XU Biweekly - Issue 7 - 14th June 2021 by XU Magazine

Monday 14 June 2021 | No. 7

XU Biweekly

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XU are now a CPD Corporate Member

E HAVE BEEN WORKING CLOSELY WITH THE CPD CERTIFICATION SERVICE TO HAVE OUR ARTICLES CPD CERTIFIED. As you read through our sister publication, XU Magazine, any article that shows the CPD Certified logo has been approved to count towards your CPD points. The CPD Certification Service was established in 1996 as the leading independent CPD accreditation institution operating across industry sectors to complement the Continuing Professional Development policies of professional institutes and academic bodies. The CPD Certification Service provides support, advice and recognised independent CPD accreditation compatible with global CPD principles. We are really excited to have been able to secure this for our magazine readers as it means all approved articles can now be used towards your CPD points and building up your CPD register.

TRENT INNES STANDS DOWN AS XERO MD, AUSTRALIA & ASIA FORMER EGM OF GLOBAL SALES, JOSEPH LYONS, TO TAKE OVER ROLE

RENT INNES HAS ANNOUNCED HE WILL BE STEPPING DOWN FROM HIS POSITION AS MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR AUSTRALIA AND ASIA AFTER 8 YEARS OF WORKING IN THE XERO TEAM. Taking to his LinkedIn profile, Innes announced the news of his departure and intentions on exloring new opportunities. Having joined Xero in 2013, Innes has experienced the changing face of Xero for almost a decade. Innes previously shared with us here at XU Magazine how Xero was relaitvely small and unknown when he first began working with them. Before he took over from Chris Ridd as Managing Director for Australia & Asia in 2015, Innes held roles such as building up the go to market channels, working with partners to explain what the cloud actually was and expanding their programme. Throughout his time, subscriptions in Australia rose from 300,000 to more

than 1.1 million. As he departs, Xero is now a globally recognised company that many aspire to work for in that part of the world. Throughout the extreme shift the planet has experienced over the past year and a half, Xero has maintained its presence as a global leader and constant backbone for small businesses to rely on, all under Innes' watchful eye. Innes thanked the many partners and customers that he had the privilege of working with during his time at Xero, and gave a special thanks to his own team: "The hardest part of this decision was leaving all of you. I have never worked with a more passionate driven group of people who live our purpose and values each and every day. You are all amazing." Alongside his touching message of thanks, Innes also announced the exciting news that Joseph Lyons will be taking over from his as the new Managing Director, Aus-

tralia & Asia from the start of the new finanial year on 1st July 2021. Having joined Xero 18 months ago, Lyons formerly lead the sales team as the Executive General Manager of Global Sales. Before becoming a part of the Xero team, Lyons spent five years on the executive leadership team of REA Group, a leading digital business specialising in property. His background also involves a wealth of experience across industries and diverse leadership roles in technology, financial services and healthcare. In Lyons own LinkedIn post he shared how his time so far at Xero has greatly impressed him, particularly the culture of putting people first. He intends on building what their teams across the region have accomplished so far. Innes will work alongside Lyons during their handover period until September, ensuring there is a smooth transition.

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Xero named Frost & Sullivan’s 2021 Asia-Pacific SME Accounting Software Vendor of the Year

ERO HAVE BEEN RECOGNISED FOR ITS PERFORMANCE AND CONTRIBUTIONS IN SHAPING NEW TRENDS ACROSS ASIA-PACIFIC IN FROST & SULLIVAN'S 2021 BEST PRACTICES AWARDS. The award celebrates best-in-class companies that continually demonstrate excellence and have accomplished innovative or disruptive breakthroughs in their industries. Krishna Baidya, Director of ICT Practice at Frost & Sullivan commented: “Xero's cloud-based accounting software platform provides SMEs with a comprehensive solution to handle their accounting functions...

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NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!

ZAYZOON

Latest Xero Product News - June 2021

By Anna Curzon

HIS MONTH, MANY OF OUR NEW FEATURES ARE FOCUSED ON THE PAYMENTS AND INVOICING EXPERIENCE IN XERO. THESE INCLUDE THE ARRIVAL OF A HIGHLY REQUESTED FEATURE IN HUBDOC, AS WELL AS THE ABILITY TO PRINT A PACKING SLIP FROM AN INVOICE AND GET PAID IN MULTIPLE CURRENCIES. CHECK THEM OUT BELOW AND AS ALWAYS, REACH OUT TO OUR TEAM IF YOU NEED SUPPORT.

New features Set a default due date for bills in Hubdoc — Global

Since we bundled Xero and Hubdoc together, we’ve introduced a number of new features that make it easy for you to capture bills and receipts in Xero. Our latest feature allows you to set a default due date for suppliers, on your terms. This is useful if the date isn’t included on the bill, or you want to pay all your bills on the same date.

Print a basic packing slip — Global When sending goods to customers, you may want to include a packing slip. You can now print a basic packing slip from an approved invoice, without needing to create a...

XU BIWEEKLY - No. 7

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

By Duarte Fernandes

HIS MONTH, CHASER RELEASED A PAYMENT PLAN FEATURE THAT ALLOWS USERS TO CREATE CUSTOMISED REPAYMENT PLANS AND CHASE INSTALMENTS FOR UNPAID INVOICES, AT INTERVALS THAT THEY CHOOSE. Large invoices often serve as a deterrent to customers clearing their balances quickly as they could struggle with cash flow themselves. With Chaser’s new payment plan feature, users can give their customers the chance to break up their invoices into smaller, easier to manage instalments and integrate them seamlessly with the automated reminders.

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Newsdesk: If you have any news or updates that you would like us to consider for inclusion in the next edition of the XU Biweekly, please email us at: newsdesk@xumagazine.com CEO: David Hassall Managing Editor: Wesley Cornell Director of Strategic Partnerships: Alex Newson Communications Manager: Bethany Fulks

New payment plan feature means Chaser users can offer flexible instalment plans to customers

More New Joiin Features for May 2021 By Karen Parker

NE OF QICWORKS KEY GOALS IS TO HELP BUSINESSES EASILY ACCESS AND UNDERSTAND THEIR PROFITABILITY, SO THEY CAN FOCUS ON WINNING THE RIGHT WORK. This month saw the team’s attention turn to the quoting component within our core product, to see how we can further enhance your experience. As part of this task, we were looking at how

we can improve your existing pricing data, remove duplication and provide more flexibility, so you can create more beautiful quotes and estimates. We have also released additional functionality such as the ability to create kit items, show or hide quote item details, as well as highlight which products or services are providing you with the most amount of...

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Keep timekeeping accurate with new simPRO editing functionality

WO IMPORTANT NEW FEATURES TO ROUND OFF MAY, CURRENCY FORMAT SETTINGS AND THE MUCH REQUESTED COMPACT VIEW – ALL INCLUDED IN EVERY PLAN AS STANDARD.

Currency Format Settings In this release we have a couple of new settings to control how your data is presented. You can now choose

to hide the currency symbol from being displayed and switch the display format to Accountancy format (with negative numbers in brackets). This helps with region-specific presentation requirements. Just head over to the Reporting Configuration under the Settings toggle to see these new settings.

Edit the hours worked Sometimes errors are made, especially by staff busy out in the field. Long days and unexpected problems in the day can lead to inaccurate clocking on and off via simPRO Mobile, which means data in simPRO may not reflect the actual hours worked by staff. Following the latest update, selected staff in the office can now easily edit the clock on and off times of other employees. It's as simple as viewing the hours, and adjusting the times!

AEM JOURNALER AU & UK - Tired and frustrated wrangling your crypto transaction data? AEM Journaler enables your business to track & reconcile crypto transactions, add & view wallets, report crypto tax liabilities, compliant with the ATO, generate fast & easy CSV exports.

CREZCO UK - Crezco is an open banking payment solution designed for online invoice payments up to £250,000. Crezco’s checkout solution initiates bank-to-bank transfers seamlessly and securely for your customers for free, saving them time and you money.

Get all the power of Consolidated Forecasts with Spotlight Eliminations By Paul Gray

U DIGITAL FORMS & CERTIFICATES IN THE TRADIFY APP

OULD YOU LIKE AN EASY WAY TO ADJUST WHAT TIMES HAVE BEEN CLOCKED ON AND OFF? THE LATEST SIMPRO UPDATE STARTS ROLLING INTO BUILDS AND PROVIDES OFFICE STAFF THE ABILITY TO DO JUST THAT BY ADJUSTING THE CLOCK-ON AND CLOCK-OFF TIMES FOR ALL MEMBERS OF THE TEAM.

AU - ZayZoon gives employees access to the wages they have earned between pays and financial education to improve financial literacy. ZayZoon takes on the risk, support and overhead of managing the advance process and helps employers to reduce absenteeism, promote recruitment and improve retention.

RE YOU READY TO DITCH YOUR PAPER FORMS AND CERTIFICATE PADS? TRADIFY ALLOWS YOU TO EASILY CREATE, FILL OUT, SIGN AND SEND FORMS & CERTIFICATES. NO MORE EXPENSIVE CARBON COPY PADS, NO MORE MESSY PAPERWORK. GET ACCESS TO OUR FORMS & CERTIFICATES WITHIN THE TRADIFY APP. There are many types of forms/certificates across industries and around the world. The forms and certs displayed in the Tradify app

will be specific to your country & region. We’ll be adding more to Tradify soon. Initially, there are ten gas engineer forms/certificates available to create through Tradify: • L a n d l o r d / H o m e ow n e r Gas Safety Record • Service & Maintenance Record • Installation / Commissioning / Decommissioning Record • Gas Warning Notice • Gas Breakdown Service • Commercial Catering Inspection Record...

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NTIL RECENTLY, MOST ACCOUNTANTS AND CFOS FACED A CHALLENGING CROSSROAD: RELUCTANTLY OPEN A SPREADSHEET AND BEGIN THE HERCULEAN TASK OF PREPARING A GROUP FORECAST... OR FORGETTING ABOUT IT ALTOGETHER. Using a spreadsheet meant struggling with complex formulas and taking massive amounts of time to complete. Not preparing a group forecast at all meant lost visibility on where the group was heading. The long-awaited antidote arrived at the end of 2020 when we launched Consolidated Forecasts for up to 75 entities. Today, we’re thrilled to step it up (again) with the introduction of Eliminations...

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XU Biweekly | No. 7

Monday 14 June 2021 3

ApprovalMax: Streamline your budget and expense approvals

The app updates Aussie small businesses need to know this EOFY By Elliot Spirrett

ITH THE NEW FINANCIAL YEAR JUST AROUND THE CORNER, THERE’S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO STOP AND REFLECT. FOR SOME, THIS MEANS FIGURING OUT WHERE YOUR BUSINESS COULD USE A BIT OF EXTRA SUPPORT TO MAKE FY22 YOUR BEST YEAR YET. Our Xero Small Business Insights report shows that embracing digital tools can be a key factor in helping small businesses kick growth goals. And that’s where the Xero App Marketplace comes in. With an ecosystem of over 1,000 apps, you can create a virtual team at your fingertips, supporting you with everything from cash flow management to moving sales online. Following one of the most challenging years yet for small businesses, you might’ve missed out on some exciting ecosystem updates and new releases. Of course, with so many apps to choose from, we can never play favourites. So we’ve gone and compiled a list of highlights from the past twelve months to help you set yourself up for success in FY22.

Go paperless with Expensify Any small business owner knows that paper receipts can be a pain to manage. The solution? Go paperless with receipt and expense management platform Expensify. In FY21, the Expensify app released two new features that enable small businesses to electronically receive, categorise, approve and pay bills – all automatically. The app continuously syncs with Xero, meaning it’s clever enough to automatically link invoices to corresponding customer accounts, and track the real-time status of invoices, bills and expense reports....

Schedule smarter with Deputy’s new touchless time clock feature Last year, employers took extra precautions to protect their employees’ health and safety at work. And for many businesses, those changes have become permanent. That’s why Deputy introduced a touchless time clock feature, giving employees a faster and more hygenic way to start their shifts with facial and voice recognition.

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XU Hub By Nick Houldsworth

ONGRATULATIONS TO OUR JUNE APP PARTNER OF THE MONTH, APPROVALMAX – A SOPHISTICATED APPROVAL AUTOMATION APP FOR SALES INVOICES, BILLS, PURCHASE ORDERS (POS) AND MORE. CO-FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, HELMUT HEPTNER, TELLS US HOW APPROVALMAX HELPS BUSINESSES SAVE TIME AND CREATE MORE EFFICIENT WORKFLOWS, ALL WHILE KEEPING THE AUDITORS HAPPY.

Building from experience Founded in 2014, ApprovalMax was created with a vision to help businesses transform their daily operations and make them more efficient. Focussing on automating the approvals process for billing and expenditure, ApprovalMax helps businesses create a system where all invoices, bills and POs are approved by the right people, with the delegated authority to do so. So what does this mean in practice? For

Seamless approvals Key to this efficiency is the way ApprovalMax pulls information from Xero and structures approvals. It allows businesses to determine staff authorisation levels, and create rules that send approvals to the right...

Clarity's latest team member, Paul Dunn, needs no introduction.......

HEN THE STARS ALIGN, YOU NOW THE RESULTS ARE GOING TO BE OUT OF THIS WORLD! AND WHEN PATHS, THAT HAVE CRISSCROSSED SO MANY TIMES AND FOR SO MANY MANY REASONS, FINALLY CONVERGE - YOU KNOW THE BEST IS YET TO COME! AT CLARITY®, WE ARE OVER-THEMOON DELIGHTED TO WELCOME OUR NEWEST TEAM MEMBER, PAUL DUNN. PAUL WILL BE THE ADVOCATE-IN-CHIEF, OR CHIEF STORYTELLER AS IT WERE, FOR OUR COMPLETELY REIMAGINED BUSINESS ADVISORY MOVEMENT.

A legend in accounting For those in the accounting industry, Paul needs little, or no, introduction. Working with accountants for over 30 years and often referred to the godfather of modern accounting, Paul was the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for services to the accounting profession at the Accounting Excellence Awards. He is the author of the seminal book for professional services firms, The Firm of the Future with Ron Baker, and

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businesses that have different staff managing different budgets across their operations, keeping on top of where money is being spent, by who, and on what, can be challenging. Working out these details can be a very manual process that eats into precious staff time. ApprovalMax automates this process in the cloud, so staff can focus their time on more important things. “ApprovalMax really facilitates automated paperless approvals. By eliminating paper and email-based approvals, we can save staff time, boosting overall efficiency,” says Helmut.

founder of Results Accountants Systems (RAS) with Ric Payne, an organisation that trained over 17,000 accountants from around the world, to tell better stories with numbers and dramatically change their lives and the lives of small business owners. And most recently, chairman of the ground-breaking giving movement B1G1, which has helped create over 230m giving impacts worldwide.

Accountants change lives Find out more

Leading innovation to drive small business economic recovery By Steve Vamos

ECOME 2021, SPONSORED BY MASTERCARD AND POWERED BY THE HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES BUSINESS INNOVATION INDEX, RECENTLY INTERVIEWED BUSINESS LEADERS FROM AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND COMPANIES TO DETERMINE HOW THEY ARE INNOVATING TO BETTER SERVE THEIR CUSTOMERS. THE DATA WAS COLLATED TO CREATE THE BECOME 2021: BUSINESS THROUGH ADVERSITY. I was pleased to be able to share Xero’s perspective on the topic and explain how we continued to innovate for our customers and partners, during COVID-19. The resulting report: ‘Faster Innovation and a Focus on Customer Experience: Helping Australia and New Zealand Battle through Adversity’. The survey identified five key traits shared among world-class innovative organisations. We have identified how Xero embodies these traits, and identified five ways to drive economic recovery:

Features Q & A: The Power of Partnerships

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Monday 14 June 2021

Some firms we speak to believe that offshoring or outsourcing is a silver bullet to solve all their ills. At AdvanceTrack we believe that it is just one of the building blocks to success.

By Vipul Sheth ACA CTA

N OUR EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH ACCOUNTANTS, THE FIRMS THAT PROSPER ARE THE ONES THAT HAVE NAILED CLIENT SATISFACTION.

Say hello to the future of forecasting: How the industry helped reimagine three-way forecasting

With that in mind we have devised a seven-step process called ‘The Accountant’s Client Satisfaction Lifecycle’ to help forward-thinking accountants replicate this success. It is a repeatable, scalable, plan that can only happen alongside robust systems and processes. If you have these processes in place then, when a client walks through the door, you will know what happens next to provide them with the best support. The more efficient and technologically-enabled the processes, the more painless that service will be.

By Geoff Cook

ITH THE LAUNCH OF ITS CASH FLOW FORECASTING FEATURE, FATHOM HIT A SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE. XU MAGAZINE CAUGHT UP WITH CO-FOUNDER GEOFF COOK, TO HEAR ABOUT THE COMPANY’S JOURNEY AND ITS FRESH APPROACH TO FORECASTING. XU: Fathom was founded a decade ago, can you tell us a bit about the journey? GC: Fathom began in a basement den in Brisbane, Australia. What drives us today is what drove us back then: to build powerful tools that give you a deeper understanding of your business performance. We want to help businesses - and the accountants that advise them - to make better decisions so they can survive and thrive. I still remember our first customer in 2012, a rental car company in Atlanta, Georgia, who’d found us through the Xero Marketplace. Since then we’ve grown to a global team of over 70 people, spread across four continents and helping more than 50,000 companies in 80 countries. XU: How did the pandemic impact Fathom? GC: As the COVID crisis developed, we saw a huge upswing in advisors and businesses using Fathom to forensically analyse their numbers to gain better insights and guide decision making. It’s incredible to see our customers use Fathom to help them get through difficult times. One of our customers who had just recently implemented Fathom, said that if he didn’t take action quickly, he would have been out of business in under six months. He had no idea, and Fathom helped him not only bring his company back

from the brink, but also keep staff in jobs. XU: Forecasting was a major development for the product, wasn’t it? GC: It sure was! It took over 40 people, hundreds of customer interviews, thousands of lines of code, and nearly two years to research and build. In fact, the code for Forecasting was actually bigger and more complex than the code for our very first version of Fathom. It was worth it though! Forecasting is a pivotal feature for Fathom, joining our best-in-class reporting and analysis tools to help drive better outcomes for businesses. We now have a completely integrated solution for businesses and accountants looking for comprehensive financial intelligence. One of our Fathom customers summed it up this way: Accountants are very good at telling you what’s happened; they’re getting better at describing why it’s happened; and now with Fathom, they can figure out what to do about it. XU: You did a lot of customer research during the development of forecasting in Fathom. What did that reveal? GC: We were guided by the insights of over 1100 accountants and businesses from around the world and we discovered some fascinating details. A forecast built in Excel takes on average nine hours to complete and is quickly made irrelevant when new financial data comes in. Additionally, there’s no clear audit trail showing where the numbers have come from, which makes it easy to make errors but hard to detect them. In contrast, with Fathom forecasting, your data is never out of date and it’s completely auditable.

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Invest time in building a trusted online presence and give value to prospects. This will set the tone for doing more of the work you enjoy, with the clients you want.=How many firms think every client is good business? Many businesses go through that phase where any new business is good business. But, it’s important that the clients understand you and your team. Why? Because otherwise, they drain the energy from your team and from the clients that really do understand you. For that reason, your messaging is important in attracting the right type of client. How do you share what it is you do? Your culture and your expectations in how you deal with clients is important. Some firms say they want to deal with SMEs. What does that mean? For example, Is it nearer the ‘S’ or the ‘M’ in SME? You might enjoy helping start-ups if that’s the case, just say it. Otherwise, the £10m business will come along and you will debate if they are an appropriate client or not. You’ve also got to look at the skillsets you and your team possess. If you’ve never dealt with a creative business, you might struggle to be their expert adviser. Set out expectations and then ensure you communicate those. It’s less painful than after you’ve engaged them.

HR Software for Small & Medium Businesses Streamline your HR processes and free up your time

How technology-enabled is your onboarding? Firms have many ways in which they bring clients on board. There are multiple tools: Practice Ignition; Karbon; Senta; and DocuSign etc. that firms can use to automate this process, or just speed up the onboarding process. Think about when you used to send out physical documents. Today, there is no need to do that. More importantly, you’ve attracted clients on the basis of your adoption of technology. Imagine then what that client might think if your engagement letter dropped through the letterbox. An important part of this process is cash collection. Using Go Cardless, Practice Ignition, Stripe etc. sets your firm’s position right at the start of the engagement on your expectation of what the client needs to do to pay your fees.

We talked about engagement letters above, for example, being electronic. Training your clients in collecting data efficiently will help you deliver better, more timely and accurate data for them to run their business. It seems quite normal to us at AdvanceTrack to expect our client firms to using Dext, Hubdoc or AutoEntry to enhance data collection. I, for one, think there is still a long way for firms to get enough of their clients well-trained in using these products/services. We hear so many firms say “we use these products”. But, when we ‘look under the hood’, we often find that only a small proportion actually use the software. Some firms let clients drop in their records and a junior team member or admin staff scan it to use within these products. This means that...

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6 XU Biweekly | No. 7

Features

Monday 14 June 2021

Book review: Everything you need to know about Xero Practice Manager

U MAGAZINE’S CEO, DAVID HASSALL, RECEIVED A COPY OF WILL MCTAVISH’S AND REUBEN SWEENEY’S NEW BOOK. DAVID TOLD US OF HIS APPRECIATION WHEN READING THIS NEW TITLE WHICH HE DUBBED AS “A 6-WEEK TRAINING MODULE BUNDLED INTO ONE BOOK, BUT NOT QUITE POCKET SIZED!” Written by Will McTavish & Reuben Sweeney (Founders of Link Solutions) this is nearly a decade’s worth of knowledge extracted from two minds that know all there is to know about Xero Practice Manager (XPM). Newly released in February 2021 this book really is a first of its kind. I am a big fan of any practical content which is going to help propel the reader to get from A to B in the most efficient way possible. This book seems to have been created simply with that in mind, cover to cover it is all practical implementation with a seasoning of theory on how to best run your

practice. Going from setting up clients to job management and profitability reporting, this book covers it all. As well as the practical setup and implementation within XPM it also covers some general best practices relevant for accounting and bookkeeping firms of all sizes. Each section is clearly laid out to give you the area of training but is always followed on by a practical example (see Fig. 1). The detail in these examples ensures that you’ve understood it correctly. Some key integrations are covered between XPM, Xero, Practice Ignition and Link Reporting (see Fig. 2). These are enough to ensure that you can start to automate the flow of data between systems whilst ensuring that you keep XPM as your single source of truth. The flow between XPM and Xero is a natural one but it is clear, and something I learnt during this read, that you still need to implement best practice when linking these together. Visual representa-

tion throughout this book (eg. as seen in Fig. 3)ensures that in whichever way you digest information - you should be covered. As XPM is very much a like-for-like of WorkflowMax (WFM), I believe that most of the content in this book would be relevant to other

service-based organisations using WFM. However, the content within this book itself can draw little criticism but I believe a follow-on deep-dive into the world of integrations and automation between software solutions (XPM being the cog in the centre of the wheel), would

be a priceless asset for accountants and bookkeepers looking to build a scalable and efficient practice. We had a teaser of this but I was left wanting more. The great thing about this book is that you don’t lose all of the knowledge when the expert leaves, like

you do with training sessions. You can keep referring back to it and learning more. For any users of XPM, new or experienced, I expect this to be a must-have tool that will sit on your desk and constantly be referred to.

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IT IS WHAT YOU DO (AND THE WAY THAT YOU DO IT) By James Kilford

Process mapping for success

OU KNOW HOW YOUR PRACTICE WORKS - BUT WHAT ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE? JAMES KILFORD OF SENTA PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SHARES SOME OF THE BENEFITS ACCOUNTANTS WILL GAIN FROM MAPPING PRACTICE PROCESSES - AND HOW TO GET STARTED.

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XU magazine

Steve Case is the CEO of Finance Box, self-styled ‘Bean-counting superheroes’. I was interested to talk with him after the support team were raving about how he was using all the data generated by Senta to improve productivity. What I actually uncovered was a process mapping mastermind, who has detailed the way his practice works and used that info to build processes which make the practice run better. It’s made a massive difference to the effectiveness of his team. And their clients are happy too because they know exactly what’s expected of them and when.

What do we mean by process mapping? It’s not so alien - nor is it difficult. Steve compares it to a spreadsheet. “As account-

ants we program client inputs, create a machine of formulas and then study the output. If it’s wrong, we check the machine and edit how it works. The same applies to process mapping: we look at the info we need and how we complete a task. Then we keep tweaking this to make our processes better over time.”

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Service Diversification - embracing technology to enable growth By Helmut Heptner

It’s not a solo effort though; it’s about an accounting firm and their client progressing together, hand-in-hand. Success very much depends on the firm’s readiness to deliver a certain set of services – but just as much on the client’s willingness to embrace this kind of services, meaning they first need to place a demand and then incorporate such input into their business decision-making.

Growth stages of advisory Quite commonly, a comparison between Compliance and Advisory will conclude that compliance is focused mainly on statutory and governmental reporting, typically quarterly or annually, which requires no knowledge of the business – as opposed to business advisory that takes a deep dive into the operations to figure out the impact certain financial transactions would have by including spending per spend category, the profitability of each product or service the client offers, etc. In between, however, there are two more growth stages, something we call the Actuals and Forecasting. The actuals show a snapshot of the current financial status in the form of quar-

terly or monthly reports derived from both the income statement and balance sheet, yet with no attempt to look into the financial future. Forecasting, in turn, estimates the amount of revenue or income that is expected to be achieved in a future period. Regardless of the technique used but resting on various criteria such as available historical data, accepted accuracy as well as the possibility to establish a correlation between these factors, forecasting will provide essential development scenarios – only, just as with compliance and the actuals, there will be no particular consideration for business needs.

Advisory readiness matrix Getting ready for diversifying accounting services and moving towards higher value advisory demands a certain level of key modules like systems, data, workflows and people/collaboration. Depending on the scope of services provided, the requirements in terms of readiness components vary significantly. Basic COMPLIANCE doesn’t necessarily need cloud technology. In terms of data, no such thing as real-time or actionable is expected. Workflows can be simplistic and don’t require automation, collaboration with the client is very limited and rather transactional. For robust ACTUALS, technology has to be stepped up. Only a centralised architecture will work, with a unified system of records as the accounting platform and enhanced by

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pre-integrated add-ons. All data must be up to date, with a high priority on accuracy and precision. Yet in terms of data granularity there is no need to track spending per category, aggregated

Practice readiness

I V E R S I F I C AT I O N OF SERVICES, IN ESSENCE, LEADS TO EVOLVING TOWARDS HIGHER VALUE ADVISORY AND BUILDING A CLOSER AND MORE MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CLIENT – A JOURNEY THAT EVERY ACCOUNTING FIRM EMBARKS ON AT SOME POINT IN TIME.

values are sufficient. Workflows, in particular approval workflows, have to prevent erroneous or fraudulent spending and ensure correct business coding. The collaboration

with the client is basically about authspending as a whole rather than specifying spending allocation. Sound FORECASTING, just as the actuals, relies on a centralised and fully cloud-

based system complemented by a set of pre-integrated apps for a best-of-breed solution.

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ACTUALS

ADVISORY

COMPLIANCE

FORECASTING

Client readiness

Why is chasing for payments so awkward and what you can do about it? Asking to get paid for your work shouldn’t have to feel awkward...

By Sonia Dorais

O ONE WANTS TO CHASE THEIR CUSTOMERS FOR PAYMENT. MOST PEOPLE DON’T RELISH CONFLICT AND, IF YOU’RE A BUSINESS OWNER, YOU’VE PROBABLY GOT BETTER THINGS TO BE DOING. Unfortunately, chasing late invoices is just part of running a business that sells on payment terms. Cumulatively, UK small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are owed a combined £50 billion in late pay-

ments. The average business is wasting time and money chasing eight invoices, each worth around £8,500 each. Thankfully, there are ways you can overcome the inherent awkwardness of asking for the money you’re owed and get paid faster and more punctually.

Set clear payment terms The first step in implementing effective credit control is to be proactive. Since most business transactions start with a contract,

you need to have firm payment terms in place. Having a clear payment date and setting out what happens if the customer pays late is the best way to avoid miscommunication. If your payment terms are watertight, then it leaves your customers very little wiggle room when it comes to paying you. Remember, if you’re in the UK, you have the statutory right to levy both late payment interest and claim compensation on late invoices.

If you do have doubts about your client’s ability to pay on time, you could always ask for a deposit. If both of you are dealing in a fair and open manner, then a deposit shouldn’t be an issue. A customer immediately refusing the idea of a deposit is usually a red flag.

Take advantage of the benefits of automation Chasing for payment is both time-consuming and...

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YOU CAN NOW SEND INR TO MORE PLACES, FOR LESS

By Chee-Xuan Tang

NDIAN RESIDENTS CAN NOW SEND MONEY FROM INDIA TO 40+ COUNTRIES — INCLUDING AUSTRALIA, CANADA, SINGAPORE, US, UK, UAE. You can send INR from our Android or iOS app, or on the web. And you’ll get the real exchange rate, and even lower and transparent fees. It’s expensive to send money from India internationally with banks, Western Unions and other service providers. Because they give you a poor exchange rate with expensive transaction fees. Now, you can send money from India for up to 3.9x cheaper with Wise, compared to leading banks. From now till 31 July 2021, we will donate all fees for transfers from INR towards COVID-19 relief efforts for India.

Cheaper online

transfers Indians around the world are already using Wise to send money, including paying for education abroad. Because it’s: • Cheap — up to 3.9x cheaper than leading banks in India and 3x cheaper than PayPal • Easy — sign up and send money online within minutes, no need to visit branches • Global — send to 40+ countries around the world • Transparent — get the real exchange rate, like the one you see on Google

How to get started Sign up online and complete your first transfer in six easy steps: • Set up your transfer • Tell us who you’re sending money to • Verify your identity • Choose how to pay

• Pay from your bank account • Confirm the payment And that’s it!

Invite your friends and get rewarded Over 10 million people use Wise and most of them hear about us from people like you. Every friend that you invite to Wise will get a discount on their first transfer. We’ll reward you for inviting them too. In India, you’ll get 1,001 INR, once three invited friends make a qualifying payment of at least 10,000 INR each. Your friend gets a free first transfer up to 25,000 INR. Start inviting your friends now. Wise has the approval from the Reserve Bank of India to offer the service in India with a local bank partner.

Find out more

Stripe Terminal helps Wix unlock in-person payments with Wix POS for its US customers, unifying online and offline revenue.

TRIPE AND WIX, A LEADING GLOBAL SAAS PLATFORM TO CREATE, MANAGE, AND GROW AN ONLINE PRESENCE, TODAY ANNOUNCED AN EXPANDED PARTNERSHIP TO POWER IN-PERSON PAYMENTS FOR ITS USERS. WITH MORE THAN 200 MILLION USERS GLOBALLY, WIX ENABLES BUSINESSES, ORGANIZATIONS, ARTISTS, AND INDIVIDUALS TO BUILD AND EVOLVE THEIR BRANDS AND BUSINESSES ONLINE. As economies around the world reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer expectations have shifted towards more flexible commerce. Many businesses that pivoted online during the crisis—including more than 31 million new users who joined Wix’s platform in 2020—are now grappling with hybrid operations as they look for ways to bring their services back to the offline world. Stripe’s integrated product suite ensures platforms can provide a seamless experience for businesses and their customers. By layering Terminal, Stripe’s programmable point of sale, atop their existing integration with Stripe Connect, Wix can provide its users with everything they need to run and scale an omnichannel business. That includes website creation and management, logistics and operations, and payment processing for both online and in-person transactions, all with a 360° understanding of their business activity. “At Wix, we’re focused on enabling business owners to succeed by providing them an integrated platform with all the tools and functionality they need to sell and grow online,” said Liat Karpel Gurwicz, Head of eCommerce Marketing at Wix. “With Wix POS and Stripe’s underlying Terminal infrastructure, we can now help our users get a more holistic understanding of their business across different sales...

Stripe launches Payment Links to enable online sales in minutes without any code Save up to $2000! Offer ends 30/06/21

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TRIPE, A GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY BUILDING ECONOMIC INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE INTERNET, THIS WEEK ANNOUNCED THE LAUNCH OF PAYMENT LINKS: THE SIMPLEST WAY FOR BUSINESSES TO CREATE A FULL PAYMENT PAGE WITH JUST A FEW CLICKS, AND SHARE THE LINK WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS— NO CODE REQUIRED.

Payment Links simplifies the process of building a payment page by allowing businesses to generate a custom checkout page directly from their Stripe Dashboard, without needing a website, app, or any coding skills. Whether they’re startups, solo entrepreneurs, creators, or any other company, users will be able to customize the page using their own branding and will have multiple payment options to choose from, including recurring payments, wallets, coupons, subscriptions, and even free trials. Stripe handles the backend page generation and hosting as soon as users request a link. As a result, Payment Links users can accept their first payment in a matter of minutes. “In less than 5 minutes, we created a link that let us accept payments for our courses directly from our emails,” commented Ben Tossell, founder and CEO of Makerpad. “We get all the power of Stripe without having to write a single...

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HE ONLY COMPREHENSIVE SPEND MANAGEMENT PLATFORM FOR COMPANIES UP TO 1,000 EMPLOYEES SET TO INTENSIFY CATEGORY-DEFINING INNOVATION.

Get paid faster with more ways to pay

Airbase, the most comprehensive spend management platform for small to midsize companies, today announced $60M in Series B funding at a $600M valuation. The round was led by Menlo Ventures, and includes new investor Craft Ventures. Existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, First Round Capital, Quiet Capital, Webb Investment Network, and BoxGroup also participated. The round brings total venture funding to $91M and validates Airbase’s holistic approach to solving the spend management prob-

lem. The fresh capital will be used to further secure Airbase’s position as the most comprehensive spend management solution in its class; driving product improvements and innovation that continue to define the category, transform the way companies spend money, and elevate the role of employees to focus on the value-added work that makes companies successful. Additional investors in this round include several prominent industry executives who have themselves built and operated successful companies, and who will provide additional support as Airbase continues to scale. New investors include: Henry Ward, CEO at Carta; Manik Gupta, former CPO at Uber; Eric Sager, COO at Plaid; Kenny Mendes, Head of Operations at Coda; Zachary Bookman, Co-founder &

CEO at OpenGov; and Scott Shipman, former Chief Legal Officer at AppLovin and current CLO at Dapper Labs. Returning investors include Frederic Kerrest, Executive Vice Chairman, Co-founder & COO at Okta; and Sriram Krishnan, former executive at Spotify and Tinder. Today, the company also announced it has hired Aneal Vallurupalli as CFO, joining from Mattermost. This is in addition to recent new hires Jaakko Iso-Järvenpää from Dropbox as VP of sales, and Archit Shah from Robinhood as General Counsel. Matt Murphy, Partner at Menlo Ventures, joins the Airbase board, which includes Ajay Agarwal from Bain Capital Ventures and Bill Trenchard from First Round Capital. “Spend management is a massive category...