XU Biweekly - Issue 18 - 13th November 2021 by XU Magazine

Saturday 13 November 2021 | No. 18

XU Biweekly

Accounting software with a purpose.

The independent news source for Xero users, by Xero users

Xero appoints Alex von Schirmeister as MD of Xero UK and EMEA

ARY TURNER TO RETIRE FROM ROLE AT THE END OF THE YEAR AFTER TWELVE YEARS

Xero, the global small business platform, today announced the appointment of experienced technology executive Alex von Schirmeister as Managing Director for the UK & EMEA. Von Schirmeister brings more than 25 years of senior leadership experience to the role, having worked in ecommerce, payments, telecommunications, FMCG and consultancy. He will start at Xero on 1 December 2021.

XERO HAS AQUIRED LOCATE INVENTORY

By Anna Curzon

F YOU RUN A SMALL, GOODS-BASED BUSINESS, YOU’LL KNOW THAT MANAGING INVENTORY WELL IS CRITICAL TO YOUR SUCCESS. But as the number and complexity of ecommerce channels continue to increase, and customer preferences continue to evolve, it can be overwhelming to manage inventory across multiple online and bricks and mortar stores. You may manage your inventory using Excel, but this can be manual, time consuming and prone to errors. And while there are a number of inventory solutions on the market, many aren’t suitable for small, goodsbased businesses. This can make it hard to understand the true cost and demand of

Prior to Xero, von Schirmeister led the European operations for small business payments technology company SumUp, and before that held senior leadership positions at Electrocomponents plc and eBay, where he gained exposure to a large constituency of merchant sellers. Gary Turner, who in July announced his retirement after 12 years in the role, will step down on 31 December 2021 to ensure a smooth handover of responsibilities. Turner will continue to play a part in Xero’s growth, in a global advisory capacity, as well as...

3 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS! By Steve Vamos

your products, potentially impacting your revenue and cash flow. That’s why we’re acquiring LOCATE Inventory (LOCATE), a cloud-based inventory management provider based in the US. The LOCATE team will be joining Xero to help us enhance our existing inventory solution in Xero, so you can better manage your inventory and improve your financial performance. It’s still early days, but our vision is to provide an inventory management solution that will help you: • save time on manual and repetitive data entry, so you have more time to focus on tasks that help your business thrive

ODAY WE ANNOUNCED XERO’S HALF YEAR FINANCIAL AND OPERATING RESULTS TO 30 SEPTEMBER 2021 (H1 FY22). Our performance demonstrates the benefits of investments made in the areas of product development, go-to-market capabilities and people over a number of years, to support the execution of Xero’s global strategy. In the video below, I

share some highlights from our H1 FY22 results, joined by our CFO, Kirsty Godfrey-Billy.

Financial results While conditions varied across our markets, our strong performance is evident in a number of metrics which trended positively over the period, including subscriber numbers, average revenue per user (ARPU), gross margin and churn. Performance highlights H1 FY22 (all figures are in

NZD and comparisons are made against H1 FY21): • Operating revenue was up 23% to $505.7 million (26% in constant currency (CC)) • Annualised monthly recurring revenue (AMRR) grew 29% to $1,132 million • Total subscribers increased by 23% to 3.0 million • Total subscriber lifetime value (LTV) grew by 61% to $9.9 billion

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Accounting software with a purpose. Saturday 13 November 2021

New Apps & Updates

2 XU Biweekly | No. 18

Saturday 13 November 2021

FIGURED INSIGHTS HAS LAUNCHED By John Gibson

HIS IS THE WORLD'S FIRST REAL-TIME FINANCIAL INSIGHTS AND PREDICTIVE MODELLING TOOL FOR THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR.

New ApprovalMax feature: save time with auto-approvals in any workflow

UTO-APPROVAL IS A NEW FUNCTIONALITY THAT ALLOWS YOU TO SPECIFY WHICH KIND OF DOCUMENTS ARE TO BE APPROVED AUTOMATICALLY. THE RESULTING TIME SAVINGS ENABLE APPROVERS TO FOCUS ON WHAT REALLY NEEDS THEIR ATTENTION. AUTO-APPROVALS ARE AVAILABLE IN THE APPROVALMAX ADVANCED AND PREMIUM PLANS FOR XERO AND QUICKBOOKS ONLINE.

The Figured Insights platform is a powerful engine that can crunch billions of data points to give instant access to meaningful insights for our partners, enabling them to help their customers to anticipate problems and action opportunities in a way they could never have anticipated. It’s a topsy turvy time for agriculture, both in New Zealand and globally, with high demand and strong commodity prices...

By Aynsley Damery

GL CORPORATE SOLUTIONS, AUSTRALIA'S LEADING PROVIDER OF SMSF ADMINISTRATION AND ASIC CORPORATE COMPLIANCE SOLUTIONS, IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE SIMPLE FUND 360 IS NOW INTEGRATED WITH COLONIAL FIRST STATE’S FIRSTWRAP PLATFORM.

By Scott Ryburn

N OCTOBER OUR NEW MULTI-PERIOD REPORT WENT LIVE FOR EXPERT PLAN AND PRO USERS. WE ALSO SHIPPED A MAJOR UPDATE TO OUR INTERACTIVE BROKERS (IB) INTEGRATION FOR SHARESIGHT PRO, ALLOWING ALL SHARESIGHT PRO USERS TO SELF PROVISION AN IB INTEGRATION TO SYNC TRADING DATA ACROSS ALL CLIENT PORTFOLIOS.

Organisations deal with a variety of...

“It’s great to have Colonial First State as part of the BGL Ecosystem,” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “FirstWrap is a full service wrap platform, providing comprehensive investment choice, convenience and great flexibility. This new integration means FirstWrap now has a seamless integration with Simple Fund 360 with bank, investment and income transactions automatically loaded”.

• Added support for Everblu Capital (Australia) • Added support for Peloton Capital (Australia) • Improved support for Hargreaves Lansdown to handle US Trades (UK) • Added support for Mac Equity Partners (Australia)

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How to benefit from an auto-approval step

XU BIWEEKLY - No. 18 Newsdesk: If you have any news or updates that you would like us to consider for inclusion in the next edition of the XU Biweekly, please email us at: newsdesk@xumagazine.com CEO: David Hassall Managing Editor: Wesley Cornell Director of Strategic Partnerships: Alex Newson Communications Manager: Bethany Fulks Creative Assistant: Hatty Morton

DOKKA introduces Italian to its Accounting Automation Platform In addition to the recent launch of our platform in Spanish, DOKKA’s Accounting Automation Platform is now also available in Italian. By Jessica Jacobs

OKKA LAUNCHES ITS ACCOUNTING AUTOMATION PLATFORM IN ITALIAN

The DOKKA Solution has been developed for an international audience, with a specific focus on language-agnostic...

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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.

Broker Import Functionality

NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!

How we’re improving employee profiles in Xero Payroll

in Joiin for November 2021

By Joel Castner

F YOU USE XERO PAYROLL IN NEW ZEALAND, YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED THAT WHAT YOU SAW ON SCREEN WHEN MANAGING A CONTRACTOR IN XERO WAS VERY DIFFERENT TO WHAT YOU SAW WHEN MANAGING AN EMPLOYEE.

S WE MOVE INTO NOVEMBER WE'RE DELIGHTED TO BRING YOU THE LATEST UPDATES, NEWS AND FEATURES FROM JOIIN. • Beamer • Eliminations Settings • New Notifications Icon • Nested Levels • Payment Failure Notification • You can find out more about all of these features in our Support Centre.

To create a consistent look and feel across our platform, we’ve rolled out an updated design of employee profiles. This not only makes it a seamless experience for you, but also helps newer...

We are delighted to be using Beamer with the Joiin app. Enabling our users to get the very best from their Joiin functionality...

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Beamer

COMMA UK - Comma links your business bank account to Xero so you can bulk pay bills, salaries and taxes without any need for corporate banking. All of your payments taken care of in one place.

BUILDLOGIC AU & NZ - An effective solution for estimating, job management and accounting for any sized consutrction company. Raise progress claims, manage costs, payroll and more.

A new look for bank DIVERSIVIEW BY LENSELL reconciliation in Xero INTEGRATES WITH SHARESIGHT

N THE WEEKS AHEAD, WE’LL BE ROLLING OUT A NEW UPDATE THAT GIVES YOU TWO WAYS TO VIEW TRANSACTIONS ON YOUR BANK RECONCILIATION SCREEN. YOU CAN CHOOSE BETWEEN AN ENLARGED, ZOOMEDIN VIEW, OR A COMPACT VIEW THAT DISPLAYS MORE TRANSACTIONS ON SCREEN. SIMPLY MOVE THE TOGGLE TO CHOOSE THE VIEW THAT BEST SUITS YOUR NEEDS.

By Dr Laura Rusu

IVERSIVIEW BY LENSELL GRATES WITH SHARESIGHT

INTE-

This is all part of the evolution of bank reconciliation at Xero, and brings the design in line with other Xero features, like Single Touch Payroll in Australia and others. Creating a consistent look and feel across our platform not only makes it a seamless experience for you, but also helps newer customers learn how to use...

Diversiview® by LENSELL now integrates directly with Sharesight, making it easy for the mutual customers to analyse the health, deep diversification and the risk & return positions of their Sharesight portfolios directly in Diversiview, and take any further investment decisions with even more confidence. Melbourne based Fintech company LENSELL® is committed to providing Australian investors with access to financial and non-financial corporate performance insights quick, easy, and very affordable – assisting them in making informed decisions throughout their investment journey. A large segment of Diversiview’s early adopters are avid Sharesight users, so it was a straightforward decision to make their lives easier and connect their favourite...

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By Anna Curzon

’M EXCITED TO KICK OFF THIS MONTH WITH A NUMBER OF NEW RELEASES THAT HELP US PROVIDE YOU WITH A CUSTOM SUITE OF REPORTS TO HELP YOU GET ANSWERS FAST. WE’VE ALSO INTRODUCED NEW FEATURES IN INVOICING AND EMPLOYEE EXPENSES. LET’S TAKE A LOOK. If you’re a Xero partner, don’t forget to register for our upcoming quarterly product update, where our education team will walk you through a demo of all the latest releases, so you can maintain your advisor certification.

PPROVALMAX'S NEW PLAN INCLUDES ADDITIONAL FEATURES TO IMPROVE THE PROCESSES FOR SPEND CONTROL AND SUPPLIER VETTING, AND HELPS APPROVERS DO THEIR WORK MORE EFFICIENTLY.

The Advanced plan: for a higher level of control and increased efficiency

New Features: Enjoy 'More' customisation...

We constantly communicate with our customers and therefore know that some of them are looking for a higher level of control when it comes to approvals. Many organisations with strict budget policies have to validate spending against budgets, and also need to vet their suppliers before ordering goods or services. Obviously, the more purchasing an organisation does, the more difficult it gets to authorise every single invoice that comes in. Our new Advanced plan addresses...

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How to use technology to improve your practice profitability

News

4 XU Biweekly | No. 18

Saturday 13 November 2021

A2X Is Growing, In More Ways TOP E-INVOICING QUESTIONS FROM ADVISORS, ANSWERED Than One.

Square: Synchronised sales and payments

By Nick Houldsworth By Simon Foster

By Sonia Dorais

AM EXTREMELY PROUD AND HONOURED TO ANNOUNCE THAT CHASER’S CTO, PEDRO SAMPAIO, HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED AS TECHNOLOGY INNOVATOR PERSON OF THE YEAR AT THE 2021 CREDIT & COLLECTIONS AWARDS.

T’S OCTOBER, AND WE’RE STOKED TO SHARE XERO’S APP PARTNER OF THE MONTH IS SQUARE – A POWERFUL INTEGRATION THAT CONNECTS XERO WITH THE SQUARE PLATFORM TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES TAKE AND MANAGE PAYMENTS.

Built by trusted Xero app partner Amaka, and working closely with Square and Xero, the new integration replaces an older integration (read more about this here), and makes tracking and reconciling payments between Square and Xero simpler than ever. The old Square + Xero integration is...

I’m not the biggest fan of leadership announcements. Too much focus on the person or the company rather than the customers and partners they serve. But if someone joins a party, community or any group, it’s only polite to say hello. To that end, I’m Jamie McDonald, and...

Luckily, there is a solution to be found. E-invoicing, a new way to exchange invoices directly between accounting software, is set to improve the accounts payable and receivable experience. How? It removes the hard parts of...

This award is a testament to Pedro's hard work, dedication and passion for developing innovative solutions that have changed the industry forever. The award recognizes individuals who have made a significant impact on the credit and collections industry through their innovative solutions or technological advancements. Pedro is being recognized for his...

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By Jamie McDonald

ELCOMING HUBDOC AND GOOGLE ALUMNI TO THE A2X LEADERSHIP TEAM AND CELEBRATING OVER HALF A BILLION ORDERS PROCESSED BY A2X CUSTOMERS GLOBALLY.

Businesses use soft power to ride out the pandemic

NVOICING ADMIN CAN BE HUGELY TIME CONSUMING FOR ADVISORS. FROM CHASING CLIENTS FOR FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS TO MANUALLY ENTERING DETAILS INTO SOFTWARE, THIS PROCESS CAN CAUSE PLENTY OF HEADACHES FOR THOSE INVOLVED.

Jack and Jill's reimbursement hill – who made it over?

Staff investment is critical during Covid, SMEs in Britain have money to spend, investing the most in accounting, staff and software

CCOUNTING PLATFORM DEXT HAS RELEASED RESEARCH SHOWING HOW BUSINESSES ARE INVESTING IN STAFF, SOFTWARE AND ACCOUNTING EXPERTISE TO COUNTER THE ECONOMIC TURBULENCE BROUGHT ON BY COVID. In the UK, average spending on general businesses expenses in May 2021 climbed 34.6% year on year, with strong recovery trends continuing towards the new year as companies invest in growth. Dext analysed 100 million business transactions throughout the pandemic, unveiling the changes in business investments brought on by the crisis. While businesses cut spending on sales (-9%), philanthropy (-55%) and travel (-100%), health (+68%) and staff expenses (+18%) became...

By Melanie Morris

T’S TIME TO #RAISEACUP AOTEAROA TO OUR PHENOMENAL BOOKKEEPING COMMUNITY!

Global Bookkeeping Week is a very special week for the team at Xero. As hundreds of bookkeepers from around the world

By Craig Hudson

UGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE TIME TO SUBMIT A NOMINATION FOR THIS YEAR’S NEW ZEALAND XERO AWARDS. IT’S BEEN A CHALLENGING TIME FOR MANY, WHICH MAKES IT EVEN MORE SPECIAL TO HAVE RECEIVED SO MANY NOMINATIONS. OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF WEEKS, OUR JUDGES HAVE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF REVIEWING A HOST OF HIGH CALIBRE OF ENTRIES.

HILE THE IDEAL EXPENSE MANAGEMENT PROCESS INCLUDES VIRTUAL EXPENSE CARDS (ALLOWING FINANCE TO BUILD IN THEIR EXPENSE POLICY – A SET-AND-FORGET SPENDING CONTROL), REIMBURSEMENT REQUESTS AREN’T GOING AWAY. Finance functions need a tool to maintain control of employee spending that also includes reimbursements, ideally Cloudbased.

By Craig Hudson

HIS YEAR, WE’RE STOKED TO BRING KIWI ACCOUNTANTS AND BOOKKEEPERS TOGETHER FOR THE TUNEUP, AN EXCITING VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE, BROUGHT TO YOU BY XERO TALKS.

There has certainly been some fantastic mahi out there in the community to support Kiwi small businesses over the past year. With so many deserving nominees, judging the awards was difficult but our panel has...

Take Jack for example. Jack is a teacher and he doesn’t have a DiviPay virtual card...

This two-hour afternoon event is an ideal opportunity to get your team together – online or in the office – in what’s been a big year. As we head towards the end of 2021, The Tune-Up provides an opportunity to connect, fuel up on inspiration, and fine tune your practice. This online experience will...

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come together to celebrate universally, this week gives us an opportunity to recognise the far too often unsung heroes behind New Zealand’s small businesses. As I reflect on the past 12 months since our last Global Bookkeeping Week, I find myself in awe of the way our much-loved bookies have acted as a first line of support for their clients, both financially and emotionally. At the cold face of this pandemic, our bookkeepers have kept hundreds of businesses going by applying for government...

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Jack’s morning-tea run – paid for with his own cash

ICB BOOKKEEPERS CELEBRATE 25 YEARS!

HIS YEAR THE INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED BOOKKEEPERS TURNS 25. They have celebrated their time with a new video that looks at the past and future of the profession. Watch the video now!

Want to increase your client satisfaction? Board our spacecraft and work with AdvanceTrack by booking your call with our team

01 ENGAGE 02 ONBOARD 03 DATA 04 AUTOMATE 05 CHECKS 06 LEARN 07 COMMUNICATE

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. 18

Saturday 13 November 2021

IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM THE TEAM AT ADVANCETRACK

XU MAGAZINE IS CPD CERTIFIED

E HAVE BEEN W O R K I N G CLOSELY WITH THE CPD CERTIFICATION SERVICE TO HAVE OUR ARTICLES CPD CERTIFIED.

ISSUE 29 OUT NOW!

D VA N C E T R A C K OUTSOURCING HAS ISSUED A CLAIM FOR TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT AGAINST GLOBAL INFOSYS LIMITED T/A GI OUTSOURCING. AdvanceTrack told us: “Our claim was filed in the High Court on 15/09/21. In the many weeks to date, the Defendants have failed to provide any defence of their case. Attached is an example of the infringement by the Defendant, where they clearly sought to benefit from our strong reputation to deliver them new clients. "We believe this to be an unacceptable infringement of our trademark and associated reputation. We look forward to providing this and many other examples of their well-planned misuse of our intellectual property in the High Court, who we consider to be the best arbiters in matters of this nature. If the Defendants believed the case had no merit, we would have expected a swift response. Given the evidence which we have provided to the Defendants, they are fully aware that our case is fully merited and look forward to presenting our case in full in the High Court.

The accounting industry is known for its ethical behaviour and relationships built upon trust. As a provider to the industry, we have always upheld the highest ethical standards and we expect the same of our competitors. We will let the accounting profession judge whether such adverts represent ethical behaviour and whether there is a place for such providers in the market and whether their business can be associated with such behaviour. The advert shown is just one such example of their inappropriate use of the AdvanceTrack®️ trademark which was both illegal and unethical. We reiterate our position that all damages awarded to us will be donated to charity.” We also attach for completeness, our trademark registration certificate and the original advert showing that the advert was placed by the defendant."

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.

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ICB'S LUCA AWARDS NIGHT

HE INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED BOOKKEEPERS 12TH ANNUAL LUCA AWARDS TOOK PLACE ON THE 1ST NOVEMBER 2021, AND THE PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS NIGHT WENT OFF IN STYLE!

The evening also celebrated ICB's 25th Anniversary, after being founded by Garry and June Carter on the 1st November 1996. Shadow Minister of BEIS, Seema Malhotra MP, spoke at the event and praised the work of ICB and all bookkeepers who continuously helped businesses thrive and stay on top during the pandemic. ICB conferred 25 Companionship of ICB awards on beneficiaries including Xero UK’s Gary Turner, Rebecca Benneyworth & Della Hudson before the main prizewinner announcements.

We also reached out to GI, who said “We’re aware of this claim, which our lawyers are dealing with while we focus on supporting our clients. We do not believe the claim has merit.”

The LUCA Awards for Bookkeeping Products and Providers were voted for by ICB students and members in an online ballot: • Data and Expenses App of the Year 2021: AutoEntry • Payroll and HR Software of the Year 2021: Brightpay • Business Bank of the Year 2021: Starling Bank • Practice Management App of the Year 2021: AccountancyManager • Financial Services Provider of the Year 2021: Fluidly • Reporting and Analysis App of the Year Shortlist: Intuit Quickbooks • Client App of the Year 2021: FreeAgent • Tax and Accounts Production Software of the Year 2021: TaxFiler • Friendliest Software of the Year 2021: Senta • Bookkeeping Software of the Year: Xero

Congratulations to all of the winners and those shortlisted from us here at XU.

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The Senta Team

Start a free trial now to get

Loved by thousands of companies worldwide

Lara Manton MICB • Large Practice of the Year 2021: Jo Wood Virtual FD Ltd; Joanne Wood FICB PM.Dip • Branch of the Year 2021: Lincolnshire, Laura Murphy MICB PM.Dip & Clare Kendall MICB

The AutoEntry Team

Other awards included: • Bookkeeping Personality of the Year 2021: Lucy Brown FICB PM.Dip, ICB director of professional standards • The Michael Kintore Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession: Sage

HR Software for Small & Medium Businesses Streamline your HR processes and free up your time

• Employer of the Year 2021: Cashtrak Ltd; Carol Webb FICB PM.Dip • Employed Bookkeeper/ Team of the Year 2021: The team at Another Answer Ltd • Apprenticeship Training Provider of the Year 2021: MBKB Training • New Practice of the Year 2021: AJ Consultants and Bookkeepers Limited; Anish Jose MICB PM.Dip • Small Practice of the Year 2021: LJM Bookkeeping;

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Classifieds

XU Biweekly | No. 18

Invoices & Jobs

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Features

8 XU Biweekly | No. 18

Saturday 13 November 2021

DISCOVER THE NEW SELF-ORDERING PARADIGM OF THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY By Karina Rapose

ROM AN INDEPENDENT CAFE TO A QSR CHAIN, DISCOVER HOW DIGITAL SELF-ORDERING KIOSKS AND QR CODE ORDERING SOLUTIONS FACILITATE MULTI-CHANNEL REVENUE, OPERATIONAL AUTOMATION, AND A BEAUTIFUL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. Over the past decade, there has been a paradigm shift in the F&B industry – not only in the way restaurants serve their customers but also in the way customers would like to be served. Technology solution providers have been quick to innovate solutions that adhere to this evolving behaviour while disrupting the industry. Digital self-ordering offers guests the ease and convenience of ordering independently with just a few taps. Kiosks allow guests to skip lines, and simply order and pay in minutes, on a beautiful, intuitive interface. Through QR code ordering, guests can scan a QR code at the counter or at their table to browse a digital menu, and order and pay directly on their own phones. Contactless, hassle-free! While these self-ordering solutions weren’t entirely new, there’s no denying that the pandemic was a catalyst

that accelerated their popularity and growth in demand. Leading POS systems offer a fully-integrated solution to automate the merchant’s operational workflow – from order placement to fulfillment. Plus, they facilitate the ease of opening a new revenue channel in a matter of minutes, and saves time and costs. Furthermore, these solutions have a high focus on the customer experience, empowering guests to be in total control of placing and customizing their orders.

Create a beautiful ordering experience With digital self-ordering channels at your restaurant, you can empower your customers to place orders independently and customize them at their own pace and liking. They can order and pay with just a few taps on a beautiful and intuitive Kiosk. Or can scan a QR code to browse your digital menu, and order and pay from the convenience of their own phones. No menu cards or paper receipts; no contact, no hassle. It’s quick, convenient, and contactless.

queues Bust queues at the counter during busy hours by offering guests the ease and flexibility of self-ordering. Let your customers avoid crowds and skip long lines to place orders quickly and conveniently at their fingertips. Give them the assurance of safe and socially-distanced ordering, while reducing wait times, increasing overall customer satisfaction and keeping them coming back.

Increase throughput and speed of service With faster turnaround times, you can serve more guests in less time.

Reduce waits times and bust

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Making the magic happen I

By Vipul Sheth ACA CTA

’VE PREVIOUSLY SPOKEN PASSIONATELY ABOUT THE VALUE AN ACCOUNTANT BRINGS TO CLIENTS. BUT, IF WE EVER NEEDED REMINDING OF WHAT OUR GREAT PROFESSION IS CAPABLE OF, WE WITNESSED IT FIRSTHAND THROUGH THE PANDEMIC. Accountants around the world have supported all their clients through the pandemic. But a new challenge always follows such disruption: pushing forward in a world that is trying to rebuild and move forward. As the world in which individuals and business operate becomes more complex, so do the compliance requirements. And we can be sure that as the world wakes up from the pandemic, tax authorities look at ways to collect more tax, more quickly. New thinking, and energy are required to improve the economy. This means that accountants, who have worked more closely than ever with more clients than ever, must try and keep up this momentum of support and advice. Despite everything that has occurred in the past two years, the most basic of questions is one that you, as an adviser, must ask each and every client: what does the client want to achieve? This is absolutely critical, because the role of an accountant isn’t to merely produce a set of accounts or compile a

tax return. The job of the accountant is to ‘change lives’. Compliance work doesn’t achieve that. I have said it before, and will repeat it again: the privileged position I am in today as MD of AdvanceTrack, started with the help of a great commercial accountant who believed this mantra.

Preparing the magic formula An entrepreneur usually understands their profitability even without a formal set of accounts, so keeping them out of jail by filing their taxes each year delivers little perceived value to the business owner. So, what should we be delivering to clients? We see businesses requiring, among others, the following: • Bookkeeping • Management accounts • Advisory services • Virtual FC/FD services • R&D support

Find out more in the full CPD Certified Article

@xumagazine @xumagazine @XU Magazine

CCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL ADVICE FIRM, SCRUTTON BLAND SPECIALISES IN ADVISING CLIENTS ON CLOUD TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS. DISCOVER HOW PARTNERING WITH LEADING FIELD SERVICE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE, SIMPRO, HAS ALLOWED SCRUTTON BLAND TO FURTHER THIS ADVICE TO CREATE AN END-TO-END CLOUD TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION FOR CLIENTS. Two years ago, simPRO Partner, Scrutton Bland implemented a Systems Advisory team to help its clients transition to cloud-based solutions. Now a main service of the firm, their Systems Advisory team supports clients as they

transition to cloud-based accounting software and field service business management software. Through this service, Scrutton Bland is helping business owners and managers use cloud technology to make their business more efficient and generate better business insights. Scrutton Bland Head of Cloud, Ryan Percy said the transition to providing advisory service on systems technology came as a result of making tax digital. “That has grown into something where we have generated a year on year base around 70,000 additional fees. Purely on helping clients transition onto cloud-based technology...

Find out more in the full CPD Certified article

FinTech News

10 XU Biweekly | No. 18

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Saturday 13 November 2021

Novo Launches App Marketplace to Help Small Businesses Unify their Banking and Finances By Amelia Wright

MALL BUSINESS USERS CAN QUICKLY AND EASILY CREATE A CUSTOMIZED PLATFORM THAT INTEGRATES ALL OF THEIR FINANCE-RELATED APPLICATIONS, S A V I N G THEM TIME AND MONEY ON BUSINESS MANAGEMENT N o v o , the powerfully simple small business banking platform, today launched the Novo App Marketplace to help small businesses seamlessly tailor their banking platform and

increase visibility into their business finances and cashflow. “Small business banking has a square peg, round hole problem — online banking products don’t work well with the financial applications business owners prefer using, and leave it to them to cobble together a picture of their finances and cash flow through multiple applications,” said Michael Rangel, co-founder...

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B2B payments provider Nook raises $1.1 million, aims to rid the industry of PDFs

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The startup now joins Mondu, TIS, Briqpay, and Hokodo in the B2B payments sector, and seeks to help further digitise the outdated process of PDF invoices, emails, and often error-prone manual data entry. The startup plans to use the funding to expand the product and engineering teams, and begin to target SMEs and accountants with sales and marketing activities. While the B2C sector has advanced by leaps and bounds in as many years, the B2B sector, well … yeah, email and PDFs it is. And while the expression, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” certainly comes to mind, co-founder Henry Arnold has witnessed firsthand just how broken the system has become. After consulting for a business that had fallen victim to invoice fraud, Henry and co-founder Joe Lines got to thinking about the entire B2B process and just how and why incidents like this happen. “We realised that the majority of B2B payments rely on a PDF invoice and email, which is insecure and costly. Our vision is to create a trade network that ultimately replaces...

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TARLING BANK IS INTRODUCING BILLS MANAGER, TO HELP CUSTOMERS PAY THEIR BILLS ON TIME AND BETTER MANAGE THEIR MONEY. The new feature, one of the most requested, provides customers with the ability to have a Direct Debit or standing order taken from money set aside in any of their ‘Savings Spaces’. Spaces is the section of the app that allows customers to set money apart from their main balance for specific savings goals. When customers use this feature and a payment is due (for example, for rent or bills), the money required to make the payment will be taken from the Space, rather than the main account balance. It makes budgeting and managing bills much easier. To get started with Bills Manager, customers can go to their Savings Space, tap ‘Manage Space’, then ‘Pay bills from this Space’. They can then choose which Direct Debits or standing orders they would like to pay from each Space. Customers receive a notification when their bills have been paid and can view the transactions by going into the Space and clicking “View transaction history”. If there are insufficient funds in their Bills Manager Space to make a scheduled payment...

ONDON AND LISBOA-BASED TRADE COLLABORATION PLATFORM NOOK (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE E-READER OF THE SAME NAME) HAS RAISED $1.1 MILLION IN A PRE-SEED ROUND.

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Starling Bank launches Bills Manager to help people better manage their money

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Starling Bank to offset its carbon emissions annually from 2021 and set net zero target

TARLING, THE LEADING UK DIGITAL BANK, HAS COMMITTED TO A ONE THIRD REDUCTION TARGET IN ITS CARBON EMISSIONS BY 2030 AND TO OFFSET CARBON EMISSIONS FROM ITS OWN OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN ANNUALLY FROM 2021. Having completed its first greenhouse gas audit, the bank has modelled the

impact of several reduction initiatives and will purchase credible, certified carbon credits to neutralise or offset its emissions, using its carbon footprint for the year to 31 March 2021 as a baseline. The projects will be chosen in consultation with Starling employees and will be certified to the leading carbon offset standards. They may include woodland creation as well as ocean-based and peat restoration schemes.

Starling’s total emissions, excluding loans and investments, for the period were 7,731 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, or tCO2e, for the three material emission categories: • Scope 1 includes fuel combustion and emissions • Scope 2 includes purchased electricity and heat • Scope 3 includes purchased goods and services, business travel,

employee commuting, and downstream transportation and distribution (among others). Roughly 97% are Scope 3 emissions, with 60% of these coming from purchased goods and services. Downstream transportation and distribution of letters and cards is the second greatest emissions driver, responsible for 20% of emissions, followed by employ-

ee commuting, which is responsible for 10.4%. Starling has worked with a third-party sustainability consultancy, Orbis Advisory, to model its reduction initiatives, align with the SBTi and set reduction targets for loans and investments. The SBTi is a global research non-profit organisation using an internationally recognised methodology...

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