XU Biweekly - Issue 57 - 16 June 2023

The independent user news source for accounting apps and their ecosystems

GoCardless appoints new Chief People Officer and Head of Corporate Development to accelerate growth

GOCARDLESS, A GLOBAL LEADER IN DIRECT BANK PAYMENTS, HAS APPOINTED ALAN CAIRNS AS ITS NEW CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER AND KAMILA MCWILLIAM AS HEAD OF CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT.

THE MOVE COMES LESS THAN A YEAR AFTER THE FINTECH’S FIRST ACQUISITION, THE PURCHASE OF OPEN BANKING DATA PROVIDER NORDIGEN, AND SIGNALS ITS STRONG INTENT TO SCALE AND GROW AS IT BUILDS THE WORLD’S BANK PAYMENT NETWORK.

Cairns joins GoCardless from iTech Media, where he helped to scale the organisation from 60 to several hundreds of people during his tenure as Chief Operating

Officer. With more than 30 years of experience in operations, people and talent, and having led brands like MoneySuperMarket, MOO and GE through transition and growth, Cairns will focus on building a diverse, inclusive and high-performance culture at GoCardless. Cairns is also a passionate and active member of the startup community, acting as a mentor for Ambitious Ladies in Tech and a fellow of London COO Roundtable, in addition to sharing advice on people and talent development for SeedCamp’s Expert Collective.

McWilliam comes to GoCardless from digital payments infrastructure provider PPRO, where she was VP, Head of Corporate...

Keep reading

STARLING SIGNS UP SOUTHAMPTON FC WOMEN FOR THREE MORE YEARS

STARLING BANK HAS SIGNED A THREEYEAR DEAL AS OFFICIAL PRINCIPAL PARTNER OF SOUTHAMPTON FC WOMEN. THE BANK WILL CONTINUE AS FRONT OF SHIRT SPONSOR FOR THE TEAM AFTER INITIALLY PARTNERING FOR THE 2022-2023 SEASON, WHEN

STARLING BECAME THE FIRST ORGANISATION TO SPONSOR THE WOMEN’S TEAM INDEPENDENTLY OF THE MEN’S.

The three year deal follows a number of initiatives launched by Starling and the Saints to create more grassroots football oppor-

tunities for women and girls.

The bank, which has created 500 jobs at its Southampton base, launched the Coaches of Tomorrow programme to train up 20 women from the region into FA accredited coaches. Starling also funded a free ticket giveaway to a Conti Cup match in 2022, resulting in a record num-

ber of ticket sales for the women’s team at St Mary’s Stadium against Tottenham Hotspur Women.

Charlie Boss, Chief Commercial Officer at Southampton FC said: “Our club is extremely proud of everything our women’s...

Keep reading

THOUSANDS OF ACCOUNTANTS ACROSS THE WORLD ALREADY ENJOY THE AUTOMATION AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT THAT FYI OFFERS.

Now it has been brought

to MyWorkpapers with our latest integration.

Watch our demo on the XU Hub.

Whether you are already an FYI user or thinking of using it in future, this new partnership allows you to collaborate better and work

more efficiently using the latest information from both platforms.

Simplify and standardise your practice now

Simplify and automate many of your workflows

and get instant access to the data you need all in one place.

Book a call to find out how you can achieve more with our highly integrated working papers.

Keep reading

Saturday 17th June 2023

FREE digital business cards for EVERYONE Get

yours now

New Apps & Updates

Avalara Unveils E-Invoicing and Live Reporting API for Multinational Businesses

TAVALARA, INC., A LEADING PROVIDER OF CLOUD-BASED

TAX COMPLIANCE AUTOMATION FOR BUSINESSES OF ALL SIZES, TODAY UNVEILED AVALARA E-INVOICING AND LIVE REPORTING, A NEW COMPLIANCE API DESIGNED FOR MULTINATIONAL BUSINESSES TO STREAMLINE THEIR COMPLIANCE WITH E-INVOICING MANDATES AROUND THE WORLD.

“While many businesses are investing in e-invoicing, they’re finding that the requirements are complex, vary by country, and are resource-intensive,” said Jayme Fishman, EVP and GM of Indirect Tax at Avalara.

XU BIWEEKLY - No. 57

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

Creative Assistants: Hebe Vermeulen, Robyn Consterdine

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.

“Avalara has spent the last two decades addressing the complexity around indirect tax compliance for businesses and their trusted partners with our industry-leading compliance platform that makes tax less taxing. Now with Avalara E-Invoicing and Live Reporting, we’re extending that simplification to help clients and partners manage the new challenges and additional complexities of rapidly evolving e-invoicing mandates around the globe.”

E-invoicing mandates create new complexities for businesses

Today, more than 60 countries worldwide have

announced or already have mandates for e-invoicing — a number that could more than double by 2030. Additionally, a growing number of countries have introduced other digital reporting requirements, including live reporting of invoice data and e-reporting of international sales and purchases.

While many businesses have implemented e-invoicing as a part of their digital transformation initiatives, the surge in government-driven and country-specific e-invoicing initiatives presents a unique challenge for businesses selling goods and services internationally.

Find out more

AS TECHNOLOGY EVOLVES, SO DO THE METHODS EMPLOYED BY MALICIOUS ACTORS TO COMPROMISE SENSITIVE INFORMATION. AT APPROVALMAX, WE TAKE THE SECURITY OF YOUR ACCOUNT SERIOUSLY, WHICH IS WHY WE ARE ENFORCING TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION (2FA) BY THE 30TH OF JUNE 2023. THIS ADDITIONAL LAYER OF SECURITY WILL SAFEGUARD YOUR APPROVALMAX ORGANISATION, PROVIDING PEACE OF MIND AND PROTECTING AGAINST UNAUTHORISED ACCESS.

Why are we enforcing 2FA?

Cybersecurity threats continue to evolve, and password breaches have become increasingly common. Enforcing 2FA is a proactive measure to counter these risks and ensure the highest level of security for all ApprovalMax users. By requiring an extra verification step, even if your password is compromised, unauthorised individuals will be unable to access your account. Another reason is that a significant amount of our customer base integrates ApprovalMax with Xero, and as a Xero app it is a requirement that we enforce 2FA.

What benefits does 2FA provide?

Keep reading

IT WAS A BUSY MONTH FOR US IN MAY. THE NOTABLE NEW FEATURES INCLUDE A SIGNIFICANT EXPANSION OF OUR CRYPTO SUPPORT WITH THE ADDITION OF 100 NEW CRYPTOS, SUPPORT FOR AN ADDITIONAL 56 COUNTRIES AND THEIR CORRESPONDING CURRENCIES, AND A REVAMPED WIZARD THAT ALLOWS CUSTOMERS TO BULK UPLOAD THEIR CUSTOM INVESTMENT PRICES.

TAKE YOUR DATA PRESENTATIONS TO THE NEXT LEVEL AND DISPLAY EXACT FIGURES WITHOUT COMPROMISING THE STRUCTURE OR READABILITY OF YOUR REPORTS WITH DATA LABELS.

The new Data Labels feature enables labels for each data point on Trend and Projection Trend graphs, giving you the flexibility to analyse your data over any date range and unit of measure.

With this level of customisation, you can confidently present your findings, knowing that your reports are accurate and aligned with your business goals. Enabling Data Labels is as simple as ticking a checkbox. With the new "Show data labels" toggle, you can effortlessly

bring your data to life.

Maintaining a clean and visually appealing report layout enables clients and stakeholders to better understand a business's financial performance and confidently make business decisions. Data Labels showcase precise figures in your charts without the need for additional tables or cluttering up your reports. With this feature, you can seamlessly integrate the exact data you need, ensuring your insights take centre stage.

The Data Labels feature can be used across various trend chart configurations and multiple series. Whether you're working with line charts, bar charts, or area charts, Data Labels adapt to your chosen chart style...

Find out more

Although technically a June improvement, I also cannot resist mentioning a performance improvement we have just rolled out that has drastically improved the calculation speed for those with large complex holdings.

New functionality / Enhancements

• Introduced support for the Vienna Stock Exchange.

• Introduced a new wizard for the bulk import of custom investment prices. This new tool provides a modern interface, improved user experience and takes Sharesight another step closer to providing an investment tracking solution for all investment types.

• We now allow the import of trades using ISIN codes in addition to ticker symbols. This capability is particularly important for our European customers.

• Extended support to an additional 56 countries and their associated currencies.

Keep reading

ON JUNE 20, 2023, PLOOTO WILL BE LAUNCHING A NEW GO PLAN.

THE GO PLAN ONLY COSTS $9 PER MONTH AND GIVES YOUR CLIENTS ACCESS TO PLOOTO’S PAYMENT PLATFORM AND THE ESSENTIAL PAYMENT AUTOMATION FEATURES THAT FIRMS LOVE TODAY, INCLUDING FULL INTEGRATION WITH XERO.

Once your firm has onboarded a total of at least three clients with a Grow or Grow Unlimited plan, you can join the waitlist and unlock an additional free month of the Go plan for your future clients. We know it’s essential for businesses to start with best practices early on in their scaling journey and that is where this plan fits in. This way accounting and bookkeeping teams are not bogged down in the manual processes of the smaller businesses they serve.

With the Go plan release, Plooto offers a broad lineup of subscription plans that serve the needs of all businesses and finance teams, from those with simpler payment operations all the way to the ones that need payment automation and workflows at scale.

Most importantly, as an accounting and bookkeeping partner, the Go Plan allows you to consolidate your tech stack and make Plooto your go-to payments automation solution for all your clients.

Keep reading

NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!

XPNA

GLOBAL - Leverage the power, ubiquity, and flexibility of Excel, whilst adding connectivity, governance and control with xpna. A dynamic, customisable, consolidated view of all your Xero data inside the familiar Excel environment.

TRADIECORE MERP

AU - A job management app built exclusively for tradies. Quote, invoice and schedule your jobs on the go with their powerful yet simple tools. Tradiecore makes it easy to manage all your admin from the palm of your hand.

AU - A Business Integration system that streamlines users’ business processes and improves efficiency. Track each process from purchase to booking in stock, sales transactions and logistics. Once connected with Xero, Merp will become the core of your business.

Deputy Expands Global Business With New Chief Customer Officer and Head of EMEA Appointments

DEPUTY, A LEADING GLOBAL SOFTWARE PLATFORM FOR MANAGING HOURLY WORKERS, TODAY ANNOUNCED THE APPOINTMENT OF TWO NEW MEMBERS TO ITS SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM WITH THE ADDITIONS OF KATRINA HOLT AS CHIEF CUSTOMER OFFICER AND JON WILSON AS SVP, HEAD OF THE EMEA REGION. ADDING THESE DISTINGUISHED LEADERS MARKS A SIGNIFICANT STEP IN DEPUTY’S GLOBAL GROWTH PLANS IN THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE.

Drawing from an extensive career in financial services and technology, Holt brings over 20 years of operations

and compliance experience, high-growth leadership, and customer-centricity to her new role. Before joining Deputy, Holt served as Senior Vice President of Operations at Affirm Inc., a San Francisco-based fintech company, where she led a global customer support network of over 800 associates. Her contributions were instrumental in scaling customer and merchant support operations to cater to the needs of over 13 million consumers and 200,000+ merchants. With prior experience as Chief Compliance Officer with GE Capital, Holt will leverage her expertise to enhance customer satisfaction, scale operations...

Keep reading

WE ARE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THE LATEST CAS

360 UPDATE!

What's New?

Full Company Register

Set: We have added the ability for you to prepare all company registers in one single process. The full Company Register set can be exported for multiple companies at once, and can be customised so that you can include all the company registers that you need for export.

Succession Director report: We have added a new report for a comprehensive overview of all companies directors, including their respective ages. The Succession Director report provides valuable insights into the approaching retirement of company directors, to facilitate effective succession planning. Learn more

Public Officers relationship (trusts): If a trust carries on a business in Australia or derives income from property in Australia and there is no trustee who is an Australian resident, the trustee generally appoints a public officer. We have added the ability to add a Public Officer relationship to a trust, including the preparation of documents for Public Officers of Australian and New Zealand trusts.

Lodgement confirmation: We have added a lodge document warning message to confirm your intention to lodge a document to ASIC when clicking ‘lodge’ on the notification screen.

New users walkthrough: We have developed a user-friendly guide that demonstrates all the support materials accessible for new CAS 360 users. Making the new user experience...

Keep reading

Capify announced as SME lender of the year

SPECIALIST FINANCE PROVIDER CAPIFY HAS BEEN RECOGNISED AS SME LENDER OF THE YEAR AT THE 2023 CREDIT AWARDS.

across the whole funding landscape.

FOR THE SECOND YEAR RUNNING, BUILDXACT HAS EARNED ACCOLADES FROM USERS OF SOFTWARE REVIEW WEB SITES PROVIDED BY GARTNER DIGITAL MARKETS.

Customer reviews and independent assessments have led to Buildxact’s recognition in multiple top rankings for the construction estimating category across Gartner Digital Markets branded web sites (Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp).

Winning accolades from a globally renowned customer satisfaction-centric organization reflects Buildxact’s continued delivery of simple software that helps home builders become more efficient

and successful.

“The Gartner recognition affirms that the Buildxact team has the right people and culture in place to deliver not just great software, but an overall superior customer experience,” David Murray, Buildxact President and CEO, said.

“Here at Buildxact our people work every day to deliver the best cloudbased estimating tools and service to our customers. And since our founding in 2011, that really has become a global focus across our markets in Australia, North America and the UK,” Murray said.

“We are proud to be building something special for our customers. They will always stay at...

Read more

SAM MEHTA IS THE OPERATIONS MANAGER AT WENODO, AN ACCOUNTING FIRM BASED IN LONDON THAT OFFERS END-TOEND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING SERVICES TO HOSPITALITY CLIENTS ACROSS THE UK AND UAE.

Wenodo takes care of bookkeeping, payroll, supplier payments, reconciliation, tax, and performance analytics for bars, restaurants, and F&B operators. This allows their clients to concentrate on grow-

ing their businesses while leaving the financial management to the experts.

Wenodo is a 100% Xero firm that treats clients' businesses as their own, making optimising client profitability a core focus. The Wenodo team achieves this by providing clients with weekly insight into profitability, including revenue generated and expenditure on areas such as staffing. This enables clients to make informed decisions when creating rotas, especially as the...

Read more

The award win – which recognises innovation and best practice in serving the UK smaller business community.

Taking place at London’s Grosvenor House and hosted by television’s Katherine Ryan, the prestigious Credit Awards recognise excellence in service and performance

In a fiercely competitive segment, which included banks, fintechs, asset finance providers, invoice finance companies, and P2P businesses, Capify was recognised as the SME lender of year (up to £1m lend).

Commending Capify’s commitment to serving UK’s vibrant SME community, the judges praised the speed and ease of our loan application process.

Find out more

How Wenodo Optimises Payments to Provide Hospitality Clients with Cash Flow Control

Accountex Summit Manchester returns for its fifth year

By Caroline Hobden, Portfolio Director, Accountex

ACCOUNTEX HEADS UP NORTH FOR SUMMIT MANCHESTER ON 19 SEPTEMBER 2023 AT MANCHESTER

CENTRAL

Thousands of attendees are expected to return to Manchester Central on 19 September 2023, as Accountex heads up north.

Over 100 software and service suppliers are set to be exhibiting at the show, including Sage, Xero, Wolters Kluwer, Dext, IRIS, FreeAgent, RDI Solutions, Bright and Intuit Quickbooks. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet the teams behind the brands, get 1-on-1 demos, find new solutions and learn practical tips.

The CPD accredited seminar programme, made up of 60+ industry leading speakers will be packed with sessions on everything from Making Tax Digital and Penalty Reform, to cryptocurrency and mental health. Across four theatres, visitors will discover the latest insights from the most critical thinkers in the profession.

Katie, a Business Advisor from CHFB shared her experience: “It’s great to not only meet people but to get your brain flowing, because there may have been things that you haven’t thought of and things that your company needs which you didn’t even know existed. So apart from the networking, for us it’s about education and learn-

The Cloud Accounting Podcast is now... The Accounting Podcast!

ing.”

Amidst the education programme and exhibitors, there will also be a postshow drinks event for visitors to network and relax after a busy day. After its huge success last year, the photobooth will also be back for the second year, so visitors can get snapped and have a memento of their day.

Last year, Accountex Summit Manchester brought together 2,000+ accountants, finance directors, bookkeepers and more from all over the north of the UK. Accountex are excited to deliver another exciting event, and reunite the profession in the autumn....

Keep reading

FIND OUT MORE

UPCOMING EVENTS

UPCOMING UK WEBINARS

UPCOMING APAC WEBINARS

By Kylie Wing, Chief Marketing Officer, ApprovalMax

JOIN KYLIE WING, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER AT APPROVALMAX, AS SHE TALKS TO THE NEWEST ADDITION TO THE TEAM: MATT LOWRY, CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER.

Matt leads the global sales and customer success teams. His role is pivotal to ensure ApprovalMax continues to grow in the Xero ecosystem and the company’s global customer base continues to get value from the product.

Kylie: Welcome to the team, Matt – we’re so pleased that you’ve joined ApprovalMax at such an exciting time of growth! We currently have just over 100 team members who are spread across 30 different countries. What inspired you to join ApprovalMax?

Matt: I’m really excited to be joining the team! The growth to-date speaks for itself, picking up several Xero awards and being shortlisted for others recently in several geographies is a testament to the great work the team is doing. Speaking with the Founders highlighted the

exciting new product developments that are planned to continue this growth trajectory and I like that we are expanding into new markets with a goal of being an endto-end AP solution of choice.

Having come from another company within the Xero ecosystem, I was already familiar with ApprovalMax’s great reputation and bestin-class product. I’m glad I get to keep working in the cloud accounting industry because it’s great to be part of a mission where we help accountants, bookkeepers, and SMEs worldwide have a tangible impact on society.

Kylie: We definitely have a ripple effect when it comes to our impact and the communities we serve, so you’ve joined the right team. Tell me about your background and what I’d find out about you if I was to look on your LinkedIn profile.

Matt: I originally have a legal background, working inhouse for a small-cap listed technology company in the UK. I transferred internally to head up their customer experience department after realising that I enjoy being in the driver's seat and making

decisions, rather than reactively acting on decisions in a purely legal sense! This experience gave me first-hand experience of board meetings and the impact that internal red tape can have on growth. If only we had ApprovalMax and some of the other leading ecosystem apps to help!

In late 2018, I joined the management reporting and forecasting app, Fathom, to launch their UK office. The role was to grow the revenue base significantly and I became their Head of Growth (EMEA), leading goto-market activities in the EMEA region, primarily the UK and South Africa. Helping thousands of SMEs and advisors globally to change how they view forecasting and management reporting was a greatly rewarding experience and showed me first-hand the impact that great AccounTech can make to businesses globally.

Kylie: We have something in common. My previous role was also working for another company in the Xero ecosystem where management reporting and forecasting was a huge part of the value

proposition. Helping SMEs and accounting firms understand the story behind the numbers was a big part of the inspiration. Now that you’re on a new adventure with us, what opportunities are you looking forward to diving into?

Matt: ApprovalMax is at such an exciting stage of growth, with all the recent and future product launches. I’m keen to work with the sales and marketing team to reach more of our target market to promote how ApprovalMax can really help lead the way forward!

A really recent example is the ApprovalMax and Airwallex integration for UK businesses, providing an end-to-end accounts payables solution, ensuring a seamless experience for our customers in preventing fraud and implementing inhouse financial controls. It’s great that we’re using Airwallex’s financial technology inside ApprovalMax to help businesses not only with payments, but scale across borders.

Kylie: Absolutely. We’ve just given our UK accounting partners another way to add

value with this service without requiring access to their client’s bank account. It’s automating the steps from approving it, to processing it, to paying it. I think it’s fantastic that our team has created a faster and smoother workflow, and that it can be done without having to leave the ApprovalMax platform.

Matt: Outside of that, we also want to continue making our existing customers happy and provide them with world-class customer support – this is particularly important as we scale to new markets and geographies. Personally, I’m also looking forward to continuing to advance our relationship with Xero accountants and bookkeepers, and assisting them with implementing in-house financial controls and workflows to their clients. That’s important because it ultimately adds deeper value to their relationships.

I want to also add to that list the new corporate identity and brand direction that your team has been heavily involved in – what was the story behind the new branding?

Kylie: The ApprovalMax story is interesting because the roots go as far back as 2014. The brand has evolved over the years, but at the end of 2022, we decided it was time for a new look. We wanted something that was deliberate, more modern, and software relevant. We exchanged our darker colours for ones that were brighter, lighter, and more energetic. It’s happening during a phase when there are a number of exciting internal changes and new people joining our team, such as yourself, Justin Campbell from Xero, Brendan Lucas as our Head of Accounting, and Cassandra Scott as our Head of Bookkeeping, just to name a few. Can you relate to the evolution of the brand, and why branding in SaaS is important?

Matt: The new brand looks clean and concise, which for me is imperative to stand out in any market. The timing is perfect as we move into a new stage of growth with a more comprehensive product. The new brand reflects the new stage of the journey that we are now on.

Keep reading

By Wolters Kluwer UK

Parlez-vous français?

The ability to produce a 360-degree view of a business, based on real-time data, is now paramount. Like all businesses, accountancy practices must have a clear view of the threats and opportunities that may impact their clients. This equips them to advise on what decisions can help achieve the best possible outcomes. They also need to produce timely and relevant forecasts in today’s rapidly changing economic landscape of business variables. Many of the old tools and technologies that practices are still using will not make the cut in this age of uncertainty. And there’s no time like the present to re-evaluate.

At Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting UK, we aim to deliver deep impact when it matters most. In this article, we shed light on how practices should expect reporting and forecasting to develop over the short and long term. We’ll also cover some of the game-changing results that may help to win new business, and accelerate practice growth.

Retrieving and reporting

on real-time data may be key to navigating a recession

Many practices, including those that are fully digitised, have not moved to using more modern reporting and forecasting tools. This is despite the fact that most firms are aware of the limitations of using spreadsheets as their primary tool for reporting, preparing budgets, and forecasting. The manual data entry and preparation usually associated with spreadsheets is a common complaint.

However, an even more profound concern is that most spreadsheets are not connected to digital bookkeeping systems. Nor are they usually connected to systems that efficiently automate data collection and analysis. The data fed into them is often not timely enough to present a contemporary, and accurate, view of a business. It is also not easily refreshed to reflect real-time changes in any number of economic variables.

Globally, sectors such as insurance, manufacturing and healthcare have been reporting against real-time data for decades. This allows them to get a better view of their customers and produce products faster –and in some cases, to save lives by informing better decisions.

So what’s holding accountancy practices back?

It’s not entirely clear. The reality, however, is that accountants need to embrace the commercial and operational value of real-time data. As UK businesses navigate a difficult cost of living crisis, real-time data could be the driving force needed to weather this storm. To get a current 360-degree view of any business, accountants must ensure that reporting is streamlined and data is obtained in real time.

Client Reporting Should Become an Opportunity

If you are using spreadsheets for reporting, a badcase scenario is that your clients don’t find the results visually compelling. This might let down your brand. A worst-case scenario is that your clients don’t understand the results enough to have a meaningful conversation about them.

We live in a fast-paced, digital, visual world. Beautiful, intuitive user interfaces surround us. Buying consumer goods such as books, gifts and viewing experiences is now guided by contextual, highly relevant user experiences. These are often personalised to the individual. As Gartner says, user experience (UX) is the sum of the effects caused by a person using a digital solution. UX efforts concentrate on the experience people have when interacting with a...

Keep reading

By Sunil Nigam, CEO & Co-Founder, ExpenseOnDemand

TAT EXPENSEONDEMAND, WE ARE ALWAYS KEEN TO ENSURE OUR SOLUTION IS CURRENT AND FLEXIBLE. AS A GLOBAL LEADER, WE USE OUR EXTENSIVE DATA SETS TO MONITOR THE LATEST TRENDS IN GLOBAL EMPLOYEE EXPENSES. THIS ENABLES US TO SEE HOW BUSINESSES ARE BEHAVING AND ADAPTING TO ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND OTHER FACTORS ACROSS THE GLOBE.

Employee expenses can give valuable insights into businesses and how employees are working, interacting, entertaining, travelling domestically and internationally.

Recent data has shown some interesting and unexpected results as car mileage claims have increased hugely in the last 12 months, given renewed appetite for face-to-face client and colleague meetings.

This is certainly a surprising and interesting trend and could be due to millions of

employees struggling with the hybrid or Work-FromHome (WFH) model as well as suffering from well-documented Zoom fatigue. Many employees have admitted that these video calls don’t offer the same impact as meeting in person. As a result, the desire to meet colleagues and clients is returning back to pre-pandemic levels.

This trend highlights that businesses need to reconsider how their employees are working as well as how they want to work. To defeat this WFH burnout, organisations need to understand this reality and its issues so that they can survive and thrive in this new and ever-changing working world –what is more, employee expenses are showing us just one of the many ways employee needs are changing. Simply using an ‘office-style’ culture to conduct virtual work might now be seen as forcing a square peg into a round hole, and also not necessarily what many employees want.

This isn’t to say employees don’t want hybrid working as this is still a hugely popular solution, they want hybrid working that includes time in the office and at home and also time on the road meeting clients and contacts.

Nearly half of businesses across the US and Europe recently admitted working to optimise their corporate travel policy by decreasing their environmental impact due to regulatory requirements. What is more, increased business travel is now attracting attention (and remains a significant contributor to emissions), where international travel along with mileage claims continue to increase.

Technology at ExpenseOnDemand can help with all this. For example, many of our clients use our Google Mapping service to calculate routes and mileage rather than allowing employees to manually enter what is often estimated miles.

Find out more

AS BRITAIN TRAVERSES A LONG AND UNCERTAIN ECONOMIC ROAD, AMID PERSISTENTLY HIGH INFLATION AND SIGNS OF A SLOWING GLOBAL ECONOMY, BUSINESSES NEED TO ENSURE THEY HAVE PERSPECTIVE AT ALL TIMES.

WHY THE HUMAN TOUCH IS STILL AN ESSENTIAL PART OF GLOBAL BUSINESS

Tandem Bank reports transformational year in 2022

TANDEM BANK IS FURTHER CEMENTING ITS POSITION AS ONE OF THE NATION’S GO-TO BANKS FOR THOSE LOOKING TO SAVE, BORROW AND SPEND A LITTLE BIT GREENER, AS IT REPORTS ITS BUSINESS PERFORMANCE FOR 2022.

With a transformational year, the bank has surpassed a number of financial milestones:

• Underlying operating profit of £4.5m – breaking

SPOTTED ON SOCIAL

into underlying profitability for the first time in bank’s history

• Retail deposits increased from £771m to £1.75bn (uplift of 128%)

• £350m of second charge mortgages originated (FY21: nil)

• Tandem launched bespoke mortgage product in February 2022.

• £238m of green home improvement lending (FY21: £136m), taking the book to...

Keep reading

Revolut surpasses 30 million retail customers worldwide

PayPal Ventures Leads nocnoc’s $14 Million Series A Funding Round

AT TIDE, WE’RE FIRM BELIEVERS IN THE BOUNDLESS POWER OF WOMEN IN BUSINESS AND THEIR INCREDIBLE POTENTIAL TO SHAPE

THE FUTURE.

That’s why we’ve already hit our 2023 target: in March, we announced that we’d successfully onboarded more than 100,000 female-led businesses1 to our platform. We did this ten months early*, and that achievement has only fueled our passion and determination to support even more aspiring women in entrepreneurship.

And today, we’re thrilled to announce our newest com-

mitment: to help another 100,000 women in business start and thrive by the end of 2027 – that means we’ll be extending our support to a total of 200,000 female entrepreneurs on their journey towards success.

As the first fintech company to support female entrepreneurs on such a large scale, we’re dedicated to promoting gender equality and removing obstacles every step of their way.

Our Women in Business content series

In February, we conducted a survery among our...

Keep reading

REVOLUT, THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SUPER APP, HAS SURPASSED 30 MILLION RETAIL CUSTOMERS WORLDWIDE, AND IS NOW PROCESSING OVER 400 MILLION TRANSACTIONS A MONTH.

Launched in the UK in 2015, Revolut offers money transfer and exchange. Today the company is averaging almost one million new customers per month. Over 30 million of its retail customers around the world

have access to many of Revolut’s innovative products including peer-to-peer payments, Saving Vaults, <18 accounts, and Stays for holiday booking. T&C’s apply.

Key market growth:

United Kingdom:

• New customers since reaching 25m customers (November 2022): 1.2 million+

• Total retail customers...

Keep reading

NOCNOC, THE LEADING FACILITATOR OF CROSS-BORDER ECOMMERCE BETWEEN GLOBAL SELLERS AND LATIN AMERICA, TODAY ANNOUNCED THAT IT HAS SECURED $14 MILLION IN SERIES A FUNDING, LED BY PAYPAL VENTURES WITH PARTICIPATION FROM MOURO CAPITAL, QUONA CAPITAL, CARAVELA CAPITAL, BROADHAVEN AND IGNIA.

The funding will further strengthen nocnoc’s mission to help international businesses grow and expand into Latin America. nocnoc plans to utilize the capital to expand its reach into

new markets and open additional sales channels. The capital will also be used to enhance nocnoc's fulfillment solution for retailers and expand its payments support, providing a safer and more reliable cross-border eCommerce experience for sellers around the world. nocnoc was created to connect sellers in global markets with Latin America’s eCommerce platforms.

Growing at an annual rate of 25%, Latin America is one of the fastest-growing eCommerce markets in the world, but it is also one of the toughest regions to break into. Businesses that...

Keep reading

An open letter from Tide’s CEO on the new PSR requirements for APP fraud reimbursement…

THE LIKELY UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES REQUIRE ACCELERATION OF THE FIGHT AGAINST FRAUD

Context

The UK continues to be engulfed by fraud on an unimaginable scale. Fraud now accounts for 40% of all reported crime.1 Many scams go unreported, so the actual number may be substantially higher. In my last open letter, I outlined

how the authorities need to support stepping up fraud prevention and law enforcement.

This week, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has confirmed new rules that will require payment firms to reimburse victims of Authorised Push Payment fraud (APP fraud, or scams). This move will effectively increase the expected returns to fraudsters and may lead to a series of unintended...

Keep reading