XU Magazine - Issue 10 by XU Magazine

The independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users

ISSUE

magazine

ON DEMAND

BUSINESS

FINANCE Satago (Latin): to satisfy/pay a creditor

ISSN 2054-7226

9 772054 722009

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COVER STORY Satagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Steven Renwick explains how the Financial Web is transforming the traditional lending landscape Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 10 / 1

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30+ Integrations

ALL-IN-ONE PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Powerful Job Mobile app

2 / Issue 10

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

workflowmax.com/xero

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Issue 10 / 3

Welcome to issue 10... magazine The independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users

Issue 10 CEO: David Hassall (Co-Founder) Managing Editor: Wesley Cornell (Co-Founder) Strategic Partnerships: Alex Newson Staff Writer: Bethany Cox Editorial/News Submissions: If you have any editorial content (news, comment, tutorials etc.) that you would like us to consider for inclusion in the next edition of XU Magazine, please email us at editorial@xumagazine.com Advertising: advertising@xumagazine.com

6 / 2017 Up and Coming Tech

traditional lending landscape

8 / Explained: Xero Partner Program Points

22 / From rock music photographer to helping businesses develop

9 / TUTORIAL - Provide Management Reports to Clients Without Breaking a Sweat

24 / Why philanthropy matters: your small business guide to giving

10 / FEATURE - On the back of a beer mat: XU Magazine from start to Issue 10

14 / Top tips for setting up your own cloud business software advisory service 16 / INTERVIEW - Q&A with Michael Wood from Receipt Bank

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 2014-2017. 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: 12 Jordan Street, Liverpool, L1 0BP, United Kingdom. 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.

4 / Issue 10

28 / COMPARED - Time & attendance App comparison 30 / TUTORIAL - Streamline your invoicing with WorkflowMax… and get paid faster 32 / 5 silly excuses we give for not going paperless 34 / TUTORIAL - How to: using reports in ApprovalMax 36 / New business in the UK reaches record high 38 / Move to high-tech, high touch and watch your billable hours grow 40 / A systems-based approach to delivering client work 42 / ANNOUNCEMENT - Accountex returns

20 / COVER STORY - How the Financial Web is transforming the

44 / TUTORIAL - How to use MinuteDock for time billing with Xero

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

46 / CASE STUDY - How simple process automation helped increase efficiency & growth

Xero feature that’ll get you paid on time

98 / Top tips for Xero users: Budget Manager

76 / TUTORIAL - AutoEntry: advanced, feature-rich automation of data entry to Xero

100 / Mitigating risk and making data security a top priority

82 / Introducing mTrio 84 / Mindset over money: why spending more on marketing is not the answer 86 / INTERVIEW - Q&A with Will Lovegrove from pensionsync 102 / NEW RELEASES - Updates and new releases: from the Xero App Marketplace

50 / A new year, a new global economy, and what that means to the Xero community

106 / Taking the ‘auto-magical’ to the next level

55 / TIMELINE - Innovations to help you thrive in 2017

108 / Get ready, set, go! The importance of a good set-up

62 / The ideal client: choosing the right clients and delivering valuable customer service

90 / Reconciling various customer payment methods: get organised by separating your deposits 92 / Alleviating reconciliation ailments 94 / Does your accountancy firm serve others or does it serve you? The 7 systems that are changing the game 66 / TUTORIAL - Dryrun: help your clients build a powerful recurring budget… 70 / The all-new Xero HQ 72 / Small business expansion: how to ensure compliance in Africa

110 / APP DIRECTORY - App/ Service Directory 118 / Apple Pay is here!

74 / Forget me not: the automated

“

Make your cash Satago, all-in-one Accessing shortflow termwith finance to your bridge cashflow gaps cashflow soluuon. Spend less me chasing customers can be difficult as a small business. I needed a way to with our automated invoice reminder system. access the money locked up in my unpaid invoices. Try invoice reminders satago.com Then I found invoiceat finance from

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“

Complete Cashﬂow Conﬁdence

Issue 10 / 5

2017 Up and coming tech So what are the up-and-coming technologies of 2017? Accountants and small businesses, listen up for tech trends according to Xero!

mall businesses have the flexibility and creativity to take advantage of the power technology holds to make our lives easier. They can quickly adapt to use new technology by staying lean and agile. If they are savvy enough, they can make the best of technology whilst averting the associated risks by adopting early but being cautiously observant.

Chatbots, AI and Machine Learning

Having one device that is stolen may put huge amounts of company data and security under threat. Data silos are the solution to this increasing problem. They are a data segregation fix; a separate database to the business-wide system. Data for each department or employee is isolated from the rest of the company.

Artificial Intelligence in not, by all means, new this year but it is being used in new and exciting ways. AI is the simulation of intelligent behaviour in computers, and its ability to think for itself. Machine Learning is a type of AI, involving computers learning without being explicitly programmed. Chatbots are designed to use this to make intelligent conversation.

Mobile devices are commonly used alongside mobile device management (MDM) in businesses. These systems work alongside company policy to enforce security and activity management of employees. MDM is starting to appear as an intrinsic part of some apps, for example Safari allows you to bookmark URLs that require you to access them through a VPN.

This is already being implemented in apps such as Slack, where users can interact with Slackbot. You should look to use apps that use AI to organise content, data and products.

Despite thinking that this is a large company-only problem, small businesses are those who cannot afford the dangers of security risks.

BYOD and MDM

We’ve all heard of the stereotype of remote workers of participating in video calls in a shirt, tie and pyjama bottoms, but other than comfort, why are remote offices catching on for workers and employers? Whilst some may say lack of routine is the

Here’s are the trends to look out for...

The International Data Corporation has forecasted that in 2020, almost 75% of the workforce will be mobile. The knock-on effects can be hugely beneficial for companies but 6 / Issue 10

may also increase vulnerable data (like sensitive and private customer information) for those who have a bring-your-own-device (or BYOD) policy.

Remote offices

downfall of remote working, the increased flexibility is the perfect starting point for some to thrive. Some people just work better when they have the freedom to manage their own schedule, and are working at a pace set by them. We can’t ignore the cost impact remote offices have on both staff and companies. Despite there usually being some initial setup costs, your company saves money on real estate in the long term; money that can be spent on expanding your borders geographically. Your employees save time and monetary costs of commuting, and buying lunch and coffee and that expensive businesscasual wardrobe. It has been shown that fewer sick days are taken by those who work from home. How often are you sent home by a sore throat or something that doesn’t necessarily limit your ability to work but means you can’t be in the office? So why is this something to consider now? Well, technology is better than ever and allows effective communication between off and on-site workers. Collaborating live on shared documents, high-speed internet, and even doing more with your good old email. Technological advances make so much more possible. Plus, no distractions of colleagues

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

partnership with connection services to boost accessibility of their products to customers. Subscription-based business Subscriptions are another win-win that are taking over in all kinds of industries. Customers have an easy way to renew services or products orders and know consistency. Having recurring monthly income helps businesses budget, project and report more easily. This model is at its best when partnered with e-commerce and automated payments. You can almost certainly combine these in your business. Influencer marketing

and cake means no more interruptions so you can get your work done on time.

there on your site.

E-commerce

The past few decades have seen servitisation become the businessmodel of envy. More and more companies are transforming and developing their systems to include services that complement and even supplement the products they offer, moving from a product-centred to customer-focussed approach.

With projections for E-commerce sales in 2020 of $4 trillion, small businesses need to jump on this bandwagon if they see a future for their company. Quicker searching, one-click transactions, next-day delivery, not even having to leave your home once. It all comes down to time, for both business and consumer. Increasingly, buyers are looking to only purchase products that can be delivered, so put your products out

Connection-as-a-Service

With the swell in social media, instead of looking to companies, consumers look to their peers to apprise decisions of product purchase. Famous personalities on media platforms now command the opinions of their followers, making them the big target for advertising products and services. Your customers want to feel talked to rather than at, being fully informed and educated about your product. Companies the world over have increased budgets specifically for social media for this year...perhaps itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time for you to as well!

This values the customer and their needs, giving businesses who have adopted this approach the competitive edge against rivals. Small businesses should take advantage of this by embracing

Forecast Cash Flow, Budget & Sales Scenarios XU Readers: Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll add an extra 30 days to your free trial!

Issue 10 / 7

Explained: Xero Partner Program points The new and improved Partner Program, launched in November 2016, is Xero’s points-based system for awarding recognition to Xero Partners. M

ost of you by now will be familiar with some aspects of the program, but if you’re searching for the basics, look no further. If you are using Xero, you will have already been notified of your Xero Partner status. For some, your status will have already improved, and for others you will be looking at what you can do to reach the next level. The program is created with the view to make your business a success, based on what success means to your business.

The number of points required to be awarded each status

• Bronze Partner status level • Earned 10 more points in the past 12 months • At least two Xero-certified staff • Those for Silver, Gold and Platinum Champion statuses are: • Silver, Gold or Platinum status level

• Earned 20 more points in the past 12 months • At least three Xero-certified staff

Each month, you will be notified with your status, number of points, certifications, distinctions and benefits calculated from the previous month. Benefits The Partner Program offers many benefits to it’s users. Alongside the enriched education resources, Xero shop, available practice tools and profile in the Advisory Directory on offer, Xero Partners benefit from the following:

UK and NZ - points awarded for each activity

AU - points awarded for each activity

• Access to Xero HQ - for managing clients • 1 subscription to Xero - for internal use by your business • Access to Partner-only info and support from a Xero Account Manager Xero Champions Xero Champions add an extra distinction to Partners with the title. The criteria for Bronze Champion status are as follows: 8 / Issue 10

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

Tutorial

Provide Management Reports to Clients Without Breaking a Sweat ProfitSee provides the tools that give accountants and bookkeepers the ability to easily automate and grow their advisory services. IT ALL STARTS WITH REPORTING Reporting is an important function of accounting. The value of the reports comes from the advice you provide from the financials. Do you ever find yourself scrambling to prepare your clients reports and thinking, “there has to be an easier way to get these done,”? Let ProfitSee save you time so you can provide the strategic advice that truly impacts your clients’ businesses.

01 ADD YOUR LOGO

Upload your firm’s logo to instantly provide client dashboards and reports that match your practice’s brand! Keep the focus on the advice you’re providing, rather than the software you’re using!

02 CREATE CUSTOM TEMPLATES & SCHEDULES Some clients benefit from shorter, more frequent reports, but also still require in-depth quarterly information. Others might want monthly management reports. With ProfitSee we simplify the reporting process by giving you an easy way to create custom report templates, and set automated reporting schedules, so you don’t have to think twice about it!

03 RELAX, REVIEW, & SEND!

You can set the reports to send directly to your client, but we recommend having them sent directly to your inbox. This gives you the ability to review them, add any needed commentary, and send them off. Giving you more time to do the advising, while ProfitSee does the tedious work for you.

SERIOUSLY, IT’S THAT EASY

Start your free trial!

In three simple steps you can create white-labeled and automated management reports for your clients, no matter their reporting needs! WWW.MYPROFITSEE.COM/TRIAL Have you subscribed? Go to subscriptions.xumagazine.com

Issue 10 / 9

Feature

On the back of a beer mat: XU Magazine from start to issue 10 Like all good ideas, it started between the two brothers in a pub back in December 2013. David and Wesley had been chatting about Xero and how all the guides and information were scattered across the web, meaning users had to go and dig around to find everything. It made perfect sense to us to pull as much of this information as possible into one platform.

ero has many different features, and there is a wealth of information out there available to its users including blogs, forums, and articles, as well as the ever-increasing pool of Xero’s own resources. As Xero Users ourselves, we didn’t always have time to go and search through this supply. And so we knew exactly what we wanted to create. Our goal was to be informative, topical and impartial, bringing all of the valuable information out there into one place, to save Xero users treasured time and effort. The initial campaign began on Indiegogo, a crowdfunding site for entrepreneurial ideas...perfect for us! This was the start of our journey to equip the Xero community and draw it together. Our aim was simple: to create a magazine for

Xero Users, by Xero Users. XU Magazine CEO, David Hassall: Both myself and Wesley are avid readers of user magazines for various other platforms, so the idea was born. Why don’t we do a user magazine for Xero users? With neither of us having publishing experience we dived straight into Google. As soon as we had built an original concept of what we wanted from the magazine, we decided the best platform to launch this would be via crowdfunding as we needed both cash and visibility of the product. A few days into the campaign we knew the idea was a winner and that really encouraged us. It was a long slog as we worked full time on the campaign, keeping up with 4 time zones as well as our day jobs! Once we had funding and a great following we then took to Google again: how do you actually make and design a magazine? After numerous YouTube tutorials, and friendly people helping us out, Issue 01 was born. It was much harder than either of us ever realised it would be but we were so glad when we got there. The icing on the cake was Chris Ridd inviting us to launch at Xerocon over in Australia. Since that initial pub talk, we’ve come far. Along the way, we’ve made mistakes but have learnt a mountain of lessons to take forward with us.

Founders David Hassall and Wesley Cornell

10 / Issue 10

Our independence from Xero and its Add-ons (now Apps) ordained that we would become the unbiased information source for all with a login to Xero. But although we’re independant, Xero have been an amazing support and sounding board for us, so a big shout out goes to all of their staff who have helped us on our journey...we of course wouldn’t be here without Xero in the first place! XU Magazine Editor, Wesley Cornell: Some of the biggest releases from us have been in the past few months. Our digital reader and subscription system have gone hand-in-hand in bringing the mag to a larger audience. Together they mean that anyone can sign in and be welcomed into our community, with full access to all content from print, and more. And all for free! There are lots of ways we’re looking into growing this in the near future. We have some other really exciting developments coming up over the next year for XU Magazine...so watch this space! XU Magazine Head of Advertising and New Business, Alex Newson: We’ve been learning a lot of new stuff, so it’s almost like working on Issue 01 again. The fact that we’re now on Issue 10 is staggering. We want to say a big thank you to all our contributors and advertisers for getting us here. As always, we value the honest and reliable feedback from the awesome Xero community. Let’s keep building it together!

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

Feature issue and keeping up to date with the Xero community.

We’re delighted to be exhibiting at all Xerocons over the coming year. Keep a look out for us there, we look forward to seeing you. Certain Apps that connect to Xero have been an integral part of our journey and we want to recognise and celebrate the friendships we have formed with them. From the outset, TidyWork have connected with us. We asked them to share more about how we started out together.

Kevin Mann and some of the Tidy team appeared in XU Magazine Issue 06

Kevin Mann at Tidywork: “What amazing vision!” we at Tidy thought when Wesley told us about starting XU Magazine. We instinctively knew Tidy had to support it. Xero and the Add-on community had grown so much, it was great to see a publication representing the stories of this exciting cloud ecosystem. We felt he must really believe in the future of Xero and others like Tidy building connected cloud products. It meant a lot to us at Tidy that someone in the UK, miles away from the birthplace of Xero would start a global publication like XU. A printed publication in a cloud world? We thought most global users were not (yet) cloud converts, so needed an offline medium. In less than 5 minutes Tidy confirmed we’d take out a full-page advert and help XU with welldeserved financial support. We’re privileged that Tidy has continued to travel with XU in all ten brilliant issues. Profitsee have supported us right from the word go. We’ve spent time with them at various conferences, and even visited a zoo together! Brooke tells us more...

Deputy is a big name in the business and they have been right alongside us since Issue 01. We asked them to tell you about our relationship.

Team ProfitSee with XU Magazine enjoying Accountex 2014

Brooke Roberts at Profitsee: ProfitSee has worked with XU Magazine since it’s first edition. We were so excited to learn about it through their funding campaign, that we couldn’t wait to get involved. Over the past few years, I have worked closely with the XU Magazine team, and they are great partners to work with. From article submissions to artwork suggestions, they have been responsive and helpful.

At Accountex 2014 with Deputy

Kristen Harris at Deputy: The Xero partner eco-system is one we value highly at Deputy so when we first saw XU Magazine emerge with their cheeky crowd-sourcing venture we were happy to jump in and support them. That experience has resulted in a consistent, reliable and professional relationship, one we know we can trust for great content and good reach amongst the members. I look forward to our relationship continuing for many years.

Each issue seems to top the last, and we’ve really enjoyed their platform as a resource to help educate Xero users about changes in the global accounting industry. One of our highlights has been getting to know the team at Minute Dock over the past couple of years. We’ve done some really cool stuff together, from watching the rugby to visiting a Koala Sanctuary!

A really valuable link for us is with the Receipt Bank crew. They’ve given us some great experiences when we’ve met up including celebrations in London, a hog roast on a barge, and a rooftop party in Brisbane. Michael talks about their journey with us so far... David and Jared at the Koala Sanctuary after Xerocon South 2016

Jared Armstrong at Minute Dock: I saw their original crowdfunding campaign and thought it was an interesting idea. I reached out to them to write an article for their very first issue and they’ve been awesome at including MinuteDock since then. We had a blast travelling to the various Xerocons last year and catching up with their team at each one. Seeing how passionate they are about providing a really great publication for Xero users is really inspiring. I love reading every

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Michael Wood at Receipt Bank: The success of XU Magazine demonstrates the unique passion of the global Xero community. As huge Xero fans ourselves, it’s been a pleasure to take the journey with the team, whether it was racing to grab the latest copy at a Xerocon, or my taking part in my first ever cover story. Standing beside Colin Hewitt from Float and Steve Renwick from Satago, all in our kilts, it was clear that the XU team were onto something special and we’ve loved being a part of it.

Issue 10 / 11

Feature approved to get listed on the Xero add-on App Marketplace we decided to sign up to exhibit at Xerocon San Francisco and Xerocon South. Alex saw that AppsForOps was attending Xerocon South and reached out with a simple Tweet introducing himself and XU Magazine. The rest they say is history: from a double page advert in Issue 08, to the front cover on Issue 09 and many exciting things planned for Issue 10 and beyond. We love working with the team at XU Magazine.

Cover stars of Issue 02: Michael Wood (Receipt Bank), Colin Hewitt (Float), Steven Renwick (Satago)

Do you remember fruit and veg featuring on our front cover? The XU team had a fun time shooting for the cover of Issue 07 with Advance Track, and having lunch together.

More recently, we have worked closely with AppsForOpps and are thoroughly enjoying the partnership that is forming between the teams.

We as a team have wholly loved reflecting on where we started and are so proud of how far weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve come since. XU Magazine are so thankful to all those who have supported us so far and continue to do so. There is so much more coming up: brand-new segments, ingenious tech and fresh ideas. We canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to see where the next 10 issues take

Vipul Sheth, cover star of Issue 07

Vipul Sheth at Advance Track: We are delighted to have been involved with the XU team almost from the start of their journey. Xero is changing the way accountants work and XU are part of that community. We have enjoyed working with XU, including a fun photoshoot in Leicester Market holding bowls of veg a few days after Leicester won the Premiership. This took me back to my days of working on a leather stall on markets as a boy. At least the sun was shining that day compared to my distant memories of markets! Many congratulations to the XU team and keep up the good work.

12 / Issue 10

David and Alex at breakfast in Brisbane with Shaun and Hennie from AppsForOps

Shaun Leisegang at AppsForOps: It all started with a simple Tweet. Very soon after AppsForOps got

us. Our pink team will keep flying around the world to bring XU to the Xero community!

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

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Issue 10 / 13

Matt Flanagan, Co-Founder, BlueHub

@Blue_Hub

Matt is an industry-renowned cloud business systems specialist, working in close partnership with forward thinking companies, Xero and Receipt Bank. Matt has over 15 years’ experience in business systems, focusing on change management for organisations such as HMRC and the NHS.

Top tips for setting up your own cloud business software advisory service The world of accounting is a changing landscape, shifting from bags of receipts and unfilled invoices to automation and artificial intelligence. For those firms that are tackling the change head-on, the Xero ecosystem has an overwhelming range of add-on Apps.

raditional Accountancy training continues to fall short of addressing the diverse role accountants will be required to fulfill as clients become more aware of the efficiencies cloud systems offer. With companies like WorkflowMax and Cin7 advertising directly to the end user, Xero accountants are finding themselves struggling to meet client expectations as they come looking for advice on operational apps. Although some Xero practices are seeing the opportunity to offer a business systems advisory service, many are struggling to get to grips with the world of apps. This is no surprise as it takes time and research to understand the nuances of competing apps and have the confidence to recommend one over another.

challenges, netting new Xero clients and expanding your offer as other practices fail to embrace the cloud? 1) Getting started Many practices are overwhelmed by the Xero ecosystem. There are simply so many apps that the task of finding the right one to recommend seems enormous.

TOP TIP Reduce the number of apps by identifying your niche. Being a specialist in a particular area, like hospitality or retailing is the best way to create your business systems advisory service. You cannot understand all the apps for all the clients and keep your knowledge current as updates are released so regularly. You may identify a sector by reviewing your existing client base. If not, spend some time identifying your practice’s strengths and experience so you can choose one that reflects your existing skill set.

2) Managing change Having spoken to many practices around the country, from top 50 firms to the local specialist, the problems are often the same. So how do you overcome these 14 / Issue 10

Plenty of accountants are reluctant to make recommendations due to the potential impact (both positive and negative) new system

implementations have on their clients’ businesses – and for good reason. With tech moving so fast, it is difficult to maintain the knowledge to confidently provide advice.

TOP TIP The nature of cloud accounting is so different to traditional methods that people and internal processes will need to change in line with the new systems and ways of working. This is true of the function they perform and their mindset towards it. Practices are having trouble managing change within their teams, as the industry has seen little change for such a long time. If you are unable to find suitable advocates within your team, it may be necessary to recruit new members who are already aware and keen to embrace cloud technology. Their mindset needs to be suited to a higher degree of risk, operational priorities of clients and be comfortable giving advice in a fast moving environment.

3) Building a different client relationship Accountants haven’t really needed to explain themselves in their marketing activities before, for the

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

most part, businesses know what services are on offer, they just need to know you’re there. When launching a new revenue stream in business systems advice, it is vital to understand how you will market and work with your Xero clients. z

TOP TIP You will need to carry out a ‘fact find’ to gather information on your client’s business activities and processes. This is a whole business review, looking closely at the way the business operates, the current systems they have (whether electronic or manual) and who does what. This is where you gain the insight to offer Apps that will enhance productivity but that can be integrated with existing systems and that will tick all the requirements for the client now and in the foreseeable future. Marketing is also benefitted from niching down (tip 1), as these pre-selected Apps can be marketed to both new and existing clients, allowing practices to get the most use out of the time they have invested in learning these new systems.

4) Balancing App research with fee earning responsibilities Launching in the business software advisory market takes commitment. The requirement to complete fee earning work often overrides the

set-up phase and change projects stall.

TOP TIP Like any new business, the investment at the start makes a difference. Being able to give it your undivided attention, or at least a significant chunk of your week, is essential to put in place the processes and research the market. If you are unable to persuade practice partners to release time to establishing the revenue stream, it may be better to partner with an advisory service like ourselves who can be your port of call when you need expert knowledge to solve a client’s question. You can gain the knowledge of the Xero ecosystem while earning from business process reviews for your clients.

clients, gaining knowledge about the ecosystem and having the confidence to offer advice without needing to pass the client to an external company. This allows firms to fulfill a fee earning role while moving their practice into the future. The CSR has three tiers to accommodate for firms of all sizes. Each includes consultancy time with our experienced cloud team, access to a bank of educational resources to support your cloud journey, along with regular meetings and exclusive member-only events.

Because so many firms are experiencing these challenges when launching this new revenue stream, we created the BlueHub CSR (or the less catchy- Cloud Services Retainer). This service is ideal for firms who are providing (or looking to provide) an in-house software advisory service for Xero Apps. It allows accountants to move along a learning pathway to build strong relationships with their Xero

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Issue 10 / 15

Interview

Q&A Michael Wood from Receipt Bank

16 / Issue 10

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

Interview

XU:

It’s great to be joined by Michael Wood, the Director of Receipt Bank. The last time we spoke to Michael was in Issue 02, so we’re delighted to be catching up with him again. Michael, could you start by telling us a bit about Receipt Bank’s journey to where you are now?

MW:

I have the advantage of being one of the first people in the world to use cloud accounting. So in around 2007, I had a limited company and I was using cloud accounting. I didn’t know I was one of the first, I wasn’t doing it to be enthusiastic, I was actually doing it because I’d made such a mess of my accounts that my accountants had taken my existing package away and said, “try this, you’re less likely to muck it up”. And so I started using cloud accounting very early. And having used it for sort of 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, I really loved the whole thing. But I just realised that there were a few problems. One of the big problems was that suddenly, it had become very ambiguous as to who was doing my daily bookkeeping. So I decided to use my influences and look around for a software solution that could help me deal with the accounts payable expenses. I came across a service called Receipt Farm. It was a postal service at the time in 2010 and what they said was “post us your receipts and your invoices and we will scan them and extract the data for you”. So I thought, ‘well that sounds really good and will really help’ and so I started the free trial. I really enjoyed the service but it had two key problems. The first was that my accountant couldn’t access my data and therefore be an administrator of the account. And equally it didn’t send the data straight into my cloud accounting package. I wrote into the customer service guys to say “I love what you’re doing but these are the two issues I’ve got”. They came back to me to say ,“Mr Wood, thank you for your feedback but unfortunately we’re closing down today”.

So I wrote straight back to say, “can I buy the service?” and that’s how Receipt Bank started!

XU:

That’s interesting that it was the day that you rang up that they were closing down...

MW:

Well exactly, and the background to that was that I’d helped to build a significant accounting package in the past and I’d run other businesses so I knew the small business accounting process and business really well, and I saw how big and important cloud accounting was going to become, and actually realised that automation was going to become a huge part of that and so we started Receipt Bank to help accountants and bookkeepers to help automate bits of the process.

the cloud accounting industry because it makes this incredibly important data set more available. Now whether that’s more available to the bank, whether that’s more available to the lender or insurer or whoever it may be, there’s some fantastic data that’s been made available by cloud accounting. Of course for that data set to be valuable, it’s got to be up to date. And that’s where Receipt Bank is absolutely key because Receipt Bank is the key software out there that is used by accountants and bookkeepers and small businesses to make sure their data is up to date. And the more up to date it is, the more valuable it is. So that’s the way that we will contribute to that.

XU:

A lot of Receipt Bank’s journey links in with the advancement in the Fin Tech industry. How has this advancement helped Receipt Bank grow?

Definitely, and Receipt Bank and Xero come hand-in-hand from my experience. So over the next few years what shifts do you think we will see in the current trends of technology in the Fin Tech industry? Do you see any patterns emerging?

MW:

Absolutely hugely, the first key technology advance that has changed the power of our service is actually smart phones in Receipt Farm as it started out as a postal service. So suddenly the popularity of the iPhone and Android allowing people to take photos of receipts there and then made a huge difference. Receipt Bank also was a very early investor in AI, and our data extraction technology is heavily AI-based. There still are some humans supervising the most difficult of invoices, but primarily it’s an AI service, so that’s been a huge benefit. And there’s various others. As I say, our job is to provide automation and so there’s various trends we have served.

XU:

In contrast, has Receipt Bank helped the Fin Tech industry grow?

MW:

I don’t think we have yet, what’s happening is a lot of people in financial services are excited about

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What I expect to see is the emergence of what I call “accounting centaurs”. And I do mean centaurs as in Harry Potter, mythical creature, halfhorse, half-man! There’s a really interesting story I think is useful for all accountants and bookkeepers to be aware of. I think everyone has heard about IBM software, Deep Blue beating Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997. It was really famous and made headlines all around the world: a computer’s AI beating a man in a really key way, and that was the headline everyone took from it: AI beats very clever man. Now what everyone missed is actually what happened afterwards. Garry Kasparov recognised that although he lost to the Deep Blue computer, the Deep Blue computer wasn’t just artificial intelligence; it had a database of chess moves. It had all sorts of other computer advantages attached to it. And afterwards he created a new type of chess called “centaur chess”, and the whole point of centaur chess is that you and I might be playing each other and as we play

Issue 10 / 17

Interview each other, we have computer assistance. So I may be thinking of moving my pawn to there and the computer says, “actually if you do that, you could do this”. It gives all sorts of suggestions and tests your thinking, and so you as the human player are still in control but you have the ability of the computer to help you to make the best decisions. So the Kasparov vs. IBM game was portrayed as a triumph of machine over man, when actually what came out the back of this was that the best result was a combination of machine and man. Where I think it’s really exciting now is we’re beginning to enter the era of “centaur accounting”: the accountant or bookkeeper is taking advantage of all these new AI technologies. There will basically be three options: Ignoring the new technologies which would give a bad result for the firm or individual involved because it will not be as cost effective, it won’t be as efficient, they won’t actually be as good at their job. In the way that Kasparov was a better chess player by having the computer next to him, the accountant or bookkeeper who takes advantage of these new AI technologies, will be better at their job, so to ignore this would be a bad thing. Equally, for the small businesses to conclude right now, “oh there’s all these new technologies, I no longer need a human looking at my books or accounts” would be premature. So the best result for everyone is… The accountant or bookkeepers powered by the new technology, just as it has been in chess and other areas. So what will be really interesting is the rise of these “centaur accountants”.

XU:

So then how do you think the rise of “centaur accountants” will benefit 18 / Issue 10

Receipt Bank?

MW:

It benefits Receipt Bank in that we are unquestionably the leading vendor of AI technology. I get up in the morning because I think we’re doing something that’s really powerful and really useful to an awful lot of people. It’s beneficial to us because this is our moment to shine. We’ve been doing it for a long time and getting better and better at it, and we’re able to help more and more people every day; Receipt Bank has more than 100,000 users in the Xero community. This is our moment to keep getting better and better. I think there’s a challenge in our opportunity, because we have to be as good as we can be, but hopefully we can help all these small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers to make the most of the data they have.

XU:

And how do you feel the Making Tax Digital (MTD) movement by HMRC will affect the UK Fin Tech industry?

MW:

The trouble with MTD is it’s got a bad title, because it suggests that HMRC are making tax digital. The reality is they are recognising that tax is digital. So all these transactions, the bank fees, the data in Xero, the digitised items from Receipt

Bank, the data from the POS system etc., it’s all digital today. So even though they say they’re making tax digital, they’re not making it digital they’re just recognising that all the transactions nowadays are digital and therefore it makes sense for them to deal with them in a digital way. What it means in the UK, because HMRC have been one of the first tax authorities to recognise this and respond, by no means are they the only one. Some of the debate in the UK is that even though HMRC are doing something outlandish and different, there are actually many tax authorities around the world looking at this and trying to move in the same direction. But because HMRC have set out such a clear timeline, is means that the UK is going to be quite in the vanguard of this and there’s also 2 or 3 other regulations in the UK that will be a vanguard for Fin Tech - one of which is the insistence of all UK banks having API which means much better quality bank feeds, as well as many other ramifications. So the UK government has done 2 or 3 things to make sure UK businesses are at the forefront of getting access to their data and being able to use their financial data.

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

Interview

XU:

Last year we reported that Receipt Bank managed to secure a cash investment, how has this helped Receipt Bank grow?

MW:

It was really important for us to take investment on. Growing a company that grows as fast as ours is an expensive business, the way that Xero shareholders invested a lot of money in Xero to grow: it’s an expensive business. hey key thing for us is we are one of the largest AI teams working in accountancy software anyway around the world. And to have that working day-to-day on all sorts of bookkeeping workflows to help our partners and our clients has been fantastic.

XU:

Receipt Bank has a worldwide presence and we’ve had the pleasure of meeting your teams from various places. What are the main challenges of having a team working across the globe?

MW:

The odd thing is we are symptomatic of a new type of international global business. If we think back to our childhood, a global business means something like Coca Cola or Ford; a global business means something like tens of thousands of employees and every office is huge. Whereas now tech has meant, to become global, each business in some way is not that large. It might be 20 people in one country, ten people in another… so the challenges we had were combining relatively quite small, local teams with a global footprint and that comes up with all sorts of challenges of internal processing, HR, finance, marketing. It’s the newer type of footprint that we and others are having to learn.

XU:

And on the flip side, what are the benefits of having a team working worldwide?

MW:

It has been absolutely key for us. I remember when we first

started out in the UK and I started getting all these enquiries from Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, Singapore, everywhere that Xero is. We were getting phone calls from accountants and bookkeepers saying, “we’d love to use your service”. And to be honest there were only so many calls I could do at midnight and 5am and 6am before we realised we needed to have a local presence. So it was very exciting to be taking these phone calls and very interesting, but at the end of the day if you want to have a world-class product, you need to have people locally.

XU:

And from meeting your teams from around the world, they are definitely a credit to you! One thing I’m sure a lot of our subscribers are wanting to know is what new and exciting plans Receipt Bank have planned for 2017?

MW:

We do have lots coming up. We are really excited about our road map. We’ve tried to work really hard at Receipt Bank on ‘what does an accounting firm look like in 2025, or around 5 years time from now?’ and ‘what makes an accounting firm successful and a winner in 5 years time?’. We’re working really hard on the software solutions that enable our partners to be one of those winners. What accounting firms can be really encouraged by is that we are doing this, and Xero is doing the same… spending a lot of time on ‘what does a successful firm look like in 2025 and what do they need to have?’ and we’re starting to build that today. And then we work out what to release this year and next year and in 2020.

choice of colour. The big question I need to ask is: why orange?!

MW:

I can tell you the exact answer to this because it was my choice! I am a scientist by background, and we attended several Xerocons and roadshows and it was really obvious that Xero was blue, Vend was green, Unleashed was red, and no one had taken orange. And so Receipt Bank became orange, and that is the honest reason!

XU: MW:

That’s pretty similar to why we’re pink!

We literally just wanted to make sure we were distinct at Xerocons and that’s why we chose orange.

XU:

And I know that, as the App eco-system expands, some new apps have chosen orange and others have rebranded to it… do you foresee changing from this colour at Receipt Bank?

MW:

I don’t know, it’s not something I think

about hugely.

XU:

And it’s good for you, because a lot of people associate the colour orange with Receipt Bank and so if someone is seen walking around with an orange t shirt at Xerocon, it’s presumed that they’re with you!

MW:

Exactly!

So rather than focussing on one thing, that’s what excites me. We’re thinking about the problems that firms are going to hit and make sure we have the solution ready for them.

XU:

That’s really exciting and a great way to look at it. Now, Receipt Bank manage to stand out at every event, not just with there great staff but their

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Issue 10 / 19

Cover Story Steven Renwick, Founder and CEO, Satago

@SatagoHQ

Steven founded Satago 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.

How the Financial Web is transforming the traditional lending landscape Steven Renwick, CEO of business finance firm Satago, one of Xero’s first financial services partners in the UK, explains how a new breed of FinTechs has emerged to transform the SME funding landscape...

isruptive innovation designed to break the stranglehold of dominant business models shows no signs of abating. Netflix, Amazon, Uber and Airbnb are the doyens of the on-demand economy as we know it today, inspiring entire generations of technologydriven businesses to challenge established models and strategies. Indeed Xero itself allows business owners on-demand access to financial information that would previously have been siloed within inaccessible desktop accounting software. However, the financial services industry, long overdue radical transformation, has been slow to embrace (or arguably quick to resist) this form of disruptive thinking. When I started to look at the SME finance market, I was pretty shocked at how little the commercial finance industry had changed. Traditional lenders may now offer multi-channel delivery, including mobile, tablet, instant messaging and webchat, but when you peel away the veneer of digital 20 / Issue 10

delivery, the products haven’t altered fundamentally for decades. SAP’s Digitalist Magazine recently said: “There is a lot of talk about digital transformation by banks, but the reality is that – despite what they say – they are not doing it. What the vast majority of banks are actually doing is digital enablement. They are simply using digital technologies to do what they are doing today, only slightly better. There is nothing transformational about what they are doing.” The key imperative to market disruption is to re-imagine a new ecosystem that meets the needs of the customer, not the lender. Critical to the development of this new ecosystem is the access to data afforded by cloud-accounting software, such as Xero. For far too long the focus has drifted the other way, fostering an environment in which big bank rules have prevailed unchallenged and facility limits and ceilings have continued to restrict the growth of SME businesses.

Selectivity is the key Traditionally, banks have been the primary source of working capital funding for SMEs. However, regulation has meant that increasingly these large financial institutions have to be very selective in terms of the companies to which they will provide funding, regrettably leading to the exclusion of many small businesses. Basel III regulation is putting banks under growing pressure to maintain higher capital ratios as they look to rebuild their capital bases and de-risk their balance sheets, making lending to small businesses far less attractive to them. This enforced reticence to lend to SMEs is causing huge cash flow headaches for small businesses, especially those that have relied upon bank financing in the past to plug short-term funding gaps. Ironically, this selectivity in terms of underwriting from the large market incumbents has created an even greater choice for SMEs than ever before – in the form of a new wave of nimble, digitally driven alternative financiers, such as

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

Cover Story Satago. By leveraging cloud technology, real-time data and analytics tools, these new FinTechs are able to provide businesses with fast, flexible and frictionless funding on a scale hitherto unimagined. Here, selectivity has a positive part to play. For many years, the only invoice finance options available to businesses have been based on a ‘whole sales ledger facility’, in which they are locked into a contract and the attendant fees – which can prove a very costly form of working capital indeed. Today, through leveraging cloud technology, business owners are able to obtain access to cash (previously tied up in approved invoices) instantly on demand – on a selective basis. Unlike before, they are now completely free to decide when and how much they borrow, and for how long; giving them greater oversight of costs and far more control over their borrowing.

oversight and management.

Harnessing cloud technology to improve financial health

When you consider that the deaths of 50,000 businesses in the UK through late payment could be avoided every year – this is a vital innovation.

Funding on demand is not the only digitally-driven transformation on offer. Alternative financiers are also harnessing cloud technology to give smaller businesses tools that will help them get paid on time. Satago’s enhanced credit management tools are already succeeding in improving the financial health of small businesses, reducing the time they spend on credit control by up to 80%.

In the face of falling access to traditional lending, SMEs can be assured that there are now better alternatives; agile FinTech-based options designed to offer business owners flexibility and control without the overbearing constraints of their predecessors.

This provides the same level of sophisticated credit management and dashboards to SMEs as their far larger competitors, effectively levelling the playing field. It allows for real-time cash flow monitoring at a glance, as well as greater risk

Now on-demand business finance is a reality, business owners can focus their energies on what is most important in their lives – fulfilling their business ambitions.

The Financial Web The game-changing technological advancement that has driven this level of finance innovation has been termed the “Financial Web”. In summary it is the ability for finance providers to seamlessly integrate their applications with leading business accounting packages, such as Xero. Small business owners can now authorise and securely share their financial reports with business lenders, such as Satago. Connect, click, cash: It really is that easy for businesses to access the working capital SMEs need instantly, 24/7. Thanks to the Financial Web they can simply choose the invoices they want to finance and they are paid on demand.

“

Make your lost cashmoney ﬂow with Satago, your all-in-one I recently when a customer went into cashﬂow soluuon. Spend less me chasing customers administraaon. It dawned on me that I'd never really with ourwho automated invoice reminder system. known I was doing business with. Try invoice reminders at satago.com Then I found credit reports from

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“

Complete Cashﬂow Conﬁdence

Issue 10 / 21

Michelle Nicol, Freelance Writer, Wordstruck Writing and Training

@I_am_wordstruck

Michelle is a freelance writer, trainer and tone of voice consultant who helps businesses tell their story using words that connect with their customers. A former BBC journalist, she also provides business and creative writing workshops.

From rock music photographer to helping businesses develop Life on the road with David Lloyd Williams of Principality Consulting... “

Years ago, when I was an apprentice, I used to take my camera and take photographs of the big bands that came to the North Wales theatres. It was all in black and white and I used to develop it myself and send the bands some pictures. Eventually I took a photograph of Queen, sent it to Brian May and he stuck it on his website. I was pretty pleased with that.” These days, David Lloyd Williams has turned the keen eye that

once photographed travelling rock guitarists towards helping businesses run more efficiently. As Managing Director of Principality Consulting, he helps companies find IT solutions that will improve their businesses. Finding efficiencies to support business success “I enjoy finding a business, applying some lean principles… improving the way that business works, and

locking in the improvements we find with some software which can make sure that the gains we find can be sustained throughout the life of the business,” David explains. His consultancy services cover everything from accounting and financial systems, to fully integrated ERP systems for larger companies. The lean principles that David talks about apply to a method of business improvement originally invented by Toyota in Japan. The method has spread from the automotive to the manufacturing industry and is now used by many kinds of business to drive efficiency. In his role as a consultant, David has found lean methodology very effective: “We tend to find that for every pound of consultancy that we give a business, we can save them £10 a year in efficiency savings.” Bringing a redundant site back to life One of the companies that David works with is Professional Fabrication Services (PFS Ltd), an engineering and fabrication

22 / Issue 10

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

be doing because they won’t make money.” Working in the cloud Because David’s consultancy takes him to customer sites all over the UK, he understands the flexible advantage that cloud-based working offers to businesses, including his own. company in Holyhead, North Wales. The company was set up following redundancies at the aluminium smelter in the town, where David himself used to work. “I went off and started my own business, and one of my colleagues, Martin Davies, started his own business, in metal fabrication. We came together again at a meeting, and it seemed I could help him improve his systems. I mapped his work process, looked at what he did, what he needed and then came up with a number of recommendations.” With help from former owners of Rio Tinto, three former employees of the smelting plant, including Martin Davies, set up metal fabrication company PFS Ltd. They now work out of the old engineering workshop that used to serve the plant and employ 16 people. Recommended software After looking at all the different

processes within the business and assessing its needs, David recommended that PFS Ltd use cloud-based project management software TidyWork. This solution gives the company greater visibility of the profitability of their different projects and integrates with Xero to provide the lowdown on their financial figures.

“Cloud has changed everything,” he says. “Principality don’t have an office anymore. We just have cloud-based systems. We share information using the cloud. It’s meant that we’ve reduced our fixed costs because we don’t have offices and we’re able to get out a lot more and meet more customers.” Life on the road

Although still in the early days of implementation, the software is already having a positive impact, as David explains: “They’re already seeing a number of improvements. Martin can see now what projects are making a profit, what projects are not making a profit. Previously although he had a gut feel, he couldn’t put a figure to it.” “All the time expended on any project, all the materials being expended on a project, everything goes into the project on TidyWork, so there’s a figure for everything,” he continues. “He’s now starting to make business decisions on some projects, that maybe they shouldn’t

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Visiting customer sites and offering advice and consultancy takes David from Fort William in Scotland to South Wales and many places in between. As well as helping businesses work more efficiently, travelling by rail and road does occasionally allow him to indulge his love of photography: “As I’m travelling, I might see a nice picture and stop to take it. Phones these days are fantastic. You have your phone with you wherever you go and they take fantastic pictures. So, not so much band photography any more, but I do still take pictures.”

Issue 10 / 23

Caitlin Sisley, Marketing Content Writer, WorkflowMax

@WorkflowMax

Caitlin has over six years of experience in the digital content world and has worked on social media campaigns, SEO blogs, press releases and creative copy for a large number of New Zealand businesses. With a Master’s Degree in Human Rights, she is not only passionate about business but also corporate responsibility, ethics and humanitarian issues.

Why philanthropy matters: your small business guide to giving Social responsibility initiatives offer profound benefits for small businesses and the communities they care about. Better yet, they don’t have to cost a fortune. Caitlin Sisley explores some budget friendly possibilities, and the positive flow-on effects of inspiring a ‘culture of giving’ within your business...

016 was a strange and unsettling year.

As a global community we were brought to our knees by shocking political events, civil unrest, extreme earthquakes and the devastating crisis in Syria. We wept as many of our beloved musical icons passed away including Bowie, Prince and Leonard Cohen. The year as a whole left many of us feeling shaken, in need of a hug and a stiff drink. In the wake of this turmoil and sadness, how we treat our fellow humans in 2017 seems more important than ever. I hope we see a renewed focus on community and caring. I hope more people start embracing humanitarian ideals on both a personal and professional level. It’s time to bring compassion, empathy and generosity back into our daily lives; and small business 24 / Issue 10

has an important role to play.

The Small Business Advantage

Corporate Social Responsibility

Funnily enough, there are actually several advantages small businesses have when it comes to corporate social responsibility. Firstly, as a small business you’re flexible. You can respond to urgent community needs or perform spontaneous charitable actions without getting embroiled in miles of red tape. You don’t answer to a rigid panel of stakeholders or figureheads. You get things done.

We’ve all heard of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), or a regime of corporate contributions intended to improve the wellbeing of communities. The term is usually reserved for big entities with loads of cash and entire marketing divisions, performing grand charitable gestures to boost their profile and impress stakeholders. But as a small business, CSR doesn’t apply to you, right? You simply don’t have the same resources as a corporate entity. You’re strapped for time every day as you juggle family commitments and entrepreneurship. Every expense - financial or otherwise needs to be justified. How can you commit to charitable giving and social responsibility when you barely have time to pay taxes?

Secondly, as a small business owner I bet you’re already passionate about making a positive impact on your community. What’s more, you have local connections and are well-informed about relevant issues. It won’t take as much research for you to pinpoint the areas where you can make a difference - and the local issues you choose will be close to your heart. With that in mind, here are some budget-friendly suggestions to get you started on a social

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

responsibility plan. It’s by no means an exhaustive list, but more of a starting point to get your creative juices flowing. • Offer Free Marketing. Aside from direct donations, free marketing is one of the simplest ways to support a local charitable organisation. However, poorly selected campaigns can appear

superficial and opportunistic - so it’s important to choose a charity that genuinely aligns with your company values. Offer them marketing space on your website, email newsletter promotions, or even your pro bono services. Over time you should be able to cultivate a mutually beneficial partnership. • Give Blood as a Team. Encourage your staff to participate in the essential, life-saving activity of donating blood. Most services (including NZ Blood and Australian Red Cross) will visit your workplace if enough staff members sign up. You may even be notified when your blood is used to save a life. A single donation can save the lives of up to 3 people, and you can donate every 3 months (or 2-3 weeks for plasma donations). Imagine the potential impact your company could have just by implementing a quarterly donation scheme. • Support Your Local Refugee Centre. There are many ways small businesses can help refugee centres, aside from direct

donations. You could organise a regular donation drive for employees to bring in clothing, books or unwanted gifts. Some companies choose to lend their office space after-hours for refugee language classes and employment training. It’s a powerful way to help those less fortunate than us to build better lives, and in turn give back to the

community themselves. • Host a ‘Buy 1, Give 1’ Lunch. Here in New Zealand there’s a wonderful social enterprise called Eat My Lunch, which operates on the ‘buy one, give one’ philosophy. For each packed lunch you buy, they’ll donate

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a meal to a local school so an underprivileged child doesn’t go hungry. It’s an inspiring business model. Consider using their service the next time you facilitate a staff lunch, or adopt your own ‘buy 1, give 1’ approach to catering. • Enter a Sports Event. There are many opportunities to make a difference by entering your staff in sporting events like Oxfam Trailwalker, the London Marathon or Auckland’s Round the Bays. You can maximise their impact by matching fundraising efforts or making product donations in your company name. Last year several Xero employees entered the BDO Wellington to Auckland Cycle Challenge, riding their bikes for seven straight days and travelling almost 800km! • Give Back to the Environment. Businesses of all sizes leave a bigger carbon footprint than individuals, but at least you can minimise the damage. There are thousands of ways your company can show its commitment to ‘going green’. You could implement a companywide recycling policy, source your materials from local and sustainable producers, or participate in power-saving regimes. Staff volunteer days like native tree planting double as excellent team building activities. • Support Local Youth. Young

Issue 10 / 25

people are the future, and Generation Z will face unique challenges in their lifetimes. It’s important that we support their development and encourage them to become changemakers and innovators. You could arrange mentorship for young leaders in your business field or create a rewarding internship program for students. Often these partnerships will offer mutually beneficial marketing opportunities. • Have Paid Volunteer Days. A powerful way of motivating employees is offering them optional paid days off to volunteer at charitable organisations of their choice. This is usually done on a quarterly or annual basis. Not only does it show your commitment to supporting your community, it also helps to empower staff by allowing them to engage with causes they are passionate about. Often they will learn valuable soft skills in the process. The secret to making these initiatives a success is perseverance and consistency. Be selective with causes, choose a niche that fuels your passion (and that of your employees). Then stick to a schedule. A once-off good deed will quickly vanish from memory, but if you work regular commitments into your business model you’ll soon see rewards. The Flow-On Effects You might be cynical enough to ask, “what’s in it for me?” Not only does philanthropy feel good, your business can benefit from a number of flow-on effects when you adopt a robust social responsibility plan.

In this era of social media, reputation spreads fast, and companies that are perceived as humanitarian or environmentally sustainable will quickly earn the loyalty of discerning consumers while differentiating themselves from competitors.

Today’s workforce are no longer driven simply by paychecks. Increasingly, employees want to do work they perceive as having a positive impact upon the world, or at least their local community and environment. And philanthropy tends to be highly contagious.

In fact, making social responsibility part of your mission statement can boost your brand trustworthiness, increase sales and improve customer retention rates. You may even attract the attention of likeminded investors.

Implementing social responsibility initiatives from above usually has a trickle down effect, and over time can foster a ‘culture of giving’ at every level of your business.

And of course, charitable donations are often tax deductible at the end of the financial year. Speak with your Xero certified accountant to learn more about claiming tax rebates or credits.

are more likely to offer their time willingly, take pride in their work, share skills, and be generous and helpful towards colleagues. The nature of striving towards a shared social cause encourages collaborative work, leadership and innovation.

A Culture of Giving Perhaps the most compelling secondary impact of social responsibility is the culture it creates within your company ranks.

This culture of giving means staff

In short, everyone wins. And a little humanity is something we could all use more of in 2017.

turn to page 46 26 / Issue 10

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Issue 10 / 27

Apps Compared

Compared: Time & attendance App comparison TSheets

Deputy

Zuus

MinuteDock

Time Tracking

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Calculate expected & actual cost per employee

Schedule based on skill/role

Employees can swap shifts with App

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Save Report Templates

Graph wages against expected sales

Client view

Core Functionality

Award Interpretation Invoicing within the App

Time Tracking

Track budgets, targets & hourly retainers

Scheduling & Rostering

Employees can self manage their leave & unavailability

Reporting

This information was true and correct at the time of publishing. Releases happen all the time. Please contact the App for the latest release information.

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Apps Compared

For more information, please visit: TSheets - tsheets.com Deputy - deputy.com Zuus - zuusworkforce.com MinuteDock - minutedock.com

TSheets

Deputy

Zuus

MinuteDock

iOS

Android

Integration to Xero Payroll

Post to Tracking Category/Group Level (Payroll)

Automatically Import Timesheets to Xero

Employee Information Synced with Xero

Integration to Xero Invoicing

Send time billed to invoice in Xero

iPayroll (NZ) / CloudPayroll (AU)

MyPaye (UK)

WageEasy (AU)

Vend

Kounta

Square

Google Calendar

Microsoft Outlook

Mobile App

Accounting Integrations Xero MYOB QuickBooks Online

Xero Integration

Manual Import Timesheets to Xero

Post to Tracking Category/Group Level (Invoicing)

Payroll Integrations Gusto (US)

Other Integrations

Revel Systems

Compiled by Jeri Murphy, Co-Founder of WhichAddOn.com

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Issue 10 / 29

Tutorial Caitlin Sisley, Marketing Content Writer, WorkflowMax

@WorkflowMax

Streamline your invoicing with WorkflowMax... and get paid faster Invoicing is one of the best parts of doing business - the part where you get paid. But a clunky system can cause massive headaches and hours of time lost on administration. With WorkflowMax you can create beautiful, customised invoices and push them through to Xero seamlessly. Follow these steps to streamline your entire invoicing process and get paid faster...

orkflowMax - a Xero owned product - is a powerful allin-one system for job management, time tracking, quoting, reporting and invoicing. Our cloud based software integrates seamlessly with Xero, creating a complete end-toend business solution. Invoicing with WorkflowMax has a number of benefits for users. You can manage your invoices from one central place, get a detailed snapshot of how your cashflow is looking and instantly see which clients owe you money. You have the freedom to invoice based on actual time and costs or quoted amounts. Combine this power and flexibility with our beautiful branding options and you’ll soon find out that invoicing doesn’t have to be a chore. Step 1: Choose Your Invoice Type WorkflowMax presents you with several options for calculating invoices. This lets you tailor each invoice to suit your business needs.

30 / Issue 10

• Actual time and costs Pull through data from WorkflowMax timesheets for accurate time and cost billing. • Quoted/estimated time and costs Use your quotes to generate invoices based on estimated time and costs. • Percentage of quoted value Invoice based on a percentage of your quoted job value. • Progress amount / deposit Split jobs into progress payments

for the work completed to date. Track payments. Step 2: Create Custom Rates It’s likely that you have projects or clients where you need different rates for each staff member at a task or job level - for example, you might have a standard rate and an overtime rate that you want to use on the same job. By setting up custom billing rates

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

Tutorial you can save yourself hours of complex timesheet calculations. Custom rates can be applied to team members, tasks within a job, or even clients. Step 3: Adjust Your Invoices Sometimes you’ll want to adjust time or costs before sending an invoice. Maybe your staff took too long on a job and you need to write off time. Or perhaps you underquoted and need to add costs. No problem!

month, or see an instant snapshot of billable jobs. Export a list of unpaid invoices so you can follow up with late clients. Our powerful invoicing reports are designed to give you full visibility of your business, help you improve cashflow and get paid faster.

WorkflowMax gives you complete control of your invoices, allowing you to edit details before sending. Use override rates to change the amount charged for tasks, clients or jobs as needed. Step 4: Make it Beautiful Professionalism, branding and consistency are important - that’s why we offer fully customisable templates to create invoices that look exactly the way you want. Use our custom template builder to add your own logo, branding, payment terms and optional extras. Save custom templates for future use, then send beautiful invoices in a matter of minutes. Step 5: Integrate With Xero If you haven’t already, make sure you connect WorkflowMax to your Xero account. By integrating the two systems you’ll avoid double handling of invoices - saving yourself even more time. Sales invoices can be automatically pushed from WorkflowMax to Xero after approval. Payments in Xero will be synced with the corresponding invoice in WorkflowMax, giving you an accurate picture of profitability per job. It’s a powerful, end-to-end solution. Step 6: Generate Detailed Reports WorkflowMax lets you generate a range of comprehensive invoice reports. Get a monthly overview of the money you’ve generated this

Key Benefits of Invoicing with WorkflowMax & Xero: • Seamless Integration. Push invoices from WorkflowMax through to Xero at the click of a button. Payments in Xero are signed off in WorkflowMax automatically. • Flexibility. Choose from a wide range of options in WorkflowMax to determine how invoices are calculated. Edit staff, job and task rates as needed.

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• The Brand Factor. Get your invoice looking exactly the way you want in WorkflowMax - add your logo, payment terms or any optional extras. • Powerful Insights. Get an accurate view of your business profitability as purchase orders, invoices, and payments move between Xero and WorkflowMax.

Issue 10 / 31

Jac Gallagher, Xero Certified Advisor & Accountant, Notch Above Bookkeeping

@notchabovebas

Jac uses her Xero expertise to build systems that simplify workflows and the lives of small business owners. As a wife, a mum to three kids, and also a business owner, she knows how busy life can get and understands the pressures of small business. In her spare time you will find Jac outdoors enjoying the beach or a bush walk.

5 silly excuses we give for not going paperless After years of handling clients’ data, I’ve found that a lot of businesses are still clinging on to a paper-based system. It’s such a shame because there are massive benefits when you store your documents digitally, especially your invoices and receipts...

his is why Xero’s latest survey failed to surprise me. Here are the facts: • 65% of small businesses in Australia store some of their receipts and invoices in boxes or files. • Over 50% of respondents admit their filing system isn’t very organised. • Less than 4% do not have any system for storing receipts and invoices.

In fact, you can work anywhere when everything is stored online. Sit on a park bench and enjoy the fresh air. Type away in a café and smell the morning coffee. Work from home while minding the kids. You’re no longer tied to a physical space. You can pull up your documents instantly from the cloud and get cracking.

We’ve all heard the saying: If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. The problem with having everything on paper is that your business is not disaster proof. All it takes is a momentary lapse of judgement and all hell could break loose. It could be as simple as a coffee spill or as tragic as a fire in the office. Think of what would

I know it’s not easy to commit to going paperless. It’s a lot of work. While I understand their concerns and fears, I want to show that the benefits far outweigh the initial investment and work. These are 5 common excuses I’ve heard over the years. Excuse #1: “I know where everything is and I can easily find the document I want quickly” How about when you are on a holiday or off-site? If an emergency pops up, there is no way you can get back to your office to grab your documents in time. Using a cloud system means you can access your documents anytime and anywhere.

“Wouldn’t you want to work from here?”

Excuse #2: “It’s always been done this way. It would take too much time and energy to learn and train my staff”

happen to your business if all your receipts and invoices are gone? Scary, isn’t it? An employee misplacing or losing

32 / Issue 10

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a file could easily happen. But the possibility of losing all your digital documents stored in a cloud system? Is unheard of. Remember, you always have backups even if it did occur. Think of storing your documents in the cloud as a form of business insurance, in case the worst happens. You wouldn’t travel anywhere or do anything without insurance. So why risk your source of income? Excuse #3: “I don’t know where to start. There are too many options out there.” Any bookkeeper worth their salt will be able to help you organize your documents digitally. All it takes is careful planning and some time set aside weekly. Most cloud accounting systems now give allowance for file storage. Xero allows you to attach files with your transactions. I can’t tell you how practical and useful this feature is because you can organise all your documents on the spot, rather than leaving them to pile up on your desk so you can sort it out one fine day. There is also software that can scan your documents and extract all the important information into your accounting system so you don’t have to flip through them one by one. Take a look at Receipt Bank, which integrates beautifully with Xero. Digital storage also means using less physical space in your office, helping you reduce clutter. Who wouldn’t love to start work every day on a clean desk? Before you’d know it, you will be fully loving your digital filing system and wondering how on earth did you manage to do

“

without it. Excuse #4: “My accounts guy likes to work with paper.” What if you need to collaborate with people? What about the rest of your team? It may be okay for a few, but others might find it difficult and tedious to work with paper. In a cloud system, all the documents can be easily accessed and edited by team members. Your team can now collaborate easier and get the job done quickly without physically sitting next to each other while poring over documents. This is a simple way to increase productivity in the office. Then again, who says you need to be in the office to work?

There are plenty of options when it comes to electronic signatures. Electronic signatures also reduce processing time as everything can be emailed through quickly, without having to fax and wait for a response. As a business, your customers will love the reduced processing time. Xero has plenty of add-ons for electronic signatures such as RightSignature and DocuSign. In fact, you can sign digitally when you do your tax returns with Xero Tax. So there you have it. I would even go as far as saying that going paperless is life-changing for your business. Try it and I promise you won’t regret it.

Excuse #5: “The current system in place needs a signature so someone has to sign on paper.”

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Complete Cashﬂow Conﬁdence

Issue 10 / 33

Tutorial Konstantin Bredyuk, CEO and CoFounder, ApprovalMax

@ApprovalMax

As an experienced BPM expert, Konstantin has a strong focus on design and development of Business Applications which support Human Workflows. He is Co-Founder and CEO at ApprovalMax, known for simple and easy to configure approval workflows in finance.

How to: using reports in ApprovalMax Finance operations require different views on approval-related data; for example, all documents pending approval, a historic view on all performed approvals, or an overview on the current approval status to determine approval process efficiency. The extensive ApprovalMax reporting capability delivers fully on this.

eporting in ApprovalMax allows Finance Managers, Operations Managers, and Auditors to get finance data snapshots and approval process status views tailored to their specific purposes. This way, ApprovalMax compliments both Xero’s and specialised plug-ins’ reporting capabilities with the reporting and filtering of data related to the approval process and documents.

Default reports are available for a quick start and a custom report configuration is enabled to ensure the application fully meets the individual business process specifics. Default reports include: “Bills pending approval”, “Purchase Orders pending approval”, “Bills approved this month” and “Purchase Orders approved this month”, as well as many more.

New and custom reports are created by clicking the “Create report” button and setting up filters with criteria specifically required for your finance process, such as “Supplier is ABC” or “Bill status is approved”. Creating a new report is easy and intuitive - no technical or programming skills are required.

How it works Creating a New Report To access the reporting feature, navigate to the menu in the top lefthand corner and select ‘Reports’ under the Company name. Please note that reports are available for Administrators and Auditors only. You will then be greeted with the option to select one of the default reports that ApprovalMax provides for you or to create a new report from scratch. When creating a new report, the first step is naming it by filling in the ‘Report name’ field. In the next step you can select and apply relevant filters to your report. 34 / Issue 10

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Tutorial Setting up a Filter A filter defines what documents you will see in the report. To set or change the filter, click the green “Edit filter” button while in the report. Examples of filters include: “Status is Approved”, “Date is later than December 10th”, or “Supplier is ABC”. Filters can also be combined in order to get a more granular report. The filter capability also allows the selection of fields that will be shown in the report by clicking the “Eye” button.

Selected Reporting Scenarios A few selected reporting scenarios supported by ApprovalMax for illustration: Scenario 1: “Waiting for approval”. This report provides a summary of all Bills pending approval and shows the names of Managers whose approval decision we are waiting for. To get such a report, please set the filters “Workflow is Bill” and “Status is Open”, and make the “Waiting for approval” column visible.

Scenario 3: “POs approved automatically”. This report provides all Purchase Orders approved automatically as defined in the approval matrix. To get this report, please set the filters “Status is Approved”, “Decision origin is “Auto-approved””, and “Workflow is Purchase Order”.

Scenario 2: “Bills approved in Xero”. This report provides a selection of all documents that were approved in Xero – outside of the ApprovalMax approval matrix and, therefore, without the predefined approval workflow. To get this report, please set the filters “Status is Approved”, “Decision origin is “Directly in Xero””, and “Workflow is Bill”.

Scenario 4: “Forced by Administrator”. This report delivers a view on all documents with the approval performed by an Administrator outside of the defined workflow. To get this report, please set the filters “Status is Approved” and “Decision origin is “Forced by Administrator””. Make sure you switch on the “Approved by” column to see who forced the decision.

Export and Printing ApprovalMax allows saving and downloading reports as a printready document. Such a document can then be printed or shared as a PDF file. ApprovalMax also supports the export of reports to the CSV format. A CSV file can then be imported in Microsoft Excel for further analytics.

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Issue 10 / 35

Henry Catchpole, Founder and CEO, Inform Direct

@informdirect

A solicitor by training, Henry has a wealth of legal knowledge, coupled with a passion to cut through unnecessary complexity, helping business owners to make sense of legislation. Previously, Henry was CEO of pensions specialist Suffolk Life, where he built the team from 8 to 200, and assets under management from £3m to £3.5bn.

New business in the UK reaches record high 5.4% more companies in the UK in 2016 compared to 2015. Brexit has not significantly affected the rate of company formations in the UK.

ew figures show that the number of companies formed in the UK reached a record high in 2016. Across the UK as a whole, there were a record-breaking 664,720 companies formed – up from 612,565 in 2015. Of the 601,418 formations in England, 209,869 were in London. 35,502 companies were formed in Scotland, 15,795 in Wales and 7,389 in Northern Ireland.

Over 95.1% of the companies formed in 2016 (or 632,233 companies) were Private Limited Companies. Of the 4.9% (or 32,487 companies) that were not Limited by Shares, Companies Limited by Guarantee comprised 35.5%, Limited Liability Partnerships 34.5%, Limited Partnerships 18.1%, Community Interest Company’s 7.3% and Public Limited Companies 1.3%. The number of companies formed throughout 2016 month by month (see fig. 1), remained remarkably steady and obeyed the usual seasonal variations despite the 36 / Issue 10

Fig. 1

Overall 664,720 companies were formed and 468,435 were dissolved. seismic political events in the UK last year. Perhaps inevitably, London heads the UK league table and there are now over a million registered and active companies in the capital. Greater Manchester is second with 167,797 with West Midlands, Essex and West Yorkshire third, fourth and fifth. The UK average for companies per 1000 people stands at 62.6% with England above the average (66.4%) followed by Scotland (42.5%), Wales (34.3%) and N. Ireland (30.4%).

Overall, the rate of rise of “net” company formations in the UK has remained steady over the past five years (see fig. 2) as new companies have been formed and existing companies have been dissolved. On this metric, it is Northern Ireland who heads the 5 year growth figure (2016 compared with 2011) with a 43.1% increase, Scotland is second with 43%, followed by England (37.9%) and Wales (32.2%). The number of UK companies now stands at 3,962,909. Henry Catchpole, CEO at Inform Direct said: “These figures underline the positive

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Fig. 2

entrepreneurial culture that fosters new company formations and drives economic growth. So far, at least, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not seeing evidence that the Brexit vote has dented confidence among those considering starting up in business. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The UK again delivered an impressive number of new companies in 2016, demonstrating that it offers a fertile environment for new businesses to spring up and prosper.â&#x20AC;?

Inform Direct is a company formation specialist, offering a comprehensive range of online packages to help those starting a new business. Its award-winning company secretarial software, which helps users throughout the life of their business, currently supports 50,000 companies.

The statistics come from the Inform Direct Review of UK Company Formations, using data from Companies House and the Office of National Statistics. The survey can be accessed for free by visiting informdirect.co.uk/companyformations-2016 and there are codes available to enable business owners to embed useful infographics on their website and provide relevant content for their users.

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Fig. 3

This dynamic web-based survey enables users to drill down to specific local areas of the UK. So, for example, fig. 3. shows how many companies were formed in each London borough.

Issue 10 / 37

Barb Easter, Manager of Customer Engagement, Dryrun

@mydryrun

Involved in business development and growth for the past decade, Barb’s experience includes successes across various industries in customer engagement, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Today, Barb helps Dryrun users reduce their financial hurdles and grow their business.

Move to high-tech, high touch and watch your billable hours grow Accountants are sitting on a powerful engine of evidencebased financial strategies. Leveraging Xero and its library of connected apps can help you move easily into a strategy-based business approach and effortlessly increase your billable hours...

was recently at an accounting conference where the most-attended seminar dealt with building and tending client relationships. The speaker was an accountant who told a breathless audience that her key tactics for managing client relationships were handed down from her boss and revolved around the distribution of promotional items - cards, calendars, pens, and similar consumable ‘stuff’. The presentation was full to capacity and advocating yesterday’s advice: that we market ourselves in the most static, low-yield way possible. It was like witnessing a replay of that old story about the young woman who makes her roast beef by cutting off the ends - just as her parents and grandparents always did. It’s only later that she discovers that the family ‘tradition’ came into practice because the roasts that Grandma bought were always too big for her pan.

The speaker blindly follows her mentor’s formulaic and outdated approach to client touch, and just like throwing away the ends of the roast, these touches cost her money. You likely have your own figures generated for the total cost of promotional materials. Did they actually generate new business? When was the last time you earned a new client from a calendar contact or a promotional pen? Has a promotional item ever halted or turned the tide of client churn? Reaching out to your existing and potential clients in a cost-effective way that brings or builds your value through innovation, charisma, and your area of expertise is a highyield, highly effective strategy. While most accountants stop their marketing train at promos, how much is it worth to you to turn that equation around? The ideal client touch

What does this analogy have to do with outbound marketing for your accounting business? 38 / Issue 10

The ideal client touch benefits both you and your clients by:

• Enhancing your personal relationship with your client • Honing your strategic abilities by guiding clients to action items that rely on your client knowledge coupled with your subject matter expertise • Almost effortlessly giving you insight into client business hurdles • Increasing your billable hours and perceived value • ...for the lowest cost to you. Shift your perspective on how, when, and why you’re reaching out to your clients and you’ll see what I mean almost instantly. Reasons NOT to follow the pack While promotional distribution is not offensive, neither is it effective. Upon receiving your calendar, did your clients call you up begging for more billable hours, stay with your firm when they had wanted to leave, or start a thought-provoking conversation with you? For that matter, if you entered your clients’ office, would you even find your calendar on the wall?

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

The ‘number one trick’ for building value with clients There is one key action you need to take to create dynamic and valuable relationships - something that promotional materials will never be able to do. It’s timeless, it’s cheap, and it’s incredibly effective for boosting your clientele’s satisfaction and billable hours while reducing turnover. Communicate how you can help them Use face-to-face meetings, phone, and email regularly to stay in touch and offer value to your customers. Build solid, lasting relationships by showing them the following: • Your interest by asking about them and knowing their business. • Your value to them through your expertise and insights. • Your strategic perspective and guidance by finding additional services that your client will love. Communication represents excellent value to your client, rather than an empty reminder that you haven’t retired yet. Every time you speak with them, you’re reinforcing the relationship you already have, shoring up gaps in your personal network and each other’s mutual knowledge, and building bridges to future experiences. Better yet, the means of communication are billable and so is the time that you spend communicating with clients. Since you’re reading this, I assume you’re already part way to a great communication solution. Xero is designed to meet your needs as a professional and provide you with reams of information that can help you understand your clients, diagnose their pinch points, and then work on communicating clearly with them. Build Billable Communication: Action Plan You’re probably thinking that this is all well and good and matches what you learned in Marketing for

Accountants class, but how exactly do these types of relationships form and grow? And how can we turn a pleasant relationship into profit without seeming salesy, or greedy? It all comes down to helpfulness. With Xero’s powerful reporting in your arsenal, you have a broad range of information available to discuss with clients. The goal is to shift from a reactive, once-ayear billing model to a system of valuable professional contact that clients are happy to pay for. This is what your process will look like: • Clear some time each week to become knowledgeable about each client’s’ pinch points - what risks do they see in their business and what barriers to growth and communication are present? You can ask them directly, review their file, or ask others in the industry to lend their perspective while preserving confidentiality.

ongoing cost. Keep it simple: tell your clients in clear terms how extra billable hours to you – a loss for them each month – will result in a net gain for their business. Build Billable Communication: Sample Case Study A client has difficulty staying ahead of big expenses and is strapped for time to boot - just like all of us. With that in mind, scan Xero’s App Library to find an app that will connect with Xero and connect YOU with your client. Pick a cloud tool that allows client data to be easily and visually displayed so that you can build and share information with your clients. Then instead of a pen that says, “Stolen from the office of B.D. Moneybags, CPA” to promote yourself, call them up and tell them how they could overcome their pinch points using your expertise, Xero, and the connected app. More than likely they’d be interested in knowing your opinion on how they can: • Reduce their business expenses. • Manage their cash flow. • Accelerate their growth, mitigate their risks, or fill their sales pipeline. • Increase their financial returns.

• Visit Xero’s App Marketplace and figure out how Xero, coupled with the perfect connected App, can help them. Become knowledgeable so that you’re comfortable with the software and can clearly articulate the benefit to your client. • Call them up, send an email or set a meeting to communicate the system you’ve chosen and now recommend, and the benefits that they can expect by adopting new technology that addresses a problem they’re experiencing. • Set up the system or help them get it running in good order; remind them that the point is that you’re moving to a proactive model of assistance. • Set a regular time for contact and checking in. • Explain the benefit of the communication; be prepared to explain value of your ongoing knowledge as compared to

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When the connected app has an easy enough Xero integration and learning curve, you’re ideally positioned to help your client. If you want more information to increase the value of your client touches by using Xero and its connected apps, check our tutorial that’ll get you off the ground. Using Xero and Dryrun, you’ll be able to help your clients quickly build a recurring budget, then import data from Xero to make a highly flexible forecast that is as functional and collaborative as it is beautiful.

Using Xero’s connected Apps to create consultative opportunities to help strategize around clients’ unique financial situation is a great way to accelerate your own business and billables in 2017.

Issue 10 / 39

Vipul Sheth ACA CTA, Founder and Managing Director, AdvanceTrack Outsourcing

@AdvanceTrack

Vipul Sheth 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. AdvanceTrack is a UK Headquartered Accountancy Outsourcing Company with offshore operational centres, delivering services around the globe.

A systems-based approach to delivering client work I

have had the good fortune to work for some great professional firms and people in my professional career. In building the AdvanceTrack business, I have taken the good things that I have learnt from these firms (and learnt from some that are not so good!). My early professional career, especially my training firm showed me the need to document the work performed, so that, whatever happened afterwards, there was a good audit trail showing any person how we arrived at the numbers. The biggest lesson that I learnt,

especially in my career with two of the Big Four firms that I worked with, was the need to systemise the business. I used to recall how often, the partners in such firms were rarely at the “coalface”, yet the delivery to clients happened apace with the many good people in these firms. The key thing however was that, in many ways, it didn’t matter which individual it was. It mattered more that the people in the organisation knew what they were required to do. There were many times when colleagues left the firm and the team left behind thought it would

be difficult to replace them. The team however, continued the good work, so it was very rare that clients moved firms following a key departure. This was solely down to a very robust process throughout the organisation. So how do firms achieve this? Whilst there are many things we could discuss, I will discuss 3 key elements Induction and Training It cannot be stressed how important this is in your own office or a 3rd party outsourcing provider like AdvanceTrack in ensuring that the final outputs are more consistent. We have all experienced in various arenas, how improved training delivers better results. Our profession is no different, so it is extremely important. Consider your own teams and ensure for example, that if you offer Xero to ensure all staff working with Xero clients are Xero certified. Strong Management Protocol If you consider the most successful business models around the world, whether in professional services, such as the Big Four in Accountancy, the Magic Circle in Law, or even McDonalds, the key to them all is their consistency of process, wherever they are in the world. Using a single platform such as Xero that allows firms to use the same accounting software, but with the numerous Apps, enables

40 / Issue 10

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a standardised approach to service delivery across a wide range of clients and industries. Technology All of the businesses above have used technology to drive efficiency and consistency through their businesses across the world. Technology is a great enabler and cloud technology is making it easier for businesses in many sectors to operate in the same way as global businesses, such as Big Four accountancy firms or fast food chains. The Xero ecosystem is about enabling businesses to run their business, not just their finances. Cloud Technology is also seen as a challenge to the traditional role of the accountant. It shouldn’t be. It is a great enabler for firms to build a stronger relationship. Accountancy firms have traditionally finished the bookkeeping when preparing the year end accounts. By clients using technology better, the value clients will place on putting together that final set of accounts is likely to be that much lower. As a result, you can see how more technologically agile firms (such as the Big Four) have moved up the advisory chain for many years. That capability moved onto the high street, brings greater challenges to the ”local” accountancy firm. The key going forwards for

“

Xero and the Apps will place the accountant into that trusted advisor space, but also more able to fulfil local obligations for digital submissions of tax information that are increasingly common around the world.

accountancy firms will be to embrace the technology and to offer a more inclusive service. Using Xero and the ecosystem that this enables will allow the accountant to bring not only financial input to the business, but warrants the business to operate more efficiently and more like the global businesses mentioned above have done for many years.

Can AdvanceTrack help Accountancy firms deliver the service to clients? • AdvanceTrack are a technologically advanced outsourcing business, so they can help firms use their systems to deliver an efficient costeffective bookkeeping service. AdvanceTrack refer to this as their #seamlessbookkeeping service. • This same technology enables firms to keep their clients compliant with the Digital Tax regime when it is brought in. • As a result of using AdvanceTrack services, firms will be more streamlined in the way that they capture and process financial information. • All of these are delivered at lower cost using technology and offshore delivery centres.

What does that mean in practice? • Firms need to offer a cloud-based accounting and business solution like Xero to clients. • Firms should offer a full bookkeeping service to their client base using technology like Xero and an OCR type solution such as Receipt Bank. • Offering the full bookkeeping service allows firms to sell the additional consulting services that regular insight from the bookkeeping provides. This then allows you to use tools such as Futrli, Spotlight Reporting and Fathom to share information with clients. • Give consideration to whether such a service is delivered in-house or outsourced to a professional outsourcing provider like AdvanceTrack. • Firms need to consider bringing in a specialist or to train one of the team to have a broader understanding of the Xero Ecosystem so that they can recommend an appropriate business App. • Having access to the data from

If your firm wants to lead the way in which it delivers a cost-effective proactive service to clients, then it needs to review what services it offers and how it delivers them. If you see growth opportunities going forwards and are questioning how to meet them, the AdvanceTrack team would love to talk to you.

Make your cash with Satago, your all-in-one I struggled withﬂow late-paying customers. All my cashﬂow soluuon. Spend less me chasing customers business needed was an add-on to help me get with our automated invoice reminder system. paid faster. Try invoice reminders satago.com Then I found debtor at chasing from

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Complete Cashﬂow Conﬁdence

Make your lost cashmoney ﬂow with Satago, your all-in-one I recently when a customer went into cashﬂow soluuon. Spend less me chasing customers administraaon. It dawned on me that I'd never really with our automated invoice reminder system. known who I was doing business with. Try invoice reminders at satago.com Then I found credit reports from

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Complete Cashﬂow Conﬁdence

Issue 10 / 41

Announcement

Accountex returns for the 8th year The UK’s No.1 event dedicated to Accountancy Professionals... A

s the flagship event in the accounting calendar, over 6,500 visitors will return to London ExCeL on 10th-11th May 2017. With 200+ exhibiting companies and 150+ CPD accredited Keynotes, seminars, panel sessions and interactive workshops, Accountex is an essential event for anyone in the Accounting profession. All the latest innovations, services and solutions will be on show – covering everything from accounting software, tax, technology, training, cloud, pensions, and payroll, to money laundering, auto enrolment, government updates, and every other subject relevant to the modern accountant. New exhibitors in 2017 include XU Magazine, Prosper, KPMG, Onkho, HiBob, Mydocsafe, PG Mutual and many more. They join returning big names like Xero, Intuit, Sage, Thomson Reuters, Iris, Taxcalc, and Exact.

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89% of visitors rated their experience of Accountex as excellent/good, here’s what a few of them said: “First time attending. Excellent exhibition and will definitely attend next year to keep up to date with the fast moving advances in technology for our industry” - Managing Director, Cornish Accounting “If you want to keep your practice at the leading edge you need to be there” - CEO, Strategic Action “Accountex 2016 was excellent. It enabled me to meet my existing suppliers and software providers plus see potential new ones - all under one roof and on the same day!” - Director, Tyle-Waddington Ltd Running alongside the exhibition, is Accountex’s comprehensive, free, multi-theatre seminar programme. A fresh new programme is currently being developed by a dedicated

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Announcement steering committee formed by strong influencers in the accounting profession. New theatres for 2017 include the Digital Innovation & Technology Theatre, Future & Growth Theatre, Accountants in Practice Theatre and The Finance Directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Forum, all boasting increased capacity for 2017. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss XU Magazine CEO/CoFounder, David Hassall, speaking on Thursday 11th May. Xero will also be back in 2017 with a breakfast briefing on Thursday. The full programme will be unveiled over the next few months, with a host of high-profile brands and industry experts from across the accounting sector set to be announced.

FREE TICKETS For more information and to register for free tickets to Accountex 2017 visit

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Issue 10 / 43

Tutorial

How to use MinuteDock for time billing with Xero M

inuteDock is smarter time tracking software for professional services. If you’re like most people, you probably hate tracking your time. Luckily MinuteDock has a unique diary-like approach that makes it feel natural. We also automate away most of the busy work of the Xero invoice creation, so you can have your bills out to clients instead of spending time setting invoice options. Rather than a traditional timesheet, MinuteDock is a log of your work. Simply enter your notes and press log!

Tracking time in MinuteDock Running timers can be started by clicking the clock. You can also just type your time, eg. “2 hours” instead of using a timer.

Assigning a client for your work is easy. Type @ and the client’s name (just like Facebook and Twitter).

Same with Project or Task - press # and type the name. Just like a hashtag.

Need to add time for previous days? Type a date in brackets to backdate a time entry, eg. (yesterday) or (oct 3). MinuteDock is smart at understanding what you mean.

44 / Issue 10

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Tutorial

Connect MinuteDock and Xero We walk you through it on signup, or you can do it later by visiting minutedock.com/integrations/xero and clicking ‘Connect with Xero’.

Import your contacts MinuteDock will automatically sync contacts from your “Customers” group in Xero. To sync a specific group, go to ‘Sync Settings’ in your MinuteDock Xero settings.

Automate assignment of your Ledger Accounts, Taxes, Tracking Categories, and more when billing Speed up your invoicing process by letting MinuteDock work out these fields for you. You can set this up under the Xero Invoicing Options for each User, Contact, Project and Task.

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Get your invoices into Xero to send off to the client. MinuteDock will generate your line items and create a Draft invoice in your Xero account. There you can approve and send it directly from Xero. Easy!

Issue 10 / 45

Case Study Tom Barrett, Chief Financial Officer, Just Develop It Tom looks after the pennies while everyone else is focused on the pounds. He works diligently to oversee the accounts for all companies within Just Develop It. @JustDevelopIt

How simple process automation helped increase efficiency & growth Reviewing the effective productivity solution for the shared accounting services of a growing investment company...

he brainchild of Chris Phillips and Brooke Bryan, Just Develop It was launched in early 2008. Today, we specialise in building, developing, and investing in companies across a wide range of industries, including property, technology, and online solutions. However, when we first started we had just one company to our name: Intellichat. Admittedly, this was quickly followed by a second, Just Host, and from that point on weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve grown to encompass a number of marketleading companies under the Just Develop It banner. But this growth hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been without its challenges. Scaling without bursting at the seams In addition to investing in and establishing companies, we also operate a shared service centre, providing corporate functions such as Accounting, HR Management, Marketing, and other businessrelated services to over 30 group member companies. Our centralised accounting service in particular has become crucial to the success of these companies. It helps manage and control spending, with the aim of keeping an eye on business performance. 46 / Issue 10

In essence our accounting team exists as an in-house practice for each company.

choice (Xero), and could be set up and operated by non-technical users.

So, as Just Develop It continues to grow and invest in more and more businesses, we were tasked with helping our accounting team deal with the increased workload without adding new personnel each and every time a new investment was made.

A simple formula for a fully digital & automated process for bills and expenses

We therefore needed a solution that would help boost the productivity of our existing team, while also improving the efficiency of our overall accounting process. This was inline with a wider company push to standardise processes across a broad range of services with the end goal of cutting an incrementally growing paper trail, and ensuring everything was streamlined and accountable. As if that wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t challenging enough, we also had to deal with the geographical distribution of our businesses. With multiple geographically distributed offices, we wanted to introduce the ability for our Accounting team to remotely process purchase orders, invoices, and employee expenses so as to avoid costly bottlenecks. Finally, it was crucial that the software solution we selected was cloud-based, could easily integrate with our accounting platform of

In the end, it was a rather simple formula that came to our rescue. Datamolino + Xero + ApprovalMax = Fully Digital and End-to-End Process Automation. Just as we seek to add value to the businesses we invest in and operate - hopefully plugging a few gaps and improving performance in the process - we knew we needed something that would help us get more out of Xero. These two Xero-connected apps - Datamolino for its invoice data capture, and ApprovalMax for its multi-step and role-based approval workflows helped us do just that. The integrated Apps meant we could implement an automated and fully digital end-to-end process, from invoice data capture to approval workflows for invoices, purchase orders, and employee expenses. Xero is great, but... We know that Xero is brilliant at handling its core function of accounting. However, it was not designed to cover every single

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Case Study possible use case and handle all the requirements of companies of various sizes and verticals. To that end, the App ecosystem was incredibly beneficial in complementing the processes we’ve built around Xero. So, how exactly did this combination of just two integrated Apps help us increase efficiency and process more without increasing personnel? Well, here’s our workflow in all its glory: Firstly, different sources of bills PDF, paper, and even photographed receipts collected via the mobile app - are all fed into Datamolino. Either single documents are submitted as they arrive or invoices are batch-scanned at scheduled periods of time. Datamolino then finds and extracts the useful accounting data from the images. We love that it not only recognises the totals, but goes down to line item level. Finally, the batch of bills and receipts create new records in Xero, before being sent on to ApprovalMax, ready for the next step in the process. Once this information reaches the ApprovalMax platform, the bills can be approved by the relevant

approver, no matter the location or time zone in which they operate. Notifications are sent via email, or via push notifications on the approver’s smartphone, meaning the approvers do not need to constantly check for new approval requests. Using ApprovalMax means we can make sure only those bills, invoices, expense requests, and purchase orders are sent to the appropriate approver which matters to them. We can also automate the chasing up of approvers, set achievable deadlines for approvals, avoid costly miscommunication, and ensure all approvals are performed in full accordance with company

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financial policies. In the end, we’re left with happy suppliers who get paid on time; a process that is fully compliant to our internal control standards; and access to easy-to-understand audit trails. And once ApprovalMax has done its thing, the authorised document is automatically ready to be processed for payment in Xero or a connected payment app. In a nutshell: Datamolino allowed us to considerably reduce the paper trail by digitising and delivering data from our invoices directly to Xero. And ApprovalMax allowed us to automate the approval process

Issue 10 / 47

Case Study by establishing approval workflows based upon specific criteria for each member company. This way the accounting process is fully digitalised and automated end-toend.

thanks to the option to run audit reports which clearly outlined when an invoice or purchase order was approved, and by whom.

Easy to set up, easy to use

Once the ApprovalMax and Datamolino Apps were up and running, the benefits were clear.

Both ApprovalMax and Datamolino are pre-integrated with Xero, so setting up the end-to-end process was exceptionally quick and easy. Our non-technical accounting team were able to create a unified approval process for all of our businesses, which in turn provided the required remote approval process and workflow automation we desired. What’s more, the approvals of invoices and purchase orders were made available outside of Xero and did not require our business managers to log into the Xero platform whenever an approval request came through. Each request came with the necessary background information required to make an approval decision, and they could be reviewed and actioned via the ApprovalMax platform, email, or on the handy and easy to use smartphone app. And by eliminating the unwieldy paper trails and email chains, the approvals became accountable

The results of this integration

As a team we have been able to significantly improve speed, scale, and transparency of our accounting processes. The processing of invoices and purchase orders became faster and more efficient. This was thanks in large part due to the minimised paperwork and the availability of approval requests for our business managers, regardless of whether they were in their office or travelling.

in the way of training or consulting. It really was that simple to setup and use. Just Develop It, and our centralised accounting team, are now better placed to manage the growth and development of the company thanks to the automated endto-end approval process made possible by ApprovalMax and Datamolino.

Also, we could now operate our accounting team at scale, without the need to add more bodies. The onus was on productivity and efficiency as a means of supporting the growth of Just Develop It. Finally, with the option to audit this fully digital process - and by centralising the data - the entire financial workflow of the managed businesses became more transparent, accurate, and controlled. The best bit was we achieved this level of automation with very little

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48 / Issue 10

AUCKLAND

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CHRISTCHURCH

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Issue 10 / 49

Peter Vessenes, Founder and CEO, ProfitSee

@MyProfitSee

With over 30 years experience in the financial industry, Peter is the CEO of ProfitSee, an all-in-one financial analysis and budgeting software that helps business owners and financial advisors alike gain powerful insights to manage cash flow, grow profitability and increase valuation.

A new year, a new global economy, and what that means to the Xero community “The times they are a-changing.”

he past year has shown the most profound shift in the free marketplace globally since the early 1980’s. Among the largest changes? • The United Kingdom leaving the European Economic Union (BREXIT) • The continuing bad news coming from many members of the EEC, including Greece and Italy • The rise of populism against globalism • The continuing success of populism in national elections • The election of Donald J. Trump to President of the United States along with conservative control of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, and the legislatures and governorships in forty-five of the fifty States • The continuing rise of terrorism from radicals in Europe, the United States, and in other nations around the world The combination of these factors has a more profound impact than most realize. In many ways, it is great news for SMEs, and from that, great news for the financial potential for the Xero community. Understanding it is the key to the 50 / Issue 10

next steps in the coming years. This article is NOT about politics or what you (or I) might believe about governance. It is about economics, its driving forces, and how it truly works. It may be contrary to what some of us may have been taught in MBA programs, but historical evidence, real-time activities, and most importantly, the impact of cloud technology upon it, remain undeniable. There are three major factors that help get a clearer picture of what lays ahead. These are Globalism, Nationalism, and The “Powers That Be”. Globalism has been around for over 100 years under many different labels. It has been known as One World Government, The Illuminati, The League of Nations, and later, The United Nations. But in fact, it has never come close to the level of control that survivalists and strong believers in “Armageddon” and “World War III” have shaped their personal lives around. In today’s version, Globalism has taken on slightly different sets of presumptions than before cloud based technology, social media, and

instantaneous world-wide news. What are these presumptions? 1. Open Borders The Internet has changed many factors in traditional standards of immigration and international travel. In the past, face-to-face communication with a colleague in a different country required taking a long sea journey or a flight across the ocean. Video conferencing has replaced a significant percentage of this international travel. Technology has increased our ability to work beyond borders. Besides the technological standpoint of globalism, there is a commonly held belief that every individual across the world is “part of the global community”. Educational systems at nearly every level perpetuate this teaching. In many cases, those who speak out against it are punished. These teachings are accompanied by a prevailing thought that those who have lived in less fortunate circumstances, either as a minority or from under

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Issue 10 / 51

developed nations, should be seen as “victims”. The cultural impact of this is an underlying sense of guilt in the “privileged,” particularly among those that have been born since 1975. These circumstances have created a curious phenomenon. In the US, illegal immigration by passing borders without a visa or passport has become common. In the UK, much of the BREXIT vote stemmed from the Open Borders issues in the EU. In many European countries, terrorism has spread, and the Open Borders policies are pointed to as a cause. Globalism tends to think that Open Borders are the future of the world… 2. Open Trade & Expanding 3rd World Economies An unbiased look at international trade over the past few centuries shows the stark reality that many of the “empires of the world” engaged in trade that was not a win-win for all the trading partners. This came from leaders of the empires not understanding how to create prosperous trades for all. Bad trade was perpetuated through a variety of strategies, but primarily through mercantilism. Mercantilism (defined in simple terms) means that preferred import/export companies, banks, and manufacturers are given preference by people in high levels of government. In exchange, these preferred organizations make sure those people in political power are kept in power. The American Revolution against King George was a revolt against mercantilism. Better trading, despite many flawed cultural practices and beliefs in the USA still generated the wealthiest nation in the world while assisting other nations to prosper as well. This was evidenced after World War II through the Marshall Plan, and many other economic policies of the United States. 52 / Issue 10

Not all nations practice trade in a way that is best for all parties. OPEC in collusions with Progressives in the U.S. had manipulated oil prices for decades. China has used currency manipulation and a “forced topdown control” of their economy to gain financial power in the world, to the detriment of many trading partners. There are many other global examples. Globalists believe that the “disadvantaged peoples” should be preferred in trade negotiations, and that the demise of “oppressive nations” (such as the USA) is only fair. The result of this perpetuated ideology is predictable: governance should include policies that are “politically correct” and punishes those who do not agree with this belief. In the US these are programs that have been perpetuated by both Democrats and Republicans since the late 1980s. As so often happens, the best of intentions tends to build a highway to h*ll. A simple example? In the United States, the increase in environmental and regulatory laws over the past 12 years has driven up the cost of fulfilling these edicts to approximately 17% of breakeven of a company’s revenue. Considering that these levels had averaged below 6% since 1950, this is a huge impact. These costs are not eaten by the company that is required to pay them. They, in turn, pass these added costs onto customers. The net result? Large companies rarely suffer the financial consequences. The impact is most greatly felt by SMEs. They lack the financial resources to bridge through money challenges. The bad effects are passed down to the middle class. There is a measureable reduction in disposable income, earnings, and in many cases, a complete loss of jobs.

The bottom line? Globalism’s control of major economic policies over the past 20 years have flaws that resulted in today’s emergence of Nationalism. Nationalism is not a new idea. The entire history of nations is based on national heritage. Whether one is from Korea, Japan, China, Iran, Egypt, Germany, England, France, or Italy, national customs and cultures sustain themselves over many generations, even after relocating into a cultural melting pot like the EU or the United States. In the United States, nationalism has taken on a different flavor outside of ethnic and racial origins. The country has evolved into regional “zones” that are defined both culturally and economically. There are five zones with great economic strength and commitment to globalism. These are New England, New York/New Jersey, Washington DC and surrounding states, California, and the Pacific Northwest. They have two things in common: they are located on the coasts and until now, made up the “ruling elite” of the country. What about the rest of the country? The area that is referred to as “fly over country” has taken on a distinct role in the new economy. The South, the Midwest, the Great Plains, and most of the states on the Gulf of Mexico have been crushed economically by globalism. The trade treaties with China and NAFTA brought about the death of over 70,000 manufacturing companies over the past 16 years. Over 94 million Americans are unemployed in a country with just under 400 million legal citizens. The middle class was being ignored by the Democratic Party, while only being given lip service by Republicans. What a difference the information of the world-wide web let loose! The traditional campaign strategies of the Democratic Party were destroyed in the 2016 presidential campaign. As people discovered the real levels of corruption through

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+more

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Issue 10 / 53

Wiki Leaks, the middle class was no longer able to be appeased. It was apparent that the traditional candidates in both parties were not resonating with those in fly over country. The election of Donald Trump was a loud outcry of the middle class against the traditional “powers that be”. Fundamentally, surviving in the world happens through trade. No one is an island unto themselves. Everyone must trade their own efforts, talents, and abilities to find quality of life in the world. So, who are the “Powers That Be”? My assessment is that global leadership believe they fall into three distinct entities: • Political Powers • Multinational Corporations • Global Banks The ability to manipulate global economics is so vast that these three can sustain their powers for many decades. Unfortunately, the “powers that be” neglected the two entities that ultimately DO control global economics: SMEs and the Middle Class Why do these two groups have the ability to be more powerful? The reasons are simple... • SMEs account for well over 60% of Global Domestic Product. Most of the world’s money flows through SMEs. • The middle class pays the majority of taxes. As we said before, companies will pass their tax obligations onto their customers. The only customer who cannot continue to pass on the cost is the consumer. The size of the middle class is so large that governments can only survive through the taxes that are collected from them. In both the United States and the UK, the middle class had had enough. The results are in, and the shock to globalists is still not over. Again, this article is not about politics. It IS about economic 54 / Issue 10

policies that are about to occur globally. These spell great things for Xero, the SME marketplace, and the opportunities for accountants, bookkeepers, and app developers. Why do I think the events of the past six months will bring about these drastic results? Let’s read the news... • The stock market is reaching historical highs • Great Britain is in its strongest economic position in decades • Donald Trump has brought about a revival of manufacturing in the USA even before he had taken office. • Growth in the SME sector in the USA has begun after eight years of shrinkage • GDP growth in the USA is already being predicted at 4% compared to 1.8% or less under the Obama Administration. How could Donald Trump even know how to bring about these changes in economy? Why would he want to leave his globalist past to become a nationalist? The answer is simpler than one would expect. To make a lot of money, one must play by the rules of those that control the money. This means that if globalists are in political power, they make the rules. The collusion of the mainstream media then works its messaging to shape personal beliefs. Everyone is forced into “political correctness” or there is a price to be paid. Donald Trump has made enough money to not have to play by the political globalist rules for his own survival. His experience as a real estate developer showed him what a critical role the small businesses and middle class make in growing wealth for everyone. His direct, New York style of communication allowed him to say what many felt but were afraid to express. In the private sector, inefficiency and incompetence lead to bankruptcy and poverty. In the public sector, those qualities have been a normal day’s work. This is what Trump stood against.

Consider the other side of this economic model. The EEC was formed to align many nations around a common currency to strengthen each of the nations in trade. The basic premise had the best of intentions. Why are the results proving a disaster? You cannot dictate monetary policy while letting each member country determine economic policy. Some, like Greece, will grow so far into debt that it exceeds the nation’s entire annual GDP. Others, such as Germany, will do a great job in trade, strengthen themselves financially, but end up having to support others to avoid a total economic collapse. Global economics are being defined. The nationalist explosion seen in the UK and USA is quickly spreading to France and Italy. Great news is ahead for the SME marketplace in Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Canada, and the USA. Europe will have some great challenges. All of this is complicated by global threats of terrorism. The answer? Protect the borders. Protect the trade. Fiscal management is the key. The greatest growth is coming to SMEs. Will you be part of the professional organizations that help them build, grow, and protect their wealth? We are on the brink of the largest economic boom since the 1980s. New jobs will help more than just the middle class. They will create opportunities for the young, poor, and those that had lost hope. Those who had been neglected have spoken. Much of the world has listened. Let’s commit ourselves to Rebuilding the Global Economy, One Small Business at a Time™.

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

Timeline

Innovations to help you thrive in

2017

START

Take a look at all of the tools you could be using with Xero to grow your business in 2017. With a whopping 62 new key features released by Xero over the past year, you’re sure to find your business benefitting. Here are some of our favourites: Payroll expansion - as Payroll expands to cover even more of the globe, increasing numbers of businesses can pay their employees with Xero.

Xero HQ - even more ways to connect with potential clients and get insights on your current clients.

is sure to streamline the way you work. 2016 saw Apple Pay integration with Xero, new mobile invoicing on iOS, viewing quotes and searching for contacts in My Xero on Android, and fingerprint security for both Android and Apple users.

Apple and Android - advances to using Xero in both of these apps

We can’t wait to see what the next year brings!

Reports - whether it’s a new type of report you’re looking for, even more beautiful templates, or creating your own...Xero has it all!

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Issue 10 / 55

Timeline

Business Activity Statement enhancements

Assurance Dashboard

Allows advisors to monitor the integrity of financial data in Xero.

BAS enhanced in Xero Tax, plus businesses can now sign off their BAS electronically

Xero TaxTouch launched IRAS registration for Singapore Mobile app for contractors and freelancers to track business expenses.

Xero is registered with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore

Xero Me mobile app for employees

Microsoft Office 365 email integration

Mobile app for payroll for leave/time off requests and viewing pay history.

See live email from Office 365 in Xero, giving a full view of your relationship.

22nd February

9th February 1st February

17th February

15th April 4th March

4th February 3rd March

8th April

8th March

26th April

12th April

Payment Services updates

One click set up and more payment options allow businesses to get paid faster.

Payment for Pennsylvania

Small businesses in Ohio can now pay their employees with Xero. Auto Enrolment in Payroll

Automatically assess your employees, enrol into the scheme and calculate contributions.

Cloud Software Authorisation and Authentication (CAA)

Registered agents can quickly, easily and more securely lodge tax return forms.

Payroll updates W1 and W2 fields

Payroll automatically updates W1 and W2 fields in Activity Statements.

Xero Me Timesheets

Timesheets on your mobile, with our latest update within Xero Me (payroll App).

56 / Issue 10

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

Timeline Bank statement view and search

Search across the key fields and results appear quickly.

Auto Employment Allowance Payroll Journals

Employment allowances now automatically update to the general ledger.

ANZ Feed for credit card accounts

Direct bank feeds added ANZ credit card accounts.

Report filters

Set up direct feeds with CBA online

Report filters are great for small business owners who need to monitor and focus on specific areas in their growing business.

CBA customers with a NetBank login can now set up their direct feeds online.

Android mobile app with fingerprint security 8th June 6th May

24th June

Fingerprint login for Xero for Android to keep your information more secure

11th May

12th June 31st May

10th May

4th July 4th June

Payroll for Ohio 24th May Small businesses in Ohio can now pay their employees using Xero.

Payroll reports New reports: Employee remuneration, employee contact details, annual earnings certificates, leave balances and requests.

Online payments with Braintree

Get paid faster with online invoicing and Braintree.

Payroll for Arizona

Small businesses in Arizona can now pay their employees using Xero.

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Uncoded Statement line report

Export a list of uncoded statement lines across bank accounts for clients to work with offline.

Issue 10 / 57

Timeline Manage PayPal and Stripe transaction fees automatically

Manage PayPal and Stripe transaction fees automatically

File GST and provisional income tax return online Payroll for Wisconsin

File GST and provisional income tax return online directly with the IRD.

Small businesses in Wisconsin can now pay their employees with Xero.

United Overseas Bank (UOB) direct feed

New direct bank feeds for United Overseas Bank customers in Singapore

2nd August

22nd July

Payroll for South Carolina

Payroll for Michigan

Small businesses in South Carolina can now pay their employees with Xero.

Small businesses in Michigan can now pay their employees with Xero. 27th September

14th September

26th July

30th August 22nd September Leave improvements in Payroll

Ability to show annual leave available to take in advance and auto calculation of annual leave entitlements.

Report Templates

New layout editor for financial reports

New report centre

Generate beautiful reports in less time from bespoke templates that you can use across your whole practice.

Improved report editor with the ability to add custom date, budget and formula columns.

Ability to search, favourite new reports and save multiple versions of a report to the new Custom tab.

58 / Issue 10

Wells Fargo direct bank feed

New direct bank feeds for Wells Fargo customers

Contact Search in Xero for Android

Search for organisations from the My Xero screen in Xero for Android

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

Timeline

New mobile invoicing on iOS devices

New mobile invoicing and support for contact and invoice defaults.

Payroll for Oklahoma

Small businesses in Oklahoma can now pay their employees with Xero.

Contact Transaction Cash Report

Contact Transactions Summary Report

Report for a specific contact detailing all spend and receive money transactions.

Report for a specific contact summarising receivables, payables and cash ransactions.

Small businesses in Louisiana can now pay their employees with Xero.

Payroll for Louisiana

Report Templates

11th October

Contact Transactions Receivables Report

Contact Transaction Payables Report

Report for a specific contact deialing all receivable transactions. Option to include prepayments.

Report for a specific contact detailing all payable transactions. Option to display prepayments.

26th October

Generate beautiful reports in less time from bespoke templates that you can use across your whole practice. 18th October

31st October 24th October 4th October

17th October

E-sign for New Zealand Tax

CBA business and corporate credit card feed

Accept electronic signatures for tax returns from Xero Practice Manager.

New Commonwealth Bank business and corporate credit card accounts bank feed.

Tracking columns in financial reports

Ability to add your own tracking columns to new financial reports using the layout editor

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Reverse Pay Run

Reverse pay run simplifies the process of backing out US pay runs and eliminates manual data entry.

Payroll for Kentucky

Small businesses in Kentucky can now pay their employess using Xero.

Issue 10 / 59

Timeline Payroll for Alabama

Payroll for Arkansas

Payroll for Mississippi

Businesses in Alabama can now pay their employees using Xero.

Businesses in Arkansas can now pay their employees using Xero.

Businesses in Mississippi can now pay their employees using Xero.

SMSF import for Australian Tax

Payroll for Nebraska

Available for 2015 and 2016 from BGL, Class and superMate

Businesses in Nebraska can now pay their employees using Xero.

‘Hey Xero’ Messenger bot

New advisor directory

Find a Xerocertified advisor near you with the ‘Hey Xero’ Facebook Messenger bot.

Helping connect Xero-certified partners with small businesses searching for an advisor.

14th November

2nd November

7th December 7th November 28th November Xero HQ: Activity Feed

Xero HQ: Explorer

Designed to improve your visibility of information and tasks across all of your Xero clients.

Get insights across your clients for the apps they use and the industries they operate in.

Xero HQ: Client List

See and maintain your entire list of clients in the Xero HQ client tab.

1st December 23rd December

6th December

Running Balance on Account Transactions

The account transactions running balance will let them know their cash position on the Account Transations page.

Updated Xero Dashboard

New look and feel for the main Xero Dashboard making it faster to load and easier to read.

60 / Issue 10

Pay invoices with Apple Pay

View Quotes on Android

Pay invoices directly on your phone with Apple Pay.

View detailed quotes on Android for Xero.

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Issue 10 / 61

Nicola Anderson, VP of Marketing, GoCardless

@GoCardless

Nicola is VP of Marketing at GoCardless, the cloud-based Direct Debit payment solution. GoCardless works with its accounting partners to help improve payment, cash-flow processes and wider practice systems.

The ideal client: choosing the right clients and delivering valuable customer service Every Xero adviser aims to deliver the best possible customer service to its clients – but have you ever stopped to consider what your ‘ideal client’ actually looks like? Nicola Anderson, from GoCardless, takes us through the importance of adding genuine value for clients, and making sure this is a two-way relationship that also adds value for your firm.

8% of the UK’s small and medium-sized businesses name their accountant as their most trusted business adviser. As a cloud-based accountant, your Xero practice undoubtedly takes pride in delivering the best possible service to every client. But have you ever thought about whether the businesses you work with are the most valuable clients for the long-term success and profitability of your firm? It can be counter-productive to work with clients who aren’t a good fit, such as demanding business owners who eat into your feeearning time. Sometimes there’s more value in focusing on the right client type and pouring your energy into a more productive working relationship. Working with the right clients Every firm will have good and bad clients – what’s important is getting the balance right. • There will be clients who log in to Xero regularly, complete 62 / Issue 10

their bookkeeping to the agreed deadlines and listen to the advice you give based on their Xero numbers. • And there will also be clients who fail to embrace the Xero way of working, are late with their submissions, disorganised with their data and documents and who fail to act when you point out potential issues. As a general rule, 80% of your positive results will come from the ‘good’ 20% of your client base. If you have two clients on the same fixed-fee package (one good and one bad) it’s clear why spending hours sorting out the demanding client’s issues is a bad use of your time and resources in the longterm. The key to success for your firm is to lose those bad clients – and to put some real focus into attracting the good clients and building productive working relationships with them.

Knowing what your ideal client looks like But how do you know what a good client looks like? And how do you replace those bad clients with your ideal ones? As a Xero Adviser, locating the perfect client isn’t easy – clients change over time, after all. But one way is to crystallise a concept of what your ‘ideal client’ looks like – and use this benchmark model as a blueprint when taking on new business. When talking to a prospect, ask yourself if they have the following attributes: • Familiar with Xero and the ecosystem – as a cloud-based practice, it’s important that your clients are tech-savvy and comfortable with working with Xero and the wider Xero ecosystem of cloud Apps and tools. You won’t feel the efficiencies if they’re luddites. • Organised and timely – when clients use Xero and Apps such as Receipt Bank to meet their

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

submission dates without being chased, there’s more time to get on with the important valueadding work. Disorganised or lazy clients eat into your working week, distracting you from higher-level advisory work. • Pay you on time, every time – when clients fail to meet invoice terms and need chasing for payment, it’s bad for productivity and cash flow. On the other hand, clients that are comfortable with modern Xero-integrated payment gateways will pay on time, keeping the cash flowing in. • Open to new ideas – a business owner who listens to your ideas for deeper Xero integration and revised processes will get far more value from your services. When clients are stuck in their ways, you’ll enter into a battle of wills and won’t move forward. • Share your mindset – it may seem obvious, but you’ll work more productively with people you get along with and who share your mindset. Clients whose personalities clash with your own are unlikely to become valued long-term customers. • Value what you do for them – When a business owner truly values the service and advice you give, your working relationship will be more fruitful. If clients see you as a mere ‘beancounter’, it’s time to sack them and move on.

business needs – one key way to help clients is to truly listen to them. Never assume; always take the time to understand their specific business goals and look for proactive ways to help them get there. • Be open to client feedback – Ask clients for frequent feedback, send out surveys after each project and have regular review sessions. Using a customer service Xero app, like CustomerSure, gets you honest and constructive feedback, so you can service your clients better and tailor your advice to their needs. Using the net promoter score (NPS) approach

of your services. • Be flexible with your support – don’t forget to embrace the flexibility that tech offers. With instant cloud access to client accounts in Xero and communication tools, such as Skype, you can offer support and advice through virtual meetings, or out-of-hours phone calls – adding to the client’s perceptions of value. • Add genuine value for their business – The simplicity of Xero has allowed business owners to carry out much of the accounting basics themselves. What they want from you is the highervalue advice, data analysis and

– and asking clients how likely they’d be to recommend you and your services – is also a great way to monitor scoring over time and to ensure quality, service and engagement are kept high. • Make it simple to work with you – Xero helps you to streamline much of the more time-consuming data-entry work. Onboarding clients using the free Xero U training helps both parties gain more from the potential efficiencies of working online. Hands-on training, practical guides and helpful educational materials get clients up to speed and helps them feel the benefits

strategic thinking that will help them to make the right business decisions and secure their financial stability. For example, evaluation of a client’s historic numbers may shows a trend for significant dips in cash flow at the same point each year. Your role is to identify why – could it be seasonal drops in sales, overspending on raw materials, or increased payroll spend? – and to take action that boosts the cash pipeline, lowers costs and reduces any negative impact. • Make it easier to pay you – a fixed-fee package model means clients always know exactly

Retain your clients with valuable customer service Business clients want value from their accountant – and not just in the monetary sense. They want to feel you’re helping them move forward, that they’re getting real, personalised service and that there’s a productive and valued working relationship between you – and there are plenty of ways to add this perceived value. When you deliver on these expectations, embrace the full potential of Xero as a platform, and give the right clients the best possible customer service, you’ll see the impact on your client retention stats. • Listen to their goals and

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Issue 10 / 63

what they’re paying each month, removing the worry of additional bills. Using an online Direct Debit solution that plugs straight into Xero, such as GoCardless, makes it even easier for clients to pay by automating your whole feecollection process. Attract the right clients to your services To move your client base forwards, and bring the right business owners onboard, you’ll need a direct focus on attracting new clients and expanding the reach of your sales and marketing. • Improve and update your website – a great website is a vital asset for the firm. It’s a shop window that lays out the services you offer, the value you add and aims to position you as the number one Xero adviser in your chosen specialism or industry niche. Your website is also the hub for your content marketing, so it’s vital that it’s mobileoptimised, regularly updated and clearly explains why a business

BlueHub

C LO U D

BUSINESS

SOFTWARE

EXPERTS

owner should choose your firm. • Ask for client testimonials – business owners place great value on testimonials. Case studies, quotes from client feedback and endorsements from satisfied clients all serve to highlight the quality of your work and the value you could deliver to a new client. • Start a client referral programme – a referral is the best kind of new business to aim for, coming from a satisfied advocate for your firm. Putting a referral programme in place, with rewards for referrers, adds a real incentive for clients and brings like-minded businesses to your door. • Make your pricing attractive – price isn’t the sole deciding factor for potential clients. But choosing a price point that’s appealing, offers the right value and creates the best margin for the firm is central to how attractive the firm looks in the marketplace. The perfect client relationship for your firm

business clients is the aim of any modern Xero accountant. And that level of trust and perceived value will increase significantly when you take direct steps to work with your ideal clients – and improve your client service levels as a direct consequence. Helping clients as they face the opportunities and pitfalls of the business journey is no short-term fix. What’s needed is a long-term focus on adopting the advantages of Xero as a platform, providing the very best service and adding the level of value that tech-savvy, cloud-advocate business owners now demand. Keeping clients happy and fulfilled is good news for your customer retention figures, your job satisfaction, your revenue pipeline and the ultimate profits of your Xero practice as a whole. Find out more about how using Direct Debit via GoCardless speeds up the payment process.

Being a trusted adviser for your

Learn how to boost cloud growth in our free webinars Join our free webinar 5 Steps to Add-on selection for your clients showing how we approach Add-on selection, plus some hints and tips for success. In Building a software advisory service in your practice, we talk through the processes you need to put in place to make your new revenue stream a success.

www.bluehub.co.uk/connect/webinars.cfm 64 / Issue 10

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Issue 10 / 65

Tutorial Blaine Bertsch, CEO & Co-Founder, Dryrun

@mydryrun

After 15 years as a business owner and designer, Blaine Bertsch started Dryrun to help small businesses bring clarity to their numbers. A leader in the industry, Dryrun helps businesses across the globe forecast their cash flow, budget and sales pipeline to create strategic business growth.

Dryrun: help your clients build a powerful recurring budget... ...and import data from Xero to make a highly flexible forecast

Fig. 1

udgeting and forecasting are two of the most important aspects of maintaining healthy cash flow in your client’s business. This tutorial will show you how to use some of Dryrun’s core features to maximise communication with your client in a highly effective and collaborative way. Build a Recurring Budget

Work with your client to separate their monthly bills such as office rent, utilities, loans, payroll, equipment, and any fees or services so you can easily visualise their regular monthly spending. This is a step that takes time and organisation, but is a powerful reminder of the bottom line of the business and the basic inflows and outflows of cash that involved parties should be aware of to make important decisions. Plus it only needs to be done once! Adding a new Item & Category: 1. Hover over the month that you’d like to enter details into. A grey arrow will appear to the left of the month and, when selected, will 66 / Issue 10

allow you to access the Recurring, Payables and Receivables area of Dryrun. 2. Select the grey arrow to the left of Recurring to add new Items and Categories (see fig. 1).

considered an Expense (in red) or Income (in green) for easy visibility. An example of a recurring income might be subletting a portion of your office space or expecting a

3. Under the Recurring area, tap Add Item. From here you can create a new Category or choose an existing one. You can also customise individual items to reflect the pay frequency (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually and others), start and end dates, or auto-repeat forever, and any other necessary information.

Fig. 2

A recurring budget isolates your client’s regular, repeating expenses from variable expenses and income so that you can quickly scan through and identify important aspects.

fixed client retainer. Recurring budget items repeat forever unless you choose specific end dates for each item, so your recurring budget serves as a powerful forecasting tool that requires little effort to maintain.

When finished, hit Save (see fig. 2). Use Dryrun’s flexibility to build in as much detail as you or your client needs. You can always update your budget with more information later as necessary.

Each category will either be

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

Tutorial Once the Xero account has been connected to Dryrun, you can choose the specific Scenario in which you would like to import bills and invoices, month start bank

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Individual items (see fig. 3) can also be edited (or deleted) with the ability to change a single instance,

balance, or any combination of the three. all instances past and future, or just instances going forward - all within the same menu. Once you have created the recurring budget, it’s important to add the variable Bills and Invoices from your client’s Xero account. This will allow you to see what is coming down the pipeline and will assist you with forecasting and short-term decision-making.

5. Import Invoices and Bills from your client’s Xero account. In the Forecast, hover over the Scenario title you wish to import

4. Connect Dryrun to your client’s Xero account.

Xero data into and select the gear icon to the right of the Scenario title. At the bottom of this menu, select the Xero icon (see fig. 5) to reveal a menu in which you can adjust your import settings. Import your client’s Xero Invoices to Receivables and Bills to Payables.

First, ensure the correct Xero account is connected to your client’s Dryrun account via the Integrations screen.

Remember to choose a date range (see fig. 6) that provides you with adequate historical data without overdoing it. The beginning of your most recent fiscal year would be an ideal place to start.

Simply click on Xero Connect icon (see fig. 4) and enter your credentials. There are also video instructions to walk you through the process to connect.

After the data has been imported, the Xero logo will appear next to the Scenario title indicating that you’ve successfully connected and imported data into the Scenario.

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Fig. 6

It’s useful to have a moderate amount of historical data to ensure you are seeing a clear cash flow picture but it isn’t necessary to import years of data. Dryrun’s strength is to help clients focus on forecasting and future business growth.

Fig. 5

It’s important to choose a starting date for both the recurring budget and the Xero import date. We suggest using the beginning of your current fiscal year, or the beginning of the previous fiscal year if you have just begun anew.

Issue 10 / 67

Tutorial

5. Change settings or disconnect Selecting Disconnect can remove all of the data you’ve previously imported, or it can simply stop bringing in new data (be sure to toggle “Remove all imported bills/ invoices” to ‘on’ if you choose to remove some data but want to leave other data intact). 6. Never miss a due date Bills and Invoices are imported from Xero by due date, but we recommend both using and honouring Xero invoice’s Expected Dates and bill’s Planned Dates which can give you a more realistic look at your cash flow. They are categorised by company and named by invoice.

Note that updates made in Dryrun will never make changes to your Xero account. Any changes made in Xero will be reflected the next time you select Refresh in green at the top right of the Forecast screen. We recommend refreshing often to ensure you are seeing the most up-to-date cash flow picture.

tools are easily shareable between you and your client (see fig. 7). Forecasts can be shared between Dryrun users so that everyone can collaborate on the decision-making process. Dryrun can link easily to Xero to create stunning visual graphs, simple to view Excel files and as many scenarios as needed to create forecasts that will help you both make plans for growth!

Dryrun also has a feature to “Bump overdue items to today” so you never miss critical payments or invoices. You can turn this function on in your Dryrun settings. 7. Collaborate with Dryrun and Xero Dryrun’s highly visual forecasting

Dryrun flags due and overdue items as well as splitting up partial payments right so you can quickly see what issues need to be addressed.

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Fig. 7

You can now click on the Xero logo to access the settings for the Scenario if you’d like to make changes or remove data.

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Issue 10 / 69

The all-new Xero HQ Beautiful accounting that gives you beautiful rewards...

he recent unveiling at Xerocon South of the enhanced Xero partner program is stirring up renewed excitement in the accounting industry. The expansion serves to improve interaction of partners with Xero and to reward individual companies successes. The four key aspects are the brand new advisor directory, enriched education, enhanced practice tools, and even more rewards and recognition than before. Advisor Directory Xero currently connects 89% of all small businesses using Xero to an advisor, and are pushing for 100%. The new Advisor Directory is fundamental to this. All Xero Partners are listed in the directory and are visible to potential new clients.

It’s a fact: the more staff you have certified with Xero, the more success your practice has. After listening to what Partners want, the curriculum is more flexible, comprehensive and personalised so it’s easier for your staff to be certified with Xero. The new curriculum means learning has never been easier, with a reallife modular approach where users take 4 core modules, and select 4 elective modules which the most relevant content. Xero You achieves tailored and interactive education sessions, giving you the resources, tools and support you need to grow your practice, provide more services, be better connected and to serve and equip your clients best, whether you have 2 or 200.

The directory has been taken to a new level with the ability to base searches around multiple criteria. Clients can search based on location, to find advisors nearby or in a particular area. They can search for practices that deal in a particular industry, so they find one that best suits not only their expertise, but business and accounting needs too. This is a symbiotic relationship: clients have visibility of suitable accountants and ease of finding them, and accountants have better access to clients based on a variety of factors, for example apps and banking relationships.

Enhanced practice tools

ChatBot is a feature that integrates directly with Facebook messenger that allows partners to interact with potential clients using social media - another platform allowing them to be better connected.

Explorer: this original tool helps you to better understand your clients and client demographics. You can see which clients are the most popular, their industry, which apps they are using, the banks they are with...the list goes on! Know which Apps to learn in order to help your clients, and showcase which industries you are experts in. Client Management: view all of your clients, even those not using

Enriched education Xero has created a more advanced education program that is created in a way that recognises all partners 70 / Issue 10

are different and is tailored to each one.

Xero HQ is the updated My Xero. it is an open platform that allows you to choose the apps and practice tools suited to you. In Xero HQ, you can edit your own profile which is seen by potential new clients. Here are the new features: Activity Feed: see and search all of your client activity in one, personalised, customisable place and find the information you need, when you need it. This draws your attention to activity which is most pressing.

Xero. Filter to see particular types of clients, or search for a particular one. Advisor Directory: Add information about your practice and customise what potential new clients see about you. Showcase your talents and achievements here. People can search for you by using the filters and searches, including by name, size of practice, location and industry. Reporting: a key tool for your business, and this is the fastest of it’s kind. To get started, login to My Xero and click Try Xero HQ. Xero HQ will then become your default login page. Rewards and recognition In the past, the system for partners lacked incentives for Silver and Gold Partners to develop tehir relationship with Xero. There are now even more ways to ear recognition within Xero. Back in 2014, when there was first talk of this new Partnership program, Chris Ridd who was Xero Managing Director at the time said, “Every now and then a partner gets to a certain level and they might have staff leave and they don’t recertify or they stop coming to events and that’s a problem for us. You could be gold [status] and own 120 organisations and be on the top of the directory and do nothing else. That’s not fair for a bookkeeper who is doing a whole lot more”. The new program is based around earning points to earn a higher status, from engaging with Xero rather than just meeting arbitrary targets. For example, practices can now earn points on years of Partnership, by attending XeroCon, and having continual training and certification, where before it may have revolved only around number

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

of clients and sales targets. Like the advanced education program, this reward scheme has an emphasis on personalisation.

Goals and rewards will vary for different practices, with the aim of making practices more successful, not matter how success is defined for that individual practice. Staff earn badges that can be viewed on their Xero HQ profile and seen by potential new clients scouring for an advisor. These badges are based on their certification, the specialised services they contribute and their continued relationship with Xero. It’s an ongoing cycle: passionate,

“

engaged accountants and bookkeepers are more committed Partners, who have happier clients, whose clients stick, making them better Partners.

differentiation within the Advisor Directory.

And then there is the Xero Champion...

on their progress. It allows Partners to track points and development and see how close they are to acheivin Champion status.

The Monthly Xero Partner Update is sent to all Partners, notifying them

The Xero Champion is a Partner who goes above and beyond. They are really growing, they are committed to their relationship with Xero, they continually invest in developing their staff. Xero wants to give extra recognition to these Partners, so they will try to introduce customers who don’t have an advisor to a Xero Champion, and these elite Champions will have that further distinction and add increased

One more thing... Xero store offers brand new merchandise, and makes it even easier to claim benefits, order products, and get exclusive marketing resources that are soon to be launched!

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“

Complete Cashﬂow Conﬁdence

Issue 10 / 71

Bruce van Wyk, Sales and Marketing Director, PaySpace

@PaySpace

As one of the founding members of PaySpace, Bruce has over 16 years of experience in designing, conceptualising and implementing functional payroll and HR solutions for various local, multinational and blue-chip organisations. Bruce heads up the Finance and Sales departments at PaySpace with a love for entrepreneurship.

Small business expansion: how to ensure compliance in Africa A

frica presents an increasing number of opportunities for businesses of all sizes. Between now and 2020, the continent will become the second fastest developing region after Asia. This economic potential is underpinned by a surge in mobile technology, connecting communities, cities and countries with each other and the wider world. The advent of online marketplaces, e-commerce, mobile money, remote working and cloud accounting, as provided by Xero, means that any company can establish a presence in places that were previously inaccessible. Technology has essentially connected Africa to the ‘global village’, opening up new terrain for small business owners who want to expand into lucrative foreign markets. Of course, no rewards are achieved without some risk. Your expansion plans need to consider your payroll needs as you move into unfamiliar territories - and pay attention to local legislation in each country you operate in. Or, your fledgling business could unknowingly transgress laws and face crippling penalties. Here are four tips to help you avoid any payroll issues as you embark on new business opportunities in Africa. 1) Know the lay of the land

and approximately 2000 local languages. There are some cultural similarities between regional neighbours but no two countries are the same. Geographical borders aside, each country is a mix of various tribal groups, religions and ethnicities that create a complex combination of customs and colloquialisms.

At this point, some businesses may panic and try to bribe their way back up the food chain. Don’t. Cultural misunderstandings can quickly become insults and before you know it, you’re faced with a fine or worse. Rather, join forces with a local partner who can guide you through this minefield and watch where you step.

When it comes to the nuts and bolts of business, don’t assume that what works in one country will work in another. Do your research thoroughly, work with a local partner who can help you navigate languages, traditions and legislation, and show absolute respect at all times. Too many foreign businesses behave arrogantly which can anger local authorities and lead to bureaucratic delays that will frustrate your expansion plans.

3) Follow the letter of the law

2) Avoid ill-gotten gains You don’t have to pay a bribe to do business in Africa. In fact, corruption is not nearly as allpervasive as you might think and more often than not, is initiated by international companies rather than locals. The problem is primarily a lack of patience and preparation. Remember, you’re no longer in your home country. There are different laws, registration processes and timelines to follow. If you don’t plan properly, then you’ll start off on the back foot and watch your competitors racing ahead of you.

It can be tricky navigating a very different set of rules and standards that don’t necessarily match your business needs or expectations. This can be further complicated by sudden legislative changes that could impact your payroll limits and statutory calculations overnight. It’s important to always look a little closer as some legislative committees don’t actually exist yet and others are continually in the process of promulgating new laws. The timing is not always clearly defined and in some cases, there are retrospective implications that you ideally want to avoid. The best approach you can take to ensure your company’s compliance is to subscribe to the globally permissive phrase: “taking all reasonable methods”. It’s also very likely that you’ll come across a situation in which you witness an alternative approach to a law in practice. Before you follow suit, try and get approval in writing from the relevant authorities.

Africa is a continent of 54 countries 72 / Issue 10

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4) Set-up a cross-border payroll solution A new office in a new country will need staff. You’ll probably send someone out from your current office to help establish the new hub. This makes them expat employees with specific home and host country tax implications. You may need to gross their salaries up to make sure that they don’t earn less – which in turn, could then put them in a different tax bracket. An expat employee has to be legislatively compliant in both their home and host countries. You’ll need to provide them with the relevant tax certificates in the

correct currencies, and ensure that their take-home remains unaffected. For a small business with limited resources, this can become an administrative nightmare. Cloud-based software can take the pressure off and manage your cross-border payroll across Africa seamlessly. It can access important in-country information, update legislative requirements automatically and calculate the various regulatory factors that affect expat employee earnings.

accounting software. For example, PaySpace integrates with Xero, providing users with increased efficiency as they no longer have to enter account numbers manually. The advancement of technology in Africa is not just opening up new markets for small businesses, it’s also providing new ways for you to take advantage of these opportunities. With the right software and support on your side, your payroll administration will be taken care of – helping you avoid the risks and reap the rewards.

To manage your staff payments with even greater ease, opt for payroll software that integrates with your

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Issue 10 / 73

Joe Stevenson, Marketing Manager, My Accountancy Place

@MyAccountancyPl

Joe is a copywriter and marketing collaborator, frequently working across a number of industries including accounting and cloud technology. As a lover of writing, Joe is often found in his spare time working on a collection of articles and fiction preferably with a large cup of chai tea and a few biscuits to help the process along.

Forget me not:

the automated Xero feature that’ll get you paid on time H

ow many times have you found your cash flow stalling because a client has missed a payment deadline? How many hours have you spent emailing, texting, calling and Skyping late payers, chasing up their rogue invoices? It’s perhaps one of the most familiar – and frustrating – aspects of being a business owner, and at some point we all go through it.

Automate Your Struggles As many of you will be aware, automation became increasingly popular with small businesses in 2016. Owners from a range of industries started opting to automate smaller, recurring tasks to relieve the pressure on client relationships and to give their teams back the time they need to be a more successful business.

their money is due in two days’ time, or checking your inbox for a response to the pleading email you sent, you can let Xero do the legwork for you, whilst you spend more time on valuable work. What’s more, if you’re concerned about reacting emotionally to a situation which can understandably become testing over time, then this is particularly advantageous. After all, there’s no requirement to directly intervene with the matter until more forceful action needs to be taken, because the system is talking to them instead. Consider your client relationship preserved! Simple Brilliance At its heart, the invoice reminder tool is a simple concept, but one which could make huge differences to how your business is run, and how your clients interact with you. Keeping with the theme of simplicity, it’s also an incredibly straightforward feature to activate. Xero have put together a handy guide to setting up and managing your invoice reminders, including covering how to ensure either all or only select clients are getting the messages.

For business owners who are using Xero to keep on top of their accounts, however, there’s a notso-secret weapon ready for you to use to combat these late payers and deadline-dodgers: automated invoice reminders. Rejoice! 74 / Issue 10

If you’ve started venturing into automation, or it’s something you’re considering for 2017, then start simply with Xero invoice reminders. Rather than concerning yourself with whether or not a client knows

We recommend reading the guide in full, but if you want to dive straight in with an example, follow these steps: 1. In the Accounts menu, select

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

Sales 2. Click the Awaiting Payment panel 3. By the clock icon, click Invoice Reminders Off to show the Invoice Reminders screen 4. (Optional) Select the Email customers when an invoice is checkbox 5. (Optional) Edit or delete the default reminders from here, or create your own 6. (Optional) Select the Don’t send reminders for amounts owing on an invoice under checkbox, then enter an amount to filter out smaller invoices, if you wish 7. Click Save

when their invoices are due – and when they’re late. The invoice reminders can even be set before the due date to ensure they’re up to speed on when to pay a bill

a simple yet effective start, there’ll be no limit to where you can go this year!

ahead of time, so there really are no excuses!

sure you get paid on time and don’t spend valuable time chasing late payers with one of Xero’s most useful built in features.

So what are you waiting for? Make

The Habit Maker Of course, if your client has paid and they receive a reminder telling them their invoice is overdue, there’s going to be a little bit of awkwardness between you both. That’s why it’s important to both customise your reminders to your clients, and to reconcile your transactions as you go. If the latter is something you struggle with, turning on automated invoice reminders is the perfect way to build the habit. Regularly checking what’s coming into the business and reconciling those payments is going to not only save you a headache when it’s time to get your Xero ready for your accountant, but also ensures your client relationships are maintained and you know exactly where the business is at any time. For regular late payers, these invoice reminders help them to get into the rhythm of understanding

With proper, dedicated use of this feature, client habits are likely to change as a result, all without you having to getting emotionally involved – and without you losing out on what’s due. Once you’ve got your 2017 automation journey off to

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Tutorial Brendan Woods, founder and CEO of OCREX - the company that developed AutoEntry

@OCRexSoftware

Originally a software developer in the hedge fund space, he quit his job and started AutoEntry. AutoEntry supplies to over 2000 accounting firms and automates data entry of purchase and sales invoices, receipts, bank statements and more, providing significant time and cost savings.

AutoEntry: advanced, featurerich automation of data entry to Xero T

his tutorial will quickly demonstrate why you might just fall in love with AutoEntry given its ability to not only capture invoices and receipts to a basic level, but also capture invoice line items, match invoices to purchase orders, capture sales invoices and even bank and card statements. Whether you’re an accountant, bookkeeper or business user of Xero, being able to simply snap a pic of all of those documents on your phone and to have them automatically publishing to Xero has got to be a no-brainer.

For this example we’ll assume the role of a bookkeeper processing purchase invoices or receipts, but the steps and benefits are similar for all Xero users and document types. As an accountant or bookkeeper, by empowering your clients to submit documents directly as and when they receive them, AutoEntry can

help deliver your services more quickly while also creating a steady, manageable flow of work for you or your team. While reviewing the processed results on AutoEntry, you can choose to accept and remember any matches we detect between the Vendor/Supplier and your existing Xero contacts, or create a new contact, along with associated nominal and tax codes.

Setting up these rules as you go will bring real time savings to you and your team as subsequent uploads to this Company that meet the same criteria can be set to automatically publish to Xero as soon as we’ve completed data extraction and verification.

1) Inviting your client(s) to AutoEntry Once you have set up a company on AutoEntry, you will need to invite your client or colleagues to the company to allow them upload and process documents. From the People tab (1.1) use the Add People button (1.2). Then enter their email address (1.3) and confirm the company you wish to invite them to. Your client will soon receive an email invitation containing a link for them to follow to complete their registration on AutoEntry.com (1.4).

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

Tutorial 2) Uploading Purchases Invoices There are several methods for adding documents to a company in AutoEntry. While the most extensive upload options are available via the AutoEntry website, your clients may find Email or Mobile uploading more convenient. Upload via Web: • Tap the Upload button for the Purchases folder (2.1) to bring up its upload window • If you wish to upload a batch of invoices, choose “Auto” (2.2) and AutoEntry will cleverly split the batch into individual invoices whether they be multi page, single page, or a mix. • Select the check box on the Capture Line Items option to instruct AutoEntry to capture all line items from a given batch of invoices (2.3). • To apply a given Xero tracking category to a given invoice or to all invoices within a batch upload, choose the tracking category here (2.4). Submitting via Email: • Each company is also set up with a unique email address so that invoices can be submitted or forwarded to AutoEntry from you, the client, or their suppliers. Simply email the invoice as an attachment to the designated email address (2.5) and AutoEntry will do the rest. Snap and upload on Mobile: • The AutoEntry iOS or Android mobile app couldn’t be easier. Simply snap an invoice or receipt (2.6) and quickly append pages. • Apply Tracking Categories and Payment Account before upload. • While your clients will only see their own company to upload to, you and your team can access your full list of Companies from within the app should you find it more convenient than using an office scanner.

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Tutorial 3) Monitor Progress in Inbox Your Purchase Inbox will show you a list of all of the invoices that AutoEntry has processed and which are ready to to publish into Xero. This will show you key fields from each invoice and let you choose/change the selected expense categories and tax codes (where relevant) (3.1).

By this point AutoEntry has already performed: 1. Arithmetic validation to safeguard against incorrect figures being published to Xero. 2. Intelligent matching the supplier name captured from the invoice to your existing Xero contacts. It looks for acronyms of the full name and other common variants so as not to prevent duplicate supplier accounts being created. 3. Having learned from previous occasions and/or any defaults already set up in Xero itself, AutoEntry will apply the appropriate expense categories and tax codes automatically. Of course, you can overwrite and update the rule as you go if you need to. 4. Duplicates have been identified and marked as Rejected to prevent publication to Xero. Mobile List View: Within the app, all of your items will be listed in order along with their current status.

78 / Issue 10

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Tutorial 4) Detailed Review Selecting an item in the Inbox list will bring you to its Invoice View where you can review and edit all its fields in either the header (4.1) or line items (4.2) next to the invoice image. You can even match the invoice to a Purchase Order, though AutoEntry will likely have this done for you automatically if the value or the PO is the same as the total on the invoice. You can share a link to this invoice with colleagues or others perhaps to check if it is approved for payment (4.3). Once you are satisfied with the invoice and line items details, simply hit Publish (4.4) to send it to Xero and move on to the next invoice in your Inbox. This also moves the invoice to the Archived tab so your Inbox stays focused on items that require your attention (4.5). One really nice gismo we add to these published items is the ability to be able to click on the â&#x20AC;&#x153;View in Xeroâ&#x20AC;? badge (4.6). When viewing these invoices in Xero you will also see a useful link back (4.7) to the item here in AutoEntry.

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At the heart of automatic enrolment, connecting payroll to pensions

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pensionsync pensionsync delivers data to NEST, Aviva, Legal & General, The Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pension, NOW: Pensions and Smart Pension Visit www.pensions.market for up to date information on which pension providers are available within Xero

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Jessica Pillow, Managing Director, Pillow May Chartered Accountants

@pillowmay

Jessica is well known in the industry with a great network within the accounting space, as well as technology providers such as Thomson Reuters Digita and Xero. Jessica has a wealth of technical knowledge gained whilst bringing her practice to the cloud and pushing the boundaries of the technology that is currently available.

Introducing mTrio It seems that most months a new competitor joins the cloud practice race for accountants. On 1st November 2016 it was the turn of “Most Inspiring Accountant” Jessica Pillow of Pillow May to join the party with the excellently designed mTrio automated CRM Practice Management solution...

heir exciting new cloud software is mTrio.

The program is built on the

Jessica devised the system with the help of a couple of Salesforce developer clients – Simon Goodyear (a Salesforce developer voted one

Layton (a Salesforce consultant with over 10 year’s experience in financial services). Now, after nearly two years of development work, she has set up a brand new separate entity with Simon and Ross to bring the software to market to help other forward-thinking accountancy practices. Jessica ended up developing software as a by-product of her failed search for quality software. She needed a solution for Practice Management that would also integrate with Dropbox, Xero, Digita and all the other products they used. They also needed a central database and something that would enable better marketing and automated workflow. By building the software on the tried and tested Salesforce platform, Jessica is standing on the shoulders of giants and can enter the software market by being able to tick the boxes for scalability, security and reliability. As Salesforce develops there are other exciting areas coming to the fore with additions such as Artificial Intelligence coming on line.

Salesforce CRM platform that Pillow May already uses internally. 82 / Issue 10

of Salesforce’s exceptional MVPs for the past four years) and Ross

The mTrio database allows Jessica to build a ready-made solution for fellow accountants, and the customisation and implementation is carried out by the Mint Trio team to ensure that when a new

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accountant gets the software it is built to their own specification as part of the package. The software does more than your average Practice Management solution and incorporates some very useful tools that has allowed Jessica to ditch some of the older packages that she had been using.

me to step further away from the day-to-day running of the business. I’m going to use the new freedom to train for an Ironman Triathlon.”

The mTrio software will appeal to practices of all sizes as it is easy to use but built on such a robust backbone it can be adapted to work in all conditions. It is well priced to become a strong proposition for the smaller practices to move from spreadsheets to a fully grown CRM solution. With the automation and integrations, the return on investment means that mTrio can easily pay for itself many times over because of the time that it saves.

Currently the mTrio software connects to Xero to save Jessica and her team from having to set up the client initially within Xero. The process involves the client being created within her compliance software and then, with a few clicks, the client is then automatically set up within Xero and her document management system. It will automatically send an SMS text message from differing defined triggers and can also do the same thing with emails. You can use a bank of email templates to help save time and have them sent out automatically, much like using an online shopping experience, for great customer service.

One of mTrio’s early adopters, Della Hudson, of Nailsea-based Hudson Associates has this to say: “After a year of searching, and not quite finding what I wanted, it was a relief to discover mTrio which will replace 3 existing systems and should allow

Within the software, mTrio have also delivered tools for the easy creation and sending of engagement letters. This was a process that took Jessica and her team a large proportion of their client on-boarding time. These

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WWW.PAYSPACE.COM

tools also link with the creation of client folders within their document management software. Whilst creating the client, mTrio is also setting them up within the practice’s Xero environment and is able to build an invoice based upon a subscription model within the software, thus saving more time. mTrio software sits at the heart of your practice to link your favourite packages together and help with sharing data across platforms to save time and mitigate risk. In the future it will not matter what software you wish to use, you can pick the best of breed that works for you and spend the time saved on giving great customer service and increasing fees with a more consultative advisory approach.

BOOK A DEMO For more information or to book a demo, please visit:

www.mtrio.io

Issue 10 / 83

Karen Rayburn, The Profitable Firm

@ProfitableFirm

Karen is a creative-minded individual who specialises in online marketing for accountancy firms. A former accountant, Karen set up The Profitable Firm to work exclusively with modern, digitally minded accountants all over the globe who want to use online marketing to their best advantage.

Mindset over money: why spending more on marketing is not the answer A fascinating development for me as I work with accountants all over the world is discovering those who are more than ready to spend money – serious money, big money even – on their marketing….and yet these accountants could still be setting themselves up for a big fall...

ow could that be? Isn’t the biggest hurdle for accountants to overcome that of being ready to big-scale invest in their marketing?

encourage that if you have the right mindset: if you are setting your mind to being personally involved and invested in your own marketing.

homepage of their site…I better get one too.” “I like what they’re doing on social media – can we do the same thing?” “That firm is running webinars: I’d like to run those too.”

Nope.

It’s time to think like your entrepreneurial clients. The ones who wake up in the early hours of the morning with a brilliant idea about their product or for their customers. The ones who figure out Instagram and Snapchat and live Facebook video on their own. Who write their own blog posts, and publish them even though they’re not perfect.

But what you love about those accountancy firms’ websites and marketing and brand and videos is not those things in and of themselves: it’s the mindset behind them. The enthusiasm and passion that cares first and foremost about being world class when it comes to delivering good accountancy services in their area.

I would argue that the biggest hurdle accountants are facing today is that of changing your mindset entirely. When you approach marketing with a personal, interested, involved attitude, it will revolutionise your results.

And it seems that the solution is to hire someone else to do it. An agency, an intern, a marketing manager for your firm.

Naturally, investment of some kind will absolutely be involved. This is not your excuse to get out of spending anything on marketing. And if you can outsource the repetitive, or the aspects of marketing that are not your area of expertise, definitely do that. But if you’re missing the personal connection, I guarantee your future clients are missing it too – so you’re missing out on new business.

Outsourcing is often a wise choice. All the firms we work with are outsourcing at least some of their marketing to us. But I would only

It’s tempting to look at other accountancy firms and want to copy their marketing and branding. “They have a video on the

Accountants are often given quite a hard time about marketing. They’re told that they are not good at marketing (or design, or writing content, or social media). If you’re an accountant, it’s likely you tell yourself that on a regular basis.

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There are accountants I’ve spoken to who are ready with finger poised over the payment link, willing to spend thousands or tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands so they can get the results others have gotten. But without the mindset, you can spend millions and not see even a small portion of the potential results available. The marketing mindset is both incredibly easy, and incredibly hard, to cultivate. Here’s why it’s easy:

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• It doesn’t cost a dime. This is a mental shift, not a financial one. • You can start today. Instantly. Now, whilst reading this. There’s no delay. • You have literally thousands of examples around the world of people who approach their marketing in this way. You’re far from alone. • You’re already a business owner, so you’re halfway there.

Second, connect yourself with other business owners. There’s a lot of good in connecting to other high performing accountants. But you need to start thinking like the young hungry business owner – perhaps even the freelancer – if you’re going to see the powerful kind of results you want.

team). • When you have ideas, they get actioned straight away. You don’t have to watch other accountants doing what you thought of three years ago. • You’re taking ideas from what your clients and prospects are struggling with (or excited by)

Third, keep going. Press on, do not give up, and ask for help when you need it. Once you set foot on this road, it will absolutely deliver results.

and integrating them into your marketing: so you’re appealing to more prospects who are the right kind of people. • You are enthusiastic and passionate, and people respond very well to that.

And here’s why it’s incredibly hard: • It requires accepting that there’s more to change, and more to do. Many accountants I talk to are weary of this already. • You’ve got to lead your entire team, and keep their spirits up even when yours fail. • There will be some hard times ahead. Days when you don’t think this will work, and others seem to be succeeding with little to no effort. • It works best when you are incredibly responsive to change (and even love it). Daily change will be your constant companion from this point onwards. • You need to blur the line between business and personal – perhaps even wipe it out entirely. This is an aspect of the true marketing mindset that will get results like you’ve never seen: and it’s very hard for accountants to do. So how do you do it? First, learn about what works. Get educated about what works – not just for accountants, but for professional service businesses. We’ve created unique Content Marketer and Social Marketer programmes exclusively for accountants, but there are many others out there as well!

And only when you have all three of those do you spend the money. That’s when the results come. Because... • You’re not only on social media, you’re engaging personally with prospects (for larger firms, your team are doing this too). • Your website reflects who your firm actually is, not merely a fresh modern wash on the old you. • The content your firm is generating comes directly from your own head (and that of your

It’s not about getting results like other firms. It’s about getting results like yours. And that ROI will be better than anything you’ve ever seen.

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Issue 10 / 85

Interview

Q&A Will Lovegrove from pensionsync

86 / Issue 10

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

Interview I am really happy to be able to speak to Will Lovegrove from pensionsync today. Will, can you tell us what pensionsync is and how it integrates with Xero?

XU:

pensionsync for.

WL:

pensionsync is a software-as-a-service which Xero uses to securely send their customers payroll data to any one of six UK pension providers. We’re part of Xero’s solution for automatic enrolment, which is sort of like the US’s 401k. Every UK Employer has to open a pension scheme for their employees, and then make payments into that scheme. pensionsync helps lower the admin burden of running a pension scheme.

XU:

Tell us why you decided to team up with Xero and how it has helped to grow pensionsync?

Will, can you give us an update on what’s changed at pensionsync in the last year since we met at Xerocon London?

Well, we use Xero inside pensionsync to run our accounts and our payroll! And we will use Xero to make sure our company complies with autoenrolment. So we just had to make sure Xero was using pensionsync (otherwise we’d be in the embarrassing position of owning pensionsync but not using our own technology to help run our own pension!). In fact, it’s been amazing to work with the Xero team both in the UK and the US. Xero engineers are committed to making Xero an amazing software experience for their users. And I think that focus is shared by my team in our work. We want to make pensions as smooth as possible for Xero customers.

WL:

XU:

It’s been a massive year for our company. This time last year, pensionsync was connected with just 2 providers: Legal & General and The People’s Pension. In the last 12 months we have powered forward and connected to NEST, Smart Pension, Aviva and NOW: Pensions. This means pensionsync can offer its customers real choice in the market. To help Employers make their choice we then built a free ‘pension provider comparison website’: http://www.pensions. market. Amazingly this was the first time in the UK that anyone had built a workplace pension comparison site. Watching my team put pensions.market together, and seeing it grow to over 1,000 visits a day in a short period of time was very special.

XU:

What, in 2017, is exciting about pensionsync?

Will: 2017 is a really special year for payroll, pensions and small businesses in the UK. This is the year when over 750,000 businesses will set-up a scheme for the first time. 2017 is what automatic enrolment is all about, in my opinion. And it’s what we built

Tell me more about your plans to launch into the online employee benefits market.

WL:

This is our new initiative: we’re going to help smaller employers get access to the best possible employee benefit deals, available from the new website we’re building called www.benefits. market. We think there’s a lot of room for technical and commercial innovation in the employee benefits market. So many benefit processes are done manually, slowly and inefficiently. We think we have the technology to join up the market, automate data flow, deploy “roboadvisers” and cut out costs.

XU:

How does Autoenrolment help or change pensionsync?

WL:

pensionsync was purpose built for auto-enrolment. We knew the payroll market wanted a simpler, automated, solution to the problem their clients faced when it came to administering their pension schemes. Exporting data from payroll and loading it into pension

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providers is such a drain on time, and yet it has to be done every time an Employer pays their staff. I suppose it’s obvious, but I think pensionsync will just grow and grow in popularity over time as everyone drops CSV data exports and switches to electronic uploads. I think pension CSVs will be extinct within the next 5 years. Xero’s helping us make that vision a reality.

XU:

In recent years there hasn’t always been the best press for pensions. Why should our readers invest in a pension and what benefits does it have for them?

WL:

I would always recommend to anyone they take up the offer of a workplace pension. Its free money, after all. It’s the only savings account which boosts your money immediately (because your contributions are topped by further contributions from your Employer). I understand the comment about pensions getting a bad press. But I think in the future we will see pensions becoming more “open”, more “transparent”, and using technology in different ways to our benefit. Our pensions are just too important for our future. UK Government is lighting the right kind of fires in the right places to make things happen. Autoenrolment is a good thing, pensions dashboard is a good thing.

XU:

It’s great to see you have created a Pension and Payroll comparison site. Why did you decide to do this and how will it help our readers?

WL:

My team and I just thought it was incredible that there was no pension comparison site in place already, despite automatic enrolment effectively being a compulsory purchase of a complex and important financial product. Its really difficult for Employers to get access to trustworthy free advice on the differences between pension providers. Accountants, Bookkeepers and Payroll Bureaus are quite rightly worried about

Issue 10 / 87

Interview commenting on a subject they are not qualified in. So we built www. pensions.market specifically so that the Accounting and Payroll community would have something they could direct their clients to and say “take a look at this - it’s a free pension comparison site which will help you with automatic enrolment”. We also compare leading payroll software tools in the site because we wanted to highlight who was making the best job of simplifying automatic enrolment. Picking the right payroll tool makes all the difference when it comes to automatic enrolment. I’m pleased to say Xero’s scoring highly.

XU:

I know you have made some very creative out-of-the-box videos. Do you think being able to think outside the box has helped you grow pensionsync?

WL:

I guess you are talking about our “downfall of automatic enrolment Hitler” video! Yes, that was fun to make,

88 / Issue 10

and provocative. We built that video to use humour and satire to turn heads in the payroll and pension industry as we were just starting out. It worked!

marketing work. It’s something I’d like to continue. We’re not trying to trivialise an important job. We’re just trying to bring a smile to people’s faces.

We’ve also used videos to help explain what our platform does in technical detail. I signed off a trip to the Alps last year specifically to film a bunch of “explainer videos” while Snowboarding in the mountains (because automatic enrolment is often compared to “climbing a mountain”). They worked really well and we use them to this day in our platforms “developer portal”. We’ve also used “grumpy animal” internet memes on Social Media to help speak to payroll workers who may be frustrated at having to handle manual CSV files, each time they process a payroll, forever... I guess thinking out of the box has helped us get a higher profile. But in fact the common theme is using humour. We’re known for bringing an element of humour into our

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5 ways GoCardless for Xero can support your business growth Sign up to the GoCardless for Xero app to reduce costs and admin so you can focus on your business:

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5. Low transparent pricing:

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Just 1% per transaction capped at £2. No set up fees or hidden costs.

3. Automatic reconciliation: The GoCardless for Xero app automatically reconciles your invoices increasing business efficiency.

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Peter Czapp, Co-Founder, The Wow Company

Issue 10 / 89

Carmen Morris, Founder and Director, On The Money Bookkeeping

@otmbookkeeping

Carmen Morris is the founder and Director of On The Money Bookkeeping, based in Melbourne, Australia specialising in Xero. She is passionate about technology and accounting, and her organisation offers business keeping, not just bookkeeping.

Reconciling various customer payment methods: get organised by separating your deposits Business owners who are also their company’s bookkeepers often struggle to reconcile their bank account when they receive money from their customers in a variety of ways, such as electronic funds transfer (EFT), credit card, direct debit, cash, cheque, PayPal, Stripe or eWay. Carmen Morris explains how best to set up a Xero data file and enter transactions to manage these...

eposits arrive in company bank accounts via many different payment methods. In this article I will explain different types of payments, grouped by the recommended approach for processing their receipts (or ‘payments’, as you might be used to calling them). Electronic Funds Transfer In Australia, EFT is the most common customer payment method for the majority of businesses. Hopefully your customer is sending you a remittance advice explaining which invoices they are paying, or including a bank statement reference clearly identifying the invoice number(s) they’re paying. The absence of this information can make reconciling this type of transaction a little bit trickier, especially if there are multiple open sales invoices that the receipt could potentially belong to. This issue aside, this is typically the easiest type of deposit to reconcile. It’s a

case of clicking on the Match tab in the Xero bank reconciliation screen and navigating to the relevant sales invoice based on a customer name, amount or invoice reference number (if Xero hasn’t already made a suggestion for you). PayPal With the introduction of Xero’s integration with PayPal, this payment method has become easier to reconcile1. This integration forms two functions. First, it allows your customers to click on a link in your online invoice when they receive it via email, which allows them to pay via PayPal with a minimal number of clicks. Second, your sales invoices in Xero will show a receipt applied to them as soon as your customer has paid via PayPal. In addition, the Xero/PayPal integration will enter a Spend Money transaction for the fees associated with this receipt at the same time. So, how do you set this up? It’s

really simple. 1. Settings > General Settings > Invoice Settings 2. Click on Payment Services 3. Click Add Payment Service 4. Make sure that you select the relevant PayPal bank account in Xero from the Payment Account drop-down menu. If you want to offer this for your invoices in different currencies, you’ll need to set up a payment service for each PayPal currency. 5. Link the relevant Fees Account from the last drop-down list. This could be a bank fees account or a special account you’ve set up to specifically track your PayPal fees. When it’s time to reconcile your PayPal bank feed, you’ll see lots of green auto suggestions down the right side of your screen. If you’ve received multiple deposits on the same day for the same amount, double-check that they’re matched correctly before clicking OK.

However, this method is not to be confused with PayPal bank feeds. These already need to be in place, one for each currency that you deal with. This can mean that you have quite a few bank accounts on your dashboard, as these PayPal accounts will be in addition to your regular bank accounts.

90 / Issue 10

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Credit Card, Direct Debit, Stripe, eWay, Cash & Cheques I’ve grouped these payment types together because they have the following in common: Their settlement (or deposit) date typically differs from the date that the customer actually made the payment. The bank deposit often refers to receipts from multiple customers and multiple invoices all at the same time. It can mean that one bank deposit potentially refers to hundreds of different sales invoices! A best practice bookkeeping principle is to separate these into different accounts for each type. It makes it easier to figure out why something won’t reconcile. It also means that your bank accounts will more accurately reflect their correct balance. Undeposited funds will show in separate accounts with their respective balances. To set this up, go to: 1. Settings > General Settings > Chart of Accounts 2. Click Add Account 3. From the Account Type dropdown list select Current Asset 4. Give your account a number and a name such as Clearing Account – Direct Debit 5. From the Tax drop-down list select BAS Excluded 6. Also, tick Enable payments to this account 7. I would also recommend ticking Show on Dashboard Watchlist

8. Repeat this process for each receipt type. When a sales invoice is paid by a customer, navigate to it in Xero and then, at the bottom in the Receive a payment section, enter the relevant payment details. From the Paid To drop-down list, make sure that you select the relevant, newly created clearing account. Next up you need to account for the transaction fees. Merchant fees are typically charged to your bank account on a separate bank feed line, so you don’t need to treat these any differently. For direct debit, where the service provider withholds a fee from the deposit, fees need to be entered so that your deposit balances to your clearing account. When entering your receipts for a given day, look up the fees on the direct debit provider’s website and enter a Bill transaction for these. Apply a payment at the bottom, choosing the relevant clearing account from the Paid To drop-down list. On the day that you that you reconcile the bank deposit, check your clearing account. To do this,

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go to: 1. Reports > All Reports > Account Transactions 2. I recommend clicking the star next to this report so that it shows as a favourite, creating a shortcut on your Reports menu

3. Choose the clearing account and the relevant date range and check that your closing balance at the bottom is zero. If not, narrow the date range until you find the day that it went out of balance. This will help you pinpoint exactly where things went wrong, and you won’t be looking for a needle in a haystack.

Issue 10 / 91

Alleviating reconciliation ailments Compiled by Kirsten Hawke, Head Nurse of Number Nurses @NumberNurses

The joy of using Xero is that it makes bookkeeping tasks pain-free and ensures your business accounts stay fit and healthy all year round....

nvariably, a late night or exposure to some bug when defences are weakened can cause an unexplained ailment that you may not know is lurking in the depths of your Xero account. We’re talking about an unhealthy statement reconciliation report. In the same way your blood pressure should be regularly checked – you should regularly check the reconciliation report.

the balance from the bank account or zero, if the business was just starting out.

You’ll need to hit the miracle cure, remove and redo and check it off (code it) correctly.

Xero gives step by step instructions for entering your conversion balances or you can call on a Number Nurse to quickly fix the problem.

Every now and then some lines in a bank statement seem to vanish.

If the conversion balance is sorted and the numbers still don’t match, it is time to roll up your sleeves and start diagnosing where a transaction has gone wrong.

The mystery of cyberspace can’t be held accountable for all disappearing acts and sometimes you may have accidentally thought the easiest way to remove some irritating transaction was to simply delete it. Good try but treating the symptom

It’s a good habit to review it each time a compliance return is made, for example a GST, VAT or BAS report, depending on where you operate your business. You’ll find a tab to the right of the page where you reconcile bank statement lines to the Xero transactions. If you still have transactions to tick off, they will show up on the reconciliation statement so shoot back to the previous page and check off those transactions. When you revisit the reconciliation report, the balance in Xero should match the bank statement balance. Some credit cards and Yodlee feeds don’t provide a balance and you’ll need to go to the individual accounts to check that they are the same. If they don’t balance, relax and be assured that there is a remedy for all bookkeeping dis-ease. Start out correctly First of all, check the conversion balance that was entered when you opened your Xero account is correct. This could be the closing balance of your company’s accounts the day before you started using Xero, 92 / Issue 10

Missing in action Xero can work wonders but it needs a good dose of healthy input from you to ensure it is operating correctly. If you have overlooked entering an invoice that was paid, Xero can get a bit flustered. This is as easily fixed as mopping up a little spill. Enter the invoice, give it the all clear and hey presto – you can match it with a bank statement line. If you have entered the invoice but it is nowhere to be seen, it has possibly been allocated to an incorrect payment transaction.

has simply resulted in the problem popping up somewhere else – that pesky reconciliation report. In your Xero bank reconciliation, track down the statement exceptions tab and this may identify where there is a problem. Once diagnosed, you can restore a bank statement line and then code the transaction correctly. A common complaint is a missing transfer leg. Far from being an amputation, this is when money was moved from one account to another and it has probably not been coded in both accounts. If it was incorrectly coded to the wrong account, then go to the

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account transactions report, click on the offending transaction, then remove and redo and code it correctly. Using a sticking plaster

Wrong bank account When you operate more than one bank account it is as common as having a cold to incorrectly enter a payment to the wrong account.

When we are in a hurry or feeling flummoxed it can be tempting to take the easy option rather than fully investigating a problem.

The assigned bank account is stuck like a pea up a toddler’s nose but the transaction can be removed and re-done to correctly reconcile the account.

You may have been tempted to put a quick-fix sticking plaster over a receipt or payment by line coding it rather than taking a longterm approach and fully investigating the troublesome transaction.

Even the healthiest of individuals can be struck down by unidentifiable bugs and every now and then something odd can occur with Xero.

Don’t worry, Number Nurses have seen it all before and plenty of people have overridden allocations or done some weird and wonderful things with Xero. We know it seemed like a good idea to enter a completely new line but that reconciliation report will catch you out. Once again the remedy lies in tracking down the woeful transaction in the bank statement in Xero, clicking on it to identify how it was coded and submit it to the mercy of remove and redo. The correct bank statement transaction will also need to be located and re-coded.

Technical difficulties

Occasionally, there can be double up of transactions or some never show up at all and this is where the real fun starts. You will need to check Xero entries against your bank statements to find the errors and manually remove and redo. Seek support Trying to treat your own Xero ailments and going it alone can be slow and unproductive, and you will invariably be better off with expert assistance. Number Nurses know a problem that has been niggling you for ages can usually be easily cured with a quick consultation. Xero should be painless, fun and effective so don’t be shy if you think you have an embarrassing condition that you are afraid to expose. Your back-up bookkeeping expert is there to make it all better again.

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Issue 10 / 93

James Ashford, Founder, GoProposal

@THEJamesAshford

James Ashford works exclusively with leading firms of accountants from around the world, helping them to systemize their firms so they can deliver maximum value and incredible experiences to their clients. He is author of “Selling to Serve” and writes a successful business blog at www.JamesAshford.com, where he continually shares his best content.

Does your accountancy firm serve others or does it serve you?

systems that are changing the game D

eciding to be an Accountant is one thing. Deciding to run an accountancy firm is completely different. And making this transition is tough. In this article, James Ashford outlines the 7 key systems that a thriving accountancy firm needs, the mistakes to avoid and real reason for doing it...

Why? Because being an accountant is about the people YOU SERVE. Running an accountancy firm, is all about creating something that SERVES YOU; your family, your lifestyle and your financial goals.

I remember when I set up my first business, frantically devouring E-Myth Revisited by Richard Gerber, and learning about systems and building the franchisable model of my business. It sounded so exciting and I felt that I’d discovered the answers I needed.

The Tough Transition When you first decided to become an accountant, was it because you were motivated by the purpose of “wanting to help people”? If so, you’re not alone, that’s what most accountants say. They’re all about providing outstanding value and serving their clients. But here’s the thing… Deciding to be an accountant is one thing. Deciding to run an Accountancy Firm - to become a business owner - is completely different. 94 / Issue 10

And so as you transition from accountant to business owner, you are thrust into a new world that poses a whole new set of challenges; challenges you haven’t been fully told about and so haven’t been able to prepare for. So as any intelligent person would, you look for answers. You seek advice from experts, read books, attend conferences, invest in software, basically anything to get the answers.

The reality of going from that to actually implementing robust systems however, is a different matter. And the journey that took me on, has taken the last ten years as I’ve been seeking the answers. You see, you’re told that you need systems, but you’re not told which ones. And when you finally discovered the ones that are essential in running a profitable firm, you’re not told how to create them in such a way, that there are no cracks in them.

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And then if you’re able to figure that one out, few people are ever told why we really create systems in our business. Sure it creates scalability, and consistency and frees up your time and increases the value of the firm, but there’s another, far more important reason. And then let’s say you are in fact part of the 1% of the 1% who figure all of this out, only 1% of those ever find the time, the technology or the tenacity to actually implement these crack-free systems…properly. And this is the reason why I end up speaking to firms of accountants, who have been around for literally, over 100 years, with thousands of clients and they are STILL serving people, rather than having transitioned into having a business, which serves them. The 7 Key Systems So these are the 7 Systems that a thriving accountancy firm needs. These are taken from my book “Selling to Serve”. 1. The Attraction System This is where you identify your DREAM prospects and ATTRACT them in their highest quantity and quality into your firm. If you don’t know WHO you want, you can’t really complain when you don’t get them. 2. The Nurture System This is where you connect with those prospects and nurture them over time to the point where they make it clear that they want your services. This is rarely in place and a huge sinkhole of lost opportunities for most firms. 3. The Sales System This is where you define the relationship you intend to have with this prospect, wean out the time wasters, agree fees, produce a stunning proposal, auto-generate your letter of engagement and convert the prospect into your dream client… on the spot. But that doesn’t even scratch the surface of this complex system. This is always the place to start because this is where we determine what we’re selling and

therefore what value we aim to deliver to our clients. 4. The Onboarding System This is where you wow your new clients by making it super smooth to onboard them with minimal pain for them and you. This is their first interaction with your practice and so it’s vitally important that you nail it. If you have cracks in this system, the next system will fall down. 5. The Delivery System This is where you maximise the lifetime value you provide to your clients. It’s where you put all of the low level activities on autopilot and free up your accountants to work on their highest and best use activities, with mind-blowing turnaround times and levels of value that are off the scale. Get this right and you will form deep and meaningful partnerships with your client, where you’re an intrinsic part of their success…. for life. 6. The Finance System This is where you continually maximise your profits with THE most robust system that automates the flow of cash from your clients to you. Now most forward thinking accountants have this nailed. You will be using Xero and have it synced up with Receipt Bank and a payment collection system like GoCardless. As an accountant, this is the ONE system you need to have in place. 7. The Staffing System This is where you attract, recruit and grow the best people that perfectly fit your culture and your aspirations. You can’t grow your business, all you can do is grow your people and THEY will grow your business. This only works if you have the robust systems in the first place with NO CRACKS and a clearly defined set of USEFUL core values. Until you have these 7 systems in place, your accountancy firm is probably not serving you as well as it could. Very often, accountants believe they have these systems in place, until I point out the cracks. And it’s in identifying and sealing these cracks, where you win.

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Xero Changed The Game So up until 2006, Accountants could get away with average or even poor systems. Why? Because so long as you were getting Year End Accounts, VAT Returns and Payroll out before the deadline, your client was happy. And they were happy because you were able to do something that they no idea how to do themselves. You were therefore the valued expert. Then Xero came along and changed the rules of the game for accountants forever, because they placed the power into your clients hands. They showed business owners how easy it was to perform the compliance tasks. They were kind of like the masked magician who revealed how the trick was being done. And what did magicians do when the masked magician revealed the secrets of their tricks? They either retired or…… they raised their game. They learnt new tricks; better tricks. And the tricks had to be better because the audience was better informed. This is why the likes of David Blain or Dynamo’s tricks are so amazing. It’s because the masked magician showed everyone how Paul Daniels did his tricks. Xero isn’t the next level. Xero is the gateway into the next level and has allowed accountants to provide greater value than ever before. You see, your clients never wanted you to do their accounts. They wanted you to help them to grow a more profitable business. And Xero has now made this possible if….. IF……. you have the systems in place, that allow you to operate at that level; robust systems with no cracks in them. Sealing The Cracks So many accountants install what Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 10 / 95

they believe are robust systems. But the cracks quickly appear with this one question: “What if…?” What if that prospect doesn’t answer the phone? What if they don’t sign off their proposal? What if the client doesn’t reconcile their accounts on time? What if their payment fails? What if we lose that member of staff…. today? What if we lost our most profitable client? Sealing the cracks is all about considering all outcomes and having the processes and the technology in place that accounts for them. Very often, accountants have failed to nail the process and are sold on the idea that technology will help to seal the cracks, but it doesn’t, it makes them worse. The technology they are sold, has all the fancy bells and whistles, which sound great, but because the cracks were never sealed in the first place, they just become costly trinkets that produce no meaningful results. The problem is rarely the

96 / Issue 10

technology and nearly always a flawed process. The challenge is that sometimes you can be too close to the business to see what needs to be done. Sometimes you need someone from outside your business to see the way through. The Real Reason For Systems So most people know that you need systems to control the chaos, scale your firm, remove the overwhelm, reduce your vulnerabilities, maximise the value you provide and ultimately make your practice more saleable. But there’s a bigger reason that is always overlooked.

within an hour…. ON A SUNDAY….. then that’s your competition because that’s who I’m comparing you to. While you’re struggling to fully systemise your firm and are losing prospects, clients, jobs and staff down cracks, you’re unable to play at this higher-level and will always be SERVING OTHERS. But if you’re able to transition to this higher-level of systemisation, where you deliver wow, on autopilot, with no cracks… then you maximise the value you provide, are more profitable, provide world class experiences, have more fun and more importantly… you have created something, which SERVES YOU.

And that is, to free up your own and your staff’s mental capacity to be able to provide incredible, worldclass EXPERIENCES for your clients. You see, the game’s changed. The bar has been raised. Your competition is no longer other accountants. Your competition is anyone I choose to compare you too, whether that’s Amazon or Virgin. If you can’t send me a proposal within 24 hours of meeting you, but Amazon can get me a crate of beer

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Issue 10 / 97

Top tips for Xero users: Budget Manager

Compiled by: Spofforths Chartered Accountants (spofforths.co.uk)

Creating a budget in Xero allows you to compare actual income and expenditure throughout the year. If you use tracking, you can also set up budgets for tracking categories...

TOP TIP You cannot copy a budget however they can be exported and reimported with another name.

You use the Budget Manager worksheet, found under Reports > Budget Manager, to set up your overall budget. You can also edit an overall budget; however it cannot be renamed, copied or deleted. You can create numerous budgets but you cannot have two budgets with the same name.

month • Adjust by percentage each month to increase by a certain percent each month. Then click Apply to update the worksheet. Apply a formula to all accounts To apply a formula to all accounts,

• You can set the name or choose Overall Budget. • Select your start date. • To compare with actuals, set how far back you want to view (3, 6, 12 months) or select ‘None’ if you do not want to view actuals. • Select the period you want to cover. You can choose 3, 6, 12 or 24 months. • Then click Update to filter the budget by your selections. Fill out rows using simple formulas You can fill out rows automatically using a simple formula. Click into the box you want to base a formula on, and then click the green arrow to start.

click on the green arrow next to a month name in the header. From here, you can have the same

TOP TIP Save your budget regularly to avoid losing your updates.

under the Compare Periods tab. Then choose More Options to set the actuals to show the same tracking category. The report will then show you the actual and budgeted figures for the date range chosen, the variance in GBP and in %. The year-to-date figures are also shown so you can easily see the overall position.

The options to choose from are: • Apply fixed amount to each month to fill other boxes with the same amount • Adjust by amount each month to increase by that amount each 98 / Issue 10

then start using this to compare your actual data with the budget. When you run the Profit & Loss report choose the format ‘Actual vs Overall budget’. You can then choose the date range you want to look at. If you have set up a tracking category budget you can choose which budget to compare with

formula options as before, which you can now apply to the entire worksheet. In addition you can also clear all months from that point on. Once the budget is set up you can

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Issue 10 / 99

Brendan Woods, Founder and CEO of OCREX - the company that developed AutoEntry

@OCRexSoftware

Mitigating risk and making data security a top priority As technology evolves and becomes more sophisticated, so too do viruses, malware and hackers, and their means to violate protective barriers in order to infiltrate sensitive data and information...

ccording to PwC’s 2016 Global Economic Crime report, cyber crime affect almost one in three organisations (32%), with the financial services industry the ‘most threatened’ by economic crime. As accountancy practices handle sensitive personal and financial data for their customers, the ramifications of a hack can be devastating, resulting in identity theft, loss of intellectual property, and irrevocable damage to brand reputation. In fact, a single incident can cost a small business upwards of £75,000 in terms of lost revenue, recovery of assets and fines. With that in mind, accountancy practices must adopt a risk-averse mindset, making data security a top priority for their business and their clients. But where to start? And how to sustain change for the long term? A cultural shift When considering a long term security strategy, start by evaluating your people and processes. Despite the perception that the majority of threats stem from outside an organisation, risk can be found much closer to home. According to recent business research commissioned by the UK government, employees are one of the main sources of security breaches, with 48% of respondents 100 / Issue 10

citing human error, and 33% claiming lack of ‘staff awareness’ as major contributing factors of cyber attacks within both large and small organisations.

have the convenient side-effect of also improving your practice’s security risk.

Using technology to get ahead

AutoEntry captures and analyses scanned and photographed purchase and sales invoices, receipts, bank and card statements, automating your data entry to Xero. Clearly popular with over 10,000 companies using it just a year after its release, many accountants and bookkeepers find its flexible pricing structure, ease of use and quality of features outshine other solutions in this space. For instance, AutoEntry captures tax summaries by default and if requested, full line item details including description, quantity and unit price. AutoEntry also remembers how you categorise your expenses such as the relevant supplier account, nominal account and tax code without ever creating duplicate supplier accounts or posting duplicate invoices in Xero. In addition, AutoEntry even matches invoices to purchase orders.

Increasingly, accountancy practices are using data document capture and workflow management solutions such as AutoEntry, a Xero add-on App, to improve accuracy, reduce costs and speed up processes associated with traditional bookkeeping and manual data entry. It just so happens that Apps like AutoEntry

While the adoption of cloud-based computing, and use of tools like AutoEntry, has risen in recent years, concerns over privacy and security remain a concern for some. Many perceive that housing data on a physical desktop is safer, yet the opposite is true. Cloud solution providers like Xero and AutoEntry which adhere to strict legislation on

In order to address these challenges and implement a culture of change, it will be critical for businesses to set appropriate guidelines as well as up-skilling their employees. For instance, running training programmes on common phishing attacks and email scams can go a long way to reducing clicks on infected links. Elsewhere, setting standards for complex password combinations, and monitoring the use of personal mobile devices to access corporate files is advisable. By taking these types of preventative measures, businesses will ensure their employees are better informed and able to work as a team to tackle external threats.

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data policy and whose reputation depend on it most, leverage their technical expertise to implement multiple layers of advanced security protection which smaller organisations simply can’t emulate on premise. For those that decide to simplify processes and boost productivity with third party technologies, there are some security standards to check for before you press ‘download’. The cloud isn’t more vulnerable than any other physical or internet-connected systems; however, the required security policies are sometimes overlooked which can make it highly vulnerable to hackers. As you might expect as a Xero App, AutoEntry protects users with essential protocols including: • SSL encryption: An encrypted communication link which allows private information to be transmitted securely between two parties. • Brute force detection: Alarm

raised should there be multiple failed authentication attempts are being made from a given source or to a given resource. • Network intrusion detection: Strategically placed sensors which monitor traffic between network devices - alerting IT professionals if a malicious presence is identified. • Host intrusion detection: A method of monitoring intrusion on an operating system. • Real-time backups: The backup and memory of critical datasets in real-time, allowing users to restore information on demand.

will increasingly be the approach forward-thinking accountancy practices adopt. It will be critical however for these same firms to keep their business secure from threat, deploying solutions which offer robust data protection, user authorisation and authentication. As well as driving considerable operational efficiencies for accountants, AutoEntry is programmed to efficiently disable security threats and enable businesses to operate with confidence.

Using Xero Apps like AutoEntry will enable firms to cast off outdated and unprofitable practices, such as those associated with traditional bookkeeping and manual data entry. There is clear business sense in reducing labour spent manually logging data from paper documents and redirecting this resource into more lucrative revenue streams, such as advisory services. As we move ahead in this digital age it

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Issue 10 / 101

New Releases

Updates and new releases: from the Xero App Marketplace New feature shout-out Are you a Xeroconnected App? Got a new feature or update you’d like to share with the Xero User community? Email alex@ xumagazine.com

Account Kit account-kit.com

accurate insights that businesses can rely on.

AutoEntry autoentry.com

CIN7 cin7.com

Key updates for AccountKit have been focussed around tightening up the integration with XPM, automating the equipment finance posting into Xero, and optimisations and refinements to the usability of the business structure diagram editor. ApprovalMax approvalmax.com

We brought several significant product enhancements to ApprovalMax, including the newly available Reporting, Fraud Prevention, and Bill Editing & Coding capabilities. The Reporting feature addresses the basic need for providing aggregated views on the approval progress by Approver, supplier, due date, and other selected criteria. Reporting enhancements include the ability to set the Planned Payment date as well as track the duration of the approval process. The Fraud Prevention feature allows notifying the Administrator about finance documents being approved outside of the predefined approval workflow set in ApprovalMax; for example, in case of an automatic approval in Xero. It enables you to filter out such documents and have them routed to ApprovalMax for approval, if this is required. The Bill Editing & Coding feature facilitates coding of the captured Bills in ApprovalMax, 102 / Issue 10

which includes entering tracking categories and splitting line items.

AutoEntry, the simple way to capture and upload purchase invoices and receipts, is now available for download on both Apple and Android devices. AutoEntry allows users to capture key invoice information, including tax summaries and full line item detail on demand. AutoEntry can now match invoices to purchase orders for companies integrated with Xero. Chargify chargify.com

Cin7 continues adding integrations to make it easier for customers to manage inventory in a single comprehensive cloud based solution, no matter where or how a company sells. Cin7 now integrates with more than 100 (and counting) retailers, eCommerce platforms, third-party logistics providers, customer relationship management software and accounting solutions like Xero. Cin7 is now the only cloud based inventory management solution to integrate with all four Amazon sales channels. Cin7 customers can instantly manage their inventory when they become an Amazon Seller or an Amazon Vendor. And they can manage inventory and get automatic cost updates when they use Fulfillment by Amazon. Finally, they don’t have to go through third-party EDI testing, integration or management if they use Amazon Dropship. On top of all that, Cin7 has made it much easier to activate new integrations. With Cin7’s new App Store, customers can add integrations with a click of a button.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is one of the most important bottom line metrics for any subscriptionbased businesses. Chargify’s recently released MRR analytics give businesses a crystal clear view into net MRR growth and the composition of MRR movements. And since Chargify is the direct link between subscribers and revenue related events, they’re uniquely advantaged to understand when, what, and why revenue changes are happening, even for complex MRR use cases. The result is beautiful,

Deputy deputy.com/xero • Monthly and Employee: Centric Schedule Views - Now you can schedule by individual employee, or by using a monthly view of your workplace. • Improved Multi-tasking: Switch between multiple reports with ease. Deputy saves and neatly stores your session so you can jump between actions quickly. • Schedule Templates: Perfect for busy or holiday periods. Now you

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

New Releases can save different schedules to use at a later date. • Two Factor Authentication: Deputy is the first and only cloudbased workforce management solution to offer Two Step Verification, along with Single Sign On, and Mobile Device Management. • New Enterprise Platform with consumer-grade interface, apps, and social features. Accurate costed scheduling with flexible options for salaried employees. • Custom Pay Rates: We provide you with real-time cost calculations as you schedule your staff. • Completely new iPhone App • Completely new Android App with Management functionality ExpenseCheck www.expensecheck.com.au Advisors now receive weekly updates on all their businesses statuses with single click to send information to clients. Fooman fooman.co.nz

integrates Forecasting, Dashboards, KPIs, Alerts, Business Monitoring and Consolidation. In January, along with a name change from CrunchBoards, it launched white labelling. Amy Harris, Founder, said: “We don’t want our partners to be resellers of our product, we want to help them deliver a better service. If you want to differentiate, this is the game changer.” GoCardless gocardless.com

Announcing the launch of GoCardless Plus... GoCardless, the UK’s leading Direct Debit provider, is excited to announce the launch of their new Plus plan. GoCardless Plus enables you to have your own Service User Number (SUN) which means your customers will always see your business name on their bank statements every time a payment is collected from their account on your behalf. GoCardless Plus is available on the Xero integration so you can also automatically take payments and reconcile invoices within your Xero account. Jet Convert jetconvert.com.au

your beck and call. These packages are ideal for Accountants and Bookkeepers that have a number of clients to move to Xero. We will oversee every conversion in detail, saving you the usual demands and minutiae associated with the basic service. You choose. We deliver. MinuteDock minutedock.com

• Expenses – in beta: Track expenses for a contact or project, and seamlessly add them to your invoices. You can create items to make entering common expenses faster, or enter a one-off expense to bill to the client. • New reporting shortcuts: We’ve added a new feature to Contacts & Projects to help you run reports quicker, just click the button to run a report directly from a specific contact or project. • Summary invoice grouping: We’ve added a new grouping option for your invoices. To combine all your time entries into one line and just show an invoice total, use the new ‘Summary’ grouping option. • Zapier Integration – in beta: We now integrate with Zapier giving you the opportunity to integrate MinuteDock with the other apps you use. Moula moula.com.au/flex

Fooman Connect: Xero (MagentoXero integration) is now available on the the Magento 2 platform. Developed by Fooman (official Xero App Partner and Magento Technology Partner), the integration automatically exports Magento data to Xero. FUTRLI futrli.com

FUTRLI is cloud software that gives businesses, accountants and advisors tomorrow’s insights, today. The only all-in-one advisory platform in Xero’s ecosystem, it

Making the move to Xero for you and your clients is getting easier and irresistible with Jet Convert. We now provide Partner support packages in addition to the basic Xero sponsored free data conversion service. Designed to make the conversion process hassle free for you they include conversion file fixes, additional history and a personal conversion concierge at

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Issue 10 / 103

New Releases new flexible line of credit for strong SMEs operating for over 24 months, that from time to time need access to funding. Minimum $20,000 - Maximum $100,000. No fees to set up or on prepayments. Interest 1.0% per fortnight AND only charged on utilised amount. Draw down and repay, at any time.

their relevant chart of accounts for the same streamlined accounting experience!

PaySpace payspace.com

• Shipper integrations with USPS, UPS, UPS Mail Innovations, DHL Express, DHL Global Mail, DHL International, FedEx, Royal Mail, Canada Post, Australia Post. • New, improved, and more detailed order details screen. • Configurable rounding logic for invoices. • Integration with eBay Europe (Italy, France, UK, Germany), Australia, Singapore, Malaysia. • Integration with Amazon Europe (Italy, France, UK, Germany, Spain). • Integration with Magento 2.x • Integration with WooCommerce. • Introducing Variation Products: Enter variants of products based on size, weight, color, etc.

PaySpace are excited to announce that we are launching a new Employee Self Service (ESS) portal on 1st February 2017. The two major enhancements included in the new release are the any device, multi-language features. The portal dynamically adapts to any device including a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop. Secondly, users will have the ability to select a language preference other than English. We are launching with Portuguese as an additional language option and plan to add more prevalent languages on the African continent soon! Preno prenohq.com

Preno integrates with Kounta: Preno hotel management system releases their integration with Kounta’s cloud based POS system. The integration enables hoteliers to provide a seamless experience for their guests. Kounta and Preno will allow guests to ‘bill to room’ when dining at the restaurant. The restaurant charges will automatically be sent to the guest’s booking, and they can pay for everything upon checkout. When both Preno and Kounta are connected to Xero, all of the accounting entries will be pushed to 104 / Issue 10

Quotient quotientapp.com

Primaseller primaseller.com

ProfitSee myprofitsee.com

We pride ourselves on our ability to quickly update our tools and features to help you automate and simplify your advisory services. We’re very excited to announce that we are revamping our Scenarios tool. Thanks to feedback from our users we are updating the design to make it even more user-friendly, and adding new Scenario variations to make it even easier to create great strategic business plans for your clients. Learn more about our Scenarios at: www.myprofitsee.com/features and if you have any requests, send your ideas to: partnersuccess@myprofitsee.com!

Our latest arrival: Imports for Items and Contacts. If you’re just starting out with Quotient, or you’ve been using it for a while, Imports now make it easy to get your data into Quotient. https://www.quotientapp.com/ blog/import-items-and-contacts It’s time to give back, introducing Quotient referrals. Give 1 month free. Get $50/£30 credit. You can now share Quotient with your friends to earn credit on your account. https://www.quotientapp.com/ blog/introducing-quotient-referrals Spotlight spotlightreporting.com Major consolidations update including automated intercompany eliminations and new FX options: You can now tag accounts as intercompany accounts and Spotlight will automatically eliminate these every month. Just click the Eliminate Accounts button on the Group Customise Data tab and specify the intercompany account(s) in each entity. If there are any FX differences that arise from the elimination, these will be journaled into a FX adjustment row in the reports. We’ve added a number of new FX options. You can now view the FX rates used in Spotlight by clicking the Edit Exchange Rates button on the Group Settings page. When converting profit & loss values, you can choose between using the ‘Xe. com’ month-end rate, the monthly average rate, or you can enter your own rate. https://vimeo.com/176252271 Six industry templates: Our new six industry templates take the effort out of creating tailored reports. Each template is built with your business in mind and displays the key metrics you should consider. The pre-built charts will work straight out of

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

New Releases the box. No more fiddling around trying to figure out how to create formulas. Alternatively, if you want to customise the charts for your unique setup, use the formula builder option in the chart to view and edit the formulas. Industries include SaaS, Professional Services, Retail, Agriculture Dairy, Agriculture - Livestock and Hospitality. https://vimeo.com/175310562 New formula gallery: This new feature will allow administrators to create formulas which all users can access and use. This means many accounting firms will save time as users will be able to reuse formulas rather than re-creating them. It will also reduce errors or inconsistencies that previously occurred because not everyone was using the same formula or didn’t re-enter formula correctly. https://vimeo.com/200273126 New P&L reporting options and cash flow statement: We added six new reporting options for the profit and loss report. Users will now be able to compare a two-month

period or quarter against budget or last year. In addition, we’ve added rolling twelve month and current financial year options as well. We’ve also released a highly requested feature from users. A new cash flow statement page has been released to report on the movements in a more tabular format. It will enable advisors and businesses to track cash movements throughout the year and ensure they maintain good control of spending. https://vimeo.com/189696121

dashboard to give accountants a clear look at sales tax risks on a state-by-state basis, and to help them decide where to collect and remit sales tax. They have also made it easier for accountants to understand how sales tax impacts monthly cash flows. You can start a free trial of Taxify on their site:http://www.taxify.co

Taxify taxify.co

New ‘Automated Sales Tax Dashboard’: Taxify offers small and midsize businesses an easy way to automate sales tax filings everywhere in the United States. They recently released a new

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Issue 10 / 105

Jeri Murphy, Co-Founder, WhichAddOn.com

@jeri_murph

Jeri is one of the world’s top cloud integrators helping businesses and their advisors move into and maximise the cloud. As an ecosystem expert trainer and cloud integration specialist, Jeri spends her time discovering hidden Add-ons and Apps that make a difference in the world and bringing them to light.

Taking the ‘auto-magical’ to the next level EntryRocket saves time and money in ways you could never imagine... A

uto-magical. Bringing auto-imagination to life. Whatever you want to call it. EntryRocket (formerly known as CSV2Cloud) is the automation engine that is changing lives around the world.

DID YOU KNOW... If you create your purchase orders in another system, you can’t import them into Xero… unless you use EntryRocket. Invoices, bills, bank transactions, payments, purchase orders, contacts, manual journals are some of the things that EntryRocket can import into Xero for you.

You may not know them by name, but rest assured, there are two humble, hard working European gentlemen programming away, working long nights and early mornings, creating automation magic for Xero users just like you. Whether you want to get information into Xero fast or get it out fast, EntryRocket has you covered. It is the piece of the puzzle that fits in perfect place for you when nothing else does. It’s the gap-filler you won’t ever want to let go of. EntryRocket does two very complex things very well: 1) gets any data into Xero fast, data that you would usually have to enter or import manually, and 2) exports data out of Xero - in any way that you need it. In order to explain how EntryRocket makes the complex simple, let me give you some real life scenarios to paint a picture. Imagine this scenario, your business or your client have a

106 / Issue 10

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

finance team where one member enters in all the fuel mileage records and fuel bills for the previous month, breaking them down by vehicle, cost centre and entering in all the different charges to different accounts. There are 120 employees worth of fuel cards to enter. This process takes her around 10 hours per month - the best part of two days. With EntryRocket, this entire process could be complete in under 5 minutes. Let’s say that employee costs you $25 per hour - that’s $250 per month spent minimum. Once everything is set up, for a scenario like this, which would include say 5 bills total - one per cost center, EntryRocket would cost $25 per month. That’s a saving of $225 on just one process. Let’s take another example. Bill is a retail shop owner. He has three stores in the US - one in New York City, one in Los Angeles and another in Denver. Bill has been using his favorite point of sale (POS) system in his business for the last 10 years as his business has grown from just one New York city store, to the three stores he has now. His accountant has tried to convince him to move to a more modern cloud based POS system so Bill can see what’s going on in real time in all his stores, but Bill is stubborn and is not changing his mind.

confirm that they understand the information within the exported CSV file and what needs to be imported into Xero. EntryRocket then builds a parser - think little piece of customised software - that will read that CSV file each time it is sent and in this case, automatically convert it into an invoice in Xero. That’s it! If Bill’s system could automatically generate the end-ofday report as a CSV file and email it to his designated EntryRocket

email address, then he wouldn’t have to do a thing! That information would auto-magically appear in Xero. No printing for Bill. No stress for his wife. No extra bills from the accountant for Bill. Can you see now why Entry Rocket is taking the auto-magical to the next level?

FROM A HAPPY CUSTOMER “Hours of manual work on a weekly basis is done in seconds!! Thank you so much to the EntryRocket Team.” Irma Bantjes, Stratus Financial Group, Australia

Your questions answered by the Founders... Recently, I met with Vlad and Nemanja from EntryRocket to get some answers to the questions I know you are going to have. JM: What types of files can EntryRocket accept to import into Xero?

Each night, when Bill gets home, he prints out his end-of-day cash-up sheets and leaves them for his wife to enter into Xero the next day. If she doesn’t get a chance to do it, which is often, she emails them onto the accountant who has to have his junior accountant enter them into Xero once every week. EntryRocket could save this family time, money and relieve their stress of all these incomplete tasks. Another side benefit is 0 errors, which are to be expected from time to time with manual data entry.

V: Most common file types we process are CSV, Excel, XML, JSON, TXT and IIF files. We process PDF files as well, unless they’re scanned copies of paper documents.

As a first step, instead of printing off his end-of-day cash-up sheet, Bill would simply download it as a CSV file and forward it to the EntryRocket team. They will review the file and work with Bill to

JM: How much is EntryRocket?

JM: What else can you tell me about EntryRocket that you want XU Magazine readers to know?

JM: How do you get started with EntryRocket? N: All you need to do is email your sample file to help@entryrocket.com with a brief explanation of what you need and we’ll be in touch to arrange a short meeting, if needed. Or you can just start chatting directly with us on our website at entryrocket.com.

N: The process of reviewing your sample file and understanding your process is free. Once you are happy that we can give

Have you subscribed? Go to subscriptions.xumagazine.com

you the result you want and you can see the money and time savings, we will start building the parser for you. The cost of the setup starts at $99 and usually takes 2-3 days depending on how quickly we can get answers to a few short questions from you. Monthly subscription starts at just $25 and depends on how many invoices, bills, bank transactions, etc. we create for you in Xero. You can see all our prices at entryrocket. com

V: We believe anything is possible. We don’t think about EntryRocket as just another cloud app. It’s more like a combination of an IT agency and a cloud app, just at a fraction of the cost of hiring an IT agency. We can do very complex and customised things, but also save time on simple things that you might not even think we can help you with. Get in touch with us and we’ll give you a straight answer, usually right away, on our online chat.

Issue 10 / 107

Aleisha Fletcher, Manager, Williams Giles Chartered Accountants Aleisha is a manager at Williams Giles Chartered Accountants specialising in Xero. Aleisha not only deals with accounts and bookkeeping, but also runs workshops, training and Spotlight Events with Xero Partners in order to spread the word about cloud accounting.

Get ready, set, go!

the importance of a good set-up So you’ve seen the demo, watched the videos, been won over by the impressive design and are ready to take the leap and move your business across to Xero….but what next? Where do you begin? Aleisha explains why it is so important to get your Xero setup and conversion right, along with some hints and tips along the way...

hy is the Xero set up so important?

One of the best pieces of advice we give to our clients is that you will get out of Xero what you invest into it. Be it a new company starting from the beginning, or conversion of an existing company from different accounting software, the first big step, and perhaps the most important, is the setup of Xero itself. It is from this point that your records will be built, and like building a house, your foundations are key. With a good setup and understanding of the software, you will reap all the rewards of automation and self-reconciliation that Xero has to offer. We would therefore always advise investing the time at the beginning and enlisting the help of a Xero certified advisor. Get Ready! Company Details - The first step of any Xero set up is the input of the 108 / Issue 10

company information, so ensure that you have all information to hand, including the Company No. and VAT details (where relevant) before you begin. Entering this information now will save you having to go back at a later date and fill in any gaps. User details - A great feature of Xero is the ability to have an unlimited number of users, and customise the permissions and access that each user has depending on their job role within your company. Users can be added and customised once the initial setup is complete, however Xero will also give you the option at this point to invite another user, such as your Xero Advisor, to allow you to get some help with the following, more technical steps. Chart of Accounts - Xero does have a default chart of accounts, and this may provide ample information for a new start-up company. However, if you want to report in some detail, or are converting from other accounting software, now is a great time to think about exactly what information you would like Xero to show, and customise your chart

of accounts accordingly, giving you a great platform from the very beginning. • Are there additional nominal codes that you would like to have within your chart of accounts? • Would you like to be able to split your sales income into categories? • Would you like to breakdown your direct expenses into details to be able to see exactly where your main costs lie? • Will you be moving across from different accounting software and want to keep your current chart of accounts and codes the same? If any of these are the case, it is at the setup stage that you can import a customised chart of accounts, specifically tailoring this to your company, and taking your preferences into account. Xero does at this stage provide a template for you to use should you wish to import your own chart, or edit the Xero default chart. These points really need some thought and discussion with your accountant as they are the

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

foundations of your accounting system. Get Set! Invoice templates - Businesses are driven by sales, so getting the sales invoice template setup is always a priority. As with the Chart of Accounts, Xero does have a default template that will pull in your company details and logo, however you can also import or create a more customised design using the template download. This is really useful if you would like the invoice designed a set way, to be more customised, or if you are trying to recreate to match an existing invoice template. This can be a bit fiddly, however within Xero Help is a summary of all place holders that can be used. If using the customise option, I would always recommend posting a dummy sales invoice and using this to check how your template is looking, re-running, and using trial and error if necessary until you are happy with how your invoice looks. Converting from other software? Tips and tricks Where the company is already established, entering the conversion balances correctly goes hand-in-hand with the setup itself, and is key to ensure a smooth transition of record keeping and reliability of the company ledgers. A few points to consider when entering your conversion balances from previous software:

3. Bank balance The bank balance in the conversion TB should be the bank statement balance as at the conversion date, with any outstanding lodgements and payments etc. posted to a suspense code to be netted off as they actually clear the bank (as these will have already been included in the previous accounts). This will not only ensure that no transactions are replicated in the changeover but also that going forward your bank reconciliation will work. 4. Export the contact list for both customers and suppliers Using the import templates within Xero can save time and enable you to import a lot of data in one hit. These can be done together as one import - see template within Xero. 5. Run and import detailed Debtors and Creditors reports Make sure the current VAT scheme is taken into account (if on cash scheme, these will need to have the VAT included so that it can be pulled onto the Xero VAT returns as payments are received). These should tie up exactly to the conversion balances on aged receivables and payables. As with the bank, ensuring this initial setup is done correctly will save a big reconciliation headache down the line! 6. VAT

1. Lock down old softwareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s posting dates Ensuring all reconciliations work and records are complete - this then makes sure that the opening balances in Xero will be correct and final. 2. Export a full TB for balances (not just balance sheet codes) This will ensure that your Xero has full comparative figures for both income and expenditure, as well as your profit and loss codes

To ensure a smooth conversion with no differences or errors pulled into the VAT reconciliation report, the VAT balance can be dealt with in much the same way as the bank account. The outstanding VAT return figure should be posted as the conversion balance and any adjustments not yet accounted for, posted to a VAT suspense account, allowing these to be correctly cleared and dealt with through a clearing account without your conversion balances

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changing and causing errors within the VAT reconciliation in Xero. The VAT reconciliation report is an extremely useful report which, when set up correctly will fully reconcile your VAT, showing the breakdown of VAT on payables/ receivables, VAT owed to HMRC and VAT un-submitted. This report will only be accurate however, if the conversion VAT balances are entered correctly and so it is important to ensure these are dealt with properly on set up. Any differences not yet included or accounted for on a VAT return should then be corrected on the first day of the financial year in Xero to ensure they are dealt with on the next VAT return. 7. Finally It is important that lock dates are used, not only on your old system to ensure nothing is changed but also in Xero, to ensure that your conversion balances arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t accidentally amended. Bank feed set up Once all of your historic data is correct in Xero, you will be ready and able to get your bank transactions for the current year uploaded to Xero, in order to start bookkeeping from the solid foundations of your setup. It is always best practice to get your direct bank feed installed, which can be backdated to your conversion date. Go! With the setup and conversion balances firmly under your belt, you are ready to start inputting data and explore all Xero has to offer with regard to its processing and reporting capabilities, in the knowledge that your records and ledgers are accurate and complete.

Issue 10 / 109

App Directory

OVER

5AP0PS0

App/Service Directory To advertise, please email the team at: advertising@xumagazine.com

Bills & Expenses AutoEntry | @OCRexSoftware

MP Travel | @MPTravelPtyLtd mptravel.com.au

MMC Convert | @mmcconvert mmcconvert.com

customersure.com Exsalerate | @exsalerate

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Highrise Connector By Xero

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Global Leader in Data Conversion

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Intelligently Capture Invoices and Receipts straight into Xero

help.xero.com/Network_Highrise Infoodle | @infoodle infoodle.com Infusionsoft By Zapier | @zapier zapier.com Insightly For Xero | @insightlyapp

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CRM CRM

abacus.com ABUKAI Expenses | @abukai_news

24SevenOffice | @24SOSupport

abukai.com ApprovalMax | @ApprovalMax approvalmax.com

110 / Issue 10

webexpenses.com Webrecs | @Webrecs webrecs.com.au Xpenditure | @Xpenditure xpenditure.com/en

Conversions CONVERSIONS Click 2 Convert | @C2Convert c2convert.com cloudconvert | @CloudconvertSa cloudconvert.co.za ConvertworX | @ConvertworX convertworx.com.au FITmyBooks fitmybooks.co.za JetConvert | @JetConvert jetconvert.com.au Movemybooks | @movemybooks movemybooks.co.uk

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insightly.com JunariCRM+ | @JunariCRMplus junaricrmplus.com Legrand CRM | @Legrand legrandcloudcrm.com/home Magnetism magnetismsolutions.com Mailchimp by OneSaas | @onesaas onesaas.com/integrate MailSync | @MailSync mailsyncapp.com Ninjodo | @Ninjodo ninjodo.com OnePage CRM | @OnePageCRM welcome.onepagecrm.com OneSaas for Salesforce | @onesaas onesaas.com OneSaas for Zoho CRM | @onesaas onesaas.com/integrate Pepperi pepperi.com PropertySuite | @PropertySuite propertysuite.co.nz QikBizCRM | @QikBizNZ qikbizcrm.com Quick Win Development | @quickwindev quickwindevelopment.com Really Simple Systems | @ReallySimpleSys reallysimplesystems.com/uk SalesSeek | @SalesSeek salesseek.net

clientheartbeat.com ClubHub | @ClubHubSSL clubhub.co.nz/ commonsku | @commonsku commonsku.com Communigator communigator.co.nz ConstantContact | @ConstantContact constantcontact.com CRM Online crmonline.com.au

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

App Directory Xploite | @xploiteapp xploite.com Zendesk by Cloud Elements | @CloudElements cloud-elements.com Zendesk by Zapier

Web Industries webindustries.co.nz

Debtor Tracking DEBTOR TRACKING Chaser | @chaser_io chaser.io

zapier.com/zapbook/xero/zendesk

customd.com databuzz.com.au teamdf.com Dynamic Solutions Ltd dynamic-solutions.co.nz EndGame | @GoEndGame end-game.com/xero ExcluServ | @ExcluServ excluserv.co.uk Foundation Data foundationdata.co.nz Harmonic New Media harmonicnewmedia.com Hashbang | @hashbangnz hashbang.co.nz Infopower customintegration.co.nz Interlockit.com interlockit.com iSOS isos.com NetEngine | @Net_Engine netengine.com.au Numernet | @numernet numernet.com nuSoftware | @nu_Software nusoftware.com Open Sauce Systems | @OpenSauceSystem

Your invoices paid on time, automatically

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logicstudio.nz Trineo | @trineoltd trineo.co.nz Trio Technology | @Trio_Tech triotech.co.nz

hubdoc.com Qwilr | @Qwilr qwilr.com Webrecs | @Webrecs webrecs.com.au

eCommerce eCommerce A2X Accounting | @a2xaccounting a2xaccounting.com Airsquare | @airsquare airsquare.com Amazon.com by Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs stitchlabs.com Bigcommerce by Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk Bigcommerce by OneSaas | @onesaas onesaas.com Bigcommerce by Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs stitchlabs.com Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk

Magento by Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk MINDBODY | @mindbodyonline partner.mindbodyonline.com Neto | @netoecommerce neto.com.au OneSaas for Opencart | @onesaas onesaas.com OneSaas for WooCommerce | @onesaas onesaas.com Opencart by Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk osCommerce by Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk PayPal by Zapier | @zapier zapier.com Pepperi pepperi.com PrestaShop by Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk Rocketspark | @Rocketspark rocketspark.com

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Documents DOCUMENTS

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onesaas.com

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Issue 10 / 111

Financial Services FINANCIAL SERVICES BizFi | @Bizfinyc bizfi.com

Current RMS | @currentrms current-rms.com DEAR Inventory | @DearInventory dearsystems.com Expandly | @expandly

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myaccountingtoolbox.com

112 / Issue 10

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

App Directory TimeCamp | @timecamp

Qwilr | @Qwilr

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qwilr.com RepairShopr | @RepairShopr repairshopr.com Senddr | @senddirect

EntryRocket | @csv2cloud entryrocket.com

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Workshop Software | @workshoponline

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT tidybuild com TidyEnterprise | @TidyInt tidyenterprise.com

workshopsoftware.com.au ZeroTime zerotime.io

Other Other A2X Accounting | @a2xaccounting

Time Tracker by eBillity | @eBillity

onesaas.com Onsight | @Onsight_App onsightapp.com OzBiz Solutions | @OzBizSolutions

trustfile.avalara.com

ozbizsolutions.com.au

Boxkite | @getboxkite

PennyPipe | @PennyPipe

getboxkite.com Business Oxygen Lite businessoxygen.com.au ClubHub | @ClubHubSSL

tidywork.com

mydesktop.com.au MyFirmsApp | @MyFirmsApp myfirmsapp.com

arlo.co

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mrpeasy.com MyDesktop | @MyDesktopAPI

OneSaas | @onesaas

Avalara | @avalara

tidyenterprise com

mailsyncapp.com MRPEasy | @mrpeasy

a2xaccounting.com agprofit.com.au

MANUFACTURING

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Ag Profit | @AgProfitAus Arlo

clubhub.co.nz CoverKit by NZI nzi.co.nz

ebillity.com

JobReady | @JobReadyNSW

theservicemanager.com

PocketRent | @PocketRent

pennypipe.com

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Issue 10 / 113

App Directory Workshop Software | @workshoponline

PayPal | @PayPal

Wufoo by Zapier | @zapier

paypal.com

zapier.com

PayPal by Zapier | @zapier

Zapier | @zapier

zapier.com

PennyPipe | @PennyPipe

Zendesk by Zapier | @zapier

pennypipe.com

zapier.com

Pin Payments | @PinPayments

Zenoti | @ZenotiSoftware

pin.net.au

zenoti.com

Plooto | @PlootoInc

Payments

app.plooto.co

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POLi Payments | @POLiPayments

Acuity Scheduling | @AcuitySchedulin

polipayments.com

acuityscheduling.com

Promptly | @Paid_Promptly

Authorize.Net | @AuthorizeNet

paidpromptly.com

reseller.authorize.net

Rerun | @Rerunapp

Bill and Pay | @BillandPay

rerunapp.com

billandpay.com

SAT FXOnline | @satworldwide

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satfxonline.co.uk

bill.com

Stripe | @stripe

Chargify | @Chargify

stripe.com

chargify.com

Stripe by Commerce Sync |

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@commercesync

checkeeper.com/xero

commercesync.com

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Stripe (Canada) | @stripe

checkvault.com.au

stripe.com

Directli | @Directli

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workshopsoftware.com.au

stripe.com

Workforce Guardian | @workforceguard

Employment Hero | @EmploymentHero

workforceguardian.com.au

employmenthero.com

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zuusworkforce.com

enablehr.com.au Ento | @entohq

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ento.com ePayroll | @ePayrollAus

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epayroll.com.au

cin7.com

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squareup.com

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deputy.com

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posbosshq.com Retail Express | @RetailExpress01 retailexpress.com.au

paysonline.com.au

rPOS by RPG | @RobotPubGroup

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payspace.com

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uCollect | @ucollect_biz

Square | @Square

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Make sure you get paid on time, every time with the GoCardless for Xero app gocardless.com/xero

Payroll &&HR PAYROLL HR Boomr - Employee Time Clock | @BoomrApps

cloudpayroll.com.au

ozforex.com.au Pay RIGHT AWAY | @PayRIGHTAWAY payrightaway.com.au

114 / Issue 10

SimplePay.com.sg

Crystal Payroll crystalpayroll.com

CMY

SurePayroll | @SurePayroll lps.surepayroll.com Talenox | @Talenox Tanda | @TandaHQ

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

simplepay.co.za

talenox.com

Midpoint | @MidpointLtd OzForex | @ozforex

SimplePay.co.za

smartpayroll.com.au

New Zealand www.ipayroll.co.nz sales@ipayroll.co.nz

kwanji.com midpoint.com

simplepay.ca

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invoicesherpa.com izettle.com

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simplepay.com.sg

integrapay.com.au InvoiceSherpa | @invoicesherpa

Kwanji | @KwanjiX

adp.com

CloudPayroll

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towersystems.com.au

Automated Data Processing Inc. | @ADP

boomr.com IntegraPay | @IntegraPay

squareup.com Tower Systems | @TowerSystems

tanda.co Thankyou Payroll | @ThankyouPayroll thankyoupayroll.co.nz The Payroll Site | @ThePayrollSite

Vend | @vendhq vendhq.com Zilch Consulting | @zilchconsulting zilchconsulting.com

Reporting Reporting Ag Profit | @AgProfitAus agprofit.com.au

thepayrollsite.co.uk

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

App Directory Asset Guru | @Asset_Guru

Infoodle | @infoodle infoodle.com

asset.guru Benchmarking.com.au

Time TRACKING Tracking TIME ActionStep | @Actionstep

benchmarking.com.au

actionstep.com

Bizeo | @bizeo

briefcase

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getbriefcase.net

Blink Reports

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calxa.com

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scoreboard.liveplan.com Mentio: Business Mentor | @mentiohq

Cash Flow Story

mentio.ca

cashflowstory.com

Momentum

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atsora.com Moxy Cloud Reporting moxyreports.com

cyfe.com

My Own CFO | @myown_cfo

DataDear | @DataDearApp datadear.com

myown-cfo.com Neatly | @go_neatly

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neatly.io Panalitix | @panalitix panalitix.com

dryrun.com

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fathomhq.com figured.com Financial Driver | @FinancialDriver financialdriver.com Float | @FloatApp floatapp.com Futrli | @Futrli futrli.com Grappster | @grappster grappster.com

zapier.com Harvest | @harvest

keypay.com.au MinuteDock | @minutedock minutedock.com

vworkapp.com

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saasabi.com

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ZeroTime

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zuusworkforce.com

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timecamp.com Timely | @Timely

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ebillity.com TimeCamp | @timecamp

tymwise.com

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vistr.co

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ranqx.com

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tidywork com

geoop.com

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unleash.us

JOB MANAGEMENT

Google Calender by Zapier | @zapier

JobPro Central | @JobProCentral

Unleash

tidywork.com

GeoOp | @GeoOp

i-man.com.au

Ranqx

temponia.com TidyWork | @TidyWork

freshdesk.com

jobprocentral.com

Figured | @figuredapp

tanda.co Temponia | @temponia

flexitime.co.nz

icoslive.com

qvinci.com

synergist.co.uk Tanda | @TandaHQ

Freshdesk | @freshdesk

IMS Service Track

QVinci | @Qvinci

streamtime.net Synergist | @Synerg1st

etztec.com

timesheets.com.au

quickwindevelopment.com

trafficlive.com Streamtime | @streamtime

Flexitime | @FlexiTimeTeam

Intertec TimePro

Fathom | @fathomhq

smartbiller.co.nz Sohnar Limited / TrafficLive | @TrafficLIVE

everhour.com

Management | @iCOSLIVE

Excel Int. Tools - QWD | @quickwindev

rollhq.com SmartBiller | @smartbiller

etz Technologies | @etzTechnologies

iCOS LIVE - Online Transport

dryrun.com

proworkflow.com Roll | @rollhq

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getharvest.com

Forecast your Cash Flow, Budget & Sales Scenarios

ProWorkflow | @ProWorkflow

Nexonia | @nexonia nexonia.com NextMinute | @NextMinuteApp nextminute.com Outlook Int.Tools - QWD | @quickwindev quickwindevelopment.com

Xero Practice Manager PRACTICE MANAGER AccountKit | @AccountKit account-kit.com Class Super | @ClassSuper class.com.au DataDear | @DataDearApp datadear.com

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App Directory Inform Direct | @InformDirect Integration/Outsourcing Inform Direct directory advert_LayoutCloud 1Cloud 2 Integrator/Outsourcing

Excel Int. Tools - QWD | @quickwindev

Professional Services PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

quickwindevelopment.com

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Exsalerate | @exsalerate

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Award-winning Company Secretarial Software

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FORMbasic | @formbasic

appsforops.com

formbasic.com.au Mogul • T RA VE LR E

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• ILL &B

SCHEDU LER

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Stryke Tax | @stryketax

PT EI EC

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spotlightreporting.com

•

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Visit informdirect.co.uk and register to claim your 28 day free trial

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EX PE N OVAL PPR E-A PR

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advancetrack.com

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Time Tracker by EndGame | @GoEndGame

bluehub.co.uk

BGL Corporate Solutions | @BGLdot bglcorp.com

end-game.com Trustworks | @trustworksnz trustworks.co.nz Xero Workpapers | @Xero xero.com

Add-on App selection App Implementation Custom Integrations Xero Accountant Support

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

DON’T MISS...

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Issue 10 / 117

...and Finally

Apple Pay is here! Xero users can now use Apple Pay through Stripe...

s of December 2016, businesses using Xero can offer their customers the option of paying for goods and services using Apple Pay. How has this been made possible, you might ask. Through partnership with Stripe. Cristina Cordova, Head of Business Development at Stripe, says, “We’re excited to work closely with Xero to help hundreds of thousands of businesses use Apple Pay to get their invoices paid with little more than a fingerprint”. Stripe, which operates in 25 countries, is an eCommerce platform that has been integrated with Xero for years, but this most recent advance means businesses using Apple Pay can see payments automatically matched with invoices in Xero, eliminating manual reconciliation.

The service is already automatically available to all of you subscribed to Xero who offer Stripe as a payment service. Apple Pay is enabled on your invoices so you simply have to do...nothing! Your customers will be prompted to confirm their details with Touch ID, so they don’t even have to fill in card details. Xero highlighted 3 main reasons why Xero users should embrace contactless payments (taken from Xero blog): 1. Speed and convenience: faster transactions means better customer satisfaction 2. Sell goods quicker: quicker payments and shorter queues increase sales 3. Better branding: offering a wider variety of payment methods boosts the image of businesses as progressive and high-tech

Apple Pay is just one of these payment methods that can better your business. According to Xero data, over 60% of the invoices businesses send end up overdue. Xero’s CTO, Craig Walker, explained, “Mobile payments are the way of the future. Attaching a payment option to online invoices helps Xero customers get paid almost 80% faster than invoices that don’t use a payment service - so they spend less time chasing unpaid invoices for a more productive and cash healthy business.” “By enabling these connections with payment services, small businesses are able to offer multiple payment options on an invoice, giving them and their customers choice of payment and also the ability to pay the invoice as soon as it arrives, ensuring they get paid faster.” A high priority for Xero is online security. Apple Pay launched in the US in 2014, and expanded to web-based purchases back in September. Alongside Stripe, an extra level of surveillance is added, with all transactions being verified using Touch ID, Apple’s fingerprint recognition tech. The result is peace of mind knowing that payments are authenticated with decreased risk of fraud, and chargebacks from banks! From Xero: “Stripe and Apple Pay are available in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Singapore and Ireland. From January 2017 Stripe will be available in NZ so Xero customers can take advantage of Apple Pay.”

118 / Issue 10

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

Apps to automate your business operations. Run a better business today. One platform. One login. Multiple apps. Powerful workďŹ&#x201A;ow enabled apps that are smart alone, or brilliant together.

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Issue 10 / 119

We live in an on demand world... How Satago works • Simply select the individual invoices to finance. • We advance up to 85% of the invoice value to you in less than 24 hours. No need to wait for your customer to pay you. • You finance an invoice worth £1,000, 10 days after it was issued to your customer. • We pay you £850 instantly. • Now, let’s assume that your customer pays us 40 days later. We would then pay you £150 and our fee would be £23. It couldn’t be easier.

Register for FREE Over 1,000 UK business owners already use Satago and one of our clients recently called us ‘world changing’. • • • •

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satago.com 120 / Issue 10

One click integration with Xero

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

XU Magazine - Issue 10

Articles inside

Get ready, set, go! The

NEW RELEASES - Updates

Taking the ‘auto-magical’ to

Top tips for Xero users: Budget

Mitigating risk and making

Does your accountancy firm

Alleviating reconciliation

Reconciling various customer

INTERVIEW - Q&A with Will

TUTORIAL - AutoEntry

Mindset over money: why

Introducing mTrio

Forget me not: the automated

The all-new Xero HQ

Small business expansion: how

TUTORIAL - Dryrun: help your

The ideal client: choosing the

A new year, a new global

CASE STUDY - How simple

ANNOUNCEMENT - Accountex

TUTORIAL - How to use

TUTORIAL - How to: using

Move to high-tech, high touch

A systems-based approach to

New business in the UK

5 silly excuses we give for not

TUTORIAL Streamline your

From rock music photographer

FEATURE - On the back of a

COVER STORY - How the

INTERVIEW - Q&A with Michael

Top tips for setting up your own

Why philanthropy matters

Explained: Xero Partner Program

TUTORIAL - Provide