’s not just Xero you need for accounting. You’re going to need someone for Point of Sale and a line of business application, whether you’re an architect or something else entirely.

So the next step, you need some hardware, so you’ll go to the Apple shop. You’ll go to the Genius Bar, and they’ll sell you a laptop or a phone, and then you ask, ‘what should I use for software?’ and they’ll answer, ‘well, you could use Mac Office...’ and they’ll send you away. No one has told you what you need to do to run your business, to create invoices, to get payment.

There isn’t anywhere for those people to go for advice, so the accountants and bookkeepers are more and more becoming the ones providing that advisor role, as a service provider. IT consultants will say, well you’re a sparky, you need Xero, you need this and you need that. There isn’t anyone in small business actually doing that.

A lot of it sits on our ecosystem.

If you’re going to go onto Shopify and you’re going to use Xero, you’re probably going to need something like A2X in the middle, right? If you’re a small business sitting in London and you’re a bricks and mortar business, but you have something you can sell online, what are you going to do? You’re going to google ‘How do I sell on Shopify’. And then you’re going to say, ‘Okay. I’ve got Xero and I’ve got Shopify. But I need A2X’. You’ll end up on our marketplace, and hopefully you’ll find that and stick those things together. You’ll do it on Amazon, same sort of thing.

So I think COVID-19 is going to drive the DIY mentality of America, to DIT - ‘Do It Together’ with an accountant or bookkeeper. That’s what our experts tell us. They said the inbound leads they’re getting from small businesses is blowing them away because they can’t do it themselves, they’re lost.

XU:

Can you tell me a little bit about why you feel small businesses should modernise and move to the cloud and how you are dealing with this challenge?

22 / Issue 23

I’ve told you the story about my start-up. If I’m starting a business, where do I get advice about technology? If you go to your bank and tell them you’re thinking about setting up your own business being an electrician, and ask what you should do, the bank’s going to say, ‘ We can set you up with a current account and you’re on your way.’ Nothing about what you should do in terms of your IT.

XU:

Yeah. That’s why the accountant role is so crucial, to have that advisory service. It’s what you need, and you need to have trust in them too.

TW:

I think about my mum as a hairdresser, she wouldn’t have a clue what software she should be using to run her business. She’s retired now, but in the old days, it was a book and a cash drawer. I’d actually do her banking deposit for her. I’d fill out the deposit form, take the canvas bag and throw it in the old school hole-in-the-wall they would have for deposits. But someone starting today, there will be a specific Point of Sale application for hairdressers that most of them use. How do you find that out? You ask a friend, you ask somebody in the business… but hopefully you’ll ask your accountant or bookkeeper and they can tell you ‘I managed some other hairdressers, and this is what they use, they’re really happy with it, so

why don’t you give that a try.’

XU:

A massive part of Xero is the ecosystem that surrounds and supports it. How has this developed over the last year in the Americas and are there any exciting apps you have seen integrate recently?

TW:

That’s a good question.

Xero’s app marketplace features 800+ third party apps that help small businesses and their advisors seamlessly run their business. With apps that support everything from inventory and logistics to point of sale and project management, businesses have an array of options to build a customised experience. We are working closely with apps such as Shopify, Pipedrive, Jirav, TriNet and Locate.

XU:

There is no hiding that currently worldwide we are going through unprecedented times. I would love to get your view on how Xero and the community surrounding Xero can help accountants, bookkeepers and SMEs at these times?

TW:

Cash flow, cash flow, cash flow. In any business, cash flow is king. Really understanding your financial position now and going forward is incredibly important. Everyone is going to be calling in their debt as quickly as they can. Ben was quoted recently saying ‘the squeaky wheel gets the oil’. You literally have to be on people who owe you money, to pay you money.

Potentially, they’re going to run out of money, and if you’re number 20 on the list and waiting for your cheque to come in the mail, which still happens in America, you need to get onto them. In terms of your accounts payable, there are a lot of people negotiating rent holidays and just generally trying to reduce your outgoings. Just core business principles. So, money in and money out. Trying to grow your business, or at least sustain that level of business.

XU:

This question is so important right now.

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

Interview as well. If people are changing the way they’re banking, how can we help out?

TW:

I think you’re right.

They interviewed Bill Gates a week or so ago on CNN and he said something that has really stuck with me. He said COVID-19 is accelerating trends that were already happening. He talks about digitisation as one of those trends which is accelerating. The banks have been talking about disrupting themselves for quite some time, but basically it’s here now and it’s here at speed. All sorts of interesting things are going to happen with the neo-banks and players in that space.

I definitely think that all apps are going to accelerate. We were talking about a deal with one of the neobanks here in the US where they want to basically bundle Xero with every new business and customer that they get. So I think you’ll start to see more of that. We’re certainly investing a lot of time, effort and energy into those types of partnerships.

XU:

Exactly. It would be great if we could finish with some words of wisdom from you. What advice/support would you give right now to Xero users?

What do you see as some of the vital challenges that Xero and its users will face over the next 12 months? Also, how important is it that we have the Xero ecosystem at times like this to help?

different apps that are made for electricians, plumbers, builders, etc. We definitely see there is growth in those areas, and anything that helps you with cashflow certainly will be useful.

TW:

XU:

There are certain verticals and subverticals that are going to do better than others in the next 6 - 24 months. I would say applications that are in the hospitality space are really going to suffer, so things that do front of house for restaurants and things like that. Even things like time attendance and scheduling applications. It’s definitely hard in that space, but we see farming, construction and e-commerce as growth verticals. In the US, they’re actually quite strong verticals for us. So any applications that serve e-commerce, like A2X or farming like ‘Figured’, and there are lots of

I’ve seen an increase in people in the UK talking about finance integrations that are out there, and debt collection, or invoice tracking.

There’s been a real interest in people wanting to learn more about it.

TW:

Yes, I think you’ll see financial services in general as a broad category becoming far more core to cloud accounting. That’s definitely an area we’re working hard at.

XU:

TW:

I love the Ghandi quote “Be the change you want to see in the world”.

Sometimes we think we can’t change things as individuals, because we’re one person. But look at what’s happening. One of the positives of everyone not having to drive their cars is that pollution has dropped. That’s just because everybody is not driving, right?

So we all can do something to make the world better. Rather than complain about it, what are you going to do about it? That quote has always stuck with me.

I’ve seen people are interested in neo-banks

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Issue 23 / 23

Cover Tutorial Story

How to use the Receipt Bank to ApprovalMax direct integration The processing of invoices, bills and expenses usually involves a digital capture app for extracting the relevant data with the documents then pushed to Xero in the “Awaiting Approval” status ready to get picked up by ApprovalMax for automated approval routing. Now, there is an additional option of how to fetch a bill: a direct integration between Receipt Bank and ApprovalMax.

W

ho is the new integration for?

ApprovalMax and Receipt Bank already work together seamlessly in the Xero ecosystem because of Xero’s ability to differentiate between document statuses. This allows Receipt Bank to simply enter new bills into Xero with the “Awaiting Approval” status to make sure that ApprovalMax automatically picks them up for review and approval.

However, this integration scheme does have some drawbacks. For instance, bills that have run through the review and approval process but were rejected will remain visible in Xero. Also, there can be duplicate bills, which are identified during the ApprovalMax review and approval process. They are marked as rejected and pushed to Xero in “Draft” status; a report with the rejection reason is sent to the respective user by email. While this is fine for some organisations, others prefer to keep a neat general ledger and not have rejected

duplicate bills in Xero.

The direct Receipt Bank to ApprovalMax integration In the new direct integration scheme Receipt Bank doesn’t publish bills to Xero but instead to ApprovalMax, which will do some checks before initiating the appropriate review and approval process. On approval completion only documents that have been fully approved will be published to Xero in the “Awaiting Payment” status. If rejected, bills can either be resubmitted in Receipt Bank or just be stored as “Rejected” in ApprovalMax – and never enter Xero.

How does it work?

First, you need to configure Receipt Bank so that the digitally captured invoices are published to ApprovalMax instead of Xero.

Next, Receipt Bank gets connected to ApprovalMax. Please note: ApprovalMax must already be connected to Xero before

@ApprovalMax

Konstantin Bredyuk, Director, Product, ApprovalMax With roots in business process management and optimisation software development, Konstantin has undertaken hundreds of product implementations for ApprovalMax clients worldwide.

Konstantin has been advising numerous organisations on implementing automation, financial controls and client collaboration capabilities using Xero-based trusted app stacks, with business profiles ranging from SMEs to large accounting and advisory practices.

you connect Receipt Bank to ApprovalMax. When all is set up correctly, the process looks like this: • After extracting the relevant invoice data, Receipt Bank enters the information into the bill fields and attaches an invoice scan to the digital invoice copy before publishing it to ApprovalMax for authorisation.

• In ApprovalMax, each invoice is routed to the appropriate manager with the specified authorisation level as determined in the approval matrix and the approval workflow.

• Once approved via the web or mobile app, bills are assigned the “Awaiting Payment” status and published to Xero. A notification about the successful authorisation is sent to the specified address.

• A detailed audit report containing the approvers’ names and dates etc. is created automatically and attached to each approved document. It can be accessed directly from Xero.

Figure 1: Integration scheme before introducing direct integration 24 / Issue 23

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

Tutorial

Figure 2: Direct Receipt Bank to ApprovalMax integration Figure 2: Direct Receipt Bank to ApprovalMax integration If you have bills or expenses that don’t require an approval, you can still use the Receipt Bank to ApprovalMax configuration. The approval workflow in ApprovalMax can be set up in a way that documents which don’t need to go through the approval process are

identified as such and published to Xero straight away.

What are the core benefits of this direct integration?

Bills cannot be pushed to Xero unless they’ve been authorised,

What is ApprovalMax?

What is Receipt Bank?

ApprovalMax extends the online accounting platform Xero with approval-driven financial controls for Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable. It replaces paper- and email-based approvals with fully automated multi-role and multitiered approval workflows, and ensures spend control and regulatory compliance for both internal accounting and financial service outsourcing organisations.

Receipt Bank helps simplify and automate routines in bookkeeping.

Receipts and invoices can be submitted using a range of methods, including the award-winning app, email, and direct upload. Receipt Bank extracts the key data from each item and either stores it for approval or publishes it automatically to a range of cloud software.

• Automation of multi-step and rolebased approvals • Purchase order management, Billto-PO matching • Fraud prevention, reporting, transparent audit trails

so there will never be any rejected bills in the accounting system.

Having only approved bills that are awaiting payment in the general ledger keeps it neat and tidy.

It also helps to decrease the risk of human error. Because bills can only enter Xero once they’ve been fully approved in strict accordance with the approval matrix set up in ApprovalMax, it’s impossible for someone to authorise bills in Xero incorrectly – be it by mistake or intent.

FIND OUT MORE...

• Automated item submission and data entry • Audit-compliant images of all receipts and invoices • Large numbers of expenses managed fast and at scale

To set up the Receipt Bank to ApprovalMax integration or get an ApprovalMax free trial, click here: > landing.approvalmax.com/rb

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Issue 23 / 25

Staying rational in the time of a pandemic I

n one of my undergraduate classes in economics I learned about how taxi drivers in 1980s New York managed their work on busy and slow days.

Interestingly, many had an internal “daily revenue budget” in their mind which was fixed irrespective of the circumstances. On a busy day they would stop working immediately after reaching the budget and go home early. On a slow day they would work very long hours trying to make the same amount of money. Often, they would go home late, tired and frustrated if they made next to nothing. This is clearly irrational, as it is easy to see that an opposite strategy results in higher revenue and better lifestyle: work long hours on a busy day, go home early on a slow day.

Surely, we all know that. Or do we?

People have been shown to be surprisingly irrational at times, especially when stressed, and since these are stressful times for a lot of us, a little reminder of what rationality looks like will not hurt.

Here are a few insights I collected from some of our clients and fellow software entrepreneurs: 1. Throw out your 2020 plans – the budget, the hiring plan, investments – and start from scratch. Put your entrepreneurial hat on and look at the opportunities a) Is the product mix you are offering right?

26 / Issue 23

b) Is your IT infrastructure fit for purpose? c) What projects you always wanted to catch up on but never had the time to?

2. Stop flogging a dead horse a) Enterprise sales inquiries are likely to remain subdued till the end of the year b) Write-off 2 quarters of new sales if you are selling nonessential services 3. Focus on customer retention, not acquisition. a) Make sure you are good value. In the time of raging consumerism, that is, until very recently, it was all about “experience”, the wow factor, the packaging. But on the face of it that time is not coming back soon as we, and our clients, prepare for the coming recession by scrutinising our own costs, from cutting on office space, replacing on-premise servers with the cloud and consolidating software infrastructure. Looking expensive or ‘non-essential’ is not a winning strategy. The survivors probably already endorse remote working with cloud only infrastructure and simple and transparent pricing models. b) Be careful with price renewals – by upselling non-essentials or repackaging services just to increase prices.

@mydocsafe Daniel Stachowiak, MD, MyDocSafe Managing Director and founder of Docsafe Limited t/a MyDocSafe, previously an investment manager (private equity) at Jupiter Asset Management in London and a board director at JRNI.com. Daniel holds an MBA (Oxford), MA in Economics (CEU, Budapest), and BA in Computer Science.

most popular modules include: • Quotes & Proposals • Digital Signature • Client portals • ID verification • Encrypted email

About MyDocSafe

FIND OUT MORE...

MyDocSafe is a one stop shop for client onboarding, document management and compliance. Our

To find out more: > MyDocSafe.com

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Issue 23 / 27

Virtual Roundtable

“The world we are entering will not be the same”

Virtual Roundtable: How to Navigate Your Exit Strategy We asked experts from business, media and the accounting industry to discuss how we can ensure the survival and success of businesses across the country.

@ReceiptBank

Adrian Blair, CEO, Receipt Bank Prior to this, Adrian was the Global Chief Operating Officer of Just Eat and the only executive team member to serve throughout the company’s transformation from start-up to FTSE 100. Before this, he led business development for Spotify in Europe and spent six years in commercial roles at Google in California and London. He is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of Circl, a next-generation leadership development programme for students from deprived backgrounds. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Meet the panel:

Gavin Hewitt

Lisette Sutherland

Jason Blumer

Nick Goode

Former BBC Chief Correspondent and Europe Editor

Author of ‘Work Together Anywhere’

Owner of Blumer CPAs and Virtual Practice Accountant

VP Growth at Revolut

O

N THE NEW BUSINESS MODEL

Jason: Digital business models are now our models for survival.

We made the decision that’s been forced on the world [to go virtual] eight years ago. Back then, we learnt that digital is a more efficient way to operate; digital processes and products make life a lot better.

Lisette: Back in 2015, I advised that whether or not you allow for remote working, it’s good to have the systems in place in case something happens. At the time, I used examples like your kids being sick at home. Businesses have to adapt right now or they’re going to go under.

After this, it will give employees 28 / Issue 23

freedom to work where they’re most productive. It also gives strength to businesses. Of course, this will not work for everybody. But it will for a lot of people.

Nick: We’re seeing a strong demand to go digital. Many businesses are now taking everything online.

People are using this time to rethink their strategy and get onboard with digital tools such as Revolut Business. It’s the big wake-up call for business and technology. If you weren’t digital before, COVID-19 is saying that this is the time to do it.

Adrian: Is there anything you think small businesses can learn from larger companies or vice versa?

Lisette: One thing that large companies do very well is having

great infrastructure in place for employees. They’ve been doing this for a long time. For small businesses, one of the places you can invest in is your infrastructure - make sure people have a proper webcam, headset and good internet connection. Those basics will go a long way.

I’d advise you also to create team agreements for how you’re going to work. When we’re in the office, the way we work is implicit. When we go remote, these agreements need to be explicit. We need to know if we need to have core working hours, security protocols and what communication tools we’ll be using.

I give the example of sending an email to the fire department. If your house is on fire, it’s the wrong

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Virtual Roundtable

tool for the moment. It’s the same thing with remote work; you want to choose the right tool for the right context. That’ll go a long way to creating a high functioning team.

WORKING OUT YOUR LOCKDOWN EXIT STRATEGY Adrian: We’ve seen a lot of businesses laying off staff and pausing recruitment. When do you think businesses will start hiring again?

Gavin: I think that retainment will be a huge challenge if we ease the lockdown sector by sector. In some sectors like entertainment and leisure, rehiring will happen very quickly as those have virtually come to a stop. But companies, large and small, are so stressed that the idea of rehiring will take a while to settle down.

Above all, I think that they need some security. When you come back from lockdown, you’re going to have to still have some sort of social distancing in your office. And for the psychology of the customer, when will customers have the confidence to go away for the weekend or eat in a crowded restaurant? I think companies are trying to hold on as best they can, but the key thing will be restoring confidence. Once you restore confidence, people will begin making plans for the future.

Adrian: What does that mean for lending? Will small businesses get access to the capital that they need?

Nick: There are ways in which businesses, accountants and bookkeepers can weather the storm, yet that storm clearly must end at some point. What I do know is that the fintech industry has shown a huge amount of innovation, creativity and expertise over the last ten to fifteen years.

The ways in which people have adopted online services has been fantastic. So surely, logically, there will be innovators who will provide solutions to these new challenges.

Jason: Coming out of this, there will also be new opportunities for the businesses who have survived the crisis. Communities are going to act and behave differently. And I really think that the accounting profession is poised to walk them through that investment. I think a lot of accountants are finding the value that has always been true; we are the interpreters of numbers. We need to be bold about our value.

Gavin: I think there will also be an end of investment in brick and mortar office spaces, which is going to change the high streets in Europe and North America. There will be a post coronavirus revolution; part of that will be just a different way of doing things. And in my view, if

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businesses don’t engage with that, they risk being left behind.

Adrian: And how can accountants help small businesses?

Nick: Right now, if you just take the macro picture, we’re all obsessed with infection rates, death raves, curves and charts. That’s only possible with CRM systems, a great back-office kit and great accounting products. The fundamental shift to the coronavirus crisis is emphasising the criticality of not just data, but data that’s connected to all of your systems and is accessible all the time, so you can make smart decisions effectively.

Gavin: I also think really smart accountants are those that can get a grip of new support programmes very quickly and be able to say to their clients, ‘Look, this is what matters’. There’s a premium on good advice from accountants to SMEs. And as we get out of this crisis, there will be more legislation.

Jason: We do need to be proactive and anticipate our clients needing access to additional capital. And we definitely need to have the financial numbers for our clients ready. When a new act was passed in America to pour trillions of dollars into small businesses, everybody looked to the accounting market. We were all working fourteen to sixteen hour days. > Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 23 / 29

Virtual Roundtable This is not a time to be reactive.

Proactivity is what will allow us to survive. We created a three tiered plan with different triggers and levers that we pull to remain in business. We reached out immediately to our clients to say, ‘please talk to us.’ We are no longer managing the scope of projects or pricing these conversations.

Instead, we are teaching proactive planning.

HOW TO MANAGE COLLEAGUES AND WORKLOADS IN LOCKDOWN Adrian: Fourteen to sixteen hour days are hard enough in the best of times, but even harder now. Have you got any advice for employees to look after their teams?

Lisette: At the beginning, many managers didn’t allow for flexible working because they were afraid that people would be lazy. The data shows that the opposite is true.

When we go remote, people tend to overwork; burnout is far more prevalent.

As a leader of people, be really aware of how much people are working and maybe put those in your team agreements - for instance, no emails on the weekend. One on one calls from manager to employee are also really important. Not just quick checkins but asking, ‘How is it going?

Is there anything that you need?’

When everything is in disarray, productivity tends to go down and we need to be mindful of how much we’re working, because when work and life blur, we tend to overwork.

Adrian: What are the telltale signs of burnout?

Lisette: First, quality of work goes down, deadlines start getting missed and patience gets a lot

FREE! 30 / Issue 23

shorter. We all react in different ways but it’s important to know how people are coping emotionally. Are they blowing their lid quickly? If you start to see that, it’s time to start having conversations.

and weaknesses, and perhaps the challenging steps that are daunting.

Even though we are in very difficult circumstances, there are real opportunities for small businesses.

There will be a future. And this will come to an end.

As leaders, we need to set the targets then step out the way so that professionals can reach those targets. A leader’s role is to take impediments out of the path and not to micromanage. If a colleague is struggling to get food, maybe it’s about arranging a grocery delivery if you can. Seriously, if your manager arranged a delivery for you, you’d do anything for that person. People caring for each other is really what’s going to hold the world together at this point.

HOW TO SUPPORT CLIENTS REMOTELY Gavin: You cannot overstate the challenges; all of us will have our own stories. [COVID-19] has shown just how fragile things are. For accountants and bookkeepers, you have to continuously talk to your clients so that you’re in the front of the queue when these things begin to relax.

Jason: As an entrepreneur myself, I know that we really struggle when our movements are placed on pause. When we talk to businessesowners, there is a moment of grief as they let go of their business plans. We need to recognise this grief and shift our focus away from what we’ve lost to what we can learn.

FIND OUT MORE...

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Nick: If you can get your digital processes things right now, you’ll be ready for the digital future when we all get out of this.

For current partners, the most critical Receipt Bank features for remote working are now free for three months (available for a limited time only).

Gavin: Absolutely. This is the time to evaluate a company’s strengths

> receipt-bank.com/xumag

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Issue 23 / 31

Struggling to manage your employee records?

Streamlining your HR records and processes is easier than you think HR Partner speaks to thousands of small and medium businesses and it’s clear that once there are more than 15 or so employees, the management of employee data needs to be treated seriously.

W

e’re talking about contact details, performance reviews, assets on loan, training courses completed, leave records, position information, contracts, licenses and lots more.

information internally was difficult - actually, it was an enormous amount of work.” Or as Lonnie from LocalSEO put it, before using an HR system; “We were dropping the ball in a number of areas”.

Although spreadsheets and online files (or even paper files), might be fine when you’re very small, at some point, it’s time to move to a proper HR system that’s designed for handling employee records.

HR Partner is designed for companies just like these...

Kate from Solar Reviews realised things were getting out of control.

As she says; “I was getting constant questions about employees’ leave asking ‘where am I at, what do I have available’. This was taking a lot of time and getting worse. We also realised we had employee records and files in multiple places. There was no single source of control, no way to make files available to the right people, and no real processes in place.”

In a similar vein, Donna from Bligh Tanner said; “Before we started using HR Partner, finding 32 / Issue 23

Get everything in one place Businesses that start using HR Partner tell us they can now sleep better at night! The relief that comes from putting everything in one place where they can be accessed anywhere, and only by the right people, is enormous.

With more and more people working remotely these days, it’s becoming even more important to have files securely stored online. Knowing you can access any file within a few clicks makes it so much easier if you are audited, if employees have queries, or if you suddenly need to work from another location.

@HRPartner

Fiona Adler, Director, HR Partner Fiona is passionate about helping small and medium businesses get the tools and know-how to grow and streamline their operations.

She has worked with SMB’s for over 20 years - creating and building online solutions that help them operate in the best ways possible. With a background in business consulting and an MBA, Fiona knows there is nothing more important than the Human Resources function.

Manage leave requests One of the most fundamental roles of an HR system is to allow employees to submit leave requests, have them approved by the appropriate person, and have their leave accruals visible to both managers and employees. Just this task alone can take an enormous amount of time - which is easily streamlined with the proper system in place.

Improve recruiting processes There’s nothing more important than hiring the

WHAT OUR USERS SAY...

“HR Partner has taken a lot off my plate. There are a lot fewer things that I have to micromanage and I know we’re not exposed to making mistakes.”

Kate, Solar Reviews “We love the reminders for everything and I feel confident knowing that nothing can fall through the cracks. HR Partner saves me a lot of time as everything is in one place.”

Sally, Philspace

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

level. By setting up HR systems right team, but usually this is an properly, you’re sending a message extremely time consuming and to employees to inefficient process. Instead let them know that of using a separate Businesses that they’re important system, or getting start using HR and valued. flooded with emails, a recruiting system Partner tell us Empower that is linked to your they can now employees employee records sleep better at lets you capture the night!

Giving employees entire process from access to a company “hire to retire” - all in directory, the ability to one system. Post your open submit leave requests and see their positions on your own job board, leave balances, access documents design your application form, put from your company library, together a selection panel, and complete onboarding checklists use an applicant scorecard to help and more, is a key component you make the best hiring for creating an empowered decisions. workforce. It also relieves the HR workload!

Create a professional image These were the problems we saw when we decided When your company to build HR Partner. We tools include a custom wanted an all-in-one system that job board, online electronic would solve these problems. signatures for contract signing, smooth onboarding processes, Our software platform includes: organisational chart, company • Seamless Xero integration directory and more, this creates • Employee record keeping a professional image that steps including contracts, positions, your reputation up to the next

salaries, performance reviews, assets on loan, skills, training and more • Leave requests, approvals & accruals • Recruitment & applicant tracking • Onboarding checklists • Employee portal • Timesheets • Expense Claims • E-Signatures • Reminders • And more Keeping your HR records online means that they are totally secure and accessible only by the right people.

HR Partner is designed for small and medium businesses, so it’s a lot more affordable than you might think. How much time could you save by streamlining these processes?

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Start a free trial today or request a no-obligation demo > www.hrpartner.io

HR Software

for Small & Medium Businesses Employee Records

Streamline your HR processes and free up your time.

Leave Requests

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Onboarding Checklists

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Cover Case Study Story

Early cloud adoption helps global architecture firm dwp thrive

@WorkflowMax

Millie Vingrys, Global Marketing Manager, WorkflowMax I’m the global marketing manager at WorkflowMax. I enjoy sharing our customer stories of success, business growth and those of challenge and triumph with the wider community. It’s been humbling to see how our products are really making a difference in the lives of business owners, as we face this new normal together.

A decision two years ago to become a 100% cloud-based business proves vital for dwp architects’ success.

W

e recently caught up with global architecture heavyweight dwp (design worldwide partnership), who have 300 staff and offices in 12 countries around the world. Currently located in Australia, Asia, the United States, Europe and the Middle East, this large organisation is reaping the rewards of a decision they made just over two years ago to become a 100% cloud-based business. Switching from a legacy ERP system to using Xero and WorkflowMax has saved them over 50% on subscription fees in the process.

Below: dwp head office Bangkok

The philosophy that architecture and design is simple, elegant and timeless is at the heart of everything they do. Proud of their

entrepreneurial spirit, dwp isn’t afraid to push boundaries and face new challenges using cutting edge collaborative, sustainable and creative design technology.

The team has a huge skillset in hospitality, workplace and educational design, and thinks about all their projects through a hospitality and lifestyle lens.

We asked dwp’s Group Creative Director, Scott Whittaker about the role that technology – specifically Xero and WorkflowMax – has played in their business every day and in the transition from working in the office to working at home during COVID-19.

Scott says, “For business owners, using cloud solutions like Xero and

WorkflowMax can mean greater transparency and accountability for management and teams alike.

Whether it’s granular insight into how the business is performing at a project level, or information on which clients haven’t paid yet, being able to access productivity, performance and project data in real-time, from anywhere is key to survival and business continuity.”

Cloud solutions Xero & WorkflowMax were key to a smooth home office transition Over the last two years, dwp put in the time, effort, and planning to become a 100% cloud business, which was instrumental in the smooth transition to working remotely, “We’d already digitised all our systems and processes. It certainly meant that we could shut down 12 offices at the speed of light on a Friday afternoon, send everyone home and be completely back up and running, business as usual, the following Monday. I just don’t think that speed and agility would have been possible without having such a solid tech solution and all the virtual communication tools already in place”, he says.

The team has experienced very little impact on productivity levels, while seeing improvements in employee morale. “Being able to give two or three hours back of travel time

34 / Issue 23

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

Case Study

to our team members has meant there’s a new quality of work-life balance that wasn’t visible before.

People are happier,” says Scott.

Plus, even in the midst of the global pandemic and working from home, dwp in collaboration with designphase dba, launched a new office in the financial and tourism hotspot of Singapore, something they’re really proud of.

of belonging. In fact, I think I know more about our people now and how the business is performing than ever before and we all feel more connected,” says Scott.

stead to not only be able to survive, but to thrive during this time.

Real-time performance and productivity data is invaluable

In a global business like dwp, with over 300 staff plus contractors distributed around the world, training and support are a huge part of transitioning and optimising new software. “If your staff don’t buy into the dream, the solution won’t get used, and all that time and money has gone to waste.

Implementation is only one part of it – there is constant training and support afterwards to make sure everyone can use it, run it and be happy with it,” says Scott.

Scott led the charge for change and the change management process within the organisation and says that Xero and WorkflowMax have revolutionised how they work and Fostering a sense of virtual interpret the project data. In the belonging past year, dwp consulted with a As the team transitioned to working WorkflowMax developer who has built a set of robust remotely, dwp made it a dashboards that priority to create new shows all team ways for their team “Cloud solutions like Xero members an upto stay connected. and WorkflowMax provide to-date picture of “In the early days greater transparency, how their projects of the pandemic accountability and insights are progressing, we made a point of into how our business is the financial over-communicating performing at a project performance of the with our teams. level.” project, the team on We created an online the job and how they are structure for each office to tracking against project deadlines. check in with senior management Being able to access this kind of each morning, plus the project data from anywhere has been teams would check in at lunchtime invaluable for their clients, job and at the end of the day . We performance and teams. In fact lived by this structure religiously dwp Chairman, David Rose, and created a ritual of ‘meeting wrote a letter to everyone in the and greeting’ which fostered a real organisation to say how grateful sense of community between our he was that they had made people and all our offices. Plus, we the decision to move to cloud included fun elements and social technology as it’s held dwp in good catch ups to build a strong sense Subscribe for FREE: Go to subscriptions.xumagazine.com

Above: The dwp global team

The continual process of optimisating the tech stack

Scott reflects on the value of working with a group of experts from the start to make sure you implement, refine and optimise the systems that support the growth of the business. “We worked with Paul Gardner and the team from Fresh Accounting to roll out Xero and WorkflowMax worldwide starting off by implementing Xero.

We both learnt a lot during the process. Scott says, “Paul’s positive way of doing business, managing the change process for our team, and sharing the vision with key stakeholders has meant we can keep iterating and refining our systems and use of the technology Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 23 / 35

Cover Case Study Story to make data-driven decisions.”

The new normal - learning from this experience It’s not often that as a business you get 8-10 weeks to reassess what’s important and what’s unnecessary in your operations. Early on in the pandemic, dwp created dwp Imagine, a platform for their teams to share and provide feedback about this experience to build their new normal post COVID-19. Scott says, “As a result of the feedback, it’s highly likely we won’t go back to all our normal processes. There are a number of new initiatives we are validating right now. We’re looking to implement a two to three day work week with certain days in the office together to manage and avoid the creative blocks that can sometimes happen when working remotely. We want to include more job flexibility for our people, which will require a change in our management style too. We’ll be staggering the return to offices and in some locations we will not be renewing leases and looking to downsize office space. In our key Asian head offices of Bangkok and Vietnam, we plan to create colab environments where other suppliers and like-minded businesses in our industry can come and connect with our teams, and use our cloud infrastructure and office space as meeting and coworking hubs. We think this is a great way to foster more collaboration, build better relationships and grow our own ecosystem.”

WorkflowMax hacks for working remotely Using the right technology, processes and communication strategies are essential to keeping things running as close to businessas-usual as possible. Here are some ideas to keep the momentum going: 1) Make it easy to access job information If your team is using multiple methods to manage job progress (spreadsheets, cloud storage, email and paper documents), this information can become hard to 36 / Issue 23

track down or it could get lost as people move between systems.

As a starting point, your team should be able to easily access: • Which jobs and tasks they’ve been assigned • How much time should be allocated to each job • Start date and end dates, and major milestones for all jobs they’re working on • How to track time and costs and allocate them to the appropriate job • Upcoming, in progress, on hold, or cancelled jobs • A job management system (like WorkflowMax) lets you manage your entire job cycle in one place and gives you a single point of truth for all job-related data.

2) Keep a precise record of time (and other job data) Being diligent about recording time and costs is a team effort. Right now is a great time to re-establish timesheet and cost tracking best practices.

Here are some things you could put in place: • Set expectations regarding when employees should be filling out timesheets (as work is completed, on a daily basis, etc) • A cut-off time for timesheet submission (do employees need to submit more often?)

• The level of detail required in a timesheet (do time logs need to be more descriptive?)

• Job-specific requirements (like cost centre allocations) • Keeping track of unbillable hours and costs so you can manage resource planning and overhead expenses To help motivate everyone to do their part, make it as easy as possible for your team to track and submit job time and costs. Job management and time tracking software offer different ways to track employee time (including desktop and mobile apps, daily and weekly timesheets and built-in timers to record time as work is in

progress) and then automatically allocate that time to the appropriate job.

3) Maintain a balanced workload When you can’t see your team sitting across from you, it can be easy to lose a line of sight into what everyone is working on and assess your team’s capacity to take on work.

Here’s what you can do to keep the balance: • Develop a process for monitoring your team’s capacity • Make adjustments to current, recurring and future jobs more frequently • Use a job management solution or scheduling app to get better visibility 4) Establish job milestones to keep your team on track While it’s clearly important to monitor your team’s completion of individual tasks, when your team is physically dispersed it’s critical to establish and track against job milestones.

Common examples of job milestones include: • Start and end dates • Budget checks • Draft due dates • External or internal reviews • Tests or inspections • Setting milestones 5) Measure job performance regularly Accurate reporting gives you insights into productivity, performance, workflow and profitability that can inform business decisions.

Customising a set of reports can help you answer questions like: • Are our current jobs on budget?

• Are employees completing work as efficiently? Which employees are the most productive? Who might need some extra support or training?

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

Case Study • Which jobs are the most profitable? Are any jobs more work than they’re worth?

• How do our estimated hours compare to our actuals? Are we on track with what we quoted?

• How much money have we generated?

6) Make time for non-work related conversation When you can no longer rely on morning coffee banter and the lunch table to connect with your colleagues, it can make it hard to feel like you’re part of a team!

Try some of these strategies: • Implement 15-minute team syncs every morning to catch up. Encourage everyone to have their cameras on so you can pick up on non-verbal cues like body language, tone of voice and appearance to get a sense of how everyone is feeling • Start every scheduled meeting with 5-10 minutes of small talk before you get into the topic at hand

• Host an optional remote happy hour or team activity at the end of each week. Play virtual games, do trivia, start a book club, or anything else that helps keep your team connected Formally scheduling time to not talk about work may seem counterproductive to staying on top of jobs, but informal social time often forms the glue that keeps your team working together cohesively.

7) Be supportive of your team’s mental and physical health Working on your own, especially when you’re used to an office working environment, can pose serious challenges to one’s mental and physical health. According to a recent report, remote employees are more susceptible to working longer hours and feeling ‘always on’ due to blurred boundaries between work and personal life.

To keep your team feeling happy and healthy (and therefore empowered to stay on top of their

work), consider the following tips: • Promote flexible working times to accommodate different household schedules • Encourage regular breaks!

Research shows that short breaks have many benefits for employee wellbeing, including improved productivity, better sleep and reduced stress • Organise wellbeing activities for your team like yoga, meditation and sharing healthy recipes • Do one of Xero’s wellbeing courses to help with work/life balance, stress and resilience.

This content is an excerpt from a recent blog post by Paige Sopik.

Read the full version here.

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Find out how WorkflowMax can help your business work remotely and stay connected to your people: > workflowmax.com/customer-stories

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Issue 23 / 37

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The more you use it the more settings are automatic so it gets quicker too!

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www.AutoEntry.com 38 / Issue 23

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Trying to find a way to Boost your Productivity?

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Issue 23 / 39

Protecting cash flow right now: Advice from a CFO Controlling cash flow is more important than ever right now. Catherine Birkett, CFO at GoCardless, the global network for recurring bank-to-bank payments, shares her experience and advice for businesses of all sizes...

B

y now you’re saturated with information about COVID-19. I don’t need to set the scene with words like “unprecedented”. Simply put, If it wasn’t before, cash flow is now a top priority for businesses.

Although the crises I lived through at Interoute were different they were still significant, be it the telecoms crash of the early 2000, or the financial crisis of 2008.

Both gave me relevant experience for managing cash-flow when unexpected macro events occur.

What I’m sharing below are what I consider essential cash flow considerations for every business right now, to give them the best chance of surviving this crisis and thrive in the long term.

If you make knee-jerk decisions right now, you could be dealing with long term consequences well after this crisis has passed.

Now, first understand that this crisis affects different businesses in different ways. Some businesses - Zoom being one example - are even seeing increased demand right now. What you shouldn’t do is look at the demise of another business and adopt a doomsday mindset about “If you make kneeyour own. jerk decisions right

now, you could be Focus on the dealing with long term information you have that matters consequences well the leading after this crisis has indicators of your passed”

1) Slow down and think with a level head Before you move ahead, it’s critical you get yourself in a clear, objective state of mind. It’s completely understandable to feel panicked and uncertain right now, but you need to do everything you can to temper those feelings before you 40 / Issue 23

can make the best decisions for your business.

business’ revenue, and historical trends, are invaluable right now.

Remain open-minded and be willing to be flexible with everything going forward. Part of that is accepting that these are extreme

@GoCardless

Catherine Birkett, Chief Financial Officer, GoCardless Catherine has been Chief Financial Officer of GoCardless for the past 18 months. Previously, she had an 18 year stint at telecoms company Interoute, spending 14 years as CFO. During that time, Catherine helped it transform from a loss-making business to a highly profitable, cash-generative business.

Interoute was sold to another telecoms operator GTT in May 2018.

circumstances we’re all in right now, and as a result you may need to take extreme measures.

2) Diagnose the impact Calculate your current cash position, then analyse your cost base. You need to be forensic about it. It’s going to be painful but look at every single cost - don’t overlook even the smallest costs, because they add up. Ultimately, you need to identify all discretionary spending right now. This is an exercise you should do as a management team.

Part of this is identifying every role that is essential to your business right now. It’s possible you may need to make redundancies. And while I’d recommend them as a last resort, unless you’ve mistakenly over-hired, remember that they are the better alternative to your business going under. If your business goes under, everyone loses their job.

Understand your working capital position, looking at both your debtors and creditors. Identify which of your existing customer

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

base is at-risk due to this crisis - are (Direct Debit in the UK) is excellent any likely to be unable to pay you? for that, and our product here at One thing I must mention here is GoCardless enables businesses to I do not recommend considering take bank debit payments easily delaying your payments and cost-effectively. to creditors. This has “Remain opena negative knock You should also minded and be on effect on the take advantage economy at large. of public funding, willing to be such as the flexible with Bridging the gap furlough scheme everything going from diagnosing the put in place by the forward” impact into taking UK government. action is scenario planning. Considering the When it comes to uncertainty of this crisis right now, employees, it will likely make sense you can realistically only plan six to pause hiring and revisit your months ahead - although that’s approach to salary adjustments not to suggest you should ignore right now. You may also consider the longer term health of your temporarily cutting salaries across business. Of course, when planning the company. these scenarios make sure you do plan realistically - your business If you’ve explored all other costis unlikely to continue operating cutting avenues - and I’d strongly as usual, so ensure you include a recommend you try everything else plan for a (reasonable) worst case first, including furlough - and you scenario. Expect for that plan to be simply can’t continue with your reality, and anything better than current employee base, approach that will put you in a position of everything you do here with strength. compassion. Be transparent and explain to your employees all of Also, when undertaking these the measures you’ve taken before activities, don’t feel like you have coming to this. Engage in a dialogue to go it alone. Get external advice with them - you may find that their leverage your network to speak to circumstances have changed now, those with expertise, and even just and alternative arrangements like others going through the same as reduced hours may work for both you. you and them.

3) Take short term actions Freeze all of your discretionary spending, and impose approval limits on essential purchases.

Make it easy to get paid, and offer your customers payment methods that give you greater likelihood of being paid on time. Bank debit

4) What to prepare for in the medium term While there is this initial, critical six month period up first, you need to remain aware of the medium term.

One of the mistakes you must avoid making now is cutting back so much to survive the short term,

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that you prevent your business from reaching a stable recovery beyond that.

What you can do to help this is be acutely aware of your runway, and forecast a very conservative revenue plan. If you couple this with a mindset to react quickly and adapt to changing circumstances, you’ll set yourself up well.

When it comes to your operations, by the time we reach six months from now, you’ll want to have identified any inefficiencies in your order-to-cash cycle, and address them with simplification or automation. Make sure you carefully measure the impact of changes you make, so you’re actually making the cost savings you anticipate.

When it comes to your customers, you really want to have protected valuable customer relationships so they can remain in the medium term and beyond. Keep in mind they’re likely struggling now too, so where they can’t make full payments, consider offering them instalment plans. Our product here at GoCardless can help you facilitate that very easily. Where you have a small customer base, you can tailor your plans on an individual customer basis, but where you have a large customer base, this becomes a vastly more complex and costly task. Instead, if you have a large customer base, decide on one approach and apply it equally to all customers.

I wouldn’t recommend offering discounts, as that sets a precedent that can be difficult to recover from. > Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 23 / 41

The medium term is also where the benefits of building goodwill with your employees will show. If you had to let go of otherwise excellent employees, you give yourself a far better chance or rehiring them if you treated them with compassion plans before you communicate during the short term. On the other them down, so don’t be afraid to side of that coin, if you didn’t treat let your employees know that - be your employees with compassion transparent and tell them you need and build up that goodwill, those time to figure out what the best you retained during the next steps are, that short term may be you don’t want to “You can inclined to leave you rush and get things realistically once the job market wrong, and that you’ll starts to recover. let them know what’s only plan six happening as soon as months ahead One of the best ways you’re confident in the [right now]” to help build this plan. employee goodwill, as well as customer goodwill, Another party you should is to communicate well. Don’t treat with clear and transparent rush comms during this period comms right now are lenders. If spend enough time to ensure your you’re repaying a loan and are message is clear, transparent, and going to struggle to make those compassionate. You’ll naturally payments, speak with the bank. need enough time to work out your They’re going to hate not being told

42 / Issue 23

more than you coming to them to figure out a plan that works for the both of you. Plus, considering the circumstances right now, banks are likely to be more flexible and enter constructive discussions with you.

Ultimately, they don’t want your business to fail.

FIND OUT MORE...

Made for recurring payments, GoCardless is Xero’s UK Financial Services App of the Year 2020 and New Zealand App of the Year 2019.

Find out how payments can put your business in control of its cash flow at: > gocardless.com/xero

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

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Issue 23 / 43

Case Study

How a promise to always deliver great customer service boosts business confidence during a pandemic

@TidyInt

Michelle Nicol, writer, Wordstruck writing and training Michelle is a copywriter, trainer and brand storyteller who helps businesses tell their story through words that attract attention. A former BBC journalist, she loves nosing out a great story and sharing her writing expertise through training and workshops.

Like so many businesses across the globe, Auckland based company Perla Supplies Ltd are facing unprecedented economic and social challenges due to the Coronavirus pandemic. They have based their reputation on delivering quality products with exceptional customer service, which gives them confidence that they will weather the storm.

P

erla import and distribute consumable dental products to practices throughout New Zealand. They also supply some products to a range of other businesses including crafters, sculptors, electronic companies and the beauty industry. With most dental practices closed except for emergency treatment, they have found that where they could normally expect between 80 and 90 orders per day, now they will only receive 2 or 3.

But the husband and wife team behind Perla, Greg and Kate Bovaird, are still using their product knowledge and distribution expertise to help get essential personal protective equipment (PPE) where it’s most needed.

Helping each other out “The company that supplies our surgical gloves from Malaysia has a warehouse here in New Zealand,” explains Greg. “Having looked in their catalogue, I knew that they also do surgical gowns. That’s not something we normally stock, but I gave them a call and checked if they had any in their warehouse 44 / Issue 23

and they had 3 cartons of 100 each.

I said we’ll just take them and put them on our website. And as soon as they arrived they were gone.”

Greg and Kate set up Perla in 2013 and started trading in 2014, shipping in dental supplies such as face masks, sterilising pouches and instruments from China to help practices save money and source great quality equipment easily. As a former practice manager herself, Kate knows only too well how frustrating it is for Perla’s customers to find they’re running out of something and struggle to get it delivered.

She says: “We ring people and ask them if they want to put something on back order. The big companies don’t even tell them it’s on back order and they might be waiting 6 months for a product. I know that if they go to a company and want something they haven’t got, our customers will go somewhere else for it, and buy all the other things on their list too. We know we had to have stock levels we could maintain.”

Why stock control is crucial Greg is responsible for managing Perla’s inventory with the help of TidyStock. It’s been part of their business from day one, as he explains: “We decided that we would set up with Xero as our accounting package, then knowing that we needed a front-end inventory management system, we thought TidyStock looks a nice, simple, easy product to work with and it’s been our front-end system ever since.”

“TidyStock is integral. We couldn’t function without it. It’s on all day whether it’s processing orders, managing stock and inventory control, placing orders with our suppliers, running end of day reports.”

Customer service reputation Greg also explains how TidyStock helps Perla ensure that they always deliver what they promise: “We run a daily sales report and check that off against courier reports to check we haven’t missed anything. Or you might get a customer ring up in a hurry and ask for something and

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

Case Study you say ‘how many’ and they say ‘same as last time’, and you have to go and look it up. It’s the first window open on our desk in the morning and the last that we close down at night.”

Normally Kate would spend time on the road visiting different practices so it’s essential that she can keep in touch and place orders from anywhere. She says: “I don’t take a laptop away anymore, I can do it all on my phone - raise an order, whatever I need. For sales trips away we have all our practices sorted into regional areas, so when I’m visiting I can run a sales report on those practices and see what they’re buying and also what they’re not buying.”

Balancing stock and cashflow

“I don’t take a laptop away anymore, I can do it all on my phone.”

Balancing the need to maintain good levels of stock and keep cashflow healthy has always been vital to the success of Perla’s business. As Greg explains: “When we started we didn’t have a lot of cash so we had to have something that enabled us to know how much stock we had on hand. It was a very fine line between not running out and not having a load of cash tied up in stock. Thanks to TidyStock effectively we never really run out of stock. At any given point in time, out of the 750 product lines we have there’ll never be more than 1 or 2 out of stock at any given time.”

Although orders have diminished due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Greg is positive that this is a challenge that Perla can overcome:

“From a liquidity point of view the business is really strong, cashflow is really strong and that’s why we’ll survive this month or two months of lockdown. We’ll come out of this at the other end no problems at all.”

The future He acknowledges that having a transparent and flexible stock control system has not only been instrumental in their success to date, but will also help Perla to adapt to new conditions once the business impacts of the pandemic crisis are over. “Our business is going to be totally different after this, our stock levels are going to have to be much higher. And we know we’re going to have to find alternate suppliers. When China

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shut down, the world shut down too.”

Above: Kate and Greg Bovaird, Owners of Perla Supplies

Greg says: “We run our business pretty lean and TidyStock has been essential to that - making sure that we haven’t overinvested in the business but also making sure we’ve got that reputation for always delivering. It’s a huge part of the success of our business.”

FIND OUT MORE...

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

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Issue 23 / 45

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Issue 23 / 47

Getting in sync:

G-Accon’s global growth journey Kaye Harding, GM of Ecosystem Partner Experience at Xero, recently interviewed the Co-Founder & CEO of G-Accon, Andrey Kustarnikov.

W

hen Andrey Kustarnikov created G-Accon, he had a key goal in mind: to make people’s lives easier with automation in the cloud. And that’s exactly what he’s achieved with his Google Sheets integration.

Many businesses operate on spreadsheets, then face the challenge of having to manually enter that data into their accounting software. It’s an approach that’s not only time-consuming, but error prone. G-Accon for Xero allows users to automatically extract live data and reports directly from Google Sheets into Xero, making manual data entry a thing of the past.

“We don’t try and over-complicate things. We keep our solution simple and focus on how we can make things better for our users. One of the biggest benefits we hear from them is just how much more time they have after using G-Accon for Xero,” Andrey said.

It’s a recipe that’s proved successful. Since launching in Xero’s app marketplace in 2018, G-Accon for Xero has experienced rapid global growth, servicing over 5000 shared customers across five continents. We talked to Andrey about how being part of Xero’s ecosystem has also been a crucial 48 / Issue 23

ingredient to success.

@G_AcconServices

Andrey Kustarnikov, Co-Founder & CEO, G-Accon Andrey Kustarnikov is the Co-Founder & CEO of G-Accon.

He has over 20 years of technical expertise in software development, microservices architecture, and cloud integration in the financial and banking sectors. He received an MBA degree and an MS in physics, and using these skills, he was able to build the tool, G-Accon. G-Accon has proved incredibly helpful to clients in solving their various issues, and Andrey is excited to see where G-Accon will go next.

but it also opened up a channel for meaningful interactions with users.

Support to reach global customers Before integrating with Xero, the team at G-Accon had developed a number of integrations with other SaaS providers. As experienced developers, they knew they had a great product. But how to successfully market it and gain customer feedback from their Detroit location was where joining Xero’s app partner program really paid off.

“Our strength is in software development, so we know how to make a really great app. But to be successful, the next big thing you need to work out is how you’re going to actually sell it. Many startups struggle because they make good apps, but then can’t get anyone to use them. When we joined Xero’s app partner program the process was smooth and simple and it was really clear what we needed to do from day one to take our app to market. This included being provided with education and advice, as well as ensuring we had done enough user testing before we launched.”

Being part of Xero’s ecosystem allowed G-Accon to not only tap into a global customer base from day one, via Xero’s app marketplace,

“User feedback is crucial and something we’ve placed a much bigger emphasis on since joining Xero’s ecosystem. It can be challenging to communicate with end-users when we’re sitting behind our desks in Detroit. Often we only hear from those really active users with strong opinions, rather than our everyday customers. Attending Xerocon has been huge for us.

Being able to meet users face-toface and chat with them about what they like and what they really need has been invaluable in shaping the updates and direction of our product,” Andrey said.

Building trust Every app on Xero’s marketplace has gone through a certification process. This includes demoing, pilot testing and being reviewed personally by one of Xero’s developer evangelists. Andrey has found this rigour, coupled with Xero’s strong reputation in the accounting space, gives his users a high level of trust in his application.

“We are dealing with financial data.

So making sure that’s secure and protected is hugely important. In integrating with Xero, our users have that extra level of assurance

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

that they can trust us,” he said.

Xero also provides G-Accon with a channel of customers who are already cloud-savvy and make the most of the integration from the outset.

“Many of our users are accountants and bookkeepers who already have a good understanding of software and are creating automated solutions for their clients. We’ve

noticed people coming from Xero are usually more precise, more professional, and they know Xero very well. We can get them up and running quickly so they can start experiencing all of the benefits of automation in the cloud for themselves and their clients,” Andrey concluded.

To learn more about how G-Accon integrates with us, visit Xero’s app marketplace at https://apps.xero.

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com/us/app/g-accon-for-xero.

And find out how partnering with Xero can help you fast-track global growth here: https://developer. xero.com/partner/app-partnerprogram

FIND OUT MORE...

To find out more, please visit: > www.accon.services

Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 23 / 49

Making the Most of Working From Home The team from MinuteDock take a look at software options to ease the process of working from home during the global pandemic period...

F

or most businesses, the idea of remote work is something that may have been considered, but we probably never imagined having it forced on us. We thought, if we ever implemented it, we would have the time to plan it well, to iron out the kinks, to adjust our levels of workplace flexibility to suit our respective businesses. Alas, nobody could have predicted this particular future.

For many businesses, the global situation has made the choice for us. Any concerns about losses in productivity or lack of oversight have become irrelevant; either we work from home or we can’t work at all. The solution? Stop being concerned. Take the current situation as an opportunity to invest in a new way of doing things.

There are so many tools available within business communities like XU Magazine and XU Hub to aid us in changing the way we work.

Times of stress and struggle are also times of incredible innovation.

The decisions we make now about how we operate in this new environment will shape our future successes. Your situation might be new, and you may feel uncertain about it, but that doesn’t need to make it a bad thing.

Now could be the best time to make a long-term investment in changing how we do things. Don’t just use short-term solutions to 50 / Issue 23

band-aid your current workflow issues; solve these problems by making lasting improvements to business processes that you will keep even after current problems ease off. Using the broad range of software now available to build a suite of apps for our teams to stay connected could help to mitigate the concerns raised by working from home.

@minutedock

Bryce Armstrong, Customer Success Manager, MinuteDock Bryce is dipping his toes into the cloud-based accounting ecosystem after recently partnering up with his brother Jared, founder of MinuteDock: time management software for professional services.

to remain on task and productive amongst the distractions of the home environment. One of the most important things we can do at the moment is remember that nothing lasts forever; this too will pass.

Perhaps it is new to some of us, but remote team organisations have been around for a while.

Organisational software like Basecamp allow teams to keep up to date with each other’s work, We aren’t working within the same provide feedback and guidance, space as each other anymore – and generally we can’t see what our enable a more colleagues are doing or “Now could be team focused work have access to advice the best time to process for teams and expertise over operating remotely coffee in the break make a long-term from each other. room. But there are investment in Microsoft’s Teams solutions available changing how we app is another for these problems. do things.” useful consideration Create a regular which offers similar communicative process functionality. in your team to keep up to date with colleagues. Using apps Managers will have reasonable like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, you anxiety surrounding team can create a space where work productivity. Are your team being progress is clearly documented and less productive than they were at regularly updated, while a clear the office? Is everyone doing their schedule of communication will bit, or are some people slacking off? allow the team to focus on tasks Introduce time recording to keep without interruption. The strengths everyone on the team, including of a team dynamic can still be maintained with the right processes yourself, honest and open about what’s getting done on any given implemented. day. Web-based timekeeping solutions allow your team to keep Times are stressful, making it up to date with what’s been done, important to be able to revitalise to clarify expectations around the mind. A mindfulness and productivity and to work towards meditation app like Headspace can meaningful goals. Consider this: a allow the team to take a breather, more flexible working environment de-stress, and refocus in order

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

doesn’t need to success during this “A more flexible mean less work tough economic work environment gets done. Allowing period. doesn’t need to employees to mean less work get work done on More and more of done.” their own schedule, daily life is becoming gets where practical, can digital. Inevitably, help productivity by business is beginning to allowing workers to make follow the trend. Because of use of the least distracting hours the way the current global situation of their day, while accurate time is forcing our hand, now might just tracking allows you to still have be the best time to get ahead of the some oversight over them. curve by putting into practice the technological applications which One of the best aspects of all these will likely become the standard software options is that just about within the near future. Consider the every one of them offers a lengthy needs of your team and industry; free trial option. Make the time to perhaps you could better leverage try before you buy; definitely try cloud accounting to improve your more than one of each app. Having accounting practice? Will using an a clear plan of the needs you want accurate time tracking tool allow to fulfil and finding the right suite simplified billing and invoicing or of apps to match those needs payroll for your team? When the will yield long term benefits and global economy begins to open increase your chances of business up once again make sure that the

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changes you made in lockdown will set you up for future success.

Remember; the platitudes we’ve been spitting at you throughout this piece are common for a reason – they’re true. We are in this together.

Things will start to get better.

There really isn’t any point crying over spilt milk. There hasn’t been a better time to look to our business communities for the tools and knowledge we need to get through this trying period. The opportunities to make the most of it are there for those willing to look. Change is inevitable - might as well make the most of it.

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To find out more, visit our website: > minutedock.com

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Issue 23 / 51

Micro-messaging with ZivaBot unlocking uplift Do business owners really have time for regular formal meetings with their accountant or bookkeeper; understand half of the things discussed in that meeting; or remember to action the items discussed?

B

oth business owners and accountants have expressed to me that ineffective and irregular communication prevent them from achieving their best outcomes together.

Bridging the communication gap is more important than ever and actionable communication needs to be bite sized and instant.

Business owners are relying

@ZivoraApp

Wayne Zwar, Co-founder, Zivora Wayne has more than 15 years senior leadership experience within the financial sector, centred on product, payments and distribution solutions, as well as data insights. He has co-founded Simplio.co which designs bespoke customercentric data solutions and consults to key Australian financial institutions. With cofounder Prasanna Nagar, he has now set up Zivora.co to bring his know-how of data, insights and engagement solutions to the accounting space.

increasingly on micro-messaging to Zivora has recently launched: operate and manage their business.

Fast pace life, fast pace business 1. invite anyone in to look at your and the expectation for everything simple financial story digitally straight away necessitates instant 2. tag any visual with comments, messaging. Micro-messaging, with events, actions and insights instant notifications, can take many 3. receive actionable insight forms - SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger. notifications when any metric The key is that it’s short, simple moves outside of your self-set and fast to respond to. And yes – goal or tolerance (ZivaBot) Covid19 and working from home is accelerating the pace Businesses tell us of micro-messaging this not only makes Bite size matters adoption. their day easier, - no business their financials more The truth is our digestible but looking owner has time business financials at their financials is for a 4 course have lots of gold FUN. Fun to interact meal. nuggets. Traditionally with the notification, we would save them fun to learn in micro-bites, up for a formal meeting, a fun to respond quickly to their quarterly tax submission or a advisor. detailed email or report. When we wait, information and inspiration is lost. Why not drop these nuggets, as value adds, in micro-messages?

ZivaBot Instant knowhow is also vital and that’s where Zivora’s automated alerts (powered by ZivaBot) come into play. We need our financials to proactively speak directly to us with prompts and reminders, on actions to take to ensure we achieve our goals and that’s where ZivaBot takes the wheel.

52 / Issue 23

FIND OUT MORE...

Have a go today - 14 day free trial to experience micro-fun on a massive scale: > zivora.co

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Issue 23 / 53

New to the Cover Xero Story Ecosystem

Hey Accountants!

Want to make your clients happy?

Get them money back using this automated VAT/GST reclaim solution by WAY2VAT and Xero. Now.

Amos Simantov, CEO and Founder, WAY2VAT More than 20 years as a top executive – including as CEO, and VP Sales of major global high-tech enterprises such as SintecMedia, Rit Technologies, Lognet Systems, and ADI. Amos specialises in SaaS platform, Broadcast, IT, and Telecom.

Proven track record in leading companies to economic success, including several exits and successful M&As. Amos holds an MBA and BA in Economics from Tel Aviv and Bar Ilan University.

Increasing revenue streams has always been the main priority for all businesses. Having a fully automated VAT/GST reclaim solution eliminates the manual process an accountant must do, means their ability to detect claimable VAT is hassle-free, accurate and risk free for their clients, sound interesting?

T

he problem with manual processing

Typically, refundable VAT/GST is left on the table because the invoices are difficult to read, confusing, and/ or for small individual amounts.

Many accountancy firms don’t normally approach low value foreign T&E understandably, because of these reasons.

The benefits of automation and AI WAY2VAT’s fully automated, AI-based solution brings an end to the tedious, time-consuming process of preparing VAT/GST reclaims, replacing it with a much more profitable and user-friendly experience. More importantly, it allows any user to simple click and start instantly, purposely built to make this process RISK FREE and HASSLE FREE. With greater accuracy and checks there comes greater value, with up to 30% more refunds.

54 / Issue 23

Increasing business innovation and revenue with one click We are the first and only VAT/ GST recovery solution on Xero marketplace. No other VAT vendor has this integration and it is typically only offered to Enterprise/ Large businesses. We give you comprehensive transparency: From invoice to VAT/GST refund; it is all accessible online. Regardless of TIME. AMOUNT. PLACE. LANGUAGE.

We help you, help your clients get money back quickly and efficiently and give you the same technological advantages as any business.

FIND OUT MORE...

Visit the Xero Marketplace at: > apps.xero.com/uk/search/ app/way2vat

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

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Issue 23 / 55

Cover Focus:Story UK

Lockdown life: How have accountants responded?

We’re not the first to say it - the last two months will go down in history. And the sooner the coronavirus does become history, the better...

W

e started to notice some interesting spikes and dips in AccountancyManager usage, so dug a little deeper - asking our users how their lives have changed and what their main challenges have been.

88% report an increase in workload Over half of respondents reported a significant increase in workload since the beginning of March - with over a quarter seeing a slight increase.

Accountants’ main challenges 1) Understanding and communicating Government support

James Byrne, CEO, AccountancyManager During his time as a practising accountant, James identified a range of operational inefficiencies - which he knew the right software would solve.

Thing was, it didn’t exist yet.

Jump forward three years and AccountancyManager helps thousands of practices automate their onboarding, record requests and task lists every day.

intensive, concentrated work, I have a better work/life balance and it’s a more comfortable and relaxed environment.”

The Chancellor’s announcement on Friday 20th March was met by enormous relief (and the odd 3) Staying on top of day-to-day tear), but certainly raised a lot tasks of questions. Rishi Sunak then announced a scheme to support Understandably, the self-employed ‘maintaining and ‘bolstered’ “Automated business as the Coronavirus reminders have been usual’ was also Business the keeping rated highly. for Interruption great The comments Scheme (CBILS) day-to-day things identified that to reach more rolling on.” issues with serverbusinesses.

Tory Wagg, Director, based accounting Panthera Ltd production systems 2) Working from home and paper-based clients The subject of interruptions divided have been magnified whilst working remotely. our customers. While a few are struggling with ‘dog and child’ “My tax/accounts production interruptions, most welcomed an product is not cloud-based and I escape from the distractions of the had a computer malfunction… I’ve office. been unable to use it for almost 2 weeks now.”

“I’m able to focus and do more

Chart 1

63.6% of respondents (see Chart 1) cited evolving Government schemes and getting the right information to their clients as their biggest

challenge since the start of March.

@accountancymgr

56 / Issue 23

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

Chart 2

Focus: UK

What has helped you rise to the challenge?

Bulk/filtered emails Our users rated ‘bulk emails and the ability to filter recipients based on business type’ the most useful AccountancyManager feature during March and April.

They’ve been sending them by the boatload. In the last two weeks of March, we saw an incredible 430% increase in the number of emails sent from accountants to their clients. Text messages also rose - by 100%.

Custom tasks Task and deadline management came second, matched by a 50% rise in ‘custom tasks’ created by our users. In AccountancyManager, as well as automatic tasks - generated from your clients’ accounting deadlines - you can add your own ‘custom tasks’ to keep you on track.

increase in AccountancyManager portal sign ups as the portal alleviates the requirement of physical records and accounts.

Receiving and sending client documents Trying to get documents from paper-based clients came joint fourth. This is perhaps a contributing factor to the 20%

FIND OUT MORE...

Sign up for a 30-day free trial at: > accountancymanager.co.uk

AccountancyManager allows you to run your practice from wherever you happen to be.

Whether that's at home, in the office, on the road or with a client.

Sign up for a free 30-day trial accountancymanager.co.uk 01926 355366

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Issue 23 / 57

Help Your Trade Contracting Clients Succeed 3 Tips for Increasing Profitability

@simprosoftware

Mat Wray, UK Partner Manager, simPRO (UK Team) Mat is the Partner Manager for the simPRO UK team. Joining simPRO five years ago, Mat has established successful relationships with several strategic accountants, business advisors & cloud software integrators.

Are your trade contacting clients taking advantage of technology solutions? In today’s digital world, there is no excuse not to use technology to help manage a business. Discover the ways you can encourage your trade contracting clients to increase their profitability and improve their business operations.

A

s an accountant working with trade contracting businesses, how do you help your clients manage, or increase, their profitability? If you want to add value to your trade contracting partnerships, providing tools for your clients to run operations more efficiently, avoid losing profits and make smart decisions is something you might want to add to the top of your list.

Here are three ways you can help your trade contracting clients increase their profitability.

Tip 1: Use workflow automation to streamline operations Although technology is widely used by businesses large and small, many businesses in the trade contracting industry continue to run operations on paper. Field service management software, job management software, and other cloud-based software platforms provide workflow automation - the automatic execution of manual processes based on workflow rules.

When businesses automate their processes, they can increase efficiency by working smarter rather than harder. How does workflow 58 / Issue 23

automation increase efficiency?

Let’s say field staff are manually recording job details on paper and then bringing those slips of paper into a physical office. In this scenario, important information could go missing, office staff might spend unnecessary time deciphering messy handwriting, and data is recorded twice (once by their field staff and then again by the person handling billing and invoicing).

Software with workflow automation capabilities as well as desktop and mobile features will help decrease the amount of errors created in transferring job details, remove the time spent on double data entry, and minimise the chance the information goes missing as it would now be automatically entered into your system.

Overall, workflow automation helps businesses save time thus increasing billable hours, and increased billable hours leads to increased profits.

Tip 2: Manage inventory from the cloud to avoid losing profits How do your trade contracting clients manage their inventory?

Without a central location to track stock and keep up with material costs, it is easy for field service businesses to lose track of what is in their warehouse or in the vans of their field staff.

Encourage your clients to use inventory tracking software to gain full visibility of the materials on hand. This directly ties back into increasing profits as a clear picture into stock levels will help these businesses make better purchasing decisions, avoid overstock and deter field staff from buying materials at a higher price on site.

Some inventory management systems even allow users to import supplier catalogues and compare them side by side to determine the best pricing.

Without cloud-based inventory management, field service businesses could be manually combing through supplier catalogues to find pricing, spend hours manually counting materials in their warehouse, or constantly need to follow up with field staff to determine what materials are on their vans. When all inventoryrelated information is housed in the cloud, determining stock levels is quick and easy.

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

What an integrator says: Matt Flanagan, Managing Director at independent cloud consultants and Xero integrators BlueHub: “When simPRO is set up with Xero, financial and operational information flows together, with invoices and payments joining up the dots without the need for manual entry�

Tip 3: Generate reports to make more profitable decisions When your trade contracting clients have more information, you are able to help them make better-informed decisions. Generating reports through a field service management system is an easy way to gather data in one place and make sense of the data at hand.

Encourage your clients to regularly

use reporting in order to collect data from the day-to-day to discover trends within their business. For example, if a field service business wants to discover which jobs are most profitable versus those that are least profitable, a contract profitability report would be extremely helpful.

This type of report would show the amount spent on resources and materials, the amount of time it took to complete a job or project, the total amount invoiced and other important details. Trade contractors would be able to view the gross and net profits and compare across jobs to see which jobs are causing them to lose money and which ones bring in more money at less cost.

Reporting on this type of information helps you assist your trade contracting clients in making more profitable decisions.

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When your reporting is tied to a larger field service management solution, trade contractors can automatically create reports based on data in their system and even set automation rules to receive scheduled reports at specified times.

Workflow automation, cloudbased inventory management and reporting are three simple ways for field service businesses to successfully increase the profitability.

FIND OUT MORE...

Learn more about how you can help your trade contracting clients succeed: > bit.ly/2WWil4G

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Issue 23 / 59

Build a practice fit for remote working and collaboration Remote, secure collaboration in-practice and with your clients, using cloud and online tools, anywhere, from any device.

Establish a digitally connected practice making it easier to manage workflow, WIP, track KPIs and more.

Securely communicate and collaborate with your clients, sharing real-time information in a GDPR compliant manner.

“As a multi-company, multi-site firm, we have worked hard over the years to standardise our processes and strive to make maximum efficiency gains, with headroom and flexibility....

We have data we can trust and a technology platform that supports our team in maximising their proficiency. They can be at their most productive in adding value to our clients�

Ormerod Rutter Chartered Accountants

60 / Issue 23

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

When you have to be right.

CCH Document Management Secure digital storage and retrieval of emails, soft copy and paper documents

CCH OneClick A secure set of cloud tools that enable you to connect, communicate and collaborate with clients

Twinfield online accounting software Improved collaboration with a shared on-screen view of the client’s live financial position

… with Basecone Smart processing, scanning and matching, approving and booking of documents

CCH Practice Management Capture chargeable time, and manage workflow from a single location

… with CCH KPI Monitoring Monitor timesheet completion across your team or practice

Find out more about building a practice fit for remote working. Visit wolterskluwer.co.uk, call 0344 561 8181, or email cchsoftware@wolterskluwer.co.uk Subscribe for FREE: Go to subscriptions.xumagazine.com

© Wolters Kluwer (UK) Limited 4/2020. All Rights Reserved.

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Issue 23 / 61

Everything you should be doing for your clients right now With the US tax deadlines pushed back to July this year, your focus may now be on tax prep, but there’s a lot more that your clients may need from their accountant, especially right now. Every month, we help over 10,000 small businesses with payroll, HR, and benefits. As a result, we’ve gained some insights over the years after seeing many of their triumphs and challenges up close.

H

The clock is ticking for many small businesses

business owners didn’t think they couldn’t continue operating for more than two months under lockdown conditions. Another third of business owners also said they could remain operational for three to six months.

About 10 weeks ago, the National Federation of Independent Businesses published a study that discovered half of small

While business conditions have evolved since then — and will continue to outside of these extreme conditions — many

ere’s a deeper look at what your clients may want from you and how serving them well can help grow your practice.

Services business owners expect from accountants

@onpay_payroll

Katelyn Sullivan (CPA), Partner Development Team, OnPay Katelyn Sullivan leads the partner development team at OnPay, the top-rated payroll software for accounting firms, and their small and mid-sized clients. Prior to joining OnPay, Katelyn spent seven years with Ernst & Young focusing on technology adoption and process improvements for business clients. Katelyn is a licensed CPA who earned her Masters in Accounting at the University of Georgia.

business owners are making big decisions about how to keep their companies running.

With the insights accountants have into their clients’ businesses, you’re able to help them plan for the unknown, rebound after a crisis, or even spot risks before they emerge. Your expert advice is more important than ever to your clients right now.

Clients expect more help from you In our survey last year, we asked business owners who they’d be most likely to turn to for a wide range of business advice. The results?

• Accountants (32 percent) • Friends and family (22 percent) • Lawyers (16 percent) • Financial Planners (9 percent) • A small number of bankers, insurance agents, and others

Fig. 1

It’s good news that clients value their accountants so much. The flip side is that they often expect more help from their accountants than they get. In short, they trust you, and they would like your help with more than traditional accounting, bookkeeping, and tax services.

They also expected help with the following (see Fig. 1).

62 / Issue 23

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Your opportunity to make a difference

Take payroll and HR off their shoulders

With the frequent changes to tax laws, government loan programs, and what’s required of employers, it can be a struggle for small business owners to keep up. Now that many are also even more focused on cash flow, they may be hoping their accountant can step up and help.

Whether you’re providing regular updates on important government programs or helping them analyze their cash flow to make financing decisions, they need your expertise now more than ever.

The average small business spends 18 hours a month on payroll — and another 18 hours on HR tasks.

That’s almost a week each month.

Give clients more time by offering to pair them with a payroll solution.

Our clients spend fewer than three hours a month on payroll on average, and they’re likely saving money, too.

Here are some of the best ways for accountants to help small business owners (and expand service offering in the process).

Stay on top of new laws and government programs From Paycheck Protection Plan loans to CARES Act tax credits to paid leave under the FFCRA, there are a lot of emerging details for small business owners to process.

Breaking it all down is something that you could easily be doing that will both help them both take a load off — and help them take advantage of the assistance that’s available. If you need help keeping up with it all yourself, the IRS, Department of Labor, and Small Business Administration are excellent resources for ongoing updates and those related to COVID-19. OnPay also has a regularly updated COVID-19 Resource Center where you can dig into the latest details and find links and PDFs to share with clients.

Payroll services vary with different providers but, as an example, OnPay also handles all the tax filings and offers a tax accuracy guarantee, which means you’ll be able to provide a time-saving service, without adding more to-dos to your own list.

Analyze cash flow This is a critical time to keep an eye on the numbers, and every dollar counts. When it comes to cash flow, it’s a critical time to keep an eye on the numbers and provide an outside perspective on financial decisions.

Whether a business is looking to understand how long its cash will last, project future revenues, or look for the best ways to cut costs, an experienced and unbiased opinion can make a big difference.

You can help identify opportunities — like potential financing options or renegotiating debt or leases — and help back up those decisions with data.

Remove inefficiencies from their back office As someone who understands

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the capabilities of Xero and other modern accounting software, you’re in a great position to help them identify and adopt solutions that will save time and money. It could even drive some revenue in the process.

Getting payroll data straight into the GL is one quick win, but you can also look to help them with AP/AR software, expense tracking, time tracking, CRM, or point of sale systems. Take a look inside the Xero App Marketplace for connected software options to maximize efficiencies.

Now it’s your move How do you take the next step? Just call or email your clients.

Even if you’re not talking with your clients on a regular basis, they’re likely to appreciate having a conversation about how they’re doing and how you can help. Accountants who speak to clients more frequently are about a third more likely to be seen as a trusted advisor. And there’s a decent chance you’ll be talking to them about services they’ve been expecting from you all along.

So, reach out to your clients — and let us know if there’s anything we can do to help.

FIND OUT MORE...

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

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Issue 23 / 63

New ways to survive and prosper in this extraordinary pandemic recessionary marketplace In a recessionary market, it is much easier to reduce costs than it is to generate more sales

@compleatp2p

Neil Robertson, Executive Chairman, Compleat Software Neil is the Executive Chairman of Compleat Software, having previously held the role of CEO at Compleat since April 2008. A 40+ year veteran of the accounting software industry, Neil has a long track record of building and growing global finance application businesses and with new disruptive technologies bringing these to market.

Neil Robertson, as a veteran of multiple recessions, identifies key tasks that finance leaders should address now to immediately evolve their focus by adopting automation to sustain control of cash...

I

n these uncertain times there are two commercial certainties.

Lockdown and social distancing have already precipitated a growing global recession and those organisations that take immediate action to evolve their business to reflect this “brave new world” will be the most likely to survive and prosper as the market recovers.

now is how many businesses will rise from the ashes as social distancing is eased, and how many of those will survive in the longterm?

We are already witnessing the massive growth in global unemployment as businesses shed costs through staff redundancies.

Whilst this is extremely painful; the brutal reality is that finding these cost and cash savings is fundamental to survival.

Today, cash flow is king.

Every CFO is now fully focused on planning and executing all the necessary steps to conserving corporate cash in order for their business to survive. Whilst most businesses expect a downturn in new revenues and increased bad debts as some of their customers fail or falter, the pandemic has made it extremely difficult to predict just how significant this downturn will be, and every geography and sector will be different.

Unlike previous recessions that are usually driven by a decline in market confidence over time, the global lockdown happened almost overnight. The difficult question 64 / Issue 23

Taking financial management to the next level

money than invest the time to make savings.

In a recessionary market, the opposite is usually true. It is much easier to reduce and control costs than it is to generate more sales.

As a direct result of the good times past, most businesses have generated an amount of resource and spend “fat”, whether by adding resources to address growth in volumes in preference to automation or, due to an understandable lack of focus due to other priorities, paying more than we need to for what we already buy.

The new financial priorities are “The new financial For CFO’s to gain to control all priorities are full visibility and corporate spend to control all control over all to necessities only, corporate spend corporate spend, to make sure that reduce the costs we maximise the to necessities of what they must effectiveness of every only.” buy and increase the $ spent and to increase productivity of everyone staff productivity to involved in the purchasing process achieve more with less resources. (both inside and outside the finance department), they should seriously In a strong market, businesses consider automating the entire focus on revenue growth in process. preference to very tight cost Purchasing and AP automation management, as it is more enables remote working for profitable to invest to make more

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“Quickly evolve everyone involved visibility and control to micro-manage in the process. over the entire cash flow, control This is important, process? costs and increase as people that are particularly For the people likelihood of vulnerable to that do the buying, prosperity.”

Covid-19 must be purchasing online given the option to makes the process simple, continue social distancing fast and convenient, saving time reflecting literally a life or death to focus on what is important to decision for them. them.

For smaller businesses, two simple changes can achieve a financial transformation.

The first is AP automation, usually delivered and taken live in a single day.

By digitally capturing supplier invoices and automating the approval process, every organisation will achieve a 60% 90% productivity gain - all while delivering total visibility and control over the entire process both inside and outside the finance department to everyone that needs to know.

The second is to re-think how the business buys the high volume of low value “stuff ” that clogs up every AP department.

A very large proportion of this “stuff ” can be bought online through marketplaces such as Amazon Business. So why not enable the business to buy everything it can from Amazon and encourage everyone to do so - PROVIDED THAT finance has total

every invoice and, critically, every line item and then processing this data into spend categories to identify the savings potential.

Then provide the procurement expertise as a service to quantify and deliver those savings which can run into $100k’s year on year for larger businesses.

For those of us that offer accounting From a cost saving “Buying online software and perspective, buying will almost related services online will almost to businesses, always be cheaper always be purchasing and than what you cheaper.” accounts payable currently pay, either automation provides making budgets stretch the opportunity to address further to achieve more or every CFO’s top priorities to control improving both corporate cash flow costs, maximise the effectiveness and profitability. of spend and increase productivity, at a time when changing their From an AP perspective, fully accounting software is no longer integrated buying online will top of their to do list. immediately reduce the number of suppliers being used and all of the For all of us in business, our ability issues and time that it consumes to immediately evolve, microto capture, code, approve, post manage cash flow and control and pay them. Up to 70% of all costs will increase the probability purchases by volume can be of our survival and our ability to through a single supplier that participate in the rapid market requires a single payment each growth as the global economy month. recovers.

For larger businesses that spend more, full purchasing automation FIND OUT MORE... now enables the delivery of “digital procurement” specifically to cut the costs on what you already To learn more about a Buy to buy, delivered as a service. This Pay solution, visit: is achieved by capturing all of the > icompleat.com invoice data from every supplier,

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Issue 23 / 65

Case Study

How PKF Ignite Transformed a WeeksLong Engagement Process & Now Signs Clients in Under a Day

@ignitionapp

Emma Crawford-Falekaono, Head of EMEA, Practice Ignition Emma is an accomplished business leader with a demonstrated history of success in the tech industry. Following senior roles with Xero, Tradify, and Bastion Consulting in New Zealand, Emma recently returned to the UK and now leads the Practice Ignition EMEA team.

Before using Practice Ignition, sending proposals, and engagement letters to potential clients was a long and cumbersome process. While creating these forms could take hours, it was the internal approval process that could add weeks to the sales process before the client finally received their proposal.

B

66 / Issue 23

efore using Practice Ignition, sending proposals, and engagement letters to potential new clients was a long and cumbersome process. Creating these forms took hours, even with the assistance of templates—and that was before they went through an internal approval process and then finally passed to the client, which could add weeks to the process.

certainly getting in the way.

The laborious process resulted in the client needing to print, sign, scan, and send the engagement letters back to PKF Ignite. This step of the process was admin-intensive for their clients, which added a further delay in receiving the signed letter.

Believe it or not, there was still another layer to this, on receiving the signed documents, they still needed to enter them into their accounting and billing software.

Unfortunately, none of their systems talked to each other.

Even better, is the fact that Practice Ignition makes life easier for PKF Ignite’s clients. Proposal, contract, and payment terms are all gathered together and ratified with one easy signature. “Once a client accepts our proposal, Practice Ignition automatically pulls the agreedupon fees from the document to generate monthly recurring invoices in Xero. You can even go a step further and connect Practice Ignition to Xero Practice Manager which then creates a task in XPM based on the proposal. It makes task management super easy!”

Manually creating invoices from the engagement letters left room for human error, inefficiencies and, of course, wasted time. “We were trying to make it effortless and enjoyable for clients to deal with our firm, but an admin-heavy engagement process was most

Even with templates, creating proposals and engagement letters used to take Nicole and her team hours. With Practice Ignition, that process takes under ten minutes.

The internal approval process was equally labour-intensive.

Getting approval, chasing client

According to Nicole Rousseau, Head of PKF Ignite for PKF South Africa, Practice Ignition revolutionised their engagement process. Practice Ignition enables them to bring up engagement letter templates, automatically populate them with terms of service, and add customerspecific details like payment terms with a few simple clicks.

signatures, and manually entering invoices could add weeks to the process. With Practice Ignition, the engagement letter is created, sent out, and signed—all within an average of eight hours.

But while PKF Ignite has already experienced substantial timesavings, Nicole says that’s not the biggest benefit. What she values most about Practice Ignition is that it enables her to make life easier for clients and demonstrates PKF Ignite’s value starting from the first engagement.

“Our average start-to-finish engagement time—from first contact, to receiving the client’s signed approval now gets done within eight hours. It’s a simple and intuitive process and there’s no need for follow up. That makes a massive difference and allows us to spend more time adding value to our clients. When clients see how professional and easy the engagement is, they can’t wait to get started and work with our firm.”

FIND OUT MORE...

To learn more, visit: > practiceignition.com

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Create impressive proposals that win clients Stop sending boring Word docs and PDF attachments and instead, send your clients stand-out, interactive proposals and engagement letters.

Create beautiful proposals and engagement letters that look great on all devices Use our professionally-designed templates and customise them to your needs to create beautiful proposals without needing a designer. With more than 50% of emails being opened on mobile devices, it’s critical that your proposals look great wherever they’re viewed.

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Issue 23 / 67

Getting in control of your postlockdown finances

@MarketFinance

Chris Findlow, Head of Partnerships, MarketFinance He’s passionate about helping SMEs get access to funding and working with entrepreneurs to free up more time to focus on growing their business.

Practical tips for navigating the new normal The post-coronavirus business market is likely to look very different to the pre-pandemic world we were used to. Strategic priorities will change, customer behaviour and buying habits will evolve and developing a stable income will become an increasingly difficult proposition.

In the uncertain times that lie ahead, remaining adequately funded and profitable is going to take plenty of fast thinking and hard work from the businesses that survive the crisis.

Chris Findlow, Head of Partnerships at MarketFinance, explains why companies will require a tight grip on their financial management in the post-lockdown business landscape.

T

he business impact of the pandemic

As businesses across the globe return to some kind of operational trading, it’s important for us all to stop and consider the enormous disruption and financial upheaval that the coronavirus crisis has caused for businesses around the world.

The global impact of COVID-19 has proved to be a massive challenge for the business community, and we’re not out of the woods yet, even with lockdown now being eased.

Companies have been faced with the multiple issues of an unplanned shutdown, the difficulties of remote and distanced working and the twin financial pressures of reduced revenue and negative cash flow – and these challenges won’t disappear overnight.

In a post-lockdown business landscape: • Strategic plans have been decimated – no-one in the business world was truly 68 / Issue 23

prepared for a global pandemic, or the scale of the impact it would cause. Bill Gates may have attempted to warn us back in 2018, but COVID-19 caught the majority of us off guard. Plans that seemed sensible, risk-free and attainable just six months ago now seem like pie in sky.

This is leading many businesses to rein in spending, reassess strategic plans and aim for survival rather than growth in the current market.

• Operational logistics are challenging – the need for social distancing, safe working conditions and non-contact deliveries is making it difficult for businesses that can’t operate solely via remote working. Teams must work in lesser numbers, or on a shift basis, and that means most companies are not operating to full capacity.

• Revenue and customer sales are an unknown quantity – with a recession already beginning to bite, being able to predict your sales figures and revenue targets is hard work. Will customers still need your services or products?

Do they have the money to spend? Can you meet the demand, even if sales do pick up?

These are all key worries when looking at the economic model behind your post-coronavirus business.

• Cash is still in short supply – you may have survived lockdown and a prolonged shutdown of your operations, but working capital is now likely to be scant and your cash flow will be in a precarious position. It’s probable that cash reserves are already being eaten into, and that any additional financial support from the Government will have served more as a short-term stopgap, rather than as a full cure for the longer-term liquidity of the business.

This may sound like a bleak outlook for the future – and there are many hurdles to overcome. But I strongly and genuinely believe that we can and will overcome the difficulties of coronavirus to build a revived and renewed business landscape.

This is a time for new ideas, new

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approaches and a strategy that takes into account the changing world in which we find ourselves.

However, for any survival plans or strategic thinking to take hold, it’s going to be essential for businesses to have straightforward, easy-toaccess funding open to them – so the cash is there to develop, pivot and evolve.

The growing need for additional funding Revenues may be down, and working capital reduced, but we still have the same operational overheads, the same payroll commitments and the same tax liabilities to take care of. So, what’s needed is a way to fund the business and keep the wheels turning in the short term.

It’s likely that external funding will be needed to fill the cash flow gaps and replenish working capital. But what are the best routes to finance for the most affected businesses?

Negotiating extended overdrafts with your bank is one option, as is exploring fast access to funding such as invoice finance etc. There’s also the option to dip into cash reserves, or to borrow from other more liquid subsidiaries in your group as ways to inject cash into the business. For businesses in the most dire financial situations, however, this simply won’t be enough to refill the money pot. So, where could you go for additional business funding?

Government financial support has been provided, with a raft of funding, loans and government grants being offered, including: • Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) – providing wages for furloughed staff • Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) – for loans up to £5million • Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) – for smaller business loans up to £50,000 • Future Fund Scheme – for convertible loans between £125,000 to £5million to innovative companies

• Business support grant funding – providing council grants for affected sectors • Deferral of VAT payments – to push back imminent VAT payments.

Qualifying for this financial assistance hasn’t been an easy task, and many businesses have reported long waits for the money to come through. With only 40 verified lenders at the start, through the British Business Bank scheme for CBILS, we felt there was a better way to deliver this finance. We’re now proud to say that MarketFinanceis an accredited provider for CBILS and offers businesses the quick and easy access to finance that’s so dearly needed.

A new strategic and financial approach to business Receiving the funds requested from your lender will serve to keep the business afloat. Then what’s needed is a new strategic outlook and a better way of managing your financial model – so you’re primed and ready for the new business landscape.

A better understanding of your financial reporting will be vital, so you understand in detail what’s going on within your business finances. Getting a better grip on your budget, cash flow, balance sheet and profit and loss reports will help you to see the real backstory behind the business.

Key ways to evolve your financial management will include looking at: • Cash flow and revenue forecasting – to give a clearer idea of the future path of your cash position and income, with a focus on forward-looking planning and management.

• Improved spend management – looking at ways to boost costcutting, negotiate better rates with suppliers and reduce the overall cash outflows from the business.

• Enhanced debt management – giving better control over credit

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control, aged debt and payment terms, getting you paid quicker and aiding the flow of cash into the business.

• Reviewing product ranges and pricing – to reaffirm which products/services are actually selling in the new market, if your prices are competitive, and that margins are delivering the revenues you need (keeping you profitable and competitive).

• Using additional funding wisely – meaning that you only draw down the cash that’s needed for key post-lockdown strategies, and to keep working capital topped up.

We don’t know when (and if ) a second wave of the pandemic will hit this winter, so having a clear strategy, sound financial management and significant cash reserves will all be good practice in these unpredictable and untested times.

A spur to reevaluate the future of business COVID-19 has tested the business world in so many ways – and will continue to do so over the coming months. But there are positives to be taken from our coronavirus experience.

The pandemic has acted as a spur, forcing us to reconsider our goals, reexamine our ethical business position and reevaluate where we want to take our businesses for 2021. The world has changed, and we need to change alongside it – amidst the chaos and loss of life, let’s find a small seed of positivity to feed and nurture in these uncertain times.

By getting in control of your postlockdown finances, you set the foundations for a more certain and stable future, helping to rebuild your business anew.

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To learn more, visit: > marketfinance.com

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Issue 23 / 69

The Right Tool For

Brendan Woods is founder and CEO of AutoEntry

The Red Tape

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.

It might seem like an unusual time to publish an article on compliance considering what is happening around the world today; we are talking about Covid-19 in case you are reading this in 2021. You have probably watched, read, flicked and scanned over countless articles on the CaronaVirus and we thought that you would have had enough of that for the moment.

@AutoEntry_OCREX

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.

There IS a connection however between this pandemic and compliance. Bit of a reach? Read on...

B

ack in January 2004, the Irish government published the White Paper on Better Regulation which promised to cut down on the amount of red tape faced by business. The government committed to lightening the load on business by examining what was already in place and removing those which were no longer fit for purpose. New pieces of legislation governing business would have to be justified on the grounds of necessity.

The White Paper was greeted with relief and acclaim in almost equal measure. Small businesses labouring under an increasingly weighty regulatory burden looked forward to spending more time growing their businesses and less time on paperwork.

70 / Issue 23

It would be good if we could look back and say that little had changed since. Being able to report a simple lack of progress towards the achievement of lofty goals would be welcome. Sadly, that’s not the case.

The reality is that the situation has got worse, far worse.

Late last year the Small Firms Association conducted one of its regular member surveys to take a measure of business confidence.

The long shadow cast by Brexit was among the key factors influencing the decidedly negative results but one of the other highlights related to red tape.

The member firms reported that far from reducing, the burden had increased quite dramatically over the years. When the answers were

aggregated, analysed and distilled down, the message was quite alarming.

What had taken them two hours a week ten years before was now taking a full day. Rather than seeing a reduction, the amount of regulations requiring compliance has increased quite significantly over the years.

Companies have had to deal with new health and safety rules, tightened environmental regulations, real-time PAYE, antimoney laundering legislation, along with change in company law – not to mention the dreaded GDPR which must be one of the most reviled pieces of law ever to emerge from Brussels.

SMEs across Europe and beyond

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complain vociferously about the costs associated with regulatory compliance. And while much of the blame for the red tape has been laid at the EU’s accommodating door, this is perception rather than fact.

Indeed, in a survey of UK businesses carried out last year by business leader network Vistage, 38% of respondents said they believed bureaucracy will become more of a hurdle post-Brexit, as opposed to just 17% who said a deal with the EU will lead to fewer regulations and less red-tape.

but things keep going in the wrong direction.

Misery may love company, but it is cold comfort indeed for businesses to learn that their pain is shared internationally.

There is another way of looking at the problem, however.

Instead of bemoaning the lack of action by governments and the drain on resources represented by the regulatory burden, maybe it is time to look at different ways to deal with the burden.

Commenting on the findings, Geoff Lawrence, Vistage General Manager UK: “UK business leaders clearly have reservations about how a negotiated exit from the EU will impact their business. The longer we go without clarity, the more these reservations will intensify.”

A great many firms are still dealing with administrative tasks in the same way as they were back in 2004 – manually and on paper.

Even where technology is used it tends to be limited to quite basic spreadsheets.

Almost every country has a similar story to tell. Broad agreement that red tape is a bad thing and that something must be done about it,

Those businesses could benefit enormously by introducing modern automation tools which would not only relieve a lot of the burden but

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help deliver powerful business insights along the way.

Tools like AutoEntry eliminate manual data entry of invoices, receipts, bills and statements and allow users to import them from emails, scans or even mobile phone pictures.

Consider for a moment what that would do to the VAT return process.

And that’s just the beginning. The potential time and resource savings are enormous and those extra hours which have mounted up over the past ten years can be won back.

Red tape and bureaucracy may be a nuisance and a burden but needn’t be a barrier to profitable business.

Not if you use the right tools.

FIND OUT MORE...

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10

RecessionBusting Tips

Richard Francis from Spotlight Reporting shares 10 tips on how to survive, thrive, and recover from the recession...

@spotlightrep

Richard Francis CA, CEO, Spotlight Reporting Richard is a CA and trusted advisor with 20+ years of advisory experience. As the director of a boutique professional practice, Richard saw a need to improve analysis and forecasting for his clients that led to him founding Spotlight Reporting – a global company and also the #1 Reporting and Forecasting app in the Xero ecosystem. Richard was also GM of Workpapers for Xero.

R

chances of success. really get to the heart of why you ight now and more than do what you do, and ask yourself ever, our mission needs 3. Get Time With Your Accountant if there are ways that you can do it to be the provision of practical or Advisor better. strategies and timely information to protect and prepare businesses There are a number of services 2. Ensure Your Team as we slide into a recession. your accountant or advisor could is Optimised and With that in mind, here If you have (should) offer you right now.

Ready for the ‘New are 10 Recessionto make hard First and foremost, if you’re a Normal’ Busting Tips for decisions to keep business owner, you’re going to advisors, business the business need a cashflow forecast. If you’re Take care of your owners, and CFOs: afloat, make them team, so they can an accountant, you should be early. providing one to every business take care of business.

1. Re-Evaluate Your client.

Keeping your team Business Model healthy, motivated, and Business owners: ask your adaptable to change is key to the The way you work has to change, vitality of your business. If you have accountant for help with tax so seize the opportunity to make planning, government to make hard decisions to changes for the better! packages, and keep the business afloat, Your numbers are compliance and relief make them early. If By now, you’ve probably had to your vital signs. strategies. Chances you have people reconsider and revise how your Take your data are, this isn’t the first willing to step up business operates, to fit with the and create useful recession they’ve into leadership roles, global change in circumstances. forecasts and worked through, and let them shine—the But change doesn’t have to be scenarios. they might have gamemore your team is on a bad thing. Take some time to changing insights. your side, the better your re-evaluate your business model, 4. Understand Government Assistance Schemes Most governments are offering financial aid to get local businesses through these stormy waters.

Not all of it will be applicable to you, but make sure you conduct a thorough investigation, so you don’t miss out. If possible, ask your accountant/advisor for help with research and applications.

5. Constructive Communication With Customers

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Everyone could use a friendly face and voice from outside their constricted network right now.

Relationships rekindled under duress are likely to last well beyond bad times.

problems, opportunities and threats. Monitor, analyse, debate and then make the best decisions.

6. Talk to Your Bank and Stakeholders

Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. You need to be thinking about how your decisions and the societal and economic winds of change will impact your business in the future. Create a list of priorities and actions, and make sure there’s a balance between urgency and intent.

Maybe it’s all about survival right now, but recessions don’t last forever.

If necessary, reconfigure and renegotiate. What debt options are they offering? Can they help you with governmental schemes? Are they willing to renegotiate existing debt, and offer you better rates? Are they a source of capital now, or will they be in the future? What expertise can they offer?

7. Dive Into Your Numbers, Seek Insight

Your numbers are your vital signs.

Take your data and create useful forecasts and scenarios: what does good, bad, and ugly look like for the future? Your numbers will illuminate

8. Update Strategy and Direction

Then take a moment to think about longer term goals. What are the top three objectives for the next one year, three years? Maybe it’s all about survival right now, but recessions don’t last forever. How will you come out on top?

9. Double Your Support Networks

make new ones. Seek new or renewed relationships, expanded networks, and sources of advice and inspiration that will sustain and guide you on the journey ahead.

10. Manage Yourself Take care of your physical, mental, and emotional health. If you’re not operating at your best, your team, your family, and your business won’t be able to either. Show compassion and empathy for those around you, but don’t forget to save some for yourself!

FIND OUT MORE...

Find out how you use Spotlight Forecasting to save a business right now: > spotlightreporting.com

Reach out to old friends, and

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Mental Health & Wellbeing

We’re all in this together

Q&A

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Meet our panel:

Craig Hudson MD, Xero Aotearoa (NZ) Xero

Nick Elston Founder Forging People

Rebecca Mihalic Head of Accounting (APAC) Practice Ignition

Tim Hoopmann Speaker and Trainer TimHoopmann.com

Will Buckley Country Manager, Canada Xero

We want to take this opportunity to explore and shine a light upon mental health and wellbeing within the Xero User community. As part of this we have been really lucky to sit down with some great mental health and wellbeing advocates from around the world.

In this Q&A we deep dive into different services/support available around the world to help everyone and how you can support those in your business. As well as exploring how we can look at everyone as individuals and be sensitive toward their wellbeing needs.

It’s great to be part of such an amazing community at this time where we can discuss these things so openly and honestly. I will leave it to our expert panel to take it from here…

XU:

Are you able to start by telling us a little of your story and what brought you to be such an advocate for mental health?

CH:

I was the kid who went to school to eat my lunch and play with my friends. I didn’t enjoy the academic side of things but I was hugely passionate about rugby. In my last year of high school I was selected to join the Crusaders academy and over the next few years I played both domestic and international rugby for Kiwi and international teams.

In 2003 I had a virus that attacked my heart when I was playing rugby in Europe. I was suffering from what’s called over-training syndrome. Somehow at the end of 2005 I got talked into playing for the Sevens again in the hope of

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playing at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. I wanted to keep playing badly, but my body was starting to give up again. A few months later I collapsed on the field in Hong Kong, and was rushed to hospital. After being forced into early retirement, my dream was crushed and it wasn’t easy to go through that.

It took a while for me to get back to working - I was a rugby player and that’s all I ever wanted to be.

I questioned my identity, and that inner voice got louder - telling me I couldn’t provide for my family, that I wasn’t good enough, I didn’t have a degree and didn’t know what I was doing etc.

After a few different jobs I landed at McFall Fuel and credit to my boss here - he recognised how much I was struggling and set up support for me in the form of an external

business coach who was also a Psychologist.

Looking back, I’ve probably had battles with mental health all through my rugby career but it wasn’t until I started speaking with the psychologist that I developed the practical tools to help myself.

This was a turning point for me and I’m hugely thankful for where I am today. I can say ‘I am OK today’ and believe my lived experience gives me the opportunity to be heard a bit more. I’m not always super comfortable sharing my story but I know it’s crucial if we want to change the way mental health is viewed - particularly in the business world.

NE:

I had Mental Illness in childhood - namely OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) then GAD (Generalised Anxiety

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Mental Health & Wellbeing Disorder) into teen & adult life.

This ‘high anxiety’ energy followed me into my Corporate life, largely unaddressed - until my ‘meltdown’ moment. There are 2 reasons I got to that point - firstly, I was wearing a mask. Trying to be what people wanted to see in me, trying to be what situations demanded of me - but I sure didn’t damn show myself! Secondly, I didn’t schedule ‘recovery’ - we fill up our diaries with our work stuff, then our home stuff - but where do we feature in our own lives? It was at that point I decided to step up, to tell my story & truly be heard. I haven’t stopped Speaking since!

and it affects our mental health and wellbeing on different levels and in different ways. Our collective responsibility is to make sure we put emphasis on fostering a supportive environment, which allows people to place emphasis on wellness, and encourages practical steps for improving mental health.

XU:

Are you able to start by telling us a little of your story and what made you talk recently about mental health?

RM:

When I learnt how to look after my own mental health and well being, I wanted to share this with others. When I share my stories, I help to increase the community’s understanding about mental health.

I encourage people to start a conversation about mental health with themselves or with others they are concerned about.

A lot has changed for me in the past 12 months. The accounting firm that I co-founded, Aptus Accounting & Advisory, joined a larger group BusinessDEPOT and I have moved part time into a new world as the Head of Accounting at Practice Ignition (APAC). A few months after these changes happened, we were all impacted by COVID-19.

I have always functioned in high pressure situations, but I found myself juggling huge client needs in the accounting firm, working through what my new roles in both organisations look like, becoming an educator for my children, all while we were effectively trapped at home. I had some really terrible moments, where the stress overwhelmed me, but I was lucky enough to have some wonderful people in my world that I could lean on. I knew that there was no way that I was alone in what I felt and was going through, and I decided to share my story as a way to encourage others and remind our community that they aren’t alone.

WB:

XU:

TH:

I became a beyondblue speaker because as a small business owner I struggled with anxiety and depression. I learnt ways to manage this and decided I wanted to share my stories of hope. Owning and operating a small business can be challenging. At times it feels isolating with all responsibility resting on you as the owner.

Business challenges with little or no support can build up creating the feeling of being overwhelmed and lacking control.

As an athlete, I was taught to invest my time and energy into what is controllable. This lesson didn’t prevent me from making bad decisions, but it provided me with focus on finding ways to move forward. One of my favorite quotes comes from Mike Tyson, “everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face.” The reality is that uncontrollable factors can become challenging and overwhelming for many people. This is where I believe we have the biggest responsibility towards one another. Nobody is immune from feeling overwhelmed,

It’s awesome to see how honestly and vulnerably you have spoken about mental health over the last 12 months, really helping to address mental health in a positive light for Xero and Xero users. Why do you feel it’s so important that we talk more about mental health and try to break any negative stereotypes around it?

CH:

We’re in the guts of a mental health crisis.

There is still a bias towards the negative connotation of mental health. When someone hears

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mental health they go straight to the bottom and think of the worst case scenario. But actually, the norm is everyone’s on the spectrum of mental wellness and some handle things better than others. If we can get rid of that myth, people everywhere could feel safer in terms of seeking support before they become a statistic.

XU:

The mental wellbeing of people is very important at Xero. Can you tell me more about the support and programs Xero has put in place?

CH:

Wellbeing is a huge part of Xero. We have a range of programs available to support our people, including: - Xero Thrive: This course is run across our NZ offices, and is a four hour workshop to help build resilience.

- Team Psychological Safety: A series of workshops intended to educate and improve a team’s psychological safety - High Performing Minds: This is an 8 week course (2 hours a week), run by BlueSkyMinds. It is designed to help employees with focus, productivity, communication and the ability to manage pressure.

It’s underpinned by science based mindfulness and we have built a strategy for beginners through to experienced mindfulness activities. It includes one-hour introductory sessions, weekly dropins, refreshers, one-day retreats, internal mindfulness champions who keep it going. We also offer a lot of mindfulness resources on our internal help centre.

- Flourishing at Xero: This is a guide intended to educate and provide employees with information and tips on mental health.

- EAP: Our Employee Assistance Programme is offered in every region for 24/7 wellbeing support.

Our people also have access to resources from Benestar, our NZ provider, as well as the use of an app in NZ, AU and UK, which offers further mental wellbeing resources.

- Wellbeing Leave: This initiative is about re-framing ‘sick’ leave to ‘wellbeing’ leave in order to take the stigma away from mental health. It recognises that you don’t

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Mental Health & Wellbeing have to be physically sick to need some time off.

- During October in NZ, we have a strong focus on mental wellbeing throughout the month. We hold a number of events relating to both mental health awareness week and world mental health day. There’s also a lot of communication about what’s available to our people as a reminder.

- We have also piloted a mental health first aid course for leaders in NZ and this is something we are looking into further.

- To help with the impact of covid-19, we created an internal wellbeing hub with useful resources for people to get through lockdown and adjust to remote working.

XU:

Will, are you able to tell me more about the specific support that Xero Canada has for Xero Users?

WB:

To support our small business and accounting and bookkeeping partners during COVID-19, we’ve activated a dedicated Business Continuity Hub. This contains a range of practical tools and resources, on topics ranging from getting access to advisors, understanding government relief, and mental health and wellbeing at work. We have a variety of online courses and videos that will help partners care for their physical and mental wellbeing during these challenging times. The courses cover topics such as building positive wellbeing habits, managing energy levels, and being resilient in a virtual world. Outside of our Business Continuity Hub, we’ve hosted yoga sessions and trivia nights for our partners in Canada to unwind and de-stress.

XU:

Are you able to tell me more about Xero’s Wellbeing Programme? From my experience, it focuses on 5 pillars.

It would be great if you could go into more depth on these.

CH:

Broadly, we develop a calendar each year that focuses on two or three key topics each month. These topics sit under one of the pillars and

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range from seminars and activities to celebrations and information sharing. The ultimate outcome we’re looking to achieve is longterm positive behaviour change and our entire wellbeing program is oriented to that goal.

1) Physical Wellbeing – Get your body life-ready Every employee is entitled to a subsidised entry into a run/walk event each year, such as Round The Bays. We have gyms on site at our Auckland and Wellington office and offer discounted memberships to local gyms.

Employees organise fitness classes such as yoga and pilates and we also subsidise employee-led sports teams. Flu shots are provided free of charge. Nutrition is a big focus, and our seminars on this topic are always popular. This year we’re looking to launch an employeecrowdsourced cook book.

2) Mental Wellbeing – Harness the power of the mind Other than our year-round Mindfulness programme, we have a culture of flexibility, allowing employees to balance their work and personal lives. Other than providing 24/7 support via EAP, our provider has a website and app full of great resources, aiming to proactively address concerns before they become issues. We also run various education sessions in partnership with our EAP provider. Each year, we run Pet Therapy sessions in our offices, where employees are able to spend time with cats or dogs.

This year we launched a gratitude Slack channel, which has sparked some great communication. Finally, we are looking at initiatives to educate people on the importance of sleep and digital detoxing.

3) Social Wellbeing – Take social offline This crosses over with some of our diversity and inclusion initiatives, such as cultural celebration and education days. We also host a family day each year, where employees can bring their family members along. We organise Easter egg hunts, blood donor drives and have a strong focus on volunteering in the community. Each employee is given one day of paid leave to give back to an organisation of their choice.

4) Financial Wellbeing – Peace of mind is priceless We run various education initiatives on topics from retirement to financial planning. We facilitate onsite one-on-ones with independent financial planners.

We also have banking benefits and provide life insurance to all employees.

5) Environmental Wellbeing – It only takes one action to start a ripple effect The environment and sustainability is very important to a lot of Xeros.

There’s always ongoing education with seminars and resources on the concept of reduce, reuse, recycle.

Something that Xeros really enjoy is the green expos that we run each year where we invite companies that produce environmentally friendly products to host a stall.

XU:

Are you able to talk more through some of the statistics you recently published in the enabling wellbeing Canadian accounting professional image? (see opposite page)

WB:

We conducted our research earlier this year in January and were surprised to find that less than half of Canadian accountants and bookkeepers have daily habits that support their wellbeing. This was well before the economic impacts of COVID-19 were felt.

Now, with stress at an all time high across the country, we saw a real opportunity to do good and extend our resources in a meaningful way to our community.

Our research found that accounting professionals report their biggest wellbeing struggle is their mental health (18%), followed by physical health challenges (12%) and managing finances at home (11.6%). While these were challenges before the pandemic hit, we have seen the critical role accountants and bookkeepers play in advising small business clients and helping guide them through these uncertain times. It can be difficult for accountants and bookkeepers to look after their wellbeing during this time. That’s

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Mental Health & Wellbeing

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Mental Health & Wellbeing why we see a lot of value focusing on mental health during this time and offering practical ways to lift up wellbeing, energy and mindset so we can best support our partners and communities.

XU:

In NZ you are running the Xero Assistance Programme (XAP), are you able to tell me more about this programme and how it’s helped Xero Users to date?

CH:

The Xero Assistance Programme (XAP) is a pilot programme that provides mental health support to Kiwi small businesses. We’ve partnered with Benestar, a global expert in mental health services, to provide XAP. XAP provides access to counselling in a way that suits the user - either telephone, online via video or live chat (in person was available prior to COVID-19) . It is available to all our accounting and bookkeeping partners, as well as Xero starter, standard and premium subscribers, their employees and their families - we estimate this is about 850,000 Kiwis. The service is 100% confidential and free of charge to the user.

Small businesses don’t have the same access to EAP programmes and resources that big businesses do, so we wanted to make it easy for them to get support. It’s also a place for our accounting and bookkeeping partners to point their clients to if they are going through a hard time. Now more than ever, it’s important that the small business community have that support available for their mental Wellbeing.

XU:

I saw in a recent blog you spoke about ‘small habits that make a big impact on our wellbeing’. Are you able to talk us through this more and any tips that could help with this?

WB:

When we conducted our research, we also found that when it comes to barriers to wellbeing, 42% of accounting professionals reported it was not having enough time.

Studies suggest that tiny daily habits that can take as little as 30

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seconds can have a positive impact on people’s wellbeing, so not having enough time is a barrier that can be conquered.

One of my favorite tips to improve wellbeing is to just take the time to breathe and give yourself a moment to relax. Find moments in your day where you can be present, pay active attention to your surroundings and get out of your head. Apps like Headspace and Calm are great to incorporate into daily routines.

Another easy tip to incorporate is recognizing and celebrating the wins, along with the lessons and learnings. It’s easy to get caught up in current events or business challenges. But something we say internally at Xero is you’re either winning or you’re learning.

It’s important to celebrate both of those aspects because we’re all in this together. We need collaboration and community-based efforts to help everyone get through these challenges and look after themselves.

XU:

The mental wellbeing/ health of people is very important at Practice Ignition.

Can you tell me more about the support that PI offers to its employees worldwide?

RM:

Practice Ignition is an incredibly supportive environment to be a part of. I have shared more about myself publically in the last 6 months than I think I ever have. The confidence to do so comes from the support network at PI. From one of our team who wishes to remain anonymous “I can share that as a PI employee I was able to share my mental health challenges with my manager and was empowered to modify my work to support my treatment and recovery. We also now have a wellness channel and weekly updates on wellness shared with the global team.”

It is not just in these individual scenarios that PI offers support, there is a constant theme of this across the company globally and

each team member has 1-1 catchups with their manager every month.

XU:

Over the last year PI has seen a big growth in staff. What challenges do businesses face when growing and taking on new staff and how can we be aware of individuals health/ wellbeing needs? Especially, without being in the same location as them.

RM:

PI went from a team of 50 in 5 countries in August 2019, to 115+ in 6 countries just 9 months later. Culture is very important at PI, and knowing that a lot of hiring was going to commence, the whole team headed to Bali for an internal conference in 2019 to set the company’s values, talk through challenges of scaling and make sure that each team member knew they were valued and had a chance to speak freely.

By making the team aware of what was about to happen, everyone did the PI thing and looked to help those that were starting and getting them settled as quickly as possible.

I experienced this first hand when I joined PI and immediately felt at home.

It was also important that the first few hires were in the newly created People + Culture team - providing the framework to make sure there was a single safe place for any concerns and issues. The company has had incredibly low turnover and continues to hire to round out the team as it needs.

In 2014 PI had 6 employees when they opened their first office and in 2015 they were a team of 10 over 4 countries. The company was built to support people working from home in remote locations and Guy Pearson and the executive team continues to support remote employees by: 1) Providing a safe space for communication on how people are feeling through many employee feedback tools 2) Having a wellness channel + separate jokes channel in your internal communications to make

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Mental Health & Wellbeing sure people can share what they’ve found useful 3) Having regular check ins with the team 4) Having clear goals for the team/s so people know what success looks like 5) Take feedback from #1 and put it into action 6) Have your values set in place and live them.

However no one planned for Covid.

Along with isolation, distancing and the inability to have a chat around the proverbial water cooler, there’s no way everything can be executed to perfection in that situation, but the company always tries to listen to feedback and act relatively quickly.

The team quickly came up with some great ideas to keep us all connected and healthy, a #Wellness channel in our company slack, we have monthly Friday drinks virtually (with guests + entertainment), a Social Suite survey to gauge who needs what, a home office allowance was put in place quickly to get people setup to work at home, various buddy systems are put in place, there are flexible hours (especially for parents with kids) and lastly a stress leave day is added to leave allowance monthly to make sure folks can take a time out when they need it and reset.

XU:

Tim, I know you are an ambassador, and speak, for Beyond Blue. Are you able to tell us more about the amazing work Beyond Blue does in Australia?

TH:

Beyond Blue is a national organisation that works to raise awareness about anxiety and depression, reduce the associated stigma and encourage people to get help. They provide information and support to help everyone in Australia achieve their best possible mental health, whatever their age and wherever they live.

Beyond Blue is a trusted source of information and support on suicide prevention, they provide information to people at risk of

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suicide or who have attempted to take their life with support options, and give practical advice for people worried about someone they think might be suicidal on how to help.

XU:

Are you able to speak more about the services and resources that are available with Beyond Blue to help employees and employers with mental health in Australia?

TH:

We all have good days and bad days.

Then there are those days when something isn’t quite right, you’ve got something on your mind, or things just seem too much.

Whatever it may be, sharing the load with someone else can really help. So no matter who you are, or how you’re feeling, you can talk it through with Beyond Blue – they will point you in the right direction so you can seek further support.

They provide amazing services: - Talk to a trained mental health professional at their support centre that operates 24 hours 7 days a week - 1300 22 4636 - Chat online between 3pm and 12am for short-term counselling, information and referrals for anxiety and depression - Joining their online forums in their online community. This is all about supporting and learning from each other.

- www.headsup.org.au provides resources for employers, employees, managers and small business. They provide training and resources for healthy workplaces. It includes a great section on how to support others in small businesses who you are concerned about.

XU:

Nick, as part of your job you travel the country (UK) and run a lot of seminars and workshops talking about mental health. What challenges have you experienced to keep speaking and educating people on mental health?

NE:

The biggest challenge for me is to ensure my self-awareness remains high. I give SO much when I speak, coach, mentor or engage with people - and

as a natural introvert who recharges in my own company - it takes a LOT of me! So I need to ring-fence my alone time, to recover, recharge & go again strong tomorrow.

Essentially in life - people just want to be heard & understood - when we do that, it’d be very easy to take the burden of their challenges on our shoulders. That is why we need to remind ourselves that people aren’t coming to us to be fixed (unless we are medical professionals!) - but to be heard.

That is why our sole responsibility is to actively listen then actively signpost.

XU:

A massive part of what you do is on social media and digital. How important is social media to help spread the message and education of mental health and is there a risk it can be negative as well?

NE:

Social Media can be THE biggest anxiety trigger.

It also can be THE biggest source of positive community. So - it’s not the platforms - it’s how we immerse ourselves in those platforms - and who chooses what we engage with?

We do! The first thing we give away in life is choice - especially when we are struggling with Mental Health - but also low self-esteem, low-self confidence & when we lack self-belief. Social Media is a powerful tool for good - but only when pointed in the right direction!

My only concern with it really is that people can use it as a way to open up - but without the support or inspiration there to catch them.

It can easily turn into a mosh pit of despair! The challenge is not mistaking online for ‘real life’ when reaching out for help.

XU:

One of the quotes I have seen from you is “BIG man, BIG story, BRUTAL honesty! Inspirational Speaker on the Lived Experience of Mental Health”. I found this to be a very vulnerable insight into who you are and the journey that you have been on. How important is it for us to embrace who we are as an individual and how other people will be different from us in a positive way?

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

Mental Health & Wellbeing

NE:

I firmly believe that vulnerability is a superpower when practiced daily.

When we give more of ourselves we build an instant bridge of trust with the person we are talking to, our audiences - even our clients.

Plus, no one then has anything on us. Seriously, I have stood up in front of thousands of people & shared with them something I have never shared elsewhere - because it felt the right time, the right place & it was in my head. The truth is liberating. If we don’t show the world our true selves, how does the world know how to help us?

If we aren’t living a life on our terms - by default we are living a life on someone elses terms. Now for me, that’s far more scary than vulnerability!

XU:

One of the big impacts that come from people working from home more is loneliness. Do you have any advice/guidance that can help people suffering from being alone and the negative effects this can have? Also, how can we help anyone who is struggling with this?

RM:

With anything in life I think that being aware of a situation is the first step. You don’t actually have to be at home by yourself to still feel isolated and lonely. The forced and swift nature of the changes so many of us have had to make can be unsettling and has removed people from their usual environments. So even if you are at home with your whole family you can still feel alone, and i think that is important to acknowledge.

If you are feeling this way I would encourage you to reach out and talk about it. There are so many groups and communities online across the globe that are popping up to share stories and their journeys, or even just to have a laugh together. These groups mostly use zoom or other video conferencing, so you can still see the other people “in the room” and have been a huge support to me.

However if the way that you are feeling is overwhelming and you don’t feel you can talk to any of

these groups or other people in your life, i absolutely encourage you to contact a mental health professional or a mental wellbeing support service such as Beyond Blue or Lifeline in Australia.

TH:

For our team members, there are a few things Xero Canada has been doing to have some fun and stay connected.

We have team members who lead weekly yoga classes, daily stretching sessions and we end the week with a virtual happy hour and team trivia. We’ve also started “Themed Tuesdays” with challenges for people to dress like their favorite decade, recreate a famous visual work and more.

While these might seem like small actions, they can make a big difference in helping keep up the “virtual water cooler” and helping people stay in positive spirits.

Working from home has become mandatory for many people. In a lot of cases it is a new way of working as most people regularly work together in an office.

Structure, routine and boundaries are important to ensure we stay connected and do not overwork ourselves.

- maintain a healthy work-life balance by setting time limits - create a separate office or workspace, if possible - move around every hour, and go outside once a day (if it’s responsible to do so) - keep connected to colleagues and communicate daily with your manager - set a work schedule for the day and stick to it - shower, and dress comfortably, as if you’re going to the office - keep the kitchen stocked with healthy snacks and meals.

- make daily exercise an important part of your day If concerned about someone who is working from home, you should immediately contact them and talk through ways of supporting them while they work remotely.

XU:

Right now accountants and bookkeepers are the key workers for their clients’

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businesses. Some clients are more vulnerable than ever as they are going through these times. This can lead to struggles with health, wellbeing or loneliness. What support does Xero have to enable accountants and bookkeepers to support their clients specifically with these struggles at these times?

WB:

At Xero, people come first. Amidst all the uncertainty of the pandemic, it is more critical than ever that business owners and their advisors stop to think about the mental wellness of themselves and their people. That was one of the reasons why we participated in the Canadian Mental Health Association’s annual Mental Health Week in Canada. For us, the week was about taking the time to support our accounting professionals and help them prioritize wellbeing and build good ongoing practices they can use now and throughout the rest of the year.

We know our community plays a big role in supporting one another and we wanted to help create a space where people could talk openly about wellbeing and mental health challenges. During Mental Health Week, we encouraged our partners and team to share tips and tricks around mental health and compiled some best practices into this infographic. It was inspiring seeing these conversations happen, and that’s something we hope to continue through our events like Xero Hours in Canada, which let accountants and bookkeepers in the Xero community come together to connect and learn from each other.

XU:

Why is it so important that we talk more about mental health and trying to break any negative stereotypes around it?

NE:

It’s massively important.

As I speak from ‘Lived Experience’ I see my role in life as being the vehicle that takes people from a challenge to a solution but not the actual solution. Only through people talking, sharing, showing vulnerability - will people

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Mental Health & Wellbeing get the courage to take off that mask - to start to question & break their conditioning - and most importantly inspire people to use their adversity as a catalyst for positive change. My business name is ‘Forging People’ - it came from a line in my Keynote Seminar ‘Talking Anxiety’ - in life, we either let our challenges define us negatively for the rest of our days - or we CHOOSE to allow it to forge something beautiful, something powerful that wouldn’t exist without you going through your **** - THEN it all makes sense! Keep talking everyone!

RM:

A very large portion of our population suffers from mental health concerns.

According to Beyond Blue, 1 in 6 Australians are suffering from either anxiety or depression right now. This is not isolated to just Australia and similar statistics are prevalent globally. Although mental health issues are so common, it still carries a large stigma and people can shy away from talking about it. It is important to break these stereotypes so that people that are suffering feel more comfortable to seek out the help that they need.

Many people don’t understand how diverse the mental health spectrum is, and lots of things can lead to poor mental health.I spent a large part of my life not understanding this, and as I learnt more about it and shed my misconceptions, relationships I had with people in my life (and myself ) improved greatly.

TH:

Depression and anxiety are common and treatable conditions. Support is available and it’s important to seek support early – the sooner the better. With the right treatment, most people recover. It’s important to know the signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety so that you can monitor your feelings and behaviours, and also look out for those around you.

If you think you may be depressed or have an anxiety condition, or you know someone who might, talk about it and seek help from a

84 / Issue 23

General Practitioner or other mental health professional. A common misconception is that people with depression or anxiety can just ‘snap out of it’, or that depression and anxiety indicate a weakness of character.

Depression and anxiety are illnesses, not weaknesses, and people shouldn’t feel ashamed to speak up and seek help early.

XU:

One of the positives we have seen to come out of these uncertain times is that more people seem to be wanting to speak and learn more about mental health. What piece of advice can you give us that we can do daily to impact and make a difference in a positive way, to people suffering from mental health?

RM:

I always come back to the basics. Be kind to each other and treat others the way that you would like to be treated.

You often don’t understand the reasons people behave the way they do or what is going on in their world. Empathy and compassion can change a conversation or someone’s actions in a very positive way. You also need to remember to take care of yourself. If you don’t prioritise your own mental health and focus on your own anxiety and stress reduction strategies, you will not be able to help those around you.

TH:

Understanding the signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety is a great place to start if you are to effectively support others. This way you can monitor the behaviours of those around you.

There are a number of ways you can support your teams and those you are concerned about - Creating healthy workplaces. This can be achieved by encouraging the creation of personal and workplace wellbeing plans for small business owners who work alone or employ staff. This helps support everyone within those businesses.

- Sometimes the most difficult thing when provided support is just working out how to start a

conversation. It’s important to choose a time when you’re both free to talk and a place where you both feel comfortable, keep relaxed body language and keep up the eye contact to let them know you’re listening, and use openended questions to open up the conversation.

- Supporting someone can at times be challenging. Maintaining empathy, purpose and positivity in equal measures, will be vital.

- Staying connected and starting a conversation may just be the best conversation you can have with someone you are concerned about.

XU:

Lastly, every person is different and needs support in different ways.

However, are you able to offer some advice on how we can support people with their mental health and wellbeing?

RM:

What is really important to remember is that I am not a mental health expert, and neither are many people that may find themselves on the other side of a conversation with someone that is struggling.

The best thing that you can do is be supportive and help that person access the services that they need, this may be professional help. Don’t feel that you need to solve all of their problems yourself and don’t hesitate to reach out to mental health services.

WB:

You’re absolutely right, mental health impacts everyone differently and everyone has their own unique personal challenges. I believe we have a collective ownership and responsibility to work together and support each other. One thing I do with my teams is ask a simple question, “How are you doing?.”

It’s a question I’ll ask not just once, but I’ll follow up on it or try to reinforce it in my conversations with someone. I think this approach lets people see that they have a safe space to share what they’re going through or open up about any challenges, and allows people to have productive conversations.

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Working remotely doesn’t mean you’re cut off from your clients.

In fact, it could mean the opposite.

Better connected Pull invoices from 1,400 suppliers. Create outstanding paperwork reports at the touch of a button. Talk to clients through the Receipt Bank app on items of paperwork.

Financial information all under one roof, ready when you need it.

#KEEPBUSINESSGOING WITH

Find out more: receiptbank.com/xumag 86 / Issue 23

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Issue 23 / 87

Industry Focus: Property

Arthur Online: A cloud-based property management solution that puts all financial transactions in ONE PLACE Managing property portfolios can be extremely time-consuming. Cloud-based solutions offer numerous benefits that save property managers both time and money by bringing all propertyrelated transactions on to one platform...

M

anual data entry into spreadsheets is not only time-consuming, but it can also increase the likelihood of errors. Arthur Online provides a cloud-based solution that brings together all property-related transactions on one platform.

There are a plethora of cost and efficiency benefits that a cloud-based solution can have for property managers that will ultimately reduce costs and time spent on admin work which can then be reinvested in expanding their portfolio.

Automation End to end property management includes several tasks from tracking rent payments to handling maintenance requests. Manually performing such operations for a portfolio of properties is highly time-consuming and often overwhelming. Automation, therefore, solves the majority of the problems that property managers face.

Luckily, Arthur provides a platform that automates recurring tasks like rent collection and also autogenerates various management 88 / Issue 23

fees. Traditionally, a range of property-related finance data such as rent charges and fees are stored in large physical servers. These do not only cost thousands but also require an IT team to install and maintain.

These costs add up, especially if you include the labour hours required to manually enter this data. Arthur is a cloud-based solution that mitigates all these costs by providing real-time access to information – meaning you can work anywhere at any time!

Moreover, Arthur is integrated with market-leading accounting software such as Xero. The integration automates rent tracking further by shifting charges created in Arthur into Xero. In this way the integration avoids double entry, ensuring quick and easy rent reconciliation.

Xero’s live bank feed feature automatically creates a list of transactions that include money being spent and received by your bank account. In addition to cutting the number of hours on manual data entry work, the live bank feed feature allows you to see your cashflow in real-time.

Mapping account codes between

@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 and Xero is an integral component of the integration. It ensures account codes setup for various revenue and liabilities in Arthur are mirrored with those in Xero. A combination of this and the live bank feed feature delivers the power of a full accounting system for your property business.

You can manage your invoicing, bills and tax returns to produce real-time reports that display the financial position of your business.

Arthur works with Xero in this way to produce a streamlined process for managing your properties’ finances effectively.

Improved communication and collaboration Property management includes several stakeholders: tenants, property owners and contractors.

Each stakeholder plays an important role in the property journey from the viewings to the end of the tenancy. Arthur provides a single platform for all stakeholders, making communication between them easy and efficient.

Arthur’s tenancy app enables tenants to perform several functions

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Industry Focus: Property

such as maintenance requests.

These actions automatically update property managers who can then set up work orders for contractors on Arthur. Contractors also have a specific app which they use to implement and manage their work orders. In this way, Arthur provides a single platform that links all actions created by the different stakeholders.

All parties, therefore, work off the same master document, which reduces the large number of hours property managers spend

on admin work – there are no separate records that need to be linked, managed, compared and reconciled.

Increased security – simple backup and recovery Another benefit of cloud-based accounting software is increased security. This is because cloudbased accounting softwares such as Arthur have additional security measures that prevent data from being vulnerable to theft.

For example, notifications of

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unknown logins can be delivered.

Alongside these additional measures, cloud-based property management software protects data by providing simple backup and recovery in case of events such as power outages and natural disasters.

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Case Study

Moving a client’s approval process from their inbox to their phones

Nataleigh Gleeson, Administration and Bookkeeping Manager, Sports Accounting Australia Nataleigh Gleeson has 12 years administration experience in Trade and Transport, and 4 years administration experience in Government. Her experience in administration and bookkeeping for sports organisations is 5 years and counting; she specialises in managing, implementing, maintaining quality requirements as well as procedures and manuals.

Find out how an Australian-based accounting and bookkeeping firm has successfully automated approvals for a sports organisation client to replace inefficient email-based approvals with workflow-driven approvals using ApprovalMax mobile app…

S

ports Accounting Australia is an accounting and bookkeeping firm that works predominantly with sports organisations. We serve any kind of sports organisation, from national and state bodies to grassroot clubs, and provide them with better accounting processes and clearer financial reporting. As we are based in Scoresby, Victoria, we have mainly Victorian clients but also take on others from all over Australia as our processes are cloud-based.

Approvals on the go from a mobile app

Seamless, paperless, time-efficient process

APPROVAL AUTOMATION WITH APPROVALMAX

Detailed tracking history ready for audits

90 / Issue 23

Take the approval process outside of Xero

Sports verticals operate in a way that makes approval automation essential Most of our clients are not-forprofits, so they usually have a lot of external people with a say in their business – shareholders, board members, and committee members.

A lot of the time, these members need to be involved in financial decisions such as allocating prize money or signing off a certain amount to be spent on an event.

Although there is an approval mechanism for bills in Xero, our clients don’t need all external stakeholders having access to their accounting system. Understandable, but this made collecting approvals quite laborious, as some of our stakeholders are not very techsavvy.

Manual procedures are slowing down bill payments Our client used to have a very manual procedure in place.

Incoming bills were received by the accounts team, who forwarded them to the respective approvers and then had to wait for them to

print out and sign those invoices before sending them back to accounts. Only then were approved bills entered into Xero as ready for payment. Getting bills approved took a long time as the approvers have lots of emails coming in and, of course, they don’t sit at their desk all day long.

It really was a clunky process, and bills could easily get displaced. The accounts team often didn’t know what was holding up particular invoices, or where they had ended up.

Transforming the bill approval process with ApprovalMax How bill authorisation works for a sports organisation Sports organisations have the same kind of expenses that any other business would have, such as rent and electricity, but also specific ones like equipment and venue hire, or prize money that has been won.

Our not for profit clients have an approval hierarchy to determine who can approve which bills. As not-for-profits, they are audited

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

Case Study

data, the team reviews this information and publishes it to Xero as bills with the status “Waiting for approval”. These bills are then pulled by ApprovalMax and passed through the predefined approval workflow, which routes all bills directly to Let’s take a bill No more missing the responsible of one hundred invoices. And approvers for thousand dollars to top it all, reviewing, as an example: we commenting, would have to email it’s completely approving or the bill to all the paperless. reassignment. Once appropriate approvers fully approved, bills get such as the CEO pushed back to Xero ready for followed by the appropriate payment, which the accounts team committee members and then wait takes care of accordingly. for each of them to email back their approval – each bill could have two Authorising now happens in a to three layers of approval. much more time-efficient way. The route of each bill throughout the Fast-tracking the process, from workflow is tracked – no missing invoice data capture to bill invoices any more. And to top it all, approval it’s completely paperless.

Now, invoices are given to the accounts team who enters them into Receipt Bank. After Receipt Bank has extracted the relevant at the end of each financial year and because we’re external bookkeepers, the auditors want to see that it’s not us, the accountants who’s approving the bills, but someone within the organisation who is authorised to do so.

Moving approvals from paper to mobiles

Above: Sports Accounting Australia team

The new process is a lot more convenient for everybody as they don’t have to deal with papers any more. In fact, 90 % of approvers prefer the mobile app – they love this option because they can get things done on the go. The remaining 10 % use the “Approval from email” capability and approve from the notification email they get about approval requests pending their decision. No one really uses the web version for approval.

We are very content with the way our clients deal with approvals, now that we implemented ApprovalMax. It saves a lot of time and ensures proper processes and convenience for all parties involved.

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To find out more visit: > approvalmax.com

Stay connected Make remote working work for you with Receipt Bank.

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Issue 23 / 91

Business intelligence: unlocking future growth drivers with data If 2020 has shown businesses around the globe anything, it’s how to operate in times of extreme uncertainty. While many practices might have already been on the road to future-proofing their work, with automated processes to improve productivity and growth, the changes around the world this year have accelerated the shift to remote working.

L

ike so many other practices, you might have been left asking questions about effective remote practice management and secure online collaboration. You might also be asking how you can add value to your customers, who are invariably facing the same challenges. That is, if you weren’t already asking those questions before the first half of 2020.

climb. Ask yourself – does that describe your practice over the last few years? Now consider whether your ability to turn that data into strategic or operational insights is growing at the same rate. For many practices, the latter continues at a steadier pace. For those practices, the gap between the two is simply an opportunity to better understand your business.

There is a clear trend which links business intelligence (BI) maturity to business success. The most successful companies tend to put data at the heart of their decisions and strategies, helping them stay relevant and innovative beyond the capabilities of the competition.

If you spend your time pulling spreadsheets, spending the first quarter of a meeting figuring out which spreadsheet is the right version or when the numbers were last updated, you are in a position to greatly improve your business intelligence capability.

The answers lie in your database. Have you considered how to unlock this data and make use of the information available to you?

Do you have the tools to turn the information or insights that can be acted on into business intelligence?

A growing opportunity in your database We have all seen the trend lines showing the amount of data we can access as businesses; it’s a vertical 92 / Issue 23

Giving people a way to identify the places in the database where management by exception can occur, can give you a shortcut to the right decisions with the least amount of effort. That’s what we all want out of good BI. Internally, that’s a BI tool connected to your central practice management databases. For client work, it’s a platform that pulls complex figures into eye-opening graphics, making it easier for you

@wolterskluweruk

Ian Elder, Head of Business Intelligence, Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting UK Ian is responsible for creating and implementing a business intelligence strategy into the business. Working primarily internally to support the business, Ian is now broadening out the service to help support our customers in realising practice growth through insight and reporting. Ian believes that many businesses have a gold mine of data, with untapped insights and opportunities waiting to be unlocked by analytics.

and your clients to make the right financial decisions.

Profitability and relevance: the aim of the game Profitability and relevance are two challenges facing practices today in the face of current uncertainty and digitalisation. In uncertain times, clients might begin to shut their doors to new services and prospects may look elsewhere.

Digitalisation is also disrupting the status quo with automated tools taking on compliance work that was, until now, the mainstay of many practices.

That said, both situations can be an opportunity to stand out from the rest with business intelligence tools. This can be difficult when you are bogged down in thinking about the operational effectiveness of a remote practice, and it’s a doubleedged sword without the right tools.

The power of insights for your practice There has never been a better time to look at your processes with a fine-tooth comb and ask if

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

your practice can withstand the uncertain conditions it will face this year.

You are sitting on a goldmine of data ready to be tapped into for insight around changing behaviour, spotting cross-sell and upsell opportunities among your clients, and refining your strategy for future business growth. The real trick is having all that data in a suite of internal dashboards which automatically refresh.

BI tools can present that information in dashboards that show interactive charts and graphs. Decisions can then be made based on the analysis of this data.

These dashboards provide a multidimensional overview of the business in real time, bringing together management information that would usually be presented in multiple different ways and locations.

Think of your practice management and client database. The status quo for many is that data is kept in Excel spreadsheets that need weekly manual refreshing, which requires intensive data input, leaving little time for analysis. Without a tool that allows you to visualise your data and share insights across your organisation, you could easily miss changing behaviours and trends.

BI tools can connect to hundreds of data sources, bringing data to life with live dashboards and reports.

These dashboards give you a view of practice activities all in one place, improving engagement within the practice, and the ability to gain meaningful insights using the data generated enables better decision-making.

How to turn data into insights Consider first what it is that you want to track. Profitability, cash flow, break-even point, WIP, debt and billable time are just a few that spring to mind. What data do you

have available and what aspect of your practice would you need to see to get the full picture? As a start, here are some goals you could consider: • Concentrate on profitable business areas • Ensure adequate cash reserves • Clearly understand your market, customers and their habits • Manage chargeable and nonchargeable timesheets • Forecast cash flow • Reduce overdependence on a single customer • Control and optimise growth • Improve practice management All these insights are key during uncertain times. BI tools can raise awareness of where time and resources are being spent and can offer some good management insight about where to gain efficiencies. Imagine being able to track all these factors from a single location.

Now that you have your house in order, what power can business intelligence give to your client services?

Making a difference to your clients’ businesses Any major change in business and economic landscapes often trigger businesses to review their professional services, such as their accounting. To mitigate the challenges they face, businesses might look to new practices for fresh ideas and advice on how to survive the change. This is an opportunity for your practice to shine, both to existing customers and to prospects, with valuable insight.

Who better to advise a client on how to improve their profitability, prepare forecasts and build a strategic narrative? Accountants have the intuition, experience and resources to guide them through the changes and help them put their business in the best financial state possible.

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You will be expected to advise on the impacts that businesses should prepare for, both from a financial and technical perspective.

For your clients, business intelligence can mean actionable insights and information that can inform their strategic and tactical decisions about products, pricing, competition, markets, investments and budgets.

You can become their partner of choice in these troubling times by providing them with this insight. It is also an opportunity to help your customers hit the ground running in recouping lost profits and growing their business.

However, that is not a feasible growth prospect for your practice if gathering those insights takes more time than you can bill. You need to be able to keep your data and actions in the same place rather than performing the analysis in one application and acting on it in another.

Facilitate a data-driven culture for data-driven conversations Data, metrics, KPIs and information are just that, without the value add and experience of your practice.

Data storytelling and financial advice is key. Visually arranging these figures to inform business and growth-nurturing conversations with your clients will be where you add significant value.

Visual reports foster data literacy that enable conversations with your customers and help them to truly understand the data and be participants in the analytical conversation, from the moment of discovery to the resulting business decision.

The tools of the insight trade Our development is always driven by our focus on customer success, so we can help you when it matters most during times of uncertainty.

With that in mind, we have worked to create tools that enable insight, Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 23 / 93

both to your practice and to your clients.

Integrating business intelligence with CCH Central Our priority is providing timely, actionable insights in an end-to-end digital environment that empowers you and your clients to make informed decisions and deliver impact when it matters most.

We have developed a bespoke set of Power BI dashboards using the data housed in CCH Central, showing: • a single practice management overview tab containing WIP, aged debt, recovery rates, billing assignments and more • weekly or monthly targets for your practice • the full picture of your practice progress, from the partners to the practice employees leader boards to motivate and encourage growth • decomposition trees of WIP by any dimension including client name, partner, employee or assignment type • chargeable and non-chargeable insight by drilling down into where time is spent Our teams will work with you to create a single intuitive set of dashboards from the data already in your CCH Central database today.

These dashboards aggregate data from CCH Central visually into one place and can refresh each hour without the need for manual intervention.

Strategic BI dashboards like these are delivered in an interactive manner, enabling you to ‘slice and dice’ your view of the data in several different ways to become a data-driven, growthorientated practice.

The graphical displays, charts and graphs easily depict trends, opportunities and problem areas. There is even the option to put these dashboards on screens around the office, should you wish to do so.

Introducing the new financial planning platform for client insight Wolters Kluwer is also launching a brand-new cloud-based financial insight platform called finsit in summer 2020. It turns complex figures into eye-opening graphics, making it easier for you to have insightrich conversations with your clients and provide proactive advice. It has been developed exclusively for accountants who want to strengthen their offering by exceeding expectations and creating added value for clients. finsit is a periodic reporting tool that will enhance your output, provide key insights, help identify advisory opportunities within your client base, and provide clear reports and KPIs which are easy for the client to understand and interpret.

With it you can provide a standard set of dashboards and reports using data from many of the major bookkeeping products being used by your clients, such as Xero, Twinfield, Exact and Quickbooks.

Growing through uncertainty Business intelligence is a key

94 / Issue 23

part of managing your practice through uncertainty and remaining both profitable and relevant.

Both are linked to the operational effectiveness and the value you add to your clients. Making the most of the software to enable data-centric, insight-rich business decisions will not only see you through uncertain times but future-proof your processes for opportunities to come.

Strategically investing in business intelligence means you can use data to unlock future growth drivers for your business.

Many key learnings and observations may be patiently waiting inside your database to be unlocked with the right analytical tool.

Often, with a long-term BI project, the potential value that can be achieved is linked to the creativity of the minds involved in the analysis. Asking “wouldn’t it be great if we could see this…?” may well unearth the next big discovery in your data, and it becomes easier to act on those ideas when you have a strong toolset that’s able to quickly assemble the answers.

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Issue 23 / 95

Cloud Technology and the Seamless Shift to Online Ordering & Delivery

@SapaadPOS

Stephanie Te, Product Specialist, Sapaad 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.

A New World Order for Restaurants Amidst COVID-19 From future-proofing one’s operations to ensuring business continuity during a pandemic, restaurants can look into cloud technology to help pivot to online ordering and delivery...

T

he recent outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly impacted industries worldwide.

The Food & Beverage sector, in particular, has found itself in the frontlines. As countries navigate through the crisis by practicing social distancing and limiting commercial activities — such as dining out — countless F&B outlets are looking at a significant loss in revenue and are seeking new ways to keep business going. At a time when people are encouraged to stay home, the strategic move for F&B is to shift their sales strategy to online and delivery.

The uncertainty of the current business situation may be troubling for some, particularly those who are unequipped to pivot to a ‘delivery only’ operation. But like with any challenges, business owners can rely on the ever-evolving restaurant technology available that offers robust solutions to ease the process of either starting up or expanding their online and delivery operations.

Cloud Technology The unpredictability of the current situation leaves every restaurant unable to make long-term business 96 / Issue 23

decisions. During these moments, cloud technology offers adaptability and flexibility like no other solution.

performance and decide on which direction the business should go, what operational expenses can be avoided, and what areas can be optimized.

Software as a Service (SaaS), one of the main components of cloudOnline Ordering based technology, is a popular choice among F&B businesses.

While some customers may still Aside from allowing you to manage call your restaurant to place their your restaurant from anywhere — orders directly, it’s no secret that be it on-site or at home — it also online ordering — either through gives you powerful LIVE insights web or mobile — is the preferred into your operations. If you have method. Online ordering comes in an extensive menu, it’s unlikely two options: through that you can offer everything a food ordering for delivery. Analyzing platform (also known reports such as topDuring these as an aggregator) selling items and moments, cloud or your restaurant’s top-grossing items technology offers own online channel. can help you decide adaptability and on which items flexibility like no From novelty to to include in your other solution. commodity, food delivery menu. ordering platforms have encouraged millions of users Cloud technology facilitates worldwide to easily order from multiple areas, such as back-office their favourite restaurants in a few accounting, through the use of taps or clicks. While the boost in integrations. Xero is integrated delivery orders is a welcome sight, with many top point of sale (POS) a considerable volume can lead to and restaurant management employees painstakingly updating systems, which means that you orders to the POS manually. The can automatically sync your daily hassle of manual punching (which sales data from these systems can lead to human errors) is easily to Xero. By having quick access avoidable by adopting one simple to your sales data and reports, but powerful tool: integration. you can assess your restaurant’s

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By integrating online delivery platforms to your POS, you can receive and process all orders — in-house or third-party — from one powerful platform.

Another way to receive online orders — and to have better control over the delivery experience and quality — is to set up your own online ordering channel. This may sound like a high-effort proposal but many restaurant management systems offer a convenient method that easily integrates your existing menu (and POS system) to your restaurant’s domain, letting you make changes to your online site in real-time while processing delivery orders straight from your POS. Home Delivery & Customer Relationship Management (CRM) For some, the uptick of delivery orders may be something their business is already accustomed to. For others, the shift may feel like entering uncharted territory.

In this fast-paced environment, restaurant technology offers outof-the-box solutions to help you seamlessly — and quickly — switch

FREE!

to delivery. Two such solutions that go hand-in-hand are Home Delivery Management and CRM. Home Delivery Management gives you LIVE insights on delivery orders as they happen. With kitchento-doorstep management, you gain visibility into preparation, pick up, and delivery time. Aside from orders, other aspects of your delivery operations can be optimized. Top delivery solutions offer a supplemental mobile application for restaurant drivers to help with deliveries. With the app, your drivers can see which order to deliver next and to which location.

As with any delivery, orders should go from placement to doorstep within a predefined time frame.

While the number of deliveries increases, it should not come at the expense of service quality. Having a functional CRM ensures this since it contains extensive information about customers, such as past orders, history, and addresses.

Information from delivery customers — which are typically more comprehensive than their inhouse counterparts — can be used to boost customer engagement

and, ultimately, customer retention.

If you integrate your phone system to your CRM, you can have the caller’s profile pop up on your screen before picking up the phone, allowing you to address the caller by name. Data such as order history can be used to offer personalized promos and discounts, either during birthdays or for regularlyordered menu items.

What’s Next?

The rapid shift away from in-person dining left many business owners unprepared, and in such uncertain times, another unexpected shift may occur. However the situation may turn, and however long it lasts, you can be assured that the cloud technology built to help your business adapt — to all situations — will continue to do its part.

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To find out more about Sapaad cloud POS & complete restaurant management solution, visit us at: > sapaad.com

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Issue 23 / 97

Keep calm and infoodle on Helping charities adapt to the new situation This pandemic has shown us that we can successfully work from home. There are of course both advantages and disadvantages to working remotely. Isolation in this case is good as it stops the spread of the virus. But for many people not having contact with people is lonely and difficult.

However, with all the technology and the internet that is now available most people are able to keep calm and carry on, albeit slightly different.

C

arry on with Xero

As an online provider, there is no reason why anyone cannot carry on with their accounting, bill payments, invoicing, receive donations, etc. As long as you have access to the internet, have permissions set and a login, you can access xero the same if you were in the office or anywhere in the world.

Having an addon app like infoodle that fully integrates with Xero and payment gateways means there is no double handling. One system to manage it all; receive payments or donations, reconcile transactions, report and receipt. With automatic bank feeds, automatic feeds into infoodle and even auto reconciling it all saves time. Even reports can be auto generated. For those who make Gift Aid claims there is automatic filing with HMRC. With these automations comes accuracy as there is no or very little manual data entry. All can be done remotely.

The financial impact of Covid-19, loss of trade, loss of jobs, loss of income has already shown a 40 98 / Issue 23

60% decrease in giving to charities.

Now more than ever charities need to work smart. Reduce their costs even more so maybe reducing expensive office space and working from home is now a good option.

Platforms like Xero and infoodle also bring more accountability as more people are able to access the same information, even if it’s a view only permission. No more treasurers operating on their own spreadsheets and needing to ask for reports to check your financial status, the chair or directors can now track day to day how they are going.

Charities also will need to be smart about how they raise awareness and finances, traditional methods of charity boxes, letter box drops, street appeals and door to door are not safe options. This means going more digital with online campaigns, blogs, social media, email marketing. This means you will need a good CRM that helps you keep your newsletter lists clean, tracks your marketing campaign and tracks pledges and donations is important. But also online giving platforms that allow you to receive

@infoodle

Aukje Smith, Sales Manager, Infoodle Aukje, along with her husband Richard, founded infoodle in response to the need for a reliable, user friendly and cost effective database and donor management system for the medium to small sized charities and churches.

Having experience working with charities and churches in Africa, Eu and NZ in a support and administrative role Aukje draws from her experience and knowledge to serve the charity sector through infoodle.

recurring payments and not take large percentages.

Carry on with a good CRM Charities with a good cloud based CRM system like infoodle are able to carry on taking good care of their community.

Access: Each person is able to access their data quickly and easily.

With one source of data each person has access to the same, uptodate and accurate information.

They are also able to update data, add notes and assign tasks for others to pick up, issue receipts and so much more.

Even under normal circumstances, charities rely on volunteers, so much of the work is done outside of normal office hours. Both infoodle and Xero being cloud based means you can access it from anywhere on any device.

Also both allow for unlimited users and permissions so the right user can access the right amount of information they are allowed to access. Office administrator, manager, treasurer, bookkeeper,

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

client or volunteer can have appropriate access.

• Easily generate new criteria reports

Communication: Email, text or app notifications are some of the ways a good CRM should be able to send communications to your people.

During the first 2 weeks of the crisis infoodle has sent more emails then what they normally send each month. 4 times as many texts were sent during the first week of preparing for the lockdown.

Tracking: With the current environment, we need to be able to track whom we have been in contact with in case we unfortunately come in contact with the virus. Keeping attendance on all your groups later when we are allowed to meet in small groups again, means we can quickly and easily run a report showing who we had contact with and all their contact details.

Phone consultations, or using apps like zoom, skype, discord and facetime are just some ways of having contact with your stakeholders.

Connections: Being able to easily see the connections each person has with other people in your organisation or community gives you a 360 view and helps understand how people engage with you and each other. Easily being able to see who emergency contacts are, Dr’s or Carers and who has been in contact with others in case you do need to run a report.

Many organisations who use the infoodle app where able to keep in contact and stream through facebook, listen to podcasts or watch uploaded video recordings.

Adaptable: Charities need to ensure those they care for are able to still receive the help and care they need, their situation now may be different and have different needs. The charity needs to be able to adapt to the different needs so your CRM needs to adapt: • Easily change and add new fields • Easily build new forms for data gathering

FREE!

Documentation: Being able to store your documents in the cloud and easily access them, also be able to reliably allow access to only those who need to have access and manage those who are allowed to edit documents. While Google docs and dropbox gives this access, having it all in one system like infoodle means there is only one

system to manage.

Xero can service the charity sector together with infoodle Both systems are easy to access and easy to use. Both have good help, support and training available, free of charge. Together with infoodle you can track and report on your funding and donations and whatever else you want to report on.

Through infoodle you can communicate with your stakeholders; donors, funders, supporters or clients and issue statements, tax receipts, newsletters and any other communications via email, text, app notifications.

Together with Xero and infoodle, charities can fulfil their obligations as well as their mission.

Find out more...

For more information go to: > infoodle.com

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Issue 23 / 99

XPM - Part 2 of 2

Common KPIs for the Timesheeting Firm and how to Track them in Xero Practice Manager

@Xero

Naomi McDonald, Xero Lead Practice Consultant, Xero Naomi spent more than 8 years in practice driving efficiency through technological change. At Xero, Naomi leads its implementation team for Xero Practice Manager, and assists partners to streamline their processes and systems.

A two-part article by Naomi McDonald Part Two of Two

I

n Part One of this article, we explored the common KPIs Productivity and Recoverability and how to track them in Xero Practice Manager.

In this second part, we will explore the third crucial KPI that completes the picture of staff and business performance, along with Productivity and Recoverability: Closing WIP Balance.

A Crucial KPI for Timesheeting Firms

Below: WIP Dashboard showing a WIP segment and as at date “At Risk WIP”.

For timesheeting firms who are tracking Productivity and Recoverability as KPIs, your closing WIP balance is also a crucial KPI to complete the picture. It reveals whether our productivity and recoverability KPIs are actually meaningful and reliable. Consider

the following scenario: Sally, our accountant, posts lots of billable time to client work, because she knows she is being measured on her productivity percentage.

She comes in at 92% productive for the month, meaning 92% of her available work time was spent on billable client work. When our invoicing was done at EOM, the WIP was assessed, and some of Sally’s time was carried forward rather than written off, because it couldn’t be recovered. On the recoverability reports, only the timesheets which were actually billed are reflected (including timesheets from previous periods that were billed in the month), so Sally’s recoverability looks solid (close to 100%).

However, we have a real problem: a lot of WIP is just being carried forward from month to month,

and the firm has little chance of recovering this WIP in the future.

In XPM, historically we’ve been able to track our closing WIP balance as at a date, using the Job WIP Balances report, or the Estimated Billings report, both on the All Reports page.

However, both reports are limited in the options for customising the layout or filtering what information is shown. For example, we can’t see the closing WIP balance for jobs grouped by Job Category.

Recently, we released some new features in XPM which provide improved visibility over your closing WIP balance for various segments of your WIP. If your firm has some segments of WIP that you expect to be negative at certain points during the year - such as annual service agreements where the client pays a fixed monthly fee - these can skew your overall closing WIP balance, and it may be better to exclude them, or consider them separately.

Likewise, you may have some jobs which are invoiced in full or partially up front, so these should be segmented when managing WIP and monitored separately.

We can now achieve this reporting requirement of monitoring the closing WIP balance of one or more segments of WIP, using the Filters on the WIP Dashboard, and setting an “as at” date.

The filters on this page are

100 / Issue 23

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Issue 23 / 101

XPM - Part 2 of 2 incredibly powerful because we can combine multiple criteria to build the filter. In order to use this to its full potential, it’s crucial to very thoughtfully design your Job Categories, and ensure jobs are all correctly assigned a Category. This is particularly important for firms using Practice Ignition, because these firms may have certain segments of WIP that are expected to be negative at certain times of the year.

In a common scenario, a firm may have some clients paying a set monthly fee. We call these Annual Service Agreements. A sample client may be paying $1000+GST per month from July 2019 through June 2020, and this $12,000 fee includes the activity statements throughout the financial year ending June 2020, and the tax planning service provided in May 2020, and the 2020 financials and tax returns for the group. Thus early in the financial year, say in October, we will have invoiced this client the monthly fee four times, but we’ve barely done any of the work included (because the 2019 tax returns were included in the prior engagement, so the client has fully paid for that by June 2019!).

So, this job should be showing a net WIP less than zero, because invoiced amount is more than the time spent. (Negative WIP values can be imported directly from Xero relating to the invoices created by a repeating invoice template in Xero.

For more information on setting this up, see this Linked In Article.)

Identifying your WIP Segments: the importance of Job Categories Identifying the different segments of WIP in your firm that you need

102 / Issue 23

to separate can be tricky. To start with, if you have clients paying a fixed monthly fee, it’s important to categorise these using a naming convention that is familiar to your staff. We use the term “Annual Service Agreements” but you may call them Monthly FPAs, Monthly Recurring, Retainers or some other terminology.

Next up, you may have other jobs which are paid fully in advance.

Both of these are also important to categorise so you can segment them.

Lastly, don’t forget that you can map your Job Categories to income accounts and tracking category options in Xero.

Depending on your reporting requirements, this can be important to consider as well, when designing your Job Categories.

Remember that when creating Filters on the WIP Dashboard, you can also use other fields, including Job Partner, Client Partner, Job State, Job Manager and Client Manager, among others. So take some time to design your Job Categories in a meaningful way for your firm, and then build Filters on the WIP Dashboard to segment your WIP. In the end, you want to be able to build a filter that shows you the time posted which needs to be invoiced. We call this our “At Risk WIP”. In some firms, this is a filter that excludes our Annual Service Agreements as well as anything billed 100% up front. Of course both of these types of engagements

also need to be closely monitored to ensure that we’re not going over budget! So create segments and then make sure you’re keeping an eye on each segment.

When you have identified your key segments, you should be able to monitor recoverability for each identified segment, as well as the closing WIP balance for each segment!

Seeing the full picture Monitoring productivity gives you a great idea of how much of a staff member’s time is spent on billable client work.

Adding in Recoverability keeps your team honest with their timesheets and gives you a more complete picture of their efficiency and value. Lastly, monitoring the closing WIP balance of your “at risk” WIP will help you ensure that your Productivity and Recoverability KPIs are correct and that you’re not just carrying forward time you can’t invoice. Over time you will spot trends and identify client groups, staff, and even service lines that are either over- or under-performing, using accurate data and information to make good business decisions.

If you’d like help utilising XPM to its full potential, reach out to your Xero account manager, who can arrange some time with a Xero Partner Consultant to assist you.

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

Get paid on time, every time At the click of a button, Practice Ignition will automatically generate invoices in your accounting software, collect the payment and mark your invoices as paid. No more receivables.

Create professional engagement letters with clear services, fees & schedules that easily collects payment details Allow your clients to sign your engagement letter digitally. Securely collect direct debit or credit card details right within the proposal. No need for other forms. Practice Ignition will automatically raise the invoice and collect payment using your client’s selected payment method.

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Issue 23 / 103

Why the Xero App Marketplace is so important

Joanna Cruickshank, State Manager, CloudPayroll CloudPayroll is a standalone payroll system suitable for 1 – 1000 employees.

Joanna, is passionate in helping people get the best payroll solution for their organisation.

On the Xero App Marketplace, you will find hundreds of third-party software apps that connect with Xero to improve business efficiency and provide great benefits...

C

hoosing the best fit for your clients can be both overwhelming and time consuming.

As your clients’ trusted advisor, they may ask you for assistance when they are looking for an app add-on. The reason for requiring an add-on may vary It could be that the feature your client requires it is not available in Xero e.g. they may require a CRM system or a niche application like property management software. It could be as a comparison for a particular functionality.

CloudPayroll and iPayroll are listed apps that can be part your ‘ecosystem’ to assist your clients with all their individual needs and requirements.

We all want to assist businesses grow and succeed, especially in the very challenging times that we are experiencing in 2020. As businesses grow, generally so do the number of employees. This adds increased demand to the payroll requirements and processes of a business.

Payroll is an important part of running any business. In some cases, the business workforce can be the largest cost for the business, so it is imperative when implementing the business’ payroll, including the software chosen, to get it right.

104 / Issue 23

The following criteria should be considered when choosing any add-on app: 1. Is the application a wellestablished product?

How long has the software application been providing the service and when did they integrate with Xero?

2. Client testimonials and ratings in the App Marketplace Testimonials and ratings from users about the add-ons allow prospective customers to learn firsthand about the user experience of the app. You can gain invaluable knowledge of the app and find out what is working well for their existing users e.g. customer service or whether it is fit for purpose and size.

3. Migrating from existing system What is involved in migrating to the new app? Does the add-on offer personal assistance with implementation, which may be preferred by some clients, or is it self-driven via online help articles and webinars?

4. Is the app scalable to meet the clients’ future business needs?

Add-ons need to easily adapt to your clients’ business changes to allow for growth or reduction over a period. For example, the business may have seasonal employees or may have to reduce employees over current unprecedented times.

Consideration should be given to how the app charges as the

business scales. As an example, are there levels at which the cost to the business will increase?

5. Customer service Consider what level of support is offered. For example, is support offered via email, phone or both. Is there a fee charged for ongoing support and when are the support team available? What happens if you need urgent help outside of work hours? iPayroll and CloudPayroll offer a premier standalone payroll solution. Their easy-to-use and feature-rich payroll solution has been developed to future-proof your clients’ payroll process. The following list of features includes those that should be considered essential when choosing a payroll solution: • BackPay Calculator – when pay rates need to be back dated, this calculation can be very time consuming. With CloudPayroll’s BackPay calculator you add the ‘from’ and ‘to’ dates, what the new pay rate and old pay rate is, and CloudPayroll will calculate the backpay.

• HR document management – record keeping is extremely important. Our secure and convenient system allows businesses to upload, store and access documents at any time. For example, letters of employment, industry certification(s), training records,

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personal information etc for each employee can be loaded, allowing for easy accessibility.

• Custom HR reports - to assist tracking of probation expiry, driver’s licence expiry, next of kin etc.

• Splitting wages costs – can manage complex wages with

multiple cost centres and has the ability to split superannuation against each the of cost centres.

Tracking codes reported directly to Xero, so no manual calculations are required. iPayroll was the first payroll addon at Xero’s inception and the

partnership has grown stronger over the years.

FIND OUT MORE...

To find out more visit: > www.cloudpayroll.com.au

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Issue 23 / 105

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

Airbase airbase.com Airbase is an all-in-one spend management platform designed to deliver more control, visibility, and automation to today’s finance teams that need an efficient way to scale controls and accounting operations. Airbase combines spend approvals with virtual cards, physical cards, invoice management, and ACH & check payments into a single platform.

Airwallex airwallex.com Businesses use Airwallex as their end-to-end global financial services platform. Whether it’s making or receiving payments from customers, domestically or internationally, Airwallex saves businesses time and money by offering real-time, reliable and cost-effective financial solutions.

Our web and API solutions support businesses of all sizes, from small companies to large enterprises.

Hyper Anna hyperanna.com Hyper Anna is an AI-powered insights platform enabling everyone to analyse company data to get straight to the ‘why’ instantly. Go beyond spreadsheets and eliminate the cost of building reports and dashboards. See your business from infinite angles making faster, more confident decisions today.

MarketMan marketman.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

106 / Issue 23

MarketMan is the leading backof-house solution that provides restaurateurs complete control over inventory, supply management, and procurement; ultimately empowering restaurateurs to manage more, faster.

Our cloud-based inventory management and purchasing solution simplifies all back-of-house operations, streamlining everything from inventory to budgeting, reporting, supplier management and budgeting.

Notud notud.com Notud is an easy cloud note-taking app made for every industry to provide a flexible, organised and efficient workday. Say goodbye to your paper notepad and integrate Notud with your Xero account, so you can start handwriting and drawing notes online on your own custom templates, simply and instantly.

OnlinePajak online-pajak.com

Paymo paymoapp.com Work management tool that bundles task management, resource scheduling, native time tracking, and billing to help small teams work better, wherever they are.

Scott’s Add-ins scottsaddins.com Scott’s add-in gives you additional Excel & Google Sheets functions such as =XGL, =XRANGE, =XTRACK, and =XDESC. These functions allow you to pull Xero ledger balances directly into your Excel spreadsheet. For example, =XGL (4000, 01012019, 01152019) returns the balance of ledger account #4000, for the first 15 days of January.

OnlinePajak is an online tax application that provides a variety of benefits in matters of taxation ranging from automatic prepare, pays, and file in one integrated tax application. OnlinePajak offers a variety of smart solutions for managing taxes to make it easier and effortless. Now OnlinePajak also appointed as an official partner of the tax directorate general and has obtained ISO / IEC 27001: IS 652921 for information security and confidentiality certification from a leading certification body, BSI.

SINC Workforce sinc.business

Paycove paycove.io

Automatically plan and optimise delivery routes. Capture Proof of Delivery with our driver App. Improve customer service with texts & emails.

Paycove helps you connect your CRM to Xero to create quotes and invoices, relieving the need to duplicate data. Send your deals to Paycove from your CRM with one click, or automatically at a specified pipeline stage. Integrate with popular online payment methods for a seamless accounts receivable process.

The easy way to manage your construction workforce. SINC is your boots-on-the-ground job costing and workforce management tool, bridging the gap between the job site and the office, providing a user-friendly mobile platform for staff to communicate key data onsite and in real-time.

Stream go2stream.com

Create orders in Stream straight from Xero ready for planning. Send proof of delivery to customers by email. Stream can also provide information to Xero about any charges automatically.

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

New Releases Swift Bookkeeping Conversion swiftbookkeepingconversion.ca Swift Bookkeeping Conversion is a service designed for Canadian to take your existing Sage, QB, QBO or Wave file and convert it to Xero. We do your conversion using the Xero API, and this means your migration will be faster and more accurate than if done by importing from spreadsheet.

SyncHub synchub.io SyncHub connects cloud apps like Xero to reporting tools like Power BI. • Securely connect your cloud apps to SyncHub.

• SyncHub pulls your data in real time and stages it in a managed data warehouse.

• Use your preferred reporting tool to connect directly to your data warehouse and build sophisticated reports.

VERIFYiQ verifyiq.co File reviews: automated. Reduce labor costs by catching up to 80% of all bookkeeping errors using VERIFYiQ. VERIFYiQ can scan every one of your client files monthly and provide contextual feedback to your bookkeeping technicians. Always know the review status and scores for every file in your firm.

WAY2VAT way2vat.com WAY2VAT is a brand new release on the Xero marketplace. They are the first and only VAT recovery solution on the Xero marketplace. No other VAT vendor has this integration and it is typically only offered to enterprise/large businesses. By being an automated solution we are not influenced by the pandemic - AI does not rely on manual processes, this is the perfect time to start the transition from digitising a process that uses a lot of man-power or that you may not already be doing because of the complexity.

Updates and new releases from the Xero App Marketplace Accountancy Manager accountancymanager.co.uk Our two-way integration (including invoicing) with Xero is now live for all users.​ With the integration enabled you will be able to: • Pull all your client contact info from Xero through to AccountancyManager • Create invoices in AccountancyManager and at the click of a button they’ll be in Xero • Mark invoices paid in AccountancyManager and it’ll be reflected in Xero • Any client detail changes in Xero will update AccountancyManager and vice versa ApprovalMax approvalmax.com ApprovalMax has released a new direct integration between Receipt Bank and ApprovalMax, enabling Receipt Bank to push invoices directly to ApprovalMax for multistep approvals.

ApprovalMax has also extended

its QuickBooks Online integration and now provides a bill approval workflow which can be set up in two ways: 1) bills are created and approved in ApprovalMax, 2) bills are captured by Receipt Bank and pushed to ApprovalMax for the approval workflow.

Arthur Online arthuronline.com Arthur is proud to announce that we are now a listing partner for Facebook Marketplace!

Facebook Marketplace is a place for people to discover, buy, and sell items. By listing on Marketplace, you can reach tenants where they already are.

What makes it even better?

Unlike many other online portals, Facebook Marketplace is completely free to use, so sit back and watch the tenancy requests roll in.

With Arthur, whenever a property is marked as available to let (either as a vacant unit or when a current tenancy is coming to an

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end) we have the functionality to automatically push the property to Facebook Marketplace.

G-Accon accon.services Recently we introduced the features that G-Accon’s users were impatiently waiting: 1. Save your templates in Cloud and Share. By using G-Accon for Xero “save/share template” functionality, you can safely save your templates in Cloud, reuse them across all entities and spreadsheets, share with your team and colleagues.

2. Credit Note Allocations. This functionality allows you to distribute the Credit Note to one or more invoices in order to reduce the outstanding amount of the invoice. The credit note can be wholly or partially allocated as needed.

3. Display PDF reports in landscape view 4. Daily list of all OVERDUE invoices 5. Display all historical notes

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

> Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 23 / 107

GoCardless gocardless.com

ReceiptBank receipt-bank.com

• Introducing Success+: predict and manage failed payments with recurring payment intelligence • Failed payments are optional, not inevitable • The latest feature from GoCardless, Success+, automatically calculates the best time to retry a payment.

It collects, on average, 76% of payments that initially fail, allowing you to build a better payment experience for your customers.

• Minimise the lost revenue from failed payments and the costs of attempting to recover them.

Simplify and streamline with SmartItems. This new package brings together three of Receipt Bank’s most powerful features.

Pull invoices from 1,400 suppliers, categorise documents with machine learning that learns with you and enable each line item to be labelled individually.

MinuteDock minutedock.com We’ve released some significant updates to our Academy website, featuring new helpful content and resources for running a successful professional services business.

108 / Issue 23

Spotlight Reportinh spotlightreporting.com We’ve introduced KPIs & Covenants in Spotlight Forecasting to strengthen your forecasting capabilities. Quickly surface key performance indicators and loan covenants in one place to monitor metrics and assist with decision making. It’s important to remember the goal of measurement isn’t just to track change over time; it’s to manage and plan for the impact of change too. This is where our KPIs & Covenants feature and your

financial skills come together.

Tidy tidyinternational.com/ecommerce TidyEcommerce is now available!

Bring your business online fast and modernise with Tidy’s powerful, delightfully simple, eCommerce solution.

The challenges imposed through pandemic lockdowns makes this an ideal pivot for businesses needing to satisfy customer demand online.

TidyEcommerce provides all online functionalities for your business, enabling you to easily design and create your own richly featured eCommerce website that seamlessly integrates with TidyStock.

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

Much more than just another prepaid card Soldo supercharges your existing business bank account, connecting company and employee expenses seamlessly to Xero.

For smarter spending, effortless expenses and brisk bookkeeping, say hello to Soldo.

Get your free practice account at soldo.com/partner Capture

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Issue 23 / 109

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compleatsoftware.com

senddr | @senddirect senddr.com Shoeboxed | @Shoeboxed shoeboxed.com Soldo | @soldo soldo.com Spendesk | @Spendesk spendesk.com Tripcatcher | @Tripcatcher tripcatcherapp.com

cloudintegration.partners Invisible Business Solutions | @invizbiz authorisedcloudintegrator.com.au LimeCloud | @LimeCloudLtd limecloud.tech Maze Digital maze.digital TOA Global | @TOAGlobal theoutsourcedaccountant.com Waypoint | @We_Are_Waypoint

capsulecrm.com/addons/xero Collabspot | @collabspot collabspot.com Connectably | @connectably connectably.com commonsku | @commonsku commonsku.com CRM Online crmonline.com.au CustomerSure | @CustomerSure customersure.com/xero Exsalerate | @exsalerate exsalerate.com/xerointegration

wearewaypoint.com

Conversions Click 2 Convert | @C2Convert c2convert.com

110 / Issue 23

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

App Directory Infoodle | @infoodle

Workato | @Workato

infoodle.com/xero

workato.com/xero WORK[etc] CRM | @WORKetc_support worketc.com Xact | @Xactsoftware xactsoftware.co.nz Xploite | @xploiteapp xploite.com Zendesk by Cloud Elements | @CloudElements cloud-elements.com Zendesk by Zapier zapier.com/zapbook/xero/zendesk

Insightly For Xero | @insightlyapp insightly.com Legrand CRM | @LegrandCRM legrandcrm.com Magnetism | @MagnetismXRM magnetismsolutions.com Mailchimp by OneSaas | @onesaas onesaas.com/integrate Piesync | @PieSync piesync.com/xero ProspectSoft | @ProspectSoft prospectsoft.com PropertySuite | @PropertySuite propertysuite.co.nz QikBizCRM | @QikBizNZ qikbizcrm.com Quick Win Development | @quickwindev quickwindevelopment.com Really Simple Systems | @ReallySimpleSys reallysimplesystems.com SalesSeek | @SalesSeek salesseek.net Salpo | @salpotech salpo.com Senta | @sentahq senta.co

Custom Integration 3Bit Solutions 3bit.com/xero_solutions.aspx Axis Direct | @NZAxisDirect axisdirect.nz BlueHub | @Blue_Hub bluehub.co.uk Custom D | @customdhq customd.com Coherent | @CoherentSoft coherent.net Databuzz | @databuzz databuzz.com.au Defsys | @defsys defsys.com.au Digital Fusion teamdf.com Dynamic Solutions Ltd dynamic-solutions.co.nz/xero EndGame | @GoEndGame end-game.com/xero Infopower customintegration.co.nz Interlockit.com interlockit.com iSOS | @isos_uk

Practice management that integrates with you

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NetEngine | @Net_Engine

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isos.com macbusiness.co.nz/xero-integration netengine.com.au/xero-integrations Numernet numernet.com nuSoftware | @nu_Software nusoftware.com Open Sauce Systems | @

Socket | @socketapp socketapp.com Solve CRM | @solve360 solve360.com SugarCRM | @crmonlineaus crmonline.com.au SyncApps by Cazoomi | @Cazoomi cazoomi.com Syngency | @syngency syngency.com Vision6 | @vision6 vision6.com.au

OpenSauceSystem opensauce.systems Red Jungle Limited | @redjungle redjungle.com Smudge | @smudgeio smudge.io Southgate Labs | @SouthgateLabs southgatelabs.com Trineo | @trineoltd trineo.co.nz Trio Technology | @Trio_Tech triotech.co.nz/xero

Web Industries webindustries.co.nz

MyDocSafe | @MyDocSafe mydocsafe.com

Zynk zynk.com/solutions/xero-integration/

Debtor Tracking Armatic | @armaticio partners.armatic.io/xero Chaser | @chaser_hq chaserhq.com Check Business check-business.co.uk/xero CollBox | @CollBox collbox.co CreditorWatch | @creditorwatch creditorwatch.com.au Debtograph | @Debtograph debtograph.com Debtor Daddy | @debtordaddy debtordaddy.com/xero Debtze| @DebtzeCollect debtze.com/xero Ezi Debt Collection ezidebtcollection.com.au EzyCollect | @ezyCollect ezycollect.com.au InvoiceSherpa | @invoicesherpa invoicesherpa.com IODM | @IODM_Software iodm.com.au Late Fee Manager | @LateFeeManager1 latefeemanager.com/xero LedgerLive ledgerlive.com/xero Mentio | @mentiohq mentio.ca/xero SMS My Debtors | @smsmydebtors smsmydebtors.com Vision6 | @vision6 vision6.com.au XO Cashflow | @xocashflow xocashflow.com/Xero-Integration

Documents Basecone | @Basecone get.basecone.com/xero Boxkite | @getboxkite getboxkite.com DiGA - Xero Excel Reporting businessbackbone.co.uk Evernote by Zapier | @zapier zapier.com Formitize | @Formitize formitize.com/en FYI | @fyidocuments fyidocs.com

Office 365 | @Office365 xero.com/uk/office-365 PandaDoc | @pandadoc pandadoc.com/integrations/xero Proposify| @Proposify proposify.com Qwilr | @Qwilr qwilr.com Synkle | @SynkSimple synkle.com Webrecs | @Webrecs webrecs.com.au/xero

eCommerce A2X Accounting | @a2xaccounting a2xaccounting.com/xero Airsquare | @airsquare airsquare.com Amazon.com by Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs stitchlabs.com Bigcommerce by Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk Bigcommerce by OneSaas | @onesaas 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

Google apps for work

webgility.com

xero.com/uk/google

ecwid | @ecwid

Hubdoc | @Hubdoc hubdoc.com i2B | @i2B_Limited i2b-online.com

ecwid.com/xero ecwid by Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs stitchlabs.com Expandly | @expandly expandly.com

Subscribe for FREE: Go to subscriptions.xumagazine.com

Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 23 / 111

App Directory ezimerchant | @ezimerchant

Financial Services

ezimerchant.com EZ Rent out | @EZRentOut

Beyond Merchant Capital | @beyond_cap

ezrentout.com/xero

beyondmerchantcapital.com.au

Handshake | @handshake

Credi | @CrediPlatform

handshake.com/integration/xero

credi.com

Intellibook | @intellibookapp

Equifax | @equifax

intellibook.co/features/Xero

equifax.com

Loaded Commerce by Carry The One

Everline | @everline

carrytheone.co.uk

everline.com

Magento by OneSaas | @onesaas

Financiery | @financiery

onesaas.com

financiery.com

Magento by Unleashed | @unleashedteam

Fundbox | @fundbox fundbox.com

unleashedsoftware.com

Fundera | @fundera

Magento by Zapier | @zapier

fundera.com

zapier.com Magento Integration (Fooman) | @foomanNZ

DEAR Inventory | @DearInventory

acuityscheduling.com

Evopos | @evoposdms

AffinityLive | @affinitylive

evopos.com

affinitylive.com

Expandly | @expandly expandly.com farmflo.com fishbowlinventory.com Hike | @hikepos hikeup.com/xero-pos-integration MRPEasy | @mrpeasy mrpeasy.com simprogroup.com

getbriefcase.net britebiz.com/xero-crm-integration BuilderTREND | @BuilderTREND buildertrend.com/xero BuildXact

Kabbage | @KabbageInc

buildxact.com.au

kabbage.com

orderspace.com/integrations/xero

Chargebee | @chargebee

liberis | @LiberisUK

PayPal by Zapier | @zapier

liberis.co.uk

zapier.com

MarketFinance | @MarketFinance

PrestaShop by Carry The One

marketfinance.com

carrytheone.co.uk Rocketspark | @Rocketspark

TidyBuild | @TidyInt tidyinternational.com TidyStock | @TidyInt tidyinternational.com

global.co-construct.com

sendle.com

commonsku | @commonsku

shopify.com

commonsku.com

BUSINESS FINANCE MADE EASY

Shopify by Pipemonk | @pipe_monk pipemonk.com

Commusoft | @Commusoft

STOCK MANAGEMENT

Shopify By Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs

marketfinance.com

stitchlabs.com

tidystock com

Shopify By Tradevine | @TradevineTeam

squarespace.com TaxJar | @TaxJar taxjar.com TidyCommerce | @tidyint tidyinternational.com/ecommerce TradeGecko | @tradegecko tradegecko.com Tradevine | @TradevineTeam tradevine.com Veeqo | @Veeqo veeqo.com/integrations/xero Vextras - Kiwi | @vextras vextras.com Volusion by Vextras | @vextras vextras.com Zapier | @zapier zapier.com/apps/xero Zen Cart by Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk

moolahsense.com Moula | @MoulaMoney moula.com.au OFX xero.com/uk/financial-services/ofx SmartBiz Loans | @SmartBizLoans smartbizloans.com TradeLock | @TradelockCover tradelock.co.uk Validus validus.sg Waddle | @getwaddle waddle.com.au

Inventory CIN7 | @Cin7online cin7.com Current RMS | @currentrms current-rms.com DataQlick | @DataQlick

commusoft.co.uk ConnectWise by Wise-Sync | @wisesync wise-sync.com Copper | @copperproject copperproject.com

MoolahSense | @MoolahSense

dashboardstream.com

112 / Issue 23

cliniko.com/xero Clio | @goclio Co-construct | @coconstruct

Shopify | @Shopify

Squarespace | @squarespace

chargebee.com/integrations/xero Cliniko | @Cliniko

landing.clio.com/xero

rocketspark.com/nz/xero/ Sendle | @sendle

tradevine.com

b2bgateway.net

BriteBiz | @britebiz

iwoca.co.uk/xero

carrytheone.co.uk/xero

B2BGateway | @B2BGateway

bookingbug.com/xero

iwoca | @iwoca

Order Space | @orderspace

aroflo.com Ascora | @ascoraapp

briefcase

getcapital.com.au

neto.com.au

appsforops.com AroFlo | @aro_flo

BookingBug | @bookingbug

Funding Options | @FundingOptions

GetCapital | @Get_Capital

Opencart by Carry The One

AppsForOps | @AppsForOps

ascora.com.au

simPRO | @simprosoftware

fundtap.co.nz/xero

partner.mindbodyonline.com

ApprovalMax | @ApprovalMax approvalmax.com/xero

Fishbowl | @fishbowl

FundTap

Neto | @netoecommerce

Apparelmagic | @ApparelMagic apparelmagic.com

Farmflo | @farmflo

fundingoptions.com

xero.fooman.co.nz MINDBODY | @mindbodyonline

Acuity Scheduling | @AcuitySchedulin

dearsystems.com

TradeGecko | @tradegecko tradegecko.com

Corecon corecon.com

Unleashed Software | @unleashedteam unleashedsoftware.com Veeqo | @Veeqo veeqo.com Vend xero.com/uk/marketplace/app/vend Viberent | @viberenthq viberenthq.com Vinsight | @VinsightSW vinsight.net

Invoicing & Jobs Accelo | @accelo www.accelo.com ActionStep | @Actionstep actionstep.com/xero Active Collab By Trio | @Trio_Tech triotech.co.nz

CLOUD-BASED CONSTRUCTION

SOFTWARE www.corecon.com coreplus | @Intracore coreplus.com.au CurrentRMS | @currentrms current-rms.com Cushion | @cushionapp cushionapp.com Dentally | @DentallyApp dentally.co/integrations/xero

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

App Directory DonkeyBean donkeybean.com EMAC | @EMACsoftware emac.com.au

ProWorkflow | @ProWorkflow proworkflow.com Quotient | @QuotientApp quotientapp.com/integrations/xero

vWork | @vWorkApp vworkapp.com

experieco.com

WHMCS for Xero | @edgehosting

Fergus | @FergusApp

edgehosting.uk/whmcs-xero-addon

fergusapp.com

Work[etc] CRM | @WORKetc_support

Field Aware | @fieldaware

worketc.com/new_landing/xero

fieldaware.com

WorkflowMax | @WorkflowMax

Fleetmatics WORK | @fleetmatics

formitize.com FreshBooks | @freshbooks onesaas.com/integrate/xero GeoOp | @GeoOp geoop.com GoProposal | @GoProposal goproposal.com Harvest | @harvest getharvest.com

workflowmax.com

Qwilr | @Qwilr

Invoxy | @invoxy invoxy.com iTrade

blendo.co

simplesalon.com/xero

Boxkite | @getboxkite getboxkite.com

simprogroup.com

Business sorter | @BusinessSorter

Smart Reports | @smartreports

Start your FREE trial: workflowmax.com/xero

smartreports.com.au SmartTrade | @SmartTradeSW

synergist.co.uk Syngency | @syngency syngency.com The Service Manager | @theservicemgr theservicemanager.com TidyBuild | @TidyInt tidyinternational.com

Workshop Software | @workshoponline workshopsoftware.com.au XEDI | @xediLtd xedi.com

Manufacturing AroFlo | @aro_flo aroflo.com Tidy Enterprise | @TidyInt tidyenterprise.com

itrade.net

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

PROJECT & INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

tidybuild com

tidyenterprise com

Loc8 | @Loc8com

MinuteDock | @minutedock minutedock.com mytrucking.com/integrations/xero NextMinute | @NextMinuteApp nextminute.com Okappy | @ok_appy okappy.com Order Space | @orderspace orderspace.com/integrations/xero Patchability time.patchability.com pay RIGHT AWAY | @PayRIGHTAWAY payrightaway.com.au Preno | @prenohq prenohq.com/xero

nzi.co.nz Cradle | @letscradlenz cradle.io/integration/xero Curve | @imaginecurve imaginecurve.com

entryrocket.com

leap.co.uk

MyTrucking | @MyTrucking

control-c.com/landing-xero CoverKit by NZI

EntryRocket | @entryrocket

LEAP | @LEAP4LawFirms

mechanicdesk.com.au/addon-xero

cloudbusinessllc.com Controlc

customerlobby.com

kickserv.com/xero

MechanicDesk | @mechanicdesk

Cloudbusiness | @CloudBusinessLt

Customer Lobby | @CustomerLobby

Kickserv | @kickserv

loc8.com

businesssorter.com/xero Chata.ai | @thechataHQ chata.ai

smarttrade.biz Synchroteam | @synchroteam

bizequity.com/xero Blendo | @blendoapp

simPRO | @simprosoftware

Synergist | @Synerg1st

invoicetracker.com

It’s a match made in heaven.

servicem8.com

i2b-online.com

InvoiceTracker by eBillity | @eBillity

trustfile.avalara.com Backupmybooks | @backupmybooks BizEquity | @BizEquity

Simple Salon | @SimpleSalon

synchroteam.com

icoslive.com

Avalara | @avalara

backupmybooks.com

qwilr.com ServiceM8 | @ServiceM8

i2B | @i2B_Limited iCOS LIVE | @iCOSLIVE

deltek.com

vinx2.com

etzpayments.com

Formitize | @Formitize

arthuronline.co.uk

Union Square | @unionsquareltd

Vintrace | @vinx2

Experieco

foodstorm.com

Arthur Online | @ArthurProperty

vinsight.net

eprintmis.com etz Technologies | @etzTechnologies

Foodstorm | @FoodStorm

triotech.co.nz/xero

Vinsight | @VinsightSW

ePrint MIS | @eprintmis

fleetmatics.com.au

Trio Technology | @Trio_Tech

Expense Check | @expensecheck expensecheck.com.au Farmflo | @farmflo farmflo.com Flowrev | @flowrev flowrev.com/xero Fresh Projects | @ukfreshprojects

TidyEnterprise | @TidyInt tidyenterprise.com TidyWork | @TidyInt tidywork.com TimeTracker by eBillity | @eBillity ebillity.com Total Synergy | @totalsynergy totalsynergy.com Tradify | @tradifyhq tradifyhq.com Traffic Live deltek.com TriggerApp | @triggerapp

Other A2X Accounting | @a2xaccounting

freshprojects.co.uk G-Accon | @G_AcconServices www.accon.services

a2xaccounting.com/xero

G-Accon

Acuity Scheduling | @AcuitySchedulin acuityscheduling.com Ag Profit | @AgProfitAus agprofit.com.au aider | @AskAider aider.ai/partners/xero

Google Sheets Add-On

Arlo arlo.co

http://www.accon.services

triggerapp.com/xero

Subscribe for FREE: Go to subscriptions.xumagazine.com

Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 23 / 113

App Directory Wufoo by Zapier | @zapier

Google Calender By Zapier | @zapier

zapier.com

zapier.com

Zapier | @zapier

Imporex

zapier.com

imporex.com.au

Zendesk by Zapier | @zapier

InView

zapier.com

inviewapp.com

Zenoti | @ZenotiSoftware

JobReady | @JobReadyNSW

zenoti.com/xero

jobready.com.au Kitomba | @Kitomba

Payments

kitomba.com LEAP | @LEAP4LawFirms

Acuity Scheduling | @AcuitySchedulin

leap.co.uk

acuityscheduling.com

LeaveCal

Authorize.Net | @AuthorizeNet

finlert.com/leavecal-xero.html Office 365 | @Office365 xero.com/uk/office-365 onesaas.com

chargebee.com/integrations/xero Chargify | @Chargify

ozbizsolutions.com.au

chargify.com/xero

PennyPipe | @PennyPipe

Checkeeper | @Checkeeper

pennypipe.com/info/xero

checkeeper.com/xero

pensionsync | @pensionsync

CheckVault | @CheckVault

pensionsync.com

checkvault.com.au

Podio by Phases

CreDec | @CreDec

podio.com

credec.com

Podio by Zapier | @zapier

Debtor Daddy | @debtordaddy

zapier.com

debtordaddy.com/xero

Progressclaim.com | @progressclaim

Directli | @Directli

progressclaim.com

directli.co.uk

PropertyTree | @PropertyTree

DPS Payment Express | @PaymentExpress

propertytree.com

paymentexpress.co.uk

RDvault | @rdvault

EazyCollect | @eazyCollect

rdvault.co.uk

eazycollect.co.uk

Re-leased | @re_leased

EzyCollect | @ezyCollect

re-leased.com

ezycollect.com.au

Real Estate Investar | @reiaustraila

eWay | @eWAY_

realestateinvestar.com.au

eway.io

Rerun | @Rerunapp

Ezidebit | @Ezidebit

rerunapp.com

ezidebit.com.au

Sharesight | @Sharesight

GoCardless | @GoCardless

sharesight.com/xero

gocardless.com

Sharesight Pro | @Sharesight pro.sharesight.com.au

paymentexpress.com/xero PayPal | @PayPal paypal.com zapier.com

Made for recurring payments

Tax1099 | @efile1099 tax1099.com Track1099 | @Track_1099

Xero’s Financial Services App of the Year

track1099.com TransferMate | @TransferMate transfermateonline.com Vinosmith | @thevinosmith vinosmith.com

IntegraPay | @IntegraPay

Wise.NET | @WisenetLRM

integrapay.com.au

wisenet.co

pin.net.au app.plooto.co

enablehr.com.au Ento | @entohq ePayroll | @ePayrollAus Flexitime | @FlexiTimeTeam flexitime.co.nz Gpayroll Gusto | @GustoHQ zenpayroll.com

POLi Payments | @POLiPayments polipayments.com Receivabl | @receivabl_es receivabl.es

Happy HR | @happyhraus happyhr.com HR Assured | @HRAssured hrassured.com.au

Rerun | @Rerunapp rerunapp.com

HR Partner | @HRPartnerApp hrpartner.io

SAT FXOnline | @satworldwide satfxonline.co.uk Shieldpay | @shield_pay shieldpay.com Stripe | @stripe stripe.com Stripe by Commerce Sync | @commercesync commercesync.com Square | @SquareUK squareup.com Transfer Mate | @TransferMate transfermateonline.com TransferWise | @TransferWise transferwise.com uCollect | @ucollect_biz ucollect.biz/xero Worldpay

IMS Payroll imspayroll.co.nz Intertec TimePro timesheets.com.au iPayroll ipayroll.co.nz KeyPay | @KeyPayApp

business.worldpay.com

Payroll & HR

citrusHR | @citrusHR citrushr.com/xero

keypay.co.uk Microkeeper | @Microkeeper microkeeper.com.au MyPAYE | @MyPAYE mypaye.co.uk OnPay | @onpay_payroll onpay.com

CloudPayroll cloudpayroll.com.au

New Zealand

ipayroll.co.nz

The New Standard

in Payroll Best Xero integration. Full HR suite. onpay.com/xero

invoicesherpa.com

workato.com/xero

employmenthero.com enableHR | @enableHR

gpayroll.com

Plooto | @PlootoInc

InvoiceSherpa | @invoicesherpa

Workato | @Workato

deputy.com Employment Hero | @EmploymentHero

epayroll.com.au

PennyPipe | @PennyPipe

appogeehr.com

synergy8.com

crystalpayroll.com Deputy | @deputyapp

ento.com

PayPal by Zapier | @zapier

appogeeHR | @AppogeeHR

Synergy 8 | @SynergyEight

iZettle | @iZettle

Workshop Software | @workshoponline workshopsoftware.com.au

register.payoneer.com Payment Express | @PaymentExpress

pennypipe.com/info/xero

bill.com

onsightapp.com

payrightaway.com.au Payoneer | @Payoneer

Pin Payments | @PinPayments

Chargebee | @chargebee

OzBiz Solutions | @OzBizSolutions

Pay RIGHT AWAY | @PayRIGHTAWAY

reseller.authorize.net

Bill.com | @billcom

Onsight | @Onsight_App

Crystal Payroll

xero.com/uk/financial-services/ofx

Bill and Pay | @BillandPay billandpay.com

OneSaas | @onesaas

OFX

izettle.com Kwanji | @KwanjiX

Australia

cloudpayroll.com.au

Parolla | @ParollaPayroll parolla.ie

kwanji.com

114 / Issue 23

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

App Directory Paychex | @Paychex pages.paychex.com/xero Payescape | @PayescapeUK payescape.com Payment Evolution | @payevo paymentevolution.com PaysOnline | @paysonline paysonline.com.au PaySpace | @PaySpace payspace.com Simplepay.ca | @simplepaycanada simplepay.ca Tanda | @TandaHQ tanda.co Thankyou Payroll | @ThankyouPayroll thankyoupayroll.co.nz The Payroll Site | @ThePayrollSite thepayrollsite.co.uk UpSheets | @UpSheets upsheets.com 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 iZettle | @iZettle izettle.com Kounta | @kounta kounta.com Nobly | @NoblyPOS noblypos.com/xero Possboss | @posbosshq posbosshq.com Preno | @prenohq prenohq.com/xero Redcat | @RedCatPOS redcat.com.au/xero Retail Express | @RetailExpress01 retailexpress.com.au Sapaad | @SapaadPOS sapaad.com/lp/xero

Square | @SquareUK squareup.com/gb The Good Till Company | @TheGoodTillco thegoodtill.com Tower Systems | @TowerSystems towersystems.com.au Vend | @vendhq vendhq.com Zilch Consulting | @zilchconsulting zilchconsulting.com

Professional Services AppsForOps | @AppsForOps appsforops.com BGL Corporate Solutions | @BGLdot bglcorp.com BGL Corporate Solutions | @BGLdot bglcorp.com Hunt & Hawk | @HuntandHawk huntandhawk.com Inform Direct | @InformDirect informdirect.co.uk instafile | @InstafileApp instafile.co.uk Link Solutions | @LinkSolutions linksolutions.co.nz SuperConcepts | @SuperConceptsAU superconcepts.com.au

Reporting Ag Profit | @AgProfitAus agprofit.com.au Angeloop | @AgProfitAus agprofit.com.au Asset Guru | @Asset_Guru asset.guru/xero Benchmarking.com.au benchmarking.com.au Bizeo | @bizeo bizeo.com.au BizEquity | @BizEquity bizequity.com/xero Blink Reports blinkreports.com BPM bpmglobal.com Brightgauge | @BrightGauge brightgauge.com/xero Bstar | @BstarAustralia bstar.com.au

DataDear | @DataDearApp datadear.com Debtze| @DebtzeCollect debtze.com/xero DiGA | @BiznizBackbone businessbackbone.co.uk DonkeyBean donkeybean.com/xero Dryrun | @Mydryrun dryrun.com/xero Excel Int. Tools - QWD | @quickwindev quickwindevelopment.com Fathom | @fathomhq fathomhq.com Figured | @figuredapp figured.com Financial Driver | @FinancialDriver financialdriver.com Float | @FloatApp floatapp.com

QVinci | @Qvinci qvinci.com/xero Recount recount.com/xero-homepage-uk Ranqx | @ranqxHQ ranqx.com Report Amigo | @reportamigo reportamigo.com/xero Saasabi | @Saasabi saasabi.com/xero Savvy Reports savvyreports.com Simple Numbers | @gregcrabtreecpa simplenumbers.me Simply Cashflow | @simplycashflow simplycashflow.com/xero StatX | @StatXapp statx.io Spotlight Reporting | @spotlightrep spotlightreporting.com

Flowrev | @flowrev flowrev.com/xero Fluidly | @Fluidly fluidly.com/xero Futrli | @Futrli futrli.com Infoodle | @infoodle

#1 Reporting & Forecasting app in the Xero Ecosystem

infoodle.com/xero joiin | @joiinreporting

spotlightreporting.com

joiin.co Klipfolio Dashboard | @klipfolio klipfolio.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 Numerable | @NumerableSW numerable.io Onestop reporting | @OneStopReports onestopreporting.com/xero Panalitix | @panalitix panalitix.com

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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 Watchful Eye | @watchful_eye_sw watchfuleyesoftware.com Xavier | @xavieranalytics xavier-analytics.com XBert | @XBertapp xbert.io Zenflow zenflow.me Zivora | @ZivoraApp zivora.co

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businessbackbone.co.uk Calxa | @calxa calxa.com Carbon Analytics | @co2analytics co2analytics.com/xero Castaway | @CAforecasting castawayforecasting.com Checkmybooks | @movemybooks checkmybooks.co.uk

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Issue 23 / 115

App Directory Zoho | @Zoho zoho.eu

Time Tracking ActionStep | @Actionstep actionstep.com/xero Active.collab | @activecollab activecollab.com/add-ons/xero AppsForOps | @AppsForOps appsforops.com AroFlo | @aro_flo aroflo.com Chrometa | @Chrometa chrometa.com/xero Copper | @copperproject

NextMinute | @NextMinuteApp nextminute.com Outlook Int.Tools - QWD | @quickwindev quickwindevelopment.com Patchability time.patchability.com ProWorkflow | @ProWorkflow proworkflow.com Quick Win Development | @quickwindev quickwindevelopment.com Roll | @rollhq rollhq.com/xero SmartBiller | @smartbiller smartbiller.co.nz Synergist | @Synerg1st synergist.co.uk Tanda | @TandaHQ

ebillity.com Fergus | @FergusApp fergusapp.com

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copperproject.com deputy.com

Boma | @Boma_Marketing Datamolino | @datamolino

Deputy | @deputyapp eBillity | @eBillity

Xero HQ

futrli.com Hubdoc | @Hubdoc hubdoc.com Practice Ignition | @ignitionapp practiceignition.com

NowInfinity | @Now_Infinity nowinfinity.com.au Practice Ignition | @ignitionapp practiceignition.com Quick Win Development | @quickwindev quickwindevelopment.com Receipt Bank | @ReceiptBank receipt-bank.com Spotlight Reporting | @spotlightrep spotlightreporting.com Stryke Tax | @stryketax stryke.com.au Suitefiles | @SuiteFiles suitefiles.com Time Tracker by EndGame | @GoEndGame end-game.com Trustworks | @trustworksnz

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Freshdesk | @freshdesk freshdesk.com/xero GeoOp | @GeoOp geoop.com

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JOB MANAGEMENT

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receipt-bank.com Spotlight Reporting | @spotlightrep spotlightreporting.com Suitefiles | @SuiteFiles suitefiles.com

TimeTracker by eBillity | @eBillity ebillity.com TimeCamp | @timecamp timecamp.com Timely gettimely.com/timely-xero Timestamp | @timestampio timestamp.io/add-ons/xero Total Synergy | @totalsynergy totalsynergy.com.au Tradify | @tradifyhq tradifyhq.com TriggerApp | @triggerapp triggerapp.com/xero Total Synergy | @totalsynergy totalsynergy.com Tsheets | @tsheets tsheets.com/xero Tymwise | @kapaitymwise tymwise.com WorkflowMax | @WorkflowMax workflowmax.com ZeroTime zerotime.io ZUUS Workforce | @zuusworkforce zuusworkforce.com

Tools to digitalise your practice wolterskluwer.co.uk

Practise Management 2shakes | @2ShakesNZ 2shakes.co.nz AccountancyManager | @accountancymgr accountancymanager.co.uk AccountKit | @AccountKit account-kit.com Class Super | @Class_Ltd class.com.au DataDear | @DataDearApp datadear.com Doc2Data | @doc2data doc2data.com Excel Int. Tools - QWD | @quickwindev quickwindevelopment.com Exsalerate | @exsalerate exsalerate.com/xerointegration EzzyBills | @EzzyBills ezzybills.com FORMbasic | @formbasic formbasic.com.au GoProposal | @GoProposal goproposal.com Mogul | @MogulDigitalNZ mogul.nz/xero My Own CFO | @myown_cfo

Nexonia | @nexonia nexonia.com/xero

myown-cfo.com My work papers | @myworkpapers myworkpapers.com

116 / Issue 23

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

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Issue 23 / 117

...and finally

Virtual Summit raises £44,500 for the UK NHS If you had told me 8 weeks ago that we would be involved in organising one of the largest online virtual summits for accounting professionals, with 15,617 registrations and raise of £44,500 for the NHS in the process, I probably would have laughed in your face and said you’re crazy!

W

@ignitionapp

Trent McLaren, Head of Accounting & Partnerships, Practice Ignition

hen the Coronavirus hit, like the rest of the industry, everyone was in shock and trying to adjust rapidly to what was happening around them.

I remember one morning I had an email from Zoe at Accountex asking for an urgent meeting with myself and Jason at ACCA. To our curiosity we took the call that week and they posed a question to us. “Trent, Jason, you’re pretty switched on with this stuff, how do we pivot and take what we do online and deliver a new kind of experience for over 10,000 people?”

I replied simply with a cheeky grin and said “Leave it with me”.

By the end of the week between ACCA, Accountex, Practice Ignition and GENCFO, we set out to build the largest online accounting summit.

The content was focused on 3 key elements. How was COVID-19 impacting firms with regards to their “Golden Triangle”.

FREE! 118 / Issue 23

The golden triangle, or 3-legged stool focuses on your People, Process and Technology. If you over balance on one part of the stool, everything falls over. It’s about balance.

For whatever reason our best ideas always seem to be lastminute throwaway comments in my experience. Jordan and I were busy building this online summit, in record speed. We were pretty confident that everything was going to hold up and we were testing the check-out process and user experience to make sure we were happy with how it all looked and felt.

Jordan turned to me and said “Hey mate, we can make it free to attend but we can also charge money for everyone to get a recording of all the sessions, what do you think?”

Jordan’s a pretty smart guy so I said “Yeah, what are you thinking?

What would we charge?” He replied “Let’s just make it £10, and we can

donate 100% of it to the NHS in support of everything going on.” I quickly said “Good one, let’s do it.”

This conversation took less than 30 seconds, yet in reflection it was the most important decision we made for the entire project.

I sit here 24 hours after the virtual summit closing, knowing that 4255 people upgraded their pass for £10, to get a VIP ticket allowing them to access 47 hours worth of content that we put on over the last two days.

Although ridiculously tired, I’m incredibly grateful and proud of our effort and what we’ve been able to achieve in just 8 weeks. From concept to to summit completed and money raised.

It’s an experience I’ll never forget.

Thankful to have the opportunity to work with the teams at Accountex, ACCA, GENCFO and my team at Practice Ignition.

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Issue 23 / 119

91%

of our customers spend less time creating proposals, and chasing signatures and payments

87%

were able to cancel other software subscriptions

80%

have fewer (or no) unpaid invoices at any given time And the majority of Practice Ignition customers are closing more and bigger deals...

To find out more Book a Demo landing.practiceignition.com/moretime 120 / Issue 23

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