XU Biweekly - Issue 81 - 1st June 2024

The independent user news source for accounting apps and their ecosystems

Relay Raises US$32.2 Million Series B to Solve The #1 Challenge Facing Small Businesses

RELAY, THE BUSINESS BANKING PLATFORM THAT GIVES CASH FLOW CLARITY TO SMALL BUSINESSES (SMBS), ANNOUNCED TODAY THE CLOSE OF A US$32.2 MILLION SERIES B FINANCING ROUND, LED BY BAIN CAPITAL VENTURES.

This brings Relay's total funding to US$51.6 million. The new financing accelerates Relay’s product development in spend management, smart credit products and a financial API marketplace.It’s the next step toward Relay’s overarching

goal of delivering AI-powered predictive cash flow analytics to SMBs.

The funding comes after consecutive years of outsized growth—Relay’s revenues rose 3xin 2022 and close to 6x in 2023—and a single-minded focus on the small business market.

“68% of U.S.small business owners have cash flow problems. They worry about making payroll and mission-critical bills but lack the tools to truly address these existential threats,” said Yoseph West, Relay’s

Co-Founder and CEO.“Relay gives them cash flow clarity and control—what SMBs need to sustainably fuel everyday operations— by pairing financial services with software and making banking work harder for them.”

The funding round includes previous Relay investors BTV, Garage, and Tapestry, with new participation from Industry Ventures. “Relay’s been on an incredible trajectory, even as others in the industry have had to pivot and find new footing,” said Kevin Zhang, Partner at

Dext announces the general availability of Dextension at Accountex London, 2024

DEXT, THE LEADING BOOKKEEPING AUTOMATION PLATFORM PROVIDER, TODAY ANNOUNCED THE RELEASE OF DEXTENSION, A BROWSER EXTENSION THAT UNLOCKS PRODUCTIVITY FOR BOOKKEEPERS AND ACCOUNTANTS.

Available for free to all Dext users via the Chrome extension store, Dextension represents a significant advancement in accounting automation.

The launch of Dextension highlights Dext’s continued commitment to innovation,

Saturday 1st June 2024

making it effortless to work with Dext and leading cloud accounting solutions. Dextension is a free downloadable browser extension, available on the Google Chrome Web Store. Users can switch it on with one click to unify their software experience, enabling customers smooth transitioning between Dext and their accounting software. The browser extension provides many features that streamline accounting workflows and provides critical context to dashboards and bank reconciliation by allowing users to see attachments and request missing paperwork directly where they do

that work.Back in 2011, Dext became the world’s first service to automate the collection and data extraction of receipts and invoice for accountants, bookkeepers and their small business clients.

Since then, and for over a decade, Dext has broadened its deep expertise working with bookkeepers, accountants and business owners across industries from construction through to retail to reduce the friction in bookkeeping with automation and applied AI processing over 1M documents a day.

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Bain Capital Ventures. ”We were eager to get behind Relay again as the company enters its next stage of growth and doubles down on the unique needs of the SMB market.”

Relay taps into the ingrained money management behaviors of business owners. SMBs want to see what they’ve earmarked for different expenses and understand their cash position at a glance—which is what Relay delivers. As a result of this approach, last summer, Relay became the official banking platform

for Profit First. Created and authored by serial entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz, Profit First is a behavior-based cash management methodology and book—with over 1 million copies sold—that teachesSMBs better financial habits.

On average, business owners log into Relay 13 times per month, and40% of customers who use Relay for their primary banking log in daily.

The company most recently launched a credit card in limited release, complementing their smart checking and savings accounts, and a line of credit is slated to come.

“What makesRelay so powerful for small business owners is how it works with our natural tendencies rather than against them,” says Mike Michalowicz. “Everything from saving for taxes to tracking expenses becomes second nature in Relay, and it removes so much friction from the dayto-daywork of running a business.”

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Xenon Connect proudly announces its latest integration with FreeAgent!

XENON CONNECT PARTNERS WITH FREEAGENT TO ENHANCE BOOKKEEPING ANALYSIS FOR THEIR ACCLAIMED ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE, TAILORED FOR SMALL BUSINESSES AND FREELANCERS.

This innovative collaboration aims to empower FreeAgent bookkeepers & accountants to thoroughly analyse their bookkeeping ledgers for errors, anomalies, and opportunities, and seamlessly rectify these issues within FreeAgent. This partnership ensures that financial data flows effortless-

ly between systems, minimising errors, and providing real-time insights into financial performance.

Key features of the integration:

• Automated data synchronisation: Financial transactions, invoices, and expenses are automatically synced between Xenon Connect and FreeAgent, ensuring that both platforms are always up-todate with the latest information.

• Real-time financial insights: FreeAgent accountants & bookkeepers can access comprehen-

sive financial reports and dashboards, providing a clear picture of their clients business’s financial health at any time.

Boosting efficiency for FreeAgent bookkeepers & accountants

Gareth Salomon, Founder of Xenon Connect said “Xenon Connect is extremely excited to partner with FreeAgent to bring bookkeeping data quality checks to bookkeepers and accountants throughout the FreeAgent community.”

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Half of U.S. small businesses operate with just 27 days of cash buffer—Relay’s banking platform gives them tools to extend their runway.

Aider: AI-powered Report Pack now

more customisable than ever

Give better advice with AI’s assistance & perfect the content with the text edit option

What’s new?

The Aider Report Pack is now more customisable than ever. You can now…

• Harness the power of AI to draft and refine the report content.

• Tweak the wording right in the preview before downloading and sharing the report.

What benefits does it have for advisors?

Easily and quickly create insightful and impactful reports

Let AI do the heavy lifting for you. Aider AI Assistant can…

• Quickly draft insightful Executive Summaries and Action Points.

• Help you analyse and brainstorm specific performance implications and advice.

XU BIWEEKLY - No. 81

Newsdesk:

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• Rewrite existing content in client-friendly wording for crystal clear messaging.

• Even more control when you need it

Perfect and personalise the content just the way you want.

Add your personal touch to build trust and relationship.

How does it work?

Use the Aider AI Assistant to:

• Draft editable Executive Summary and Action Points.

• Rewrite these and the insights using a small-business-friendly tone of voice.

• Tweak the focus or include additional considerations - e.g. specific performance implications and advice

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Payhawk recognised as DATEV-Marktplatz

Schnittstellen Partner

DATEV'S MARKETPLACE LISTS SOLUTIONS FROM SOFTWARE VENDORS, WHICH ARE A USEFUL ADDITION TO THE DATEV ECOSYSTEM. COMPANIES AND TAX LAW FIRMS CAN FIND THE RIGHT SOLUTIONS FOR THEIR INDIVIDUAL NEEDS HERE.

The partner solutions are linked to the DATEV products via the DATEV data services.

This enables automated and secure data exchange

and allows optimizing the collaboration between law firms and companies. In order to ensure successful interaction between the solutions, DATEV regularly carries out technical testing of the DATEV interfaces in the partner solutions.

Payhawk had already started working with DATEV in 2021 to improve interoperability between the systems and optimize companies’ accounting processes in relation to their accountants.

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Airwallex

Bill Pay, now available with Xero

AENTIRE PROCESS IN ONE PLACE.

With Airwallex Bill Pay, you can manage each step of paying a bill within the Airwallex platform, from uploading and importing invoices to approving and sending the payment, saving your finance team hours of manual work.

Airwallex’s no-code integration with Xero means your teams can automate reconciliation and close the books faster each month.

Close your books faster with automated accounting integrations

Connect your Airwallex account to Xero so you can import approved bills from Xero directly into Airwallex for payment.

All bill approvals and payment data are regularly synced to your Xero account to speed up your monthly reconciliation process.

Leverage automatic two-way sync functionality to ensure all payments are correctly reflected in Airwallex and Xero, significantly reducing the risk of accidental overpayment.

Paying bills today is a manual, time-consuming process for millions of businesses

In speaking with customers, Airwallex learned that there are three key challenges you face when it comes to your accounts payable process.

Fragmented workflows: There might be multiple tools a finance team must leverage – for invoices, approvals, and payments (domestic & international).

All these workflows require time (and dollars) for teams to maintain.

Manual, error-prone processes: On top of that, keeping track of relevant information, approvals, and payments is a manual mess, leading to errors.

Finance teams often use spreadsheets separately to get some level of visibility, exposing the business to costly human errors.

More hours spent on paying international vendors: Processing bills from international suppliers presents even more challenges. Traditional methods lack support for international payments, forcing manual workflows and extra work.

Quoter - New Pricing Modifiers: Markup and Margin Calculations, Bulk Update Controls

RECOGNIZING THIS NEED, QUOTER HAS INTRODUCED VALUABLE ENHANCEMENTS THAT EMPOWER USERS TO CALCULATE A LINE ITEM’S UNIT PRICE USING EITHER A MARKUP OR MARGIN CALCULATION. ADDITIONALLY, QUOTER NOW OFFERS THE ABILITY TO BULK UPDATE LINE ITEMS WITHIN A SECTION.

The Flexibility of Markup and Margin Calculations

Markup

Calculation: Markup is the difference between the cost of a product and its selling price, ex-

pressed as a percentage of the cost. For example, if a product costs $100 and you want to sell it with a 25% markup, the selling price would be $125. Markup is often used by businesses to ensure they cover their costs and achieve a desired profit.

Margin Calculation: Margin is the difference between the selling price and the cost of a product, expressed as a percentage of the selling price. Using the same example, if you sell the product for $125 and it costs $100, the margin would be 20%. Margin is commonly used in financial statements and is a

key indicator of profitability.

Quoter now gives you the flexibility to choose between these two pricing strategies based on your business needs. Whether you prefer to use markup to maintain consistent profit margins or margin to focus on overall profitability, Quoter has you covered.

Default Settings for Seamless Operations

Set your preferred default price modifier in the Settings > General section to select either markup or margin as your default cal-

culation method. Once set, all newly created quotes will automatically use this preference, ensuring consistency and saving you valuable time.

Key Benefits:

• Ease of Use: Setting a default price modifier simplifies the quote creation process. You have the flexibility to modify the default when quoting but setting the default will help you reduce errors and streamline your workflow..

• Flexibility: Despite having a default setting, you can

still manually set a line item’s markup, margin, or unit price. This is particularly useful for special cases or when dealing with unique products.

• Adaptability: As market conditions change, so too can your pricing strategy. Quoter’s flexible settings allow you to switch between markup and margin calculations effortlessly.

Important Note on Existing Quotes: It’s important to note that changing the default setting only impacts newly created quotes.

Find out more

New HubSpot Integration Feature: Enhanced Contact and Company Data Management in Quoter

We’re excited to announce a significant enhancement to our HubSpot integration that will streamline your workflow and boost your efficiency.

THIS UPDATE IS DESIGNED TO MAKE MANAGING CONTACTS, COMPANIES, AND DEALS IN HUBSPOT THROUGH QUOTER MORE INTUITIVE AND SEAMLESS.

Key Benefits of the New Addition

1. Efficient Contact and Company Data Management

When searching for a contact by name or organization, Quoter will now return both primary and secondary companies.

This means you have a more comprehensive view of the associated companies, ensuring you make well-informed decisions.

If the selected contact lacks an address in address line 1, Quoter will automatically pull the address from the associated company, whether it’s primary or secondary.

This feature minimizes data entry errors and saves time by auto-filling essential details.

2. Seamless Address Handling

In cases where a contact doesn’t have address data, Quoter will use the company’s address, which can be overwritten if necessary.

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Chargebee - Roundup of the Latest Product Innovations: Payments Edition

CFOS FEEL A SURGE OF RELIEF WITH EACH SUCCESSFUL PAYMENT AND LOSE PRECIOUS SLEEP OVER CHARGEBACK REQUESTS.

Smooth payment workflows are key during subscription setup or renewal to ensure top-notch customer experiences. Any hitches in payments, such as failures, steep fees, global transaction demands, limited payment options, or delays, can inflate operational costs, affecting timely shipments or providing promised services.

Being the backbone of revenue cycles, Chargebee and our trusted gateway partners strive to offer a top-notch payment solution. Our focus is on high approval rates, diverse payment choices, and minimized revenue loss to support your business growth effectively.

We’re excited to announce the latest set of product innovations, which focus on upgrading your payment capabilities.

Widening the subscription base to the LatAm region

Over the past decade, Chargebee has built an extensive network of 30+ gateway partners across the US, UK, EU, and ANZ markets. We are now excited to help our customers unlock the Latin American (LatAm) markets.

Why LatAm is important for growing subscription businesses

LatAm is one of the fastest-growing subscription revenue markets in the world, with a market value of ~$30B. Often, entering new markets requires registering as a local entity, which comes with high operational costs and administrative hassles. Customers

will also expect you to offer locally preferred payment methods and are not prone to quickly shifting their payment choices.

How is Chargebee helping customers expand into LatAm?

We are launching two new payment gateway integrations for the LatAm region – EBANX and dLocal. We are also adding a local payment method, Boleto, which we support via Stripe. Now you can:

• Start processing payments locally without a local business entity, by integrating with eBanx or dLocal payment gateways in LatAm

• Accept payments through local card schemes like Elo and Hipercard and boost authorization rates

• Accept Boleto payments via Stripe, Brazil’s commonly used cash/voucher-based payment method.

Introducing instant payments in A2A transactions

As a global revenue growth management platform, we’ve observed that subscribers in regions such as the UK, EU, and Australia strongly prefer Account-to-Account (A2A) payments. You can now offer your customers the bank transfer payment mode with instant payment confirmation, thanks to open banking.

Why instant bank payments are important

While A2A payments offer lower processing fees, companies prefer to avoid offering them to customers due to the delay in payment confirmation.

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The future is Bright with MyWorkpapers – Exciting integration coming soon!

ACCURATE BUT PROCESS-DRIVEN WORKING PAPERS ARE REQUIRED IN ACCOUNTING PRACTICES AND ARE ESSENTIAL TO THE SUCCESS OF ANY FIRM.

That’s why we are thrilled to share a glimpse of what’s on the horizon with Bright’s integration with MyWorkpapers! We are excited to soon launch our new integration with Bright, the comprehensive practice management platform designed specifically for accountants.

This new collaborative cloud partnership is set to redefine what’s possible when it comes to workflow efficiency and client job file management.

Starting initially with Bright Accounts Production and BrightBooks, the integration will gradually expand into Bright’s full suite of software, including BrightTax to align with

MyWorkpapers tax content.

Rich Neal, CEO of MyWorkpapers, said: “Bright perfectly complements our cloudfirst approach at MyWorkpapers and is a great integration to be adding to our platform.

“Together, we’re forging a collaboration that will seamlessly blend our strengths to enhance the daily operations and capabilities of accountancy firms in Ireland and the UK.”

Ben Bishop, Chief Technology and Product Officer at Bright, said: “We are delighted to be working with MyWorkpapers to bring our two solutions closer together through this integration. We are looking forward to seeing the further efficiencies that this delivers to our combined users.”

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Introducing Fin{x}HR – The Premier HR Help Desk Service for Accounting Firms

SAY GOODBYE TO OVERWHELMING

HR COMPLEXITIES AND HELLO TO FIN{X}HR, THE GAME-CHANGING HR HELP DESK SERVICE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR ACCOUNTING FIRMS AND BOOKKEEPING BUSINESSES.

Launched today, Fin{x}HR, powered by MHR, equips firms with the tools, knowledge, and support to manage any HR task with confidence and compliance. Accounting professionals can now focus on their core compliance tasks and advisory, knowing that expert HR support is just a call away.

Transforming HR Management for Accounting Professionals

Fin{x}HR addresses a critical need in the accounting industry. Our research reveals

that many firms are bombarded with HR enquiries but often lack the deep HR expertise required to answer them effectively. As a result, valuable hours meant for accounting and bookkeeping duties are instead spent on researching HR-related answers. Fin{x} HR provides a specialised HR help desk that handles clients' HR issues quickly, correctly, and in line with Australian laws and regulations.

Key Benefits of Fin{x}HR:

Expert HR Support: Fin{x}HR offers dedicated HR support tailored for accounting professionals. It ensures firms have access to high-quality HR advice without the overhead costs of additional staff.

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New: Aged Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable Reporting in Fathom

ATHOM’S NEW AGED ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE AND ACCOUNTS PAYABLE (AGED AR/AP) REPORTING FEATURE ALLOWS XERO AND QUICKBOOKS ONLINE USERS TO STAY ON TOP OF CASH FLOW, DEBTORS AND CREDITORS – KEEPING YOU INFORMED AND PREPARED FOR ANY SCENARIO.

Manage your cash flow better

By visualising AR/AP insights in Fathom, you’re able to better understand the timing of your outstanding payables and receivables, indicating when to follow up customers or prepare for upcoming cashflow impacts. This feature pulls in outstanding invoices from your source accounting software (Xero or QuickBooks Online) with attached customers and suppliers.

and creditors

From source accounting invoices, balances are created, aged by days since the invoice date or due date.

You’ll see when you’re owed money and from whom, including overdue receivables, so you can prioritise collections and payments and minimise overdue balances.

One report that covers it all

With the addition of Aged AR/AP reporting, you can avoid piecing together reports from various sources and get your stakeholders all the information they need in one place.

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HR Partner Wins the Spring 2024 Top Performer Award in the Human Resources & Applicant Tracking categories

HR Partner is proud to be a winner of the Top Performer award from SourceForge, the world’s largest software reviews and comparison website.

HR PARTNER, THE COMPLETE HR SOFTWARE SYSTEM FOR SMALL TO MEDIUM SIZED BUSINESSES, TODAY ANNOUNCED THAT IT HAS BEEN AWARDED A SPRING 2024 TOP PERFORMER AWARD BY SOURCEFORGE, THE WORLD’S LARGEST SOFTWARE AND SERVICES REVIEW AND COMPARISON WEBSITE.

This award recognizes exceptional companies and products with a significant amount of recent favorable user reviews that puts them in the top tenth percentile of highly reviewed products on SourceForge.

“It’s my pleasure to award the Spring 2024 Top Performers on SourceForge. HR Partner has been named a Top Performer this Spring in the Human Resources and Applicant Tracking categories, and their numerous outstanding user reviews are proof of the excellent solution they provide to their customers. Congratulations and keep up

the great work!” – Logan Abbott, President, SourceForge

To win the Spring 2024 Top Performer award, each winner had to receive enough high-rated user reviews to place the winning product in the top 10% of favorably reviewed products out of the 100,000 products on SourceForge, which demonstrates the utmost quality that HR Partner delivers to customers. “We are delighted to accept the SourceForge Spring 2024 Top Performer Award for the Human Resources & Applicant Tracking categories. Our primary goal is to make managing employee records as easy as possible for small and medium size businesses. Our customer service is second to none and we are thrilled to have this recognized in the reviews our customers write about their experiences.” – Fiona Adler, Co-Founder, HR Partner

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Aspire Enters Hong Kong, Positioned for Further Growth Across Asia

ASPIRE, A LEADING ALL-IN-ONE FINANCE PLATFORM HEADQUARTERED IN SINGAPORE, TODAY ANNOUNCED THAT THE COMPANY HAS SUCCESSFULLY OBTAINED A MONEY SERVICE OPERATOR (MSO) LICENSE ISSUED BY THE HONG KONG CUSTOMS AND EXCISE DEPARTMENT.

Aspire offers a unified suite of financial solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong, including the ability to open local business accounts for payables and receivables management, international payments, as well as payment gateway solution. Aspire’s integrated solution is built to help Hong Kong’s fast-growing SME segment across industries facilitate multi-currency cash management, as well as domestic & cross-border money transfers.

Amidst the city’s macro challenges, Hong Kong is witnessing a local revisitation of business digitalization, with 93% of local SMEs recognizing digitalization as vital for their company’s growth. Simultaneously, the city is witnessing an entrepreneurial boom, with the number of startups soaring over three-fold in the past decade, according to InvestHK. Aspire is well poised to meet the needs of this new generation of increasingly digital-minded startups and SMEs, providing them with a robust and integrated platform to streamline their business finance operations, ultimately saving time and money.

“With Hong Kong’s digital economy growing exponentially, there’s a clear demand for

Calxa Recognised for Community Impact

COMMUNITY IMPACT IS AN IMPORTANT WAY TO MEASURE A COMPANY’S CONTRIBUTION AND THE DIFFERENCE IT MAKES TO THE WORLD.

You may remember earlier this year when Calxa achieved a crucial milestone for its not-for-profit donation program. The tally hit a whooping $2.5million of software value benefitting over 1350 community organisations. You can read about our donation program in this article.

Award for Community Impact

It was a surprise to our team when on the 1st May, we were awarded the 2024 Technology for Community Impact Award.

The event was part of Infoxchange’s Technology for Social Justice Conference 2024 held in Melbourne. With almost 70 nominations across 6 categories, this year’s Australian Not-for-Profit Technology Awards were well represented.

Worthy Award Winners

This was cause for celebration by the Calxa team – evidence is posted further down in this article. But all fun aside, there

were some deserved winners across the board. Here is the full list:

1. Best Technology Achievement by a First Nations Person or Group

The winner of this award was the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO). It was awarded for The Wominjeka (Welcome) ecosystem – a benchmark approach for curating and co-designing culturally safe client management solutions. It provides holistic mainstream services for Indigenous health, wellbeing, and justice services.

2. Best Accidental IT Person Award

Jaron Green from St Patrick’s Community Support Centre. Jaron was nominated by his colleague for his journey. Taking him from experiencing significant hardship as a client experiencing homelessness of St Pat’s, to managing the in-house IT for one of Western Australia’s key homelessness support services and community housing providers.

3. Technology Volunteer of the Year Award

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We're updating Mayday’s pricing - here's what you'll want to know

dependable, integrated financial solutions,” said Andrea Baronchelli, CEO & Co-Founder of Aspire.

“At Aspire, we’ve always believed in tailoring our offerings to the unique needs of each market and we’re proud to now be able to empower Hong Kong SMEs with the financial tools they need to drive their growth.”

The acquisition of this operating license paves the way for Aspire’s broader strategic expansion across Asia, while emphasizing its strict adherence to the regulatory requirements of each country that it operates in.

"Hong Kong stands as a thriving ecosystem for startups and fintech worldwide, offering a conducive environment for growth and innovation,” says King Leung, Global Head of Financial Services and FinTech at InvestHK. “We are happy to welcome regional fintech startups like Aspire, and wish Aspire every success in Hong Kong."

"Hong Kong stands as a dynamic and business-minded innovation hub for Asia with a strong commitment to building a highly secure and stable fintech infrastructure,” says Andrea Baronchelli. “We take great pride in collaborating closely with Hong Kong's regulators as we embark on this exciting chapter. Looking forward, our vision remains steadfast: to build the future of business finance for modern businesses, guided by innovation, security, and reliability."

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ON 10TH JUNE 2024, WE’LL BE LAUNCHING NEW PRICING PLANS FOR MAYDAY. BUT BEFORE THAT HAPPENS, WE WANTED TO GIVE YOU A HEADS UP ON WHAT TO EXPECT.

One year ago, in May 2023, we launched a new product, Balancer, to help multi-entity Xero users keep intercompany balances in check.

We made the core functionality of this product free in order to get it into the hands of as many customers as possible to help us test, optimise and build the leading product for managing intercompany balances for multi-entity businesses using Xero.

Over the past 12-months we have been continually introducing new features and functionality to make it easier for teams to:

• Automate intercompany balance sheet recs

• Easily spot any discrepancies

• And post any adjustments back to Xero in one-click

And today we can confidently say that Mayday Balancer is not only the leading product in the market, but it is loved by the customers using it.

That’s why on 10th June 2024 we will be adjusting our pricing plans to reflect the value users are getting out of the platform. This will in turn allow us to continue to reinvest and release more features to serve our

customers and achieve our mission to mend month end.

What’s changing

In short, we’re releasing 5 plans that are more tailored to the use cases of different organisations, so you only need to pay for what you use.

The Free Plan will remain, but will be limited to 3 intercompany balances of the same currency. We have always intended to keep a free plan forever, so we’re proud we can continue to provide this to support small growing businesses.

The Passive Plan is designed to serve groups with more complex intercompany balances, but a relatively low-volume of intercompany transactions. This will provide access to the functionality of Balancer, including different base currencies, multiple loans per entity, the ability to download reports and post one-sided fixes. Optional add-on bundles will also be available for those who need minor use of Recharger or BRAG.

The Active Plan is designed for groups with high-volumes of intercompany transactions. This will provide the full functionality of Balancer, including AR/AP matching, unlimited automated cost & revenue recharges with Recharger and an unlimited number of cross-entity bank reconciliations with BRAG.

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How to make the most of those quiet times

Are you getting the most from the slower periods following crunch times? Here’s four suggestions to improve the way you work with minimal effort.

By Stephen Hall, Product Owner, AutoEntry by Sage

MOST ACCOUNTANTS KNOW THAT ACCOUNTING IS SEASONAL AND CYCLICAL. AT THE TIME OF WRITING, THE UK TAX YEAR IS COMING TO AN END, FOR EXAMPLE, AND ONE OF THE QUIETER PERIODS OF THE YEAR TYPICALLY FOLLOWS.

While grabbing a long-deserved holiday is a great idea, why not use the time to enhance and build your practice moving forward? This might sound complicated but it can be simpler and easier than you think.

When are the quiet times?

While some periods are obviously hectic—such as tax crunch time—other times can be surprisingly busy for what seems like no reason.

So, how can you identify the opportunities to implement your quiet time, good-habit building?

You probably have the data right there if you manage a team that hands you timesheets.

This is a treasure-trove of planning resources that, if you have enough of them from a long enough period,

can let you visualise the entire cycle of the year.

If you aren’t already using it, thinking about adding in practice management software, too. By ensuring comments are added to client records for all emails and phone calls, you and colleagues again build a trove of useful data that lets you better plot the yearly cycle. For example, you might spot that a certain month leads to a higher than usual number of phone queries about tax returns.

Staff training

So, here’s suggestion #1 for the quiet times.

If you employ people then the quiet times are not just a great opportunity to ensure skills are brought up to date. It’s a good time for a little team building.

The two can be combined by asking colleagues to self-review their work in order to find skill deficits. This empowers colleagues, and can also help avoid uncomfortable discussions around poor colleague performance because they can be guided to identify their own weaknesses and create a plan to improve.

Training can be external, or in-house. Again, a good way to enhance team spirit is to ask a colleague who’s particularly skilled if they want to lead the training for the team.

A good area to focus on is automation, because it delivers immediate results in terms of reducing workload for your staff. For example, data entry automation can make all the difference at tax crunch times. Days of data entry from receipts, invoices and statements can be reduced to hours.

Software vendors often provide support and training that has the useful advantage of being both free and often focussed on real-world tasks. Even setting aside a dedicated time and space for the team to watch a free YouTube video on a useful topic can be invaluable, especially if it’s followed by a discussion about the points raised.

Technology audit

Suggestion #2 takes into account that technology today not only moves quickly, but that pricing can also be incredibly variable. Software vendors have been increasing those prices and also

switching around subscription packages, meaning it’s vital to discern if you’re still getting the value upon which your business plan is built.

The best way to audit your technology stack is to consider touchpoints throughout the client lifetime. Examples include onboarding, fee collection, KYC and AML requirements, reporting and forecasting, and so on. There’s software that can help with all of these areas.

Grab the low-hanging fruit first, because that’s where you’ve going to realise the most benefit. Introducing easy automation is again a great example. Data entry automation via AutoEntry means supplier statement reconciliation makes those annoying month-end tasks much, much easier, as another example.

And with AutoEntry, you pay only for the data extraction you use. No contract is required, and all users get access to all features from day one. Again, considering the changes in software subscriptions that occurred recently, it can be vital to consider both the software and what you’re actually paying for.

Client communications

Suggestion #3 is about talking to your clients. I would hazard a guess that you don’t contact clients as much as you could, or even as much as they would like. Your only communications are probably to ask for things you need, such as the figures for compliance tasks.

Most businesses break down communications into two camps: operational notifications, and marketing.

Your message asking for figures to create a tax return falls into the former, while emails offering additional services fall into the latter.

But here’s the trick to make marketing easier. Combine the two together. When you contact a client to ask for information, add in a few ready-made paragraphs about additional service offerings.

This content is what you can focus upon and create in the quiet periods. You might even build in a calendar booking link, so the client can automatically create an appointment with you. Just keep all of this in a Word document, and then paste it into emails as required.

Plan for world domination

We haven’t mentioned reviewing your business plan in the quiet periods because, of course, you’re already doing this on a weekly and monthly basis… Right? But the quiet period presents an opportunity to not just plan for expansion, but also to think the unthinkable and test what might seem like extraordinary ideas.

For example, maybe you’ve spotted a gap in the market for a particular service offering.

Maybe you’ve spotted an industry sector that’s on the rise. Maybe you’ve realised that your practice does a particular thing very well, and that you can build on it.

Create three growth plans. Title the first one “Cautious”. the second “Brave”, and the third “Crazy”.

Use whatever software that helps. For example, if you’re inclined to plan financially first and foremost, put it all in an Excel spreadsheet. If you prefer to describe the type of business then create a Word document.

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Features

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What’s the score for 2024?

What’s around the corner? Vipul Sheth predicts the direction of travel for some of the big issues impacting accountancy – and the wider world – in the coming months.

By Vipul Sheth ACA CTA, Founder and Managing Director, AdvanceTrack

Accountancy Consolidators

You only have to take a look at the UK’s Accountancy Age list of top firms to see the consolidators – generally those backed by private equity – are shooting up the charts. Growing revenue inorganically though is not necessarily a measure of success; the first wave of consolidators during the noughties all failed to develop synergies, economies of scale, or use their mass to win bigger or more valuable clients.

New practices can grow quickly but then hit scaling issues, as clients demand more time and more complex servicing. Larger practices are built on years of client and people development – but consolidation can be disruptive. I expect to see some of the private equity houses look to sell on and make a good return… how easy that will be is very much up for debate.

Election

We will have an election in the UK this year, and it’s by no means certain that the current incumbents will stay in power. Whatever the case may be, I hope for greater stability and planning in

its thinking to encourage growth.

A bugbear of mine has been this government’s lack of planning to encourage entrepreneurs and investors to stay here and invest. There are EU countries ready to snap up the best people through a combination of their tax treatment and both residence- and investment-friendly policies. Can whomever forms the next government drive the economy forward?

AI

We couldn’t have a ‘2024’ list without mentioning AI. The ‘warm glow’ created by ChatGPT still exists, but now time will tell whether AI can revolutionise how we as citizens live and work.

Certainly, there’s been concern among corporates (and governments) about making information freely available to be absorbed and interpreted into large language models. The next step could be AI platforms placed in ‘data bubbles’, with organisations then linking the platform with their own systems and information to help inform decision-making (as well as automating tasks). Conversely, software providers are also adapting

Product update: A whole new look for SuiteFiles Connect

SuiteFiles is announcing enhancements to SuiteFiles Connect, to streamline the process of sharing client folders.

By Konstantin Bredyuk, CEO & Co-Founder, ApprovalMax

WE ARE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE ENHANCEMENTS TO SUITEFILES CONNECT, AN ESSENTIAL FEATURE AVAILABLE FOR OUR SUPER SUITE PLAN SUBSCRIBERS.

SuiteFiles Connect serves as an online client portal, designed to streamline and secure the process of sharing folders and files with your clients. Whether you need to collaborate on documents, seek approvals, or simply share files for review, Connect is your go-to solution for seamless client interactions..

Our revamped SuiteFiles Connect is now more dynamic and user-friendly than ever! When you share a file or folder with a client through Connect, you’ll embark on a seamless threestep journey with our new sharing wizard. This intuitive process effortlessly guides you to add contacts, craft the perfect email, and preview it, all in a few simple clicks.

What’s more exciting? The upgraded wizard is a real time-saver, bringing a suite of enhanced features:

how your emails will look to your clients, complete with the branding you’ve already set up for document signing. It’s about ensuring consistency and professionalism in every detail. (Coming Soon)

and embedding AI into their solutions.

Whether these private data bubbles will be effective or not, when information into them is constricted, remains to be seen – but it will be fascinating to find out the next level of AI utilisation in the real world.

Shared services and outsourcing

You can see in AdvanceTrack’s own growth that firms know they need resource and the recruitment market is difficult and costly. They are looking for someone they can entrust with supporting their practice. Some firms have looked to maintain control by setting up centres abroad – to varying degrees of success.

Expect to see more and more practices look to grasp the resources nettle – which will mean the outsourcing/ offshoring offering will become more popular. I hope that, as firms transition towards models that involve greater automation and external resourcing, they stay laser-guided on developing their existing people while keeping a keen eye on what their clients want from them.

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Building on our commitment to user-friendly experiences, we have revamped the sharing process in Connect, making it even more intuitive and efficient. If you have enjoyed the simplicity of our document signing wizard in SuiteFiles, you’ll find the new Share to Connect Wizard just as effortless to use. These improvements are part of our ongoing efforts to enhance collaboration and simplify workflows for you and your clients.

Multi-Contact Inclusion: Effortlessly add multiple contacts simultaneously, streamlining your sharing process like never before.

Customizable Email Templates: Tailor your client communication with bespoke email templates. Create, save, and select templates designed especially for Connect sharing, adding a personal touch to every interaction.

Branded Email Previews: Get a real-time glimpse of

And there’s more! For those files and folders you’ve already shared, managing access becomes a breeze. Whether you need to modify access permissions, extend expiry dates for continued client access, or swap out clients, it’s all just a few clicks away. This enhanced level of control and flexibility ensures that your client collaborations are not just productive but also secure and tailored to your unique workflow. We can’t wait for you to dive into the magic of our new Connect Wizard and experience the difference yourself! We’re also eager to hear your thoughts and feedback. Your insights are invaluable to us as our team is dedicated to continuous enhancements, aiming to tailor this feature to exceed your daily operational needs.

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How practicing gratitude can help your mental health

By Tim Hoopmann, Speaker and Trainer

GRATITUDE IS ABOUT SHOWING APPRECIATION FOR ALL THAT IS GOOD IN OUR LIFE AND IS MEANINGFUL TO US.

When we stop and take time to notice and acknowledge the things for which we are grateful, we brighten our outlook, boost our mood and feel more positive.

When we are focus-

ing on the positives in our lives it helps us to shift our thoughts away from negative emotions.

Whatever your circumstances in life, you may find that consistently showing gratitude can be surprisingly difficult.

Many of us get caught up in a negativity bias, where we linger on bad news and unpleasant experiences, yet

allow moments of positivity to fade into the background.

The idea of cultivating gratitude will help move us away from the negative bias.

When practiced daily it can have real benefits.

My gratitude journey began many years ago during a stressful time at work.

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PayPal Announces New Leaders to Build

New Advertising Platform and Accelerate Consumer Product Innovation

PAYPAL HOLDINGS, INC. (NASDAQ: PYPL) TODAY ANNOUNCED NEW LEADERSHIP APPOINTMENTS THAT WILL DRIVE THE CREATION OF A NEW ADVERTISING PLATFORM AND STRENGTHEN THE COMPANY'S CONSUMER VALUE PROPOSITION.

Mark Grether will join on May 28 as SVP, General Manager, PayPal Ads, and John Anderson has joined as SVP, General Manager, Consumer Group.

Grether and Anderson will report to Diego Scotti, EVP, General Manager, Consumer Group and Global Marketing & Communications.

Advertising Platform

PayPal's long-standing relationships with millions of consumers and merchants make the company uniquely positioned to create an advertising platform that is rooted in commerce. Grether will join the company to build an advertising business that will help make merchants smarter to sell more products and services effectively, as well as enable consumers to discover more of what they love. The advertising business, which will include PayPal advanced offers platform, will use customer insights to build a dynamic, truly personalized platform that will drive

better advertising spend performance for merchants while delighting consumers with compelling offers.

Grether has been a leader in the advertising industry for more than 20 years. He joins PayPal from Uber, where he was the Vice President, General Manager of Uber Advertising.

Under his leadership, Uber Advertising grew to a $1 billion business with more than 500,000 advertisers globally. He successfully led the acceleration of the company's global advertising business, helping merchants, brands, and other advertisers reach Uber's highly en-

SumUp Launches Direct Debits For UK Merchants Using Business Accounts

GLOBAL FINTECH SUMUP HAS TODAY LAUNCHED DIRECT DEBITS, PROVIDING MERCHANTS WITH AN EVEN MORE STREAMLINED PAYMENT EXPERIENCE.

The direct debit feature is immediately available for UK-based merchants who have a Business Account, an all-in-one, zero fees solution introduced in 2021. A full UK current account that gives merchants total control of their finances on the move, the Business Account is managed via smartphone and enables merchants to spend, save, and manage funds.

This new feature responds directly to merchant feedback, with surveys showing that the overwhelming majority of UK adults (90%) utilise direct debit for at

least one regular payment. Effective immediately, UK merchants can now facilitate their payments using Bacs direct debits through their Business Accounts.

Benefits to merchants include:

• Automated Payments: Direct Debit payments allows merchants to automate recurring payments such as utilities, subscriptions, and memberships, thereby reducing time spent on manual tracking and processing.

• Reduced Administrative Burden: Automation also means that merchants won't have to spend time chasing payments or dealing with late payments (a major pain point and cost for UK businesses).

Reduced admin and increased convenience are

both of great importance to merchants.

• Cost-Effectiveness: By minimising manual processing, Direct Debit reduces the risk of errors which can be costly in terms of both time and resources.

• Security and Compliance: Direct debit payments are protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee, which ensures that customers can get their money back if a payment is taken in error.

• Regulatory Compliance: Offering direct debits requires adherence to strict data protection and security regulations, ensuring that merchant information remains secure.

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gaged user base across its Mobility and Delivery divisions. Prior to Uber, Grether led the product strategy for Amazon's advertising business, and he served as CEO of Sizmek, one of the largest independent advertising platforms globally, which was sold to Amazon in 2019. Prior to Sizmek, Mark was the co-founder and global COO of WPP's Xaxis, which became a leading programmatic media company.

"Commerce and advertising are deeply connected, and we believe that the advertising platform we are building at PayPal will become a must-use marketing channel for merchants

big and small. I'm thrilled to have Mark join our team and lead this important work," said Scotti.

Consumer Business

Anderson has spent over 20 years at the intersection of technology platforms and payments. He will be accountable for PayPal's consumer business, including product strategy for PayPal and Venmo globally. Anderson joins PayPal from Plaid, where he was Head of Product and Payments and oversaw significant growth of Plaid's payment product suite. Prior to Plaid, John spent a decade at Meta in numerous product and lead-

ership roles, including Head of Product for Oculus, Head of Facebook Japan, and Head of product and operations teams for Payments, Commerce, and Risk. Prior to joining Meta, John founded GroupCard, a social greeting and payments platform that was acquired by InComm.

"John brings strong experience in developing groundbreaking, personalized consumer experiences to PayPal, which will drive relevance of our brands, fuel our innovation pipeline, and give more reasons for consumers and merchants to choose PayPal," said Scotti.

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Cuckoo renews relationship with GoCardless to provide unmatched payment experience

BROADBAND DISRUPTOR CUCKOO HAS SIGNED A NEW THREE-YEAR DEAL WITH BANK PAYMENT COMPANY GOCARDLESS. THE BROADBAND PROVIDER WILL USE THE FINTECH’S DIRECT DEBIT CAPABILITIES TO COLLECT MONTHLY BILLS FROM CUSTOMERS, CONTINUING A RELATIONSHIP WHICH FIRST STARTED IN 2020.

The partnership enables Cuckoo to leverage the latest payment technology in its mission to become the UK’s most recommended way to connect. Automated Direct Debit payments will give customers peace of mind that their bills will be paid on time, every time, without any extra effort.

The GoCardless collaboration continues a list of customer-centric milestones from Cuckoo, with the broadband provider already integrating customers onto the revolutionary customer service platform Kraken. Cuckoo’s partnership with Kraken, struck in July 2023, was a broadband industry first, with Cuckoo sets on shaking up the telecoms industry with an obsessive focus around customer service.

Kraken will soon add additional GoCardless features into its platform, including Instant Bank Pay, the fintech’s open banking payment feature.

Once live, Cuckoo customers will have access to an

even more seamless experience by enabling them to make instant, one-off payments - for example, paying their first bill or topping up an account - through the same provider that takes their recurring Direct Debits.

The renewal strengthens GoCardless’ position in the telecommunications space, serving leading brands including bigblu and Aircall.

Tommy Toner, Chief Product Experience Officer at Cuckoo said: “We’re really pleased to be renewing our partnership with GoCardless - it’s a brand that’s grown with us over the last 3 years, and a relationship we’re keen to continue into the future."

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