XU Biweekly - Issue 53 - 22 April 2023

ACSISS SOLVES A BIG PROBLEM FOR ACCOUNTANTS & BOOKKEEPERS WITH OPEN BANKING

ACCOUNTANTS AND OTHER ADVISERS FACE BIG CHALLENGES GETTING SECURE, RELIABLE ACCESS TO THEIR CUSTOMERS’ BANK TRANSACTION DATA WHICH THEY NEED TO DO THE BOOKS.

ACSISS Adviser is a new service available only to “Trusted Advisers” that enables them to securely receive transaction data that their customers have collected via the Consumer Data Right (CDR) or “Open Banking” system.

ACSISS Adviser overcomes the problems associated with traditional methods such as “screen-scraping” which requires customers to share online banking credentials or “direct feeds” which are available for only a limited range of banks / accounts.

Australia’s leading independent provider of secure bank data services, SISS Data Services, has today launched ACSISS Adviser to allow accountants, bookkeepers and other trusted advisers to securely receive financial transaction data from their clients.

“Bank transaction records are vital to the accounting process” says Grant Augustin,

co-founder and CEO of SISS. “From my experience in practice, I know only too well how frustrating it can be when you have to stop work and chase up a client for transaction records”. Accountants often rely on bank data feeds within their online accounting systems, however these suffer from limited range of banks and account types, or reliability issues for those that rely on screen-scraping.

“In these days of heightened awareness about data security, more accountants and their clients are refusing to share online banking credentials, meaning that the traditional ‘screen-scraping’ method doesn’t work reliably” continued Augustin, “it was clear to me that accountants and their clients need a better way – and the new Open Banking technology delivers not only better security, but greater reliability and a broader range of banks and account types”.

Open Banking, the widely used term for the first phase of the Commonwealth government’s Consumer Data Right initiative seeks to empower consumers to make better financial decisions by securely sharing their financial information, such as bank

transactions, with nominated third parties. About a year ago, the regulations were amended to enable consumers to share their data with “Trusted Advisers” including accountants, bookkeepers, auditors, lawyers and mortgage brokers through Accredited Data Recipients, such as SISS and their ACSISS solution.

Consumers will use a simple app “ACSISS My Data” to control what data they share and with whom. Clients can look-up their accountant on the list of trusted advisers, select the accounts they wish to share, and their accountant will then receive copies of their transaction records (ie bank statements) going back as far 2017. Accountants will then use that transaction data in a variety of ways, depending on the tasks they’re performing for the client, and the systems they use.

“ACSISS Adviser immediately solves a large and growing problem for accountants and their clients” says Augustin “we’ve harnessed the latest technology to enable consumers to securely share their data, to...

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Planday announces Dave Lee as new CEO

opment & Customer Experience at IKEA in London and Sweden, and Product Director at Spotify in Sweden.

Airwallex launches global payments in Canada, further building on expansion in Americas

AIRWALLEX TODAY ANNOUNCED

THE LAUNCH OF ITS GLOBAL PAYMENTS SERVICES IN CANADA. THE LAUNCH WILL EMPOWER CANADIAN BUSINESSES TO TAP INTO AIRWALLEX’S GLOBAL PAYMENTS AND FINANCIAL PLATFORM, OFFERING A FASTER, MORE COST-EFFECTIVE AND TRANSPARENT ALTERNATIVE TO THE TRADITIONAL BANKING PLATFORM.

Businesses in Canada can now access Airwallex’s key offerings, including local currency accounts in over 12 currencies, a multi currency wallet in 44 currencies and payouts to 150 countries with its proprietary local payment network. The full suite of Airwallex’s global products, including multi-currency cards, spend management and online payments will be progressively rolled out in the market.

Lee joins Planday from Nordic-focused fintech platform Lunar, where he was Chief Product Officer responsible for building and leading Product and Experience Design for the company’s more than 500,000 users. Prior to Lunar, Lee was SVP Product Devel-

Tasked with leading Planday’s business globally, Lee will be responsible for driving Planday’s go to market strategy and ongoing development of Planday’s scheduling and workforce management solutions that support more than 400,000 users around the world.

Xero Chief Growth Officer, Chris O’Neill said: “Dave is a proven product and digital leader with more than 20 years’ experience in building and overseeing successful product and innovation teams in rapid-growth

startups and global organisations across a wide variety of sectors in Europe and the US. We look forward to working closely with Dave to make workforce management easier for more customers and their employees through Planday’s leading scheduling, time and attendance software.”

Dave Lee said: “I am very excited to join the incredible team at Planday and build on the successes they have already achieved in realising their workforce management vision by helping more businesses and their employees thrive together.”

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“To thrive in today’s challenging global economy, businesses must be able to scale without borders, move money across currencies with ease and manage their finances across markets with a single integrated platform,” said Ravi Adusumilli, General Manager of Americas. “Airwallex is excited to support the ambitious Canadian businesses who wish to grow internationally, quickly and economically, as well as international businesses who have operations in Canada.”

Airwallex already supports a number of Canadian businesses across eCommerce, professional services and technology sectors. These customers leverage the centralized Airwallex platform to simplify payments, from collections to payouts, streamline multi-currency management and optimize cost savings.

“With the launch of global payments services in Canada, Airwallex will be...

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The independent user news source for accounting apps and their ecosystems

COPENHAGEN / WELLINGTON – 20

APRIL 2023 – XERO, THE GLOBAL SMALL BUSINESS PLATFORM, TODAY ANNOUNCES DAVE LEE HAS BEEN APPOINTED AS PLANDAY’S NEW CEO, EFFECTIVE 1 MAY 2023, FOLLOWING A RECRUITMENT SEARCH.

New Apps & Updates

HedgeFlows partners with Travelex

OUR PASSION FOR HELPING PEOPLE NAVIGATE THE WORLD OF VOLATILE EXCHANGE RATES WITH CONFIDENCE IS NOW REACHING NEW CORNERS.

ALTHOUGH WE HAVE KEPT THIS AS A SECRET FOR A GOOD FEW MONTHS, WE'VE PARTNERED WITH TRAVELEX TO BRING ALL THE BENEFITS OF SECURE EXCHANGE RATES TO UK HOLIDAYMAKERS.

Unlocking secure exchange rates for Holidaymakers

The team at HedgeFlows has been closely working with Travelex, a market leading travel money brand, since the end of last year.

XU BIWEEKLY - No. 53

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

Design & Communications

Manager: Bethany Fulks

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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 2014-2023. 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.

Our common goal was to launch a product to provide customers with that extra peace of mind by protecting their travel money against currency fluctuations.

And we're proud to say that the innovative product we've developed with Travelex is currently being used by UK customers who have booked a trip in the next few months.

How does the technology work? If you are thinking of taking a holiday abroad this year, you can now pre-order your travel money at the point of booking. What does this mean in practice?

It means that for a small fee, customers who pre-order their currency for future trips are guaranteed to not lose out if the exchange rate

worsens before their trip even starts. But if the rate improves during this period, customers will receive the better rate, a total win-win!

By securing your rate, you can get much needed peace of mind when planning a trip - it's all about convenience as well as knowing that you've protected the value of your holiday money regardless of what happens in the market.

Our mission: Helping navigate volatile exchange rates confidently

You may be familiar with our focus on empowering UK SMEs to trade internationally with ease and...

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REQUEST PAYMENT METHODS IN BULK

feature

WE’RE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT CUSTOMERS ON OUR ENTERPRISE PLAN CAN NOW INTEGRATE SOLDO TRANSACTION DATA INTO SAP CONCUR. THIS PROVIDES A BETTER WAY TO GIVE EMPLOYEES ACCESS TO COMPANY MONEY, WITH TRUST AND CONTROL, WHILE KEEPING TABS ON FINANCES WITHIN SAP CONCUR.

Monthly financial admin doesn’t need to be a chore. This integration automates the data transfer process, which saves your finance team the time and effort they’d normally spend copying data between systems. It also reduces the potential for any manual input mistakes, giving you confidence in your data and reporting.

How will this integration help you?

This integration brings together the spending power and control of Soldo Company Cards with the finance management capabilities (such as invoice management) of SAP Concur to deliver a unified experience.

Empower your employees, give them a Soldo Company Card

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Product update: Master your AR collections with ezyCollect’s new Invoice Status feature

ARE YOU TIRED OF CHASING DOWN INVOICES AND MANAGING COMPLEX RULES FOR YOUR COLLECTIONS PROCESS?

We are thrilled to introduce our latest feature – Invoice Status – to help you gain even more control over your collections. It’s one of the simple but powerful ways we make accounts receivable (AR) automation work for your unique business needs.

What is the Invoice Status feature?

This new feature allows you to create different ‘invoice statuses’ for your synced invoices. Now you can pause or exclude invoices, add additional invoice statuses, and prevent chasing follow-up reminders.

The enhanced system for invoice exclusion, which is a pre-existing feature, offers increased reliability. Furthermore, the new system empowers ezyCollect users to customise statuses for their

invoices to accommodate various business process situations.

How it works

As a Manager user, you can set up rules based on different invoice statuses you define and add or remove different invoice statuses, such as Invoice Dispute, Exclude Invoice, Pause Invoice, and Mark on Direct Debit, or even create your custom status.

Functionalities and benefits

Add additional information to the invoice statuses that are visible to your customers, helping to improve transparency and communication. You can show this information in email merge field tables or keep it internal for ezyCollect users.

Set an expiration date for some invoice statuses. Once the expiration date is reached, the system automatically removes the...

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OUR VERY OWN HEAD OF PLATFORM AND GROWTH, MUSTAFA ROOMI, SHARES SOME EXCITING AND HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED PRODUCT NEWS.

Hello, I’m Mustafa, and I head up our platform and growth areas as part of the Dext product team. I’ve been at Dext for just over six years, and announcing this brings me a whole lot of joy.

I’m pleased to announce that Multi-Account management is now available!

For many years, individuals that needed to access more than one account in Dext were unable to use the same login credentials (i.e. email address) to access these accounts. This was a huge pain, especially for those:

• Who had multiple businesses and needed separate accounts to manage their finances;

• Who supported many separate businesses

We’ve heard this from our accounting and bookkeeping partners, as well as many of the businesses out there. So much so that it actually became the number one feature request on our feedback platform, UserVoice.

We knew we had to solve this problem. And, after almost eighteen months of nonstop work, I’m pleased to say we have. To take advantage, users can:

Merge existing login credentials into a single one

• Add a new user directly via the add user...

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WITH IGNITION’S NEW PAYMENT METHOD REQUESTS, YOU CAN NOW EASILY SEND REQUESTS TO CLIENTS TO COLLECT THEIR PAYMENT DETAILS SECURELY. MAKE IT CONVENIENT FOR YOUR CLIENTS TO PAY YOU AND SAVE TIME WITH BILLING, COLLECTION AND RECONCILING PAYMENTS.

Payment method requests can be sent to any client or multiple clients at once. Ignition will send a branded email that directs the client to a customer-branded portal to provide their payment details. You will then be able to use that payment method to collect for current and future active services.

Use this feature when:

You have accepted proposals in Ignition but are not using payments for some or all clients yet. This lets you move onto Ignition payments without going sending a new proposal, or waiting for your next proposal renewal.

You want to collect payment details in advance of engaging clients for the first time. This will help customers be more confident to require payment when sending proposals and could speed up and simplify the engagement process....

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NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!

UK & US - The easiest, but most powerful way to import Xero data to Airtable with no code. Connect to hundreds of third-party applications in Airtable and transform your data, customising how it's pulled into your base.

PROPELLER POWERED

UK - A cloud-based Workforce Management Syster for small to medium Contractors, providing digital certification and real time access to job data, ensuring compliance with regulations. Desiged to eliminate paper, reduce admin time and manage quote to invoice in one, easy to use system.

FINSIT

UK - Your one-stop-shop for all things reporting and forecasting. Turn your Xero data into easy to understand graphs and charters, perform 3 way forecasting on cashflow, balance sheets or P&L, and create branded mamangement reporting for your clients that automatically updates.

DATA FETCHER PAYWORKS PAYROLL

CA - From Payroll to HR, workforce management is about more than tools. If you’re looking for outstanding, expert service paired with modern technology, you’re in the right place. Payworks gives Xero users a streamlined experience through direct integration with the Xero Online Journal.

Making it easy to get paid by all of your clients with Ignition’s new payment method requests

Soldo is now integrated with SAP Concur

IN MARCH, SHARESIGHT'S FOCUS WAS ON MAKING A NUMBER OF UPDATES TO ENHANCE USER EXPERIENCE, ALONG WITH IMPROVEMENTS TO OUR BROKER SUPPORT.

Our new-look diversity report did not quite make the cut this month as we tease out the remaining few issues. We are however very close to getting this effort across the line.

Apart from the refreshed look and feel of the diversity report, the real benefit of this re-architectured reporting function is that the report will no longer hit timeouts with larger portfolios. We intend to roll out this new approach to all fifteen of our reports, completely removing the long running issue of timeouts from our system.

In addition, this month we were heavily focused on roll-

RELEASE NOTES - 14/04/2023

ing out a number of security improvements in our continuous effort to keep our product safe and secure.

New Functionality / Enhancements

We've introduced support for importing historic E*Trade trades via CSV.

UX / Usability improvements

We introduced the 5th tranche of the revamped payouts table and form, this time extending our new payouts to Australian portfolios and payouts synced to Xero. This release largely completes our work in this area. Our UX improvements focus is now shifting toward the holdings page which has a number of UX issues we’d like to address, including...

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WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE A FULLY FUNCTIONAL MIGRATION TOOL IS EFFECTIVELY IMPORTING DATA FROM WORKFLOWMAX TO WORKGURU FOR TRANSITIONING USERS, ALONG WITH OUR NEW INTEGRATION WITH ASANA BEING IN IT'S FIRST LIVE BETA ITERATION. WE ARE ALSO CURRENTLY FINALISING OUR INTEGRATION WITH DROPBOX.

Features

Invoicing off Staff

Billable rates

• WorkGuru now allows invoicing off staff billable rates. To do this please ensure you've set a billable rate against users on the user dashboard. Then when invoicing a project you will be able to use this functionality. For complete details on how to do this, please watch this short video .Invoicing With Staff Billable rates

Q2, 2023: Coming Up Next for Mayday Recharger

IT’S THE START OF A NEW QUARTER AND WE ARE PICKING UP STEAM TO ACHIEVE A SET OF INCREDIBLE Q2 GOALS. BEFORE WE GET STUCK INTO THESE EXCITING OBJECTIVES, LET’S REMIND OURSELVES OF WHAT WE ACCOMPLISHED IN Q1.

Q1 in review

In January, we launched BRAG (Bank Reconciliation Across the Group) which allows businesses with multiple related entities to easily reconcile payments and income to bills and invoices posted to other related entities - saving time and eliminating the risk that a bill could be paid twice.

We continued to enhance our much-loved first product Mayday Recharger, including a new notifications page for late transactions, batch change tax treatments,

and a new calculations interface.

Lastly, we made great progress with getting our third product, Mayday Balancer, into beta! Read on to learn more about what's coming up over the next three months.

Mayday Balancer - the launch

Balancer ensures that your intercompany loan accounts will be kept in-check and any inconsistencies will be immediately flagged to you.

When would a finance team need Mayday Balancer?

• When a business has multiple related entities, the entities will almost always have intercompany loan accounts.

• These intercompany loan accounts need to stay in balance, so that all of the entities are clear on what is owed and month/year end consolidation can take place.

Projects

• Project Phases updates have been made for those wishing to use them resulting in a better user experience. Please checkout this short video for Project Phase information Project Phases

• We now allow the addition of To-Do items on the Project details page.

App

Purchase Orders

• Updated version of WorkGuru Kiosk is available in App and Play stores which includes To-Dos, My Tasks, and My Stock Sales on the main menu.

• Our mobile application now includes a task list on the home menu

Bug Fixes

Ezzybills

• Fixed issue whereby creating a new supplier with no name was breaking product imports

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GONE ARE THE DAYS WHEN YOU NEED TO SIT AT THE DESK TO GET THOSE PESKY ADMIN JOBS DONE. WITH OUR SUITE OF MOBILE APPS, YOU HAVE REAL-TIME INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS OR PRACTICE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS, AND CAN TICK OFF THOSE SMALLER TASKS ON THE GO.

We’ve recently dialled up enhancements to our mobile apps, making it easier than ever to work from anywhere. Here are the latest updates to help you power up your productivity.

Capture bills, receipts and invoices with a snap

The Hubdoc mobile

app is the perfect way for small businesses to upload bills, receipts and invoices with a quick photo, and share them with their advisor. If you’re an accountant or bookkeeper, it can save you time chasing documents and manually entering data.

We know how important this kind of work is to your business or practice. That’s why in the weeks ahead, we’ll be giving the Hubdoc app a fresh design and some new functionality we think you’re going to love. These are all designed to improve Hubdoc’s usability, speed and performance.

Small business app makeover...

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April Update: Improving the way you work with Synergy

What is the pain?

• The intercompany loan accounts between a business’s related entities can easily fall out of balance:

• Transactions can be posted asymmetrically.

• Foreign exchange adjustments and/or interest can be missed or calculated incorrectly.

• The result is that finance teams must then unravel these transactions to rebalance the accounts.

How will Mayday fix it?

• Mayday Balancer will cross-check the loan accounts and immediately flag any discrepancies between them so that finance teams can be sure that amounts displayed in all entities are the same.

• Users will be able to...

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WE’VE BEEN WORKING TO INTRODUCE A RANGE OF IMPROVEMENTS THAT WILL MAKE YOUR EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH SYNERGY BETTER. THIS MONTH, WE'RE INTRODUCING MORE CONTROL TO THE WAY YOU WORK WITH BILLS AND DOCUMENT TEMPLATES.

Bill Improvements

Bills have now been added to the Security Matrix, so you have greater oversight over who can read, create, edit, and unlock them. Synergy Enterprise customers also have the ability to edit those settings to control how the Bills workflow is administered within your firm, and who by.

Document Template Improvements

We’ve introduced the ability to add a Transaction table to your Project Document Templates. The Transaction Tables, which were

previously only available to your Invoice Documents, now have additional Stage information available to be included through bookmarks, including the Stage name, total number of units, total charge, and total tax.

Settings Page Improvements and UI Changes

We’ve made updates to some of the Settings Pages to make it easier to review, edit, add, and search. Simply hover over the line you are reviewing, and an edit icon will appear at the end of the row. Clicking the icon will allow you to edit the data di-

rectly without taking you to another screen. You can also sort columns by dragging the column header to a new spot.

The search and filter features of these pages have also been updated, with both now being found at the top left of the table on each page. Clicking the filter icon will open a new slide-out pane and enable you to add filters.

We’ve also made it faster to add new information, with the add button opening a small editing screen, instead of taking you to another...

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WHY WE’RE MAKING CHANGES TO XERO SEARCH

Introducing Kanban display for project status: watch our video demonstration

AT WORKGURU, WE ALWAYS STRIVE TO IMPROVE AND PROVIDE OUR CUSTOMERS WITH THE BEST POSSIBLE EXPERIENCE. RECENTLY, WE'VE RECEIVED A FEW REQUESTS FROM OUR CLIENTS FOR A VISUAL DASHBOARD TO BETTER TRACK THEIR PROJECT STATUSES.

We are excited to announce that this week, we introduced a new feature to our platform - a Kanban display for your projects. This new display is designed to provide you with a clear and concise view of your project status, enabling you to better understand the progress of your work and identify areas that require attention. With the Kanban display, you can quickly and easily see what tasks are in progress, which ones are completed, and which ones require your immediate attention. This new feature will make it easier for you to manage your projects, stay on top of your...

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Chaser shortlisted for Best Company to Work For and Best Use of Tech

AM THRILLED TO SHARE THAT CHASER HAS BEEN SHORTLISTED FOR TWO AWARDS AT THE 2023 CREDIT AWARDS; BEST COMPANY TO WORK FOR AND BEST USE OF TECHNOLOGY.

The Credit Awards recognises and celebrates innovation, best practice, and the hard work of individuals, business divisions, and conglomerates across the entire industry. They are widely regarded as the most respected and significant awards programme in the credit and financial services industry. Chaser is delighted to be shortlisted for these two prestigious awards, and after winning Best Use of Technology at the 2022 ceremony, are honoured to be recognised again.

Being shortlisted for the Best Company to Work For award recognises Chaser's commitment to developing staff, staff wellbeing, and creating a positive and motivating culture for its employees. Chaser was shortlisted for Best Use of Technology for its SMS payment reminders feature, and the results it has help users to achieve. Chaser is thrilled to be recognised for its continued use of innovative technologies to help businesses reduce late payments.

Best company to work for

Chaser understands the importance of work-life balance, and provides employees with a range of benefits to support well-being. Including Friday afternoons off, company holidays and onsites, employee bonding experiences (including ‘sports day’), a monthly health and wellbeing budget, weekly company-wide games and randomised ‘coffee-mates’ catch-ups.

Chaser’s commitment to employees is evident through its ESOP scheme and consistently positive feedback from employees. Chaser’s ESOP means every employee has Chaser shares and a stake in the company’s success, employees can work from anywhere remotely, and flexible working hours mean employees pick the schedule that suits them.

The home of XU Magazine and XU Biweekly XU Hub is now on Apple News!

Chaser invests in employees development by providing access to industry-standard training and development opportunities, and personal and professional growth initiatives. This includes CICM and ACCA training...

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OUR TEAM HIT THE GROUND RUNNING IN 2023, INTRODUCING A NUMBER OF EXCITING FEATURES TO NEW REPORTS THAT WE KNOW YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR — INCLUDING THE ADDITION OF FOREIGN CURRENCY TO NEW REPORTS. HERE ARE SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS AND A SNEAK PEEK INTO WHAT’S COMING NEXT.

Don’t forget, the older versions of our reports will be retired on 31 July 2023. We urge you to start using new reports now, so you have plenty of time to get used to them before the older versions are retired.

The biggest releases so far this year

Foreign currency in new reports

We’ve recently added foreign currency to new reports. If you have a Xero Premium plan and have added a foreign currency to your settings page, then you can jump in and give it a go.

• Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss (Income Statement) and Budget Variance reports:

• We’ve added the ability to translate these reports into any currency enabled in your organisation, for a quick view of your financials in the currency of your choice

• Receivable and Payable Invoice Summary and Detail reports, and drilldowns from Income by Contact and Expenses by Contact reports:

• We’ve added the ability to see transactions in the currency they were created in, to help you get better insights into your sales and purchases in foreign markets

• See how Xero has translated foreign currency to base currency, by reviewing both amounts side-by-side, with new column names that show the base currency code (such as NZD)

• Use these reports to filter, group and sort data by currency, so you can focus on particular markets, as well as understand customers and suppliers in those markets...

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Better Business Awards 2023: Celebrating the best in the industry

THE BETTER BUSINESS AWARDS TOOK PLACE IN MELBOURNE ON THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2023.

Since 2014, the awards have recognized top per-

formers in each Australian state and territory. They are highly coveted by industry professionals and acknowledge outstanding contributions in over 20 categories.

Moula’s Linette Laverdure was nominated for the Best

OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS, WE’LL BE ROLLING OUT SOME CHANGES TO THE SEARCH FUNCTION IN XERO. THE FUNCTIONALITY WILL STAY THE SAME, BUT YOU’LL NOTICE IT LOOKS A LITTLE DIFFERENT.

Like many of the changes we’ve rolled out across our platform lately, this is part of our commitment to ‘Building on Beautiful’ — which is about continuously making changes in Xero so we can stay ahead of the latest technologies, standards and ways of working in your business or practice.

Until we’ve upgraded our technology, we can’t deliver the features we know you want, like being able to search more fields and products across our platform, easily scan results to find what you need, and use the search function on every page.

This update is an important step in getting us closer to start delivering the features you’ve been requesting. Here’s an overview of the changes you can expect to see soon in Xero (there are no changes to search in the Xero accounting app).

• Search and filter: We’ve refreshed the search bar and filter icon to align with the new design that’s being rolled out across Xero

• Filter dropdown menu: We’ve added an ‘All’ option to filters, based on your feedback. The filter will no longer include employees, as it requires some elements of Xero Payroll to be upgraded. This is something we’re working on and hope to resolve soon. You can still search for employees in Xero Payroll like you normally do

• Search results dropdown: We’re refreshing the search results dropdown menu, and introducing the ability to expand search results in the dropdown menu to show more than one result

• Creating a new invoice: You’ll need to click ‘Create new invoice’ instead of ‘Add new’ if you want to create an invoice from within the search results. This also applies to creating new bills, contacts, purchase orders and quotes

• Results page: The ‘See all results’ page has been renamed ‘Show all results’. The information on the page will be the same, but the format of the table will be separated into columns so it’s easier to scan and find what you need

• No results found: We’ll make it clear...

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Non-Bank BDM. For a full list of categories and finalists, see the roundup here.

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Australian CFO Summit 2023 returns

THE AUSTRALIAN CFO COMMUNITY IS THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE THE HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED RETURN OF THE ANNUAL AUSTRALIAN CFO SUMMIT, KICKING OFF ON 30 MAY, 2023.

Established in 2022 by spend management platform Weel (previously known as DiviPay), this year's summit explores the theme of 'protecting profit.'

The entirely virtual and free event offers the opportunity to learn from CFOs and finance industry leaders from businesses across Australia, including ANZ, Deloitte, RSM, Aurecon, Employment Hero, Deputy and Weel.

The summit will open with a keynote address from ANZ's esteemed Chief Economist, Richard Yetsenga.

This will be followed by a series of sessions explored through the lens of the CFO and finance professional, covering the state of M&A in Australia, cyber security, the use of AI in finance, and how to preserve company culture during cost-cutting.

For a complete list of sessions and speakers, please visit the event lineup on the website. Notably, this event is proudly sup-

ported by Eftsure, Mackay Goodwin, Alena Bennett, MyAccounts, ezyCollect, EXL Cloud, Hudled and Fathom.

“We are excited to continue our support for the Australia CFO Summit for 2023, exploring the unique challenges and needs of finance teams in Australian SMEs. The response to our event last year was overwhelmingly positive and had over 2,000 participants. This year we have an expanded lineup of speakers and content - including new themes such as the role of AI in finance to drive revenue and managing culture during challenging economic conditions," says Damon Hauenstein, CFO of Weel.

Weel addresses the gap in the market for spend management solutions that are tailored to SME and mid-market businesses, where traditional solutions designed for larger enterprises may not be suitable or accessible.

We look forward to welcoming finance professionals across Australia to the Australian CFO Summit and providing them with valuable insights... Find out

By Michael Ford

ENTREPRENEURS ARE DRIVEN BY ‘THE ITCH’. IF YOU’VE FELT IT YOURSELF, YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN. IT’S THAT INNATE GNAWING, DISCOMFORTING FEELING THAT COMES FROM A DEEP, AND OFTEN LIFELONG, CONVICTION THAT THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY. THE ITCH IS NEVER FAR AWAY - IT LIVES IN YOUR HEAD, DISTRACTS YOUR THOUGHTS, NAGS AT YOU. I’M NO PSYCHOLOGIST, BUT TO ME THE ITCH IS AS DEEP AS DNA. IT’S NOT A LEARNED BEHAVIOUR, SO IT CAN’T BE ‘UNLEARNED’. THERE IS NO ESCAPE.

Entrepreneurs start businesses because the itch gets too much. They resist it, they damp it with logic, they try to ignore it, but it never goes away. As time goes on, it intensifies. Finally, they are compelled to do something about it.

The caricature view of the entrepreneur as a risk-taking, slick-talking hustler could not be further from the truth. The real entrepreneurs, the ones that you and I work with, are just people doing everything they can

to scratch their itch. And no matter where they are in the world, no matter what industry their business serves, no matter what age, sex, creed or colour, the itch, the belief, the drive to find a better way is exactly the same.

They can see the path ahead. They can see the forks in the road, the options, the decision points. And they need help to work out which way to go.

At Castaway, every day we talk to entrepreneurs and to the accountants who look after them. Our customer base is split evenly, so we get a healthy range of views from both perspectives.

The Entrepreneurs tell us they see the services their accountants provide on 3 levels:

• They appreciate the compliance work that keeps their business on the right side of the law

• They value the work that supports and sustains the business (bank loans, grants and the like)

• They love the work that helps unlock the possibilities of the business (scratching the itch)

It should be no surprise that their level of ‘excite-

ment’ about the fees they pay follows the same order.

The Accountants we talk to tend to fit into one of 3 categories:

• A few tell us “my clients just don’t need that sort of stuff”

• Some say they build budgets and forecasts when clients ask for them

• For others, forecasting is the backbone of their advisory practice. Clients love the work they do and happily pay their fees

To the first group… who knows, they may well be correct. But if there’s even one entrepreneur on the client list, I guarantee that firm is not asking the right questions.

When we dig deeper with the second group, their focus is generally the entrepreneur’s second level of satisfaction, the sustaining and supporting work like applying for bank loans and grants, churning out annual budgets and the like. Although the demand generation is reactive, this work is useful for clients and can be readily systemised and productised into a profitable service… definitely a winwin.

The third group are different. They work differently, they think differently, they talk differently. And they get different results for clients. By different, I mean better… much better. Of course, the question of “how” they are different has a hundred answers.

One thing stands out for me. The third group have gone beyond forecasting as a maths exercise focused on putting numbers on a page. They’ve evolved to embrace the idea of forecasting as a framework for exploring what is possible. This is a big step, in both mindset and methodology. They’ve found the holy grail - a way to help their entrepreneur clients scratch the itch, a way to help those entrepreneurs unlock the possibilities in their business.

It’s a simple idea, but it’s counter-intuitive, especially for firms with strong compliance-based business models, where efficiency and capacity utilisation are the traditional optimisation tools.

But it’s also entirely intuitive. Clients perceive the greatest value when you help solve their biggest, most annoying problems.

And for an entrepreneur, the ‘itch’ is the most significant long term problem there is. And forecasting, the process of looking ahead, considering scenarios, facing realities, game-planning responses, making decisions, is the best framework I know for unlocking possibilities, for finding solutions to the itch.

So how do the third group of accountants start the conversations with their clients? How do they build the interest? How do they get the clients to happily agree to engage them?

Well, the good news is we’ve seen lots of different approaches… and they all work very well. It’s a matter of finding something that works for you. If you’re looking for somewhere to start, here’s a simple 3-step approach that involves zero selling, but is highly effective at unlocking possibilities for both you and your client.

1. Find the itch

Here’s an idea. Find a client. Take them to coffee, or to lunch, or just have a call. With genuine interest, ask 3 questions:

1. Why did you start this

business?

2. What were your dreams for the business back then?

3. How have those dreams changed?

You’re looking for the itch. Given the chance, and an engaged audience, most entrepreneurs love talking about their business. Some will open up immediately, the ideas and stories will just start flowing. For others, the conversation might take some time to get rolling.

If you’ve been in business a while, the daily grind, decision fatigue, pandemics and other challenges can wear you down … its all too easy to forget (or suppress) the original dreams for the business. In this situation, be patient and nurture the conversation. The memories will start to come back, a trickle at first and then more. Keep at it and you’ll see the imagination spring to life and the ideas start to flow. That’s the itch firing up again … it never goes away.

2. Run a Possibilities session

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By Emily Ossington, NextMinute

WE LIKE TO THINK WE KNOW OUR CLIENTS PRETTY WELL, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT ‘THEY’ SAY ABOUT ASSUMING…

As a company, we want to make sure that our customers succeed, and that our product plays an important role in helping our customers achieve their goals.

One of our team values at NextMinute is to sit alongside our customers and partners.

We also have the value proposition that we “make life easier by managing pricing, planning, people and profits.”

So, we recently put together a Customer Survey in order to get a better understanding of the needs and preferences of our customers, and to question are we delivering on what we promise?

‘They’ also say success is in the eye of the beholder, and our beholders are our customers - who are also your customers!

If you are a Trusted Advisor with clients in the Trade & Construction industry, here are some results from our Customer Survey that might help you understand the industry better.

Who are they?

Our average client is a 39 year old male builder, business owner, married with more than one child and has completed some form of tertiary education like trade school,

college or university.

What do they need?

We asked our clients, on a scale of 1 to 10 how important are the below items to their business (answers in order based on the av erage response.)

1. Profit

2. Managing their team

3. Save time

4. Consistent work

5. Scheduling work

6. More clients

This re-confirms for us that our value proposition of pricing, planning, people and profits aligns with what our customers con sider important in their businesses.

What do they want?

We asked them to rank the importance of family time on a scale of 1 - 10. It was num ber one.

Other questions around ‘hobbies and free time’ had a variety of answers, all of which included outdoor activities such as fishing, board sports, or playing sports with their family & friends.

These responses indicate that our clients value and want more time to spend...

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By Danny Bateman, SeedLegals

Want to make your accountancy practice more attractive to new and existing clients? Add more services and become a one-stop shop for startups and small businesses.

But how do you do that without hiring specialist staff? By partnering with SeedLegals, you’ll be able to offer a more comprehensive, integrated service for startups and SMEs. You do the accountancy tasks; your client uses SeedLegals for extras. You can choose to add SeedLegals as white label software to your existing digital services, or give your clients discounts for SeedLegals and claim a referral fee.

Established in 2016, SeedLegals is an online platform which combines automated legal documents with friendly, personalised help from a team of experts. Since 2020, the company has worked alongside accountants to provide clients with a seamless, affordable service.

Over 50,000 companies have used SeedLegals to grow and scale faster. As well as straightforward business legals such as employment contracts, company policies and board management, the legal-tech service helps founders and business owners with the pivotal moments that matter:

• Secure S/EIS Advance Assurance

Do S/EIS compliance

Two thirds of all SEIS and over half of all EIS Advance Assurance applications are

• Set up option schemes

Get an EMI valuation

One quarter of all UK EMI schemes are designed and managed on SeedLegals

• Do a funding round

Take an investment

SeedLegals is the UK’s number one closer of early-stage rounds in the UK with over £1 billion raised to date. The company pioneered ‘agile funding’ to help companies take one-off investments outside funding rounds.

Make clients happy - and boost profits

By partnering with SeedLegals, you have the reassurance of offering extra services via a market leader. And with a more extensive set of

National Trust launches three-year partnership with Starling Bank to improve access to nature for over 1 million people a year

THE NATIONAL TRUST AND STARLING BANK HAVE LAUNCHED A THREEYEAR PARTNERSHIP AIMED AT ENSURING MORE PEOPLE HAVE ACCESS TO NATURE, BOTH NOW AND IN THE FUTURE.

Through the partnership, it is estimated that over 1 million people will be able to benefit from improved access to nature through the family-focused Summer of Play programme, nature workshops for school children, and Starling Banks’s refer a friend scheme.

More than 157 properties and outdoor places in the care of the National Trust will take part in Summer of Play. Summer of Play supports young families, grandparents and children to get out and about into nature during the summer holidays. Nature workshops aimed at both primary and secondary school children who otherwise struggle to access outdoor space will provide additional opportunities for them to experience nature and learn about how best to protect the environment and wildlife for future generations. It’s estimated that more than 6,000 children will be able to take part in these workshops thanks to funding from Starling Bank. The workshops will primarily be offered to schools in urban locations with high free school meal uptake.

The partnership will benefit adults as well as children and young people; with 95% of adults saying that accessing nature is important to their mental health, improving this access for those who

AIRWALLEX AND APPROVALMAX ANNOUNCE POWERFUL NEW PARTNERSHIP

AIRWALLEX, A GLOBAL PAYMENTS AND FINANCIAL PLATFORM FOR MODERN BUSINESSES, HAS PARTNERED WITH APPROVALMAX, A LEADING PROVIDER OF AUTOMATED APPROVAL WORKFLOWS FOR INVOICES AND PURCHASE ORDERS, TO OFFER A POWERFUL INTEGRATION THAT ENABLES USERS TO PREPARE AND APPROVE PAYMENTS FOR EXECUTION (INCLUDING BATCH AND MULTI-CURRENCY PAYMENTS), WITHOUT LEAVING APPROVALMAX.

The integration also gives firms the ability to manage client payments without handling manual file uploads, thereby saving time and reducing errors. ApprovalMax has named the new functionality ‘Payments with Airwallex,’ which will be live in beta starting April 2023 for organisations in the UK.

PayPal Announces New Employee Inducement Grants

PAYPAL HOLDINGS, INC. (NASDAQ: PYPL)

face barriers is critical. Free individual day passes to National Trust sites will be available for Starling customers and their personal networks through the bank’s refer-a-friend scheme, opening up more opportunities for people to visit the fantastic historic buildings, gardens, coast and countryside in the care of the National Trust.

Funding from Starling Bank will also be used to deliver projects that help halt the decline in wildlife and protect our wild landscapes. Projects include taking action to restore peatlands in the UK, with the aim of restoring up to 37.5 hectares of peat over three years. 80% of UK peatlands are in a degraded state but these hugely important environments provide a rich and diverse home to rare and threatened wildlife, represent one of our most important terrestrial carbon stores, and play a vital role in water regulation and flood management.

Victoria Floyd, Head of Corporate Partnerships at the National Trust, said:

“We’re delighted to be launching this partnership with Starling Bank. Corporate Partnerships are a hugely valuable income stream for charities like ours, enabling us to deliver more in partnership than we ever could alone. Together we will restore vital peatlands, help children and young people both enjoy and learn how to protect the natural world around them and enable Starling customers to explore the places in our care.

“As Britain’s first digital bank, Starling believes in a sustainable future on...

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The integration offers a seamless solution for businesses seeking greater control over their payments by streamlining the preparation and approval of payments.

Using Airwallex’s financial technology, businesses like ApprovalMax can seamlessly scale their business across borders. This solution provides ApprovalMax’s accounting partners and customers with an all-inone solution that can easily automate the approval and processing of international payments.

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Bluevine and Wise Launch International Bill-Pay Solution for U.S. SMBs

WISE, THE GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY BUILDING THE BEST WAY TO MOVE MONEY AROUND THE WORLD, AND BLUEVINE, THE LEADING PROVIDER OF SMALL BUSINESS BANKING SOLUTIONS, TODAY ANNOUNCED A PARTNERSHIP THAT LEVERAGES THE POWER OF WISE PLATFORM TO MAKE INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS MORE CONVENIENT, SIMPLE AND TRANSPARENT FOR BLUEVINE’S CUSTOMERS IN ITS ALL-IN-ONE DIGITAL BANKING ACCOUNT.

Research found that 75% of SMBs are dissatisfied with

cross-border payment solutions because fees are normally high and unpredictable. Traditional banks and other providers often hide fees in inflated exchange rates and offer confusing pricing structures, draining already tight profit margins for businesses. This also adds unnecessary complexity to the already busy lives of small business entrepreneurs.

Through this partnership, Bluevine customers can now start with eight currencies across 26 countries with highly competitive exchange rates and a transparent, low fee rate. Additional...

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TODAY ANNOUNCED IT HAS GRANTED EQUITY AWARDS ON APRIL 15, 2023 UNDER ITS 2022 INDUCEMENT EQUITY INCENTIVE PLAN (THE "PLAN") TO NEW EMPLOYEES WHO JOINED PAYPAL.

The grants were previous-

ly approved by the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors of PayPal Holdings, Inc. Information regarding the equity awards can be found on the company's investor relations website at: https://investor. pypl.com/news-and-events/ news/

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Revolut Australia Apr’23 New Users Cashback Promotion (17 April 2023)

WELCOME TO THE REVOLUT AUSTRALIA

APRIL 2023 NEW USERS CASHBACK PROMOTION (THE “PROMOTION”), OFFERED BY REVOLUT PAYMENTS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD (ABN 21 634 823 180) (“REVOLUT”, “WE”, “OUR” OR “US”).

Terms and Conditions

The terms and conditions of the Promotion are set out below. These terms and conditions apply in addition to any other terms and conditions that apply to you as a customer of Revolut, including the Personal Terms, and the Fees and Charges Section.

Promotion Periods

The Promotion starts on 17 April 2023 11:00am AEDT and ends on 1 May 2023 10:59am AEDT (the “Promotion Period”).

What is the Promotion?

The Promotion is the opportunity for Eligible Customers to earn 5% cashback each week that they make at least three (3) Eligible Transactions.

The total cashback you can earn in one week is capped at $5.00 per week, and total aggregate cashback you can earn during the Promotion Period is capped at $10.00. This means that if your Revolut Card transactions made during the Promotion Period exceed $200.00, your cashback will remain

capped at $10.00.

Who is eligible to participate in the Promotion?

To participate in the Promotion, you must be an Eligible Customer of Revolut.

An “Eligible Customer” is defined as a customer that has:

• personally received communications from Revolut inviting them to participate in the Promotion,

• passed Revolut ‘Know

Your Customer’ checks and been onboarded,

• an active Revolut Standard, Premium or Metal account; and

• not previously closed a Revolut account or had an account become suspended or restricted.

What is an Eligible Transaction?

For the purpose of the Promotion, an “Eligible Transaction” is a physical or virtual Revolut Card transaction that is:

• made in-store or online; and

• a domestic purchase.

For the avoidance of doubt, a Revolut Card transaction means you use your Revolut physical or virtual card to purchase genuine goods and/or services from a third-party merchant by entering the details of your Revolut physical or virtual card into their payment processing system. The...

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LOOP IS DESIGNED

TO REVOLUTIONISE THE UK’S INFORMAL MONEY SHARING MARKET AND OFFERS

CONSUMERS A GENUINE ALTERNATIVE TO THE UK’S £10BN OVERDRAFT MARKET.

Tandem Bank is strengthening its strategy to build the UK’s greener, digital bank with the acquisition of Loop, the fast-growing socially-conscious money sharing app.

With Tandem’s focus on helping consumers save, borrow and spend a little bit greener, the addition of Loop to the bank’s award-winning digital offer will give customers a unique way to borrow and lend from each other, while supporting the transition to a low carbon economy.

Launched in early 2022, Loop is the UK’s first social network app focused exclusively on helping friends and family to easily and safely lend and borrow money with each other.

Designed to revolutionise the informal money sharing market and break the social taboos around money sharing, Loop helps users avoid expensive bank overdraft charges - which are estimated to make traditional banks over £2bn in profit each year.

Almost six million people are borrowing from friends and family each month, with an estimated £12.5bn of money being shared informally every year.

SWITCH YOUR SALARY WITH YOUR NEW IRISH IBAN

In addition, there are approximately £10bn of overdrafts outstanding at any one time, with around 30% of outstanding balances below £50 and over 40% are for less than a week.

Since its launch, Loop has targeted young professionals and students, reaching around 2 million people through its social and digital activities. Its successful social media campaigns in its early growth phase have seen the app become the number one financial services brand on Tik Tok1.

Loop will continue to operate as a standalone app and brand, with plans to embed Tandem products and features in the Loop app, offering users access to a wider range of savings and lending services.

Tandem’s Chief Executive, Alex Mollart, commented:

“Tandem is on a mission to build the UK’s greener, digital bank – offering customers more sustainable ways to save, borrow and spend. The addition of Loop to our award-winning digital product range fits perfectly with our strategy.

“Loop’s unique approach to money sharing offers users a real alternative to expensive overdrafts. Given the app’s early success among Gen-Z users, the acquisition of Loop gives us a fantastic opportunity to grow Tandem’s customer base among a generation of climate-conscious...

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OUR IRISH BRANCH JUST LAUNCHED, PROVIDING A WHOLE HEAP OF EXTRA PERKS FOR LOCALS LIKE YOU. CAPITALISE ON ALL THE ADDITIONAL BENEFITS AN IRISH IBAN PROVIDES, STARTING WITH THESE THREE:

Bring your salary to Revolut

Tired of needing to transfer between your accounts each payday? Now you can receive friction-free salary deposits straight to your Revolut account.

Experience next-level

convenience, alongside full deposit protection for your funds. It’s easy to get started:

1. Open up your account profile

2. See your new IBAN (It’ll start with ‘IE’)

3. Send it to your employer, and ask for your salary to be paid to your Revolut account

And, because we love sharing good news — we’ll send you a notification when your salary has arrived each month.

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Phoenix Suns and PayPal Extend Partnership Agreement Through 2026 NBA Season with a Focus On Enhancing Fan Experience and Community Investment

THE PHOENIX SUNS AND PAYPAL (NASDAQ: PYPL) ANNOUNCED TODAY THAT THEY HAVE EXTENDED THEIR PARTNERSHIP THROUGH THE 2026 NBA SEASON. PAYPAL WILL CONTINUE AS THE SUNS' JERSEY SPONSOR AND, AS PART OF THE ENHANCED MULTI-YEAR DEAL, THE ORGANIZATIONS WILL NOW INCREASE THEIR FOCUS ON SUPPORTING SMALL BUSINESSES THROUGHOUT THE VALLEY AND ELEVATING THE FAN EXPERIENCE BY OFFERING INNOVATIVE PAYMENT SOLUTIONS AT THE ARENA AND ONLINE.

Phoenix Suns Governor Mat Ishbia said, "We are incredibly excited about this new partnership with

PayPal. From day one I've said the Suns are focused on winning, fan experience, and community impact. This deal delivers on all three. Together with Dan Schulman and the PayPal team we are going to make a real investment in the community and proudly wear their name as we continue building a world-class organization on and off the floor."

"In 2018, PayPal and the Phoenix Suns came together to form a partnership with the common goal of enhancing the fan experience on and off the court," said Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal. "Together we have put PayPal at the center of the customer experience when buying merchandise, tickets and more in the arena, online or via...

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OUR LATEST APP UPDATE IS OUR BEST VERSION YET – WITH A LITTLE TWIST TO MAKE IT MORE ‘YOU’. CUSTOMISABLE, FRESH, AND CLEAN – HERE’S REVOLUT 9.0. EVERYTHING’S FASTER, SMOOTHER, AND EASIER TO FIND, LIKE IT SHOULD BE.

Make sure you’re using the newest app version 9.0, to access all these new features! You’ll get a customisable Home screen with the shortcuts that do the most for you, plus Joint Accounts (EEA only) and group chats (available globally) to share money a new way.

A Home screen for every need

Mix and match your mostused features, like analytics, top contacts, and more to create your own shortcuts with our customisable widgets. For tips on how to customise, visit Learn for our step-by-step guide!

Share life, with Joint Accounts

We’ve launched Joint Accounts! Finally, you can send, split, and spend with whoever you do life with – whether it’s your partner, your parent, or a pal, Joint Accounts are for every type of duo living in the same country.

Joint accounts available in EEA only

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