XU Biweekly - Issue 22 - 29th January 2022

Saturday 29 January 2022 | No. 22

XU Biweekly The independent news source for Xero users, by Xero users

GoCardless Ranks #20 in The Fintech Top 50 2022

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OVO RECENTLY SURPASSED $5 BILLION IN LIFETIME TRANSACTIONS; WILL USE FUNDING TO DEVELOP A RANGE OF DIGITAL BANKING PRODUCTS THAT WILL HELP SMALL BUSINESSES GROW Novo, the powerfully simple small business banking platform, today announced that the company has raised $90 million in Series B funding at a $700 million valuation. Stripes led the round, with continued participation from existing investors Valar Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Rainfall Ventures, and BoxGroup. This latest round brings Novo’s total funding to more than $135 million.

“After speaking with thousands of our more than 150,000 customers over the last few years, one theme keeps coming up: the more you can help a small business remove all red tape and friction around cash flow, the better off that business is,” said Michel Rangel, CEO and co-founder of Novo.

“With this additional funding, Novo will take a huge leap forward in improving cash flow for small businesses. In the coming months and...

SPENDESK HAS ADDED €100M TO MAKE SMART COMPANY SPENDING THE NEW NORM

By Rodolphe Ardant

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HIS FEELS LIKE A SERIOUS CASE OF DÉJÀ VU. JUST SIX MONTHS AGO WE ANNOUNCED OUR SERIES C, AND NOW WE'VE GONE AND DONE IT AGAIN...

I’m thrilled to share that Spendesk has topped up our funding with an additional EUR 100M from leading US investor Tiger Global, with participation from all of our existing investors: Index Ventures, Eight Roads, General Atlantic and eFounders.

This extension to our July Series C brings our total funding to EUR 260M — and puts us in the ‘unicorn’ club (startups valued at over $1 billion).

We’re incredibly proud to be among the highest-valued startups in France, and to contribute to the thriving European tech ecosystem, along with our friends and cus-

tomers at Doctolib, Personio, SumUp, and many more.

But most of all, I feel immense pride and gratitude for the people that have brought us to where we are today.

We wouldn’t be here without the trust of our customers and the dedication of our team. These are things that money can’t buy.

Looking back 2021 was a year of tremendous growth for Spendesk.

In the past year alone we’ve been voted the best fintech to work for in Europe, hired 100 new Spendeskers, helped our customers manage more than EUR 3BN in spend through our platform, and hosted over 2,000 finance leaders at...

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Xero to acquire Canadian tax software provider, TaxCycle

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RE YOU READY FOR A SEAMLESS DIGITAL SIGNING EXPERIENCE?

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Connect your Seamless SMSF account to our Australian leading Digital Signing platform, FuseSign, for a seamless end-to-end document execution experience.

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X

ERO ROADSHOW AUSTRALIA 2022 HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO APRIL/EARLY MAY DUE TO OMNICRON. We’ve been so excited

to welcome you back to our in-person Roadshow events.

However, the health and safety of our people, partners, exhibitors and community is our highest priority. Due to the current circumstances surrounding Covid-19 and impacts of the Omicron variant, we

have decided to reschedule the Xero Roadshow to late April/early May, taking into account school holidays and the Easter period, and important dates for our partners. All partners will need to register again.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll share more information about the new dates for each location and the registration process as soon as all venues have been confirmed.

Find out more

Saturday 29 January 2022

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New Apps & Updates

2 XU Biweekly | No. 22

By Stephanie Stefanovic

2

021 WAS A YEAR FILLED WITH MILESTONES FOR US HERE AT SHARESIGHT.

We are proud to say that we reached over 300,000 global users in 2021, and continued to prioritise the expansion of our global user base by adding support for eight additional stock exchanges and over 50 brokers – meaning Sharesight users can now automatically import trades from over 200 brokers worldwide. With user feedback in mind, we also launched the Multi-Currency Valuation and Multi-Period reports; plus re-launched the Sharesight Community Forum.

Not every new Sharesight feature gets its own blog post, but all updates are covered in our monthly release notes. In case you have missed any of these updates, here is a list of...

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XU BIWEEKLY - No. 22

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New Features

E’VE LISTENED TO YOUR FEEDBACK AND WE’RE MAKING BIG CHANGES TO CALXA EXPRESS IN MARCH 2022.

Supercharging Calxa Express will help Xero users especially. They have been requesting the option of using Account Trees. On top of this, we have also added Report Styles to give you simple ways to customise the look of your

QUOTIENT'S BIGGEST LITTLE UPDATE

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 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 2014-2022.

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: Office 1, Brunswick House, Brunswick Way, Liverpool, L3 4BN, 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.

2021 WAS A FANTASTIC YEAR FOR LIGHTYEAR!

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reports.

Account Trees in Calxa Express

Account Trees let you group and summarise your accounts, giving you cleaner, more readable reports. They’ve been a much-loved feature of Calxa Premier since 2011.

Now they will be available to everyone.

To get started with Account Trees is quite simple.

Saturday 29 January 2022

By Paul Dundas

L

AST WEEK WE SAT DOWN WITH EMERSION FOUNDER AND CEO PAUL DUNDAS TO TALK ABOUT 2022.

We discussed some of the exciting new developments and features that are coming for the Emersion business and billing automation platform. Paul also explained the key areas of focus for Emersion this year, and the ways that it will be different from the wild year we’ve just gone through.

Listen to our full chat with Paul on the Emersion On Air podcast.

Customers and market segments

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By Nathan Carter

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HESE UPDATES HAVE BEEN A LONG TIME IN THE MAKING. WHAT YOU SEE ON THE SURFACE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG IN TERMS OF THE WORK THAT HAS GONE ON BEHIND THE SCENES. WE’VE REBUILT MUCH OF QUOTIENT IN A NEW WAY TO MAKE FOR AN EVEN FASTER USER EXPERIENCE, AND TO PROVIDE A SOLID FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE STUFF.

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Quotient's Refreshed Quote Edit, with many enhancements

By Nathan Carter

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HE QUOTE EDIT SCREEN IS ARGUABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT SCREEN WITHIN QUOTIENT. IT’S CERTAINLY THE MOST ACTIVE. SO WITH THAT IN MIND, WE’RE EXCITED TO BRING YOU THESE UPDATES. We’ve fined-tuned many areas of this screen, from the floating Save/Menu Bar, to a redesign of the different

Quote Settings – which only display if a setting on the Quote is different from your Quote Defaults.

When adding new Items, you’ll notice how the focused field will now be positioned in the middle of the screen. This should reduce the amount of scrolling you’ll need to do while building a Quote.

Find out more

insights. Well, now you can see in real-time when your customer is viewing their Quote live! This new ‘Active’ status can be seen at a glance from the Dashboard and from the Quotes screen – where there’s also a handy option to filter by ‘Active’ and ‘Unopened’ Quotes.

These new insights will give you a sense of how hot a Quote is, and will help to determine the optimal time to send a Follow-up and close the deal.

Below is a taste of some of the updates so far, which we hope you’ll find useful.

Quote Editing Refreshed

New Real-time ‘Active’ Status

Quote editing has had a major refresh, plus a few new goodies… Duplicate Items...

Everyone loves being able to see when a Quote has been opened, it provides valuable

Find out more

GET FIT FOR BUSINESS WITH CAPITALISE

NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!

HE YEAR THAT WAS 2021 SAW SOME GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS FOR LIGHTYEAR, INCLUDING 42 NEW FEATURES AND...

• 10 million + documents processed and £10 billion payables automated!

• They received 99% customer satisfaction and more than doubled their customer base, working with the likes of Burger King, TGI Fridays, Holiday Inn and McDonalds.

• They entered three new markets in Canada, South Africa and the USA. • Celebrations were had for multiple awards!

Find out more

B2B WAVE AU, CA, IE, NZ, UK & US - Get your B2B wholesale ecommerce portal up and running! Import products and customers, get B2B orders, create invoices and more.

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ETTING FIT FOR BUSINESS ISN’T JUST ABOUT HEALTHY NUMBERS. IT’S ABOUT HEALTHY PEOPLE AND RELATIONSHIPS TOO. DISCOVER A HEALTHIER WAY TO DO BUSINESS HERE. We’ve been tracking whether small businesses are feeling a little out of puff, or warmed up and ready to go. To help you discover a healthier way to do business – with a little help from our friend Mr Motivator.

Get your complete programme of hard hitting research and actionable insights to get physically, mentally and financially fit for business in 2022.

TIM UK - The chat app for accounting!

TIM removes tedious, never ending email threads and spreadsheets, replacing them with a familiar chat interface that allows you to pull records directly from Xero, Dext, HubDoc etc.

HOTELPERFECT UK - Comprehensive property management software and hospitality products to help you manage your hotel, from room reservations and check ins, to financial forecasting and reporting. The control centre for any hotel.

PAYTOOLS AU - A reliable payroll companion, helping to identify employee compliance risks, speed up pay reconciliations and provide audited controlls for payroll processes.

News

4 XU Biweekly | No. 22

Saturday 29 January 2022

BPAY IS NOW LIVE IN DIVIPAY Calling US small businesses

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PAY, AN AUSTRALIAN ELECTRONIC BILL PAYMENT SYSTEM, IS NOW LIVE IN DIVIPAY, THE VIRTUAL CARDS AND EXPENSE MANAGEMENT PLATFORM. With the integration of BPAY into their expense platform you will have everything you need to pay your bills in one automated tool.

Customers will now be able to pay bills directly through DiviPay immediately, or schedule payments through BPAY. Extract, code and pay bills from one place, streamlining your bill payment process. Say goodbye to ABA files with automatic batch payments.

Features include automatic batch payments, invoice forwarding email addresses, OCR invoice extraction and powerful accounting integrations.

There are some exciting new features in the works too, such as the ability to create a dream approval process with unique rules and routing, automatic remittance advices and duplicate bill handling.

You can currently try it out for free with their 14 day trial!

Find out more

By Natalie Screen

By Ben Richmond

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S WE NEAR TWO YEARS OF THE PANDEMIC, THE WORKFORCE IS IN NEED OF A PICK-ME-UP. FOR MANY OF US, THE MONOTONY OF WORKING WHERE WE LIVE, COUPLED WITH THE START OF A NEW YEAR AND UNCERTAINTY OF WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS, PRESENTS THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY FOR AN OFFICE REFRESH. HOWEVER, FOR MANY SMALL BUSINESSES, THIS IS EASIER SAID THAN DONE. COVID-19 has brought on unique challenges for independent companies and their communities. From adjusting to the new way of working to the stress of staying afloat, small businesses either have not had the means to rejuvenate their workspaces on their own, or refreshing their offices has fallen to the bottom of the list of priorities.

At Xero, we champion small businesses and celebrate the vital role they play in the economy. That’s why we’ve partnered with celebrated stylist and fashion designer Estee Stanley to launch the ‘Xero Beautiful...

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OMETHING BIG IS COMING...BACK! IN THEIR ONGOING MISSION TO HELP YOU DISCOVER PRACTICAL, HANDS-ON CONTENT FROM REAL LIFE IN THE ACCOUNTING INDUSTRY, THE FROM THE TRENCHES VIRTUAL SUMMIT IS BACK IN MAY 2022.

In the age of fake news and 'thought-leaders', brave souls are needed to fight through the noise and give accountants in practice the support and information they deserve. That is why From The Trenches are returning for another two-day event that will be packed full of hard-hitting topics you're unlikely to find at any of the standard industry events.

CEO at ChangeGPS, David Boyar, and Director at 5ways Group Chartered Accountants will be hosting the event once again, alongside sponsorship from DiviPay and ChangeGPS. After raising $6,000 for Beyond Blue and welcoming 2000 attendees last year, we're looking forward to what they have in store for us on the 25th - 26th May.

Early Bird Registration

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S WE START TO BUILD MOMENTUM INTO THE YEAR IT’S A GREAT TIME TO REFRESH YOUR XERO KNOWLEDGE AND MAKE SURE YOU’RE GETTING THE MOST OUT OF XERO. If you’re already one of our #XeroCertified partners, you will receive an invitation to the first quarterly product update for 2022.

Remember, you need to complete all four updates for the year to maintain your Advisor certification.

If you’re not yet #XeroCertified but want to upskill in 2022, read on to find out more about Xero’s Advisor Certification and hear from fellow Xero partners on how it’s been useful for them.

What is #XeroCertified?

Xero’s Advisor Certification is a learning experience that helps our accounting and bookkeeping partners become proficient and confident with Xero’s core features...

You can complete certification in the way that best suits your learning style and your previous knowledge of Xero. Choose from online courses, a webinar, a live classroom or if you already know Xero well you can take our fast-track assessment. Once certified, you’ll receive an official certificate to show your clients that when you say you’re an expert in Xero - you really mean it!

Find out more

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CORECON TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCES DOCUSIGN Managing small business cash flow and income in 2022 ESIGNATURE INTEGRATION WITH ITS CLOUD- I BASED CONSTRUCTION SOFTWARE SUITE

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ORECON TECHNOLOGIES, INC. ANNOUNCES A NEW INTEGRATION WITH DOCUSIGN ESIGNATURE FOR USE WITHIN CORECON’S CLOUDBASED CONSTRUCTION ESTIMATING, PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND JOB COST SOFTWARE SUITE. This new feature allows Corecon subscribers to securely obtain and track electronic

T’S BEEN A LEAN TIME FOR SMALL BUSINESSES, AND ESPECIALLY THE FAMILIES SUPPORTING THEM.

signatures on construction documents along with other construction project information in one secure location.

The process for utilizing the new electronic signature feature is quick and easy.

After enabling e-signature in Corecon Settings and authenticating the account, the DocuSign eSignature integration can be turned on or off for estimate proposals, client contracts, changes, invoices and all procurement

related transactions such as POs, subcontracts, SCOs and subcontractor invoices.

Documents that are generated and saved in Corecon can then be designated for the eSignature workflow process where specified individuals are sent email notifications requesting signatures. Email and eSignature templates are also available and...

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Xero’s small business trends report shows that 60% of small business owners are worried about their household finances running low. So while 2022 will hopefully be a year of rebounding sales and revenue, owners really need that to carry through to the business’ bottom line.

What the experts say “Businesses must analyse margins and focus on the products and services that generate actual profits

as they try to restore cash to the business,” says Ya Wen How, an accountant at AccountServe, who participated in the report.

While there will be a temptation to withdraw any spare cash from the business as ‘owner’s drawings’, experts say it’s important to be mindful of upcoming and potentially unknown expenses...

“Owners often overlook upcoming business expenses when taking drawings, which creates cash flow issues later,”

says David Stephens, an accountant at Stephens Financial Services. These cash flow issues create further disruption to the household budget because money has to be put back to the business.

“Rather than clearing out the business bank...

Find out more

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News

6 XU Biweekly | No. 22

Sean Smith heads up Member Success at Clarity

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LOT CAN HAPPEN IN SIX WEEKS OR SO. SINCE I ARRIVED AT XERO IN DECEMBER, HOLIDAY DECORATIONS HAVE BEEN AND GONE, WE’VE ENJOYED A HARD EARNED REST, AND WE’VE RETURNED TO OUR (HOME OFFICE) DESKS, BRIGHT-EYED AND BUSHY-TAILED AS THE YEAR GETS UNDERWAY. It has also been enough time for me to gain some insight into what Xero, our customers and partners are all about; and to say my expectations have been surpassed is an understatement.

I have looked on in admiration at the accomplishments of Xero’s small business customers and accounting partners over the past 13 years. And now that I can see this first hand, I am blown away by

Saturday 29 January 2022

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REAT START TO 2022 WITH ANOTHER RECRUIT FOR CLARITY. WE ARE THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE THAT SEAN SMITH WILL BE JOINING THE TEAM, AS OUR NEW HEAD OF MEMBER SUCCESS.

the amazing work you are doing.

I have also experienced the commitment of everyone who works at Xero to earn your belief and trust.

That said, while we’re more committed than ever to supporting you, it’s still possible to make mistakes.

We know that the Xero experience hasn’t always been up to scratch, and for that we are truly sorry.

But now is the time for action – and work is already

underway to ensure we can deliver on that commitment, by offering the best platform experience for you. It is this driving force that will guide us through the year ahead.

The home of XU Magazine and XU Biweekly

Sean is proud of his Scottish roots, never takes himself too seriously and so likes to enjoy and have fun at work. He has worked in the accounting tech space for 7 years now, 3.5 years at Free Agent and 3.5 years at Xero. Sean joins Clarity with a wealth of experience in member success, business improvement, customer centric design and change management. He also has a degree

XU Hub is now live on Apple News!

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What’s next 2021 was an incredibly tough year for everyone. I tip my hat to you for all that you have accomplished during such trying times...

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Small businesses eyeing a cautious recovery

By Sonia Dorais

By David Olsen

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E ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THAT CHASER HAS BEEN SHORTLISTED AS A FINALIST FOR TWO AWARDS AT THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF CREDIT MANAGEMENT (CICM) BRITISH CREDIT AWARDS 2022: • B2B Supplier of the Year • Innovation & Technology Award

The British Credit Awards recognise the stand out achievements of the most deserving individuals, teams and organisations in the international credit industry, so we are honoured to have our work recognised in these two categories.

Being shortlisted for these awards recognises the efforts of the Chaser team in helping businesses reduce late payments and get paid in an efficient, friendly way so that they improve cash flow.

The B2B Supplier of the Year nomination celebrates the success of Chaser's end-to-end receivables automation launch, allowing users to automate their entire receivables process in one seamless system. Our Innovation & Technology Award shortlisting highlights the success of the Chaser Payment Portal, launched in January 2021 and the success it has already achieved in helping Chaser users get invoices paid faster and reducing payment friction.

Chaser has been shortlisted for B2B Supplier of the Year and Innovation & Technology Award at the CICM British...

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FTER TWO CHALLENGING YEARS, SMALL BUSINESSES MAY BE EYEING A CAUTIOUS RECOVERY GOING INTO 2022. XERO’S SMALL BUSINESS TRENDS REPORT 2022 TAKES A LOOK AT TEN OF THE BIGGEST CONSIDERATIONS ON THE MINDS OF SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS AND THEIR ADVISORS. Based on surveys with business owners in North America, the UK, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the report notes that 60% of small business owners have moved away from blanket cost-cutting. Experts believe

this may signal a readiness to invest in growth.

What the experts say “While unnecessary and frivolous spending has reduced and will stay low, we can see some increase in digital expenses like marketing and ecommerce,” says Ya Wen How, an accountant at AccountServe, who participated in the report.

Alan Kirby, an accountant at ABI (Accountancy and Business Improvement), adds that some small business owners may benefit from pent up demand as markets reopen. “Smart...

Incredibly, investors were able to capitalise on opportunities such as falling share prices and innovative, future-focused companies – with many investors seeing their returns skyrocket like never before. But will it continue? Can it continue? For how much longer? And what should investors do now to prepare themselves for whatever the year ahead may hold?

We turned to some of the partners in the Sharesight ecosystem – who are experts in the Australian investment market – and posed four key questions to them. We saw some consistent themes across the responses in this article, including stock market volatility, rising inflation and interest rates, as well as the impact of new technologies. To give yourself the best chance of ensuring your portfolio doesn’t take a downturn in 2022, we strongly recommend you give all these invaluable insights and recommendations a very close read.

Find out more

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

HERE IS NO DOUBT THAT THE PAST TWO YEARS HAVE BEEN MARKED BY UNFORESEEN AND WIDESPREAD ECONOMIC CHALLENGES FELT BY NATIONS ACROSS THE GLOBE. YET, DESPITE THESE CHALLENGES, SHARE MARKETS HAVE CONTINUED TO FLOURISH, PRODUCING STRONG RETURNS FOR INVESTORS. FOR EXAMPLE, BY THE END OF 2020, THE RETURN FOR THE US S&P 500 WAS +18% AFTER AN EVEN STRONGER RESULT IN 2019. AND THE TOTAL RETURN FOR 2021 WAS +26.9%.

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XU Biweekly | No. 22

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Features

8 XU Biweekly | No. 22

Dext: Prepare your workflows for a digital accounting future

NONPROFIT TRENDS: EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY Everything your charity clients need to succeed in 2022

By Nadia Wilde

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HAT ARE THE TOOLS THAT CAN HELP NOTFOR-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS EXECUTE THEIR STRATEGY, MEET GOALS AND CREATE A GREATER IMPACT? WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF REPLACING SPREADSHEETS WITH MORE COMPREHENSIVE AND FUNCTIONAL SOFTWARE? AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT SOLUTION FROM AN ARRAY OF EXISTING SYSTEMS? IN THIS ARTICLE, WE’RE ANSWERING ALL THESE QUESTIONS FOR YOU. The past few months, when the entire world had to shift, adapt and pivot in response to challenges that came with the COVID-19 pandemic, have also completely changed how charities communicate with their members and donors, manage their volunteers, and conduct fundraising events. One of the most significant transformations was digitisation of the nonprofit sector. Those organisations that rapidly embraced new technologies proved to be more resilient and managed to not only survive, but perform well during the pandemic providing essential services and support to their communities. So, what are the must-have tools to ensure efficiency and effectiveness?

Contact Management The most important component of running a charitable organisation is being able to build strong relationships with people. This is why it’s wise to invest in a software solution for collecting and storing the contact information of your members...

Read the full article

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Saturday 29 January 2022

By Katie Hoare & Paul Lodder

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WORKFLOW IS A SEQUENCE OF TASKS THAT PROCESSES A SET OF DATA. A TYPICAL ACCOUNTING FIRM WILL SEE A GREAT DEAL OF DATA STREAM THROUGH THEIR PRACTICE EACH DAY AND UTILISE MULTIPLE WORKFLOWS TO ORGANISE AND MAKE SENSE OF IT ALL. With a recent update stating that the MTD for Income Tax (ITSA) deadline has been pushed from 2023 to 2024, there’s more time to take the work out of workflows and start automating the menial tasks that tend to hold back progress.

Adapting your firm to a fast changing environment is a challenge but one easily overcome with the right tools. We asked our in-house experts at Dext, Katie Hoare and Paul Lodder, to provide insights into refining and customising workflows with automation.

As a person considers developing/refining the workflow for their firm, what are the key considerations they need to begin with?

Katie: Inclusion of the team and good communication of why you’re making the changes and what you’re looking to accomplish. If you include your team in the journey, you’re much more likely to gain their buy in when then trying to implement the change.

Paul: The team needs to understand the benefits of refining the workflow and why it is being changed.

Nobody likes change and so team buy-in is crucial and regular communication/updates ensures that the team stays on board and on track.

They need to understand that there may be some hiccups along the way and that these will be discussed and addressed as necessary. If the implementation does not go according to plan

then be brave and fail fast.

Re-group and move forward.

What software solutions work best for this? Which Free apps? Which Paid platforms?

Katie: I love a brainstorming act for the initial session, and I’ve found the best software for this is Miro - which you can obtain both free and paid access for. Alternatively, if you’re a google suite user, you can use Google Jamboards for this although the functionality is quite basic. I love Asana for project management, once you have your scope complete and want to get up and running with the project.

Paul: Agree with Katie.

Miro is brilliant as you can use virtual post-it notes so that all team members have an opportunity to share their ideas and thoughts. Giving everyone a voice is important.‍

What does the “tech stack” need to include (start to finish) in order for a firm to have a complete workflow design?

Katie: If I was setting up my own firm tomorrow I would use • A quoting/onboarding tool (as I hated having to prepare finger in the air quotes and edit engagement letters) • A data capture tool • An e-commerce platform (because more and more businesses are going on online) • A bookkeeping product just the one • A quality control tool • Reporting app for management/advisory insights Paul: First of all you need to identify what is the problem/pain point you are looking to solve. Break this...

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The Building Blocks of Business - What’s Your Time Worth?

Deciding on Hourly Rates When Starting Your Business with MinuteDock

By Bryce Armstrong

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HE CREW FROM MINUTEDOCK SHARE THEIR WISDOM AROUND FIGURING OUT CHARGE RATES IN THE EARLY DAYS OF YOUR BUSINESS...

Many professionals will make the decision, at some point in their career, to go out on their own.

For some, it is a matter of job flexibility, for others the move may be based on a desire to start and grow a business, and for some, being self-employed represents the opportunity to focus on a specific niche or area of interest.

Whatever your motivation, or inspiration, there is one aspect all self-employed professionals face – determining your service rate.

If you’re remaining in a field which you have been active in, you likely have an idea of what your services have been billed at previously and that can provide a good starting point. Even if that is the case, and for those who have no idea about where to start, these tips may help guide you through the process.

To start, consider your income goal. Some people would suggest this is as easy as thinking about what you want to earn, the number of hours you can bill, and then simply calculating an hourly rate of service based on this. While the concept may make sense in principle, in reality, it takes a little more than that. It’s important to understand that any new business will take time to grow.

In starting your business, you want to consider living expenses that must be covered, how many hours you can reasonably expect to bill starting out, and what an hourly rate based on these factors might be.

Next, consider the income you want to have, how many hours you can bill as a more mature business, and what that hourly rate looks like. In an ideal situation, you’ve planned for this slower start, perhaps cut some expenses, and the two match up fairly closely. If not, you may need to spend some time budgeting and strategizing before you actually begin.

Depending on where your business will be, any licensing,

equipment needs, or support staff requirements, there may be some overhead associated with your business. There may also be fees you must pay in order to fulfil your service requirements. All of these must also factor into any overall budget planning/ rate setting.

Clearly, starting out you can’t expect a small number of clients will cover all of your costs and provide you with a sustainable income on top, but you want to be sure that as the business grows, and as your client base grows, the bigger picture has been factored in so that in fact, your client...

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Features

10 XU Biweekly | No. 22

INSIDE ACCOUNTANCY I PRACTICES WHAT CAN ACCOUNTANCY PRACTICES GAIN FROM 2020 INNOVATION SURVEYS?

Saturday 29 January 2022

By Gordon Gilchrist

T NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE ME HOW MUCH INFORMATION CAN BE GLEANED

BY USING RESEARCH (OFTEN IN THE FORM OF SURVEYS). THE INFORMATION CAN BE SO HELPFUL; OTHER THAN THE COST AND TIME NEEDED TO GET IT RIGHT, IT’S HARD TO UNDERSTAND WHY WE DON’T USE THIS RESEARCH MORE OFTEN. For example, I can think of three types of surveys conducted over the past 30 years, where we have had the good fortune of working with accountancy firms that have helped forward thinking firms exceed their expectations and become far more successful in the following: 1. Understanding the research behind what clients consider when they are thinking of changing their accountant 2. The key performance indicators of profitability using benchmarking surveys 3. Client satisfaction surveys – “What do most top (entrepreneurial) clients care about when they are dealing with accountants and how do we stack up?”

Issues which entrepreneurs consider when they are thinking of changing their accountant has not changed since research shown in the 1960’s. The top three issues which we should question and incorporate within our sales and marketing strategy are: 1. Are you specialised in the services that the client wants to buy (could be specialised by industry)?

2. Have you been recommended?

3. Are you showing an interest in the client and/or their business?

This research has pointed clearly to the fact that if we demonstrate niche expertise by service and/or by industry, clients will be more interested in working with us.

This is one of the reasons why niche marketing has proven to be a most successful strategy for accounting firms.

Benchmarking surveys have been used over the years to some limited extent. At 2020, we have worked with some of the...

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XU MAGAZINE IS CPD CERTIFIED

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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. 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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The power of putting your people’s wellbeing first with the help of technology

By Koren Wines

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S THE GENERAL MANAGER OF WORKFLOWMAX, I KNOW HOW CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY IS TO RUNNING A BUSINESS. IN ADDITION TO SUPPORTING EVERYDAY OPERATIONS, TECHNOLOGY CAN ALSO HELP MANAGERS SUPPORT THEIR TEAM’S MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT’S NEVER BEEN SO IMPORTANT WITH THE INTENSITY OF WORK SKYROCKETING DUE TO REMOTE WORKING. How you can adopt a wellbeing-led performance strategy using apps like WorkflowMax and Everperform.

In fact, a recent survey by Visier, a company specialising in people analytics and planning, showed that up to 89% of employees have experienced burnout in the past year. As a leader, it’s super important to be aware of the signs of burnout and adopt strategies to support your team, not to mention yourself.

Here’s how the World Health Organization defines burnout: Burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterised by feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance from one’s job or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job, and reduced professional efficacy.

According to an article by Dr Bryan Robinson in Forbes, “Burnout isn’t the same as stress, and you can’t cure it by taking an extended vacation, slowing down or working fewer hours. Once burnout takes hold, you’re out of gas, and you’ve given up all hope of surmounting your obstacles.”

I’ve talked to small business owners about burnout and stress and how it’s hit them and their teams – especially when they’re working remotely, there’s heaps of uncertainty and volatility, and business is generally disrupted by the pandemic.

All these reasons make it really important to create a positive work environment and support your team wherever they are.

Good communication and technology can both help. With the right technology in place, you can gain insight into staff member wellbeing, so you know when to have con-

versations to keep people engaged and motivated, and how to take preventative action before burnout takes hold.

Communication is key Before getting into my favourite topic of technology, I wanted to reiterate how critical good communication is to fostering wellbeing at work. My team is split across four countries and I make sure to regularly check in with each and every one of them. I let them know my door is always open and no topic is off the table.

These catch ups are over and above our normal communication methods including updates on Slack, all-Xero meetings, weekly leadership syncs and team building sessions.

If you haven’t already, ask each person in your team how often they need to check in to set them up for success. Then set up regular video chats to connect, clear roadblocks and align priorities. While you might never intend to take an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach, people tend to feel disconnected and unsupported if they’re not getting the regular opportunity to share and receive feedback.

How Everperform can help you manage better On the topic of technology to help with wellbeing success, I recently caught up with Daniel Spitty, co-founder and CEO of Everperform. We had a Q&A on how the right tech stack can help you lead a remote team more effectively. He told me that many businesses already collect a lot of data about how staff are performing.

They just need the right apps to find the insights in this data and facilitate timely action and communication. That’s where Everperform comes in.

KW: So Daniel, what is Everperform exactly?

DS: Everperform is a platform that helps businesses measure, understand and develop people. It syncs with apps like WorkflowMax and Xero

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GROWING ONLINE WITH WORLDFIRST AND AMAZON

By Simon Smallwood

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S OUTLINED ON AMAZON SELLER CENTRAL, EARLIER THIS YEAR, AMAZON LAUNCHED THE PAYMENT SERVICE PROVIDER PROGRAM AS PART OF THEIR CONTINUED EFFORT TO MAKE THEIR PLATFORM THE SAFEST AND MOST TRUSTED STORE IN THE WORLD FOR CUSTOMERS AND SELLERS. CUSTOMERS WHO USE A PAYMENT SERVICE PROVIDER TO RECEIVE THEIR AMAZON STORE SALES PROCEEDS, MUST NOW USE AN APPROVED AMAZON PSP.

How to tell if your client is using a Payment Service Provider Your clients are using a PSP if the bank account assigned as the Deposit Method for their Amazon store is managed by a payment company instead of directly issued to them by a deposit-taking bank.

If your clients choose to use a PSP to receive their

funds, Amazon will only accept bank accounts managed by PSPs that participate in the Payment Service Provider Program (a ‘Participating PSP’).

What are the benefits of using a PSP? Convenience By working with a PSP, payments can be outsourced to one company, instead of having to do it yourself. It also eliminates the need for working with multiple payment providers.

Open local accounts to collect funds Before accepting payments, a local account is required for the business.

Some PSPs can help with this application process, while others support creation of local currency accounts.

Accept multiple currencies PSPs provide support for multiple currencies.

This allows fast and secure

payments from around the world. For example, with WorldFirst you can open local currency accounts in 10 currencies and start receiving funds from global marketplaces in a matter of minutes.

Minimise costs PSPs generally offer better international transfer rates than regular money transfers. With a PSP like WorldFirst, you could save money with competitive FX rates and transparent pricing - up to 80% lower than high street banks.

Reconcile payments with ease PSPs provide complete transaction reports for payments. This makes it easier for you to reconcile transactions in the future. WorldFirst also offer Seamless Xero integration.

Security Many payment service providers offer high...

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Fintech

XU Biweekly | No. 22

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Saturday 29 January 2022 11

Revolut launches market leading Savings Vault product - offers 0.7% annual interest paid daily

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EVOLUT, THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL PLATFORM WITH OVER 18 MILLION CUSTOMERS, HAS LAUNCHED AN UPDATE TO IT’S SAVING VAULT PRODUCT. REVOLUT METAL CUSTOMERS IN THE UK CAN NOW EARN 0.7% INTEREST (AER) PAID DAILY ON THEIR SAVINGS VAULTS IN GBP. WITH THIS MOVE REVOLUT WANTS TO HELP CUSTOMERS REACH THEIR FINANCIAL GOALS FASTER THROUGH NOT ONLY PUTTING MONEY ASIDE, BUT ALSO EARNING A MARKET LEADING INTEREST ON IT. In addition to a competitive interest rate, Savings Vault offers Revolut customers true flexibility: no minimum deposit amount, withdrawals can be made at any time, and annual interest is paid daily. Furthermore, customers’ savings are protected up to £85,000 under the FSCS. To make it as easy as possible for Revolut users to grow their savings, this product en-

ables users to round-up their card payments to the nearest whole number and instantly save their spare change. Users can opt for recurring deposits or one-off payments and track progress towards their saving goal.‍ Alan Chang, Chief Revenue Officer at Revolut said: “With rising inflation creating pressures on individuals and households, savings are a critical enabler to help people achieve financial independence which is why we’re excited to be able to offer a market leading rate on our Savings Vaults with annual interest paid daily for our UK customers. For us, this is another step towards our goal of democratising the financial services industry, and providing greater value than other market players. We want to offer a saving product that will help people to save their money more effectively and reach their financial goal faster. “

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JANUARY 2021 TRADING UPDATE

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EAVE YOUR PHYSICAL WALLET AT HOME, IT’S NOT NEEDED WHERE WE’RE GOING...

Apple Pay is now available for Airwallex Borderless Cardholders in Hong Kong, offering a contactless, safe and easy way to pay with your Airwallex card.

Airwallex Borderless Cards Create free multi-currency cards for your business in minutes and start transacting in 140+ currencies. Stay in control of employee expenses in a single place, in real-time.

Issue FREE cards instantly for employees Create virtual cards online and start transacting in 140+ currencies.

Save on global expenses Pay with your multi-currency balance and start saving on international transaction & FX.

Stay in control of team budgets Track spend in real-time to monthly or total spend limits so you're always on budget.

With Airwallex's Borderless Cards you can save time and money so you can focus on growth, regain control and visibility of team budgets and software subscriptions, retain card payment visibility and control, and save time on accounting with an Airwallex account.

Get started for free today!

Find out more

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ELCOME TO OUR QUARTERLY TRADING UPDATE BLOG POST WHERE WE WILL BE GOING THROUGH OUR MISSION AND FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE LAST THREE MONTHS, OCTOBER TO DECEMBER. Kristo Käärmann, our CEO and co-founder, said: “I’m delighted that for the first time we’ve supported more than 4 million customers to complete cross-border transfers in a single quarter. We moved over £20bn, 38% growth on last year and 15% growth on the prior quarter.

We did this while continuing to make good progress on our mission to make moving and managing money across borders faster, easier, cheaper and more transparent for everyone, everywhere. We dropped prices, sped up payments, and

expanded access to Wise’s products and features in more countries and through more partners.

Most notably, 45% of transfers were instant this quarter, and we launched the Wise card in Canada, Brazil, and Malaysia, with the Wise account also going live in Malaysia.”

Mission Highlights Money without borders; enabling everyone to move their money across the world - instantly, transparently, conveniently and eventually for free.

We dropped prices for 5 currencies this quarter!

Growing volumes and reducing costs allows us to sustainably reduce prices for...

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INTRODUCING NEW GLOBAL MINIMUMS FOR LEAVE AT WISE

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T WISE, WE BELIEVE THAT REWARDING PEOPLE SHOULD BE SIMPLE, TRANSPARENT AND FAIR FOR EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE. THAT’S WHY, FROM JANUARY 2022, WE’VE INTRODUCED A NEW MINIMUM STANDARD FOR GLOBAL LEAVE POLICIES IN ALL OUR LOCATIONS. We’re no strangers to challenging the status quo, and creating things that work well, regardless of where in the world people live. Today, we’re going one step further by applying that mentality to our Wisers, and their time off.

Over the last few years, flexibility at work has proven more and more important. People want real benefits to enhance their worklife balance — and we know that doing this should create a genuinely better, fairer place to work.

So, what are the new minimum time off policies?

Parental leave — Family comes first and we don’t want people to miss out on any of the special, important moments.

So we offer: • 18 fully paid weeks of parental leave for birth or adoption, if a person has been at Wise for 1+ year at the due date or adoption date. This applies regardless of gender, or their partner’s parental leave policies.

• 10 days leave on full pay for any Wisers affected by pregnancy loss, ​​including those who are partners or surrogate mothers.

Additional leave — we know burnout is a huge problem, made even harder with the pandemic. It’s important that all of our people have the option to conveniently take time off when they feel they need it, no matter the reason.

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ISSUE 29 OUT NOW!

FinTech News

12 XU Biweekly | No. 22

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Wise mission roadmap 2.0 is now live

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UILDING PRODUCTS IS FLUID, AND NOW OUR ROADMAP IS TOO! WE’VE JUST LAUNCHED THE LIVE VERSION OF OUR MISSION ROADMAP, WHICH SHOWS YOU WHAT WE’RE CURRENTLY WORKING ON AND WHAT’S NEXT. So, what’s new?

Real-time view of what our teams are working on The roadmap now shows a ‘live’ view of what our product teams are working on at Wise! Instead of periodic updates we’ll update the roadmap when there’s something new we’re cookin’ up for customers. Once an item has been shipped, you’ll find it in the new “Launched” section.

Filtering by Region

While we think globally, some features have to be built locally. You can now filter to see what features are coming up next in specific regions.

In the future we’ll also introduce comments and the ability to follow specific features and submit ideas, so stay tuned for even more ways to engage with our product teams!

Found an item that we should ship that feature. Check our careers page for open...

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Interactive features Likes.

We introduced the mission roadmap to provide our customers and future teammates (yes, we’re hiring!) useful insight into what our product teams are working on, and to understand which features excite you the most.

Go ahead and give them a like!

Saturday 29 January 2022

TANDEM BANK MAKING TRANSFORMATIONAL ACQUISITION WITH VISION TO BUILD A FAIRER, GREENER DIGITAL BANK

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ANDEM BANK HAS ANNOUNCED IT IS ACQUIRING FAST-GROWING CONSUMER LENDER OPLO TO CREATE A FAIRER, GREENER DIGITAL BANK FOR UK CONSUMER.

The business combination will create: • A profitable digital bank with significant scale. The combined business will have £1.2 billion of total assets – including £230 million in green lending – £775 million in customer deposits and a growing customer base of over 171,000 customers serviced by a UKbased team of 500 people.

• A complementary consumer lending platform. The acquisition will broaden Tandem’s product offering across a range of consumer lending products including first and second charge mortgages, home improvement loans, car finance and personal lending – building on the combined lending capabilities of both Oplo and Tandem.

• An established digital savings business. Tandem will build on its existing savings franchise to enhance its range of savings products and deliver cost effective funding for the combined business.

• A purpose led Bank focused on a fairer and greener future.

Operating under the Tandem brand, the enlarged bank will: - Leverage Tandem’s existing savings, mortgage and climate-friendly home improvement lending products to...

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agreement to accelerate easy payment experiences for customers, dealers

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EARBORN, MICHIGAN, AND SAN FRANCISCO—FORD MOTOR COMPANY AND STRIPE HAVE SIGNED A FIVE-YEAR AGREEMENT TO SCALE THE AUTOMAKER’S E-COMMERCE CAPABILITIES FASTER AND TO DELIVER AN ALWAYS-ON EXPERIENCE FOR FORD AND LINCOLN CUSTOMERS. “We have been working with Ford to reimagine our e-commerce payment infrastructure. Stripe’s platform will help us deliver simpler, outstanding payment experiences in any channel customers choose and scale improvements faster,” said Marion Harris, Ford Motor Credit Company CEO. Together, Stripe and Ford will grow the online payments infrastructure serving customers and dealers in markets across North America and Europe. Their work will deliver enhanced, reliable online commerce experiences for users, dealers and the company. Stripe also will enable Ford Pro FinSimple solutions for commercial customers.

With products like Stripe Connect, Ford will be able to scale new services that require a robust, reliable e-commerce backbone.

Connect lets businesses cre-

ate a platform to facilitate purchases and payments between third-party buyers and sellers. Ford will use Connect to facilitate a customer’s payments to a correct local Ford or Lincoln dealer.

“As part of the Ford+ plan for growth and value creation, we are making strategic decisions about where to bring in providers with robust expertise and where to build the differentiated, always-on experiences our customers will value,” Harris said. “Stripe has developed strong expertise in user experiences that will help provide easy, intuitive and secure payment processes for our customers.”

As Ford develops e-commerce offerings across the product and service spectrum, Stripe’s platform will be a key part of the tech stack. For Ford and Lincoln dealers offering digital payment services today, Stripe’s service is expected to drive new efficiency into processing of e-commerce payments, such as vehicle ordering, reservations and digital and charging services.

“We’re thrilled to be the payments engine under...

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Airwallex launches global payment services in Singapore, better solution for local businesses operating internationally

By Gina Daryanani

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EADING FINTECH PLATFORM AIRWALLEX TODAY ANNOUNCED ITS OFFICIAL LAUNCH IN SINGAPORE, FOLLOWING ITS GRANT OF A MAJOR PAYMENT INSTITUTION (MPI) LICENSE BY THE MONETARY AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE AND A BETA LAUNCH IN NOVEMBER LAST YEAR. Singapore businesses can now benefit from Airwallex’s suite of global payments services including global account issuance, domestic and cross-border money transfer at market-leading rates, multi-currency wallets, and online payments acceptance.

Airwallex's global customers will also be able to receive funds locally in SGD, making their businesses more accessible to the Singapore market.

Other key Airwallex offerings such as multi-currency company and employee cards, spend management and an API suite for technology-first businesses that require embedded payments and financial services will be progressively rolled out.

Nazim Ali, CEO of Airwallex Singapore said, “Singapore has established itself as a major international hub for global technology and innovation, supported by a dynamic business community across startups, major financial service institutions and a growing talent pool. That said, many Singapore businesses - SMEs or larger enterprises - still face challenges with international payments, and are looking for better partners like Airwallex that help them tackle that cross-border payments complexity. Since we were founded, we have enabled the global growth of many businesses. With this official launch we’re pleased to be able to empower Singapore businesses in the same way by supporting their payment needs across their entire transaction life cycle.”

Founded in 2015, Airwallex is one of the fastest growing financial technology companies, operating across Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America today with over 1,000 employees in 19 locations globally, including Singapore. The Singapore team is expected to quadruple by the end of 2022.

Airwallex will continue to scale its offerings and solutions across the ASEAN region. In September 2021, the...

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launches as a bank in 10 Western European markets, now available in 28 countries

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EVOLUT, THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SUPER-APP WITH MORE THAN 18 MILLION CUSTOMERS WORLDWIDE, HAS OPERATIONALISED ITS LITHUANIA BASED EUROPEAN SPECIALISED BANKING LICENCE IN 10 EUROPEAN MARKETS. Customers in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden who upgrade to Revolut Bank for additional services will now have their deposits protected under the deposit guarantee scheme. Deposit protection up to EUR 100,000 is guaranteed by the Lithuanian State company Deposit and Investment Insurance.

Customers in aforementioned countries are now able to upgrade to Revolut Bank from within the app. The upgrade process will only take customers a mere few minutes.

The launch of Revolut Bank is another example of the fintech’s constant effort to meet and support the needs of their customers. According to a survey carried out by Revolut at the end of 2020, on average, almost 50% of respondents indicated that they would deposit their salary on Revolut and 54% would spend more via the app if they had their deposits insured.

“Launching the bank in ten new European markets will provide an even greater level of security and confidence for our customers, and will enable us to launch a host of new products and services in the near future”, said Joe Heneghan, Chief Executive Officer of Revolut Bank.

In just six years, Revolut has attracted more than 18 million customers around the world. In 2020 Revolut launched its bank in Poland and Lithuania, started offering highly competitive credit products in both countries and continued expansion in the EU. After entering 10 new markets today, Revolut Bank now operates in 28 EU...

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