Ignition launches new template gallery; paving the way for future one-click proposal experiences SWOOP IS DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE OPENING OF THEIR NEW OFFICES IN LIVER POOL. The Anglo-Irish fintech already has a foothold in Australia, Canada and the USA and recently raised £5.4m in a Series A funding round to accelerate interna tionalAndreaexpansion.Reynolds, CEO and Founder of Swoop, says that the company’s expan sion into the northwest of England comes at a crucial moment in the company’s lifecycle:“Swoop is a fast-growing IT HAS BEEN AN EXCIT ING, BUMPER MONTH FOR XERO! WE WERE FI NALLY ABLE TO HOST OUR FIRST XEROCON AFTER NEARLY THREE YEARS, AND IT WAS FANTASTIC TO SEE EVERYONE IN-PERSON AGAIN. In addition to the buzz of Xerocon London, we have had a number of product releases, including adding even more customisation and functionality to our new business. Our revenues are forecast to increase by 450 percent this year thanks to a surge in demand from SMEs for finance that meets their needs. But we are growing fast because we meet and understand our customers on a human level.” Andrea says that Liver pool is a logical step for ex pansion in the UK: “There is huge opportunity in the re gion. For too long, London has dominated the business finance scene, and post-pan demic, we have seen SMEs popping up across the coun try. Swoop is going to meet... Find out more reports in Xero, and the ear ly release of Xero Go for UK sole traders. We have also changed the name of ‘My Payroll’ to ‘Xero Me’, aligning it with the mobile app that has been enhanced to em power employees to track their own start and end times.The momentum will only continue to increase as we gear up for Xerocon New Orleans on 24 and 25... Read more independent news source for Xero users, by Xero users P6 IGNITION, THE WORLD’S FIRST CLIENT ENGAGE MENT AND COMMERCE PLATFORM FOR PRO FESSIONAL SERVICES BUSINESSES, HAS TODAY LAUNCHED A NEW PRO POSAL AND ENGAGEMENT LETTER TEMPLATE GAL LERY ON ITS WEBSITE DESIGNED TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR ACCOUNT ANTS, BOOKKEEPERS AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES BUSINESSES TO ENGAGE THEIR CLIENTS.
The new structure com bines Xero’s go-to-market leadership across Australia, New Zealand and Asia into an Asia Pacific Region, with Country Managers joining an APAC leadership team led by a newly appointed Man aging Director, APAC. Joseph Lyons, Xero’s current Managing Director for Australia and Asia, will extend his Managing Direc tor role to now lead APAC. The appointment means Ly ons’ remit will now include oversight of New Zealand from October 2022. The New Zealand, Australia and Asia go-to-market teams will continue to serve the needs of Xero’s customers and partners in-market, with the new structure providing increased efficiency through better aligned access to re sources, capability and sup port from across the APAC region.Rachael Powell, Xero’s Chief Customer Officer said: “These changes will allow us to better align and share leadership talent and re sources across APAC, to en sure we continue to improve Xero’s engagement with our small business customers... By Anna Curzon, Xero
Biweekly Saturday 13 August 2022 | No. 36 The
The collection of more than 80 templates, which are also available in the Ignition app, has been created by leading industry experts and partner industry organiza tions from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and South Africa, including Gusto, Intuit, Chartered Ac countants ANZ, Association of Certified Chartered Ac countants and more. Businesses can easi ly access the ready-made accounting and bookkeep ing proposal templates in Ignition, allowing them to quickly create impressive proposals to win over clients and get paid effortlessly. By using Ignition proposal tem plates, businesses can avoid P4 costly errors from incorrect pricing or inaccurate data, and bridge the compliance knowledge gap in their firms. Templates range from monthly accounting, book keeping and payroll services to tax and people advisory services – often presented in three option packages and including recommended pricing, services and billing schedules.Recently launched pro posal templates include tax planning and advisory tem plates in partnership with In tuit Tax Advisor, and reces sionary services templates for accountants to provide advisory services to clients facing recessionary and in flationaryIgnitionpressures.customers can create and send a proposal in as little as a minute using proposal templates, while their clients have accepted proposals as fast as 45 sec onds. With the help of Igni tion’s proposal and terms templates, customers can get their proposals out the door in half the time it takes compared to not using a template.MiaStirling, Founder at Santi Accounting in Bris bane, Australia and a... Find out more THE GLOBAL SMALL
ANGLO-IRISH FINTECH SWOOP OPENS LIVERPOOL OFFICENEW XERO FURTHERPOSITIONLEADERSHIPAPACSTRUCTURETOFORGROWTHANDSTRENGTHENCUSTOMERFOCUSManagingDirectorforAPACandCountryManagersforNewZealand,Australiaannounced Following a recent £5.4 million Series A investment, the one stop shop for business funding is opening a new office in the northwest PAGE 6
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Saturday 13 August 2022 9 772054 723006 36 ISSN 2054-7234
REGION.CUSTOMERSVALUETOGROWTHTOTALENTBRINGERSHIP(APAC)INGANNOUNCEDPLATFORM,BUSINESSTODAYITISMOVTOANASIAPACIFICREGIONALLEADSTRUCTURETOTOGETHERTHEANDCAPABILITIESSUPPORTFURTHERANDCONTINUESTRENGTHENXERO’STOPARTNERSANDACROSSTHE
XU XERO,
grations >
• Assign a Default Attrib ute Set to Sales Process Customisation (Settings > General Settings)
BGL CORPORATE SOLUTIONS, AUS TRALIA'S LEADING PROVIDER OF SELF-MANAGED SUPERANNUATION FUND (SMSF), INVESTMENT PORTFO LIO AND COMPANY COMPLIANCE MAN AGEMENT SOFTWARE, IS PROUD TO AN NOUNCE THE ELECTRONIC LODGMENT OF PAY-AS-YOU-GO (PAYG) PAYMENT SUM MARIES TO THE AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE (ATO) IS NOW AVAILABLE IN ITS SMSF ADMINISTRATION SOFTWARE, SIM PLE FUND 360. “It’s fantastic to release another highly requested feature. I am extremely proud of the efforts of the BGL team,” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. "This feature will go a long way to make our clients' lives... Read more LEADING FINTECH ADVISORY COMPA NY, VFD PRO LTD, HAS PARTNERED WITH FUNDING OPTIONS TO INTE GRATE FUNDING CLOUD: CONNECT, AN EXTENSION OF THE FUNDING CLOUD(TM) PLATFORM, INTO THEIR MARKET-LEADING FINANCIAL AND ADVISORY SOLUTION. Funding Options is on a mission to help accountants increase their foresightedness when dealing with SME clients and help them spot the funding that could help pow er their growth strategies or better manage cash-flow.Accountants spend considerable time and energy advising their clients on how to combat cash-flow problems once they've ar rived. But much like the famous idiom about "closing the stable door after the horse has bolted", what if they were able to predict... Read more Pre-conditions
code/bug fixes, looking at how we can increase loading speeds and auditing our existing pro cesses.We have
DavidCEO: HattyCreativeBethanyCommunicationsPartnerships:DirectorWesleyManagingHassallEditor:CornellofStrategicAlexNewsonManager:FulksAssistant:Morton advertising@xumagazine.comAdvertising: ‘Xero’www.xumagazine.comisatrademarkof 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.
• Additional attribute set requires one emp ty field of type Text to store pulled tags from Shopify. We recommend naming this field Tags or other easily identifiable name. • Only applicable when No Consolidation is se lected for orders. Functionality DEAR, go to Inte Shopify and select the Setup tab. vision Last year the team were excited to announce the re lease of a number of large modules, as well a new com panion As can ap preciate this involved a lot of development time and effort, which resulted with the team in the need of a well-earned break. As such we made a conscious effort to clear product roadm ap, so that the first half of 2023 would only be spent correcting minor also used this time closely monitor cus tomer feedback, user inter actions and feature requests. As always, your feedback is invaluable, and our... Read more By Albert Patel-Cook
you
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to continuous ly simplify and extend across our entire suite. New and existing customers alike will find this new tasks view quick to nav igate and understand. Easy filtering and sorting means that managing tasks is even easier... Find out more IN JULY, THE KEY UPDATE WAS OUR EXPANSION INTO LATIN AMERICA, WITH SUPPORT FOR THE BRAZILIAN, MEXICAN AND PERUVIAN STOCK EX CHANGES.UX/Usability improvements • The new breadcrumb navigation was rolled out to the holdings page and 11 reports • Added an ‘add to home screen’ prompt on Android devices when visiting Sha resight on a mobile device • Introduced several new colours to clos er align the product with our brand moving forward New functionality/Enhancements • Added support for the Brazilian... Find out more CONNECTEDNEWPEISOXEROAPPS! Dear New Releases – 31st July 2022 AU & NZ - Make smarter decisions and enable growth with Peiso's hospi tality industry earnings software, pro viding personalised insights to help maximise profits. Trusted by venues Australia-wide. YOU MIGHT HAVE NO TICED THAT IT HAS BEEN SOME TIME SINCE WE ISSUED A BLOG DETAILING NEW PRODUCT UPDATES AND RELEASES.
1. 3RD-PARTY VIDEO INTERFACE UP DATES Despite having its own native video con ferencing capabilities (available on all plans), Connect4 has always been designed to work alongside other video platforms too. If you and your clients prefer the familiarity and functionality of using Microsoft Teams or Zoom, that’s ok! There’s no reason to stop. You can still ensure your meetings are efficient and actionable using a powerful suite of meeting management tools alongside your video... Find out more Connect4 product update: Meeting with your favourite video tools By Ben ClendonBy Alex Hoffman By Rich Dale OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW. THIS WEEK, WE BID FAREWELL TO THE LAST OF OUR LEGACY FEATURES – SCHEDULED EMAILS.
• From
THE LATEST IMPROVEMENTS AND BUG FIXES TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EAS IER! HERE ARE THE LATEST FLOW LENS UPDATES:SalesOrder
Clear Downs Originally if a customer had a Sales Or der that was Partially Dispatched (but they weren’t planning on dispatching any more of it), it remained with a status of ‘Order Con firmed’ and a dispatch status of ‘Partially Dispatched’ which was causing inaccuracies in reports. We have introduced Sales Order Clear Down capabilities so users can see what’s actually fully dealt with and won’t need to be worked on anymore. Now when a Clear Down is carried out (via the Actions menu), the status gets up dated to ‘Dispatched’ and dispatch status is ‘Dispatched (Clear down).’ Along with the new functionality, we have made the following changes: • On the Sales order index page we now... Read more
While we are sad to say goodbye, there is so much that we are welcoming in now, from improved adjustments on 4-way fore casts and budgets to magnify in live view. Read on for all the details. Scheduled emails have migrated You will no longer be able to navigate to the old report builder and old scheduled email table, but don't panic. You can still schedule reports to send automatically. You will just need to use our new system from HQ Reports. For more information on how... Read more New tasks view and more!
app.
to
FEATURE 1: PULL SHOPIFY SALE OR DER TAGS INTO DEAR AND MAP WITH ADDITIONAL ATTRIBUTE SET Impact area • Shopify integration • Sales module Introduction Shopify allows its us ers to create custom tags for sale orders which can be used to search and filter sales. With this re lease, DEAR can now pull order tags from Shopify and map these tags to the additional attribute set as signed to your sales pro cess. This feature will allow DEAR users to see what tags a specific Shopify or der has and filter by these tags in reports.
Read more HI FOLKS! I’M ALBERT, THE SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER HERE AT SUITE FILES. I’LL BE PROVIDING UPDATES IN THIS POST TO PROMOTE ALL THE AMAZ ING NEW FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY WE’RENewCREATING.features: New tasks view The new tasks view provides en hanced management. As with our earlier files and folder view improvement, this is part of our product
XU BIWEEKLY - No. 36 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
New Apps & UpdatesXU Biweekly | No. 362 Saturday 13 August 2022
• Active Shopify Integra tion
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Funding Options partners with VFD to deliver market-leading financial and advisory integration
Flowlens Product Updates – August 2022
News & UpdatesXU Biweekly | No. 364 Saturday 13 August 2022
SO… WE DONATED $18,000 TO LIFE LINE AUSTRALIA TODAY. THAT WAS PRETTY COOL. Super proud of our From the Trenches - Real Life in the Accounting Industry com munity and what we were able to achieve at the last ‘Trenches Summit’ Well done to the trenches team for all your hard Thankswork!toour platinum partners Xero ChangeGPS Dext and of course DiviPay for your support as well as our other partners Huge effort all round, thx again for the opportunity Aristoteli (Teli) Taktikos. Thanks for the intro Tom Boyd Good job starting a podcast David
yar, Paul Meissner look at all the good your doing. Find out more
Read more How Sharesies automated their
ASK ANY BOOKKEEPER OR AC COUNTANT AND AMONGST ONE OF THE TOP PAIN POINTS IS GATHERING AND ACCESSING CLI ENT DATA! IN THE US WE HAVE OVER 11,000+ BANKING IN FINANCIAL INSTI TUTIONS AND THE NUMBER IS ONLY INCREASING WITH THE ONSET OF NEW SPECIALIZED BANKS. To put this into context from a per sonal level, last week I was helping out my own bookkeeper and with disparate data located in many platforms (Credit Card, Banks, Stripe, Paypal etc..) access ing data is simply a waste of time. As the owner of Ledgersync and very close partner with MasterCard I am privy as to the bank’s technology future roadmap in terms of how they plan on... Keep reading AT SYFT, WE'RE CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS IN JULY. AS PART OF THAT, WE HAVE A MID-YEAR PRESENT FOR YOU: NEW BUDGETING VISUALIZATIONS! Budgets on Syft are now more ro bust thanks to our new adjustment ta bles and visualizations! Budgeting ad justments are now easier to locate, add, and make sense of in beautiful graphical form courtesy of this latest update. Plus, we've implemented changes to Audit and more! Read on for all the de tails. Where did adjustments go? You can now find your budgeting adjustments within the accounts that you have adjusted. Adjustments will be ordered by start date and we also show key totals that the account is impacting, i.e. the total of the category and total cash. Find out more WE HOPE YOU’VE BEEN STAY ING COOL AND ENJOYING YOUR SUMMER. WE'VE BEEN HARD AT WORK WITH NEW WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION EXPERI ENCE WITH RECURLY. Read on about the Recurly August Product Launch or check out our video for youz viewing pleasure.
1. Introducing JSON Webhooks Have you met our new best friend, JSON? If you are using the Recurly AP, you can now choose from XML and/or JSON Webhooks as your data interchange for mat. JSON, short for JavaScript Object Notification, is an open-standard file... Keep reading WE BELIEVE, AS LEWES FC DO, THAT FOR WOMEN’S FOOTBALL TO THRIVE, THE FINANCIAL VI ABILITY OF CLUBS AT ALL LEVELS IS ES SENTIAL. PUT SIMPLY, WE BELIEVE THAT BETTER NUMBERS OFF THE PITCH WILL DELIVER BETTER NUMBERS ON IT. Today we’re incredibly excited to an nounce a three year partnership between Lewes FC and Xero to help the club on its mission to drive greater equality in the wom en’sThisgame.partnership will show how the drive for equality in sport and financial sustaina bility are inexorably linked. When you invest in the women’s game, you invest in the... Read more By Trent McLaren By Kate Hayward, Xero August 2022 | Recurly's product launch summary Ledgersync: Bank Feeds the Future Roadmap From The Trenches Donates $18,000 To Lifeline Australia Xero partners with Lewes FC to help women thrive on and off the pitch IF YOU LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE LONG WHITE CLOUD, CHANCES ARE YOU’VE HEARD OF THE NEW ZEA LAND INVESTMENT PLATFORM, SHA RESIES. THEIR FINTECH INNOVATION MAKES IT EASY FOR NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIAN INVESTORS TO BUY AND SELL SHARES IN COMPANIES AND FUNDS ACROSS NEW ZEALAND, AUS TRALIA, AND THE US. Their Vision: To give someone with $5 and someone with $5 million the same in vestment opportunities. Their inspiration: “We want to nurture and grow people’s finance and investing knowledge. And not just around investing – all things money”. Having recently launched an Austral ian arm of the business, and added the US stock market to their investment op tions, Sharesies are paving the way for accessible investment across New Zea land and Australia. Beyond easy access to the stock market and building investment portfolios, Sharesies’ users have access to podcasts, webinars, written content and an engaged user community, helping them to take control of their own learning. Through their platform and product offer ing, Sharesies have developed a stand-out business strategy that’s set to see them grow from strength to strength. So where does approval automation come into Sharesiesit? needed to have airtight fi nance management systems in place that would scale with them as the business grew. And any solution they adopted into their tech stack needed to allow them to “Chase Remarkable”, one of their compa ny values.Wesat down with Hannah Korner, Corporate Accountant at Sharesies, to chat about how they use approval... approvals Alex Hoffman Bo
THE RECOVERY LOAN SCHEME (RLS) WILL BE RELAUNCHED DURING AU GUST 2022 AS THE GOVERNMENT AIMS TO CONTINUE SUPPORTING RECOV ERING SMALL BUSINESSES. The RLS launched in April 2021 and was originally scheduled to run until 31 Decem ber At2021.Autumn Budget 2021, the govern ment extended the scheme by six months to 30 June 2022 and made some adjustments to its terms. The government provided a guarantee of 80% for loans made before 1 January 2022 and 70% for loans after that date. The borrower remains 100% liable for the Accordingdebt. to the British Business Bank, accredited lenders have offered over £4.5 billion, through the RLS, to smaller UK busi nesses as they steer a path towards a sus tainable recovery. The relaunched RLS will support facility sizes of up to £2 million for borrowers out side the scope of the Northern Ireland... Keep reading
RecoveryAccountancyManager:LoanSchemetoberelaunched
process & EOFY audits By
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SUITEFILES HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED AS A XERO APP PARTNER OF THE MONTH! THIS MARKS THE THIRD TIME WE’VE BEEN A RECIPIENT AND A YEAR SINCE THE LAST TIME WE’VE GOT TEN THE HONOURS. This go around we’ve been recognised alongside 9 other standouts from the 2,000 accounting and bookkeeping partners that attended Xerocon London – check out Xe ro’s Theannouncement.awardputs a nice ribbon on the Xerocon event itself where we got to show off SuiteFiles while networking with leaders in cloud accounting and catching up with customers.Across the two days we got to speak to hundreds of businesses and demonstrate how SuiteFiles and Xero combine to create a beautiful cloud-based practice. And we’re still not done! To close out the year we’ll be attending Xerocon New Orleans and Xerocon Sydney. Till then we’ll continue to provide the.... Find out more
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WE'RE THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE THAT WE'VE PARTNERED WITH FINDOLOGIC! Combining world-leading customer ex perience AI with fully flexible end-to-end order management functionality will help sellers deliver a winning customer shopping experience every time. Thanks to Brian Graydon for making this all possible. Keep reading ONEPAGECRM, THE FIRST AC TION-FOCUSED CRM FOR SMALL BUSINESSES, ANNOUNCED THE LAUNCH OF ITS NEW AFFILIATE PRO GRAM. IT IS OPEN TO BOTH EXPERIENCED AFFILIATE MARKETERS AND BEGINNERS INTERESTED IN ADDITIONAL STREAMS OF INCOME. Affiliate marketing allows individuals and companies to earn commissions for promot ing products and services. OnePageCRM decided to open their Affiliate Program for everyone without any restrictions or long
Expandly partners with FINDOLOGIC BGL CORPORATE SOLUTIONS, AUS TRALIA'S LEADING PROVIDER OF SELF-MANAGED SUPERANNUATION FUND (SMSF), INVESTMENT PORTFO LIO AND COMPANY COMPLIANCE MAN AGEMENT SOFTWARE, IS PROUD TO AN NOUNCE IT NOW HAS OVER 700,000 COMPANIES MANAGED BY OVER 2,700 FIRMS ON ITS COMPANY COMPLIANCE SOLUTION, CAS 360. “This is another huge milestone for BGL, and I’m extremely proud of the teams’ ef forts,” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Direc tor. “These results are only achieved thanks to the continued innovation, perseverance and passion of every individual at BGL.” CAS 360 now supports over 700,000 companies and 117,000 trusts across Aus tralia, New Zealand and Singapore, with plans to release CAS 360 in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom in the not-too-distant future. “CAS 360 is only in its infancy. With Hong Kong and the United Kingdom coming in the near future, 1,000,000+ companies... Keep reading WHAT HAPPENED TO PENSIONS IN JULY 2022? DELIGHTED TO SHARE THE NEWS THAT CHASER'S CHIEF EXEC UTIVE OFFICER, SONIA DORAIS HAS BEEN SHORTLISTED FOR BUSINESS LEADER OF THE YEAR AT THE WOMEN IN CREDIT AWARDS 2022. The Women in Credit Awards cham pion the work of outstanding women across the entire credit and financial ser vices industry. They strive to empower, connect, support, and uncover achieve ments among inspirational women in the credit management industry. Being shortlisted for this award is a true testament to Sonia's outstanding leadership at Chaser since becoming CEO in January 2021, and the results... Read more
IT WOULD BE NO SURPRISE TO LEARN THAT MANY ACCOUNTING PRACTIC ES AND THEIR SMALL BUSINESS, LANDLORD AND SOLE TRADER CLI ENTS ARE CURRENTLY SUFFERING FROM CONFUSION FROM OVERUSE OF ACRONYMS (CFOA). While this newly-invented acronym may be useful, we won’t rely on it too heavily. Frankly, you already have enough to remember, thanks to Making Tax Dig ital (MTD) for VAT and Income Tax Self Assessment (ITSA). Read more
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Chaser CEO shortlisted for Business Leader of the Year 2022 Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment: Our guide to Unique Taxpayer Reference numbers INVESTMENTS HAVE TUMBLED IN A DOWNWARD TREND DURING 2022. STOCK MARKETS ARE REACTING TO AN UNFOLDING STORY OF THREE ECONOMIC SHOCKS: THE WAR IN UKRAINE, THE UK’S RISING INFLATION RATE, AND CHINA’S SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTIONS. Due to these shocks, many investments within your pension will have felt the effects of this economic pressure. However, in July we’ve seen positive movements, so are pen sion investments entering a recovery peri od?Keep reading to find out how factors af fecting market volatility are evolving. What happened to the markets in July? July saw marginal growth as markets appeared to stabilise after a choppy six months. Whether this will begin an eco nomic recovery, or simply provide a brief moment of respite from this year’s volatility, remains to be seen. In the US, the S&P 500 rose by 6.64% in July.In the UK, the FTSE 250 rose by 5.83%... reading application processes. The Program is completely free to join... Keep reading By Pedro Sampaio By Stuart Miller, Xero
News & EventsXU Biweekly | No. 356 Saturday 30 July 2022
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ClassifiedsXU Biweekly | No. 36 Saturday 13 August 2022 7 Try for FREE! Automated Data Entry. SmarterEasierBooks.Lives. Accountant Tools Bills & Expenses CRM Cloud FinancialDebtorIntegratorsTrackingServiceseCommerce Inventory FOR BUILDERS JOB MANAGEMENT www.nextminute.com tidyinternat ona com Powerful Software Delightfully Simple Need brick-by-brick control of your building & construction projects? TidyBuild is designed specifically for the construction CONSTRUCTIONindustry.MANAGEMENT It’s a match made in heaven. Start your FREE workflowmax.com/xerotrial: Invoices & OutsourcingJobs Payments Account-to-account payments seamlessly connected with Xero crezco.com A smarter way to collect, convert and manage payments globally. Find out more at worldfirst.com Forecasting power in the cloud castawayforecasting.com/XU Powerful Integrated 3-way Modelling New cloudpayroll.com.auipayroll.co.nzAustraliaZealand Reporting If the only update your so tware gets each year is price, it could be time to wolterskluwer.co.uk/switchswitch Time Tracking Year End Issue 31 1Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine magazine The independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users ISSUE31 COVER STORY Don’t get left behind Supercharge your Xero tech stack Xero PLUS MORELOADSFROM Connected Apps TUTORIALS CASE STUDIES INTERVIEWS NEW APPS NEW RELEASES 9 772054 722009 with approval automation OUTISSUENOW:31 XU Subscribe to our mailing list and never miss an issue! Hub Subscribe 9 Daily The latest news from all connectedfavouriteyourXeroapps 9 Every fortnight XU Biweekly 9 Quarterly XU Magazine Payroll & HR BUSINESS FINANCE MADE EASY marketfinance.com t dyinternational MANAGEMENTJOBcom Powerful Software Delightfully Simple Detailed reporting and tight project controls enable your business to maximise efficiency and profitability.
By Joseph Lyons, Xero
By Steve Vamos, Xero
EventsXU Biweekly | No. 368 Saturday 13 August 2022
MONTH:
TODAY, WE KICKED OFF XEROCON LONDON 2022 AND IT WAS CLEAR FROM THE EXCITEMENT AND BUZZ AT THE EVENT THAT OUR ACCOUNTANTS AND BOOKKEEPERS, APP PARTNERS AND EXHIB ITORS WERE AS HAPPY AS WE WERE TO COME TOGETHER AGAIN AS A COMMUNITY. Thank you to the more than 2,000 delegates and app partners who joined us today.Iopened the event outlining our vision and the steps we are taking to become the most trusted and insightful small busi ness platform. Rachael Powell, Chief Customer Of ficer, introduced our new UK & EMEA MD Alex von Schirmeister, and Anna Curzon, our Chief Product Officer, led the discussion on new product enhance ments and announce ments. She was joined on stage by Christian Bron dum, CEO of Planday and Mark Rees, our Chief Tech nology Officer.
It’s been great to see everyone in person again – to have the opportunity to come together to learn, to be inspired and to have some fun. And important ly, to remind ourselves of the important purpose we share of making life better for people in small busi ness, their advisors and communities around the world.Here’s a quick break down of some of the high lights from day one of Xerocon London 2022. Tackling the cash flow crunch First, we talked about the challenging environ ment in which account ants and small businesses are working through in our Xero Small Business Insights special report Crunch: Cash flow chal lenges facing small busi nesses. Launched today, the report found that the average UK small business faces cash flow crunches –where monthly expenses exceed revenues – for... story in this year’s Xero Australia Awards
New ways to support businesses selling online eCommerce is driving many businesses towards new tools like A2X and Link My Books to streamline their sales, stay on top of cash flow and better serve their customers.“Knowing your numbers has never been more impor tant for businesses selling online,” says Jamie McDonald, CEO at A2X. “With rising cost of goods, supply chain is sues, and mobile privacy updates impacting the efficacy of digital ads, understanding the true financial perfor mance of a business has evolved from a nice-to... Find out THE XEROCON GRIT AND RESILIENCE HAVE LONG BEEN SYNONYMOUS WITH THE AUSTRALIAN SPIR IT. BUT IF RECENT YEARS HAVE TAUGHT US ANY THING, IT’S THAT OUR NA TION’S ENTREPRENEURS EMBODY THESE TRAITS DAY IN AND DAY OUT. From the local store that’s pivoted online and gone global to the account ing firm that’s embraced flexible working to attract talent, countless success stories have emerged since the pandemic’s arrival. This is why we couldn’t be more excited to invite you – the business community – to share yours in the FY23 Xero Australia Awards. There’s something for everyone in our FY23 awards Back for another year, the Xero Awards are all about recognising and cel ebrating the achievements of small businesses, advisors and our app partners. Just like last year, we have 13 ma jor categories – all of which focus on the efforts and per formance of a business rath er than an individual. For advisors, these in Partner of the Year • Bookkeeping Partner of the Year • Enterprise Partner of the Year • Cloud Champion of the Year • Innovative Partner of the Year • Community Partner of the Year Keep reading MEET XU AT EVERY XEROCON THIS YEAR! LOOK OUT FOR THE GUYS IN PINK It’s big, it’s beautiful and it’s back – Xerocon London 2022 WATCH A WEBINARFREEONTHEXUHUB!
The UK Government’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) for ITSA will impact up to 4.2 million UK small businesses so we’re working closely with our partners to ensure every one is prepared ahead of 2024. “With MTD in the UK increasing the demands on accountants and bookkeepers, it’s imperative to work from quality records. Data assurance has never been more important,” says Jon Jenkins, founder and CEO at Hindsight. “Hindsight powers the accounting firm of the future by providing peace of mind for accountants and bookkeepers knowing that their portfolio is continuous ly monitored for issues and risks. Hindsight automatical ly syncs client data from Xero to create fully customis able client alerts, giving accountants and bookkeepers a clear, up-to-date view on the most critical issues and risks.”Logan Ransley, co-founder of rental accounting and management app Landlord Studio also says MTD will encourage residential landlords to make the switch from spreadsheets to cloud software solutions. “As the UK introduces MTD legislation, Landlord Studio is a great starting point for residential landlords that are moving off spreadsheets to a digital solution. By simplifying and automating the process of collecting and reconciling rental income and expense information, Landlord Studio and Xero can help landlords improve the return on investment on their property investments.”
By Vickie King, Xero
Ignition Party 23rd August, 8-11pm Cornet, 700 Bourbon St.
LONDON 2022 SPECIAL EDITION
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Xero recently hosted Xerocon London, one of the most anticipated events on the calendar for cloud ac counting leaders. We were excited to reconnect with more than 2,000 accounting and bookkeeping partners and share the latest product developments across Xero. In addition to the smorgasbord of breakout sessions and keynotes, attendees also had the opportunity to hear from some of our ecosystem app partners, who are an essential part of Xero’s small business platform vision and enabling small business success. So, we thought we would switch it up for July’s App Partner of the Month by showcasing some of the Xero app partner success stories that exhibited at Xerocon London (21-22 July). Preparing the UK for ‘Making Tax Digital’in 2024
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XERO CONNECTS WITH OVER 1,000 APPS THAT HELP SMALL BUSINESSES AND THEIR ADVI SORS SUCCEED, CHECK OUT THE XERO APP STORE. EACH MONTH WE CELEBRATE AN APP PART NER WHO STANDS OUT FOR HELPING SMALL BUSI NESSES THRIVE. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BECOMING A XERO APP PARTNER HERE.
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IT’S NEVER BEEN EAS IER TO ADOPT NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND ADAPT YOUR PROCESS ES – AUTOMATED AP PROVAL PROCESSES COULD BE YOUR SECRET WEAPON... In March, Xero's 'State of the Industry' report re leased a series of figures supporting the move to digital accounting tools. In fact, 94% of study re spondents reported that the adoption of digital tools to augment their tech stack has resulted in notable benefits, such as time-saving and efficiency improvements and better clientAndrelationships.withintech adop tion,noit’s secret that cloudbased accounting software has quickly become the gold standard for financial pro fessionals. You’re probably well on your way to curating a carefully thought-out tech stack that complements your business and helps your finance team move ahead. So how far ahead of the curve are you? And what could you be implementing next to supercharge your tech stack? The answer? Approval automation.AtApprovalMax, we specialise in automating approval processes for your accounts payable and ac counts receivable. If you’re looking for a simple solution to streamline processes for your financial documents, tighten up on your spend control, and accelerate your automation journey, then ApprovalMax could be for you. What is automatedandApprovalMax,howcanapprovalsbenefityourfinance team or clients? So you’ve adopted Xero, and you’re nearly ready to start using approval auto mation – the benefits of time-saving, traceability, ease of use, and one univer sal approval system that’s easy to understand sound so appealing!Chasing approvals has to be one of the most time-consuming, frustrating tasks for finance profession als, so how do you revamp your approval process, and where should you start? Read more By Konstantin Bredyuk
5 WAYS TO MAKE PERFORMANCE REVIEWS EASY AND EFFECTIVE THOUGHT LEADERS COME TOGETHER TO DISCUSS “WHY BOOKKEEPERS ARE THE FUTURE OF ACCOUNT ING” AT A PANEL AT THIS YEAR’S ACCOUNTEX.
1) Use (and Re-Use) Performance Review Templates! When you design your Performance Management program, look for opportuni ties to create standard, reusable templates wherever possible. This can be by using the same Form, the same documentation, the same ques tionnaire… or a combination of these. Cre ating a simple template form that you use again and again across many different re views will make your life much easier. It will also achieve the always-sought consistency across different reviews. When you take a moment to make something into a template, you create a process which means that re views for each employee are managed more consistently and are also more easily com parable.
The last few years have seen a seismic shift in the business landscape, wheth er it be the boom in small business creation seen by the pandemic, technolog ical disruption seeming to democratise the financial management of companies or changes to the legislative landscape. But what does this mean for the bookkeep ing profession? Speaking at Accountex, the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers’ (ICB) panel of experts took out their crystal balls and dis cussed the future of book keeping. Technologyautomationand Automation has present ed a challenge to many in dustries, and bookkeeping is no exception. A 2020 survey conducted by Sage demon strates that entrepreneurs increasingly want to take control of their business’ finances and feel empow ered to do so using digital accounting software. This trend surely suggests that the role of the bookkeeper is at risk of becoming obso lete, but is this the case? Rasa D’Alton FICB PM.Dip, ICB member and owner of Cloudit Bookkeep ing Ltd, remains confident that business owners will not turn their back on vital bookkeeping support from qualified professionals. Sim ilarly, Dayle Rodriguez, Kres ton Reeves’ Systems Advi sory Manager questioned the threat that accounting software poses to account ancy professionals. “AI is not as smart as people think,” he said “accounts need the oversight of a skilled ac countancy professional for them to make sense to busi nesses.” It is not enough to simply file accounts elec tronically without guidance, and entrepreneurs are de manding the level of insight, engagement and knowl edge of their business’ fig ures which bookkeepers are uniquely placed to provide. This sentiment is illustrated in the exponential growth of the sector, with a fifty-fold increase in its turnover and number of bookkeepers since 2003. Read more EMBRACE THE FUTURE BY ADDING APPROVAL AUTOMATION TO YOUR ACCOUNTING APP STACK WITH APPROVALMAX
NO-ONE LOOKS FORWARD TO PER FORMANCE REVIEWS BUT THIS AP PROACH CHANGES EVERYTHING With a smart process and a progressive, goal-based approach, performance reviews can become the performance ‘unlocker’ they were always supposed to be. Although many of us dread the upcom ing performance review, studies repeatedly show that both employees and managers want regular performance reviews (and that not having them is actually worse!). From our work with thousands of small and medium businesses, our team kept hearing that managers wanted a way to do high-impact performance reviews, but in a way that was fast and easy. These are the principles that we built into our system, and that we suggest all businesses use when it’s time for performance reviews…
2) Gather Your Employee’s Input BEFORE the Review Every business has their own process when providing feedback on employees’ performance, but we’ve found that the Per formance Review meeting is more effective when the employee has already been asked to provide their own input. Using a templated form, have the staff member complete their input, answer ques tions, self-reflect on their quality of work and their own development and goals before the review itself. This will help lead the discus sion and pave the way for more meaningful feedback.Thisapproach is very effective as it changes the discussion from ‘what you’ve done wrong and where you need to im prove’ to something like ‘how can I help you achieve your goals’. Even less-experienced managers will find that the focus shifts to be more positive and constructive.
FeaturesXU Biweekly | No. 3610 Saturday 13 August 2022
3) Include Peer Input 360-Degree Feedback Reviews have re ceived a lot of attention in recent years. By asking for feedback from the employee’s peers and direct reports, you can often get a much more complete view of their contribu tion and areas for growth. When we built our own new perfor mance management system, we wanted to allow complete control over who is asked for input, and what the input questions are. For example, you might just include colleagues, or just direct reports, or some combination. You can also ask open-ended questions for the deepest insights, or keep the require ments super-quick with a scale-based an swer approach (we love using the Likert scale for this!). You can also choose for the employee to have access to the feedback... Find out more By Rosalia Munro, Institute for Certified Bookkeepers By Sarah Brandenburg
The future's bright, the future's bookkeeping Issue 31 1Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine magazine The independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users ISSUE31 COVER STORY Don’t get left behind Supercharge your Xero tech stack Xero PLUS MORELOADSFROM Connected Apps TUTORIALS CASE STUDIES INTERVIEWS NEW APPS NEW RELEASES 9 772054 722009 with approval automation
By Simon Smallwood, World First
WHAT ARE ACCOUNTINGOUTSOURCEDSERVICES?
THE ROLE WE HAVE TO PLAY IN GETTING MORE WOMEN INTO ACCOUNTING
ACCOUNTING FIRMS NEED A DEDICATED FOCUS ON INCLU SIVITY TO MAKE AN IM PACT Women want to get into the industry - with Igni tion’s Women in Accounting Awards seeing a 27% YoY in crease in Diversity,submissions.equityand in clusion (DEI) is one of the most talked about issues across all sectors and in dustries. It’s no shock that diversity of thought is a cru cial factor for growing the business. It’s also proven to be an important part of at tracting talent, with 76% of job seekers considering it a top factor when evaluating job Thinkingoffers. about DEI across the accounting sec tor is no different. It has long been a male game, but with more accounting firms tak ing a DEI-focused approach to hiring and culture, the accounting profession has become more accessible for women. In fact, Accountan cy Age’s “Top 50+50” sur vey demonstrates this, find ing that, at the time of the research’s launch in 2020, nearly half of all qualified accountants were female (45%) - however, only onefifth of senior roles within the sector were occupied by women.Barriers to equality still exist. This is why the ac counting industry needs to better engage its people to make sure they are putting the onus on themselves to ensure the sector adapts to reflect our diverse society. At Ignition, this is something we strongly believe in - and we’re making sure we don’t just talk the talk. In fact, we recently an nounced the winners of our 2021 Top 50 Women in Ac counting Awards. We are keen drivers of the annual awards programme because we understand the need to recognise outstanding wom en who are driving mean ingful change and leading the way for the next gener ation in the accounting and bookkeeping industry - for example, Michelle Kvello at Lantern Partners, who said she’s “grateful for the oppor tunity that [she now has] to be able to use the [Award] to further drive the support and recognition for other women in accounting and finance, and more broadly to promote diversity within the industry which will in turn lift us all.”Now in its fifth year run ning, the awards programme received almost one thou sand nominations... Find out more By Francesca Deery, Ignition OUTSOURCED ACCOUNTING SER VICES CAN BE THE BEST SOLU TION FOR E-COMMERCE SELLERS TO MEET THEIR FINANCIAL REGULATORY OBLIGATIONS. THIS WORLDFIRST OVER VIEW WILL OUTLINE THE BENEFITS OF SEEKING OUTSIDE HELP WITH ACCOUNT ING IN E-COMMERCE. Think of accountancy as the backbone of any company. Your company needs reliable accounts data to make informed financial decisions to stay in operation. Outsourced accounting services frees up e-commerce sellers’ time and insulates them from unnec essary risk (such as accidentally filing an in correct tax return). Outside help with your accounting can also reveal opportunities to increase busi ness profits — opportunities you may not have noticed if you’re busy doing every oth er task to keep your company afloat. Small business e-commerce sellers can access a wide range of accounting tech nologies to make the bookkeeping process easier.This article outlines how outsourced accounting services and technologies can replicate the benefits of hiring an in-house accounts team for less cost. Why do many online sellers personally handle their accounts admin? When you are just starting as an e-com merce seller, you may juggle another job, raise a family, or have other things you like to do alongside your ‘side hustle’ business. Keep reading
Fintech NewsXU Biweekly | No. 36 Saturday 13 August 2022 11 WE HAVE BEEN WORKING CLOSE LY WITH THE CPD CERTIFICA TION SERVICE TO HAVE OUR ARTICLES CPD CERTIFIED. As you read through our sister publica tion, XU Magazine, any article that shows the CPD Certified logo has been approved to count towards your CPD points. Claim your FREE CPD Points! XU MAGAZINE IS CPD CERTIFIED FOLLOW OUR PUBLICATION...SISTER@xumagazine@xumagazine@XUMagazine@xu_magazine
PayPal Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results Revolut Business turns 5: how we helped 3 customers go global AS WE CELEBRATE REVOLUT BUSINESS’ 5TH BIRTHDAY, ONE OF THE BEST GIFTS WE COULD ASK FOR IS OUR CUSTOMERS’ SUCCESS. WE SPOKE TO THREE FAST-GROWING SCALE-UPS WHO’VE BEEN WITH US FOR SOME OF THEIR MAJOR MILESTONES ABOUT HOW THEY OVERCAME BARRI ERS TO ENTER NEW MARKETS. Our goal is the same today as it was back in 2017: to enable our customers to do business globally, from day one.And in the last five years the unique challenges your business naturally faces haven’t really changed... Read more FinTech NewsXU Biweekly | No. 3612 Saturday 13 August 2022 XU Subscribe to our mailing list and never miss an issue! Hub Subscribe 9 Daily The latest news from all connectedfavouriteyourXeroapps 9 Every fortnight XU Biweekly 9 Quarterly XU Magazine DON’T DROP THE BALL: STARLING BANK SUPPORTS WOMEN FOOTBALLERS OF TOMORROW Tandem Bank Joins Raisin UK Savings Platform Super Human: Why mental health is a leadership priority (Pleo) WE’VE GONE FROM ONE USER, TO 20 MILLION CUSTOMERS. WE GREW FROM A FEW EM PLOYEES IN LONDON, TO THE DREAM TEAM OF MORE THAN 5,000 REVOLUTERS SCATTERED ALL OVER THE WORLD. For our 7th birthday we invite you for a short tripstarting in London via Australia, Poland, Portugal and many more countries, ending up in Mexico! We’ve asked eight Revoluters who joined us from 2015 to 2022 about their memories, experience and story at Revolut and how we’ve changed over the years. Valdas, you joined Revolut in 2015 - what was the company like back then compared to today's rocketship? Compared to Revolut today with thousands of em ployees across dozens of offices, it's easy to forget how... Read more Revolut's 7 years in our employees eyes STARLING BANK, THE NATIONAL BANK ING SPONSOR OF THE UEFA WOMEN’S EURO 2022, WILL DONATE £28,000 TO EMERGING PLAYERS AND GRASS ROOTS FOOTBALL CLUBS TO HELP DEVELOP THE PIPELINE OF FEMALE FOOTBALLING TALENT. Twenty-three grants of £1,000 each will be donat ed to clubs based in the tournament’s nine host cit ies and venues across the UK, including Manchester, Sheffield, Southampton and Brighton. The bank has also partnered with SportsAid to identify five up-and-com ing players that have each received a £1,000 grant to support their training and development.JillScott MBE, Lioness, SportsAid alumni and... Find out more PAYPAL HOLDINGS, INC. (NASDAQ: PYPL) TODAY ANNOUNCED ITS SECOND QUARTER 2022 RESULTS FOR THE PERIOD ENDED JUNE 30, 2022. THE EARNINGS RE LEASE AND RELATED MATERIALS DISCUSSING THESE RESULTS CAN BE FOUND ON ITS INVESTOR RELATIONS WEBSITE ASPX.TERLY-RESULTS/DEFAULT.COM/FINANCIALS/QUARHTTPS://INVESTOR.PYPL.AT PayPal Holdings, Inc. will host a conference call to discuss these results at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time (5:00 p.m. Eastern time) today. A live webcast of the confer ence call will be available at https://investor.pypl.com. In addition, an archive of the webcast will be accessi ble for 90 days through the same link. Find out more WE KNOW IT’S HOT OUTSIDE, BUT WE’RE STILL RAMPING UP THE HEAT AT REVOLUT BUSINESS HQ. From sleek-and-simple card manage ment to this summer’s must-have busi ness accessory, July’s updates are jampacked with new products and features to make a difference to your day-to-day. Ready? Let’s dive in: Invest your idle business cash into BTC and ETH Based in the UK or Ireland and ready to explore a new frontier? Meet Cryp to for Business, helping Company plan holders diversify your idle business cash in a few clicks. With it, you can buy, hold, and sell Bitcoin and Ether with 30+ fiat currencies, right from your Revolut... Read more LEADING DIGITAL BANK TANDEM ANNOUNCES THAT IT HAS JOINED THE RAISIN UK ONLINE SAVINGS MARKET PLACE, INITIALLY OFFERING UK CUSTOMERS ACCESS TO A RANGE OF ITS COM PETITIVELY PRICED FIXED TERM SAVINGS PRODUCTS.
This is an important first partnership announcement for Tandem and its savings platform, demonstrating Tandem’s ability to extend and diversify its deposit rais ing channels. With its mis sion to build the UK’s green er digital bank, Tandem has been clear on its intentions to broaden and develop its product offering across a range of consumer products. Tandem’s current suite of savings products extends across fixed rate and instant access; it is expected over time that additional Tandem savings products will be available via the Raisin on line marketplace. Launching on Raisin with its competi tive fixed terms saving rates, customers can choose sav ings products from one year fixed at 2.75% to five years fixed at 3.15%. This new arrangement with Raisin means that Tandem’s fixed term savings products will also be available via Raisin UK’s distribution channels through Aviva’s “Aviva Save” and AJ Bell’s “Youinvest” hubs.Ben Mitchell, Director of Savings at Tandem Bank, commented:“Weare excited to join the Raisin UK marketplace. With the cost of living cri sis, Brits are understanda bly keen to look for the best rates for their hard-earned cash, and they now have the choice of coming to Tandem direct, or accessing Tandem’s savings products through the Raisin market place.”Kevin Mountford, Raisin... Keep reading By Laurie Roxby By Karolina Kabula
Welcome to azupay's July Monthly NewsletterRecap AZUPAY HAD AN EXCITING MONTH OF JULY, FULL OF ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS. HERE'S A RECAP: Azupay on Startup Daily discussing PayTo Tom Rundle, azupay's Chief Product Of ficer, talked with Simon Thomsen on Startup Daily about the roll out of PayTo and how we help businesses and governments transition to real-time account-to-account payments. Breakfast with Sydney Azupay team Join us in Sydney over a coffee and... Keep reading WHEN YOU THINK OF YOUR LEADERSHIP PRIORI TIES, WHAT COMES TO MIND? Maybe it’s how to keep that bottom line healthy. Maybe it’s your hiring plans. Maybe it’s making sure your team are focused. Or maybe it’s all of the above. But there’s another thing that should be added (and arguably be at the fore front of that list) and that’s looking after your team’s mental health.We asked industry experts how business leaders can step up to prioritise support for their people. Beyond the digital four-walls of Slack and Zoom, here's... Keep reading
