Saturday 2 October 2021 | No. 15
XU Biweekly The independent news source for Xero users, by Xero users
Accounting software with a purpose.
OVER $500M
RAISED!
Airwallex raised US$200 million Series E funding round led by Lone Pine Capital
SPENMO SECURES US$34M SERIES A ROUND LED BY INSIGHT PARTNERS
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PENMO, A COMPANY THAT HAS CREATED A SEAMLESS WAY TO MANAGE BUSINESS PAYMENTS, HAS RAISED US$34M CAPITAL IN A SERIES A INVESTMENT ROUND LED BY NEW YORK-BASED PRIVATE EQUITY AND VENTURE CAPITAL FIRM INSIGHT PARTNERS. THE FUND WAS OVERSUBSCRIBED BY A MULTIPLE OF 5 AND IS ONE OF THE LARGEST SERIES A ROUNDS CLOSED FOR A Y COMBINATOR-BACKED COMPANY IN SOUTHEAST
ASIA. Participants in the round include Lee Fixel’s Addition, Salesforce Ventures, Alpha JWC, Global Founders’ Capital, Broadhaven, Operator Partners and Commerce Ventures. Aside from the institutional funds, several high-prominent angel investors including William Hockey (Founder of Plaid), Andy Cohen (Ex-SVP of Sales, Bill.com), Ongki Kurniawan (Head of Stripe Indonesia)...
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IRWALLEX, ONE OF THE FASTE S T- G R OW I N G GLOBAL FINTECH PLATFORMS, TODAY ANNOUNCED IT HAS RAISED US$200 MILLION IN AN OVERSUBSCRIBED SERIES E FINANCING ROUND, INCREASING THE COMPANY’S VALUATION TO US$4 BILLION. THIS LATEST INVESTMENT FOLLOWS AN EXTENDED SERIES D CAPITAL RAISE EARLIER THIS YEAR IN MARCH, CEMENTING AIRWALLEX’S POSITION AS ONE OF THE FASTEST-GROWING UNICORNS AMID AN UNPRECEDENTED BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AFFECTED BY COVID. This latest round was led by Lone Pine Capital. New
investors G Squared and Vetamer Capital also joined the round, alongside existing investors including 1835i Ventures (formerly ANZi), DST Global, Salesforce Ventures and Sequoia Capital China. With the completion of Series E, Airwallex has achieved more than US$700 million in equity funds raised to date.
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MarketFinance in pole position as it raises £280m and is approved for Recovery Loan Scheme lending
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INTECH BUSINESS LENDER MARKETFINANCE HAS TODAY ANNOUNCED A £280M DEBT AND EQUITY FUNDRAISE AND ITS ACCREDITATION UNDER THE RECOVERY LOAN SCHEME (RLS). THIS COMES AFTER MARKETFINANCE BECAME ONE OF THE FIRST FINTECHS TO BE ACCREDITED UNDER THE CORONAVIRUS BUSINESS INTERRUPTION LOAN SCHEME (CBILS), HAVING LENT £250M TO COMPANIES ACROSS THE UK. Launched by the British Business Bank in April 2021, the Recovery Loan Scheme supports access to finance for UK businesses as they recover and grow following the pandemic. Funding from the Scheme can be used for any legitimate business purpose including managing cashflow, investment in new equipment and preparing for future growth. It is designed to appeal to businesses that can afford to take out additional finance for these purposes. MarketFinance is ready to lend immediately with its debt and equity funding. The debt financing has been provided from a large global investment firm alongside Italy’s largest bank, Intesa
Sanpaolo S.p.A. The equity investment was led by Black River Ventures (previous investments include Marqeta, Upgrade, Coursera and Digital Ocean) with participation from existing investor, Barclays Bank PLC. Alongside this, the launch of MarketFinance Flex Loans today will aim to help nearly one million SMEs in the UK solve their short-term funding gaps up to £100,000. Viola Credit has provided MarketFinance with £20m to launch the Flex Loans product. Similar to a credit card or overdraft, businesses will have a pre-agreed limit of up to £100,000 which they can withdraw at once or in smaller amounts. Flexible repayment options enable the businesses to spread their repayments over 3 - 12 months based on their working capital needs. It is a solution to support a variety of one-off and ongoing funding requirements such as purchasing inventory, clearing outstanding invoices, upfront supplier payments, investment into sales and marketing, or expanding the team. Anil Stocker, CEO at MarketFinance, commented: “This funding and our accreditation as a Recovery...
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Accounting software with a purpose. Saturday 2 October 2021 ISSN 2054-7234
9 772054 723006
15
SERVICEM810
New Apps & Updates
2 XU Biweekly | No. 15
Saturday 2 October 2021
ServiceM8 10 is here! AN ENHANCED SQUARE + XERO INTEGRATION HAS ARRIVED By Ben Johnson
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E’RE EXCITED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT AMAKA (ONE OF OUR TRUSTED APP PARTNERS) HAS BUILT A NEW SQUARE + XERO INTEGRATION THAT OFFERS A NUMBER OF NEW FEATURES. THESE INCLUDE THE ABILITY TO EASILY RECONCILE SQUARE SALES IN XERO, CAPTURE POINT-OF-SALE TRANSACTIONS, AND ACCEPT SQUARE PAYMENTS ON XERO INVOICES*.
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Because the new integration is a far better experience, we’ve decided that we will no longer support the current integration. It will be retired on 30 November 2021. That means you’ll need to switch to the new Square + Xero integration by that date, to make sure your data flows into Xero uninterrupted. Don’t worry, it’s completely free, fast to set up and easy
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EWLY LAUNCHED SERVICEM8 10 HAS LANDED ON THE XERO APP STORE, WITH NEW WAYS TO WORK FASTER AND EASIER. The new desktop apps for Mac & PC can be downloaded and installed like any other software, bringing a more focused experience with easier communication, next-level visibility and control to help your business succeed. New features include: the ServiceM8 Messenger, so you can provide great customer service and al-
CEO: David Hassall Managing Editor: Wesley Cornell Director of Strategic Partnerships: Alex Newson Communications Manager: Bethany Fulks Subscription Assistant: Kacey Wright Creative Assistant: Hatty Morton Advertising: advertising@xumagazine.com www.xumagazine.com ‘Xero’ is a trademark of Xero Limited (New Zealand). XU Biweekly and XU Magazine is collaboratively produced by an independent group of Xero users and is not affiliated in any way with Xero. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © XU Magazine Ltd 2014-2021. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. XU Biweekly is published by XU Magazine Ltd (08811842), registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 12 Jordan Street, Liverpool, L1 0BP, United Kingdom. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. XU Magazine Ltd cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant XU Magazine Ltd a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all/any editions, including in any physical or digital format, throughout the world. Any material you submit is sent at your risk and, although every care is taken, neither XU Magazine Ltd nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily the views of XU Magazine Ltd, its editors or its contributors.
PROVINCIAL SALES TAX RETURN REPORTS AVAILABLE ACROSS CANADA By Bill Kimball
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AST YEAR, XERO BROUGHT SEVERAL ENHANCEMENTS TO GST/HST RETURNS FOR CANADIAN SUBSCRIBERS. SINCE THEN, WE’VE BEEN BUSY EXPANDING THE FEDERAL SALES TAX REPORTING BENEFITS TO THOSE NEEDING PROVINCIAL SALES TAX REPORTING. We’re now excited to announce that our Canadian customers can create provincial sales tax return reports for British Columbia (PST return), Manitoba (RST return)...
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Funds in a flash: Introducing ZAHARA NEWS - SEPTEMBER 2021 direct deposits for UK customers
XU BIWEEKLY - No. 15 Newsdesk: If you have any news or updates that you would like us to consider for inclusion in the next edition of the XU Biweekly, please email us at: newsdesk@xumagazine.com
low your clients to directly connect with your business; Quick-start Siri shortcuts to save time with simple voice commands; An in-app Business Dashboard to bring you instant and digestible snapshots of your key revenue, productivity and efficiency; Text from Camera, allowing you to simply scan information with your camera to save time on manually typing; The Job Action Bar providing instant access to jey job actions; Document scanner improvements; Scan and Pay; and so much more.
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By George Blew, Revolut
T MIGHT BE TIME TO SAY GOODBYE TO LONG SUNNY DAYS AS THE LEAVES FALL FROM THE TREES, BUT SEPTEMBER ISN’T ALL BAD. THERE ARE BEAUTIFUL AUTUMNAL COLOURS TO SEE, COSY NIGHTS IN TO ENJOY, SNUGGLEY JUMPERS TO WEAR AND, BEST OF ALL, HOT CHOCOLATES TO DRINK. AND A WHOLE NEW BATCH OF NEW PRODUCTS TO DISCOVER, OF COURSE. SO, SETTLE IN AND EXPLORE WHAT WE’VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS SEPTEMBER.
Make any day Payday You might have heard of Payday already (we’ve been very excited about it). If you haven’t, you’re in for a treat. Payday lets you withdraw up to 50% of wages you’ve earned so far that month, whenever you need to. For a small flat fee, the money will be in your account right away. Pretty cool, huh? To get on-demand pay, you’ll need your employer to sign up, which they can do here.
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UR PRODUCT TEAM HAS BEEN BUSY OVER THE SUMMER DEVELOPING A NEW FEATURE THAT WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE THAT LITTLE BIT EASIER. YOU CAN NOW MAKE A DEPOSIT INTO YOUR SOLDO ACCOUNT FROM A GROWING LIST OF UK BANKS, WITHOUT EVEN LEAVING OUR PLATFORM. HERE’S HOW THIS WORKS.
A simpler way to pay into your Soldo account With direct deposits, we want to simplify how you add funds to your Soldo account. This complements our existing deposit...
NEW SUPPLIERS MODULE By Martin Peirce
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E HAVE JUST RELEASED OUR NEW SUPPLIERS MODULE. YOU CAN ACCESS THIS FROM THE BUSINESS MENU - (SUPPLIERS Z3) OR WHEN IN ZAHARA 3, THE SUPPLIERS LINK.
Pay and get paid in seconds with a revolut.me link
This new functionality is a complete rewrite of the supplier management with better importing of suppliers and products. Another key feature here is the ability to batch change values - like payment terms and numerous other fields. You can also categorise your supplier much more easily with tags and classify them as "Trusted" (see below). We have kept the original suppliers...
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Enhancements and Refresh Process Optimization from G-Accon
XERO ECOSYSTEM SURVEY OUR PARTNERS ARE TURNING SHOCK INTO INNOVATION
I By Yelena Tretyakova
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E ARE SO EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT WE HAVE ADDED MULTIPLE ENHANCEMENTS TO OUR SOFTWARE THAT SHOULD HELP YOU IN YOUR DAY-TO-DAY BUSINESS ACTIVITIES. These new functions include Asset, Asset Type objects, a new “Last 12 Months” option in the Date Range filter in standard financial reports, the ability to update your quotes through the upload process, the “search” ability when you switch from one Xero entity to another, 4-digit rounding, and much more! Keep reading below to learn about the details about each of these new...
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By Nick
N 2020 WE COMMISSIONED SOME RESEARCH WITH LONERGAN TO CHECK IN WITH OUR ECOSYSTEM COMMUNITY TO SEE WHAT CHALLENGES, AND OPPORTUNITIES, THEY SAW IN THE MARKET, AND HOW WE COULD BETTER SUPPORT THEM. Our community numbers more than 70,000 users of our API, and over 1000 apps connected to the Xero platform. The Xero ecosystem community surveyed included...
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AMAKA EXTENDS PARTNERSHIP WITH FINTECH GIANT SQUARE TO LAUNCH US, CANADA AND IRELAND INTEGRATION BETWEEN XERO AND SQUARE
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INTECH GIANTS SQUARE AND XERO HAVE EXPANDED THEIR GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP, WITH SQUARE CHOOSING AMAKA TO DELIVER THEIR OFFICIAL ACCOUNTING INTEGRATION IN ALL RELEVANT GLOBAL MARKETS, INCLUDING THE US, CANADA AND IRELAND. The Square + Xero integration is one of many in Amaka’s pipeline of accounting integrations set to launch in coming months. These will strengthen Am-
aka’s presence in the North American market alongside other major regions. “After the successful rollout of the Square + Xero integration in Australia and the UK, our team has been extremely proud to work with Square as their official integration partner once again,” said Pedram Afshar, CEO of Amaka. “Our mission has always been to save SMEs time and money by automating their data entry and reconciliation processes,” said Martin...
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News
4 XU Biweekly | No. 15
Saturday 2 October 2021
ACCOUNTANCYMANAGER ANNOUNCES NEW CEO AND CFO Crezco – free payments, settled instantly and integrated with Xero for automatic reconciliation
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HO ARE CREZCO?
Crezco is a UK B2B payment technology start-up. Crezco’s solution makes invoice payments as convenient as contactless card payments, but without the fees. The company leverages open banking to by pass the card schemes and the other inter me diaries, there by providing a faster, frictionless and free payment solution. Crezco’s founder and CEO Ralph Rogge likens the solution to WhatsApp: “WhatsApp provides instant free messaging online by not relying on the cellular SMS messaging scheme, Crezco does the same by processing payments via open banking.”
What are the benefits? Find out more
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CCOUNTANCYMANAGER’S FIRST THREE YEARS WENT RATHER WELL. LOTS OF NEW USERS, CONSISTENT FEATURE RELEASES, HEALTHY SALES, AND A GROWING AWARDS CABINET. Then our fourth year happened. And,quite frankly, stunned us. Feature releases went through the roof. Usersatisfaction went through the roof. We ran out of desks. And our Head of Salescould often be seen doing a jig in the corner. Now closing in our fifth year,AccountancyManager is bigger and better than
co-founders James and Alex everdreamt. To lead us into the future, they’ve selected a crack leadership teamwith some serious experience under their belts.
Kevin McCallum becomes AccountancyManager’s new CEO We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Kevin McCallum as our new CEO. Kevin has spent the last 20 years working inthe accounting software industry and the last 11 years at FreeAgent, joining in2010 as Business Development Director. He became Chief Commercial Officer in2017
and over his time there played significant roles in FreeAgent’s shift toworking with accountancy practices and the initial partnership and ultimateacquisition of the business by NatWest in 2018. Similar to AccountancyManager,FreeAgent started off with just three staff in 2007. By 2013, FreeAgent wasplaced 8th on Deloitte’s Fast 50 list, as one of the fastest-growing techcompanies in the UK. In March this year, seeing the valueof Kevin’s experience, James invited him to...
Employment Hero Ranks #2 on LinkedIn's 2021 Top Startips List in Australia!
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OR THE 2ND YEAR RUNNING, EMPLOYMENT HERO HAS MADE IT ONTO LINKEDIN'S TOP STARTUP LISTS!
The list reveals 25 young and emerging companies within Austrlia who are pushing the boundaries of innovation in wake of the pandemic.They were chosen in consideration of 4 main focuses: employee growth; jobseeker interest; member engagement with the company and its employees; and how well the startups pulled talent.
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Celebrating 10 years app-versaries PensionBee named in the FinTech50 with: MinuteDock, simPRO, Fintechs in Europe to watch Unleashed, and Communigator
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IRWALLEX, ONE OF THE FASTEST GROWING GLOBAL FINTECH PLATFORMS, TODAY ANNOUNCED TWO SENIOR APPOINTMENTS TO SUPPORT THE SIGNIFICANT EXPANSION ACROSS ITS BUSINESS AS THE COMPANY EXTENDS ITS GLOBAL FOOTPRINT. COLLECTIVELY, THESE SENIOR EXECUTIVES BRING CLOSE TO FOUR DECADES OF MULTINATIONAL HR AND FINANCE EXPERTISE, FURTHER BOLSTERING AIRWALLEX’S GLOBAL EXECUTIVE TEAM.
By Steve Vamos
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By Nick Houldsworth
X
These key appointments follow a period of record business growth for Airwallex since reaching unicorn status in 2019. Recently, the company announced its US$200 million Series E fundraising round, valuing the company at US$4 billion.
ERO HAS MORE THAN 1,000 CONNECTED APPS THAT HELP SMALL BUSINESSES AND THEIR ADVISORS SUCCEED. MANY OF OUR APP PARTNERS HAVE BEEN CONNECTED WITH XERO FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS, AND WE’RE CELEBRATING A HANDFUL OF THOSE APPS EVERY QUARTER. READ MORE ABOUT OUR LATEST FOUR APP-VERSARIES BELOW.
The senior hires are: • Joanne Chin, SVP Global Head of People and Talent: Former Chief People Officer at Kraft Heinz Asia Pacific, Joanne joined Airwallex as Global Head of People and Talent based in Melbourne. In this new role, Joanne will spearhead Airwallex’s global HR team to help strengthen the company’s culture and values and build a strong employer brand to attract, retain and develop its growing workforce. Joanne has also worked at global companies such as Google and Waymo in London and San...
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ENSIONBEE HAVE MADE IT ONTO THE FINTECH50 2020 LIST OF FINTECHS IN EUROPE TO WATCH, FOR THE 3RD YEAR IN A ROW!
HE ESSENTIAL LESSON OF THE PANDEMIC MIGHT WELL BE HOW MUCH WE ALL NEED AND VALUE CONNECTION, TOGETHERNESS AND SHARED EXPERIENCE. AT XERO, WE LOOK FOR WAYS TO STAY CONNECTED TO OUR COMMUNITY AND SHARE INFORMATION AND STORIES THAT WE BELIEVE WILL INSPIRE AND DRIVE CHANGE. To this end, Xero has launched a podcast called What Led You Here which aims to inspire small business owners by discussing and exploring the experiences and advice of successful leaders. As the host of the podcast, I talk to founders, entrepreneurs and CEOs about their paths to success and the way they lead their organisations in an ever-changing and increasingly complex world.
In case you missed it, we’re rapt that 10 years on, we’ve passed a milestone in the growth of our platform with over 1,000 connected apps in our ecosystem. You can check out many of these apps in our new Xero App Store. And to celebrate, we’re featuring a collection of apps each quarter from our app partners celebrating their 10 year app-versaries with us. After opening our APIs in 2009 to a handful of developers, we certified our very first app two years later. In those early days, we knew we couldn’t build every niche...
Only 50 of 2000 Fintechs were selected by a panel of expert investors, buyers and champions of innovators in the Fintech sector. The selected companies represented a variety of services from helping people save money, accelerating digital transformation, to addressing climate change. At a time when peoples financial security and futures were threatened, pensions became even more vital. PensionBee helps people who frequently move jobs keep their pensions together in one single platform. They saw a 37% increase in customers completing their first pension transfer between March and July, compared to in 2019. They also saw the number of customers with a live balance more than double.
Throughout the interviews, we explore leadership themes including the importance of embracing change, overcoming fear and making sacrifices. We also discuss the importance of belief in and clarity of purpose to make ideas into reality. We also explore...
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Topics covered in the podcast
Want to increase your client satisfaction? Board our spacecraft and work with AdvanceTrack by booking your call with our team
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Book a Zoom meeting with our team advancetrack.com/start-here/ www.advancetrack.com Where Quality and Security comes as standard
Events/Features
6 XU Biweekly | No. 15
Saturday 2 October 2021
NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!
HINDSIGHT
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HE DIGITAL ACCOUNTANCY SHOW AND CAPITALISE BRING US THE M&A SUMMIT FOR ACCOUNTANTS!
Whilst the global pandemic has undoubtedly change our world, we are left wondering what impact it has had on merger and acquisitions for UK accountancy firms. The M&A Summit for accountants will explore the state of the nation in buying and selling accountancy firms, current trends and strategies from overseas money, venture capital and private enquiry. Firm owners who have recently and acquired or sold their businesses will be speaking and giving interviews, and we'll hear from entities who are currently on the acquisition trail - what makes an accountancy firm an attractive target for potential acquisition, how to prepare for exit and the mistakes you need to avoid.
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IE & UK - Show clients you know what is happening in their business with automated insights and alerts, flag threats and risks for your entire Xero client base. Highlight the portfolio's struggling clients and generate opportunities to demonstrate the value you can add to their business.
XENON CONNECT UK - Xennon Connect helps businesses & advisors improve the accuracy of their bookkeeping, providing insight into financial performance indicatiors and automatically detecting and cleaning up bookkeeping errors in Xero.
XU MAGAZINE IS CPD CERTIFIED
ISSUE 28 OUT NOW! The importance of end-to-end credit control in one system
T
HE ONLINE TECHNOLOGY EVENT OF THE YEAR FOR ACCOUNTANTS AND FINANCE LEADERS IS COMING TO MALAYSIA THIS MONTH!
With over 700 attendees and over 40 speakers, this virtual fetsival for the finance industry is not to be missed. There will be 20 inspirational talks, live panel debates, and virtual face-to-face sessions for you to explore.
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E HAVE BEEN W O R K I N G CLOSELY WITH THE CPD CERTIFICATION SERVICE TO HAVE OUR ARTICLES CPD CERTIFIED.
There are 8 awesome sessions spread across the gave to give you an insight and refresh on 18 awesome Xero Connected Apps. The day will feature Calxa, Fathom, Spotlight Reporting, Moula Pay, earlypay, Waddle, Dear, Unleashed, WorkGuru.io, Clarity Street, CloudSolve, TradiePad, Waypoint, WhichAddOn, SMB Consultants, Practice Connections, WorkflowMax and more!
As you read through our sister publication, XU Magazine, any article that shows the CPD Certified logo has been approved to count towards your CPD points. The CPD Certification Service was established in 1996 as the leading independent CPD accreditation institution operating across industry sectors to complement the Continuing Professional Development policies of professional institutes and academic bodies. The CPD Certification Service provides support, advice and recognised independent CPD accreditation compatible with global CPD principles.
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T
HE NEXT DIGITAL *APPY FRIDAY* SERIES IS COMING UP THIS MONTH WITH XERO REFRESH.
By Sonia Dorais
A
N EFFICIENT CREDIT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IS BENEFICIAL TO ANY BUSINESS. ACCESS TO ALL RECEIVABLES FUNCTIONALITIES IN ONE PLACE MINIMISES LATE PAYMENTS AND SPEEDS UP YOUR PROCESSES - IMPROVING YOUR BUSINESS’ CASH FLOW AND EFFICIENCY. Credit management can be broadly categorised into four sections: • Credit analysis and risk management • Collecting cash • Managing disputes • Managing debtors The overall aim is to have customers pay invoices on time and according to the predetermined terms. An efficient credit management system is beneficial to any business. Access to all these receivables functionalities in one place
HR Software for Small & Medium Businesses Streamline your HR processes and free up your time
minimises late payments and speeds up your processes - improving your business’ cash flow and efficiency. A good example of an end-to-end credit management software is Chaser. With Chaser, you can count on support throughout the entire credit control journey. You’re able to credit check which customers to grant credit to, chase payments, set up payment installment plans, collect payments via your Payment Portal, and escalate to debt collections.
1. Credit check With 48% of all invoices issued paid late every month, making sure you are ‘in the know’ about your customers and extending credit to those who are willing and able to pay you is essential. To empower you when making crucial...
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Classifieds
XU Biweekly | No. 15
Saturday 2 October 2021
7
Accountant Tools It’s a match made in heaven.
ARE YOU TIRED OF CHASING OVERDUE INVOICES? Automate your AR with ezyCollect
Reduce time & costs spent on AP process by up to 85%! Trial risk-free now expense-manager.com
Financial Services
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Outsourcing
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Sign up for a 30-day free trial www.senta.co
G-Accon
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Payments
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End late payments
All-in-one reporting, forecasting and business insights.
Stay in control of when you get paid
Sublime practice management software for accountants and bookkeepers.
tidystock com
spotlightreporting.com
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marketfinance.com
Cloud Integrators
#1 Reporting & Forecasting app in the Xero Ecosystem
Connect Xero and Sapaad Cloud POS for a total business solution.
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Invoices & Jobs A smarter way to collect, convert and manage payments globally.
Google Sheets Add-On http://www.accon.services
The independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users
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28
magazine
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Bills & Expenses
Open Banking
Payroll & HR
The next big thing for small businesses
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Issue 28 / 1
TUTORIALS CASE STUDIES INTERVIEWS NEW APPS NEW RELEASES
ISSUE 28 OUT NOW!
Features
8 XU Biweekly | No. 15
Is Your Working Capital Actually Working for You?
Strategies for Optimizing Your Accounts Receivable
By AJ Singh - ezyCollect
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VERDUE INVOICES AND LENIENT CREDIT TERMS MIGHT HELP YOU CLOSE SALES, BUT THEY CAN ALSO LEAD TO YOUR CUSTOMERS TREATING YOU LIKE A BANK. HERE’S SOME QUICK HACKS TO REDUCE YOUR OVERDUES, ENHANCE YOUR WORKING CAPITAL AND HELP YOU GROW YOUR OWN BUSINESS.
Make Your Working Capital Work for You Businesses are expensive to run. Long-term debts aside, you have a lot of shortterm financial obligations as well. Things like utilities, office rent (maybe less of an issue in a work from home scenario), permit renewals, inventory top-up, machine/ technology repairs and employee salaries are just some of the many costs involved in running a business. But how do you fund working capital? Sure, you can take a loan or a line of credit, however this can turn out to be expensive. The smart thing to do is to rely on something that you know will come to you
in a steady – and obligation-free – manner. We’re talking about your accounts receivables.
Why is accounts receivable so important for your company? Accounts receivables represent future income and fall in the asset column of your balance sheet. Accounts receivables, which are cash or cash equivalent in nature, make your company highly liquid - which makes your business solid. Risks to your cash flow: threat of default As with any debt, there is always a non zero risk of default. Some of the causes can be: • You don’t have a strong follow-up policy in place • While many customers don’t wait until your reminder to pay, there might be a few who don’t bother paying you for your goods/services until the due date is well past. If you don’t have a way to track and follow up your...
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Saturday 2 October 2021
7 SIMPLE STEPS TO EFFECTIVELY MANAGING CHANGE By Hugh Walker - Practice Ignition
C
HANGE IS HARD—THERE ARE NO TWO WAYS ABOUT IT.
As Director of Onboarding Programs at Practice Ignition, it’s my job to lead clients through change. Specifically, to help them successfully implement Practice Ignition within their organisation. Myself and our CSM team around the world work tirelessly to help practices manage change—so we’ve built up a fair degree of expertise about what this process involves. For instance, we’ve learned that people are creatures of habit. We get used to certain systems, processes, and tools— so we shudder at the thought of suddenly having to ditch existing ways of working. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right? Unfortunately, this attitude can actively hurt your practice. Your existing tools and systems might do the job just fine, but you don’t want to provide a service that’s just fine. You want to astound clients, grow your practice, and become more efficient in the process. You’re therefore going to have to change with the times, implementing new tools that will improve your ways of working. To do this properly, however, you’ll first have to master how to effectively manage change. Fortunately, this is easier than you might think. Let’s explore 7 simple steps that will help you seamlessly manage change within your practice.
THE SUBSCRIPTION ECONOMY
1) Understand there’s never a “perfect time” Perhaps you’re thinking, “We’re too busy! We couldn’t possibly implement another new solution.” Annoyingly, there’s never a ‘perfect’ time to implement a change. Sure—you’d be well-advised not to revamp your entire operations during tax season, but if you’re waiting for the ideal moment, the perfect opportunity, then you’ll always be left waiting. However, always keep the end goal in mind. Remember that you ultimately want your practice to be more efficient...
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By Paul Dundas - Emersion
A
LMOST EVERY PRODUCT AND SERVICE IS AVAILABLE ON A SUBSCRIPTION BASIS NOW, SO HOW CAN BUSINESSES USING XERO SUPPORT THIS?
As businesses all over the world rapidly move to a subscription model, accountants and bookkeepers need to find ways to support subscription services. When you are using Xero on it’s own this can get complicated, but luckily there is an easy solution. How many subscriptions do you have? The average person subscribes to 9 streaming services (Deloitte 2021). When you add in internet and communications, utilities and software that number skyrockets. It’s no wonder that 70% of business leaders say subscription business models are the way of the future (Global Banking and Finance Review 2021). There are a lot of articles telling us subscription services will soon be the norm when in reality - they are the norm already. Many people buy cars on a subscription to flatten the costs of ownership (it’s called a lease). And practically everything you see online or in store can be purchased on a subscription through buy-now-pay-later services like Afterpay and Zip.
So what does this mean for your business?
HOW TO ONBOARD NEW EMPLOYEES EASILY AND EFFECTIVELY
8 Best Practices for Welcoming New Hires By Fiona Adler - HR Partner
L
EARN HOW A STRONG PROCESS FOR STARTING NEW EMPLOYEES CAN GET THEM UP AND RUNNING FASTER, WITH LESS ADMIN OVERHEAD.
Well... If you use Xero, you’ll probably find the subscription billing functionality lacking. Xero is an incredibly easy to use accounting package that comes with great payroll, accounts payable and accounts receivable functionality, but struggles when it comes to subscription and usage billing. It simply isn’t equipped to handle: • Recurring subscriptions • Usage products (e.g. Voice, Internet, Utilities) • Large customer bases
If you’re adding new employees to your team, you probably realise how important it is to have a simple, but effective onboarding process. Starting a new employee well, sets the tone for their employment and can free up your time while allowing them to manage their own onboarding. There’s a lot to consider when onboarding a new employee, but if you have a good process, you can minimise the stress and demonstrate that you and your company are on top of your HR!
While you can set up automatic recurring invoices, the functionality only works if the products or services you are selling stay the same from month to month. If they change, there is manual work involved in updating the invoice amounts. You’ll still have to send the invoices manually, and also manually reconcile the accounts with your bank.
1. Communicate Before Your Employee’s First Day Take this scenario: A candidate accepts a job offer with an agreed start date, and then nothing. This can be very disconcerting! To avoid creating this uneasiness, let the employee know that you'll have a checklist for them to go...
Find out more in the full CPD Certified article
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FinTech News
10 XU Biweekly | No. 15
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Hello Assets. Invest with 50+ currencies, spend it anytime By Sean Yu
W
E SILENTLY LAUNCHED ASSETS FOR OUR UK CUSTOMERS — WITH MANY OF YOU SPOTTING IT IN OUR APP. WE’RE SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THIS NEW JOURNEY, BUT WE WANTED TO GET THINGS RIGHT. WHICH IS WHY WE STARTED WITH A BETA. Working back from what our customers actually need, we wanted to build something different from a traditional savings account or investments platform. So meet Assets — international money that you can hold in different asset classes, while being able to spend and send as normal. The first new asset you can choose is called ‘stocks’. It’s not a stock trading platform, but a place to hold your money in the global stock market — all in just a few taps. More on that later. First, let’s go back to how Assets links to our mission. (Or get started now and finish reading this another time.)
The money in your bank account is already working, just not for you. Banks invest the money you hold with them to make profit for themselves. They use it to fund mortgages, business loans and credit cards for other customers — you’re supporting their business for free, and we don’t think that’s fair. So as more and more customers hold money in Wise, it became more and more important to us to build something that allows this money the potential for growth. And we wanted customers to stay in...
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Why are we launching Assets?
Monzo USA: Introducing Salary Sorter
50% off your first 3 months
M
ONZO ALREADY MAKES IT EASY TO MANAGE YOUR SPENDING AND ENSURE YOU HAVE MONEY SET ASIDE FOR BILLS AND SAVINGS. TODAY WE ARE MAKING THAT EVEN EASIER WITH OUR NEW SALARY SORTER TOOL. Originally this was a stretch goal for 2021, but you told us how much this
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would help you and it was one of the most requested features on the US product roadmap. Given the level of interest, we’re really excited to prioritize this feature and bring Salary Sorter to US accounts – it's available today!
Salary Sorter: all your money neatly organized, as soon as you get paid When you get paid into
Monzo, our new Salary Sorter gives you the option to automatically divide up incoming payments into different pots, with the rest left in your main balance to spend. This makes it really quick and easy to split up your regular income in whatever way works best for you. You can set things up so even if you spend every...
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Introducing the New PayPal App
PayPal introduces new features and services, including the launch of the PayPal Generosity Network in the UK, and two-way messaging for peer-to-peer transactions
N
EW PERSONALISED APP PROVIDES PAYPAL CUSTOMERS WITH A SINGLE DESTINATION TO EASILY AND SECURELY MANAGE THEIR DAILY FINANCIAL LIVES AND DO MORE WITH THEIR MONEY PayPal announced the new PayPal app, a personalised app that offers customers the best place to manage their financial lives. The new PayPal app will introduce new features for customers in the UK, including the launch of the PayPal Generosity Network and the introduction of the Generosity Network for Charity enabling community and charity fundraising, as well as the introduction of two-way messaging between two PayPal users. Additionally, the new app offers customers a single place to send and receive money to friends, family and businesses, pay with PayPal QR Codes, access and manage credit and 'Pay in 3’ services, buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency, as well as support causes and charities they care about. The new PayPal app includes a new dashboard providing a personalised view of a customer’s PayPal account including an at-a-glance carousel providing a snapshot of PayPal balance and upcoming ‘Pay in 3’ installments; a Wallet tab to manage payment instruments and review payment and account activity; Finances which includes
Take total control of your spending by paying on card, from a Pot By Max White
Y
OU’VE BEEN ABLE TO PAY DIRECT DEBITS AND STANDING ORDERS FROM A POT FOR A WHILE, AND NOW YOU CAN MAKE CARD PAYMENTS TOO – INCLUDING VIA APPLE PAY AND GOOGLE PAY!
By Thomas George
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Saturday 2 October 2021
It works using virtual cards (more on those in a bit) which means it’s exclusive to Monzo Plus and Monzo Premium. Sign up today to start making card payments from your Pots. Monzo Plus has a 3-month minimum term and Monzo Premium has a 6-month minimum term. You need to be 18 to get Monzo Plus and be between 18 and 69 to get Monzo Premium. Some exclusions apply.
Yours to use however you like – turn a Pot into a night out spending card or even a holiday expenses card Set money aside for an upcoming holiday then book your travel and accommodation from that ringfenced cash. That way you’re in total control of your spending, because you decide where the money comes from and how much you can spend. While you’re away, pay on card from the same Pot to use it as your holiday spending money, so all the expenses for that trip come from one place. Holidays are one example of how you’d use paying from a Pot, but there are many others. Stop at a café on the way to work and pay for your morning croissant directly from your Pastries Pot. Give yourself a self-care budget for things like Deliveroo or beauty treatments and enjoy it, without having to worry about overspending. Even create a Pot for making charity donations so you get a statement at the end of the year showing all the causes you supported. How you use it is entirely up to you.
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Curve Launches Flex - Turn past payments from any card into instalments PayPal’s buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency product; and the Payment Hub, which includes the ability to pay with QR Codes, as well as PayPal’s send and receive money features, international remittances, charitable and non-profit giving, and a two-way messaging feature to send notes of acknowledgment after peer-to-peer transactions. “We’re excited to introduce the first version of the new PayPal app, a one-stop destination for our customers to take charge of their everyday financial lives,” said Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal. “Our new app offers customers a simplified, secure and personalised experience that builds on our platform of trust and security and offers PayPal customers in the UK new ways to support the causes close to their heart, send and receive money, buy, hold...
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C
URVE, THE FAST-GROWING FINANCIAL SUPER APP, IS VERY PROUD TO ANNOUNCE CURVE FLEX, A UNIQUE RIVAL TO BUY NOW PAY LATER (BNPL). AFTER RECEIVING FCA APPROVAL ON SEPTEMBER 1ST, CURVE HAS QUIETLY LAUNCHED CURVE FLEX TO SIMPLIFY AND UNIFY CREDIT. IT OFFERS CUSTOMERS THE POWER TO PAY LATER FOR ALMOST ANY PURCHASE MADE AT ANY MERCHANT, FROM ANY CARD, UP TO A YEAR AGO. Curve Flex builds on Curve’s patented and trademarked Go Back in Time technology to let customers convert almost any purchase made on any card linked to the Curve platform in the past 12-months into an instalment plan; all the customer has to do is swipe to pay later. Curve Flex is better than any existing BNPL solution on the market, as it is not restricted to specific merchants, accounts, cards, or products. It brings control back to the customer and is another step in Curve’s mission to become the super app for money. Whether a customer wants to split a retail purchase, online order, household bill, or simply has an unexpected need for cash, they only need to swipe a transaction and select the number of instalments. The transaction is then...
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