XU Biweekly - Issue 4 - 3rd May 2021 by XU Magazine

Monday 03 May 2021 | No. 4

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

Goldman Sachs invests £50m in Starling Bank

GOCARDLESS LAUNCHES OPEN BANKING PAYMENTS

TARLING, THE LEADING UK DIGITAL BANK, TODAY ANNOUNCES A £50 MILLION INVESTMENT BY GOLDMAN SACHS GROWTH EQUITY (“GOLDMAN SACHS”). THE INVESTMENT IS AN EXTENSION OF THE BANK’S OVERSUBSCRIBED £272 MILLION SERIES D FUNDING ROUND ANNOUNCED IN MARCH 2021, WHICH VALUED IT IN EXCESS OF £1.1 BILLION PRE-MONEY. THIS TAKES THE TOTAL RAISED IN THE SERIES D ROUND TO £322 MILLION.

Starling now has more than two million current accounts, including 350,000 business accounts. Its deposit base has increased from approximately £1 billion just over a year ago, to now more than £6 billion. It is the fastest-growing bank for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe and now holds a 6% share of the UK’s SME banking market. It is on course to report its first full year in profit by the end of its next financial year-end. The new funding announced today will support Starling’s continued rapid and now profitable growth. Anne Boden, founder and CEO of Starling Bank,

OFFERING BUSINESSES A NEW ALTERNATIVE TO TAKING ONEOFF PAYMENTS

Anne Boden, Founder & CEO, Starling Bank

said: “Securing the support of another global financial heavyweight demonstrates the strength of demand from investors and represents yet another vote of confidence in Starling. Goldman Sachs

$125M in Series G, $1.4B valuation, and the Coming of Age of a Category

By Krish Subramanian

N 2020, MAKESPACE, THE LEADING FULL-SERVICE STORAGE SOLUTION PROVIDER, SAW THEIR CORE MARKET OF CONSUMERS DECLINE AS THE COVID LOCKDOWN MEASURES WENT INTO EFFECT. MEANWHILE, BUSINESSES THAT MOVED TO A REMOTE CULTURE NEEDED STORAGE FOR THEIR DURABLES. WITHIN DAYS, MAKESPACE LAUNCHED STOR-

Monday 03 May 2021 ISSN 2054-7234

9 772054 723006

will bring valuable insight as we continue with the expansion of lending in the UK, as well as our European expansion and anticipated M&A.” James Hayward, managing director at Goldman

AGE-FOR-BUSINESSES. Study.com capitalized on the overnight surge in demand for e-learning by foraying into 18 new markets within 90 days. Today, they are one of the leading online education platforms supporting over 34 million students and educators a month globally. MakeSpace and Study.com both orchestrated these changes on top of their subscription revenue infrastructure – Chargebee. So did countless others. 18,000 customers across 160 countries run their subscription revenue operations on Chargebee.

Sachs, said: “Starling is one of the leading and most innovative digital banks in the UK, with an ambitious technology-first leadership...

Find out more

OCARDLESS, A LEADING FINTECH FOR BANK-TO-BANK PAYMENTS, HAS TODAY LAUNCHED INSTANT BANK PAY, A NEW OPEN BANKING FEATURE DIRECTLY INTEGRATED INTO ITS GLOBAL PAYMENT PLATFORM. WITH INSTANT BANK PAY, MERCHANTS CAN TAKE INSTANT, ONE-OFF BANKTO-BANK PAYMENTS FROM NEW AND EXISTING CUSTOMERS WHILE STILL REAPING THE BENEFITS OF BANK DEBIT FOR THEIR RECURRING PAYMENTS. The announcement marks the first milestone in GoCardless’ journey to accelerate its open banking strategy, for which it received $95m in funding at the end of 2020. By combining open banking technology with its existing global bank debit network, GoCardless can offer its 60,000 merchants a new low-cost, seamless and convenient way to collect instant payments that works for any revenue model. “We’ve specialised in bank-to-bank payments for over 10 years, with bank debit as the primary payment method. And while it provides many advantages to consumers and businesses, speed of payment authorisation is a drawback,” said Hiroki Takeuchi, co-found-

P10 $1.7m in Series A Funding

er and CEO of GoCardless. “Instant Bank Pay addresses this by giving merchants the best of both worlds: open banking will provide instant confirmation of payment authorisation, enabling them to have immediate visibility of their one-off payments, and bank debit will continue to offer the cash flow, cost and retention benefits they have come to expect.” With the introduction of Instant Bank Pay, GoCardless will expand its offering into the adjacent e-commerce market, where it can take on both one-off and ‘card-on-file’ payments. Takeuchi added: “By enabling businesses to take any kind of payment through GoCardless, we can challenge the dominance of cards and move beyond collecting subscriptions, invoices and instalments. The launch of this open banking feature means we can now serve any merchant, regardless of whether they have an ongoing or one-off relationship with their customers.” While it can be used in many scenarios, Instant Bank Pay addresses an issue that is particularly acute for recurring revenue businesses : according to research from GoCardless, 85 per cent of merchants with this business model have a...

New Apps & Updates

2 XU Biweekly | No. 4

Introducing CarPlay support!

NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!

FORECAST GLOBAL - AN AI-NATIVE platform that represents the most advanced technology ever applied to managing projects, resources, and finances. Get real-time insights into outstanding money across your portfolio.

BNBTALLY GLOBAL - INTEGRATE Airbnb & Xero for auto importing, detailed bookkeeping & seamless reconciliation. No more manual data entry or uploading CSVs. Track revenue, taxes, hosting fees & more. Trusted by professional accountants & property managers.

By Emma Potter

AIT, IT’S APRIL ALREADY? THAT MEANS NEW MONTHLY UPDATES. AND THIS MONTH, WE’RE SHOWERING YOU WITH A BUCKET-LOAD OF NEW IMPROVEMENTS AND FEATURES. FROM TWEAKING OUR PAYMENT CONTACTS HOMEPAGE, TO NEW LIMITED EDITION CARDS, WE HAVE SO MUCH TO SHARE. SO, GRAB A FEW MINUTES TO YOURSELF, AND HAVE A BROWSE.

Personalise your username and get paid without revealing your mobile number Make your Revolut username unique. Choose a username in-app that’s personalised and you’ll never need to hand your number out to get paid. Splitting a bill? Sort-

CEO: David Hassall Managing Editor: Wesley Cornell Director of Strategic Partnerships: Alex Newson Communications Manager: Bethany Fulks Advertising: advertising@xumagazine.com www.xumagazine.com ‘Xero’ is a trademark of Xero Limited (New Zealand). XU Biweekly and XU Magazine is collaboratively produced by an independent group of Xero users and is not affiliated in any way with Xero. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © XU Magazine Ltd 2014-2021. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. XU Biweekly is published by XU Magazine Ltd (08811842), registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 12 Jordan Street, Liverpool, L1 0BP, United Kingdom. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. XU Magazine Ltd cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant XU Magazine Ltd a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all/any editions, including in any physical or digital format, throughout the world. Any material you submit is sent at your risk and, although every care is taken, neither XU Magazine Ltd nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily the views of XU Magazine Ltd, its editors or its contributors.

ed. Make it memorable and easy for people to send you money. Snap your unique name up now before all the good ones are taken!

Glow-in-the-dark cards Whether you’re a boxing fan, a gym bunny, or you just love collecting exclusive, limited edition designs, we’ve got the card for you. We’ve teamed up with Anthony Joshua to in a bid to support gyms and leisure centres affected by COVID-19 across the UK. For every limited edition card our customers buy, we’ll donate £1 to independent gyms and leisure centres. Want to help? It’s easy. Get your limited edition Anthony Joshua card in-app for a small fee and #Lightitup.

Read more on the XU Hub

By Nigel Adams

S THE FAMOUS BEATLES SONG SAYS… ‘IT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY’ THAT I TOOK THE LEAP FROM A STABLE WELL-PAID JOB INTO THE UNCERTAIN WORLD OF BEING A BUSINESS OWNER! I set the stall early by trying to fix the obvious issues that I saw with accountancy practices… offering direct debits, fixed fees and 30-day turnaround of accounts – nothing innovative there, just plain sense as far as I was concerned (although many said it couldn’t be done!). That is where we have hung our hat for the last 20 years – challeng-

ing the preconceived ways of running an accountancy practice, with success and the odd skinned knees! We have continued our drive to create a truly scalable business with innovation at its core, that is a stimulating workplace for our 63 strong team and a base from which to offer an ever-expanding range of services to our SME clients. We have had the privilege to work with some truly inspirational mentors, team members and business owners. We’ve learned a lot along the way and long may it continue.

TEREST IN THIS WEEK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS.

In his speech Rishi Sunak set out some new initiatives to promote UK Fintech. The initiatives are aimed at ensuring the sector’s growth and helping the UK

to remain at the cutting edge of digitalising financial services. Highlights included the announcement of a new task force between the HM treasury and the Bank of England, a new financial market...

MALL BUSINESSES ARE THE BACKBONE OF EVERY ECONOMY AROUND THE WORLD. IN SINGAPORE, THEY MAKE UP 99% OF ALL BUSINESSES, EMPLOY 65% OF THE COUNTRY’S TOTAL WORKFORCE AND CONTRIBUTE 48% OF SINGAPORE’S GDP. THE OPPORTUNITY FOR XERO TO TRANSFORM THE LIVES OF SMES ACROSS SINGAPORE, AND AROUND THE REGION, IS ONE THAT WE HOLD CLOSE TO OUR HEARTS. I have lived in Singapore for nearly four years, and I have witnessed the incredible transformation of local accounting and SME communities in that time. This has been underpinned by strong government support for digitalisation. I am incredibly proud...

Find out more

GOOD TO SEE FINTECH HIGH ON THE GOVT’S AGENDA

HIS WEEK, CHANCELLOR RISHI SUNAK GAVE A KEYNOTE SPEECH AT INNOVATE FINANCE’S UK FINTECH WEEK SHOWING HIS SUPPORT FOR THE FINTECH INDUSTRY. AS AN EMERGING FINTECH STARTUP, WE’VE TAKEN A KEEN IN-

By Kevin Fitzgerald

Features

4 XU Biweekly | No. 4

Monday 03 May 2021

SPOTTED ON TWITTER...

INFOODLE GIFT AID PLUS: WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?

How charities can increase their cash flow with Gift Aid By David Jurgensen

IFT AID COULD BE A SOURCE OF ADDED REVENUE FOR MANY NONPROFIT ORGANISATIONS - YET CLAIMING IT CAN BE AN ADMINISTRATIVE NIGHTMARE. THANKFULLY, WE HAVE A SOLUTION THAT ALLOWS YOU TO STREAMLINE AND SIMPLIFY THIS PROCESS, MAKING FILING GIFT AID CLAIMS FAST AND EASY. As mentioned above, Gift Aid is a vital source of revenue for UK charities. It provides a 25% uplift on eligible donations to the nonprofit organisation when claimed from the HMRC. The challenge with Gift Aid is to organise the paperwork with efficiency so that the organisation - or their bookkeepers - isn’t weighed down with the effort. So, how can the task be made seamless, thereby ensuring the claims are made frequently and the organisation’s cash flow is improved?

Use reliable tools to simplify the process Doing your bookkeeping using Xero means that you have a straightforward tool for managing your day-today accounting and period-

ic reporting requirements. Add infoodle to the mix, and you have a powerful system to ensure your Gift Aid can be processed, at minimal cost. HMRC requires strict formats – infoodle ensures these are correct, giving you clear warnings before there is any problem. infoodle also has specific features to ensure seamless integration with Xero. As an accountant, you can carry on your day-today bookkeeping in Xero knowing that infoodle is working in the background to pull the data required out of Xero at the appropriate time. infoodle intelligently uses the data items to bring together a claim, ensuring that the right people with the right approval are being used - and the right transactions are utilised to ensure the claim is accurate. It does all this for you, you simply review the claim. After the data has been transferred to infoodle and reviewed, your claim can be submitted. Once set up, it only takes a few clicks to prepare and file your claim, no spreadsheet manipulation required!

Get your donors’ permission to claim Gift

Aid on their donations In contrast with many other countries where donors receive tax relief directly into their bank account, the UK nonprofits can make claims for tax returns on donations made to them, making their fundraising efforts go further. The infoodle Gift Aid Plus package, which was recently introduced to the market, provides you with a new feature of running reports. Reports give a comprehensive overview of your organisation’s transaction history. While before you were only able to view how many donors donated and how much of those donations are Gift Aid claimable, now it is possible to access more data concerning the donor community, their permissions around Gift Aid and the financial donations they have made.

Strengthen ties with donors by using statements Statements are a powerful ally in your organisational admin life and can help build stronger relations with your communities, customers, and donors, as well as save you potential head-

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aches down the track when it is time to file your claim. With infoodle Gift Aid Plus, charities are now able to take their communication with donors to the next level by providing them with regular updates on their donations. Statements can be customised, so organisations can design their own adding their logos and other brand elements. Sending out Statements is a great way to keep in touch with the people donating to your organisation. Open and consistent communication builds trust, keeps the donors thinking about you and your cause, and results in more donations being made. Bringing all the required information together can be time consuming, inaccurate and frustrating, which is why some nonprofits put off or avoid claiming Gift Aid. Using infoodle Gift Aid Plus and Xero can be the first step to making the bookkeeping process easy, so you can file your Gift Aid claim more frequently and accurately, thus increasing the income of your organisation.

Find out more

Mental wellbeing: support yourself and small businesses

By Tim Hoopmann

T IS NOW 2021 AND WHILE I MAY HAVE FELT THAT THINGS WOULD GET BACK TO NORMAL AFTER 2020, I FOUND THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC HAS CHANGED FOREVER THE WORLD, MY LIFE AND THE WAY I LIVE AND WORK. I REALISED IT IS NOT ABOUT '2020 IS OVER AND DONE WITH AND NOW I CAN GET BACK TO NORMAL'. 2020 HAPPENED BUT IT WAS NOW IN THE PAST. I managed to get through the challenges and chaos that was thrown my way. I built resilience. I was grateful for being in a place that was safer than most. Putting 2020 into better context helped me address the year and move forward. I now look at 2021 as also being a year of difference. However, I will be in A better frame of mind to deal with it and the continuing change. I am constantly working on better mental health for myself. I make this a priority in my life so I can then go about supporting others round me. In 2020 I had the pleasure of continuing my volunteer work with Beyond Blue. One of the great joys in my life. I am blessed to have the

opportunity to volunteer with amazing people who are doing such valuable work for Beyond Blue. A significant development for small business by Beyond Blue was the launch of an online training course to help small business advisers provide mental health support to business owners impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. I was very honored to be part of the development and then the promotion of this amazing course. The free Mental wellbeing: support yourself and small businesses course was launched at a time when two thirds of Australia’s small business owners report the pandemic has negatively affected their mental health. The course is available nationwide thanks to the support and expertise of Beyond Blue’s Supporting Partners Xero and Go1. Evidence shows many small business owners seek advice and support from trusted advisers including accountants, bookkeepers, tax agents, industry associations and representative bodies who are often the first to notice when a client might be experiencing...

Don’t miss the next issue! XU Biweekly

Features

6 XU Biweekly | No. 4

Monday 03 May 2021

Making work life easier for bookkeepers in the UK

NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!

PLUSDESIGNBUILD AU, NZ, UK, US - AN INTUITIVE 3D EStimating software for Builders, by Builders. From winning jobs with 3D walkthroughs to generating accurate BOQ’s, to sending Purchase Orders & Quotes to Xero. Two-way integration to Xero eliminates manual entry. Supercharge efficiency, reduce cost and increase accuracy & sales

The Untapped Potential of Your Trade Service Clients

FIREMATE AU - A CUSTOM-BUILT ASSET MANAGEMENT software package developed specifically for the Fire Protection Industry designed around all versions of AS1851 and other state-based legislative requirements. Delivers automatic compliance reporting, complete asset management and defect quoting through the simplest workflow possible.

SPOTTED ON TWITTER...

A feature rich tool packing a punch on the fintech scene in Australia, is heading to the UK.

The challenge for trade businesses is to deliver quotes quickly, without sacrificing accuracy. By Brad Halcrow

OR PLUMBERS, ELECTRICIANS, INDUSTRIAL CLEANERS, PAINTERS OR ANY TRADE SERVICE-BASED BUSINESS, GENERATING TENDERS, ESTIMATES AND QUOTES IS NON-BILLABLE TIME THAT HAS NO GUARANTEE OF A RETURN.

State of Play The construction industry has shown no sign of slowing despite global events. The work is there and there’s a lot of it. Now more than ever the construction industry and it’s associated trades require speed and accuracy to generate quote and estimates to win jobs and make sure those jobs are going to be

profitable. Accountants are in the ideal position to advise their tradie clients on how to streamline their estimating process.

Out with the old When a trade business is asked to supply an estimate or a quote for a project, floor plans are supplied for the dwelling to be quoted. For many, still to this day, a huge A1 printer swings into action. The plans are laid out on a large table and a collection of highlighters are used to count and measure the materials required and, the associated labour costs.

quires the user to upload a floor plan, then mark and trace each item to be included in the quote. As the user is counting and measuring items on the plan, Groundplan is generating a worksheet table of data. The resulting numbers can be adjusted before exporting to a spreadsheet, or one of our growing list of integrations, including Xero.

The Time-Saving Potential We all know that systemising a business to avoid double handling is paramount to efficiency.

The Digital Potential

The takeoff process in the digital age simply re-

By Troy Brown

TROY BROWN TALKS ALL THINGS XBERT AND HOW THEIR USERS ARE DRIVING THE ROADMAP...

When you consider all the things the finance industry has come up against since the start of 2020: lockdowns and a move to working remotely, struggling businesses, the need to pivot to online solutions, stimulus packages and the management of them – it’s been tough. With all the added responsibilities, the workload for bookkeepers and accountants has increased exponentially, but the day-to-day tasks haven’t let up. In our conversations with hundreds of bookkeepers and accountants, we discovered there are some common pain points and we at XBert could help alleviate them. It’s been our focus to work alongside the people on the ground, to ensure we’re offering a product that’s practical, intuitive and really does make work life easier. This is where we’ve come to – but it’s just the beginning. We have an extensive development roadmap ahead of us.

Do more, in less time

GROW GLOBAL WITH WORLDFIRST: ECOMMERCE OPPORTUNITY AND INNOVATION IN 2021

By Simon Smallwood

N 2020, ECOMMERCE BECOME MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER. THE ADOPTION OF DIGITISATION WAS NOT ONLY A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR SMES, BUT ALSO THEIR ACCOUNTANTS, BOOKKEEPERS AND ADVISORS. In 2020, ecommerce became more important than ever. With government enforced lockdowns meaning people have to stay at home, the coronavirus pandemic led

to a significant shift in consumer behaviour, as more people turned to online services to acquire what they needed. This change in consumer behaviour inevitably pushed UK SMEs to rethink their business models and pivot to a digital-first approach. This adoption of digitisation was not only a great opportunity for SMEs, but also their accountants, bookkeepers, and advisors.

Read more in Issue 26

GREAT NEWS! ApprovalMax is the New Zealand Xero App Partner of the Year 2020 Read more in our blog!

Diane McCaffrey from BYO Group has freed up hours each week using XBert. "We love perfect, and XBert helps us do things faster and know it’s right.” Right now, XBert is unrivalled in its AI-audit risk alerts. Our mission is to help bookkeepers have the cleanest set of books, at any given time, for smarter advice and decisions in business. When you can trust the data is accurate, you can add meaningful value to your clients and take your business to the next professional level. Bookkeepers have moved from being data entry professionals and into a more advisory role – with this evolution of the industry, technology can be a bookkeeper’s best friend. Using the latest in data science, AI and machine learning to analyse your accounting software, flagging any issues, inconsistencies...

Find out more

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

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

Book a Zoom meeting with our team advancetrack.com/start-here/ www.advancetrack.com Where Quality and Security comes as standard

Features

8 XU Biweekly | No. 4

Why you should hire an ICB accounting apprentice An ICB Apprentice Is...

Boosts Your Productivity

Eager To Learn

Passionate

Hardworking

Driven Cost-Effective

Confident

Modern Mindset

Productive

A Team Player

Great Work-Ethic

Great Communicator

Loyal

Homegrown Talent

Talented Government Funded

Tailored To Your Business

Digitally Literate

Enthusiastic Interpersonal Skills

www.bookkeepers.org.uk/apprenticeships

By Iris Christofides

ANT TO ADD A BREATH OF FRESH AIR TO YOUR TEAM? SOMEONE YOU CAN MENTOR AND SHAPE TO YOUR BUSINESS? THEN IT’S TIME YOU CONSIDER TAKING ON AN ICB APPRENTICE! TYPICALLY SPENDING FOUR DAYS OF THE WEEK IN THE OFFICE AND ONE DAY AWAY ON GOVERNMENT-FUNDED TRAINING, APPRENTICES CAN MEAN A WIN-WIN SITUATION FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED. THE APPRENTICE GETS TO LEARN INVALUABLE SKILLS IN A JOB THEY’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT WHILST EARNING A SALARY AND QUALIFICATIONS. YOUR BUSINESS BENEFITS FROM A DIGITALLY-MINDED AND EAGER-TO-LEARN EMPLOYEE WHOM YOU CAN SHAPE INTO THE PERFECT MEMBER OF YOUR TEAM. ICB awards three accounting apprenticeships that you can choose from to suit your business: Accounts/Finance Assistant Apprenticeship (Level 2), Assistant Accountant Apprenticeship (Level 3) and Payroll Administrator Apprenticeship (Level 3).

Save on Costs and Wages Hiring an apprentice for your business is a great way to save money, in addition to introducing new skills and talent into your team. Realistically, any new employee should un-

Boost Your Productivity Whilst you might worry that training an apprentice is too time-consuming, 78% of employers report that apprenticeships help them improve productivity. ICB Apprentice of the Year, Maddi Cooper, from Dudley accountants Whitley Stimpson Ltd knows first-hand that apprentices are eager to learn and want to do everything they can to support your business. It’s a win-win situation; you’ll encourage their growth, and, in turn, you have a hard worker on your team ready to help at any time. “I enjoy that you get to learn about new legislation, furlough during coronavirus, payment, redundancies... I just love that there’s so much to learn!” Maddi Cooper, ICB Apprentice of the Year 2020".

Find out more

A guide to help your clients be more efficient while boosting the value of your business... By Larissa Paris

Adding app advisory to your skill set is a powerful way to boost your own knowledge, service offering and revenue while you help clients work smarter. We recently caught up with a Xero partner who is doing all this

for his clients and more! Meet Scott Elder, the founder of App Advisor, based in Adelaide, Australia. App Advisor’s goal is to help businesses combine systems, processes and people so they thrive. Scott has a deep understanding of the accounting industry and latest software applications. He believes that building app advisory skills can vastly improve the relationship accountants and bookkeepers have with their clients and result in a win/win for both. In fact, Xero research highlights how small businesses grow net profit 23% faster when they’re working with an advisor and 30% faster when using apps in the cloud.

SPOTTED ON TWITTER...

dergo training but, with an ICB accounting apprentice, you’ll have access to government funding and grants to cover most of the cost. Smaller businesses (with an annual pay bill under £3m) can get up to 95% of training costs paid by the government for new recruits or existing staff and there’s an additional incentive payment when you hire an apprentice before the end of March. As part of the government’s plan to boost economic recovery, you’ll receive a monetary incentive of £2,000 if you hire a new apprentice aged 16-24, or £1,500 for new apprentices above the age of 25, between 1 August 2020 and 31 March 2021. You can find out more about this here. You can apply for this payment until 30 April 2021 and it’s in addition to the £1,000 employers already receive for hiring certain youngsters into apprenticeships. Over 59% of apprenticeship employers say training an apprentice is more cost-effective than hiring skilled staff. The average apprenticeship completer will increase business productivity by £214 per week. “Your apprentice can be completely tailored to suit your business- it’s the best way to gain homegrown talent!” Mark Bremner, Business Director and CEO of MBKB.

Add app advisory to your offering and become an even more trusted advisor

S A TRUSTED ADVISOR, YOU WANT TO BE CONFIDENT WITH YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS TO CLIENTS AND PROACTIVE IN HELPING THEM SUCCEED. BUT WITH SO MANY APPS IN THE MARKETPLACE SAYING THEY’RE THE BEST FOR SMALL BUSINESS, HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH TO GET BEHIND AND RECOMMEND? YOU BECOME AN APP ADVISOR!

Monday 03 May 2021

About eight years ago, Scott and his business partner discovered Xero. It was around the same time they were setting up a bookkeeping company that also provided cloud integration app advisory. When they saw what Xero could do, they decided to build their business around it. Scott says, “We started with two clients who weren’t using Xero so they were our first conversions. Since then, we’ve converted more than 200 companies to Xero and implemented apps that work well with it.” When Scott’s company reached Xero silver partner program status, they were offered Xero Practice Manager (XPM) as their practice

workflow tool. They soon found out about WorkflowMax as well, and how it was built on the same back end as XPM but to help small businesses manage jobs and projects. “We liked XPM for ourselves and I knew it would make sense to learn and recommend WorkflowMax to the right clients too,” says Scott. Scott did the WorkflowMax online advisor course which included videos, tutorials and a face-to-face meeting to get up to speed. And he got a lot of support from the WorkflowMax team whenever he had a question.

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XU Biweekly | No. 4 Accountant Tools

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FinTech News

10 XU Biweekly | No. 4

Monday 03 May 2021

COUPONS Helping those who help the community 50% off for the first 3 months Start a free trial to secure your discount* *Offer is valid for not-for-profits until 31 May 2021 for new subscriptions only.

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PLEO BILLS: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO TRACK AND PAY ALL YOUR INVOICES

ILLS ARE A HUGE PART OF HOW COMPANIES SPEND MONEY, AND THE MANUAL PROCESS INVOLVED IN INVOICE MANAGEMENT DOESN’T JUST SWALLOW TIME. IT ALSO CREATES STRESS WHEN IT COMES TO BUDGETING AND MANAGING COMPANY CASHFLOW.

We know that invoice management is a huge deal for businesses across Europe, in fact, our recent survey found that for the majority of companies, invoices make up more than 50% of all spending — and for half of all finance teams, bills account for 75% or more of all outgoings. And that’s exactly why we’re launching Pleo Bills, our invoice management system that removes the hassle from paying invoices, while keeping you in control

of your finances. Wondering why we’re launching now? Well, we have the answer to that too.

Introducing Pleo Bills Unlike other invoice management tools, Pleo Bills goes a step further. It gives you one handy place to track, pay and account for every bill your team receives — so you’re well and truly on top of company finances. Once someone from your team receives an invoice, they forward it to the company’s Pleo Bills email address. Admins get a full overview of what was ordered, who the supplier is, how much they’re owed – and when it’s due. Our handy tool makes invoice handling so much faster, from the second the invoice arrives in your inbox to the moment it’s reconciled in your accounts.

That increases your visibility of the entire process and helps you avoid getting bogged down with each payment. And we’ll also do the tedious work for you. Instead of your bookkeeper manually checking and adding every piece of information on the invoice, Pleo automatically uploads all the vital information for you.

Schedule payments so you’re always in control of cashflow All it takes is one, unforeseen bill to make a huge difference to your cashflow. With Pleo Bills, every bill from every team is visible in one overview and you can schedule payments at a time that works for you – and your finances. Paying a bill from a supplier in the UK? Pleo offers...

Australia’s first virtual card technology of its kind secures a further $1.7 million in Series A funding

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IVIPAY (DIVIPAY.COM), AUSTRALIA’S FIRST ALL-IN-ONE VIRTUAL CORPORATE CARD AND EXPENSE MANAGEMENT PLATFORM, HAS ANNOUNCED A SECOND INSTALMENT OF $1.7 MILLION IN ITS SERIES A FUNDING ROUND LED BY ANZ BANK’S VENTURE CAPITAL ARM, ANZI.

ing in control of spending and collecting receipts and accounting data. DiviPay enables businesses to provide employees with an uncapped number of cards that can be used to pay online and instore via Apple Pay and Google Pay. Finance teams and business...

Founded in 2017 by CEO Daniel Kniaz and CTO Russell Martin, DiviPay (DiviPay. com) enables finance teams to better manage, control and streamline spending across their organisation. DiviPay solves a common pain point shared by small and large businesses alike: issuing corporate cards to staff whilst stay-

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Russell Martin (CTO) & Daniel Kniaz (CEO), DiviPay

Stripe Issuing launches in Europe

TRIPE LAUNCHED STRIPE ISSUING IN AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, CYPRUS, ESTONIA, FINLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, GREECE, IRELAND, ITALY, LATVIA, LITHUANIA, LUXEMBOURG, MALTA, THE NETHERLANDS, PORTUGAL, SLOVAKIA, SLOVENIA, SPAIN, AND THE UK. STRIPE ISSUING ENABLES USERS TO CREATE, MANAGE, AND DISTRIBUTE VIRTUAL AND PHYSICAL PAYMENT CARDS, GIVING BUSINESSES MORE CONTROL OVER HOW THEY SPEND THEIR MONEY. Whether it be an on-demand delivery marketplace giving couriers cards to pay for orders, or a car rental company providing cards for drivers to purchase petrol, Stripe Issuing puts businesses in complete control of how, where, and when their money is spent. Stripe’s EMEA Business Lead Matt Henderson said: “Creating and distributing new cards in Europe has long been so complex and opaque that only a handful of companies could ever justify doing it. Today, we’re making it fast, simple, and secure. It used to take months to create and ship new cards in Europe. With Stripe Issuing, it now takes two days. We’ve been astonished by the breadth of use cases businesses in the US have found for our Issuing infrastructure, and can’t wait to see what our European users build with it.” Cards created on Stripe Issuing can be programmatically controlled, with dynamic spending limits, blocked merchant categories, advanced combinations of rules, and even real-time authorisations for each transaction, all managed via Stripe’s Issuing API. Stripe Issuing integrates seamlessly with Stripe’s broad suite of products so that users can manage card issuing programmes right alongside payments, fraud prevention, analytics, invoices, and recurring billing. Businesses can design their own branded cards in the Stripe Dashboard, with Stripe handling card production, fulfillment, and shipping. Virtual cards can be created instantly, and physical cards are shipped in just two business days. Stripe Issuing already operates at significant scale in the US, powering billions of dollars of payments in its first year, for thousands of businesses and millions of cardholders. Companies like Klarna, Ramp, and Flexshopper, who have existing card-issuing programmes, have signed on to Stripe, and users such as Cornershop have taken advantage of Issuing to launch new business opportunities. As well as enabling European businesses like Worklife and InnStyle to use Stripe Issuing, today’s launch also means Stripe’s global user base can begin issuing cards in Europe. Emburse Captio will use Stripe Issuing to enable Italian and Spanish businesses to provide expense payment...