XU Biweekly The independent news source for Xero users, by Xero users
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Monday 19 April 2021 | No. 3
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Europe’s leading software investor Hg acquires major shareholding in Dext
HIS INVESTMENT FOLLOWS A RECORD-BEATING FINANCIAL QUARTER FOR DEXT, WHICH RECENTLY PASSED 1 MILLION USERS.
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EVOLUT LAUNCHES EUROPE’S FIRST GLOW-IN-THE-DARK CARD IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ANTHONY JOSHUA TO RAISE VITAL FUNDS TO SAVE INDEPENDENT BOXING GYMS ACROSS THE UK. Revolut is donating a minimum of £50,000 to grass roots boxing. For each card ordered, Revolut will donate £1.00 to support federated boxing clubs in England and Scotland, with a minimum £50,000 donation being promised by Revolut. Sports charity, ukactive, estimates that 400 gym and leisure facilities have already closed with a further 2,400 at risk since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Monday 19 April 2021 ISSN 2054-7234
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Revolut partners with Anthony Joshua to support local gyms in the UK
Revolut, the UK’s fastest growing fintech company, today announced a partnership with 2x Heavyweight Champion of the World, Anthony Joshua, to raise vital funding for independent gyms across the United Kingdom. Facilities such as gyms and leisure centres were not included in the UK Government’s Sport Winter Survival Package that was announced late last year, and sports charity uk active has estimated that 400 facilities have closed their doors permanently since the beginning of the pandemic and another 2,400 gyms are at risk. To help raise vital funds for struggling independent
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gyms across the UK, Revolut has partnered with Anthony Joshua to launch a new glow-in-the-dark debit card. For every limited edition Anthony Joshua card ordered by a UK customer, Revolut will donate £1.00 to struggling independent boxing gyms across the UK (with Revolut committing a minimum of £50k in total). The donation will be made to gyms which are members of Boxing England and Scotland Boxing. These gyms will have their own unique referral code, and will receive £1 for every card purchased using that code. The gym who refers the most will also receive an additional £10k. The exclusive card has
REVOLUT'S NEW CRYPTO TOKENS
a smooth minimalist design and includes Anthony Joshua’s motto, 258, which reflects the boxer’s dedication to his sport and his commitment to work beyond 24/7. The card is black and white during the daylight and transforms to a striking green and black in the dark. The world heavyweight champion spent much of last year campaigning for community and social justice causes, including the Black Lives Matter movement, and supporting local leisure facilities and aspiring boxers.
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Leading software investor Hg has made a significant investment in digital accounting platform Dext, becoming a major shareholder. The investment, on the heels of Dext passing 1 million users, signals a vote of confidence in the company's multiproduct strategy and growth. Dext CEO Adrian Blair commented: “Hg are in many ways the best possible shareholder for Dext, given their unrivalled expertise in the accounting world. Hg’s track record in growing businesses like ours will help us go further and faster in our mission to make accountants and bookkeepers productive, profitable and powerful.”
Hg joins the Dext Board following the transaction. Insight Partners remain a substantial shareholder, alongside founders Alexis Prenn and Michael Wood. Blair adds: “It’s been an exciting journey to 1 million users and reflects our continuing strong growth. I’m excited about the future growth that Hg’s involvement will bring. Our users will continue to see the same features and service they love, with new products on the horizon soon.” Dext recently expanded the reach of data clean-up toolkit Precision (formerly Xavier) globally to QBO as well as Xero users. Dext Connect - a solution bringing the speed and accuracy of Dext to desktop accounting software - was also launched alongside Dext Prepare (formerly Receipt Bank).
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Emersion have launched in the USA
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MERSION HAS LAUNCHED IN THE US, OPENING UP THE POWERFUL AUTOMATION FUNCTIONALITY OF EMERSION TO THE WORLD’S LARGEST ADDRESSABLE MARKET. According to Emersion CEO Paul Dundas: “Emersion enables our clients to focus on growing their business. Our value proposition is simple: we integrate your systems so that you can focus on your customers. Importantly, our platform has been purposefully designed to scale rapidly, which enables us to continue our overseas expansion, targeting key growth markets like the US.” The global managed services market that Emersion operates in is expected to grow by nearly 50% between 2020 and 2025 to
PAGE 2 FIGURED'S BCMS INTEGRATION
US$329b. Importantly, the North American market is many times the size of the Australia-New Zealand market, highlighting the enormous growth opportunity that this US launch presents for Novatti. Further, the US accounts payable automation market is also expected to grow more than 110% between 2019 and 2025, to US$4b. “Emersion’s launch in the US comes ahead of significant growth forecast for its key market segments in the coming years,” Novatti CEO Peter Cook said in the ASX press release. “This presents a great opportunity for Novatti, with Emersion’s full SaaS platform expected to deliver high-margin, recurring revenues with each new client.”
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XEROCON 2021 P3
UPDATE
New Apps & Updates
2 XU Biweekly | No. 3
Monday 19 April 2021
INTRODUCING GROUP AND DOMAIN LICENSES
NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!
BEPOZ
By Yelena Tretyakova
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E ARE SO EXCITED TO INTRODUCE YET ANOTHER HIGHLY-REQUESTED FEATURE –– GROUP AND DOMAIN LICENSES. A domain license is a license that is given for a specific domain. For example, using abc@accon.services for an individual user instead of something like abc@gmail. com. Domain licenses are also sometimes called volume licenses. Our new feature allows your business to purchase and manage licenses for all of your users. We have intro-
duced multiple tiers/plans that include various combinations of users and companies that will best meet your business needs. There are three plans or tiers of Group and Domain licenses available to you: Accountant, Advisor, and Enterprise. The Accountant license is a Group license that has been designed for growing accounting/bookkeeping firms and businesses.
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Use Fluidly to estimate and forecast VAT with ease By Isaac Rangaswami
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AT CAN BE A REAL HEADACHE – TRICKY TO CALCULATE, LARGER THAN YOU’D ANTICIPATED AND EITHER WAY, PROBABLY THE BIGGEST BILL YOU’LL HAVE TO PAY THAT QUARTER. MANAGEMENT. Our new features are designed to make VAT simpler and less stressful. The Fluidly forecast now automatically estimates what you need to pay HMRC each quarter, so you can save a huge amount of time and get the right plan in place.
How do the new VAT features help?
Product update: improved navigation
XU BIWEEKLY - No. 3 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
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.
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KNIT CA - KNIT IS A CLOUD payroll and HR platform for Canada’s accountants and bookkeepers which helps save you time and keep your clients CRA compliant. Unlimited payruns, unlimited paygroups, unlimited administrators, and all-inclusive year-end reporting in a single package
OUR HIGHLY ANTICIPATED BCMS INTEGRATION HAS ARRIVED!
CEO: David Hassall Managing Editor: Wesley Cornell Director of Strategic Partnerships: Alex Newson Communications Manager: Bethany Fulks Advertising: advertising@xumagazine.com
More than half of accountants calculate VAT in Excel, but spreadsheet formulas are notoriously fiddly, time-consuming and prone to human error. Add to that the government’s VAT deferral scheme, and VAT can get complicated very quickly.
AU & NZ - BEPOZ PROvides the hospitality industry with the tools to optimise their operations. In addition to our POS system, Bepoz offers fully integrated Digital Signage, CCTV, Paging Solutions, Takeaway Order Apps, Self-Ordering, and Visitor Registration Software that are all fully customised to your business.
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By Jamie Higgie
T'S THE SUMMER OF BCMS!
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OR A MORE SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE AND TO MAKE YOUR WORK EVEN MORE EFFICIENT WE’RE LAUNCHING A NEW IN-PRODUCT NAVIGATION, WHICH YOU CAN ENABLE MANUALLY AFTER LOGGING INTO APPROVALMAX. Use “Try now” button in the left menu to switch to the new navigation. You can switch back any time by using a button at the bottom of the menu.
What's new? • You can easily switch between organisations using a drop-down menu if you have more than one organisation as well as search by the organisation name if you have a lot. • Your documents (i.e. approval requests) are now sorted by type: purchase orders, bills, sales invoices,
etc. • Each request-type folder is split into subfolders representing a certain status (On Approval, Approved, Cancelled, Rejected, etc.) to allow quick access to particular requests. • New requests can be created using the “+” button next to one of the activated request types in the new menu. • There are two quick access sections containing all types of documents: “My approval required” for approvers, and “Created by me” for checking the status of submitted requests. Plus, there’s also a separate folder for all your draft documents.
We're excited to make our new dynamic BCMS integration available to the UK market. Whether you are a Farmer, Accountant, or Farm consultant, gathering livestock data is a headache - by pulling data directly from the British Cattle Movement Service database, this integration opens the door for huge efficiency opportunities.
What does it do? It has become accepted that getting ac-
So, log into ApprovalMax and switch on the new navigation to give it a try.
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cess to real-time farm financial data is now the standard - while this is fantastic, it has shone further light on the fact that getting up to date livestock data is much more difficult. Collecting livestock data is often excessively time consuming, and the data that is collected is frequently inaccurate and prone to human error. By connecting Figured directly to CTS online, we are able to pull through all cattle movements on a daily basis...
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Add a second layer of security with multi-factor authentication
UST ONE EASILY GUESSED PASSWORD CAN STOP YOUR BUSINESS IN ITS TRACKS. SO XERO HAS PUT AN EXTRA DEADBOLT ON THE DOOR TO HELP KEEP YOUR DATA SECURE.
What is MFA? Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds an additional way of checking that it’s really you when you log in. It combines something you know (your user name and password) with something you have (an au-
thentication app on your smartphone or tablet). This second layer of security is designed to prevent anyone but you from accessing your account even if they know your password.
Did you know? Up to 80% of data breaches can be prevented with basic actions like enabling multi-factor authentication to protect yourself and your customers from attacks. (Source: DBIR, 2020)
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News
XU Biweekly | No. 3
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Monday 19 April 2021 3
AN UPDATE ABOUT XEROCON 2021
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NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!
APPROPO
By Rachael Powell
F YOU KNOW ME, THERE IS NOTHING I LIKE BETTER THAN GETTING TOGETHER WITH THE XERO COMMUNITY OF ACCOUNTANTS, BOOKKEEPERS, SMALL BUSINESSES AND APP PARTNERS. Some of my favourite memories in the time I’ve been at Xero have been at our events, particularly Xerocons. It’s where we’ve revealed some of our most ambitious plans, and where I personally have really enjoyed being able to connect with our community on a large scale. But, as the pandemic continues to disrupt travel and large gatherings, with countries moved in and out of lockdowns, and with restrictions changing on what feels like a daily basis, we’ve come to the tough decision that there is just too much uncertainty to go ahead with a Xerocon event in 2021.
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By Jesse Harrison
F EMERSION SYSTEMS IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE RELEASE OF OUR INTEGRATION WITH WOLTERS KLUWER CCH® SURETAX® WHICH WILL ALLOW OUR CURRENT AND FUTURE CUSTOMERS TO CALCULATE AND TRACK THE TAX IMPLICATIONS OF THEIR TRANSACTIONS ACROSS THOUSANDS OF JURISDICTIONS IN THE USA AND CANADA, ACCURATELY AND AUTOMATICALLY. This ensures that your business can maintain correct tax compliance when providing services across locations with otherwise potentially complicated tax codes, like different US states.
About Wolters Kluwer CCH® SureTax® We’ve chosen Wolters Kluwer CCH® SureTax® as our integration partner at Emersion due to the powerful features, comprehensive tax jurisdiction coverage, and usability it will offer to our customers. Wolters Kluwer CCH® SureTax® provides industry-leading real-time sale tax calculations for your transactions, backed by Wolters Kluwer, a globally trusted source for sales tax research data. Designed for the needs of your business, it can be configured to support the most complicated of scenarios, requirements, and tax holidays with ease.
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By Shay McCusker
F YOU RUN YOUR OWN BUSINESS, OR YOU’RE A CONTRACTOR OR ACCOUNTANT IN THE UK, THEN YOU’LL PROBABLY KNOW ABOUT OFF-PAYROLL WORKING, ALSO KNOWN AS IR35. THE IR35 LEGISLATION HAS BEEN IN PLACE SINCE 2000 AND ALREADY IMPACTS THE PUBLIC SECTOR, BUT NEW CHANGES ARE COMING INTO EFFECT ON 6 APRIL 2021 THAT COULD IMPACT YOU. From this April, the legislation will be extended to the private sector – allowing HMRC to collect tax when a contractor is an employee in all but name. If IR35 impacts you, the good news is that we’ve made updates to Xero Payroll to help seamlessly account for these changes.
The latest change to off-payroll legislation The new IR35 legislation means that businesses will now determine whether the contractors they engage should be taxed in the same way as employees. Previously, this was determined by the contractors themselves. This comes into effect from 6 April.
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ApprovalMax has a third-party security test in 2021 — passed!
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HE SECURITY OF OUR USERS AND THEIR DATA IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE TO APPROVALMAX.
That’s why we are proactive when it comes to weeding out any potential security flaws or vulnerabilities with our own platform. All parts of the solution – including the workflow engine, web application, connection to the accounting software (Xero or QuickBooks Online) and the mobile applications – are developed according to the latest security best practices. With that in mind, we regularly engage Synopsys to run an independent test to make sure our security measures are as robust as possible.
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NZ - A PLATFORM FOR hospitality (cafe, restaurant, bar), online ordering, online payments, customer loyalty and segment customer by spending habits. View sales trends, popular items, identify quiet times, create discounts & rewards!
SWINGVY MY & SG - SIMPLIFY people management small and mid-sized businesses. Swingvy's full-suite HR & Payroll cloud software makes it easy to onboard, pay, insure and support your team in one place.
APEX HCM US - A CLOUD-BASED payroll/HCM and time service bureau solution with a seamless payroll and General Ledger interface. Business management tools normally reserved for large enterprises, now available to all.
EXPANDING OUR COMMUNITY THROUGH BLACK PROFESSIONAL GROUPS By Michael Jones
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CCORDING TO GARTNER’S LABOR MARKET SURVEY, FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING FALL SHORT ON DIVERSITY, RANKING AMONG THE LOWEST OF ANY CORPORATE FUNCTION. XERO IS COMMITTED TO HELPING DEVELOP BLACK PROFESSIONALS IN ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE, AND TO EXPANDING ITS OWN PIPELINE OF TALENT. In support of these efforts, Xero is working with organizations in the United
States and Canada to foster closer collaborations with Black accounting and finance professionals, and to support Black-owned small businesses.
A new accounting collaboration The AICPA Accounting Graduates Supply and Demand Report reveals a dearth of diversity in the accounting profession — African-Americans accounted for 4% of new graduates hired into accounting or finance positions at CPA firms
in 2018. To rethink diversity in the accounting profession, we are pleased to announce our new collaboration with the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA). NABA is dedicated to bridging the opportunity gap for Black accounting and finance professionals by providing leadership and technical training, as well as networking and career opportunities.
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Features
4 XU Biweekly | No. 3
Monday 19 April 2021
How to improve financial control in not-for-profits
THE GUIDE TO PREVENTING BAD DEBTS IN B2B
By AJ Singh
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RODUCT, SALES/MARKETING AND COLLECTIONS ARE THE THREE KEY DRIVERS OF BUSINESS GROWTH HOWEVER VERY FEW BUSINESSES FOCUS ON COLLECTIONS. THE SUCCESS AND SUSTAINED GROWTH OF B2B BUSINESSES CAN BE ENHANCED THROUGH A FOCUS ON ENHANCING COLLECTIONS THROUGH A CLEAR CREDIT APPROVAL PROCESS, AUTOMATED AR AND ENHANCED BAD DEBT MANAGEMENT. There are three key drivers of growth in a business- product, sales, and cash collection; however, the third one rarely receives the attention it deserves. Businesses often focus on sales/marketing and product – while taking cash collection as a given. The success of many B2B companies depends on their ability to manage the receivables collection function efficiently. And this is a function that deserves more attention, investment, and, dare we say, credit than it usually gets. When you sell a product or perform service on credit, you are also in the B2B accounts receivables collection business. The financial health of your company depends on how well your business can collect on sales. Unfortunately, it is often performed with inadequate forethought to the systems, staff, strategy, and tactics to deliver exceptional results. And businesses find that their customers are using them as a bank, with many overdue invoices impacting the cash flow and growth prospects of the company.
What causes bad debt issues for business?
strategies, can often lead to bad B2B business debts. The problems can intensify with the lack of efficient operating models and insufficient management focus.
Lack of credit risk strategies Many businesses do not implement a robust framework for credit-risk assessment. They do not follow the global best practices that reduce customer delinquency and debt collection. Not accounting for credit risk can lead to unhealthy business growth. It expands the customer base but depresses the profitability.
Lack of specialized staff for debt collection Most companies do not have a specialized debt collection team, and they mostly rely on external agencies for the same. Some outsource this job to call-center agents who lack proper training to assess a customer’s situation.
Lack of management focus Top executives seem to be more occupied by transformation, innovation, and digitization that accounts receivables & collection is usually not in the spotlight. Bad debt figures don’t often feature on the agenda, making it harder to improve the situation.
How can one manage bad debts effectively? Debt management is vital to a business as it ensures that the company has enough working capital to reinvest and grow.
Credit, or rather the lack of credit-risk
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XU Biweekly
By Konstantin Bredyuk
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OT-FOR-PROFITS (NFPS) BELONG TO THE TYPES OF ORGANISATIONS THAT MOST FREQUENTLY OUTSOURCE BOOKKEEPING, ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE MATTERS. FOR DELIVERING SUCH SERVICES TO NFPS, ACCOUNTING PRACTICES RELY HEAVILY ON THE PROCESSES WITHIN THESE ORGANISATIONS AND, IN PARTICULAR, THE FINANCIAL CONTROLS THAT HAVE BEEN INSTALLED.
Why financial controls are critical for not-for profits Due to their business model, typical not-for-profits have rather rigid and limited budgets determined from outside the organisation. At the same time, spending needs of NFPs are not that different from those of profit-oriented businesses as they too have utility bills, purchase goods and reimburse expenses. However, NFPs are faced with much stricter requirements in terms of authorisation transparency, spend traceability and audits. And, NFPs are generally not very tech-savvy or, for that matter, well-versed in accounting. Most of them have “external staff” who generate expenses or are responsible for authorising spending.
How to set up proper financial controls
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Financial service outsourcing practices serving NFPs need to go well beyond common compliance services and get deeply involved in both defining and enforcing financial controls across the client’s operations. At the very least this involves: • Working closely with the client to identify how their money is spent. In other words – get a real-life picture of who spends what, when and why. • Set up proper formal authorisation processes that make sure all spending is properly authorised by the appropriate people within the client’s organisation – before payment takes place. • Provide detailed audit trails to document that the implemented approval process
has been duly followed.
Spend control options: proactive, reactive, hybrid There are several options for controlling spending, with each one focusing on a specific spend stage. Proactive spend control works well when there is a formal buying process, e.g. with purchase orders. By setting up controls around purchase orders (who is authorised to raise them, what goods can be ordered, which suppliers can be selected, etc.) and establishing a robust review and authorisation process, proactive spend control can indeed eliminate, or at least significantly reduce, unwanted spending before it occurs. Introducing proactive spend control is the right choice for not-for-profits that have many people engaged in similar, regular purchasing activities either in one or multiple locations, typical for educational facilities. Reactive spend control ensures that incoming bills are actually correct and to be paid by the organisation. This is achieved by establishing a transparent review and authorisation process for all invoices to verify details like the amount, supplier payment account, etc. before any money is paid. It also serves as an additional fraud control layer by allowing to filter out fraudulent or erroneous bills. The hybrid approach combines these two options and serves as a comprehensive spend control framework. It enables to check the details of finance documents, to compare what had been ordered in a proactively controlled process with what is being billed and confirms that the ordered goods or services have actually been received. This cross-reference capability is called X-way matching.
Spend management app stack for not-for-profits Establishing proper financial controls may seem tricky but with the right tools any practice can do it. A powerful app stack for NFPs contains three essential components...
Read more in Issue 26
Features
6 XU Biweekly | No. 3
NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!
EARTH CLASS MAIL GLOBAL - EARTH CLASS MAIL IS A leading virtual mailbox provider that helps customers access their postal mail online, from any device. Your important mail turns into secure, searchable PDFs, decluttering your home, office and landfills. Members deposit checks, pay bills and share documents online, all without touching an envelope.
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Monday 19 April 2021
THE FUTURE IS NOW
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ORDERMATE AU & NZ - AN INTEGRATED HOSPITALITY POS system that provides one easy solution to help you run your business, utilising the industry's most advanced technology. Highly customisable to suit your venue type, whether you're a busy full service restaurant, quick service business or large pub hotel. Powerful products, seamless integrations and a credible team simplify the complex.
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Preparing for better times By Neil Robertson
Why businesses need to focus on T Automation & Digitisation in 2021
ODAY, WHILST WE CAN, THERE IS NO BETTER TIME TO PREPARE OUR BUSINESSES SO THAT WE CAN MAXIMISE ALL OF THE COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES THAT FOLLOW EVERY DOWNTURN.
By Sunil Nigam
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EO & FOUNDER OF EXPENSEONDEMAND, SUNIL NIGAM, DISCUSSES THE IMPORTANCE OF SMES ADOPTING AUTOMATION AND DIGITISATION AND SHARES HIS THOUGHTS AND INSIGHTS INTO HOW FIRMS ARE PREPARING FOR THE ‘NEW NORMAL’ AND OFFICES REOPENING. For many years the ExpenseOnDemand app has been offering our clients around the globe a simple solution allowing employees to upload and claim business expenses from any mobile device. This helps them to automate their expenses process in a paperless & contactless environment. Our tech solution and ‘Pay as You Use’ model meant we were, therefore, perfectly placed to help our clients when the pandemic struck in early 2020 as their staff dispersed from offices and worked from home due to global lockdowns. Since the outbreak, busi-
Preparing for better times nesses have had to adapt quickly to survive, manage their day-to-day processes and ensure their staff can work seamlessly whilst working remotely. This adaption was possible by sourcing tech solutions to automate and digitise parts of their business which had not been updated for years. The pandemic has caused a technological revolution as certain technologies which used to be convenient pre-COVID have now become essential tools. Businesses cannot survive without. Zoom calls, Slack chats and Team meetings. These have become a key part of our working day, and so many other technologies have adapted quickly to the ‘new normal’. In a matter of months these solutions have advanced in what would have taken years and this has solidified what we now all know that we don’t all need to sit in the same office from Monday to Friday. We spoke to Hriidayesh
Gupta from IntelliTicks, a client of ExpenseOnDemand, to find out how they have adopted technology to help them during the pandemic. “At IntelliTicks we have worked with ExpenseOnDemand for some time now helping set up their Chatbot both on the website and inside their app. The team had a single objective with their requirements for the bot – to provide the customer with a great experience when it came to support. In the process, we got the chance to understand the ExpenseOnDemand platform and found it very easy to use. I would highly recommend ExpenseOnDemand to businesses using paper wanting to automate their expense process.” We recently surveyed global Financial Directors and leaders to highlight how they are coping with the pandemic and also their predictions for the next 12 months.
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There is a glimmer of light on the horizon, welcoming the inevitability of the new post-vaccination dawn and the new world order that awaits us. Today, whilst we can, there is no better time to prepare our businesses so that we can maximise all of the commercial opportunities that follow every downturn.
A different world We have all learned both the advantages and disadvantages of remote working. Almost all of us want the ability to do both, splitting our week in line with our preferences and commercial practicalities. So much so that we would seriously consider changing our job for the flexibility, the monetary savings on commuting costs, but most of all, the additional free time it offers to do what matters most to each of us. Whilst there is still financial uncertainty, what can senior finance managers do today to prepare their businesses for the good times that we know are coming? The first step is to start thinking about how you can make a real difference to everyone outside of the finance department! How can you reduce the bureaucracy, make the complex and tedious simple, provide real time information that makes a real difference, save their time, and reduce their costs? Best of all, can you achieve all that whilst simultaneously gaining much greater fiscal
GREAT NEWS! ApprovalMax is the New Zealand Xero App Partner of the Year 2020 Read more in our blog!
control and delivering financial transparency for everyone in the business that needs to know?.
The answer is accounts payable and purchasing automation – designed for the whole business You could start by removing all of the paper invoices and make invoice approvals simple and easy from any device, anytime, anywhere. It will save between 65% - 90% of the time this currently consumes in manual bureaucracy.
Real time spend information to everyone that needs to know Accounts Payable automation gives instant access to the spend information for every supplier, every invoice, and every line item to everyone that needs to know, not just for the invoices being processed, but for every historical invoice, including their payment status. Not only would this stop all the continual interruptions from internal queries (wasting everyone’s time), it also enables people to use historic spend information to check pricing on what they need today, whether from existing suppliers or their competitors to reduce costs.
Buy more online Better still, every business should buy much more online – and everyone outside of finance will be delighted by the decision. It is faster, more convenient, offers a wider choice and is almost always cheaper...
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Not all practice management software is created equal. Choose Senta to: ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Customise your practice management system to suit the way you work. Integrate with other apps in your tech stack. Automate your regular email and text comms. Share and sign-off documents with your clients via our client portal. Be part of our community of helpful Sentanauts. Enjoy every new feature we add as part of your monthly subscription.
Visit Senta.co/XUMag21
And now with two months free! Sign up via the link above for a 30 day free trial. No credit card or commitment required. We’ll add two months free once you decide to go live. And we’ll give you all the help you need to get up and running, quickly.
Sublime cloud-based CRM, workflow, email automation, secure document exchange for accountants and bookkeepers.
© Copyright Senta 2021. Senta costs £29/user/month. Find out more at www.senta.co
Features Help field service clients simplify financial end of year with simPRO
8 XU Biweekly | No. 3
Monday 19 April 2021
By Mat Wray
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ISCOVER HOW SIMPRO’S CLOUD-BASED JOB MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE CAN HELP YOU AND YOUR CLIENTS SHARE FINANCIAL INFORMATION EASIER AND PREPARE FOR THE END OF THE FINANCIAL YEAR IN NO TIME. No matter how you feel about the financial end of year, it’s vital that you gather clients’ financial information to get a clear picture of business performance over the past year and help them set strong goals for the future. Like most businesses, your field service clients will need to look at their profit and loss reports, bank statements, payroll reports, tax documents, and more. Compiling all of these documents can be a challenge, given that field service businesses often work in disparate systems and may be using outdated methods (like spreadsheets) to track work. This makes it difficult for the business to present financial information to their accountant.
Become a simPRO partner for a smoother financial end of year As you work to help your field service clients manage their finances and make data-driven business decisions, it’s essential to ensure that they have the right field service management software in place to stay organised month-tomonth. A great field service management solution helps your clients efficiently manage jobs, projects, and maintenance contracts, as well as keep track of all administrative processes and financials year-round. From initial request for a job to final invoicing, with simPRO, your clients can streamline workflows, automate processes, connect the office to the field and gain essential business insights. By becoming a simPRO accounting partner, you’ll gain access to valuable reports to prepare for the end of the
financial year. You’ll also further build trust and credibility with your field service clients, enhance your customer base, and become a trusted field service accountancy expert. Most importantly, simPRO acts as a single source of truth by which you and your client can accurately measure financial health and make key business decisions for the upcoming year. All from one holistic view.
Quickly gather and organise all financial records from one place Paper-based invoicing and statements from suppliers and accounts are easy to lose track of. simPRO eliminates paper-based payments with interconnectivity between simPRO and Xero. This means that clients can send invoices directly through their accounting system, making it easier for them to collect payment and easier for you to access payment records, all from one place. You also reduce your time spent cross-referencing financial transactions and reconciling accounts.
Read more in Issue 26
Digital Innovation in Asian Accounting & Finance: A Series of Events for 2021
The Accounting & Finance Show Asia rolls out a whole series of virtual and in-person events for the year ahead By Laura Binns
T
HE EVENTS OF THE PAST YEAR HAVE RAPIDLY ACCELERATED BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION ACROSS ASIA. ACROSS THE REGION, CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES HAVE GONE FROM NICE TO HAVE TO MUST HAVE AND COMPANIES ARE DISCOVERING THE POWER OF MIXING AND MATCHING SOLUTIONS TO MEET THEIR VARIOUS BUSINESS NEEDS. With more companies proactively looking for digital solutions than ever before, the Accounting & Finance Show Asia has expanded into a series of events in 2021 to bring together the buyers and
the solution providers from across the region. Following a year of unprecedented disruption, in which the Accounting & Finance Show Asia events ran online for the first time, the Terrapinn Asia team will bring together the best of both in-person and virtual while rolling out two new launch events.
The virtual experience In the absence of face to face events, Asia’s virtual shows have proven extremely popular with attendees and solution providers alike. They have enabled accounting and finance teams to learn about the latest solutions in the market and keep in touch with how other
businesses have been able to automate and streamline through their digitalisation. Terrapinn’s market-leading virtual event platform offers a fantastic user experience for attendees while enabling accounting software and app solution providers to demonstrate their solutions, network with attendees and connect with qualified buyers.
First up in June: Digital Practice Summit Asia The 2021 series will kick off with the Digital Practice Summit Asia. This one day virtual event is designed specifically for those working in companies that provide accounting and
bookkeeping services. The conference agenda will be crammed with insightful sessions on how you can leverage digital technologies to increase your efficiency, provide an improved and more comprehensive service to your clients and how to enhance your overall practice management.
When? 16 June 2021 What’s the format? Virtual Event. Who should attend? Partners, Accountants, CPAs, & Bookkeepers from accounting and bookkeeping firms across Asia absence.
How To Choose The Right Clients For A Cash Flow Service T By Colin Hewitt
HE FIRST STEP IN S U C C E S S F U L LY LAUNCHING A NEW SERVICE IS IDENTIFYING THE RIGHT CLIENTS TO GET STARTED WITH, BUT WHAT SHOULD YOU TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION WHEN CHOOSING THOSE CLIENTS?
Pitching and delivering any new service to your clients is much easier when you can identify which clients will quickly see the most value from your new offering, and that’s especially true when it comes to a cash flow service. Identifying specific characteristics and mindset in a client will help you hone in on where cash flow forecasting can make the greatest impact - for both your clients and your own business. The key to incorporating cash flow advisory into your service offering is to start simple. Starting with a small sub-section of clients with similar problems will help you learn and iterate on the process required to roll out
the service to more clients. There are four main areas which should be considered when choosing the right clients for cash flow: • Challenges and pain points - is the client worried about upcoming cash gaps? Or do they already spend a lot of time forecasting in a spreadsheet? • Bookkeeping - are the client’s accounts up to date? Do they benefit from regular reconciliation and timely data entry? • Mindset - does your client have a long-term vision for their business? Are they open-minded and ready to invest? • Characteristics - do they embrace technology? Are they open to your advice and responsive to emails? By assessing new and existing clients on these criteria, you’ll be able to quickly and easily pinpoint clients that will get the most from your cash flow service.
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What’s New at Novo: Connect to Our Square Integration Today
View your Square balance and check out the updates made to our web app!
W
ITH THE CHANGE IN SEASON, THERE ARE ALSO AWESOME CHANGES MADE TO THE NOVO APP AND WEB APP. LET’S SPRING INTO THE NEWSLETTER!
Square is Officially Live Start tracking your Square sales and payouts without leaving your Novo account. Upon connecting, you’ll be able to view the following on your dashboard: • Information about the
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021! REVOLUT’S YEAR OF CRYPTO. A WHOLE YEAR TO BRING YOU NEW FEATURES, NEW TOKENS, AND A FEW OTHER SURPRISES ALONG THE WAY. You asked for new tokens, we’ve delivered. We’ve been tracking hot tokens and top movers to bring our UK and EU customers 11 new cryptocurrencies. You’ll now be able to trade Cardano, Uniswap, Synthetix, Yearn Finance, Uma, Bancor, Filecoin, Numeraire, Loopring, Orchid, and The Graph. As always, we want to remind you of the risks involved when buying or selling crypto, and that the prices of crypto can be very volatile. Your capital is at risk. While we believe in crypto accessibility for all, we also know that it might not be appropriate for everyone. Please consider your personal circumstances when buying or selling crypto. If you’ve recently started buying crypto, or you’re more of a casual trader, you might not be familiar with some of our new names. Here’s the rundown, so you can get a bit more familiar before you start exploring in the app. The information here is correct at the time of writing. Check out Nomics to see up to date data on all of our new tokens.
Meet your new tokens! Bancor BNT is an Ethereum token powering the Bancor Protocol. The protocol aims to allow crypto assets that would have been traditionally difficult to trade due to low liquidity to be exchanged directly on-chain. Bancor does this by enabling automatic price determination and an autonomous liquidity mechanism for tokens on smart contract blockchains. Read more on their website.
Cardano ADA is the token which powers the Cardano blockchain. It relies on a proof-ofstake consensus model called Ouroboros. Cardano validates blockchain transactions without high energy costs. Read more on their website.
Filecoin FIL is the native protocol token of the Filecoin network. Filecoin is a decentralised storage network which aims to let anyone host, store, or receive digital information.
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Starling Bank joins Funding Options’ lending panel to support SME recovery
F
RESH FROM SECURING ‘UNICORN’ STATUS, THE DIGITAL BANK’S PARTNERSHIP WITH THE UK’S LEADING BUSINESS FINANCE MARKETPLACE WILL HELP INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES ACCESS VITAL LOANS FASTER Funding Options has joined forces with digital bank Starling Bank to deliver business critical access to finance as SMEs across the UK rebuild following a turbulent year. Starling Bank which has
a 5% share of the UK SME market has become the latest member of leading SME finance marketplace Funding Options’ ever-growing lending panel, which now numbers in excess of 120 active lenders. The partnership is very positive for the UK SME finance sector, with the challenger bank having issued more than £2bn of government-backed loans during the pandemic - with twothirds of recipients outside London. It has ambitious plans to grow its SME account base more than four-
fold to hold 18% of the UK market over the next five years. Similarly active during the post pandemic period, Funding Options has processed more than £850m of CBILS loans, leveraging its proprietary technology to match companies with suitable lending options in minutes. The finance platform has already helped more than 10,000 SMEs access the funds they need, quickly and easily.
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