XU Magazine - Issue 05 - Digital Edition - Preview by XU Magazine

The independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users

ISSUE

magazine Q&A

Gary Turner

Try-It Tutorial

Importing into Xero Advice

How to grow the capital of your business Productisation

Xero Trifecta

Add-on Directory

Over 500 Add-ons listed COVER STORY:

Complete Cashflow Reliability How Satago is reinventing invoice finance to end late payment

Page

53 ISSN 2054-7226

FOR ALL

XERO

USERS

9 772054 722009

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WELCOME TO ISSUE 05 There is so much to tell you about XU Magazine just now I hardly know where to start! Of course the biggest news is that you can now receive the magazine free of charge. We can’t give you a better bargain than that! As of Issue 05 we also have a digital version for the first time, which is also free of charge.

magazine The independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users

Issue 05 Co-Founders: David Hassall, Wesley Cornell Managing Editor: Wesley Cornell Copy Editor: Jo Hardman Account Manager: Joel Barnett Advertising: Alex Newson International Correspondent (AU/NZ): Jeri Murphy Contributing Writers: Heather Townsend, Denise Twigger, Andrew Watt, Peter M. Vessenes, Bradley Beer, Guy Earnshaw, Brandon Smith, Jeri Murphy, Jon Leighton, Karen Reyburn, Sharon Pocock, John Paterson, Amy Harris, Scott McNaught, Mick Devine, Kevin Mann, Vipul Sheth, Richard Suswain, Grant Johnson, Sarah Pilling, Jordan MacAvoy, Steven Renwick

Many of you have asked us for more tutorials, and to this end we have two excellent tutorials from Jeri Murphy

We have a new and much improved addon directory. We now list over 500 add-ons for your reference. We have 4 cases of wine for the winners of our competition (p.70), one each for Australia, New Zealand, U.K. and U.S.A. Talking of wine brings me nicely on to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a great New Year from all of us here at XU Magazine!

Jo Jo Hardman - Editor (jo@xumagazine.com)

Founding Supporters: XU Magazine’s Patrons

Editorial/News Submissions: If you have any editorial content, (e.g news, comment, tutorials etc.) that you would like included in the next edition of XU Magazine, please contact editorial@xumagazine.com

Between 23rd March and 14th April 2014, we launched our campaign to raise US$25,000 to fund the magazine on Indiegogo, one of the world’s largest crowdfunding websites. Amongst those of you who supported the magazine are our Patrons, listed below:

Advertising: advertising@xumagazine.com T: +44 (0)116 298 60 80 E: hello@xumagazine.com W: www.xumagazine.com ‘Xero’ is a trademark of Xero Limited (New Zealand). 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 2014-2015. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. XU Magazine is published by XU Magazine Ltd (08811842), registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 198 Welford Road, Leicester, LE2 6BD. All information contained in this magazine is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. XU Magazine cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant XU Magazine a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all/any editions of the magazine, 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 nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage. The views expressed in XU Magazine are not necessarily the views of XU Magazine Ltd, its editors or its contributors.

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There is a theme running through this issue - funding / finance for business / financial web. Amy Harris of Crunchboards gives us ‘Seven different funding options’ (p.32), Peter Vessenes from ProfitSee talks of ‘Money and the Global Economy’ (p.12) and Steven Renwick of Satago brings us ‘Reinventing Invoice Finance to Help Businesses Get Paid on Time’ (p.53).

(p.20 & p.59). On a different note, Karen Reyburn reviews ‘The Sketchnote Handbook’ (p.26) – perfect for all those meetings where you need to remember the key points.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at xumagazine.com

In this issue... 06 / How to grow the capital of your business 07 / From the Xero user community: 9,354km by road 10 / Business finance in a day, without the paperwork?

FEATURED

24 / Finance for your business 26 / Book Review: The Sketchnote Handbook 28 / From the Xero user community: Kinder Pocock - Refresh, Reload 30 / Xero user community: Your pics

12 / How money really affects the global economy

31 / Marketing doesn’t end with the first invoice

14 / Put more in your client’s pocket with a little bit of help from a friend

32 / Seven different funding options for SMEs

16 / The rise of the UK Cloud Integrator

34 / Is your digital marketing strategy a Frankenstein’s monster?

18 / Accounting for digital currencies

36 / Social entrepreneurs looking for numbers in the cloud

20 /

Try-It Tutorial Importing into Xero

23 / BITE 2015

Funded on:

40 / Tidy opens for business in the UK

42 / The best of both worlds - down to earth with your head in the cloud 44 / Xero Trifecta: A unique approach by accountants Tyrrell & Company 46 / The good cloud

49 / A cloud inter-what? 51 / Invoice financing: A small business cash flow lifesaver 53 /

Cover Story Complete cashflow reliability

56 / Integrated payment solution add-ons 59 /

Try-It Tutorial How to manage deposits paid in foreign currency

62 / Q&A with Gary Turner 64 / Over 500 Add-ons Listed Add-on Directory

WIN A FOUR CASE OF WINE! TO BE WO N

CASES

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20 Issue 05 / 5

How to grow the capital value of your business Words: Heather Townsend

Of course the easy way to build your capital value is increase the top line and bottom line of your practice. With accountancy practices normally being valued as a multiplier of their GRF, the real question is how do you increase the multiplier? Or, how do you increase the goodwill in the business and the desirability of the business so a buyer will pay over the going rate for your business? In this article, Heather Townsend explores practical steps you can take to increase GRF multiplier to significantly increase the capital value of your accountancy practice. Change the mix of clients No one likes to buy a dud or an investment which will rapidly go sour. Any new owner of a practice will be prepared to pay more for a practice, if they know that the clients they are buying will stick around AND have the potential to need more services from their accountant. Most accountant’s clients are within 10 years of age of their accountant. This means that if a practice is being sold due to the owner retiring, there is a strong possibility that large swathes of the clients will also be on the point of retiring. These clients are likely to be winding down their business affairs rather than needing more services from their accountants. Therefore, regardless of your age, one of the best things you can do to improve the capital value of your accountancy practice is to change the mix of your clients. I.e. do and ACT on the results of your client portfolio analysis. In an ideal world you would: • Ditch the unprofitable clients or increase their fees so they are profitable again • Reduce your reliance on a handful of very large clients who, if you lost one of them would have a major impact on the profitability of the practice. Either by bringing in some other big clients 6 / Issue 05

Heather, the practice management expert, is the award-winning author of The FT Guide To Business Networking and The Go-To Expert. Over the last 12 months she has helped her clients add over £1 million GRF to their practices. To read more articles by Heather, visit growingyourfirm.co.uk @HeatherTowns

or significantly increasing the number of smaller clients. As a client said to me recently, it is better to win 10 new profitable clients each with £3k a month rather than win one new client worth £30k a month. • Look to increase the number of growing businesses in your portfolio. Get your commercial contracts tightened up by a lawyer Any inherent risk in your business will reduce the multiplier used to calculate the capital value of your business. This is why it makes sense to hire a lawyer to check out your engagement letters and contracts with your suppliers. They will be able to advise you on whether you need to change any of the wording to reduce any risks to more reasonable and expected levels. Regardless of whether you are selling your business or not, it makes good sense to review your engagement letters from time to time to make sure they are up-to-date. Have market-leading and in-demand intellectual property Increasing the capital value of your business is not all about your clients. It can also be about your position and standing in the industry, or whether you have some knowledge or IP which is in demand. For example, if you have a strong niche where clients naturally come to you, this is often a major factor in increasing the capital value of the business. For example, one of the reasons why Menzies

bought Harris Lipman was to learn from them about how to successfully use outsourcing in their business. Structure the business so it runs without you The last thing that any new owner of a business will want to happen is buy a business which can’t function without the old owner being some way involved in the business. This means that you need to structure your business so that it could, as much as possible, run without your dayto-day presence. Of course if you are a sole practitioner with only a few members of staff, this may not be practically possible. Demonstrate your marketing and sales processes predictably work What would you prefer to buy, a book of business, or a book of business which comes with a proven processes and systems to expand this book of business? It’s a no-brainer really. That’s why those practices which can demonstrate how any new owner can take the business and reliably grow it will be worth more on sale. Plan ahead If you have been reading this article, you will have realised that much of what I am advising can not be done in the short-term or over night. Therefore, it makes sense to work with a professional adviser who specialises in selling businesses to help you build a 3-5 year plan to maximise the value of your business on exit.

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contents

From the Xero user community

9,354km d by air a o r

XU Magazine staff had a long journey by air from the UK to Melbourne. Add to that the numerous time zones we crossed, and we felt like we had made a very big journey to be at Xerocon. Many of you who are not from Australia will have felt the same. Surprisingly though, the most adventurous journey there we heard of was from someone within Australia itself. Denise Twigger, of Bas’s and Balances, tells her story with pictures.

Hi I’m Denise Twigger and I’m a Gold Advisor with Xero. My practice is based in the Perth hills in Kalamunda. I have been a Xero bookkeeper for 4 years after spending many years on desktop programs. Each year I attend Xerocon and when I found out that Xerocon was going to be held in Melbourne this year, I jumped at the opportunity to turn it into a snow trip as August was one of the best months to go to the snow fields of Victoria. I have never been to the snow before and was excited to be finally ticking this off my bucket list. After the madness of Xerocon,

5 days up at Falls Creek was a brilliant wind-down. 8 months in the planning, bookings, school leave approval, snow gear ordered and car packed, we headed off on our 4 day trip across the Nullabor to Melbourne. My husband Nigel, daughters Samantha (15) and Cassie (9) plus Samantha’s boyfriend, Reece, all arranged 4 weeks away from Perth so we could take our time and really enjoy this trip. We have an off-road camper trailer that sleeps 6 comfortably and this was our accommodation for the 8 days of travel to and from Victoria.

We arrived in Melbourne on the afternoon of the 4th day, covering about 1000kms per day. The traffic was light, the caravans a plenty, the road trains were friendly and the animals, thankfully, were nowhere to be seen. We saw one dead camel and plenty of road kill but not too much bouncing around. We have roo whistles on the car which keeps the roos at bay, but not the other animals. It was a brilliant trip. We met some amazing people along the way, saw some incredible natural landscapes and spent some quality time as a family. And I got to play in the snow!!! Great therapy for any person!

STA

500km

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Australia Focus

Business finance in a day, without the paperwork? Now you can, as Xero partners with Moula Xero’s new partnership with the easy-to-access online specialist business lender means Xero users have a vastly improved chance of obtaining debt finance - with the paperwork hassle. When Ernst and Young recently carried out a survey of 685 entrepreneurial business leaders from around the world, among the questions it asked them was “Did anything hold you back in your ventures?” And the biggest single barrier to growth was the difficulty they had funding it.

Words: Andrew Watt Andrew is a cofounder and COO of Moula. Andrew spent over 16 years with a number of financial institutions in London, spanning risk management, credit modelling and structuring. Now that he’s back home, Andrew is focused on solving the capital problem faced by small businesses in Australia. Andrew has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and is a Chartered Accountant of Australia. @MoulaMoney

That’s now changed as a result of Xero having chosen small business specialist Moula as its “preferred financial services

The NSW Business Chamber found that around 30% of SMEs felt that they had missed an opportunity due to a lack of credit. Their report also noted that “access to finance is the most common barrier to innovation and third most common barrier to activity according to the ABS”. Lending a small amount of money is very expensive, so the banks’ business model means they actually don’t need to lend to small or medium sized businesses to make a profit. This means the banks want to lend $1 million to one big business, not $100,000 to ten small ones. The bigger business is likely to be more stable, with a longer history and assets to back the loan (the NSW study found a lack of collateral was the issue in 37% of rejections by banks). Plus, the bank has to process one application versus ten. That means that for a small business seeking a relatively small loan, applying can be time-consuming, complicated, stressful, and humiliating. First, gathering together years of Profit and Loss statements, cash flow reports and trade references, and writing up a business plan and a budget. Then sitting in a bank while someone with no real knowledge of what they’re trying to achieve asks a lot of questions about their business and skills as a manager.

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And after all that, the chances of success aren’t great. A survey in early 2013 by East & Partners found that 44% of SME applicants had been refused finance in the previous 12 months.

partner for small business lending”. As part of the application process Moula will connect to a borrower’s Xero data to assess their business’ credit worthiness, making obtaining finance quick, simple and hassle-free with no paperwork.

Above: Glider Cafe in Potts Point Sydney has used Moula for a small business loan.

Loans of up to $100,000 are available. And this is a real online application – not one where you answer a few questions online, then spend the rest of the day finding, scanning, and sending supporting

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Issue 05 / 11

How Money Really Affects The Global Economy Money, get away Get a good job with more pay and you’re OK Money, it’s a gas Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash New car, caviar, four-star daydream, Think I’ll buy me a football team Roger Waters, Pink Floyd been about 54%, but keep in mind: over 99% of businesses in the UK are SMEs. Australia’s GDP also has a high percentage: over 50%. This percentage is probably rising with the closing of Holden soon occurring. And New Zealand? New Zealand is mostly small businesses.

Words: Peter M. Vessenes With over 30 years experience in the financial industry, Peter is the CEO and founder of ProfitSee, a financial software service for financial professionals, CPAs, and ProAdvisors. ProfitSee is an all-inone financial analysis and budgeting software from seasoned financial experts. ProfitSee helps business owners and financial advisors alike gain powerful insights to manage cash flow, grow profitability and increase valuation. @MyProfitSee

It was 2008 when the curtain came down on bad U.S. government policies, housing loans being fulfilled with no proof of employment, complete fabrications of the truth by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, irrational exuberance from regular people, and blatant lying by mega-banks and Wall Street. Finding money for SME companies had become brutally difficult. There was a global recession, increasingly stringent and expanding regulatory laws on bank, and large corporations were hoarding cash. Wall Street’s influence on increasing stock market prices without real increases in economic recovery on “Main Street” had left small business owners in very trying positions.

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A lower GDP means a lower employment rate among people that do not work for the government. Lower employment means greater demands on a nation’s taxes to help all those in need; the retired, the sick, and the poor. Different governments try many tactics to meet those needs. Some raise taxes (think France: 70% on the top income brackets). Some borrow from their neighbours (think Greece). Others try to help their economies recover by printing money (think the US Federal Reserve), while others try to “spend” their way out of the situation (think President Obama’s “shovel ready jobs” that never really happened…).

Many small businesses in the United States simply shut down. Large companies were downsizing employment, which drove many to launch their own startups. The expansion of the Cloud, particularly in the Business-To-Business marketplace, offered some hope, but…

The reality is that government jobs alone can never really rebuild an economy. When the government hires it is typically for regulatory positions (EPA in the USA) or bureaucratic positions for helping the needy and dependent. The more a population is “forced” to trade for something either they are not using or do not want, the less money they have for what they wish to have. “I have to pay taxes. I have to buy insurance. I have to have utilities. I have to pay my union dues. I wind up paying for all the regulations the places I shop at have to follow. I do not have enough money to attend university, own a home, buy a car, or take a holiday.”

Understanding the role of SMEs in a country’s gross domestic product is important. In the USA, the SME’s contributions to the GDP have historically been over 70%. In the UK it has

Most people wind up fulfilling their personal desires by going into debt. Deeply into debt. This type of debt is the modern world’s life-prison. What is the way out of this diabolical trap?

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Issue 05 / 13

Australia Focus

Put more in your client’s pocket with a little bit of help from a friend The Australian property market is at an all time high as record low interest rates encourage investors to purchase an investment property. As a result, property prices in Australia and particularly in Sydney and Melbourne are becoming harder to reach for some first time investors. But owning an investment property doesn’t have to be such an illusive goal for your clients. A number of investors are paving the way to owning their first investment property by teaming up with a friend, family member or business partner.

Words: Bradley Beer Bradley (B. Con. Mgt, AAIQS, MRICS) is the Chief Executive Officer of BMT Tax Depreciation. Bradley joined BMT in 1998 and as such he has substantial knowledge about property investment supported by expertise in property depreciation and the construction industry.

As Accountants, this poses a number of other questions when investors come to complete their annual income tax return as ownership structures can influence how deductions will be calculated. Depreciation in particular is one deduction which becomes more complicated when there is more than one owner of a property.

Bradley is a regular keynote speaker and presenter covering depreciation services on television, radio, at conferences and exhibitions Australiawide.

Immediate write-off Australian tax legislation allows residential property investor’s to claim an immediate write-off for assets with an opening value of $300 or less. In a situation where ownership is split, an accountant can apply this rule and claim an immediate write-off to items where an owner’s interest in the asset is below $300. Low-value pooling Where an owner’s interest in an asset is $1,000 or less, these items will qualify to be placed in a low-value pool. Pooling is a method of depreciating plant and equipment assets at a higher rate to

Fig. 1

At BMT Tax Depreciation we often see examples where each co-owner’s depreciation claim has not been

Two methods of depreciation assist in the process of maximising depreciation claims for co-owners; immediate write-off and low-value pooling.

maximised. One common mistake made is to calculate depreciation deductions for a property and then split the deductions for each owner based on the percentage of ownership. However, in Australia depreciation legislation allows co-owners to split an asset’s value by ownership percentage first, potentially qualifying each owner for higher rates of depreciation.

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maximise depreciation deductions. Investors who decide to place assets into a low-value pool can claim them at a rate of 18.75 per cent in the year of purchase and 37.5 per cent for each year afterwards. When qualifying assets for immediate write-off or the low-value pool, the value of the asset can be distributed based on the percentage of ownership. This

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Issue 05 / 15

The rise of the UK Cloud Integrator The uptake of Xero continues to grow rapidly in the UK, along with the use of Xero Add-ons by SMEs, which has led to the rise of UK Xero Integrators. Cloud integrators have landed in the UK Xero’s strength is not the software itself. You don’t need a Xero integrator to tell you that it is a simple system, with some limited features. The reason why Xero has gone from strength to strength is the ecosystem that emerged around it. It’s the add-ons, accountants, bookkeepers, advisors and integrators, mixed with the perfectly simple software of Xero that has resulted in what we see today: A system? A movement? Regardless what this may be, it is clear the resulting small business is greater

than the sum of its parts. The financial and operational add-ons offer the most value to Xero’s users. Why? Some of them are “The reason very cost effective enterprise why Xero has level tools, which smaller gone from strength businesses can use to to strength is the get big business style efficiency, at a fraction of ecosystem that the price. Once add-ons are emerged around it...” integrated together with the rest of a business’s systems, Guy Earnshaw it can dramatically streamline processes and as a result reduce the need for admin and time-expensive double keying duties.

Words: Guy Earnshaw, Cloud Consultant at BlueHub. Cloud consultant and Xero integrator Guy Earnshaw is the writer behind BlueHub’s blog; a growing source of Xero, cloud and systems information for UK SMEs. @Blue_Hub

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Issue 05 / 17

Accounting for Digital Currencies Bitcoin - Xero’s missing currency and what to do about it. Bitcoin is a form of digital currency that many businesses are using in place of government backed currencies like dollars, pounds and euros. Bitcoins are a different type of currency that aren’t produced by governments, but by people around the world running computers that solve very challenging maths problems used to verify Bitcoin transactions. That may sounds strange, but the reality is that Bitcoin is now a viable currency in the global market with over 100,000 businesses accepting it. The tax authority of the US has even issued tax guidance for Bitcoins. What are the advantages of Bitcoins?

Words: Brandon Smith Brandon founded Insight Business Advising to guide socially and environmentally responsible organizations toward greater efficiency, effectiveness and success in their missions. Previously, Brandon served as the Chief Operating Officer of the International Living Future Institute, an organization focused on global sustainable development. He spends his time between Mexico, Sweden, Asia, and the US, and loves experiencing the diversity of cultures and landscapes this planet has to offer.

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• It’s decentralized - No one central authority controls the creation of Bitcoins. • Extremely low transaction fees • Processing Speed - Bitcoin payments are usually completed (money in hand) in less than an hour and sometimes within minutes. • No refunds or disputes via a central authority - Once a Bitcoin is transferred, the transaction cannot be reversed unless the merchant issues a refund. There are no chargebacks or disputes like with credit card transactions. This can be a plus for merchants as chargebacks are sometimes used fraudulently, but this also means less protection for consumers. • Easy setup - You don’t have to go through a lengthy application and approval process like with a credit card or a bank. • Anonymous - Bitcoin addresses are not linked to your name or any other personally identifiable information. • On-line and off-line payments - Bitcoins can be used to buy goods and services through a website or in a shop using smartphone apps. • Fungible - Can be easily exchanged for government backed currency. So, if you decide to accept Bitcoins

for your business, the next issue is figuring out how to manage this currency and associated transactions in your accounting system. You’ll find that Xero’s multi-currency feature doesn’t yet include Bitcoin, although they say they are working on it. So for now, how do you account for these transactions and the fluctuating value of Bitcoins in Xero? The Easy Option: Accept Bitcoin without really accepting Bitcoin The easiest and most feasible option for small businesses who want to accept payments in Bitcoin without having to manage or hold another currency is to use a Bitcoin payment processing company like Coinbase or Bitpay,. These companies function similar to credit card payment processing companies. They accept Bitcoin payments from your customers and immediately convert that payment into a government backed currency, which is then deposited into your bank account. From an accounting perspective the sale is treated just like any other transaction you make in your base currency. The more complex option: Accounting for Bitcoin Transactions and Balances yourself If you prefer to accept Bitcoin payments yourself and hold a balance of Bitcoins, be prepared for some serious accounting work. Essentially, you’ll need to manually recreate Xero’s multi-currency feature to manage changing currency values and realized / unrealized currency gains (losses). To account for these transactions manually in the same way Xero does is labour intensive and requires a solid knowledge of accounting principles. You will need to track all of your Bitcoin invoices, bills and payments to calculate the unrealized gains on a regular basis as well

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Issue 05 / 19

3. them until the adjustment date (e.g. last day of the month).

Importing into Xero Importing lots of data into Xero in one go, using CSV templates, can save time and money for you and your client. It’s a great skill to have when you want to provide extra services such as the implementation of addon software. Knowing about importing into Xero will help you to get it right the first time.

4. Set up your Manual Journal entry: If there is a currency gain (i.e. Bitcoins have increased in value against your base currency): Debit the “Bitcoin Bank Account” current asset account (increase) Credit your “Bitcoin Bank Revaluations” expense account (decrease) If there is a currency loss (i.e. Bitcoins have increased in value against your base currency):

I remember the first few times that I tried to import invoices into Xero. It was a mess. Errors coming up because I had deleted columns, I’d opened the template and saved it in the wrong format, some entries worked but some didn’t and so on. It was frustrating to say the least, especially when importing was all about saving my time. Over time, I forced myself to learn how to import any kind of data I could into Xero, but there were times it seemed like it would be faster to just enter in the data myself. In this XU Try-It Tutorial, I will pass onto you what I have learned and exactly how to do it so you can save time too and get a lot of information into Xero fast.

Debit your “Bitcoin Bank Revaluations” expense account (increase) Credit the “Bitcoin Bank Account” current asset account (decrease) 5. Reverse the previous month’s adjusting entry. After you post your initial Manual Journal entry to adjust for bank revaluations, with each subsequent bank revaluations journal entry, you must reverse the previous one. If you don’t, gain and loss amounts for future months will be inaccurate. You can use Xero’s “Auto Reversing Date” feature on the Manual Journals to make this reversal easier, if you make these new entries at regular intervals. Note: Even though Xero considers Currency Gain accounts expense accounts, it posts a currency loss as a negative number, and a currency gain as a positive number (similar to the way it treats income accounts). Accepting Bitcoin payments can be a great way to reduce your payment processing costs, address fraudulent credit card chargebacks and offer your customers another payment option. While accounting for Bitcoin transactions can be tricky, there are services out there that make accepting this currency easy and secure.

Words: Jeri Murphy Jeri is the founder of JeriMurphy.com, creator of Become An Expert Bookkeeper, a 12-week online course for Xero users wanting to learn Xero to an expert level, and a successful cloud integrator focused on assisting product-selling businesses with inventory add-ons. Jeri is a qualified accountant and has been training to an expert level on Xero and numerous addons for over 5 years. @jeri_murph

Data imported into Xero is treated in the same way as if you’d manually entered it into Xero only you’re using a CSV template file as a way to quickly import the data into the fields. The CSV file essentially ‘maps’ columns to fields in Xero so by completing the information column by column, you’re essentially ‘filling in’ the fields in Xero automatically. Let’s first of all understand the fundamentals about importing into Xero. If you can import it, there is a template Xero provides templates for every type of data that you can import into Xero. As a basic rule, any time you see the Import button, clicking on it will take you to the import template you can download and populate. If you can’t find a template there and you know you can import it, check the Help Centre for the template. Try-It Tutorial: Downloading the Sales Invoices Template Using the Demo Company in your local region:

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contents 1. Go to Accounts > Sales. 2. Select Import. 3. In Step 1, select Download template file. 4. Open the CSV template in a spreadsheet editor. 5. Save it to your computer where you can find it. Tip: Remember to save your data often when working in Excel as it’s prone to crash and you could lose all your hard work. Remember you are not in the cloud! Templates are CSV format Xero templates are in CSV format, meaning Comma Separated Values. It is best to work with these files in a spreadsheet program. Microsoft Excel is my preference, however you can use Google Drive and other programs. When you are working with the CSV templates, the header row is important. Don’t mess with the template - don’t add or delete fields. You can delete any columns that aren’t mandatory although there’s no harm in leaving them empty. Use the Group Data function in Excel to get columns out the way you don’t need without deleting them. You must save files as the CSV type to be able to reimport them into Xero. Don’t use colours and sorting when working in your CSV template file as it doesn’t save in CSV file type. This is especially important when you are collaborating with others to clean up the data before you import it into Xero.

Try-It Tutorial transaction, it may not be a required field on the template. Required fields aren’t always all the mandatory ones. For example, you can import an invoice template without a ‘Due Date’ even though the Xero template has it marked with a *, meaning it is a required field. Another example is that you can import invoices with ‘GST’ in the Tax Type field, even though it has to be ‘GST on Income’, or the full name of the tax code. Xero will always import the invoices in as Draft, unless duplicate invoices have been identified, but you won’t know that the fields are blank until you try and bulk approve many or all the invoices that you have just imported successfully.

2. 3. 4. 5.

When working with importing data, be aware also of the dates on transactions and how that relates to the lock dates set on your Xero file. If the Xero file is locked, you will not be able to approve draft invoices if dated in a locked period without further editing. When exporting data from another system you often get TXT files

Don’t get caught not being able to Bulk Approve your imported data A common problem when importing invoices, bills and credit notes into Xero, is that the data lands in Xero as Draft status. Xero does have the ability to bulk approve those transactions, however if all the mandatory data is not imported via the import then you can’t bulk approve. The problem is that even though Xero needs the field to be able to approve the

Another common problem you will often face when you open an export of data from another system, such as MYOB or a bank, is that it doesn’t open in your Excel program ready to use. For example, you will have all data in the first column cell separated by commas or every second line will be skipped. If using Microsoft Excel, which is recommended, you can use the

If the column header on a CSV file has a star (*) at the start of the field, such as ‘*Contact Name’, this means it is a required field and if you don’t enter data into the cells in this column, the row will be ignored, you will not be able to bulk approve the template or the template will not be able to be imported at all.

Try-It Tutorial: Text to Columns in Microsoft Excel

When faced with this issue, the quickest way to resolve it is to delete all the invoices just imported. You can do this by ticking them all in the ‘Draft’ tab in Sales and then selecting Delete. Next, fix the CSV import template that had the missing or incorrect data, save it and import it into Xero again.

When working with Xero templates, all the import files download from Xero as CSV files. When you are exporting data from other systems, often data is in CSV or TXT format. This data then needs to be edited, copied and pasted into the Xero templates. You can open TXT files as CSV files by changing the file extension or converting the TXT data. To change the file extension, open the file in Notepad or Text Editor and save as CSV. This will put the data separated by commas into columns in a spreadsheet when opened in a spreadsheet editor.

The Star (*) identifies a required field

‘Text to Columns’ function to sort the data so it’s ready to use.

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Right click on the file you want to open and select ‘Open With... Microsoft Excel’ Highlight the cells where the data is held, such as the first column Go to Data in the Menu or Toolbar and select Text to Columns The ‘Convert Text to Columns Wizard’ will open In Step One, select the Original Data Type, most likely ‘Delimited’ and select Next In Step Two, tick the boxes to identify how the data in your spreadsheet has been sorted. It is often difficult to know which to choose as it is difficult to interpret when you open the file, so just tick each one or a multiple of them use the Data Preview screen at the bottom to check how your data is going to be distributed across the columns. Select Next. In Step Three, select Finish.

Tip: Always Keep a Copy of the Original Data Whether you are working with a brand new template, exporting data from Xero or another system, you should also save a copy of the original data. The easiest way to do this is to open the file and then ‘Save As’ to save a copy. What can you import into Xero Other than bank transaction data, the most common data regularly imported into Xero is invoices and bills. Some examples of when you need to import sales invoices are: • • •

Outstanding debtors when converting to Xero. Online orders from an e-commerce site. Invoices being made in another system, such as industry software and need to be entered into Xero to reconcile payments and manage debtors.

Tip: Where possible, enter some data into Xero manually then export it out of Xero and then copy and paste your data into the CSV template to populate for import. It’s much easier to

Issue 05 / 21

use the import templates when you know where the data you just entered goes in after putting it in manually.

It is also important to take note of the questions that you are going to be asked when importing the file back into Xero as that will help you understand the fields and how to enter data into the template even better. For example, when importing sales invoices, you will be asked if the ‘Unit Amount’ field is tax exclusive or tax inclusive.

2. 3. 4. 5.

• Account Code: 200 or 400 (enter your sales account code here) • Tax Type: GST on Income or Tax on Sales (enter your tax type here) • Tracking Name: Region • Tracking Option: North • Currency: Your local currency (e.g. USD, AUD) Save your CSV file and go back into Xero. Go to Accounts > Sales. Select Import and Browse for the import file you saved. Answer the questions asked and select Import.

Try-It Tutorial: Using the Sales Invoices Template

When you have to import often

Using the Demo Company for your local region: 1. In your sales invoice import template you downloaded above, enter in the following details: • Contact Name: Bayside Club • Invoice Number: INV-0500 • Customer PO: PO1234 (this goes in the Reference field) • Invoice Date: Oct 24, 2015 • Due Date: Nov 3, 2015 • Description: • Quantity: 40 • Unit Amount: 5.13 (this is tax exclusive)

If you find yourself needing to import often into Xero, such as your online orders are growing or you are using an external system for sales invoices and importing them into Xero, it might be worth looking at an add-on that connects to Xero to get your data into Xero automatically. Depending on your business need and industry, there are many different add-ons to choose from. If you are determined to keep your legacy system for whatever it is you are doing but you still want to save time on importing, you may benefit from something like CSV2Cloud, a Xero add-on which automatically imports any data from

a CSV file into Xero for you instantly by just emailing your CSV file to CSV2Cloud.

What you can and can’t import into Xero Can Import: • Bank Statements (uncoded and coded) • PayPal Statements • Inventory Items • Chart of Accounts • Conversion Balances • Manual Journals • Fixed Assets • Contacts • Budgets • Invoices • Bills • Payroll (employees only) • Customised Templates Can’t Import: • Expense Claims • Quotes • Purchase Orders • Payroll - payslips, timesheets etc • Tracking Categories

Your payments partner

Your Payment Partner

Get paid faster! Real-time and repeating invoice payments Bank account, credit / debit card and BPAY payments Automatic recording and reconciliation in Xero Automated overdue invoice collection

22 / Issue 05

1300 592 283 / +61 7 3040 4320 sales@integrapay.com.au XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at xumagazine.com www.integrapay.com.au

contents

From the Xero user community

BITE 2015 gives visitors plenty to get their teeth into

The AMEX Stadium in Brighton was buzzing with excitement recently as more than 300 visitors attended the BITE 2015 event hosted by Worthing and Gatwick-based award winning chartered accountants and business advisers, Carpenter Box.

solicitors, IT and marketing companies. Informative breakout sessions were also held during the day which provided a deeper insight into specific topics with guests having the opportunity to network throughout the day.

Nathan Keeley, Partner at Carpenter Box and the driving force behind BITE2015, With support from Xero, attendees at commented: “I’m really pleased with the the Business/Innovation/Technology/ delivery of BITE. The keynote speakers Efficiency event were treated to valuable were all first class and feedback insights into how working in the has been really positive. cloud and cloud technology Attendance was very can and is transforming “I’m sure a good and the exhibitors business efficiency and number of took away more than financial performance. 300 leads between The event combined strong strategic them – so, I couldn’t a look at the cloud partnerships will have asked for more! with two inspirational result from the day” I’m sure a number sessions on of strong strategic marketing innovation partnerships will result from keynote speaker Nathan Keeley, from the day”. Susannah Schofield, Carpenter Box Head of New Business at Carpenter Box Partner Chris Royal Mail. Coopey, who compered the event, added: “There was a genuine feeling of Xero keynote speakers Gary Turner, positivity in the room during the whole Managing Director of Xero UK and Phil of the event. The keynote speakers were Beavan, Senior Account Manager, made excellent and the audience certainly sure that attendees all left with the clear went away informed about how the cloud message that the speed of technological can help them to be more efficient and change is phenomenal, and it’s the early enthused about taking their businesses adopters of cloud-based systems who will forward, which is what we wanted to gain a competitive advantage in the long achieve.” term. Visitors also had the opportunity to view exhibition stands featuring strategic partners of Carpenter Box, ranging from cloud software companies, to banks, We want to hear from you! Get in touch - email: hello@xumagazine.com

Issue 05 / 23

Finance for your business

Sourcing Investment for your startup Obtaining finance for your business can be challenging, time consuming and each institution will have different requirements and expectations, so where to start?

Words: Jon Leighton Jon is the MD of iResources, an ecommerce and cloud integration company and is also the founder of neatly.io, a business dashboard solution for startups and SME’s.

There are now more financing options available to us as businesses than ever before, and it is important for you to decide as an owner which is the most suitable for your organization and its current requirements. If you have decided that your business would benefit from equity investment, then these tips should point you in the right direction. Preparing your Pitch Deck and Plan

@go_neatly

information, but at the same time keep it simple and to the point, you will have the opportunity to expand on this within your business plan. Each slide should have a purpose, keep text to a minimum and drop the bullets points, they will do nothing but lose your viewer. Your business plan is where you should be showing off your achievements to date, what makes you special, how you have developed your team, and what the next 3 years look like i.e. the financials. It may be that your business plan shows you need additional investment after a period of time. This is fine as long you state this clearly in your business plan. It will demonstrate you have clearly mapped out your journey.

“Aim for simplicity and clarity” Your pitch deck should be prepared in order to generate interest and persuade the investor to look at your business plan in more detail, you should aim for simplicity and clarity to accurately communicate your product or service, identifying the problem it addresses and how you intend to solve it. Advice on how long a pitch deck should be varies, it is important not to lose substance, so ensure it has sufficient 24 / Issue 05

Valuing your business can be done in many different ways, and everyone has their own view. Be realistic with your valuation and ensure you can demonstrate clearly how you have arrived at that valuation. Get an introduction “If Kevin Bacon is connected to everyone in Hollywood in less than 6 stages, then you must be to someone who knows someone...”

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Issue 05 / 25

The Sketchnote Handbook by Mike Rohde We engage better with a visual representation of ideas.

Words/Review by: Karen Reyburn Karen Reyburn is a creative-minded individual who specialises in online marketing for accountancy firms. A former accountant (and a Certified Public Accountant in the States), Karen set up The Profitable Firm to work exclusively with modern, digitallyminded accountants who want to use online marketing to their best advantage. She and her team use remote and virtual working to help accountancy firms all over the globe. @ProfitableFirm

If you do not consider yourself an artist, but would like to better capture the ideas you gather every day, this is the book for you. (If you are an artist, buy it now. End of review, thank you for joining us.) Taking notes is something that most of us do – in conferences, events, business meetings, during a webinar, on the phone with a client. We’ve realised the truth that we are 40% more likely to remember something if we write it down – even if we simply crumple it up and throw it away afterwards. But does your note taking actually result in action? “Sketchnoting” is a visual form of note taking that I discovered in June 2014, and 26 / Issue 05

I was instantly hooked. I saw the work of Mike Rohde on Twitter, and was fascinated by the visual element of his note-taking. Rather than my usual page of words, his notes included imagery and icons and different kinds of fonts. It was like opening the notebook of a graphic designer. Since that time I have been sketchnoting just about everything I attend – conferences, workshops, seminars, church sermons. And one of the common comments – particularly from accountants, who are the market I work with exclusively – is, “I’d love to do that, but I’m not an artist.” This is the good news that Rohde’s book brings: that sketchnoting is not about art, it’s about ideas.

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Issue 05 / 27

From the Xero user community

Kinder Pocock - Refresh, Reload

Words: Sharon Pocock Sharon, Principal accountant and founding MD at Kinder Pocock, has been working in Accountancy for 25 years. Founding Kinder Pocock in 2005, Sharon’s aim was to offer professional and straightforward advice and support to small and new businesses. As part of providing simple support, Kinder Pocock has a very strong emphasis on its online presence, and embraces cloud solutions such as Xero and its add-ons wholeheartedly. After ten years in business, Kinder Pocock continues to go from strength to strength, recently winning Accountingweb’s “Practice Growth of the Year” award. @kinderpocock

Kinder Pocock recently held their “Refresh: Reload” party at The Shack Revolution’s new pop-up venue in Hereford with over 100 guests. The ‘suit-free’ bash was to celebrate their 10th anniversary, recent rebrand and new website, and also to thank their loyal clients and supporters. With cocktails, pizza and buns it certainly was a networking event with a difference! There were truly inspiring speakers from organisations such as The Great British Florist, iResources, Xero, Spotlight and Receipt Bank. The Kinder Pocock team also made sure the crowd were kept entertained by Marta May’s crazy photo booth and Kiegan the Magician! Sharon Pocock, Principal Accountant, said “we are absolutely delighted to be celebrating 10 years of trading as Kinder Pocock. Our business is growing rapidly.

By embracing new technologies and working with cloud solutions such as Xero software, we have more insight into our clients’ businesses and are able to advise them in real time. We’re providing refreshingly different ways to do business online, making our clients’ lives easier and freeing up their time to focus on doing what they love.” Sharon and the team are planning a series of informal “Refreshingly Different” Events over the next 12 months, which will be similar in style to “Refresh: Reload” and will include topics such as ‘ways to get paid faster’, ‘an easy guide to autoenrolment’, ‘managing your cashflow well’ and ‘social media hints and tips’. Kinder Pocock are a small, modern and approachable firm of accountants advising passionate business owners and entrepreneurs in Herefordshire. With a growing national reputation, Kinder Pocock are a Xero Gold Partner and it has just been announced that they are finalists in the Practice Excellence Awards 2015. The team dispel the myth that accountants and tax advisors are boring, grey-suited or intimidating! They provide efficient finance, accounting and business advice, and work with their clients to manage and grow their businesses online.

28 / Issue 05

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Project management software for the construction industry

“

Tracking the profits and losses of each project and learning which jobs and clients make money are among the main benefits. We can plan and track my company’s workload, issue detailed reports from proposal to project activity and link to our CRM and Xero for instant invoicing. Luke Hankins | BPM Group, UK

“ ”

Kelly Larsen | Adan Larsen Builders, NZ

”

The ultimate cloud solution for the construction industry

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PRODUCT OF

The best thing is having everything for a project consolidated in one place. We can see where a job is at with the click of a button.

tidybuild.com Issue 05 / 29

Xero User Community

YOUR PICS

“Meeting a man

who changed my

(Karen Bussing

counting” “Built on Strong Ac ) (Sid Maestre, Xero

life @Xerocon 20

15”

with Rod Drury)

Blizzy, Bookkeeper360 has fun with

Xero. Hazel Savilla and

Jenny Galang from doublerule at Xero con Melbourne

Hazel Savilla, do

ublerule, meets th e Entryless team.

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Jet Convert team at Xerocon

Melbourne

XU XUMagazine Magazine--the theindependent independentmagazine magazinefor forXero Xerousers, users,by byXero Xerousers. users.Find Findus usonline onlineat: at xumagazine.com

contents

Marketing doesn’t end with the first invoice The data in your Xero system can be used to drive marketing campaigns to keep customers happy, sell them repeat and new products and gather useful feedback on your business.

Words: John Paterson John is the founder of Really Simple Systems, the largest UK Cloud CRM provider. He’s been involved in many software companies, including running Systems Union, creator of the SunSystems accounting system. @ReallySimpleSys

do better. Schedule a follow up email that drives them to a survey, perhaps sweetened with an Amazon voucher or similar for their time. Upsell

Many people think that CRM systems are only used to run a sales process that acquires new customers, and once you’ve got the purchase order you turn that into an invoice in Xero and job done, move on to the next prospect. But selling and marketing should not stop when a prospect is converted into a customer, you have a whole range of opportunities to make repeat sales to them and get useful feedback back from them. Targeted Email Marketing is incredibly cost effective and measurable way to keep customers happy and drive them back to you for more sales. Say Thank You! The first email marketing campaign that you should put a new customer on is a “thank you” campaign, that thanks the customer for choosing you, gives them information about the product or service they have purchased, plus contact information for help and queries. It could also ask them to rate your company on a user rating site, and tweet or facebook their purchase. Get Feedback A few weeks after they have received their purchase, you have a great opportunity to get feedback as to why they purchased, what they liked and where you could

Once they are happy with their purchase, what can you sell them to make them even happier? A repeat order of the same again, or perhaps an complimentary offer? Schedule another email three months’ later, with another offer based on what they first purchased from you.

rolling, keep tuning it to make it more effective. See which emails and which topics are the most popular by tracking opens and clicks, create more of those and drop the unpopular ones. Check for bounces - if your main contact in the customer has left, get a sales person to call and rebuild the relationship with their replacement. Track the value of new sales for each marketing campaign. Start Easy and Build

You should always keep in touch with your customers. Depending on what business you’re in, that might be monthly or quarterly. Newsletters, how to articles, new products, special offers will keep you in the front of their mind, drive repeat orders and generate new customer referrals.

Don’t try and do everything on day one. Start with setting up a drip marketing campaign for new customers and a single newsletter for everyone else. Once you’ve got going, segment your customers into different campaigns: active customers, dead customers, perhaps by product interest or geography too. The aim is to make sure that each customer gets messages that are most appropriate to them, of most interest and most likely to result in continued and new business.

Drip Marketing

Leverage Xero

As well as just sending out general newsletters, you should segment your customers into multiple email marketing campaigns (new customers, active customers, dead customers) and send them emails appropriate to their interests. Drip Marketing campaigns, where a customer receives a series of timed emails over a month or so, are ideal for new customers or new purchases.

There’s a wealth of customer information in Xero that you can use to drive new sales. It’s easy to hook Xero up with a CRM system and start marketing back to them. Marketing doesn’t end with a customer’s first purchase - it should be just the beginning of a long and profitable relationship!

Keep Engaged

Measure and Improve Once you’ve got your marketing machine

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Issue 05 / 31

Seven different funding options for SMEs Amy Harris, Founder at CrunchBoards, looks at the wide range of choice that now exists for small businesses when it comes to raising much-needed funds.

Words: Amy Harris Amy Harris is cofounder of Xero’s fastest growing addon, CrunchBoards. It’s all-in-one forecasting and reporting engine is used to future-proof over 6,000 businesses in 70 countries worldwide. Their customers include small, independent virtual CFOs to large, top tier firms, such as BDO who have rolled out CrunchBoards in multiple countries. Amy started the business with her co-founder, Hannah McIntyre, based on the challenges they faced when trying to produce 3-way cashflow forecasts, scenario plan and monitor KPIs. Luckily, Amy relishes a life of adventure, she’s travelled nearly 400,000 miles this year establishing offices globally. @CrunchBoards

Great business ideas get entrepreneurs hopping out of bed in the morning. But what can keep them from climbing back in for a good night’s sleep is the tricky issue of how to sustainably fund your business dreams. If your ‘worst case’ cashflow forecast shows you’re getting far too close to running out of cash, your hunt for credit will kick in, fast. However, despite the increasing importance of SMEs to the national economy, traditional avenues of finance, like bank loans, are harder to come by than ever. 63% of SMEs in the EU that apply for a bank loan don’t get the amount they wish. But thankfully, there are more options than ever for SMEs. From crowdfunding to angel investment, we take a look at the possibilities open to business owners. Venture capital funding Many entrepreneurs hesitate about venture capital (VC) funding as they can be reluctant to give up equity. But there are many advantages to this route. Besides, owning 100% of a company with no funds is not much use. A big plus for VC funding is that it doesn’t involve regular repayments like a bank loan does. For start-ups with irregular cash flow this means that any money that comes in can be ploughed straight back into the business. It also lowers your personal risk as, unlike with a loan, you won’t have to offer a personal guarantee to the investors if things don’t work out. Finally, the best VCs will help open up doors and new networks to you, helping to accelerate your growth and putting you firmly on the right track. Angel investors Angel investors are wealthy individuals who provide capital in return for equity or convertible debt - think Dragons’ Den or Shark Tank to get an idea.

32 / Issue 05

One advantage of this method over VC funding is that you often get a lot more one-to-one support and personal mentoring, especially if they made their money in a similar field to yours. They also tend to ask for lower amounts of equity. On the downside, angels don’t always have as deep pockets as VC backers. It’s common for angel investors to support local initiatives, so if your business has a particular local angle then it could certainly be an avenue worth exploring. Grants and tax breaks Thousands of SMEs are missing out on funds by not realising they are eligible for tax breaks or government grants. The UK government is actively looking to support businesses that are making valuable research and research contributions to the UK economy. R&D isn’t just done by scientists in white lab coats in laboratories, it can be done by a start-up building a new app or an SME finding an innovative solution to a workflow process. Firms like RIFT R&D can help SMEs find out if they are eligible for tax breaks and save them tens of thousands of pounds in the process. At CrunchBoards we see many of our clients benefit this way and they are often businesses many would not think of as R&D firms. So make sure you explore all avenues to ensure you don’t miss out. Cash advances The rise of fintech has been fantastic for entrepreneurs. Tech start-ups are constantly building upon and expanding services traditionally the domain of the high street and usually offer them at a cheaper rate and with much less hassle. Many fintech firms provide multiple services that would usually come from a bank and Swedish firm iZettle is a prime example. It started off by enabling the smallest of entrepreneurs to be able to afford to take card payments and now supplies everything from sales software

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Issue 05 / 33

Is your digital marketing strategy a Frankenstein’s monster? Scott introduces Synergy 8...

Words: Scott McNaught Scott is the Founder and Director of Synergy 8. He has been directing Synergy 8 from the ground up for the past 10 years. When he isn’t coding, Scott enjoys coding, because there is always more coding to be done... @SynergyEight

34 / Issue 05

At the recently passed Xerocon in Melbourne we had the fantastic opportunity to showcase the Synergy 8 software and get to know some of the Xero users from all around Australia.

So, what is Synergy 8?

Synergy 8 gives our clients a platform that they can use to manage all aspects of their digital marketing strategy. This includes their website, contact databases, email “We really, really marketing campaigns love working and e-commerce store with them” - all managed from a single dashboard.

During the course of the 3 day event, we saw many different companies that offered a variety of Sue-Ellen Kusher, solutions, but what The One Step Group Currently, small we didn’t see was any businesses have one software that offered what of two choices when it Synergy 8 does. This was comes to managing their digital somewhat promising news for marketing: us; but at the same time it means that we have a lot of work to do when it comes to 1. Build a Frankenstein’s monster out of educating people about our product! many pieces of software to manage each aspect of their digital strategy

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Your complete payroll solution, wherever you are Premier cloud payroll service since 2001 • Specially designed for small to medium businesses, franchises and groups • NZ’s largest IRD listed PAYE Intermediary • Manages superannuation contributions

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Australia www.cloudpayroll.com.au sales@cloudpayroll.com.au

Pay Your Staff Leave Manage Paye Payslip Kiosk Trusted Proven and Secure

Seamless Xero Integration First Add-On Partner to integrate with Xero

Issue 05 / 35

Social Enterpreneurs looking for Numbers in the Cloud Looking to the Cloud for efficiencies, mobility and savings is the current buzz. Finding a top-notch and workable solution for the less “sexy” stuff like accounting is just what Pollinators Inc. have successfully done...

As a community of collaborators and profit-for-purpose organisation, Pollinators do a range of things to create an ‘ecosystem of support’ for social entrepreneurs and social ventures. Being based in remote Australia’s Midwest of WA, means connectivity is paramount. Accounting in the Cloud Since their inception, Pollinators have used Xero as their accounting system and EO Andrew Outhwaite says “it really suits our working style. We have a mix of parttime staff and contractors and our board members travel a lot. Being able to access our accounts from anywhere is critical”. Tracking Categories are used to split income and expenses between business units and funded projects – allowing detailed analysis of what has happened in the past. It allows them, for example, to report on a business unit both with and without grant income. Inventory items are used to classify transactions and analyse profitability further.

Words: Mick Devine CPA Mick Devine has a long history of working in the Not-for-Profit sector as treasurer, board member, consultant and advisor. Frustration with spreadsheets as reporting tools led him to develop Calxa; now the most widely used budgeting and financial reporting software in the NFP sector in Australia and New Zealand. Calxa is donated to small and medium NFPs through Connecting Up’s donation program. @calxa

36 / Issue 05

Whilst the back-end compliance was taken care of by Xero, reporting was a challenge. As a not-for-profit budgeting takes centre stage in managing the dayto-day. Add to this, acquittals for various Government grants, reporting as a whole was a labour-intensive task. Being able to simplify this process became a mission to free up resources and directing them into other areas. Finding a Reporting Solution Following best practice, Andrew and his team first set out the criteria of what their ideal solution would look like before researching the possible candidates. They rejected the Excel-based templates early because of concern over data integrity problems, leading them to Xero Add-On solution Calxa Premier. As the solution links directly to the Xero accounting data it provided the automation the organisation was looking for. Having the ability to budget and report on various projects and business units simultaneously as well as forecast cash flow multiple years ahead were all winning

attributes. “Within the first 2 hours of our trial we saw that a major project would take us close to red in June/July. We were able to talk to suppliers and extend our terms and to our grant providers about the timing of funding to avert a potential crisis.” Andrew was then able to produce a coherent and accurate operational plan for the coming years and present it to the board, complete with charts. What aided the final decision was finding an add-on that was designed for nonprofits. The fact it was available as a donation through Connecting Up put the icing on the cake. Leveraging Technology True to their motto, “Social entrepreneurs identify resources where people only see problems. They view the community as the solution, not the passive beneficiary. They begin with the assumption of competence and unleash resources in the communities they’re serving.”, Pollinators systematically tested and adopted an efficient solution for their back-end operation. Leveraging off new technology has been the key for Pollinators to operate successfully from remote Australia. Accessing live data anytime eases the challenge of collaboration and provides the platform to achieving efficiency. Through all activities Pollinators Inc tries to create the conditions within communities to enable social entrepreneurs and their ventures to thrive. They provide the sort of support that will mean members’ ventures are far more likely to succeed and have an amazing positive impact on the community at large.

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Issue 05 / 37

What is #XeroUserHour? #XeroUserHour is your chance to shout-out over Twitter what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing with Xero. Perhaps youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a new Xero-related service, launching a new Xero Add-on, want to share a top-tip with other Xero users... this is your chance!

Use the hashtag:

#XeroUserHour 38 / Issue 05

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Issue 05 / 39

Tidy opens for business in the UK The New Zealand All Blacks recent rugby world cup victory in the UK included their win over Tonga in Newcastle. They aren’t the only Kiwis to use the city as the base for future success. Tidy, a New Zealand based Xero Add-On Partner that provides project, job and inventory management solutions has recently opened their European HQ in the city. XU Magazine talked to Kevin Mann, Tidy CEO, about the firm’s progress, the customers and integration partners they are working with and how the Xero community is fundamental to their business. Efficiency in a new era of technology

the building and construction sector which we launched at Xerocon in New Zealand earlier this year. Even when it comes to developing more functionally rich applications for larger or more complex SME needs, the user experience has to come first as we have shown with TidyWork Enterprise which is being used in firms with over 200 users and leveraging Xero into much larger organisations than even Xero themselves might realise.

“Ever since we launched the business in 2010 we have been driven to help companies become more efficient in a new era of cloud-mobile coupled technology. I think that is a common theme amongst the Xero community, whether it is Xero themselves, add-on partners like us, accountants or integrators. On-premise firms have struggled to adapt or are dying while pure cloud-mobile firms “What we did not expect... Support is like public-listed Xero and growth is the improved collaboration essential to firms like Tidy within the business…we now build trust grow fast and all pull together to the same At the same get stronger. end” time it is We don’t carry essential that out-dated we are based in baggage. The Lee Kemp, Business Coordinator, the right locations cloud and mobile Crouch Waterfall to support our technology provides customers. Cloud has a massive opportunity no geographic boundaries. for businesses to be more Tidy is used with Xero by some streamlined and for software of our customers with many offices in to be easier to on-board and use. For different countries. As we have expanded individuals, teams and management of and have begun to build a customer base SME’s it’s real time information about in the UK, New York and South Africa we their business, accessed anywhere they knew we’d need an office to compliment might be and need that information to the New Zealand timezone for these work at a more productive pace. customers. This philosophy drives the evolution The UK, and specifically Newcastle, soon of not only our horizontal applications became the obvious choice to achieve such as TidyWork (job management) and that. We are located at The Core in TidyStock (inventory management) but Newcastle Science Central, which is also TidyBuild, a vertical application for 40 / Issue 05

Kevin Mann is CEO of Tidy. An Electrical and electronic engineer by training Kevin’s career has been around technology and finance. Starting as a graduate trainee with BP he then accumulated more than 20 years IT management experience in the finance, banking and energy sectors for a number of big name companies. He then set up a technology consultancy directing global projects for many businesses, developing commercial grade, mission critical, high transaction rate software before establishing cloud technology TidyWork in 2010. For more information: tidywork.com

@TidyWork

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Issue 05 / 41

The best of both worlds down to earth with your head in the cloud Technology lets accountants do what they do best - offer their clients real added value. The future for accountancy isn’t about cheap technological solutions to the everyday business of book-keeping and taxes. The future is in offering really valuable services which require the skill and expertise of highly-professional men and women. But the basics still have to be done – which is why the cloud gives accountants and their clients the best of both worlds. To survive in the future, accountants will have to exceed our clients’ expectations and become their mentors, advocates and professional friends. But what services do entrepreneurs truly value? And how can we provide them while taking care of basics and keeping our own costs down? I suggest that, by exploiting the benefits of cloud technology, these are four services we could offer as a matter of course: 1.

Words: Vipul Sheth Vipul is a UK based ICAEW Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor. Vipul trained with a regional UK firm before moving to Ernst & Young and KPMG. Vipul is Founder and Managing Director of AdvanceTrack Outsourcing, a UK Headquartered Accountancy Outsourcing Company with operational centres in India, delivering services around the globe. @vipulsheth, @advancetrack

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Strategic Business Advice More successful entrepreneurs understand they need good advice to maintain their business and financial position.

2. Business Coaching Many fast-growing enterprises don’t have the professional skills present in an accounting firm. A business mentor within a professional firm can help put the business on a firmer financial footing. 3. Corporate Finance The Top 10 global accountancy firms have entered the SME market using cloud products including Xero. The biggest benefit they see is their ability to deliver Corporate Finance services as these businesses require funding to grow. Other firms have a real opportunity to provide these services with partner-led solutions and a higher level of personal involvement than global firms provide. 4. Technology consulting With over 400 Xero add-ons, understanding the add-on market will help deliver better business efficiencies to the client. This is the biggest driver for business to adopt Cloud Solutions like Xero. Clients will also value this more if it XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at xumagazine.com

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Issue 05 / 43

Xero Trifecta: A unique approach by accountants Tyrrell & Company How do you productise your business knowledge and advisory services in a way that resonates with your small business clients? Tyrrell & Company, an established, forward-thinking practice in Cambridge (UK), created their own approach to helping clients use Xero. Richard Suswain, Tyrrell & Company’s Managing Partner, explains why the Xero Trifecta – which has been uniquely developed by Tyrrell - is the power behind their clients’ businesses... Richard Suswain is the managing partner and cloud specialist at Tyrrell & Company, one of Cambridge’s most forward-thinking business advisers and Xero Accounting Partner of the Year for the East of England. Richard is keen for his firm to stand out as a Xero Gold partner, and to help his Xero clients with an approach that is unlike any other. @RSuswain

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and value to our client base, but also made our own service offering more efficient, more scalable and more productive.

Once we had a clear idea of the AddAt Tyrrell & Company, we’re long-term fans ons that were used over and over to great success, we realised we had an of Xero. As a cloud accounting system, opportunity to productise this it’s the basis of our bookkeeping offering in a way that is and accounting offering unique to Tyrrell. to clients. We know how efficient it is, And that is how the and we know that “We’ve always known idea for the Xero clients love the Trifecta came simplicity of the that Xero itself is a about. interface and foundation stone. It’s the having their key basis for a more flexible, What’s the numbers shown modular approach to Xero Trifecta? so clearly in the dashboard. creating business systems” The concept behind our Trifecta But we’ve always Richard Suswain approach was to known that Xero start with Xero, and itself is a foundation then identify the top Addstone. It’s the basis for a ons that help our clients get more flexible, modular approach more – not only from Xero, but from their to creating business systems for our own business. clients. And it’s also an amazing hub for collecting the business data and numbers We knew already which Add-ons our we need as the empirical base for our clients got the best results from. But the business advisory services. more important question was, why? So, that’s why we started exploring the The key is that it’s not about software. All Xero Add-on community, looking for the the Add-ons we work with agree that Add-ons that gave the best functionality XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at xumagazine.com

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Issue 05 / 45

we can sit business owners down in front of a live demo and completely convince them of the benefits, efficiencies and cost savings.

Imagery and branding that makes sense One of the elements that makes the Trifecta so powerful is the ease with which we can explain it to clients and business owners. There are two graphics (see previous page) we’ve had designed (with help from The Profitable Firm) to showcase both the issues, and the software. As we reviewed options for our Trifecta image, it was important not to focus on the software – but also to involve these Add-ons in the process. The resulting two images give our team an opportunity to first discuss the issues that the business faces – and then to turn it round and show what software helps them do that. For our upcoming Trifecta event, we’re producing coasters with an image on either side – and we plan on using these on a daily basis within the firm to explain the Trifecta to our clients.

The Good Cloud How Xero and Friends are helping good people do good. Rocketspark has been a Xero customer since Jan 2012 and a Xero add-on partner with our e-commerce integration since December 2013. We enjoy being part of the wider Xero community and our business has benefited from both using Xero and from collaborating with Xero and our add-on peers.

In conclusion The Xero Trifecta gives Tyrrell & Company a clear edge over other Xero accounting firms, because it’s not only unique to us, but it helps us explain that business success is not just about using good software. It’s about applying that software with the help of a great business advisor. We’re seeing the Trifecta approach resonating with an increasing number of business owners – whenever we demonstrate the level of control we can give them over their financials, their business information and the long-term strategy for their company, we’re getting an extremely positive reaction.

Words: Grant Johnson Grant is a co-founder of Rocketspark, a beautifully simple website builder that enables non-technical business owners to make their own website. Prior to founding Rocketspark Grant worked in marketing roles but his first job was as an accountant. Grant mentors at Resco.

“By taking the fundamental power of Xero and the core Add-ons, we have a completely engaging way to sell cloud accounting to business owners” Richard Suswain

Part of being a good community is looking out for others and helping those who need a hand. Behind the scenes Xero and a variety of add ons within the Xero ecosystem are being used by charities and social enterprises to save time and money. One such example is Resco in London. Breaking the cycle of unemployment Resco aims to break the cycle of long term unemployment by creating work experience opportunities in social enterprise 65% of the ventures. As Resco has developed new Resco programme ventures they have participants are adopted a range employed within of tools within the 12 months of wider Xero ecosystem completing the Resco and is a great case study of how Xero and programme. various add-ons are helping Resco streamline their business operations. Resco have used Rocketspark to make a

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Issue 05 / 47

situation looks, what has been invoiced and what expenses are due soon”.

Harnessing the add-ons With Xero implemented the Resco team were able to harness other add ons within the Xero ecosystem. Vend’s point of sale system is used in the Kettle+Crust cafe and is connected to iZettle another Xero add-on for taking payment. The Vend integration with Xero allows the daily takings to be plugged to directly into Xero for reconciling. An abrupt close down of a provider of a central phone hotline for booking furniture collections for Resco Living necessitated the adoption of another Xero add-on, Timely. Timely is an online booking system widely used in the hair and beauty sectors. Resco Living adopted Timely for enabling online bookings on their website and the Resco course participants use Timely to plug in phone bookings also. Max explained that the central hotline provider took a commission on all bookings so adopting Timely removed this commission cost and the customer can choose the appropriate day and time slot for when the Resco vans are in their area.

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Integration challenges I asked Max if there have been any challenges in Resco’s adoption of these services. Max explains that each of the systems are very easy to use in their own right and integrating one system to another system is simple. However, challenges arose when connecting multiple systems together. For example, Xero, Vend and iZettle are all connected but when it comes to reconciling the day’s takings an additional manual reconciliation is required to account for the card transaction fees. Max explains that “it’s not just as simple as clicking the reconcile button” for their card transactions and emphasises that “in a small business there is so much to think about that it’s really important to minimise the admin, especially for a company that doesn’t have a full time bookkeeper or accountant”. Another challenge Max says laughing is “remembering all the passwords!”. With multiple users and various log in systems for all the different solutions it really can be quite a challenge to remember which username and password needs to be used with each system.

I also asked Max if there were any gaps in the functionality that he saw. Max explained that collating all data into a single view across all customer touch points can be a challenge with email marketing, cafe revenue, online bookings and ecommerce resulting in many potential interactions with a single customer. Max also suggested that seeing how the Resco team are using the systems would be a benefit. For example, “how often do they log in and what features are they using?” The good cloud - making a difference Finally I asked Max about what difference having these systems has made to Resco. Without hesitation Max explained that “as a social enterprise with limited funds we need to be able to make decisions quickly and the real time nature of Xero has been a real enhancement for Resco. Previously I would get monthly performance statements three to four weeks after the month end. Now I can see what is happening in real time. If there is anything in the reports I’m not sure about it is so easy to click to drill down to see the transactions”.

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contents

A cloud inter-what?

Words: Sarah Pilling Sarah is the Cloud Integration Partner at Melbourne practice Bramble & Briar. Owner of three businesses, Sarah leverages cloud technology to be active in each business. Automating and eliminating is Sarah’s mantra, as it buys SME’s both time and insight.

With the launch of the cloud Integration channel by Xero, many accountants and business owners are asking, what is a cloud integrator, and why do we need one? Sarah Pilling explains the role of the cloud integrator in the Xero family of advisors...

Who are cloud integrators? Cloud integrators in the Xero space tend to be former Accountants. These were the early adopters of Xero, and have every app imaginable on their phone! Obsessed with tech and problem solving, they help businesses learn how to automate. With the thankless tasks taken care of, business owners can refocus. The critical role of a cloud integrator is to understand your business. Using technology, they streamline your business by moving it online. A common misconception is that a cloud integrator installs Vend or Kounta and Xero and that’s it. My goal, is to make you able to

do any key function of your business from an iPad, anywhere. Why do we need a cloud integrator channel? Xero formally launched their cloud integration channel at Melbourne Xerocon 2015. Xero recognised that the add-on space had grown to need subject matter experts. Many apps are easy to signup and use, but are not always the optimal solution for every client. As we said earlier - you should be able to manage key business processes from an iPad. There is never a one size fits all solution, and sometimes it’s a case of

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one size to 5 or 6 software as a service (“SAAS”) products. Even within one vertical (retail), I have three clients with remarkably different integrations. Client one - Xero, Shoeboxed, Vend, Unleashed and Sendle. Client two- Vend, Mailchimp, Xero, Wunderlist, Paypal, Zapier Client three- Xero, Bigcommerce, Stitchlabs, Sendle, Paypal, Stripe A good Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) design should never need information to re-entered. If your employees do timesheets,

Issue 05 / 49

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contents Words: Jordan MacAvoy Jordan is the Vice President of Marketing at Fundbox, a cash flow optimization tool and a Xero AddOn. Prior to joining Fundbox, Mr. MacAvoy spent nearly 6 years at Demandforce, where he was the Director of Business Development, overseeing go-tomarket efforts across both emerging and established verticals. Prior to Demandforce, he held both marketing and business development roles at a variety of seed stage and venturebacked companies. Mr. MacAvoy is a graduate of Boston University.

Invoice Financing: A Small Business Cash Flow Lifesaver Cash flow problems can absolutely cripple small businesses. Without access to capital, companies not only have an incredibly more difficult time managing day-to-day operations, but they’re also unable to respond to new opportunities, develop new products and target new markets.

@fundbox

Despite this, cash flow problems are quite common in the small business world. In fact, recent research indicates that 50% of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) routinely deal with shortages of cash. These gaps can be so significant that organizations are forced to rush to figure out where to find funds to meet payroll and settle their bills. While cash flow problems can severely impede small businesses, the good news is that with proper planning, they can be avoided easily. With a proactive approach to cash flow, decision makers can get their financial houses in order, so to speak, benefitting from the peace of mind that comes with knowing the capital they need is always within reach. And the main reason SMBs run into cash flow problems is... If the disadvantages of cash flow problems are widely known, why, then, do so many small businesses still find themselves backed into a corner with dwindling funds? It’s quite simple: For scores of reasons many customers just don’t pay their bills on time. Seemingly gone are the days of net 30, terms that are increasingly being replaced by net 60, net 90 and beyond. According to a recent study by the National Federation of Independent Business, 64% of small businesses have recently dealt with invoices that

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contents

Cover story

Complete Cashflow Reliability Reinventing invoice finance to help businesses get paid on time

Words: Steven Renwick Steven is the Founder & CEO of Satago. He founded the company after experiencing late-payment in his family business in the construction sector in Scotland. In a previous life he was a research scientist with a PhD in Genetics.

Xero add-on Satagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CEO Steven Renwick talks about the launch of a new type of invoice finance and how it will revolutionise the way small businesses get paid on time. Invoice financing has had a bad name for many people. Steven explains why he felt a new class of invoice finance was needed, and how it integrates with Satago, and thus with Xero.

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Issue 05 / 53

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Until now, Satago has not done much analysis of its own user data to see how much faster we have helped small businesses get paid. We have not done this analysis for a couple of reasons: 1) It’s actually pretty complicated and the data is quite messy (we’ve seen more than a few invoices with 100+ year credit terms!), and 2) it’s too easy to mislead people, unintentionally or otherwise (aka ‘Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics’). Anecdotally, however, many of our customers tell us what a difference Satago is making to their cashflow. One agency managed to reduce their debtor days by 23 days in just a month. While another user recently told us that we had actually brought their average debtor days down to less than their actual credit terms (i.e., getting paid in 25 days when they ask for payment within 30 days). Perhaps most rewarding has been a couple of companies who have told us that we had saved them from bankruptcy. That is just by fixing their Accounts Receivable. The Limits of Debtor Tracking So far so good, Satago really works! However, if we are honest, there is a limit to what any debtor tracking system can do to get you paid faster. Automated reminders will help you get paid, but

Over the years, however, debt factoring has developed somewhat of a bad reputation due in part to opaque fee structures and the inherent ‘addictive’ nature of debt factoring for certain companies. Undeniably, for many SMEs, traditional invoice financing is bad for their financial health. If your profit We wanted to find a way to plug this margins are narrow, or your turnover is credit gap and started looking at not growing particularly quickly, invoice financing. Also known as it makes little sense to give debt factoring, or invoice up 2-3% of the value discounting, invoice of your whole sales finance allows you to “We decided that ledger. After all, ‘sell’ your invoices we would finance the amount to a finance might be equal company after invoices at their due date. your entire the invoice has That’s normally the point at to profit margin. been raised which regular invoice finance Once these in return for 80-90% of the companies get sweaty palms. companies embark invoice value To us, it made complete on invoice immediately. sense” financing, it When your becomes very customer eventually difficult to stop, as the pays the invoice, you Steven Renwick company has to swallow receive the remainder the bitter pill of effectively of the invoice value, minus waiting two cashflow cycles before a fee, which is paid to the finance getting paid again. Companies have also company – usually 2-3% of the invoice shied away from invoice financing due to value. Under debt-factoring, the finance reputational concerns, afraid that it would company collects the invoice payment give the impression to their clients that on your behalf, whereas under invoice they were somehow struggling financially. discounting, your customer does not know you have financed the invoice and A Fresh Approach to Invoice Finance you continue to manage the collection At Satago, we wanted to see if we could yourself. come up with a way of using Invoice Financing to help our users, making sure they gave up as little of the value of their invoices as possible, that did not trap our users into an unending loop of invoice financing and had no hidden fees. To do that we had to develop something different. possibly only by those customers that pay you late because they are disorganised, or forgetful. For customers that intentionally pay you late, or who just insist on very long credit terms, Satago might not make so much difference.

We decided that we would finance invoices at their due date. That’s normally the point at which regular invoice finance companies get sweaty palms. To us, it made complete sense. If you have agreed 30 days’ credit terms with your customer and you are paying your suppliers with 30 day credit terms, then under normal circumstances you should not need to be paid any earlier than 30 days.

Team Satago

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The problem for many companies, however, is that they expect to get paid within 30 days, and plan their cashflow accordingly, but end up getting paid significantly later. We found from our own data, that when an invoice is paid late, it is usually paid 23-30 days late.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at xumagazine.com

contents That means companies are forced to finance this credit gap for up to 30 days. By financing invoices when they are due, we effectively plug that gap. What this means, is that we try to give SMEs as little finance as possible. After all, if Satago’s debtor chasing features can get companies paid 23 days faster, that’s 23 days for which you don’t need to finance your invoices. Of course, Satago could make more money if we financed invoices as soon as they were raised, but we believe that this money should stay in your pocket. Protection In addition, our Invoice Finance product provides our users with Debtor Protection. This means that if your customer defaults on payment, or enters insolvency, up to 95% of the value of the invoice is covered by Satago’s insurance policy. Therefore, whilst we are trying to give SMEs as little finance as necessary, it actually makes sense to finance as many invoices through Satago as possible as Debtor Protection will cover them. We’ve built Satago Finance to be seamlessly integrated within the Satago platform and hence seamlessly integrated with Xero. Companies will be able to

manage their debtor communication, understand the risk of sales ledger with our integrated Experian credit risk data, and finally finance invoices that are due. In most cases, funds will be transferred to companies the same day that they choose to finance an invoice. And, to alleviate concerns about reputation, your customers need never know that you have financed your invoices.

them plan their cashflow more effectively. We’re looking forward to introducing Satago Finance to Xero users in the UK and beyond. At the time of writing Satago Finance is in private beta testing with a number of our existing users. Satago Finance will be made available to all our UK users through November and December 2015.

Thanks to our understanding of latepayment, having processed over £500 Million invoices to date, we think we are uniquely placed to introduce this new form of Invoice Financing that actually works for small businesses and helps

Why Satago is now Free As of now, Satago’s debtor-tracking and credit control CRM system is free for all worldwide Xero users. This wasn’t a decision we took lightly, but with the introduction of our revolutionary new Invoice Finance product, we think the timing is right to make this change. Since launching Satago just over a year ago, we’ve been driven by one mission to help Xero users get paid on time and improve their cashflow. So far we have been pretty successful on that mission. Xero have also recently released their

own invoice reminder functionality, and while it achieves the basics, Satago still delivers much more, such as customisable email sub-domains, diary functions, centralised communication, and integrated credit risk data. By making Satago free to all Xero users, we’ve just removed any potential barrier that might prevent a company that is serious about improving their cashflow from using Satago.

simple: • We let all Xero users worldwide use Satago for free. • Everybody’s cashflow gets improved. • Some of our users will buy detailed business credit reports and use us for Invoice Finance. We invite you to use Satago for free and achieve Total Cashflow Reliability.

So now our business model is quite

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Issue 05 / 55

Add-ons Compared

Payment Solutions XU Magazine spoke with three different Xero integrated Payment Solution Providers (Directli, IntegraPay and iZettle) to get an idea of what’s on offer

Xero is a globally available accounting system, with offices based in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Where is your main office based?

Directli The UK

IntegraPay Australia

iZettle

Sweden

Having said that, where in the world is your Add-on available?

Directli The UK and various Eurozone countries.

IntegraPay Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

iZettle Various European countries (including the UK and Sweden), Mexico and Brazil.

People are increasingly using mobile devices for Internet based services. Do you have a mobile app?

Directli No, however we are developing a mobile responsive UI.

IntegraPay

iZettle

Not exactly… Since all IntegraPay functions can be managed in Xero, users can just take advantage of Xero’s own app!

Of course, that’s an integral part of the payments offering. The app is a point-of-sale system for phones and tablets, and can be connected to our card readers to enable card payments.

What support platforms do you have available if people want to get in touch with you?

Directli Phone, Email and Live Chat.

IntegraPay Phone, Email, Twitter direct messages.

iZettle Phone, Email, Twitter, Online Chat and more…

How much does it cost to use your service?

Directli We offer a subscription for GBP£8.99 per month, with an additional fee of 1% for every transaction.

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IntegraPay USD $0.99 per transaction, with an additional $0.33 and 1.98% fee for card payments.

iZettle

Revenue based transaction fee of up to 2.75%: the more you sell the less you pay!

XU XUMagazine Magazine--the theindependent independentmagazine magazinefor forXero Xerousers, users,by byXero Xerousers. users.Find Findus usonline onlineat: at xumagazine.com

contents How many users do you allow for each account?

Directli We don’t limit it at all.

IntegraPay As many as each client requires.

iZettle

We let account holders add multiple users to enable maximum flexibility for our customers.

Is it possible for a user to put their own branding on your service as it appears to their customers? What types of payment does your platform support?

Directli Direct Debit only.

IntegraPay Bank Transfer, BPAY, Credit/Debit cards.

iZettle

07 08

IntegraPay

iZettle

We can include a client’s branding and specific content as required.

Cash and Card.

We don’t offer this service for our card readers (the only part of the product that most customers will see), but retailers are welcome to apply branded stickers.

What sets your add-on apart from the rest? What formats are available for purchase receipts?

Directli Email

IntegraPay SMS and Email

iZettle

Directli

Print, SMS and Email

Is there a free trial available to new customers?

Directli No

IntegraPay No: setup is free, but transaction fees apply from the beginning.

iZettle No. Signing up costs nothing, and we provide free-of-charge hardware, however transaction fees start from day one.

10 11

How can you be found online?

Directli Web: directli.co.uk Twitter: @Directli

IntegraPay Web: integrapay.com.au Twitter: @IntegraPay

iZettle Web: iZettle.com Twitter: @iZettleUK Facebook: facebook.com/iZettle

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We automatically process payments via GoCardless for Xero invoices, and fully reconcile the payment against the invoice and account for the transaction charge.

IntegraPay a) We are the only provider to offer real-time and recurring payments by bank account, BPAY and credit / debit card. Merchant account, Direct Debit and BPAY facilities do not need to be set-up separately with your bank. b) We are the only company whose integration automates payment reconciliation from all payment methods – no manual data entry. c) Customers can signup electronically from within Xero – no need for paper Direct Debit Requests. d) Clients can easily pass transaction fees on to their Customers. We also provide automated emailing and collection for overdue invoices. From our Console, Clients can review everything, select the appropriate customers and send an email with the option of viewing the invoice or paying their bill. e) We offer multi-currency processing for Australia, New Zealand and USA. f) We are certified PCI DSS Level 1 compliant and hold an Australian Financial Services Licence No. 418105

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iZettle We offer what we think is the best and most reliable mobile payments service of its kind. Compared to other mobile payments (mPOS) players in Europe, our service comes with substantially richer features and a very robust backend. We also offer one of the smoothest on-boarding processes in the industry. Signing up is easy and takes just a few minutes. Our pricing is extremely transparent. Compared to traditional payment providers and banks, we offer a lot more flexibility. Our service comes with no strings attached, and is tailored to the needs of small merchants, unlike many traditional providers. Our philosophy is that we put our users in the centre of the experience. We have designed a set of products that really are tailored for these businesses, rather than having businesses adapt to whatever you’re offering.

Issue 05 / 57

Checkmybooks Fast review, correction and working papers software for accountants What’s so great about Checkmybooks? Uploads accounting data direct from your client’s software No need to upload a client backup into your own version of their software Works with Xero and Sage or Quickbooks desktop data Analyses every single transaction in the period Highlights key issues for you to review Enables quick double-entry adjustments Exports ﬁnal trial balance to your accounts production software Produces a detailed and editable Client Advisory Report

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Make your year-end Creates ﬁle import back into client’s data 58 / Issue 05of adjustments for simple XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at xumagazine.com work profitable again.

contents

Try-It Tutorial

How to manage deposits paid in foreign currency Have you used the prepayments function in Xero? Pretty cool isn’t it? Did you ever notice that you can’t use this function for foreign currency transactions? Words: Jeri Murphy Jeri is the founder of JeriMurphy.com, creator of Become An Expert Bookkeeper, a 12-week online course for Xero users wanting to learn Xero to an expert level, and a successful cloud integrator focused on assisting productselling businesses with inventory add-ons. Jeri is a qualified accountant and has been training to an expert level on Xero and numerous add-ons for over 5 years. @jeri_murph

In this XU Try-It Tutorial, you can learn how to manage deposits paid in foreign currency in Xero and try it yourself. If you are paying deposits to overseas suppliers for goods in a foreign currency, it’s often a complete headache to keep track of what you have paid already in both the foreign currency and your own base currency, how much is left to pay, when it’s due and so on. The good news is Xero makes it easy - when you know how. Here’s the common problem that every business importing and exporting products faces - how to keep track of the money paid to the suppliers and received from customers in foreign currency and in the currency the business trades in (your base currency). It doesn’t matter whether you are using an inventory addon, like DEAR Inventory and Unleashed, or not - you still need to keep track of the money spent or received in Xero. This is usually an easy thing to do with Xero’s prepayments function but if you didn’t know already, it doesn’t work for foreign currency. Let’s first of all see how prepayments work in your base currency. Tutorial: How to manage a prepayment from a customer (in your base currency) Using your demo company, complete the following: 1. Go to your main bank account. In the US, this is the checking account. In other versions of the demo company, it is the business bank account.

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2. Select the blue button to reconcile the transactions for this account. 3. Notice the Jakaranda Maple Systems transaction on Page 1. This is your prepayment from a customer. 4. Select ‘Match > Find & Match’. 5. Skip question 1 in the match screen and go to question 2. Select ‘New Transaction > Receive Money’. 6. Next to ‘Received As’, change ‘Direct Payment’ to ‘Prepayment’. 7. Update the description to describe what the receipt was for. Notice in this screen that you can’t change the currency. You can only use this prepayments function in your base currency. 8. Select the account, e.g. ‘Income in Advance’ (in UK), ‘Revenue Received in Advance’ (in Australia) or create your own account as you like to name it. 9. Confirm the relevant tax rate and save transaction. 10. Reconcile. Now, go to ‘Sales > Awaiting Payment’. See how the prepayment shows on the ‘Awaiting Payment’ list. You might also like to review the balance sheet to see the amount of the prepayment showing there. When the next invoice is created and approved for Jakaranda Maple Systems, Xero will prompt you to allocate the outstanding credit. When

Issue 05 / 59

you allocate the credit, Xero will move the prepayment amount from the balance sheet account and apply the payment to the new invoice for you.

So how do we manage prepayments in foreign currency? Let’s use an example this time where we have paid money to the supplier, SMART Agency, as deposit for goods they are going to ship to us. The most common scenario I see with my importing clients in Australia is when Australian companies are required to pay a deposit in United States Dollars (USD) to Chinese manufacturers. In most cases, the Australian company will just convert Australian (AUD) dollars to USD at the time of payment and that’s the example we will use for this next tutorial. However, the concept is still the same even if you have a foreign bank account. Before we get into the tutorial, there are two key concepts to understand from the way that Xero manages prepayments in your base currency. When you generate a prepayment, Xero puts the amount on the balance sheet and it puts in the prepayment predit pote on the awaiting payment List. As we can’t select a foreign currency during the prepayment process, we need to replicate this functionality manually. Tutorial: How to manage a prepayment or deposit to a supplier (in a foreign currency)

Using the Demo Company, complete the following: 1. Go to Settings > General Settings > Currencies and Add Currency. Add USD: United States Dollar. 2. Go to Chart of Accounts > Add Account: 810 - Deposits Paid, Current Asset, BAS Excluded. 3. Go to the Business Bank Account > Reconcile. You should see a payment for A$4500 to SMART Agency. Using the Create tab, enter the following. The above amount would now show on the balance sheet. 4. Now, we need to go create the credit note (like the prepayment credit note) in purchases. Go to ‘Purchases > +New > Credit Note’.

In this example, we will use the Australian Demo Company. You can go to My Xero, scroll to the Demo Company and change country or edition to select Australia, or follow along with the similar example in your localised version of the Demo Company. Let’s assume that we have had to pay US$3,375 to SMART Agency as a 30% deposit on goods to be sent from China. The exchange rate on the US$3,375 at the time of payment was 0.75 and therefore, A$4500 came out of the bank account.

60 / Issue 05

rate at the time of the payment, in this case 0.75. You should untick “Apply to all new transactions for…” unless you have purchased the foreign currency at a set rate.

5. Enter the details of the credit note in foreign currency, as follows: 6. IMPORTANT: you must update the exchange rate to reflect the exchange

7. Approve the credit note. Go to ‘Purchases > Awaiting Payment’ to see the credit Note created for US$3375. When you create the bill in Xero once the goods have arrived or the bill is pushed into Xero from your inventory management solution, you can then allocate the credit note to the foreign currency bill and the exact amount owing in foreign currency will be shown. To complete your understanding of the process, go to the balance sheet and you will see the deposits paid (810) account is now cleared. If it is not cleared completely, you may have forgotten to update the exchange rate on the credit note.

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contents

What do I do when I have multiple payments to different suppliers in foreign currency? Often it is cheaper to make international payments in one lump sum so that the business only pays one conversion fee. In this case, the above process still applies, you just need to split each deposit or payment into different lines in the create

tab and then create individual credit notes for each payment to each supplier. What if I am using TransferMate or a similar Xero add-on to pay for my foreign currency transactions? In this case, you create a foreign currency bill for the deposit to be paid to the supplier and code it to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Deposits Paidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. This would create the entry to the balance

sheet. You would match the money coming out of the bank account to this bill when it shows in the reconcile screen. At this time, you would also enter the purchase credit note as shown above to clear out the deposits paid account on the balance sheet and show the credit note amount on the awaiting payment screen.

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Issue 05 / 61

Q&A with Gary Turner MD (UK), Xero

â&#x20AC;&#x153;For the first three years while our UK business was just a start-up we operated a very small, tight-knit team in the UK while we built up to a healthy baseline of around 10,000 or so customers.â&#x20AC;? Gary Turner

62 / Issue 05

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at xumagazine.com

contents

Xero had very simple beginnings here in the UK, how quickly did you grow?

For the first three years while our UK business was just a start-up we operated a very small, tight-knit team in the UK while we built up to a healthy baseline of around 10,000 or so customers. I think in the first year we added something like a few hundred UK customers, so it took a while to build up some momentum.

What tasks do you typically spend most of your day on and how have your responsibilities changed from the early days starting up Xero in the UK?

My role has changed a lot from the start-up days when I used to wear every hat right down to IT support! These days I still occasionally get pulled in to many different parts of the business, but lately a lot of my focus has been on building and developing our UK leadership team to ensure we’re well setup for the next phase of growth. At what “We’re now one of the Alongside the point did recent growth you decide biggest financial software you needed to vendors in the world... but we milestone in 100,000 move out of the still regard ourselves at the customers, home office? we’ve also beginning of our journey” grown into what At the back is now quite a end of 2011 Gary Turner sizeable business and after we had in revenue and and proven we could get with almost 140 UK some early traction, I staff now, it’s important for decided it was time to add me to ensure that the business is some more capacity to the existing scaling well to support our future growth team of around seven people which then ambitions over the next 2-3 years. would mean that working from home was coming to an end as an option. Remote working is a great way to get something As a member of the global off the ground but once you get into leadership team of Xero, how much double figures of staff, you need to start do you influence the overall strategy and co-locating people as the business grows. direction of Xero?

Q A

We have a very flat management structure across the planet which means every functional and regional leader gets to input and help shape our direction.

How do you see your role developing in the future?

This is now my seventh year as part of the team and I’m just as passionate now about growing Xero in the UK as I was in the early days. One of the best aspects of my role is that it parts of it change significantly every year because we’re growing so quickly. So, just as soon as one set of challenges fades a new set of completely different challenges emerges because we’re so much bigger every year. I look forward to continuing to guide and help Xero grow in the UK for as long as I can, and for as long as it’s still fun.

What changes do you anticipate in Xero’s worldwide presence in the future?

We’re now one of the biggest financial software vendors in the world, and according to IDC research the fastest growing - but we still regard ourselves at the beginning of our journey which I guess implies that we think there’s a load more growth potential ahead of Xero than behind it. And now that we’re well down the track in the first few markets we entered it is possible that we’ll one day decide to broaden our focus to other markets in the coming months and years. But for the time being we’re content just to focus on getting to 1,000,000 customers almost regardless of where they happen to be.

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Reporting REPORTING

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Issue 05 / 69

Competition

FOUR

CASES

Win a case of wine! Instructions: • Fill the white/blue squares with the numbers 1 – 25 by following the mathematical operations in the pink boxes. The number on the end of each row or column is the result of all the operations preceding it. • Operations should be performed left to right and top to bottom, rather than by following strict mathematical order. • Each of the numbers 1 - 25 can only appear once in the grid.

How to enter: We have one case of wine each for entrants from Australia, New Zealand, UK and USA. To be in with a chance of winning one of these prizes please send an email to hello@xumagazine.com with the numbers you have entered into the blue boxes. We need to receive this by January 4th 2016. The first correct entry from each of the four countries will win the prize.

Good luck!

- 2 + ÷ + + × + + 73

÷ +

TO BE WO

× +

+ -

45 2

- 15 -29 + + - 10 20 ÷ + ÷ + 11 -1 13

-64

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XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at xumagazine.com