XU Biweekly - Issue 40 - 8 October 2022

XU

Biweekly

Bright acquires tax specialist software BTCSoftware

BRIGHT, A UK AND IRELAND-BASED AC COUNTING, PRAC TICE MANAGEMENT AND PAYROLL SOFTWARE PROVIDER, HAS STRUCK A DEAL TO ACQUIRE UK BASED TAX SOFTWARE FIRM, BTCSOFTWARE LTD.

The investment in BTC Software further demon strates Bright’s commitment to delivering UK customers with best-in-breed prod ucts, following on from its investment in Accountan cyManager in March of this year. The move is part of its long-term strategy to offer an intuitive, integrated and

end-to-end cloud account ing software solution to ac counting firms and SMEs.

BTCSoftware was founded in 1999 by Rob Ellis, and Ian Katté. Rob, and current chief business development of ficer, Paul Oldridge, will both be joining Bright as part of the acquisition.

The company has made its name as a tax software expert with accounts pro duction, corporation tax and self-assessment tax return modules. It also launched its SaaS (software as a ser vice) solution, BTCHub, in 2018. The solution enables accountants to comply with Making Tax Digital (MTD)

Munro Group of

VAT software rules and is integrated with HMRC and Companies House.

Bright develops and de livers innovative accounting, practice management and payroll software. Formed in 2021, Bright also includes BrightPay, a leading payroll and HR software, as well as Surf Accounts and Surf Ac counts Production, cloudbased bookkeeping and ac counts production solutions.

Kevin McCallum, Chief Executive Officer of Bright, said: “This acquisition is another key milestone for Bright, and BTCSoftware’s...

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Xero and The Football

NAMED NEW ZEALAND’S MOSTLOVED ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE BY KIWI SMALL BUSINESSES

ANNATURE, AUSTRALIA’S AWARD-WINNING ESIGNING AND ID VERIFICATION PLATFORM, TO DAY OUTLINED THE BENEFITS OF ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH THE RAPIDLY GROW ING MUNRO GROUP OF MCDONALDS RES TAURANTS.

Implementing its eSigning platform has transformed the administration of its human resources documentation, rapidly accelerat ing their execution and helping to re-deploy thousands of hours back into the business.

The Munro Group of McDonald’s operates six restaurants on the New South Wales north coast and is ramping up for future...

pion women in

By John Coldicutt, Xero

WERE YOU ON 31 JULY 2022, WHEN A CORNER WAS SWUNG IN AND CHLOE KEL LY POKED THE BALL INTO THE NET? A SCRAPPY GOAL MADE BEAUTIFUL BY THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY, THE SUPPORT OF A NATION, AND OF COURSE, 56 YEARS OF HURT. ENGLAND WERE CROWNED UEFA WOMEN’S EURO 2022 CHAMPIONS.

More moments like this will only be pos sible when the barriers facing girls and women in football are removed. This is why we have announced two partnerships with The Football Association (FA) to champion women in football.

By Bridget Snelling, Xero

FOR

THE FOURTH YEAR IN A ROW, I

AM STOKED TO AN NOUNCE THAT XERO IS THE WINNER OF CAN STAR’S MOST SATISFIED CUSTOMER AWARD FOR SMALL BUSINESS AC COUNTING SOFTWARE.

We’re super proud to be named New Zealand’s mostloved accounting platform by our customers, and it’s even more special that we’re celebrating this win for the fourth consecutive year.

Canstar Blue is a custom er satisfaction research and ratings business aimed at helping consumers make

better purchasing decisions. Canstar’s annual survey en gages hundreds of small business owners across New Zealand to provide a bench mark of quality for account ing software.

This year, Xero received five stars in every driver of satisfaction, a pretty awe some achievement that shows just how much our customers value our soft ware.

Jose George, Canstar NZ General Manager, said the survey showed how much small businesses appreciat ed third party providers such as Xero easing the many pressures on their business.

“It’s been an incredibly tough time for small busi nesses in New Zealand, and having providers such as Xero lighten the administra tive load makes a big differ ence.

“Xero’s support of small businesses at this time is clearly seen as very valuable and we congratulate them for their success.”

On behalf of everyone at Xero I would like to say a huge thank you to all our valued customers for their continued support and con fidence...

HELLO

SEPTEM

BER! IT’S A NEW MONTH AND WE’RE BACK WITH LOTS OF NEW HR AND PAYROLL FEATURES TO SHARE WITH YOU. GRAB YOURSELF A CUP PA AND TAKE IN ALL OF THE NEW FEATURES DESIGNED TO MAKE YOUR WORLD AT WORK EASIER.

In our August prod uct wrap up, you’ll learn about updates to our ap plicant tracking system (ATS), details about our recently launched Bene

XU BIWEEKLY - No. 40 Newsdesk: If you have any news or updates that you would like us to consider for inclusion in the next edition of the XU Biweekly, please email us at: newsdesk@xumagazine.com

CEO: David Hassall

Managing Editor: Wesley Cornell Director of Strategic Partnerships: Alex Newson Communications Manager: Bethany Fulks Creative Assistant: Hatty Morton Advertising: advertising@xumagazine.com www.xumagazine.com

‘Xero’ is a trademark of Xero Limited (New Zealand). XU Biweekly and XU Magazine is collaboratively produced by an independent group of Xero users and is not affiliated in any way with Xero. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

© XU Magazine Ltd 2014-2022. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. XU Biweekly is published by XU Magazine Ltd (08811842), registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Office 1, Brunswick House, Brunswick Way, Liverpool, L3 4BN, United Kingdom. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. XU Magazine Ltd cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information.

If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant XU Magazine Ltd a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all/any editions, including in any physical or digital format, throughout the world. Any material you submit is sent at your risk and, although every care is taken, neither XU Magazine Ltd nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage.

The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily the views of XU Magazine Ltd, its editors or its contributors.

fits in the UK, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia, up dates to our Australian pay roll product and lots more. Let’s get to it! Looking at all the awesome features we re leased in August…

New Apps & Updates

A new suite of employ ee benefits in the UK, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.

We're excited to...

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EMPOWERING

YOU TO DELIVER SUC

CESSFUL PROJECTS IS AT THE CORE OF WHAT WE DO. TWO ESSENTIAL PARTS OF THIS ARE MANAGING COSTS AND COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR CUS TOMERS EFFECTIVELY. LISTENING TO YOUR FEEDBACK, WE’VE BEEN WORKING HARD TO FURTHER SYNERGY’S ABILITY TO BOTH EFFECTIVELY MANAGE YOUR PROJECT FINANCIALS AND BETTER COM MUNICATE WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS.

Create and Send Purchase Orders

Working with Purchase Orders is a key process in managing your spending on sub contractors, subconsultants and suppliers. Now Synergy gives you better control over the process by integrating Purchase Orders with your existing project financials; so you can generate, customise, and send a Pur chase Order as well as reconcile them with one or more Bills.

Easy automation with G-Accon Google

updated reports

your clients

By Olga Mashtakova

THIS IS A REALLY USEFUL AND TIME-SAVING FEATURE THAT ALLOWS USERS TO SEND RE AL-TIME XERO, QUICKBOOKS, AND FRESHBOOKS REPORTS BY EMAIL TO MULTIPLE CLIENTS RIGHT FROM GOOGLE SHEETS.

Flexible settings allow users to choose the list of interests who need to receive an email, create the text of the letter and set up a schedule of report updates and email notifications.

Here’s a look at the new Synergy Purchase Order workflow.

Find out more

Procore + Xero:

By Chris O'Neill

ASWE SCALE OUR SMALL BUSINESS PLATFORM, WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING AT WAYS WE CAN WORK WITH LIKE-MINDED PART NERS TO DELIVER BEST-INCLASS CLOUD TOOLS TO OUR CUSTOMERS. THIS IS ALL PART OF THE WORK WE ARE DOING TO BUILD OUT THE XERO PLATFORM, CATERING TO THE INDUS TRY SPECIFIC NEEDS OF OUR CUSTOMERS. SPEAK ING OF BUILDING, I’M PROUD TO ANNOUNCE OUR NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH PROCORE, CON NECTING THEIR INDUSTRY LEADING CONSTRUCTION PLATFORM INTO XERO.

Chances are if you work in the construction indus try, have a large client base that does, or are looking to expand your focus into the sector, you know who Pro core is. The new integration we’re announcing today of fers an excellent opportunity for construction businesses and Xero accountants and bookkeepers working in the industry, to increase efficien

cies and financial visibility across multiple projects.

Why did we choose Procore?

Procore’s approach to market aligns with Xero’s –they are software-as-a-ser vice, born in the cloud, and a disruptor, much like we are – working in an industry that has long been slow to adopt digital technologies. That, combined with the fact that they manage around $US1 trillion in construction vol ume on their platform gives you an idea of the opportu nity available. We think this partnership is a good fit.

Construction is an impor tant industry focus for Xero, and we are passionate about helping the industry digi talise with cloud solutions.

According to McKinsey, the construction industry ac counts for 13 percent of global GDP (US$10 trillion), but digitalisation [in con struction] is lower than in nearly any other industry. However, there's growing...

Seamlss joins Xero App Store to enhance firm’s client onboarding

Another reason to use this feature is that work is going to be done even when the user is offline, for example on vacation or leave. Also, flexible...

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SEAMLSS,

AN ONLINE SAAS APP USED BY ACCOUNTING FIRMS TO ONBOARD CLIENTS, HAS TODAY AN NOUNCED AN INTEGRATION WITH GLOB AL SMALL BUSINESS PLATFORM, XERO.

Seamlss’s app connects with Xero Prac tice Manager (XPM) and allows firms to col lect client data including IDs to verify user identity. Clients can be onboarded and have their details injected into XPM with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Co-founder of Seamlss and accounting firm owner Clayton Wood said Seamlss was leading the way in automating the data col lection process to allow firms to push their client’s data directly into XPM.

“Seamlss allows firms to speed up the processing time, as well as enable better en gagement and outcomes for clients.”

“We’re transforming the process to make it easy for firms and all their clients.”

“My firm is better prepared for clients before they en ter our door as we have already added...

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AU

business

measurements

autopilot, from

sustainability reports

Make sustain

automated sustainability

a new platform partnership to help digitalize construction

News & Updates

REVIEW:

By Rory Macrae

BGL automates crypto trading with the Digital Surge

BGL

CORPORATE SOLUTIONS, AUSTRALIA'S LEADING PROVID ER OF SELF-MANAGED SUPER ANNUATION FUND (SMSF), INVEST MENT PORTFOLIO AND COMPANY COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT SOFT WARE, IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE ITS SIMPLE FUND 360 AND SIMPLE INVEST 360 SOLUTIONS ARE NOW INTEGRAT ED WITH THE DIGITAL CURRENCY EX CHANGE PLATFORM, DIGITAL SURGE TO AUTOMATE CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING DATA.

“We are excited to add our third cryp tocurrency exchange to the BGL Eco system,” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 now administer hundreds of millions in cryptocurrencies and as the sector grows, we need to look for new ways to help our clients process crypto currency transactions.”

“Integration with Digital Surge will Find out more

By Anna Curzon, Xero

WE’VE

RELEASED A NUMBER OF NEW FEATURES OVER THE PAST MONTH, WITH A FOCUS ON HELPING YOU MANAGE YOUR COMPLI ANCE NEEDS. THIS INCLUDES NEW EARN INGS CATEGORIES IN XERO PAYROLL TO SUPPORT SINGLE TOUCH PAYROLL (STP) PHASE 2 IN AUSTRALIA, AS WELL AS THE LAUNCH OF DOCUMENT PACKS IN THE UK TO HELP ADVISORS EASILY COLLATE DOCUMENTS AND GET THEM ELECTRON ICALLY SIGNED BY CLIENTS.

If you’re a Xero partner, don’t forget to register for our upcoming quarterly product update, where our education team will walk you through a demo of all the latest releases, so you can maintain your advisor certifica tion.

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WE’RE

ON A MIS SION TO MAKE EVERY CLIENT MEETING COUNT AND THAT JOURNEY REQUIRES US TO CONTINUOUSLY EVOLVE AND REFINE OUR PLATFORM. GROWTH IS ONLY POSSIBLE THROUGH CONVERSATIONS THOUGH, AND THAT’S WHY WE’VE SPENT SUMMER ’22 TALK ING.

We’ve been talking to long-term users and new users and accountants who’ve never even heard of us before. This has all been with the goal of setting out a roadmap for where we should take the Connect4

platform next. We’ve already made some big changes to the client meeting platform, which we’ve been testing with some of our beta users. Now we can properly announce these exciting new develop ments. This post should fill you in on all the new chang es you can expect to see on the Connect4 platform very soon.

This is a bit of a long post. So here’s the key headlines:

• New client dashboard.

We’re updating our inter face so that it’s organised by client name. You can import your portfolio from Karbon practice man agement or add clients

manually. Internal team meetings are organised into their own area: Team huddles.

• Super-quick meeting cre ation. Create a new meet ing in three clicks. No pod required!

• Expert agendas. We’ve launched an extensive li brary of expert meeting agenda templates from leading figures in the ac counting industry.

The rest of this update is split into three categories:

1. Ease-of-use

2. Clients & Team huddles

3. Super-quick meeting...

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Changes to multi-factor authentication are coming for Australian customers

By Suzy Clarke

OVER

THE LAST FEW YEARS, OUR LIVES – AND BUSINESSES

ACROSS THE WORLD – HAVE MOVED ONLINE AT A RAPID PACE. UN FORTUNATELY, CYBERCRIMINALS HAVE FOLLOWED AND ARE USING NEW, DIG ITAL METHODS TO TARGET AUSTRAL IANS. AT XERO, WE ARE CUSTODIANS OF YOUR DATA AND DO ALL WE CAN TO PROTECT THE INFORMATION HELD IN YOUR ACCOUNT.

to MFA

WE’RE

DELIGHTED TO BRING YOU THE LATEST UPDATES AND FEA TURES FROM JOIIN THIS OC TOBER, REMEMBER, YOU CAN FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ALL FEATURES IN OUR SUP PORT CENTRE.

New Features for October 2022

We’re delighted to bring you the latest up dates and features from Joiin this October, remember, you can find out more about all features in our Support Centre.

Report Pack Cover Page

We’ve added a bunch of new themes you can apply to your Report Pack cover page. Simply run your Report Pack and click on the Change Cover Image button at the top to select from a range of cover images to ap ply to your report pack.

Report Page Breaks

Now you can set a section within a Cus tom Report so that a page break appears before it when it appears in a report pack...

Keep reading

CHASER,

THE GLOBAL ACCOUNTS

RECEIVABLES SAAS PLATFORM AND CREDIT CONTROL SERVICE PRO VIDER LAUNCHED DIRECT DEBIT FUNC TIONALITY, ALLOWING USERS TO GET PREDICTABLE PAYMENTS FROM THEIR CUSTOMERS AND FOLLOW UP WITH AU TOMATED, PERSONALISED EMAILS AND TEXTS WHEN PAYMENTS FAIL.

Many businesses believe that direct debit payments will give them reasonable certain ty around payment collection, which makes their internal forecasting easier and allows customers to smooth out the payment of their services evenly throughout the year.

However, direct debits can fail. This can occur for many reasons, including inva lid bank details and bank accounts being closed, not enough money in the payer’s ac count, card details not being up to date due to them having expired, been lost, or stolen. Failed direct debits pose a significant cost to businesses, with every direct debit...

Find out more

One of the ways we do this is through multi-factor authentication (MFA), a pro cess designed to secure how you log in to Xero and verify it’s really you. An upcom ing Australian Tax Office (ATO) update

month?”

IF

YOU ARE ONE OF THE OVER 10 MILLION PEO PLE WORLDWIDE WHO USE SLACK ON A DAILY BASIS, THEN YOU ARE VERY LIKELY TO CONSIDER IT YOUR DIGITAL “HOME”. FOR BETTER OR WORSE, IT’S AN APP YOU HAVE OPEN ALL DAY, AND THE FIRST PLACE YOU’LL GO TO GET UPDATED ON ALL THINGS WORK RELATED.

Slack isn’t a source of truth for information though, and it is far from the only tool we use in our day to day work. Every business will have a multitude of systems for

marketing, sales, support and finance, with specialists in each one. Staying on top of your work will often rely on quick access to informa tion in these systems, and prompt updates on changes within them, but there typi cally doesn’t exist a central place to facilitate this.

Slack may play this role to some extent, but usually in a manual way, where requests for updates are coming in the form of messages be tween colleagues.

“Is that Acme invoice still outstanding?”

“How are we looking for overdue invoices this

Whilst effective, this is far from efficient, and this is where the GetHarold App for Slack comes in. GetH arold bridges the gap be tween the place you spend most of your working day (Slack) and the systems where the data you need to do your job resides. It is not a replacement, of course, but greatly simplifies the process of accessing critical information for your busi ness processes. It does this via two key features, search and notifications.

Expensify Gives Accountants a Chance to Win Their Spot at ExpensiCon in Italy

FIVE

Expensify, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXFY), a pay ments superapp that helps individuals and businesses around the world simplify the way they manage money across expenses, corporate cards and bills, today announced...

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IT

By Vipul Sheth

HAS TO BE ONE OF OUR MOST FUN – AND EYE-OPENING – ARTICLES FOR XU MAGAZINE.

We were lucky enough to have contri butions from some of the UK’s most wellknown accounting practitioners.

And these contributions weren’t just a few quotes for a feature. They have opened up to describe the many and var ied (and often bumpy) paths that they took towards becoming accountancy pro fessionals.

It’s certainly a timely article, because we know that accounting practices and finance functions are having a tough time recruiting and retaining good people. The market is febrile, with many outfits trying to expand, change direction or digitally transform – often all these things at once.

We've seen PwC revealthat it has...

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Xero UK’s first cyclosportive: Putting a spin on how we network

By Anthony Jones

SINGLE

TOUCH PAYROLL (STP) PHASE

2 WILL SEE AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS

ES BUILD ON THEIR EXISTING STP REPORTING TO SHARE MORE INFORMA TION WITH THE ATO AND OTHER GOV ERNMENT AGENCIES EACH TIME YOU PROCESS A PAY RUN.

The first stage arrived within Xero in late August. Now, it’s time to get ready, because stage two of the transition is rolling out in Xero Payroll over the coming days.

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Dext Prepare and ApprovalMax integration FAQs

ApprovalMax integrates directly with Dext Prepare. We’ve pulled together the most common questions to help you under stand how our integration works.

TODAY

WE'RE CELEBRATING 11 YEARS OF IWOCA.

A big thank you to all of our customers. Supporting #smallbusinesses is why iwoca was born, and it's why we're still here to day. Since launching in 2012, we’ve made more than £3.5 billion of finance available to 70,000 businesses – to coffee shops, hair dressers, electricians, e-commerce business es, and more.

We're excited to continue to launch inno vative new products tailored to the needs of small businesses, as well as developing our existing products so #SMEs can access them wherever they are, at their point of need.

Find out more

When we get together with our account ing and bookkeeping community, we’re not typically dressed head-to-toe in lycra. How ever, for a dedicated group of Xeros and Xero partners last week, that was exactly what they did.

We were thrilled to host our first ever Xero cyclosportive in and around the beautiful English countryside of the Chilterns on Fri day, 16 September.

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HOW TO GET SUPPORT FROM XERO

WEKNOW THAT WHEN YOU HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT XERO, YOU WANT A HELPFUL ANSWER QUICKLY SO THAT YOU CAN GET BACK TO WORK.

Xero Central is our one-stop-shop for get ting the support you need. It has a range of content to help answer your questions about Xero, including how-to articles, videos, com munity discussions and the option to raise a case with our customer experience team if you get really stuck.

Here’s how you can get the help you need and get back to what you love – running your business.

Your first place to go

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Q:

CAN I USE DEXT PREPARE AND APPROVALMAX IF I AM NOT AN ACCOUNTANT OR BOOKKEEP ER?

A: Absolutely. Both Dext Prepare and ApprovalMax can be used not just by accounting and bookkeeping practic es, but also by any type of organisation internally. Setting up an approval work flow in ApprovalMax does not require special expertise, you just need to define who needs to approve what and recre ate those rules in ApprovalMax. Approv ing documents is even more simple: just select “approve” or “reject” after viewing the document contents.

Q: What is the sync frequency be tween Dext and Approval Max?

A: With the direct integration it’s al most instant: once you click on the “Publish” button in Dext, the documents show in ApprovalMax within seconds, just like they do when syncing with Xero. Dext does require some time to process documents and extract the relevant data (the average being 30 minutes) but as soon as the document has been pro cessed and published, it will appear in ApprovalMax.

Q: Is Dext capable of pushing bills with multiple line items to Approval Max?

A: This depends on your country and Dext plan. You’ll find more information on this here. ApprovalMax does...

Find

Stage two of Xero’s STP Phase 2 roll out is coming: Here’s what you need to know

“BICYCLE, BICYCLE, BICYCLE! I WANT TO RIDE MY BICYCLE, I WANT TO RIDE MY BIIIIIKE” SAID A BUNCH OF CYCLING-ENTHUSIAST XERO ACCOUNT ANTS!

From student to technician to adviser, the course of true accountancy is rarely smooth

ALL-EXPENSES-PAID SPOTS AT EXPENSICON – THE PREMIER GLOBAL ACCOUNTING CONFERENCE HOSTED BY EXPENSIFY IN MAY 2023 AT BORGO EGNAZIA IN PUGLIA, ITALY – ARE UP FOR GRABS FOR ACCOUNTANTS STARTING TODAY.

By Trent McLaren

WE'VE

WORKING

Excited to unveil... The Australian Accounting In dustry Awards 2022! Host ed by From the TrenchesReal Life in the Accounting Industry.

When we sat down and asked ourselves, do we re ally need another awards night for accountants? Everyone I spoke too gave me a resounding YES. Each had their own rea sons as to why they think it's desperately needed, but perhaps I can share a few of my own with you...

Respectfully, I think we've lost track on what

awards nights and celebra tions are and who they're designed for.

The Australian Account ing Industry Awards are designed to group the best bookkeepers and public practice accountants to gether who want to move the industry forward.

Whether you're a micro firm or a partner working in the Big 4 - we want to celebrate and recognise your outstanding efforts.

We also want to help draw attention to firms that are setting the bar high for the rest of the in dustry who are leading by example.

Keep reading

Get face-to-face with the Xero ecosystem at the Singapore Roadshow

By Will Buckley

THE PAST WEEK, WE’VE HAD THE GREAT HONOUR OF CELEBRATING THE OUTSTAND ING ACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR SMALL BUSINESS COMMUNITY BY CROWNING THE XERO AUSTRALIA AWARD WINNERS FOR FY23.

We received a record number of

resenting some fierce competition.

took out the top spots should be

which is

EMPOWERING

SMALL BUSINESSES WITH THE DIGITAL TOOLS THEY NEED TO THRIVE IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR COMMITMENT AT XERO, AND IT IS IN LARGE PART THROUGH OUR VI BRANT, EVER EXPAND ING ECOSYSTEM THAT WE CONTINUE TO DELIVER AN EXCEPTIONAL EXPERI ENCE.

From POS systems to in ventory management to

payroll, Xero connects with over 1,000 apps as well as 300 banks and financial in stitutions across the globe.

With the unveiling of our App Launcher earlier this year, we now provide an even more seamless, inte grated user experience, by allowing users to launch and sign in to their favourite Xero ecosystem apps within Xero. Small businesses and their advisors can now get...

Find out more

App Partners of the Month: Xerocon Sydney 2022 special edition

INSEPTEMBER, XERO WAS JOINED BY THOU SANDS OF ACCOUNTING AND BOOKKEEPING PRO FESSIONALS AT XEROCON SYDNEY. IT WAS AN OP PORTUNITY TO RECON NECT, BE INSPIRED AND LEARN ABOUT THE LATEST PRODUCT DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS XERO.

Attendees also had an op portunity to hear from our ecosystem app partners, who are an essential part of Xero’s small business plat form vision and enabling small business success.

In the final instalment of our Xerocon App Partners of the Month series, we’re bringing you a snapshot of the Xero app partners that

exhibited at Xerocon Sydney (7-8 September).

Unlocking cutting-edge financial insights for small business

There’s been a significant shift in the tools available to accounting firms and as a result, the services they are able to provide to small business clients. Apps such as Modano, enable high quality business advisory services based on invest ment banking quality finan cial modelling.

“Five years ago, most firms at Xerocon didn’t even know what a three-way fi nancial model was. Now...

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David Hassall, CEO

on

NOT A PILOT, DANCER

story

#IWantToBe AnAccountant

needs to be translated into a language your clients can understand.

Nikki Adams, joint MD, Ad Valore

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I had no idea what I wanted to be, and if you’d have told me when I was at school what I’m doing now I wouldn’t believe you. I was very shy but heavily influ enced by my father, who was a business and systems analyst, and my first ‘boss’ who was a very charismat ic accountancy recruitment entrepreneur.

Where had that got to during your later studies (or not, as the case may be)?

I learnt on the job, leav ing school after A-Levels and going straight into the workplace. Since then, I’ve been very keen to learn con tinuously. I read avidly and have mentors both inside and outside the accountan cy profession.

When did you move into accountancy; why, and how?

I started in an accountan cy recruitment company at the age of 19, being given responsibility (directorship) very early running a finance team for a fast-growing company, and learning firsthand how hard it is to get a company from start-up to £6m and then being part of an MBO. After a career in London, I then had a fam ily and joined my husband in building an accountancy firm of our own.

How important is ac counting in your role – and how has being an account ant helped you develop in your career and as a per son?

Accounting has been the core of everything for me for most of my working life either directly in my role or now it is the industry our company is centred around. Working in another industry and in general practice, has given me incredible insight into what a business own er needs to know to build a successful business.

Business strategy, risk management, credit/cash management, pricing, peo ple management, economic factors, geo-politics, busi ness analytics, technology integration, requirements for R&D/innovation grant fund ing, change management, marketing strategy, net working skills, presentation skills, public speaking... the list is almost endless of what I’ve learnt along the way!

The driver for me is work ing with micro and small...

Find out more

THE PLANET’S MOST IMPACTFUL BUSINESS PAYMENT CARD.

We pay so the planet won’t.

By Rory Spurway, CarbonPay

CLIMATE

CHANGE IS COMPLICATED. CLIMATE ACTION CAN BE SIMPLE, AUTOMATIC EVEN.

CarbonPay is a sustainable fintech plat form that offers the planet’s most impactful payment card and makes everyday climate action simpler for businesses. We all have a responsibility to make our impact on the planet as positive as possible, and business es have an especially important role to play. Maybe your business is well on the way to net zero, or maybe you’re just starting out: wherever you are in your sustainability jour ney, the CarbonPay Business Ctrl card slots into your current environmental commit ments and helps make everyday climate ac tion simpler for your whole team. We’re here to support you on your journey to a greener future.

Business expenses with a green lining

Every business has unavoidable expens es, which in turn have a carbon footprint. At CarbonPay we help businesses track and offset the carbon footprint associated with their business expenses. For every £1 / $1.50 your team spends, we automatically offset 1kg of CO2, at no extra cost. The CarbonPay Business Ctrl card is available in the US & UK and is accessible to businesses of all sizes. Customers can track the carbon footprint of each purchase in real time, empowering

businesses to understand the environmental impact of your expenses and in turn, ena bling smart, data-led decisions on how to re duce your carbon footprint associated with your business transactions. We break down your impact even further so you can analyze which department, project and category has the biggest carbon footprint. Stay in Ctrl all from your custom dashboard where you can track your impact, organize and manage your funds, cardholders, transactions and so much more. CarbonPay also offers integra tion with major accounting platforms, digital receipt capture and automated reconcilia tion to streamline your expenses and...

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Frontline bookkeepers: What the cost of living means for accountancy professionals

Why bookkeepers are vital to supporting business through difficult economic times

By Rosalia Munro - Institute for Certified Bookkeepers

THE

PANDEMIC, THE WAR IN UKRAINE AND SURGING IN FLATION; WITH ALL THESE HAVING TAKEN THEIR TOLL ON SMALL BUSINESS OVER THE LAST YEAR, YOU’D BE FORGIVEN FOR AWAIT ING THE ARRIVAL OF THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS NEXT. BUT WHAT IMPACT WILL THAT HAVE ON BUSI NESS? AND HOW CAN ACCOUNTANCY PROFES SIONALS HELP TO KEEP THEIR CLIENTS AFLOAT DURING THIS PERIOD OF TURMOIL?

Surging prices

When Russian tanks start ed to roll into Ukraine in Feb ruary, it was clear that this conflict would have longer-

term consequences for the economy. With Ukraine once being the ‘breadbasket’ of Europe, its invasion has had a huge impact on food pric es across Europe, including in Britain. Trade sanctions and the confrontation be tween Russia and Western states has also created un certainty around global gas and oil supplies, further in creasing prices. Inflation in prices of everyday products will of course have an im pact on small business’ bot tom lines, creating concerns over viability.

Surging prices will deal businesses a second blow, however, with consumer spending likely to remain static. The figures bear this out, with Deloitte’s Consum er Confidence Index show

ing consumer expenditure to have increased by 11% in the first quarter of 2022, as compared to the previous one. The cause of this spend ing? Essential items, such as utilities, food and transport. With costs increasing, con sumers’ lack of disposable income could translate into a drop in sales for business es, creating a challenge to their profits. The best way for a business to weather the coming storm is by en listing the support of a trust ed advisor with an in-depth knowledge of its day-to-day finances, a skill that is in grained into ICB bookkeep ers from the earliest stages of their training.

By Laurie Roxby

SOHERE WE ARE: SEPTEMBER. THERE’S ALWAYS BEEN A CER TAIN CHARM TO IT – WE’RE STILL WARM FROM THE GLOW OF SUMMER, AND TREATED TO THE SKY AND THE LEAVES TURNING BEAUTIFUL SHADES OF ORANGE AND GOLD.

So, sticking with the gold-standard theme, we’ve got some top tier updates for you this month. We’re diving deep into spend management (think analytics, expenses and spend controls), as well as some levelling up for our mobile apps, seamless repeat payments and more. Let’s do this.

Analyse your spend trends –and plan for the future (paid plans only)

First up, let’s dive into the data. Need to optimise your cashflow, or find out what your money’s doing? You can...

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MONZO BANK NAMED LINKEDIN'S NUMBER ONE UK STARTUP

Pink October — Breast Cancer Awareness Month at Revolut

By Karolina Gruszczyk

By Daniela Carvalho

WHAT

DO YOU MEAN ‘SUMMER’S OVER’? THE LEAVES ARE FALL ING, KIDS ARE GETTING BACK TO SCHOOL, AND WE’RE DROPPING NEW FEATURES YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS (WE’VE BEEN DROPPING THEM ALL YEAR, BUT YOU GET THE IDEA). READ ON!

The key to higher-interest savings

Let’s face it, higher is better. So, we’re giv ing you the key to get the most out of your money: increased interest rates on Savings Vaults. Deposit the change from your coffee, and watch it grow!

Customise your stock search

Looking to invest? We’ve made it even easier to find stocks to add to your portfolio. Quickly find and track stocks through filters such as sector, market cap, and many more.

See scheduled payments from Home

We don't just charge your card, we have a real relationship and things to talk about. So we’re keeping it simple: access all the fea tures you need from your Home tab. Are...

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WE’VE

BEEN NAMED LINKEDIN'S NUMBER ONE UK START UP! IS THIS WHAT WINNING STAR BAK ER ON GBBO FEELS LIKE?

We won’t go on about it, but if you fancy working for LinkedIn’s number one start up, then you might like to know that LinkedIn’s number one start up is hiring.

Thinking of applying? We’re on the look out for talented people to work with us. And we promise we don’t actually brag this much in real life.

Come join us! https://monzo.com/careers/ #LinkedInTopStartups

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Feel closer to family with instant card transfers

By Emma Potter

IF

YOU HAVE FAMILY AND FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD, CHANCES ARE, IT’S HARD TO FEEL CLOSE AT TIMES. WITH DIFFERENT TIMEZONES, SEPA RATE LIVES AND BORDERS BETWEEN YOU, IT MIGHT SEEM HARD TO SUPPORT THEM IN ALL THE LITTLE WAYS THAT COUNT, LIKE SENDING CASH GIFTS OR MONEY TO HELP OUT WITH EXPENSES. THAT’S WHERE INSTANT CARD TRANS FERS COME IN. SUPPORT THE ONES YOU LOVE WITHOUT THE LIMITS; SEND MONEY TO A CARD INSTANTLY, NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE, AND FEEL CLOSER THAN EVER.

From your account, straight to their card

Whether you’re sending some cash to say Happy Birthday, or helping a sibling out with money for school, it couldn’t be simpler with instant card transfers. Send money from your Revolut account straight to their card. It’s all in-app and you don’t need to mess about with IBANs or bank details. All you need is their card number.

It’s easy and super fast Forget exchange rates, wait times and...

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ACCORDING

TO THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO), BETWEEN 2015 AND THE END OF 2020, 7.8M WOMEN WORLD WIDE WERE DIAGNOSED WITH BREAST CANCER — MAKING IT THE WORLD’S MOST WIDESPREAD CANCER.

When the disease is identified early, breast can cer treatment can be high ly effective, with chances

of survival reaching 90% or higher.

That’s why we’re tak ing part in Pink October — Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We believe highlight ing this topic, encouraging women to take care of their health, and educating socie ty on how to support it, can be an effective way to lower the amount of breast cancer cases.

Pink October 2022 at Rev olut was initiated by Almas Parveen, Operations Man

ager and Chair of the Rev Women guild, and Klaudia Dziergwa, one of our Team Leads in the Support de partment.

We asked them about their experiences with the women’s health topic, the activities they planned for Revoluters within the Pink Month, and how they’ll show their support to Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

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HSBC Ventures invests $35m in Monese

HSBC makes investment as part of strategic partnership

MONESE

ANNOUNCES A $35 MIL LION INVESTMENT BY HSBC. THE INVESTMENT BRINGS THE TOTAL RAISED BY MONESE TO $208 MILLION.

Benefits for Insurers

Monese and HSBC are closely aligned in their commitment to opening up the full extent of digital banking possibilities. The investment is part of a broader, strategic partnership that will focus on Monese’s in dustry-leading, cloud-based Platform as a Service business.

The new funding will support the contin ued growth of Monese’s platform.

Taylan Turan, Group Head of Retail Bank ing and Strategy, Wealth and Personal Bank ing at HSBC, said: “HSBC is continually pio neering new wealth and banking innovations for our digitally-savvy customers - we want to help clients make smarter decisions so they can meet their financial goals with in novative digital tools. This new partnership is a key step towards helping us deliver dig ital wealth and banking tools at pace and scale, combining Monese’s fintech creden tials with our own global wealth and banking capabilities.”

Catherine Zhou, Global Head of Ventures, Digital Partnerships and Innovation at HSBC Ventures, said “HSBC is excited to invest in Monese as one of the leading fintech players in the market. Our investment will provide stronger strategic alignment and enable us to build on our strengths as partners.”

Norris Koppel, Founder and CEO of Monese, said: “Securing the support of a tier one global bank demonstrates the strength of our platform and the continued appetite from investors in the platform. I am delight ed to have such a distinguished partner and investor in HSBC, who brings a great deal of experience in delivering exceptional bank ing services. We look forward to taking this partnership forward.”

In September 2021, Monese announced...

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