XU Magazine - Issue 24 by XU Magazine

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Being cloud-based, WorkflowMax and Xero have been integral to rolling out a productive remote work environment.â&#x20AC;? Celeste Coyne Centre for Leadership Advantage

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Welcome to issue 24... STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX!

magazine The independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users

Issue 24 Main Contacts CEO: David Hassall (Co-Founder) Managing Editor: Wesley Cornell (Co-Founder) Director of Strategic Partnerships: Alex Newson

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COVER STORY Now Infinity The future of automation – how automated processes can help businesses become future-ready

Fluidly Why cashflow forecasting and funding services go hand in hand

Xero Updates from Xero (July September 2020)

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 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 2014-2020. 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 24

CASE STUDY WorkflowMax Leadership development critical as remote working becomes the norm

GoCardless How small businesses need to be using fintech in 2020

Zivora Zivora’s Humanistic design - driving client engagement for Accountants

INTERVIEW Xero Trent Innes, Managing Director, Australia & Asia

NEW ACQUISITION Receipt Bank Xavier and Receipt Bank creating ‘advice accountants’ through new platform

48 52

Freshmethod How to remove complexity, increase performance and reduce IT costs

TUTORIAL ApprovalMax How-to: Create bills directly in ApprovalMax AdvanceTrack Setting the standard - Why AdvanceTrack’s latest ISO certification is so important for clients

Scott’s Add-ins Creating Financial Art

HR Partner Transitioning your HR towards a Full or Semi-Remote Workforce

CASE STUDY Tidy Lessons from lockdown – how cloud-based systems are helping Survey Gisborne wake up in New Zealand’s new dawn

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

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8 Interviews with...

CASE STUDY Re-Leased Become a true business partner, not just a statutory compliance service

Trent Innes MD, Aus & Asia, Xero

MinuteDock Work Smarter: Time Management Techniques to Improve Your Workflow

CASE STUDY AccountancyManager Certax Durham switches to AccountancyManager and saves over 150 hours a month

106

Craig Macfarlane MD, ABE

CASE STUDY SuiteFiles Inside the move from MYOB to Xero + SuiteFiles

Commercial Property Management Software

XBert Why listening, collaborating and customer engagement is critical for app development

EntryCounts Maximise Xero For Your Accounting Firm. Are you getting your monies worth from Xero?

80 84

Spotlight Reporting Smash It, Rebuild It!

EVENT Terrapinn Asia The Asia accounting and finance technology event of the year goes virtual

simPRO simPRO Partner Programme: Exclusive Partnership for Accountants Working with Trade Contracting Businesses

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Issue 24 / 5

Compleat Software How should accounting professionals evolve to deal with the “New Normal”?

CASE STUDY Practice Ignition Perfecting the payments process - How one TaxAssist Accountants franchise manages proposals to payments in one platform

110

126

114

134

FOCUS: MENTAL HEALTH Navigating Coronavirus while Maintaining Good Mental Health FOCUS: PROPERTY Arthur Navigating the New Normal with Cloud-Based Financial Tools

CASE STUDY ApprovalMax Spend control for multi-site plants in the renewable energy sector: from construction to operation

APP DIRECTORY Over 700 Xero connected Apps

...and finally Xero acquires Waddle to help improve small business cash flow

116

Wolters Kluwer Advisory services – a key to business growth in a post COVID-19 world?

120

Sapaad Building a Sustainable Online Business Amidst COVID-19

MarketFinance Managing cash flow with finance: Helping clients survive and thrive

NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS New to the Xero App Marketplace

NEW RELEASES Updates and new releases from the Xero App Marketplace

102

AutoEntry How to instil good accounting habits with your clients

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Reducer Cloud accounting: A road to better spending?

106

Q&A ABE Craig Macfarlane, MD

UPDATED WITH

NEW APPS 6 / Issue 24

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infoodle 4 Simple Tips for Charities to Increase Productivity - How Xero and infoodle can help you serve your community more efficiently

124

Xero App Partners of the month

App/Service Directory Turn to page 126

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Issue 24 / 7

Cover Story

8 / Issue 24

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

Cover Story

The future of automation – how automated processes can help businesses become future-ready Smart machines are redefining our world and the way we do business. The SME community and accounting practices need to be prepared to embrace change. Already a one in 100-year pandemic is accelerating the pace of adoption of new technology...

he seemingly limitless potential of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) has attracted considerable interest. Andrew Russell is CEO and Managing Director of Class Limited, a leading provider of cloud-based administration software for investment portfolios across SMSFs and non-SMSF entities. He says, “Automation is driving efficiencies across accounting functions, and we are already seeing machine learning happening, particularly across activities that are repetitious.” Thomas Paule, Chief Digital, Technology and Marketing Officer at Findex, a leading provider of integrated financial advisory and accounting services, says, “The area where we are seeing the greatest application, is in software products that are eliminating waste and driving efficiency. This type of rules-based automation is also having a significant impact on the accounting sector.” Paule points out that in some respects, governments have pushed adoption forward, for example, through the introduction of Australia’s single touch payroll system. Nonetheless, he says, “The advent of cloud accounting suites has made the cycle of information more efficient, removing a lot of double entry processes undertaken by humans. Plenty of paper shuffling has gone from our industry.”

Finding a place in the value chain While few will lament the passing of paper shuffling and duplication of data entry, for many in the accounting profession the research being generated around automation can seem threatening. As far back as 2013, studies suggested that 47% of job categories would be open to automation within two decades, and accountants and auditors were cited as being the second highest in terms of risk, just after telemarketers. A 2017 report by McKinsey Global Institute predicted that by 2055 half of today’s work activities could be automated, though it warned this could happen even sooner depending on a range of factors including economic conditions. For an accounting sector facing the prospect of automation-driven change, Paule says it is essential for accountants to identify their place in the value chain. More particularly, he believes technology is driving the need for accountants to focus on analytical and advisory services. Paule uses the analogy of stockbrokers, whose chief role in the past was to help clients place trades. Fast forward 30 years, and technology has seen stockbrokers morph into a role more closely resembling private

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wealth managers, with the execution of bull/sell orders being an administrative follow-on. “I can safely say that accounting will follow somewhere down that path,” says Paule. “Where data structuring was once integral to the role of accountants, functions like this will become secondary to the provision of tailored analysis and advice.” Redirecting cost savings into other resources Taking on board new technologies can be disruptive, especially for SMEs and accounting practices that have followed ‘tried and tested’ processes for many years. Russell observes that among some accountants, “machine learning is still a ‘black box’ that isn’t well understood”. As such, new technologies can sometimes be treated with suspicion, though he adds that Class also sees early adopters – firms that recognise technology offers a way to become better practitioners. “Firms that are thinking strategically can see that automation is a smart decision towards competing in the future,” he notes. “Already our customers are seeing significant benefits of automation, especially around being able to conduct activities in the cloud anywhere, anytime.” According to Russell, a key benefit of automation is the options it Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 24 / 9

Cover Story provides accounting firms around the reallocation of resources. He explains, “The cost savings generated by automation can be channeled into the development of new business lines or reinvested in terms of growing more experienced teams to focus on higher order, revenue-generating activities.” The rewards of an efficiency dividend Russell acknowledges that investing in new technology does come at a cost, but he believes the pay-off is “a long-term efficiency dividend”. Other benefits accrue also. Russell points out that, “Automation isn’t just about improved efficiency and the cost savings this delivers. It also supports improved accuracy, which flows through to organisations being better able to meet compliance requirements.” The ability to leverage new technology can be impacted by cost constraints, particularly among SMEs whose budgets don’t extend to having their own data science divisions. The issue however is not insurmountable. The rise of hosting providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, has lowered the barriers to entry for many software providers that want a well-structured hosting environment. Paule acknowledges, “These providers have enabled start-ups to come to market, and it’s a similar story with AI – they are now adding machine learning to their platforms, reducing the barrier to entry for many smaller businesses.” The potential for fee compression As SMEs embrace automation, accountants need to face the possibility of fee compression as accounting services become more commoditised. “A natural knock-on effect of increased automation is that Accountants will feel fee compression for compliance services in the marketplace”, says Paule. “Clients will be less willing to pay for ‘number crunching’ services, 10 / Issue 24

and this is likely to further drive the evolution of accounting practices so that skill sets are focused towards activities such as advisorybased work, where fees are more recoverable. “The big promise of the new solutions coming to market hinges on the ability of accountants to make the shift into the analytical and advisory side of their practice.” COVID-19 highlights the value of technology It is ironic perhaps that one of the biggest disruptors of the 21st century – the Coronavirus pandemic, has also delivered the biggest impetus to adopt new technologies. Russell notes, “COVID-19 is not just changing the way we do business; it is changing the way we operate as a society. Technology has demonstrated its value during the crisis, and there is no doubt the pandemic has bought forward the rate of adoption of cloud technologies by at least ten years. “It’s been a case of ‘we have to get into the cloud to do business, and we have to do it now’. The result is that we are suddenly seeing less fear of change because it is critically important to keep a business running. This is superseding the resistance to change that we may have seen pre-COVID.” Russell adds, “Digital signatures for instance will become part of the way we operate, and teams are throwing funding into the development of this – a process that would have been a lot slower without the pandemic.” Paule agrees that the pandemic has fast-tracked adoption of technology. “They say it takes six weeks to develop a new habit,” he observes. “Many businesses have been in lockdown for at least this amount of time, and it has forced SMEs and accountants to find new ways to connect and do business leveraging technology. “The pandemic has created an

Above: Andrew Russell, CEO & MD, Class

understanding that it is possible to drive forward adoption and management of new technologies into the space of just a few weeks – and that’s very exciting.” Choose a provider with a ‘partnership’ focus The efficiencies that derive from automation can depend on a number of factors including the architecture of the software – how intuitive it is, and how quickly teams can adapt to it. Russell explains that “Good software suppliers understand the mindset of decision-makers – especially around cost outlay.” He adds, “At Class we aim to give clients concrete examples of how the organisation will start to see significant efficiencies through time savings, improved accuracy and a greater ability to meet compliance requirements. We also have a ‘try to buy’ approach that gives each client the option to trial software to see first-hand how it will impact the business and reduce lead times. For us, it’s about building long-term partnerships.”

FIND OUT MORE... Find out more at: > class.com.au

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Issue 24 / 11

Updates from Xero

Updates from Xero July - September 2020

Steve Vamos, CEO, Xero 12 / Issue 24

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

Xero On Air from 14–17 September 2020.

Updates from Xero

Themed Behind Small Business, Xero On Air will bring new

People tuning into Xero On Air will hear from experts about

insights, announcements and inspiring customer stories from

the impact of COVID-19 on small businesses globally, what the

Xero, our customers, guests and community members to help

advent of open banking means for business financial services,

advisors and their small business clients.

and how artificial intelligence will augment the way businesses

Deep dive:

Introducing Xero On Air, the online experience designed to connect, inspire and share information with partners and customers

Each day, Xero will release new ‘episodes’, allowing viewers

to tailor their viewing schedule to their interests with around

operate today, along with other topics important to technology, accounting and small business.

30 episodes being released over the week.

The content schedule and free pre-registration is available now.

Xero On Air

See the schedule

Xero News July 2020 The latest in product, ecosystem, partnerships and business at Xero

Xero will host a free to watch content series called Xero On Air from 14–17 September 2020.

What we’re working on

hemed Behind Small Business, Xero On Air will bring new insights, announcements and inspiring customer stories from Xero, our customers, guests and community members to help advisors and their small business clients. Each day, Xero will release new

‘episodes’, allowing viewers to financial services, and how artificial tailor their viewing schedule to machine their intelligence will augment the X E RO NEsearch WS — AU G Uway ST 2 02 0 1 Deep dive: New learning functionality interests with around 30 episodes businesses operate today, along in the Xero App Marketplace. being released over the week. with other topics important to technology, accounting and small business. People tuning into Xero On Air will Global hear from experts about the impact of COVID-19 on small businesses The content schedule and free prethey’re logged into Xero. We’ve also m Xero Marketplace now featuresismore globally,The what the App advent of open registration available now. intuitive, which now presents popular 800 to help small businesses grow, bankingthan means forapps business

from moving sales online to forecasting cash flow and managing inventory. In fact, there’s so much choice, it can take time to find the right one.

Deep dive:

We’ve now made it easier to find, and choose the right suite

New machine learning ofsearch in a apps for small functionality businesses and made the marketplace more personalised experience. Powered by Coveo, the new the Xero App Marketplace marketplace search engine taps into machine learning to serve

From February to April this year, we’ve

to Xero’s app marketplace, and a 50%

cash flow apps — making it even more

finding the right app is simple. By mak

right app, we can help small businesse suite of tools to grow.

up app suggestions based on a small business’ profile when

The Xero App Marketplace now features more than 800 apps to help small businesses grow, from moving sales online to forecasting cash flow and managing inventory. In fact, there’s so much choice, it can take time to find the right one.

e’ve now made it easier to find, and choose the right suite of apps for small businesses and made the marketplace a more personalised experience. Powered by Coveo, the new marketplace search engine taps into machine learning to serve up app suggestions based on a small business’ profile when they’re logged into Xero. We’ve also made the toolbar more intuitive, which

now presents popular apps and quick links. From February to April this year, we’ve seen a surge in visitors to Xero’s app marketplace, and a 50% increase in searches for cash flow apps — making it even more important for us to ensure finding the right app is simple. By making it easier to find the right app, we can help small businesses build their personalised suite of tools to grow.

Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 13

Updates from Xero

Other Xero updates... We’ve made a number of other updates on the Xero platform over the past month, including:

Global Accounting Automate your marketing with Mailchimp: Those on a Xero Premium plan can now sync their Xero smart lists to Mailchimp in real time, and send pre-populated emails based on set triggers, such as overdue invoices and payment confirmations. Search for formula components: Some reports and templates have a long list of components which can be used to create formulas. Instead of scrolling through the list, you can now use the search functionality to quickly find the option you want. This makes it faster and easier to create the reports you need.

looks beautiful. Maintain best practice security: To continue delivering best practice security standards, we’ve introduced a new login screen for customers using WorkflowMax, Xero Practice Manager (XPM) and Xero Tax. It’s part of a Xero- wide project to move from existing technology to a new security platform called Identity. Over the coming months, we’ll be migrating all customers with business edition plans to the new platform. Xero Projects See your project profitability at a glance: We’ve introduced a new dashboard in Xero Projects to provide at-a-glance visibility of the profitability of each project. Subscribers can now see total profit margin, all work invoiced and costs associated with the project. The dashboard also shows any outstanding invoices, as well as how they’re tracking against your project estimate.

Stay safe while using Xero: We’re continuing to roll out our new security platform called Identity. This includes a new-look login page, which will roll out to Xero Expenses and WorkflowMax apps first, with all other XeroAmericas users to receive updates in the months to Track time based on your location: Xero and TriNet provide full-service HR solutions to come. Location-based time tracking is now U.S. small businesses available forintegration Xero Projects Android We’re thrilled to announce a new for Xero customers Send your bills to Xeroinvia email: users so businesses can suggest the United States with TriNet. Designed to support small Small businesses can now send sized businesses, entries forTriNet a project, based onHR the and medium is a full-service solution that allowstime businesses more time on their bills to a Xero file via email, and spent to atfocus a particular location. people and growth.This TriNet provides industry-tailored the platform will automatically means noaccess more to manual entries capital expertise, benefits,hours risk mitigation, payroll create and populate a human bill for or forgotten that staff haveand a to manage HRjob, needs real-time. you. The document willtechnology be storedplatformspent on the soininvoices are with the bill as an attachment, more accurate. Xero’s integration with TriNet helps businesses save time and allowing businesses tomaintain send other accuracy through a seamless configuration of payroll documents to the Xeroand fileHR using Payments andAfter bank feedspayroll, TriNet data between the systems. running that same email address. Hubdoc is creates journal entries based on mapped accounts, and allows to push Attach them into the Xero generalmoney: ledger. a more comprehensivebusinesses solution for a file to receive higher volumes of receipts and bills. Attach files when reconciling ‘receive’ money transactions in the TriNet Create beautiful reports: Xero Accounting app. This helps We’ve added an ‘export to PDF’ improve record keeping and makes button in the layout editor of all it easy to trace the original source new reports in Xero, so businesses of bank transactions. New Zealand can quickly see their financials will make any necessary tweaks before upCapital Stripe in a few clicks: We’ve Kiwibank launchesSet Fast publishing. This will save time and made it faster and easier to accept Kiwibank has launched Fast Capital, a digital platform that make sure every reportenables created payments through Stripe, automated decision-making for lending toreducing companies.

the time it takes to get up and running to just a few minutes. Manage duplicate transactions in bank feeds: We’ve built a new report to identify and fix duplicate transactions in Xero, a big time saver to ensure balances in Xero accurately reflects the business’ bank account. Partners Export staff list and certifications in Xero HQ: Our new ‘export staff list’ button in Xero HQ gives practice admins fast access to staff information, to ensure they’re staying up-to-date with certifications and security measures (such as enabling twofactor authentication). The new functionality is available in the overflow menu on the staff list page in Xero HQ. Manage custom reports in WorkflowMax and XPM: We’ve released a new feature that allows partners to search and filter custom reports in WorkflowMax and Xero Practice Manager. Find and assign custom reports, and quickly take bulk actions such as removing old and duplicate reports.

Americas

Xero and TriNet provide fullservice HR solutions to U.S. small businesses We’re thrilled to announce a new integration for Xero customers in the United States with TriNet. Designed to support small and medium sized businesses, TriNet

By linking Xero company accounting data to Kiwibank,

14 / Issue 24

companies can apply forXU up Magazine to $100,000- of capital for a business the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. overdraft, a business loan or even a credit card and get a decision in just five minutes.

app and desktop

ut editor of

see their

ublishing.

is a full-service HR solution that allows businesses to focus more time on their people and growth. TriNet provides access to industrytailored human capital expertise, ards, we’ve benefits, risk mitigation, payroll and WorkflowMax, a technology platform to manage t of a XeroHR needs in real-time.

ated looks

new security

Updates from Xero

Singapore

Xero’s integration with TriNet helps Extended partnership with time and maintain s to the new businesses Xerosave has extended its partnership with DBS Bank, one of theDBS Bank accuracy through a seamless Singapore Government’s Start Digital Partners, to encourage configuration of payroll and HR data more small businesses to adopt cloud-based accounting and Xero has extended its partnership between the systems. After running software services. Eligible businesses referred through DBS with DBS Bank, one of the payroll, TriNet creates journal will be offered six months of free access to the Xero accounting entries based on mapped accounts, Singapore Government’s Start platform to transform capabilities and Digital Partners, to prepare encourage more and allows businesses to pushtheir digital themselves for the digital small businesses to adopt cloudthem into the Xero general ledger.economy. based accounting and software Xero previously launched a similar partnership with OCBC under e services. Eligible businesses their Start Digital Initiative last year. rns for referred through DBS will be ton on the offered six months of free access start date of to the Xero accounting platform to Read more ly deal with transform their digital capabilities Prepare and manage GST/HST and prepare themselves for the returns with ease s can print the digital economy. n that return. We’ve made some enhancements Xero previously launched a similar to GST/HST returns for Canadian ns to partnership with OCBC under their subscribers, including a new ero customers Digital Initiative last year. settings button on the dashboard Find more updates here,Start on the Xero blog port small that allows small businesses to ice HR e on their set the start date of their first ustry-tailored GST or HST return. Xero can payroll and a automatically deal with any prior time. period adjustments, and business ve time and on of payroll Enjoy greater speed and accuracy owners can print the return to PDF payroll, TriNet of CIS in Xero and export a list of all transactions s, and allows in that return. dger. Xero is helping reduce administrative burden and paperwork for small businesses NEWS — JULY 20 20 2 in the UKXERO construction industry. We’ve made some improvements, which mean they can now run a CIS audit report to quickly check form that o companies. monthly return numbers, verify bank, subcontractors from within Xero, l for a business d get a and calculate CIS deductions automatically when sending invoices using the Xero accounting app and desktop. Kiwibank launches Fast Capital

we’ll be

Canada

New Zealand

Kiwibank has launched Fast Capital, a digital platform that enables automated decision-making for lending to companies. By linking Xero company accounting data to Kiwibank, companies can apply for up to $100,000 of capital for a business overdraft, a business loan or even a credit card and get a decision in just five minutes. Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 15

Cover Case Study Story

Leadership development critical as remote working becomes the norm With a business name like the Centre for Leadership Advantage (CLA) it’s no wonder that this organisation has been inundated since we were all hit by a global pandemic.

s business leaders and people managers struggle to keep up with the wellbeing needs of their teams, together with the challenges of homeschooling, the lack of human interaction, and the move to a home office environment; building leadership skills in your team has never been more important. We caught up with Celeste Coyne who is the Operations Manager at the award winning AFR Fast Starter Top 100, CLA. She’s been involved since day zero and has played a major role in the growth of the company, watching it go from strength to strength over the last four years. Celeste supports a team of 10 consultants including organisational psychologists providing psychological products and services for leadership. Reimagining the business About 12 months ago CLA embarked on a business process transformation and spent a lot of energy looking at how they wanted to run CLA. After rapidly growing organically, the time came to refine their structure and create some clear operational guidelines for their business in order to keep scaling. In addition, the impacts of COVID-19 meant CLA needed to offer consulting services remotely and flexibly, including from home. 16 / Issue 24

Given the diversity of the team, offering an environment that recognised the benefits of flexible ways of working was (and still is) a real attraction. CLA strives to be agile, to be able to adapt to this ever-changing landscape and to be an “employer of choice”. “The decision to implement a really sound work from home policy that valued autonomy and trust, made the move to the new normal incredibly smooth,” says Celeste. Adapting with speed to the challenges of COVID-19 By implementing cloud apps like WorkflowMax/Xero and investing the time early on to set the team up for success when working remotely, CLA were able to adapt quickly to the rapid changes brought on by the pandemic. With everyone flourishing in their home office environments by being supported by the right tech stack, the key focus was on shifting gears and approaching collaboration a little differently. “We’ve become masters of Zoom and Hangouts, daily checkins and touching base. We’re totally virtual - 100 percent,” says Celeste. “We made a concerted effort to keep a lot of our normal team touch points going but just doing them virtually.”

@WorkflowMax

Koren Wines, Global General Manager, WorkflowMax at Xero As the new GM at WorkflowMax and with over 20 years’ transformational leadership experience in the tech space, I’m bringing people together to harness their individual strengths, along with our product, to deliver high impact solutions for our customers. I’m super passionate about business and technology and I love how technology can revolutionise a business and drive purpose, success and change lives for the better.

For example, CLA’s normal wine time on a Friday afternoon at four o’clock - still happens, just now over Zoom. In the beginning there were some strict guidelines at these sessions; no talking about the virus; no talk of politics and no work talk. They were really aiming to keep the social side of work alive because it’s such an ingrained part of their culture. “It’s very, very easy when you’re not seeing someone day to day or nineto-five to be able to tell if they’ve checked out, or if there’s something on their plate that they’re not processing well or they can’t deal with. Over-communicating is key,” says Celeste. Cloud apps make remote working easy Whilst CLA have always leveraged cloud-based platforms since its inception, as the business grew, they saw a clear need to implement more rigorous project tracking and management processes. When CLA made the decision to become a cloud business they reached out and sought advice from an expert. Being Melbourne based, they found BlueRock Digital who specialise in change management, digital transformation and regularly implement job and project management solutions like WorkflowMax.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

Case Study

“The team at BlueRock were incredibly helpful. We ran a discovery session and mapped out all our processes and procedures and they taught me how to use the software and set everything up. Now there’s nothing we don’t know about WorkflowMax! The whole team uses it everyday,” says Celeste. “Being cloud-based, WorkflowMax and Xero have been integral to rolling out a productive remote work environment.” CLA are connected seamlessly and able to keep their finger on the pulse, no matter where all their teams are based. Celeste says, “WorkflowMax has been a huge revelation for our team in the sense of just being aware of the project planning process. It’s been really beneficial, specifically during this time. The Lead manager and reporting features have allowed us to easily see how we’re tracking against milestones, what’s coming

up in the pipeline and just how efficient and productive our people are on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. I love that I can log in from anywhere and instantly see the time and progress of all our projects and the actual work that my colleagues are doing in real-time. The software keeps us all connected.” COVID-19 has created space for fresh ideas Another really interesting initiative that CLA has rolled out as a result of COVID-19 is their Leader Assist Program, where the business offers pro bono support to key clients to help them through this tough time. This includes 1:1 support by way of brief phone calls to help work through any leadership and engagement challenges their clients are having. This genuinely heartfelt program was dreamt up by the team of psychologists, is based on empathy, and is a way for them to give back to their clients and the broader community.

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CLA has done a whole lot of rethinking themselves within the business around their remote offerings for clients, and have recently built out a new leadership series and now offer masterclasses online, which cover key topics and issues that people managers are facing right now. It’s a real valueadd in the current environment. “Some businesses and individuals may not be in the position to schedule or organise a full leadership development program right now but by creating bite size value-added content for leaders that can be consumed within a lunch hour has been very successful.” Rather than focusing on courses that cover a whole range of topics, CLA will custom design and package training programs to help leaders focus on key areas that need addressing, now. Another exciting thing CLA Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 24 / 17

Cover Case Study Story

Tips & Best Practices for Working Remotely: A Guide for Professional Services Brought to you by BlueRock Digital, Everperform, and WorkflowMax, this guide provides considerations for professional services businesses that are looking to improve the way they work remotely.

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have recently embarked on in partnership with Business Chicks in Australia, is the creation of an open program specifically designed for women to build leadership skills, capabilities and connections. The LEAD program is committed to helping women on their leadership journeys. Xero also has supported Business Chicks and provides members with a host of informative and inspiring content on everything from tax and cash flow to mental health and wellbeing (and all that lies in between). CLA has made a concerted effort over the past two years to open up their leadership programs, not necessarily just to organisations, but to individuals that want to develop themselves, to better their understanding of self and create pathways for success. Thoughtful insights from Australian leaders on the impact of COVID-19 In addition to designing and delivering leadership solutions, CLA is also active in conducting research with industry. In a recent piece of research conducted by the CLA who surveyed leaders and managers across Australia on how they are navigating leading during COVID-19, leaders shared the lessons they have learned during this challenging time. Leading people remotely. For those needing to suddenly lead teams remotely, this has been a challenging shift. Many leaders described what they felt was their inability to tell if people were really managing under pressure, as they 18 / Issue 24

weren’t able to ‘read them’ (observe body language) or check on the team via the informal methods typically used. Some leaders also noted that remote working made it harder for them to be across the detail of what their team were doing, particularly given the fast pace of work during this period. Dealing with pace and uncertainty. Both for leaders within essential and non-essential services, several respondents described their greatest challenge as having responsibility for making highstake decisions, very quickly, in a complete absence of certainty. This included needing to keep up to date with very swiftly changing circumstances and information coming to light on a daily (if not more frequent) basis. “Writing the playbook for something that is unknown. We didn’t know how to set up the right governance structure and controls, how much latitude to give our GMs in running their business units, when to go tight and when to go loose,” – C Suite, Manufacturing. Balancing competing demands Leaders also described the need to balance between prioritising business and people needs, responding quickly to rapid shifts in business priorities, protecting short term revenue whilst positioning for long term recovery, along with the challenges of communicating these decisions to their team. “Needing to hold different mindsets simultaneously. Needing to cut costs and figure out where to grow,

have one foot on the brake and one on the accelerator. Especially when everything is very contingent and you are making decisions amongst a very quickly changing environment,” – CEO, Professional Sports. 2020 to date has been incredibly challenging for all of us and building leadership capability in your team has never been more important. If you’d like to read more from the Leading through COVID-19 report you can visit it here. If you’ve recently made the transition to remote working, or you’re looking to support a remote setup permanently, our free guide (created in partnership with BlueRock Digital and Everperform) provides tips and best practices for professional services businesses looking to improve the way they work remotely – you can access it here (www. centreforleadershipadvantage.com/ news-media). And, if you’re keen to find out how to become a 100% cloudbased business and keep on top of your productivity, your people and your profit, reach out to us at WorkflowMax and Xero. We’d be happy to help you discover the right tools to help you conquer this new normal.

FIND OUT MORE... Find out how WorkflowMax: > workflowmax.com

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Issue 24 / 21

How small businesses need to be using fintech in 2020 T

here are three main existential threats to your business right now. Around the world, all small businesses globally face these same threats:

steps in this process are: pricing, invoicing, payment collection, reconciliation, forecasting, financing, and banking. We gathered 8 industry experts

1) Not getting the cash you’re owed quick enough (or at all). 2) Not understanding the financial position of your business. 3) Holding things together, but at the expense of your wellbeing, time, or personal goals. And to make things worse, the COVID-19 situation is amplifying them. The good news is there is a whole fintech (financial technology) market out there that can help you solve these problems simply and effectively. But to root out these problems, you need to analyse your entire order-to-cash process. What is the order-to-cash process? The process that starts with you receiving an order from a customer, through to seeing the cash land in your bank account. Key 22 / Issue 24

In July we brought together a bunch of GoCardless’ partners - including Xero, GoProposal, Capital on Tap, Tide, the UK’s Small Business Commissioner, and more - on a webinar series, to apply all that expertise to the biggest problems found in the order-to-cash process. For this issue of XU magazine, we’re bringing you exclusive insights from those sessions on pricing, invoicing, and payment collection. All to help you get paid on time, understand your financial position, and keep things running smoothly without long days, stress, and sacrificing your personal life. Check back in the next issue where we’ll cover the remaining steps in the order-to-cash cycle. Pricing problems Before your customers submit their order, you frame the success of the rest of the journey through your pricing. Pricing expert James Ashford, Founder of GoProposal and Director

@GoCardless

Rachel Astall, Head of Global SMB Platform Partnerships, GoCardless Rachel works with global platforms that enable SMBs to better manage their business. This includes accountancy software such as Xero, alongside a host of invoicing and membership platforms. By improving the ecosystem of GoCardless’ bank debit solution, Rachel is working to ensure that small businesses can take the pain out of getting paid. Ultimately, so they can spend less time chasing payments and more time doing what they love.

Some of our experts... Philip King UK Small Business Commissioner

James Ashford Founder, GoProposal

Ben Johnson Director of Financial Partnerships, Xero

of accountancy firm MAP, says the problematic pricing models he tends to see are cost-plus, competitor-based, or a ‘finger in the air’ approach. The problems your business suffers from due to poor pricing, however, are often not felt right away. Instead, they fester and come back to bite you when it storms. These “storms” can be the arrival of new competitors in the market,

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losing a major client, losing staff, or - relevant right now - a major blow to the global economy. James explains: “Relationship challenges, not sleeping, being stressed and overwhelmed - these are the real problems business owners suffer from. I’ve had very emotional conversations with business owners recently. People in tears, because past mistakes they’ve made with pricing have come to the fore during COVID-19.” Pricing solutions In James’ own words, pricing is never solved - only tuned. But to start, you need to look at the value exchange between your business and your customer’s. When you understand their goals, you can better understand the value your product or service delivers them. And when you’re also clear on your own business goals, and the resource it takes to deliver your product or service, you can bring this together to come to an informed price. Fintech solutions - such as GoProposal, for accountants - can certainly help ensure pricing is consistent across your business and client base, saving you time and hassle. However, James advocates starting with Post-it notes on a wall, defining what your pricing problems are, and the goal you’re trying to reach. If not, he says, you’re not going to be able to tell if the solution is a success. You’re more likely to implement the wrong solution for you, waste your time and money, and be more change-averse in future. One tip Ben Johnson, Director of Financial Partnerships at Xero, gave was to involve a few of your closest customers in the process. Whether you need to charge higher prices to remain profitable and keep serving them, or you want to expand your offering and add more value and thus need to generate more revenue to do so, Ben says they’re

likely to be more receptive and helpful than you might think. Invoicing and payments: Problems and solutions Once you’ve got your pricing in order, you need a way to request the funds from your customer and get that cash in your bank account. How you approach invoicing and payments can have a significant effect on how soon you get paid, how clear a picture you have of your business’ financial position, and the amount of time you need to spend on admin. It should be unsurprising that invoicing expert Ben Johnson highlighted paper invoices and desktop accounting software as common causes of problems in small businesses. He spoke to the benefits of the fintech alternative of cloud accounting software: “Ideally you want to be able to raise an invoice, have up to date records, and give your customers a really smooth way to pay it, and that’s all possible today with online accounting software and online payment systems. We already know that people that use both those things get paid 14 days faster and they have a better view of the financial position of their business.” The duality of invoicing and payments is clear here - they are intimately connected with one another. Without addressing both, your cash flow suffers, visibility over your financial situation gets foggy, and you’ll stress yourself or your team out with unnecessary financial admin. Poor payment practice isn’t too hard to identify - look for processes that require significant or frequent manual action from your customer (e.g. monthly manual bank

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transfers), and systems that are difficult to use or don’t integrate well with your accounting software.

Payment by bank transfer is an extraordinarily common problem in many industries, when we talk about poor payments practice. If you invoice your customer monthly, let’s say, then you are providing them a manual action they need to undertake every month to continue doing business with you. Not only does this take the power of getting paid out of your hands, and rely on your customer being timely to ensure you get paid on time, it’s unlikely to be the way they prefer to pay you anyway. According to research from YouGov in 2018-19, bank debit - also known as Direct Debit in the UK or BECS Direct Debit in Australia - is a preferred payment method in the UK and Australia, for both businesses and consumers. UK businesses most prefer to pay via it in 75% of use cases, with UK consumers preferring it in all use cases. Australian businesses and consumers each most prefer to pay via it in 50% of use cases. This makes sense. As a payment method, bank debit ensures both the merchant and the customer don’t need to worry about annoying financial admin when it comes to payment - it’s all handled safely and automatically. > Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 24 / 23

What you need to do now • Map out your pricing and invoicing processes - What are the steps, who is involved, what technology is involved, and where are the problems or bottlenecks you’re already aware of • Look for pricing red flags - Costplus pricing and competitorbased pricing aren’t always the wrong the approach, but if you’re

24 / Issue 24

using either it can be worth researching other pricing models such as value-based pricing (finger-in-the-air pricing, though, is never a good idea) • Look for payment red flags Anything that requires significant or frequent manual action from your customers to get you paid is a problem, as are any systems you use which are difficult or irritating or don’t speak to your

other systems • Implement the fintech that’s right for you

FIND OUT MORE... GoCardless is made for recurring payments. See how we can help at: > gocardless.com/xero

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Issue 24 / 25

Cover Tutorial Story

How-to: Create bills directly in ApprovalMax We’re constantly working on extending the ApprovalMax for Xero capabilities. Recently, we added a new feature that allows to create bills directly in ApprovalMax, which increases data security and integrity.

he procedure itself is very much the same as creating bills in Xero because the required data such as supplier and inventory item is synced from the Xero organisation. There are two options for bill creation in ApprovalMax: either in the web interface or via the mobile app. Who is it for? This new feature is particularly useful for organisations that create bills in Xero manually, without a data entry tool. It allows businesses who employ many contractors and get lots of supplier invoices to let suppliers and contractors create their invoices themselves – and

have them routed for approval right away. The same applies to organisations where multiple staff or volunteers initiate large numbers of invoices. In a nutshell: ApprovalMax now makes it easy to delegate bill creation to users, without having to grant them access to the Xero file. They will only ever see that part of information that’s relevant to the task, while sensitive Xero data is protected from unauthorised users. When bills are created in ApprovalMax it means they will only be published to Xero after proper multi-step authorisation. This ensures that there are no more overlooked invoices and no duplicate bills in the general ledger.

@ApprovalMax

Konstantin Bredyuk, Director, Product, ApprovalMax With roots in business process management and optimisation software development, Konstantin has undertaken hundreds of product implementations for ApprovalMax clients worldwide. Konstantin has been advising numerous organisations on implementing automation, financial controls and client collaboration capabilities using Xero-based trusted app stacks, with business profiles ranging from SMEs to large accounting and advisory practices.

Inviting users to ApprovalMax To let suppliers or other users create bills, you have to invite them to ApprovalMax. All you need for this is their email address. You can do so either on the Users page or on the Workflow Setup page. The difference is that via the Users page you can add users in bulk (you’ll need to set up their roles later), while on the Workflow Setup page you can define roles and assign users to them at the same time. When you’re done, all new users will receive an invitation and can start using ApprovalMax right away. How to create bills in ApprovalMax To create a new bill, use the “NEW REQUEST” button and select “Bill”. This will open a bill form for entering details such as supplier, due date, etc. It is also possible to add attachments. Some data is synced from Xero. So, when you select a supplier the related information will be entered automatically; the same goes for inventory item data. When everything is filled in, hit the “Submit for approval” button (see fig. 1). Now, the bill is created and ready for the approval process.

Fig. 1

What happens after bill creation? As soon as a bill has been created 26 / Issue 24

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Fig. 2

Tutorial

in ApprovalMax, it will be routed automatically through a multi-step and multi-role approval process. The complete workflow looks as follows (see fig. 2).

to match bill and purchase order in ApprovalMax. This step is optional.

Bill creation

The automated approval workflow routes all new bills through a multistep and multi-role authorisation process, which is based on one or several criteria like supplier, tracking category, amount, etc. synced from Xero.

New bills are created via the “NEW REQUEST” button. Supplier information such as the address and contact details as well as inventory item data is pulled from Xero and entered automatically.

Multi-step and multi-role authorisation

Bills “Awaiting Payment” Bill to purchase order matching For all bills with a corresponding purchase order there is the option

Once reviewed and authorised, bills are pushed to Xero in the “Awaiting Payment” status - ready

to be paid and to be accounted for in the GL reports. An audit report that captures the complete authorisation history including approver comments is created automatically.

FIND OUT MORE... To find out more about ApprovalMax, please visit: > approvalmax.com

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Issue 24 / 27

Setting the standard Why AdvanceTrack’s latest ISO certification is so important for clients AdvanceTrack is proud of its latest ISO certification for business continuity but what does it all really mean? Kevin Reed steps into the shoes of existing and potential clients to ask Vipul Sheth, MD to explain why they should be comforted by this ‘badge of business resilience’. @AdvanceTrack

Vipul Sheth ACA CTA, Founder and Managing Director, AdvanceTrack Outsourcing Vipul is a UK based ICAEW Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor. Vipul trained with a regional UK firm before moving to Ernst & Young and KPMG. AdvanceTrack is a UK Headquartered Accountancy Outsourcing Company with offshore operational centres, delivering services around the globe. AdvanceTrack demonstrates compliance with international security laws including GDPR through certification to ISO27001:2013 and BS10012 audited by BSI. Quality is certified to ISO9001:2015 and Business Continuity certified to ISO22301:2019.

28 / Issue 24

Q: A:

What is the ISO and this particular ‘standard’?

It’s an international measurement tool of competence and excellence in a particular area – to demonstrate the use of best practice across a range of areas…we also have ISO 27001;2013 Information Security Management, ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management and British standard BS10012 Personal Information Management System. It’s great to have an external body review what you as a business are doing in a particular area. This one is about business continuity and the ability of our business to manage, with very clear direction, how to continue to manage the business where events occur that are out of the normal

day-to-day business. You just have to take the pandemic as an obvious example – six months’ ago we would have thought something like that wouldn’t affect us but now we’re all more cautious about who we do business with and how. We want to give customers the confidence that we are a resilient business.

Why do you think it’s important to AdvanceTrack and why has it been undertaken now?

It’s important to us as a business because it hit home to our full team that they have a clearer direction of what to do, should certain scenarios present themselves. One of the scenarios we thought about was me dying… I hope to be around a long

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What ISO 22301 means for business continuity... The ISO, in its own words, is an “independent, non-governmental international organisation with a membership of 165 national standards bodies. It uses this vast network to build international standards that are “consensus-based” and “marketrelevant”. ISO 22301:2019, of which AdvanceTrack has completed certification, focuses on security and resilience. Namely, requirements for robust business continuity management systems. The certification requires rigour in a number of key areas: Organisational context – an understanding of how the organisation works, for whom, and what that means for the scope of its business continuity requirements Leadership – How the business continuity policy has been formed, and its communication to interested parties; alongside set roles and responsibilities Planning – The determination of risks and opportunities, alongside addressing them; and establishing and determining business continuity objectives Support – Documentation and resources relating to the plan Operations – Impact analysis; continuity strategies and solutions; implementation of solutions; recovery plans Performance evaluation – Monitoring and assessment by internal audit and management of performance against business continuity metrics Improvement – Corrective actions and continual improvement. Source: ISO (iso.org)

time - but something like that could be detrimental to the business. If I’m not here, someone has to have my thoughts on how things then move forward. What’s important is that the business continues to operate without me. The pandemic, rather than applying for the standard, had got us thinking in more depth about what sort of things might happen and to be better prepared to deal with them. With the pandemic we had a good bunch of people in our team who managed our migration to working from home successfully. If that is to happen again, it’s now enshrined with our formal disaster recovery and business planning processes. The last few months showed us it is even more important that we demonstrate our ability to cope in incredibly challenging circumstances.

Why is it something that should be of interest to AdvanceTrack’s existing and former clients?

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Our existing customers will know about this direction of travel. After our first client comms around the Pandemic, one of them said ‘we knew you’d have it under control’. Existing clients see what we do every day, but for someone that doesn’t know us, gaining this certification gives them additional comfort. In very trying circumstances you will know that we have a robust business process to continue to be supported, and that it’s not something being made up as we go along. Gaining the standard means we faced a rigorous stress-testing of processes – of how we operate now and what we might face in the future.

What has been the process of audit and achieving the standard?

It followed the way most of these standards work. There is initially an overview and analysis taken by the standard’s auditors that you have the basis for commencing the certification process. That’s effectively ‘day one’ - auditors come in and look at documentation to support attaining Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 24 / 29

the standard.

has been about has been exactly that, even in trying circumstances.

Then you also have to have an internal audit process, where you Before we decided to go with this look to identify improvements to standard my phone ‘crashed’ and address before the ‘actual’ the backup didn’t audit. However, we also work. I lost a lot of One of the scenarios used an external contact numbers. we thought about was body to undertake I told our CTO me dying... What’s the internal audit that this stressed our to – we didn’t want me, and made important that stage too me think about staff and customers ‘friendly’… we the business. As a is that the business went for rigour. result we ramped continues to operate up the availability without me. Then in the external and resilience of our process they’re seeking servers, shortly after evidence that what we say we can this event, so we would lose very do is actually something that is little data even if there was a huge beyond the documentation. Such as problem. demonstrating how we’d handle if our servers went down for example, How does the standard or one of our buildings suddenly set you apart from didn’t exist – however unlikely competitors? these scenarios may be. It’s then a case of showing how long you can There’s a reason why operate without impacting service. accounting practices work with us and stay for the long term. It’s our consistent approach, How does it align or high standards from a delivery complement with other point of view but also security standards you’ve achieved? and infrastructure. Ultimately, I sincerely believe in the abilities of We’ve always tried to AdvanceTrack’s senior management demonstrate excellence – – that they’re better than our which is why we already have core competitors. standards. Allied to that it’s about showing consistency of delivery – that we’re ‘continuous’. What this

What’s the future for AdvanceTrack in context of other certifications and standards? What are your next improvements?

We’re not ruling out other certifications – but these current ones are absolutely to the core of what we do. I’m sure as we evolve then other certifications will become important to us. It’s important to note that we don’t ‘chase’ certifications to puff up what we do. We strive for the best, as I’ve already outlined, in terms of service, security and resilience – these certifications are the upshot of what we do and try to achieve on a daily basis.

FIND OUT MORE... Find out more about how AdvanceTrack can you help you drive your accounting practice forward. We’d love to hear from you! > advancetrack.com/contact

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Working from home with ApprovalMax & Xero: how to perform efﬁcient approvals in times of social distancing Read more in our blog! 30 / Issue 24

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Issue 24 / 31

Why cashflow forecasting and funding services go hand in hand @Fluidlypartners

Caroline Plumb, Founder and CEO, Fluidly Caroline is Founder and CEO of Fluidly a venture-backed business which uses machine learning to help small businesses manage their biggest painpoint cashflow. Our tools make planning effortless and allow businesses to get cash in the bank when it’s needed. Fluidly was named as one of 2019’s European Fintechs by the Fintech50, in WIRED’s Top 100 Hottest European startups and winner of “Innovation of the Year” in the Accounting Excellence awards.

How Fluidly’s new funding tools can help you support clients during the hard times ahead...

lthough this crisis has dealt small businesses a heavy blow, it has also helped them better understand how money moves in and out of their business. As a result, cashflow support has never been a more viable service line. “Clients have finally seen the light,” as one of our partners told us. But you’ve been there right alongside clients in any case – working through the night and weekends, saving them from the brink of collapse by planning, restructuring and sourcing the funding they desperately need. So why stop there? The pandemic has shown how cashflow support means far more than forecasting – it’s about taking action around every aspect of your clients’ finances, from getting invoices paid to securing the vital Bounce Back loan in their account.

32 / Issue 24

If you see cashflow as anything less than a 360 degree service, your practice is missing a trick. Funding services: Where your firm can make real impact Right now, 39% of businesses say they only have three months or less worth of cash in reserve (British Chambers of Commerce). So one of the most impactful ways you can help clients with cashflow is through support around funding. Funding services fit naturally with the advice you already provide, which revolves around helping clients achieve their business goals. But the hard truth is if you don’t step in to help your clients find a loan, they’ll find someone else who can – and probably miss out on a good deal in the process. Accountants are uniquely placed to find the right loan for their clients. In fact, they’re SMEs’ most

trusted source of advice – ahead of friends, family and other business owners (British Business Bank). Yet the majority of small businesses still turn to their bank for funding advice. You know your clients’ businesses better than any bank manager ever could, so you can find the best solution for them, whether it’s faster cash via an alternative lender or a specific facility like asset finance that actually fulfills their objectives. What’s stopping your firm from expanding its cashflow services? So, why isn’t every accounting practice either moving into cashflow services, or expanding its existing offering to offer funding support? First, there’s the matter of getting your practice authorised by the FCA. Then there’s the large up-front setup costs and the difficulties of

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

building a service that scales, which can be a problem if your team isn’t singing from the same hymn sheet. Juniors can be less equipped to deliver advice too, meaning your advisory team might only consist of a few specialists.

To really make the most of tech, it needs to be embedded in a practical, coherent way – that empowers your team across the board, rather than different tools patched together to solve various distinct problems.

What’s more, firms often find themselves spread across various pieces of software – with one tool for invoice chasing, one for forecasting and something totally different for funding. Add to that the resources needed to actually market your offering, and launching a new service can feel like an uphill battle.

How Fluidly can help – our new funding service

Working with a technology partner to bolster your new service line

That’s why we’ve launched a new, fully compliant funding service, alongside a whole range of lenders including iwoca, Funding Circle, MarketFinance, Natwest, Capital on Tap and more. Our tools are designed to make every aspect of cashflow services easier, through an entirely new category we call Intelligent Cashflow.

Ultimately, debtor management, But the right technology can still planning and funding services all help, as long as it’s deployed solve the same big, overarching correctly. Accounting software problem of cashflow. And your firm has proven to be an enormously needs a one-stop powerful tool for shop that tackles accountants, making it Cashflow means every single one of easier for practices more than cashflow’s moving to support clients in parts. forecasting – it’s a clear, consistent and scaleable way. about taking action Fortunately, as Coronavirus has around every aspect small businesses only reinforced the of your clients’ begin to appreciate importance of tools finances. the importance of like Xero, QuickBooks managing their cash, a lot and their add-ons. of the groundwork has already been laid. Not only are your clients Take CBILS and Bounce Back now more receptive to support applications, which would have around funding, with Fluidly there’s been far more labour intensive also the technology to help you to prepare only a few years deliver this advice in a consistent, ago. Thanks to the live data in scalable way. your accounting software and forecasting tools like Fluidly, How funding with Fluidly works for preparing supporting material for a partners loan application can take minutes, and be as simple as exporting a Instead of jumping between various readymade forecast. different tools, Fluidly gives you Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

everything you need to know about your clients’ cash situation in one place – whether it’s building a forecast, chasing an invoice or applying for a loan. By providing a single app for every cashflow conversation, we make it easier to train your team and keep things consistent. This empowers your entire practice to offer advice, rather than a select few. Our tools and resources take the hassle out of funding. We can help identify which of your clients are in need of finance and are eligible for which products, all from their accounting data. We work with you or your clients directly to make the application, search the market and get the funding your clients need. We know it can be hard to roll out a new service, so we help with that too, by providing every new Fluidly member with the support of a dedicated broking specialist so you can hit the ground running. Fluidly is more than a piece of technology, it’s a membership – to help you sell and market every type of cashflow service at a time when your clients need it most.

FIND OUT MORE... Find out more at: > fluidly.com/funding

Issue 24 / 33

Zivora’s Humanistic design - driving client engagement for Accountants Businesses are inundated with software choices, but they will gravitate to those humanistic options that speak to them in a language that they understand and that do not overwhelm them.

hy humanistic design?

Design thinking is an approach to understanding and solving complex problems by unlocking insights and creating collaboration needed to generate innovation. Humanistic or Human-Centered Design involves the human perspective in all steps of problem-solving. Technology with a human centred design, seeks to model human behaviour and intelligence, with smart software carrying out everyday tasks traditionally performed by humans. Product or service-based companies use this approach to provide holistic and streamlined experiences to their users. APIs (Application Program Interfaces) have transformed the 34 / Issue 24

@ZivoraApp

Prasanna Nagar, Co-founder, Zivora With 15 years on the cutting edge of data analytics, including leading Customer Engagement and Decision Science at CBA, Prasanna co-founded Simplio. co which designs bespoke customer-centric data solutions and consults to key Australian financial institutions. With co-founder Wayne Zwar, he has now set up Zivora.co to bring his know-how of data visualisation and relationship engagement to the accounting space.

way technology is shared and experiential touch-points within increased the joint business efforts the software itself. Zivora is about in ecosystems to deliver more elevating and streamlining the benefits and value to the end user. experience by bringing all visuals The Xero marketplace is a good and communications to the one example of an ecosystem in which channel, while learning what is diverse add-ons, working most important to its with financial data and users. in s progressive API’s, Advancement cater to multiple Zivora provides a ecosystems mean domains and collaborative forum humanistic design industries, with a in which accountants must be taken to a clear goal of adding and bookkeepers new level. value and streamlining can provide strategic the user experience. insights and advice to their clients, all without Advancements in ecosystems mean having to leave the visuals humanistic design must be taken themselves. to a new level, whereby intelligence and user experience are embedded Zivora’s intelligent alerts do not into every digital touch point. feel robotic or mechanised. Users Netflix’s “Top Picks” section or are not inundated with emails or Spotify “ Discover Weekly” playlist messages on their phones. Zivora are good examples where design learns from user interaction what tries to delegate some of the daily is most important to the user and tasks to the machine or software, applies an empathetic approach which in turn delivers the seamless towards messaging. This enables experience to the user. it to smartly steer away from the noise. Zivora – Humanistic at its core We at Zivora are passionate about infusing maximum human elements into our software. We bring those traditional conversations, of small business owners and their accountant or bookkeeper, to seamless and rich

FIND OUT MORE... To know more about our humanistic approach and intelligent features go to: > zivora.co

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is a sophisticated, commercial management system that ticks all the boxesâ&#x20AC;? Simon Haarer, Head of Asset Management LXi REIT

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Issue 24 / 35

Interview

Trent Innes Managing Director Australia & Asia, Xero

36 / Issue 24

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Interview

XU:

Trent, can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be the Managing Director for Xero Australia?

TI:

I’m a qualified accountant by trade, I call myself a non-practising CPA. I started my career in the early days working a little bit in practice, but then quickly found my way over into the private sector and worked as a management accountant. I always had a love for technology and for systems. One of the early jobs I had was for a large architectural company and all their systems at that point in time were manual. I looked at it and thought this is crazy! How do we actually get bills out? How do we pay people? I convinced them to put in a computerised accounting system and we chose a product called SunSystems, which was actually a product out of the UK. I quickly appeciated what technology could do to give you insights and help with running your business. For the past 25 years I’ve always worked in business application software, apart from that really early stint in accounting. I ended up working at Systems Union who were the developer of SunSystems in Melbourne and then in the UK, based out of Hammersmith, London for a while. I had a variety of roles from consulting to technology and eventually found my way into Microsoft in their business applications software team, not unlike Gary Turner. We both worked in Microsoft business solutions, ironically. I worked there for a number of years and found my way into sales, management and leadership, but always in business application software. I met the MD of Xero, Chris Ridd, at Microsoft and knew him quite well. He asked me a couple of times whether I would be interested in going to work for them. At that stage Xero was pretty small and unknown, they would have been lucky to have 10,000 customers. When I first spoke to them they had about 10 staff in Australia and

when I joined in the beginning of 2013 they had just over 30 staff. My role at that stage was building up the go to market channels. How do we scale this business? How do we bring more partners into the programme? How do we actually help partners digitise their businesses and get them onto the cloud? We were explaining what the cloud was and about security, all of those things... So I did that ‘go to market’ role for a couple of years and we started to see some great momentum. At the end of 2015, Chris decided that he’d been the MD for five years through that startup scale-up phase and wanted to move on and I was lucky enough to be chosen as the next Managing Director. We had about 300,000 subscribers at that time and probably about 300 staff in Australia. That was about four and a half years ago now, and that’s how I got there! Overarching the whole thing, I genuinely love technology and accounting and when you combine the two together there are amazing insights we can give to business. One of the great things about Xero is the ability to give access for small businesses to technology and insights that previously just wasn’t possible. I’d argue that today small business has better access to technology than big business does.

XU:

Yeah, I’d agree with you on that, especially at the moment. It’s far more crucial.

TI:

Exactly. Can you imagine if we were in a pandemic 15 years ago? What would we have done? Only big businesses had access to some levels of video conferencing, but nothing else was accessible remotely. If there’s anything fortunate to be taken out of the scenario we find ourselves in at the moment, at least we can exist and operate with the technology available to us.

XU:

You just mentioned you’ve been Managing Director for four and a half years now, and with Xero for over seven years. How has your role developed and changed over this time?

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TI:

My time at Xero has definitely changed dramatically since I first joined. Very few people knew who Xero was, the only real partners we were working with were the ones who really saw the benefits of the cloud. Seven years ago we were explaining who is Xero - what is cloud technology? Is my data going to be safe? What are the benefits of it? Xero has gone from people confusing us with a photocopy sales company, to one where we are becoming an aspirational company to work for in this part of the world. People strive and want to work for Xero. In part, that is because the brand has a great presence about it and there aren’t that many companies in this part of the world that build and export software. We have a lot of companies here that import software from the US and Europe but there’s not a lot built here, so we’re actually building and exporting which I think is pretty cool. The biggest change is going from a brand that nobody knew, to a real aspirational brand which is something I’m really proud of.

XU: TI:

How different has 2020 been for you?

I think 2020 is massively different for all of us. Whether you’re running a listed company or running a small business, there is a level of uncertainty that has been brought upon us that we could never have prepared for. One of my favourite sayings is that there is no leadership handbook on managing a pandemic. I’ve looked in all the bookshops and there is nothing there. There’s a leadership book on almost every topic but there is nothing out there that could prepare you for managing in a pandemic. It puts a lot of pressure on leaders, on your business, on your customers, on the way you exist and of course on people’s personal worlds. It’s really an impact we’ve never seen before. What I’ve learnt throughout this period is the importance of the basics when you don’t know

Issue 24 / 37

Interview what to do. The basics are more important than they ever have been. Leadership at this point in time is just doing those basics really well - caring about your people as best you possibly can and setting them up for success in this environment, serving your customers and just taking a real customer and partner centric view. I think if you get those things right as best you possibly can, then the rest kind of takes care of itself. The only thing I’ve consistently said to people is to just do the best you possibly can. We empower each other in these scenarios and I think it’s important that you’re kind to yourself and you’re kind to each other. Everyone has unique circumstances, whether it’s people who have young kids at home, to people who are living by themselves, to those who are trying to homeschool alongside work at the same time. I have three children - one at university, one at high school and one at primary school, so I’ve ticked all three boxes. They’ve all got their own needs and challenges. Even as a leader I think it’s really important you share that, so it makes it okay for other people as well. We’re all going through things and we need to focus on the basic stuff that you can control, don’t worry about the stuff you can’t control. The reality is we have no ability to control the situation going on out there at the moment, so it’s more about the stuff you can control; how you deal with people and how you manage your business. Just keep it simple, that’s what I keep saying to all of our leads at the moment. Another lesson I’ve learnt is that you can’t over communicate with people. We’ve been heavily communicating with our teams, letting them know what’s going on as best as we possibly know and being 100% transparent.

XU:

That’s great. Can you share how Xero has responded to supporting its partners and customers during the pandemic? Around the markets we operate in each

TI: 38 / Issue 24

government that I’ve looked at has dealt with things in similar yet unique ways, but the overarching themes seem to be how can they help from a stimulus perspective and how do they help to protect jobs as best as they possibly can, especially during lockdown. There was so much information coming through from governments and lots of confusion, So we launched the Business Continuity Hub which was a global approach built with very specific content for each location. It was designed to filter through all the information available to our customers and partners that is relevant to them, making it easily readable and digestible. The idea is to work very closely with governments. We have a very strong relationship with the Australian government here so we worked closely with them to allow our customers to connect with the best stimulus available to them. One of the most prevalent in Australia is called JobKeeper, which is a programme distributed through employers to employees, so we had to make some pretty dramatic changes to our payroll system to allow our customers to distribute those payments to their employees. We had to turn that around really quickly. There’s also eligibility tests we built into the system as well, because there are guidelines you had to meet. A big one was that businesses turnover had to have dropped by at least 30% to be eligible for JobKeeper. So we configured the software to take away the pain of having to manually calculate it to try to make it easier to access. We’ve had lots of webinars and updates too, with thousands of people watching and joining to gather information. We found that accountants and bookkeepers were just inundated with queries from their clients. As the reality started to hit of what this actually meant, our partners were dealing with not only financial queries, but other questions and issues such as mental health. We wanted to try and help as much as we could. We have a partnership with a mental health organisation in Australia called

Beyond Blue, so we do quite a lot of work with them. We were really concerned about the mental health of small businesses, as well as the accountants and bookkeepers that serve them.

XU:

That’s amazing. As Xero has grown rapidly throughout Australia in the last 7 years, how do you carry on that growth and make sure that buzz is still around Xero and it’s community? Also, what differences have you seen in doing this during your time in the role?

TI:

We’ve still got a lot of market share to go, there are still a lot of businesses out there and a lot of partners that have not made the journey to the cloud. If anything, COVID is accelerating digitisation. If you’re an accountant or bookkeeper trying to exist now without online access, you’re probably kidding yourself. The reality is all of those connections are digital now, so they need to be connected. It’s accelerating the digitisation journey for them. Equally, if you look at the next generation of small businesses that are coming through and the ones that already exist now, so many of them have had to pivot off of services via digital. So there’s still a lot of growth, we’re not at the market share of New Zealand yet which you can see from our public numbers. There’s a long way to go with the growth of our core products. Steve Vamos mentioned this - there are still opportunities to add value to small businesses over time as well other growth factors we’ll look into as well. He mentioned areas like low end, opportunities around sole traders and connecting small businesses to financial services. I’d say we’re still at the beginning to a certain degree.

XU:

One of the major things that makes Xero stand out is their amazing staff. I have been very fortunate to meet lots of Xero staff around the world.

TI:

Thank you, that means a lot.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

Interview

XU:

One of the things we’ve missed this year is travelling and bumping into your team. How important are the Xero team to everything you do and achieve? Also, how has the team grown and developed since you have been Managing Director?

TI:

I look after Australia and Asia, we had around 30 members of staff when I started and now it’s well over 700, so it’s been very rapid growth which has been amazing. Giving people jobs is one of the best things you get to do as a leader, I actually get to see jobs being created. We’ve run graduate programmes and vacation programmes, and allowed people to get their first job which always makes me smile. I think the overarching thing we’ve always prided ourselves on is that unique Xero culture that we have. People get to see the way that we portray ourselves externally is what we’re like internally as well, we make it very transparent. That really permeates through your products and the service you provide. As we’ve grown and developed we get asked how do we maintain that culture, and I actually don’t like talking about the word ‘culture’. Culture is an output, it’s a bit like when you measure a business by

looking at the profit. You’re missing the story that got them to a profit or loss in the first place. Culture is a bit like that as well; you can have a negative culture or a positive culture and just focusing on that isn’t the best thing. It’s all the things that make up that culture which make it important. All those little things, the small moments of truth. It takes a long time to build it, there’s no secret sauce you can’t fake it, it takes a long time to build and it can be destroyed very quickly. We’ve been very fortunate, we’re very purpose and very values led. If you have great purpose and great values that gives you the guard rails to work with and those behaviours determine your culture. If you’ve got negative behaviours, you end up with a negative culture. You can’t just focus on the culture itself, you have to focus on the little things over time in a genuine way. When I first started my career it was a much more controlling environment as opposed to empowering. I believe that 99% of people go to work to do good, they go to have a good day. They want to come home and talk to their loved ones and say they had a good day. Why would you set up an environment where they have a bad day? It makes no sense.

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XU:

One of the last times we saw you face to face was at Xerocon Brisbane (2019). I can remember you walking around with the letter X shaved into the side of your head. Showing just how epic Xerocons are. How important have Xerocons and roadshows been to the Xero AU journey and how much have they been missed this year?

TI:

I’ll tell you a little about the X. I didn’t even know what hair art was, I didn’t know it was a thing. Somebody said to me I should shave an X into my head for Xerocon. I said fine, I’ll do it and then kind of forgot about it. When I got there the film crew was there, the social media team was there and I couldn’t get out of it. They said it would grow back in three or four days, but it actually took about three weeks! I went home and my wife just shook her head and walked off. It was a bit of fun at my expense and I think it was the most viewed tweet off the back of Xerocon last year and quite a few other people ended up having hair art done as well. Xerocon is a great way to be out sharing and distributing information and connecting with our community. We were lucky to get some roadshows done in January and

Issue 24 / 39

Interview

late February here in Australia. We had over 10,000 registrations this year which gives you an idea of the scale. We went to 16 locations this year so we get out on the road for quite a few weeks. They’re definitely going to be missed but it’s not only the right call, it’s the only call at the moment. We have to connect with people in other ways and we’re doing that through lots of webinars and we’ve got Xero On Air coming up on the 14th - 17th September which is a great opportunity. It’s not going to have the same feel as Xerocon, which is as much about the experience and as the content… But we have an amazing events team who are doing a great job at making Xero On Air something very special, so we’re looking forward to doing that. We’ve actually already started filming some of it already. I think there’s about 30 episodes or so. Some are of relevance to a global audience d and some are regionally focused. We’ll have product announcements, customer stories, economy updates, motivational speakers etc... it’s going to be a lot of fun and it’s designed to be short, sharp sessions that you can watch whenever you have time.

XU:

An amazing part of Xero is their passion to see small businesses succeed. I recently heard the great news about the new “Rebuilding Australia” report which has been produced in partnership with Bernard Salt AM and The Demographics Group. Can you tell me a little more about this 40 / Issue 24

report and how important it is to small businesses in Australia right now?

TI:

Absolutely. We’ve done a bit of work with Bernard Salt before, he’s one of Australia’s leading commentators and he’s really carved himself out as an expert in demographics. He’s very well known here. He writes for The Australian newspaper weekly and he’s an amazing keynote speaker. He takes data insights from one or multiple sources and looks for long term trends. So in the Rebuilding Australia report, he worked with three different data sets. He looked at Xero Small Business Insights and looked at some of the insights that we’re tracking during COVID with what’s happening out there at a high level. We’re also going to start looking at a lot of insights around employment and what the impact has been to small businesses, once again by industry, location and so on. We’re quite fortunate because we can look across multiple regions and compare some of the various different approaches governments have taken in different parts of the world and see what that’s meant to recovery phases. I wouldn’t say we’ve recovered from COVID, I’d say we’re living with COVID. So the Rebuilding Australia report looks at that data set and the Australian Bureau of Statistics data, and a survey off the back of that to track how people feel about their prospects as a small business. Bernard has produced an amazing

report which I’m not going to do justice in two minutes because there’s a lot of detail, but it’s trying to highlight which industries have been most impacted and also where there are opportunities from an employment perspective and an industry perspective. We did another report with Bernard in February this year just before COVID hit, which was called ‘Boss Insights’. It looks into the last 30 years of business creation in Australia. What’s fascinating is that any time there has been an economic downturn, right back to the recession in the early 90s and .com crashing in the early 2000s, to GFC in 2008… when the economy came under pressure for a variety of reasons, after that we see a spike in business creations. We think that’s formed because of necessity, people are looking for opportunities to pivot into something else. But there’s also innovation, which comes out of economic impact and downturn, because new ways of doing business are created. So what we’re looking for is what are those businesses and industries that are going to come off the back of the current situation. For example, if you’re a web developer in Australia between March to May, the demand for your services went up 270%. Moving to digital has sent it through the roof. Manufacturing is the one of the only industries that grew over that period and is up 9%. Historically manufacturing has been on the decline in Australia for quite some time. We think that’s for

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

Interview a number of reasons: businesses pivoting to sanitisation products and face masks, or just because the global supply chain has been interrupted. The factories are firing back up again and we’re creating things. That’s just some examples, but the report was created to show all these data sources. And then to see how people are feeling, their options, the future… What are they leveraging? We’ve definitely found the businesses that had pivoted or created are actually thriving in some cases, which is hard to believe. 68% had invested in digital tools to help them, such as the local pub who is now doing take away food and had to invest in a menu ordering system. A lot of them pivoted and utilised technology.

XU:

And can you tell us what that report has said about how small business is fairing right now?

TI:

So Xero Small Business Insights was actually kicked off back in 2017 initially in Australia. It was something I really wanted to do as there’s not a lot understood about the small business economy. There’s a lot of discussion about it and in most countries it’s actually the single largest employer. If you aggregated all of the small businesses in Australia, it is actually the number one employer. I strongly believe it’ll be the sector we need to invest in to get thriving and create jobs following the pandemic. So small business insights are showing some really interesting trends at the moment. We did a comparison between global approaches acrossAustralia,New Zealand and the UK as they’ve all taken slightly different approaches. As soon as COVID hit New Zealand they were in a stage four straight away. They went into a dramatic lock down and the revenues dropped 40% in a couple of weeks. They were growing at about 6% before COVID hit and as of the 30th of June, they were back up at 0% even once again and recovering. The UK’s lowest point was -30%

of growth for small business and they’re at about -18% now, so they’re starting to recover too. By comparison, lockdown measures in Australia weren’t as strict, so the impact to revenue is nowhere near as high. At the country’s worst point it had dropped by -12.8% and it’s now -6.8%. They’re recovering slightly slower. For one of the first times ever we’re looking at such a large data set. This is not a survey of 1000 businesses, this is hundreds of thousands of businesses that we’re able to look at and break down. Whilst there is a lot that is the same between countries, each government worked slightly differently and we’re just trying to work with them to best inform them and help small businesses recover from this.

XU:

A very exciting announcement from Xero this year was the E-Invoicing. Could you share why you feel this is so exciting and how this will really impact the future of accountants, bookkeepers and SMEs digitally?

TI:

I’m glad you’re excited about e-invoices, because I am as well! I think it’s the next step in digitisation of small businesses. If you think of small businesses they are surrounded by layers of friction, that friction causes inaccuracies, security concerns, manual work that has to be done from getting a piece of data from one system to another… e-invoicing is going to streamline that entire process and make it easier for people to submit invoices and to be paid on time, which is one of the biggest problems for small businesses. It really streamlines the entire flow from one customer’s system to another and goes through the Peppol network in a standardised way, which allows them to receive that clean information and get it straight into the system and in theory get paid faster. I think for accountants, bookkeepers and small businesses it really helps with that next level of digitisation and connection.

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XU:

One of the positives that 2020 has brought, is that we are able to focus on ourselves more and slowdown. I wondered if you have picked up any new exciting hobbies during this year or learnt anything which you never knew about yourself?

TI:

Because we’re really in a really tight lockdown in Melbourne at the moment, we’ve got a Slack channel going at the moment called ‘bored in iso’, where we post things we’ve done that are the most boring thing you could possibly do. It’s actually turned into a bit of fun. We had someone post about straightening their rug, something you’d probably never usually get to. I found myself rearranging the labels in the fridge so they all faced forwards and I’ve never done that in my life before. I don’t know if I’ve picked up any new hobbies, but I’m getting through some of the small tasks I would never have gotten done and I’ve found more time to read. I’ve got a pile of books next to my bed at home, but I never usually tend to prioritise reading things, so I’ve been really interested in reading again. I’m reading a book at the moment called ‘What Measures Matters’ which is all about OKRs rather than KPRs, which I quite like. I travel a lot too so it’s been nice actually having dinner with my kids, as I don’t do it as much as I probably should. It’s just getting back to the basic stuff which is important, but you sometimes forget when you are busy. COVID has allowed us to do that since we’re all working at home. I get to spend more time with my loved ones.

XU:

It would be great if you could finish by sharing some advice that has helped/ inspired you over your career?

TI:

I think the big one is to be kind to yourself. These are unusual circumstances. It’s hard to be kind to others if you’re not kind to yourself, and that’s probably the most important thing. Look after yourself and your health. >

Issue 24 / 41

Interview Whereas the weaker leaders I’ve worked with over time are ‘knowers’ and they make statements. It’s a really simple mind model that I use quite a lot.

XU:

Is there one bit of advice or an inspiring quote that’s helped you in your career?

TI:

One of the big ones I use is Knower/Learner, which is thinking about whether I’m being a ‘knower’ or a ‘learner’ in different circumstances. Great leaders ask questions, they seek to learn.

42 / Issue 24

Another one is Victim/Player, which is more of a behavioural one. In every scenario when you’re presented with a scenario or a problem, you’ve got a couple of different behaviours you can exhibit. You can either be a victim, or a player. Generally, when I act like a victim I’m not very happy with myself and not happy with my response, so I’ll try not to do that. I’ll lean in and try to be the player in a scenario and work on an outcome. It’s another simple mind model.

rubber balls. If you drop a glass ball it will shatter, so glass balls are things like your health, your loved ones, your friends… the things that are really important and you can’t afford to break. In my view, almost everything outside of that is a rubber ball so it will bounce and recover. As you work through your career it’s important not to lose perspective and to get that juggling act right. They’re the three mind models I use. People sometimes over complicate things in leadership, but it should be simple.

The third that I use a lot is an internal saying, it’s basically about juggling your life. You’re always juggling glass balls and rubber balls. You’ve got to define what your glass balls are as opposed to your

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Issue 24 / 43

New Acquisition

Xavier and Receipt Bank creating ‘advice accountants’ through new platform Receipt Bank is undergoing a pivot. Recognising accountants and bookkeepers are being asked to advise clients on a broader spectrum of business challenges, the company best known for bookkeeping productivity is expanding what its products can deliver.

Will Farnell, Founder & Director, Farnell Clarke

Simon Williams, Head of Product & Commercial, Xavier

n a recent interview CEO Adrian Blair signalled his intention for Receipt Bank to become the “essential software stack” for practitioners with the acquisition of Xavier. An award winning toolkit for Xero users, Xavier is the first step to “power the shift from compliance to advisory”, according to Blair. Now part of a multiproduct platform, Receipt Bank’s software offers the most effective way to fetch all paperwork to one place and to sort, organise and categorise it automatically. The Receipt Bank Practice Platform delivers insights on bookkeeping processes, while the Xavier dashboard gives deep financial KPIs on all clients. Blair has described the two products as “extremely complimentary” with “many customers using both”. The combination of Receipt Bank and Xavier offers practitioners more accurate data in real time to deliver business critical advice on cashflow and financial performance. For Xavier co-founder Simon Williams, accurate data is the cornerstone of accurate advice. “Xavier can access financial

44 / Issue 24

information outside of set fields and sales categories. If there’s something that plugs into the accounting system incorrectly, we’re able to spot that and feed it back to Receipt Bank. It works like a cycle. Both products will get better and better.” We asked Will Farnell, Founder of Farnell Clarke Accountants to put your questions to Simon Williams, following the addition of Xavier to Receipt Bank’s platform. Will: What inspired the development of Xavier? Simon: I came from an accounting practice that works with a lot of SMBs. We wanted to give as much insight and value to our client base as we could in the most costeffective way. Many can’t afford what larger firms can in terms of reporting and insights. Yet, we found that the quality of the data at our disposal wasn’t good enough to offer better insights. We spent a lot of time doing things that were not adding value to the customer. At the outset, all the co-founders came together and decided to build an application based on a

@ReceiptBank

Adrian Blair, CEO, Receipt Bank Prior to this, Adrian was the Global Chief Operating Officer of Just Eat and the only executive team member to serve throughout the company’s transformation from start-up to FTSE 100. Before this, he led business development for Spotify in Europe and spent six years in commercial roles at Google in California and London. He is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of Circl, a next-generation leadership development programme for students from deprived backgrounds. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

choose your own adventure/cash flow story. For example, if you were starting a business and wanted to add two new employees, we would use your financial information as the base of that story but alternate the scenarios. As we went deeper, we found that actually the story itself was not very good. Because the data was not very good. We decided to focus on data quality, automating that data quality and providing insight on both the automation and data cleanup. Will: How should an accountant or bookkeeper explain the value of Xavier to their business clients? Simon: There was one example where an accountant client of ours ran a health check through Xavier for the first time. They found £35,000 worth of miscoded transactions for the business they were serving, which meant that their client got all that money back for the future. Will: And Xavier offers a health check for business data? Simon: That’s right. The Xavier Health Score is used by many practices to tangibly rate their

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

New Acquisition client’s data, before you start working with them. It can also be used to keep track of individual team and client progress, and show the performance of your practice. The simple idea is to improve accounting quality and give clients a better picture of their finances through clean-up and health check tools. At its core Xavier can be used to spot errors in an instant to quickly clean up client data and avoid costly mistakes. Health checks are run by our users as part of their compliance process to reduce bookkeeping errors, track team progress and client performance over time. Which specific Xavier features can prompt an immediate conversation with a client? Will: Xavier enables firms to easily assess and highlight the quality of data in a client’s or prospective client’s Xero file. The ability to highlight bookkeeping errors opens a natural opportunity for firms to discuss the value they can add by taking on the bookkeeping work for the client. For me this is key. Firms need to own the end-toend process and this starts with the bookkeeping enabling deeper client relationships and in turn greater experiences for the client. Simon: The first thing I would highlight is data quality. The second thing is that we are able to spot particular trends in this data. So using Xavier and Receipt Bank, an accountant can indicate to their client too much of a reliance on one supplier or a decrease in net assets. This is a good indicator that the business isn’t doing as well. These are key KPIs that we want to build into Xavier. I think there’s a number of areas where we have the data available so the accountant can look through their customer base and prioritise the ones that really need additional service. This is not only valuable for the end user because they see the accountant offering them advisory services. It’s also good for the accountant - they

can offer more value-add services, and unlock new revenue streams

benchmarks and KPIs to advise your clients.

Will: How do you think the dynamic between a business and their accountant is evolving and what role do you see Xavier, as part of Receipt Bank, playing in that.

Will: More and more millennial and Gen Z business owners are demanding a different kind of service. This will continue to drive firms to shift from offering real time data as an add on service to it being the default. Receipt Bank and Xavier combined make this an even more compelling development. How does Xavier play into this?

Simon: When I was working in practice people traditionally might have seen accountants as a bit of a postbox - and said to themselves we want to give you information but actually I’ll run the business myself and come to you when I need to. I found that a lot of small companies didn’t have what they needed to be able to move quickly - information isn’t real unless it’s in real time. You need to have the systems in place that allow businesses to both give and get access to important financial information. So you can tell them what their sales or expenditure were on a given day. Businesses want to better understand how they’re performing, what their KPIs are. What should we look into in the future? What does the business growth look like? And what we can do in that process is make sure you’re not spending your time cleaning up the data, to ensure you have it at your fingertips and can use it to create business

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Simon: There will still be a real need for the human interaction between the accounts and the business user. I think that relationship is really important. In a way, the first advisor that a business gets is their accountant. What I see is that there’ll be less time spent on the traditional accounting processes. It will be a lot more real-time information.

FIND OUT MORE... Xavier is currently available to all Xero users. The ambition is to extend the offering to Xero users globally, and gradually, to users of alternative general ledgers. Unlock your XU exclusive offer today: > receipt-bank.com/xumag

Issue 24 / 45

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Issue 24 / 47

Creating Financial Art An Insiders look into Scott’s add-in for Xero and Excel

Scott Miller, Founder, Scott’s Add-ins Scott is a degreed accountant and successful entrepreneur in the accounting system and ERP space. His latest company, Scott’s Add-ins, invites accountants and finance experts to “create financial art”, by leveraging the power of Excel to seamlessly connect to Xero ledger data.

Accounting and finance folks want to make a difference. They want tools that will allow them to add value, be creative, and be recognized as innovators.

hy do accounting and finance professionals love Excel? Because Excel allows us to always say “yes”. Yes, I can: • Add that chart to your P&L. • Show how all of our business units are performing. • Build a custom dashboard, unique for our industry. • Yes, yes, and yes! Excel also allows us to channel our inner artist. To be creative with financial design. To convey our interpretation of past financial results, or how the future might turn out.

So why don’t we use Excel more for financial reporting and analysis?

marketplace, as innovators. Must Haves

This was the journey we embarked upon twelve months ago. Here’s an insider’s look at how we thought about the project, and our solution, Scott’s Add-in for Excel & Xero.

• Integrate with Xero at the journal / transaction level, allowing for date driven calculations, and future functionality such as transaction drill down. • Zero user training required (pardon the pun). Users should be up and running in minutes, not hours. The integration should feel like a logical extension of Excel. • Fast. When recalcing a workbook, new Xero data is reflected in seconds, not minutes. • Support for multiple Xero organisations within the same Excel workbook. • Date sensitivity. Pull balances for any date range the user specifies. A day, week, month, quarter, year. • Extensibility. Structure the code such that future functions ( ex. budgets) and new spreadsheets (GSheets, SmartSheets) could easily be spun up in the future.

The Vision

The Solution

Empower accounting and finance professionals to be creative, and build their identity in the

• Build custom functions for Excel, that are intuitive for accounting and finance folks.

What If

Empowering accounting and What if you set finance professionals about to change how Xero and Excel to be creative, and work together? build their identity in What if you set the marketplace, as about to design the innovators. best way to seamlessly

Excel allows us to paint on a blank canvas, not constrained by pre-built dashboards or software. Excel is an opportunity to build our identity with others: clients, owners, shareholders, board members. To build our identity in the marketplace as a finance professional.

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Excel simply doesn’t play well with accounting system data. Accounting system data is structured to serve the needs of the accounting system, not Excel. Sure, we can export, import, change columns widths, remove unwanted data, get the spreadsheet looking good. Then the accounting system data changes. Rinse and repeat. Painful.

integrate Xero ledger data with an Excel spreadsheet?

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=SCOTT.XDESC - Returns GL account description =SCOTT.XGL - Returns GL account balance =SCOTT.XRANGE - Returns sum of a range of account balances =SCOTT.XTRACK - Returns GL account balance for a tracking

category and option • Optimize Xero journal transactions for a super fast recalc.

FIND OUT MORE... Give Scott’s Add-in for Excel & Xero a try at: > scottsaddins.com

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FIND OUT MORE marketfinance.com / @marketfinance Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 51

How to remove complexity, increase performance and reduce IT costs

@freshmethod Jamie Beresford, Founder, Freshmethod Jamie Beresford is the CEO of Practice Protect and Founder of Freshmethod, an IT services company that works exclusively with accounting firms. Freshmethod has been supporting accounting firms since 2005. We support 12,500+ users from 900+ accounting firms. Our mission is helping firms maximise the value of IT.

The cloud has changed accounting and how firms interact with their clients, now it’s time to take a fresh approach with modernised, cloud-centric IT platforms designed to speed up workflows and reduce costs.

ere at Freshmethod, we get it, the cloud and cloud technology has been around for years now. There have been massive improvements in efficiencies, and nearly all firms are working on the cloud in one capacity or another. That’s old news.

The firm wanted a simple way to review their setup, and a pathway to speed up workflow. Bringing down costs was considered a bonus, the main objective was to ensure that they were fully optimised and to benchmark their infrastructure with other accounting firms.

BUT, the kicker is that most firms haven’t seen the full efficiency and cost savings this change promised. Whether it’s a provider, a server holding legacy data in the office, or an overly complex hosting solution, most firms have at least one item holding them back from realising the benefits that accounting technology promises.

When we reviewed their setup, it was clear that Steven and the team were progressive and well on their cloud optimisation journey, but they were stumbling at the final roadblock and switching off their legacy IT complexity for good.

This was the story when we met Steven Watson, Managing Director of National Audits Group, at Xerocon ANZ in 2019. National Audits Group is a firm that has 18 team members with offices in Wagga Wagga and Sydney. The firm was 90% cloud-based, using a variety of cloud applications including Xero, XPM and other ‘new suite’ accounting apps, but they still had complexity in their firm, with their files and network managed in a terminal server environment. 52 / Issue 24

After a review, we determined that their expensive “private cloud” terminal server environment was overkill for their requirements. As most of their applications had transitioned to the cloud over the last five years, less and less was left on their terminal server, but they were still paying the same fees as they did when it ran everything they needed. The much cheaper and more efficient alternative was a 100% integrated end to end cloud solution, moving the firm away from the “foot in both camps” cloud/ server scenario they were currently

in. As part of their optimisation project we: • Migrated their client files from the terminal server environment and stored it in the cloud on a premium storage solution. We then setup secondary online backup to guarantee that their files could be recovered in the event of a disaster • Migrated the firms identity management off the terminal server and Windows Active Directory and onto a cloud identity manager instead. This was then integrated with all their cloud logins, meaning the firm had a single username and password to manage everything (this single identity was locked behind MFA, location restrictions with full activity logging and alerts). • We migrated their workflow and project management tool from the terminal server onto the cloud version and configured this to run on each of their team members local pcs. • Finally, the firm had legacy client data on a server based application which they needed to keep access to. This was a requirement, but the data was not large enough to require us to keep the terminal server

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

running. Instead, we migrated this legacy data onto Microsoft Sharepoint, meaning that it could still be accessed by the firm without them needing to pay for additional hosting. After we implemented these changes for Steven and the team, the cost savings to moving 100% cloud and efficiency gains were easy to see. Steven share’s his experiences: “After speaking to Freshmethod we understood that what they were proposing was a lot simpler than

what we had in place, but it would also do the job better. Now our IT is working better than ever, and it doesn’t hurt to save over $25,000 in hard costs every year that can be put back into other things, including profit!” From our experience of working with over 900 accounting firms, we were able to put into practice the methods and processes that have worked for other firms, to then ensure that Steven and the team had the optimal setup for their current needs.

With the current climate, firms are actively reviewing forecasts and budgets, meaning 2020 is the perfect opportunity for firms to simplify, optimise and ultimately reduce IT costs.

FIND OUT MORE... To find out more, book an IT Comparison Call with us here: > freshmethod.com.au/call

“ We save over 150 hours a month” Matthew McConnell, Certax Accounting

Automate your admin and make more time for your clients with the UK’s leading practice management software.

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Issue 24 / 53

Do you enjoy data entry? Neither do we. AutoEntry leads the industry in automated data entry. Whether it’s invoices, receipts or especially bank statements, we take the pain and hassle out of data entry. We’re especially proud of what we can do with bank statements, there are other automation services on the market, but none automate bank statements like we do.

Find out why AutoEntry leads the industry in automation and how to automate your bank statements with our webinar at autoentry.com/bank_statements_webinar You’ll also learn the numerous benefits of accounts automation, from the immediate and obvious to the more subtle and nuanced.

www.AutoEntry.com

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Automated Data Entry for Accountants, Bookkeepers and Business Owners

NEVER MANUALLY ENTER A BANK STATEMENT AGAIN!

BANK STATEMENTS

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Issue 24 / 55

BANK STATEMENTS

Transitioning your HR towards a Full or Semi-Remote Workforce How to adapt your HR function

@HRPartner

Fiona Adler, Director, HR Partner Fiona is passionate about helping small and medium businesses get the tools and know-how to grow and streamline their operations. She has worked with SMB’s for over 20 years - creating and building online solutions that help them operate in the best ways possible. With a background in business consulting and an MBA, Fiona knows there is nothing more important than the Human Resources function.

HR Partner speaks to thousands of small and medium businesses and it’s clear that most businesses will need to adapt to work-from-home arrangements for the medium-long term. Here’s how to do it...

he Covid-19 virus has had many impacts on individuals, but one theme we’re consistently hearing from the companies we speak with is that there is unlikely to be a “return to normal”. Most companies were required to adopt work-fromhome arrangements due to the pandemic, but now that the initial roadblocks have been overcome, they are considering keeping a full or partial remote workforce. This looks different for each company with some specifying which days of the week team

members are required to be in the office (in part, to aid with social distancing), while others are adopting a flexible approach that lets employees decide whether to work from home, or from the office. Of course, this has many implications for Human Resources and HR record keeping - which is the focus of our discussions with companies. The HR needs of a remote company can be quite different from those for a company operating from a single office. If you’re facing the possibility of permanent remote working, here are a few things to consider... Management & HR Access to Employee Records If no-one’s in the office, you can’t just open up the filing cabinet to check an employee’s last performance review, training completed, or emergency contact. And even an installed HR system that worked fine in the office will struggle to give everyone the access they need when they’re working from home. Only an online HR system

56 / Issue 24

will ensure that everyone has the right access to the right information - from wherever they are. Employee Communications If there was ever a time that you should make sure you can quickly and easily communicate with your employees, it’s now. If there’s an outbreak or a sudden change of company direction, you might need to contact employees at a certain location, or within specific departments. An online HR system can help you do this quickly and easily. But just as importantly, when employees are working apart from one another, they need to know who to contact and have ready access to each other’s contact information. An online employee directory is an essential tool, and an organisational chart can also be very useful. Recruiting for Remote Positions If you’re recruiting and you’ve decided that you don’t need people to come to your office, this is great news as it broadens the talent pool considerably. You may be able to attract a better calibre of person for

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

the roles you’re hiring for. In these cases, you might want to consider including stages in your recruitment process that mimic the remote work environment. For example, this could include an online chat (using a chat tool), a Zoom call, and perhaps an online test. Onboarding New Employees Remotely Likewise, once you have new employees starting, you’ll need to consider how to effectively onboard them (remotely). This normally includes requesting certain documents from them, needing other documents read and signed, and a multitude of other things. An online HR system can help put all of these things together to make the onboarding process smooth. You can even assign tasks to other admin users to reach out and welcome the new hire. Getting Signoff on New Policies With so many things in flux at the moment, chances are you’ve got new policies in place, or have

substantially revised your existing policies. If this is the case, you need all employees to read and sign off on these changes, which of course means that you’ll need an HR tool with an e-Signatures component.

expense claims, time-off requests, access to company documents, asset tracking, and more. HR Partner also integrates seamlessly with Xero, so your leave records are always up-to-date.

In Summary Of course, there are a lot more HR processes you’ll need to manage remotely. There’s also timesheets (particularly if you’re now asking employees to track their time),

FIND OUT MORE... Start a free trial today or request a no-obligation demo: > www.hrpartner.io

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Case Study

Lessons from lockdown – how cloud-based systems are helping Survey Gisborne wake up in New Zealand’s new dawn

@TidyInt

Michelle Nicol, writer, Wordstruck writing and training Michelle is a copywriter, trainer and brand storyteller who helps businesses tell their story through words that attract attention. A former BBC journalist, she loves nosing out a great story and sharing her writing expertise through training and workshops.

As businesses around the world start to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic we talk to one of Survey Gisborne’s directors, Diane Taylor, about the lessons and opportunities of these unprecedented times.

urvey Gisborne is located in the first city in the world to see the sunrise; North Eastern New Zealand. The company provides a wide range of surveying expertise and services throughout the Gisborne Tairawhiti and other parts of New Zealand. It’s a small business led by husband and wife team Kevin and Diane Taylor, employing two other full-time surveyors plus several other contractors and casual workers. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit New Zealand, Survey Gisborne thought they’d be able to work from their spacious offices, but as lockdown measures were introduced, it was clear that like everyone else, they would need to make some big changes to how they did business. From being based in the office to working from home In terms of the transition from office to home working, business manager Diane Taylor says: “For me, because we use cloud-based systems, I was able to pick up my computer and carry on. Being cloud based, all the information was there for me to be able to continue with the invoices, wages and the administration side of the business.” Survey Gisborne’s core business 58 / Issue 24

revolves around subdividing and land development, resource consent applications, concept and plan proposals for subdivisions and providing professional planning advice under the Resource Management Act. With most of this activity on hold due to lockdown, business for the rest of the team was very different, as Diane explains: “A big part of land surveying is about being out in the field. The field work feeds the office work and the office work feeds the field work, so it was very difficult. For the first week we were like stunned mullets. We just sat there and tried to work out what happened and how long it was going to go on for.” Survey Gisborne uses TidyWork to help manage large and small scale survey projects that typically include undertaking subdivision and other cadastral surveys for clients and providing accurate fixes and topographic data for buildings and engineering projects. They provide boundary locations for fencing purposes and legal redefinition surveys to resolve or avoid boundary disputes. Maintaining business during the pandemic Diane says cloud-based software

was a key factor in being able to maintain part of their business while surveyors could not get out into the field: “TidyWork was a godsend in this environment,” she says. “Being cloud-based, it enabled me to carry on with things like invoicing for jobs and seeing where we were with different projects.” The ability to record and track time accurately was also an important part of monitoring productivity during lockdown as Diane explains: “The [New Zealand] government was giving out a wage subsidy so that needed to be measured. TidyWork was really awesome in that I set up fields for Covid training, Covid absence and staff were able to track their time against those measures. That’s worked really well as it showed how our productivity plummeted with no field work. As lockdown levels have lifted, we’re climbing out of that.” Managing time and measuring productivity Land surveying has been the lifetime profession of Survey Gisborne’s founder Kevin Taylor, and he’s worked throughout New Zealand as well as in Antarctica. While he focuses on managing the surveying side, Diane is responsible for driving other aspects of the

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Case Study

business and keeping things on track and that involves managing staff and time carefully: “Covid-19 has been a huge disruptor,” says Diane. “We lost a huge window of opportunity with a lot of good settled weather ideal for field surveying. We’ve had to postpone jobs until next summer now because it will be too wet to carry them out. TidyWork not only helps in terms of rescheduling but also in terms of tracking work that’s now beginning to pick up again.” “I use it for tracking milestones on big projects,” Diane explains. “I go to the dashboard and can see what needs attention and how things are tracking. Customers don’t necessarily have to talk to surveyors. I can just go into TidyWork and can see what they’re working on at the moment. It’s all there at my fingertips. As work picks up, we have all that history. It’s really easy to search by job, street, etc., and pick things up from where you left off.” New Zealand’s innovative spirit Its beautiful beaches, surf and

lifestyle are not the only attractive features of the region. Last year Gisborne was the highest performing economy in New Zealand, providing plenty of work ahead for companies with surveying expertise like Survey Gisborne. The area is already popular with technology-based innovators. Xero has offices in nearby Hawkes Bay and Diane met Xero founder Rob Drury when he came to speak in Gisborne. She says: “I love Xero too – another good cloud system with great reports like cashflow and budgets and comparisons. It’s important stuff to know. Once upon a time you’d have to rely heavily on your accountant but with Xero you just know where you are.” Tidy, which has grown internationally, remains headquartered in New Zealand. Being local was a key driver for Survey Gisborne selecting and trusting their software says Diane: “Us Kiwis are pretty innovative and always looking for ways to do things better. Because I had come from a process management background, I could see how TidyWork related to our business.

Right from the start I knew I had support and had something that works for my business.”

Above: Kevin Taylor, Director, Survey Gisborne Ltd

Lessons from a global pandemic As Survey Gisborne and the rest of New Zealand emerges from the worst restrictions of the pandemic, we asked Diane to reflect on what the business has learned from this experience: “It’s not cool anymore to come to work when you’re sick,” she says. “That’s a huge thing. Some businesses haven’t taken that as seriously as they could.” “Being able to have that flexibility, to work from home, to work from anywhere, I see that as the new norm. We need to have those conversations about what we can do differently in the future. Right now, we’re in recovery.”

FIND OUT MORE... To learn more about Tidy, visit: > tidyinternational.com

Blast through the obstacles of a manual accounts payable process with automated ordering, invoice data capture and approval workflows.

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Issue 24 / 59

Case Study

Become a true business partner, not just a statutory compliance service

@re_leased

Grace Thomson, Partnerships Manager, Re-Leased Grace partners with progressive accounting firms who want to leverage modern technology to scale their practices and transform their client relationships.

It’s time to look at the role of accountants differently to truly maximise their expertise, and technology will play a central role in making that happen.

hat’s the message from Steven Kühn, Head of Software at Azets, formally known as the Cogital Group; who has spent his entire career working at the intersection of business and technology.

Steven Kühn, Head of Software, Azets

In recent years, we’ve seen the barriers around cost and accessibility to digital tools come down with the rise of the cloud and this is reshaping, rather than replacing, what accountancy firms can offer their clients. “Today, accountants are highlyqualified people whose time gets consumed in certain cases by data capture.” “By automating those mundane tasks, accountants can continue to evolve into the role of business advisors. Clients will get more value from their accountants because they will become true business advisory partners and not just the people who deliver statutory compliance services.” Evolution and revolution Steven began his career at an accounting firm, at a time when businesses began to experience a seismic, technology-induced shift. “My career started at the beginning of the technology revolution,” he says. Steven moved over to the IT department and one of his first projects was transforming

60 / Issue 24

the internal email system of the firm. This involved moving from one email address for the whole company to individuals having their own email addresses - something that is now taken for granted but then was the start of digital correspondence and document sharing. The theme of evolution and revolution through technology has been a constant in Steven’s life and eventually led him to head up Software Solutions at Baldwins Accountants, which has just rebranded to Azets. Azets, backed by Hg Capital, a leading investor in the accounting services and technology sector, is an international accounting and business services group serving over 120,000 clients ranging from entrepreneurial owner managed businesses that need to scale to medium sized and large international corporates, public sector enterprises and private clients. The group is big on the notion that providing clients with technologydriven outsourced support enables owners to focus on their core operations to achieve long-term success. Walking the talk For Steven and Azets, reshaping the narrative of the accountant and

the business services model had to begin internally. In other words, they had to walk the talk and build a team of digital evangelists within the organisation if they were to showcase the benefits of a techfocused approach to their clients. “Internally, we digitised our full workflow end-to-end, from data capture all the way through to digital submission of statutory accounts. This has been implemented over the last few years and has escalated in the last six months to a full digital journey for our staff.” Azets has also developed its own secure, cloud-based portal called CoZone where clients can submit and access all of their financial information and business performance data and interact digitally with their accountant. “By having an end-to-end digital platform, it allows people to understand the value of working effectively and digitally. Our accountants / business advisors understand the technology we are recommending to our clients. Recommending best-in-class solutions Steven and Azets are also setting themselves apart by giving clients access to industry-specific experts who are able to provide a deeper level of advisory support.

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Case Study

Commercial Property Management Software

“Vertical specialism is very important because, as a client, if you deal with a general accountant you might be missing out on industry-specific knowledge. Vertical specialists have deep knowledge of industry specific legislation and insights that will benefit the client.” “Azets are unique in that we have a strong belief in retaining local offices to offer a local and personal service - 73 across the UK alone. Because of our geographic spread, we understand our local business communities and with this local touch, we able to hold our client’s hand as they scale from being a small entrepreneurial business to become medium sized enterprise or grow internationally if that is their desire.” It’s an approach that promotes the “business partner” relationship with clients, helping them grow their businesses in the most effective way through tailored advice and also through recommendations on which best-inclass tools to leverage. For Steven, this aspect of finding relevant technologies that make business sense for clients is

particularly important and he looks at three key criteria when selecting solutions. The first is quality and knowing it is delivered by a trusted provider, the second is ensuring there is support available within your timezone if something goes wrong, and the third is that it’s commercially viable for a business – there’s no point recommending an expensive piece of software for a smaller company. Real estate verticle solution One such vendor that ticked these boxes was Re-Leased which is the property management platform designed for commercial and mixed property portfolios. Re-Leased won Xero’s industry-specific app of the year in 2020. “The service we got from Re-Leased was exceptional and the quality of the product was great. It’s easily deployable and connected to cloud accounting software which gives us a property vertical outsourcing route, but the key thing was the service.” Firms of the future must be adaptable With technology advancing

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seemingly every day and redefining how whole industries operate, Steven believes this will drive businesses to turn to more subscription-based software solutions. A new generation of business leaders, who are digital natives, will also spur this shift as they become decision makers. So, what does that mean for the accountancy firm of tomorrow? They must be focused on providing greater value through a true partnership combining advisory with technology and specialist industry knowledge and as Steven says, “not just being a statutory compliance partner.” “To retain clients, the service levels will need to be high and accounting firm who will survive will be those that recognise the shift to advisory and adapt to technology as quickly as possible.”

FIND OUT MORE... Add value to your property clients, find out more about Re-Leased property management software: > re-leased.com/gb/partnerprogram

Issue 24 / 61

Basecone now integrates with Xero Basecone is a 100% cloud solution for capturing, processing, approving and booking sales and purchase invoices. Now seamlessly integrated with Xero - experience accounting magic with Basecone. Smart processing, scanning and matching, approving and booking of documents with the easiest automated workflow around.

Upload & Expense App Take a picture of your invoices and receipts, process them immediately in Xero

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Authorisation App Pre-selected authorisers can review documents on the go - with a single swipe

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

When you have to be right.

The Xero Integration... Connect your Xero account with Basecone

With Basecone and Xero, you can:

Take full control over your document flows

Prevent invoices from being paid without approval

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Approve or reject you supplier invoices anywhere, anytime

And of course everything is in the cloud…

“Basecone has saved me hours of time reviewing and approving invoices. It means I can deal with them from my phone from wherever I am without having to be sat at my desk.” James Gifford, IT Director, Old Mill

To find out more about Basecone, register for one of our weekly webinars today! Visit wolterskluwer.co.uk, call 0344 561 8181, or email cchsoftware@wolterskluwer.co.uk © Visit Woltersthe Kluwer Limited All Rights Reserved. XU(UK) Hub: Go8/2020. to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 63

Work Smarter: Time Management Techniques to Improve Your Workflow The time management experts at MinuteDock take a look at how you can squeeze more value out of your work day...

t’s been said plenty before, but it’s worth repeating that time is perhaps our most valuable resource. Managing our time effectively is critical to keeping ourselves productive when it comes to work.

Having espoused the virtues of tracking your time, let’s get into the nitty gritty of a couple of interesting time management techniques you might like to try out for yourself: S.M.A.R.T goals, Kanban boards and the Pomodoro technique.

Whether you are looking for time management techniques for students or for the office, there are a number of universally effective time management techniques you can utilize to make sure you are getting the best use of this limited resource.

‘Work smarter, not harder’ is the fundamental thought behind the Italian Pomodoro technique. You might think of it as something similar to interval training in physical fitness. The essential core of the technique is to break your work down into small intervals with small breaks between to reset your mind and refocus onto the next task. By breaking work down into small periods like half hours you can give yourself short-term productivity targets to gun for and create a feel of positivity and productivity by completing short term targets over your working day.

You will quickly notice the large difference that being organized around time management can make to your work and personal lives. There are enough hours in the day, for those who know how to use them! First things first: track your time! Whether you use a time tracking service or even just run a stopwatch from your phone, you will get value out of keeping track of your time. Time tracking is not just about good time management – it’s about informed decision making based on clear and accurate data. The value is beyond the time itself, and while time tracking services provide useful data reporting tools, you can extract at least some value regardless of whether you invest in a timesheet solution by just running a clock for yourself.

64 / Issue 24

The Pomodoro technique lets you create a healthy sort of self-competition, where you can race yourself against the clock to improve your methods of completing everyday tasks, while also giving you short breaks to refresh yourself with a quick coffee or water break. Having clear and equally sectioned work intervals will give insight into your comparative productivity across different tasks or during different parts of the day. You will likely find yourself spending less overall time working while increasing the output of your day!

@minutedock

Bryce Armstrong, Customer Success Manager, MinuteDock Bryce is dipping his toes into the cloud-based accounting ecosystem after recently partnering up with his brother Jared, founder of MinuteDock: time management software for professional services.

The next technique we’re looking at is less a time management technique and more of a general workflow technique which will have a strong impact on time management. A Kanban board is a project management tool to help optimize workflow by creating a visual and clear representation of work in progress, completed, and yet to do. Office work can be very intangible at times – it’s hard to get a quantifiable grasp of work being done in the cloud. A Kanban board can keep everybody aware of what others in the team are doing, up to date on what has or needs to be accomplished, and generally more aware of the flow of work through the team as a whole. This allows the team to really see what the individual tasks completed are contributing to the overall projects being undertaken. Having an overview of how the pieces fit while being able to focus on the smaller tasks which build into the whole is critical to being able to create a successful overall workflow. Our last technique, S.M.A.R.T goals, might at first glance sound like something from a primary school classroom, but wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes. But these sorts of clever acronyms exist because they are useful. Every goal you set yourself should be specific, measurable, attainable,

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

relevant, and time-based. Or, in other words, smart. Why? It’s important to have a specific goal in mind in order to know exactly what you are trying to achieve in any given time frame – if the goal is not specific, it can lead to confusion with your team members and wasted time. It should be measurable as this will allow you to have a clear understanding of progress, of when you are finished, and of how far short you have fallen if the goal is

not reached. There’s not much point in striving towards a goal if it is not relevant to your work and success. Finally, it needs to be time-based: you can use effective time tracking techniques to give yourself a very clear overview of success and failure, as well as allowing great comparison between goals so you can see what your team needs to improve on and what you’re doing well.

The IT Company for Accounting Firms At Freshmethod, we work exclusively with accounting firms to provide industry-specific technology advice, smart solutions and exceptional support while reducing IT costs by up to 75%.

Learn More Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

These time management strategies may not be useful for every situation or workplace, but they are worth trying out – we’re living in a time of rapid change and any opportunity to improve on the way we do things should be looked at. Work smarter, not harder.

FIND OUT MORE... To find out more, visit our website: > minutedock.com

“Having Freshmethod has given me peace of mind. It feels like I’ve got an IT manager in the background, even though we’re only a 10-person practice!” -Electra Frost Director, Electra Frost Advisory

CHASE OVERDUE

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Supplier ACMEHACK (ACMEHACK Pty. Ltd.) is not registered for GST.

A bill has been raised for $16,500 with supplier ACMEConnect (ACME CONNECT PTY LTD) today. It includes GST for $1,500.

You have at least one GST payment transaction with this supplier and you may be liable for the GST amount if claimed on your BAS.

However, this business does not appear to be registered for GST.

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Payment to Supplier Business Different account name detected Not Registeredfor foran GST Income Transaction Supplier ACMEHACK We (ACMEHACK Pty. Ltd.) have detected a difference in the account is not registeredallocation for GST. for this income transaction,

based on usual You have at least one GST payment transaction with activity. name: ACMEART Supplies this supplier and you may beContact liable for the GST amount if claimed on your BAS. Date: 4/8/2019 12:00:00 AM

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Bill raised with supplier Different Businessbusiness has incorrect GST status acc not registered for GST for an inc

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for an Income Transaction different b for an expense transaction Take control of data quality and your practice. Say goodbye to financial risks, found o errors and wasteful tasks and hello to automated manual checks, smart alerts, streamlined workflows, and advice using accurate numbers. We have detected a difference in the account allocation for this income transaction, based on usual activity. Contact name: ACMEART Supplies Date: 4/8/2019 12:00:00 AM

Account name: Accountant Fees

Account name: Web Costs

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Predicted account name: Meeting Expenses

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Last viewed by

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See all your clients, processes and tasks in one place

Accurate insights and reports BOOKKEEPING RISK Today for better decisions and advice

DETAILS

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Extensive collaboration tools and history to track changes

Align Template Tasks to processes for efficiencies

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Collaboration 66 / Issue 24

Forward emails into XBert to manage client relationships

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XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

DETAILS Last viewed by

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5 LARGEST INCOME

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$38,675

My quarterly ﬁnancial statements Julie can you prep these as soon as you can. I need to take to the bank as I am looking to purchase more equipment and they will ask for the latest numbers.

Add your comments to this task so we can keep any info all in one place and tracked. All these emails are are slowing me down.

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Citywith Limousines has an overdue invoice ORC1012. You have a contact named The business ACMENumbers Thematch. amount owing is $660Ms (from total amount Bev aWilliams whichofmay be a duplicate of ABN of 73074134517 does not ls for supplier PowerDirect $660). This was due on 28/05/2019 and is outside another contact, which is named these bills have attachments The ABN is registered. Review this contact record. the normal overdue payment behaviourMs of 5Beth days. Williams. ferent business numbers o the supplier. Chase this as a priority. You should also review and

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DETAILS

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XBERT TASK - RISK $16,500 URGENT GST RISK : $120 Julie assigned

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21 March

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You have a contact named Ms Bev Williams which may be a duplicate of another contact, which is named Ms Beth Williams.

DETAILS

A bill has been raised forA$1,320 supplier bill haswith been paid for $1,891 with supplier ACMERockets, on 16/06/2017. It includes for has not been able to ACMEPrinters. ThisGST business $120. However, this business has not been to be matched to the able Australian Business Register be matched to the Australian Register (ABR). Business Check contact details and if the supplier is (ABR). GST registered. This supplier could also be from outside Australia.

RESOLVE

A bill has been paid for $1,891 with supplier ACMEPrinters. This business has not been able to be matched to the Australian Business Register (ABR). Check contact details and if the supplier is GST registered. This supplier could also be from outside Australia.

DETAILS

not assigned https://go.xero.com/Bank/ViewTransaction.aspx?bankTran

Issues created on this entry

My Tasks

Assigned to David

Create Task Due Oct 30

Bill Raised with Supplier not Registered for GST A bill has been raised for $1500 with supplier ACME Industrial. It includes GST for $136.36 However, this business does not appear to be registered for GST.

RESOLVE

Created by XBert on 09/01/20

OPEN XBERT

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XBert is

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Assigned to Davidinformation email For more

Due Oct 18

Expenses with a Cancelled Business partnerprogram@xbert.io

Business Barry’s Plumbing has an ABN (90 344 000 689) that is cancelled or does not exist on the Australian Business Register. Amount due is $5367. You may need to withhold the tax

Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Visit xbert.io

RESOLVE Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Created by XBert on 09/01/20

Issue 24 / OPEN 67 TASK

Cover Case Study Story

Certax Durham switches to AccountancyManager and saves over 150 hours a month

@accountancymgr

James Byrne, CEO, AccountancyManager During his time as a practising accountant, James identified a range of operational inefficiencies - which he knew the right software would solve. Thing was, it didn’t exist yet. Jump forward three years and AccountancyManager helps thousands of practices automate their onboarding, record requests and task lists every day.

inding time to properly focus on clients and grow the business is an ongoing challenge for firms big and small. Nevermore so than over the last few months. Matt McConnell and his partner, Jonathan Tait of Certax Accounting in Durham, are running a 32-strong practice, supporting over 1000 clients, studying for their Chartered Accountancy exams and have just processed 650 furlough claims, for free. So how, under these circumstances, is Matt’s practice saving more than 150 hours a month? Three years ago, Matt and Jonathan’s focus turned to strengthening their firm’s foundations - in preparation for further growth. In his hunt for software to best fit his business, Matt unearthed many “generalised CRM systems, which have been shoe-horned in the accountancy world”. Until he found AccountancyManager, that is. “Even in those early days of AccountancyManager, it did everything that we needed it to do.” Having tried one-size-fits-all practice management systems, flexibility was crucial for Matt. “When you buy something ‘off the shelf’ it might work straight away, but you have to change your processes around it. The key is to 68 / Issue 24

customise your software around your existing workflows. Once that was done, amazing. Just amazing. It’s the centre of our business now.” Of these customisations, ‘canned messages’ have become one of Matt’s particular favourites. Canned messages are paragraphs you write once, that AccountancyManager uses to automatically build highlyrelevant emails and texts for your clients. You don’t even have to ‘copy and paste’ these messages, as Matt explains: “We have toggles in AccountancyManager, so say we’ve got a client on Xero, who uses Receipt Bank and we have their bank feeds, all three toggles would be ticked. That creates a certain type of message which would go to that type of client.” “The 150 hours is a minimum across the board actually. I think

we’re saving a lot more time in real terms.” Matt welcomes the recent integration between AccountancyManager and Xero too. Especially while his administrative staff are on furlough. “What we used to do is use the fees in AccountancyManager to raise the invoice then an administrator would type up the information into Xero. That’s rectified now, which is amazing.” Matt’s thankful that they’ve been able to keep all their staff on, albeit with a few on furlough. Now that he and Jonathan have refined their processes with Xero and AccountancyManager.

FIND OUT MORE... Sign up for a 30-day free trial at: > accountancymanager.co.uk

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

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Issue 24 / 69

simPRO Partner Programme:

@simprosoftware

Exclusive Partnership for Accountants Working with Trade Contracting Businesses

Mat Wray, UK Partner Manager, simPRO (UK Team) Mat is the Partner Manager for the simPRO UK team. Joining simPRO five years ago, Mat has established successful relationships with several strategic accountants, business advisors & cloud software integrators.

The new Partner Programme from simPRO helps accountants distinguish themselves as a trusted consultant for trade contracting businesses. Discover the benefits of the simPRO Partner Programme and how the right software solution can give accountants the tools they need to help their trade contracting clients succeed.

ccounting consultants for trade contracting businesses have the opportunity to provide financial advice to help their clients succeed. To strengthen that relationship with those clients even further, accountants can go beyond offering basic financial insights and provide expertise tailored to specific industry needs.

more efficient and improve cash flow.

- Grant Smith, Armstrong Watson Accountants

Accountants who partner with simPRO gain exclusive access to training discounts for their clients, a knowledge transfer session and other helpful resources.

How? With the right software solution, trade contracting businesses have access to vital financial information that will help them identify costly processes and understand which parts of their business are most profitable.

To truly help trade contracting businesses become more profitable, accountants need to be able to easily access financial reports and insights. By partnering with simPRO, accountants will receive access to their clients’ financial and business details in their simPRO database.

Then, using simPRO’s BI Reporting feature, accountants can create customised reports, dashboards and data visualisations from the information their client has entered into simPRO. This customised reporting functionality will help accountants guide their trade contracting clients toward a model of data-driven decision making.

To help accountants easily access this level of information for their trade contracting clients, simPRO (a top-rated field service management software platform) has launched a new Partner Programme. After two years of successfully helping partners, the simPRO Partner Programme has been enhanced to provide even more support for accountants working to help their trade contracting clients become 70 / Issue 24

Benefits of the new simPRO Partner Programme

“Such an easy recommendation to clients. The moment when a client sits down with the team and sees simPRO for the first time is priceless. An indispensable tool for field service businesses to drive processes and effectively manage staff in the field. Our clients tell us they have more visibility, control and most crucially more free time.”

Additionally, when partnering with simPRO, accountants will be supported by a dedicated simPRO Partner Manager. This expert will make the best possible recommendations for trade contracting clients so they can use software to streamline business processes, ultimately making work easier for accountants. New simPRO customers referred by their accountant as part of the Programme will receive benefits as well in the form of special discounts on software implementation and user training and access to unlimited local technical support.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

Why accounting professionals trust simPRO to manage their clients’ businesses Many trade contracting businesses perform a variety of services. They may provide recurring maintenance on commercial heating systems, complete multi-stage new construction projects, or be available for emergency service repairs. simPRO is a unique software in the trade contracting industry in that it has features to manage service jobs, maintenance work and projects all from one system. Trade contracting businesses can quote a job, schedule their engineers, track project progress, invoice customers, and manage all areas of their

business from a single, cloud-based platform. Additionally, simPRO seamlessly integrates with Xero so trade contracting businesses can manage their financial information and job information all in one location. “The Xero integration with simPRO saves our business on average 104 hours of administration time per month by automating the sales and purchase invoices between the two systems, meaning no double handling of the data,” said John Trickett of Firesec. Accountants who want to offer trusted solutions to their trade contracting clients can count on simPRO to provide software tools which are customised to their

unique needs. Also, by offering trade contracting clients a solution that improves overall business management based on industry best practices, accountants gain greater credibility and can distinguish themselves as a source of expertise.

FIND OUT MORE... To sign up for the new simPRO Partner Programme and become a simPRO accounting partner, visit: > www.simprogroup.com/uk/partners/becomeaccounting-partner

Hubdoc + Xero + ApprovalMax = seamless paperless workﬂow for bills Read more in our blog! Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 71

Case Study

Inside the move from MYOB to Xero + SuiteFiles Making the move to new systems is always a big decision. When the team at Withers Tsang started the switch to Xero from a hybrid of MYOB AO & AE, they were looking to reduce complexity, ensure greater compliance and have all of their data in the cloud.

nce they’d settled on moving to Xero – Practice and Document management were the next steps to take. They recently took the time out to talk about the change, the challenges they’ve faced, and how it’s impacted their business in light of Covid-19. What prompted the change for Withers Tsang?

Below: Nick Ashford, Director, Withers Tsang

72 / Issue 24

We had been using a hybrid of MYOB AO & AE for our practice for quite some time, and we were looking to reduce the complexity of our systems and in the process ensure we had greater compliance. We chose Xero as our start point and looked at how we could move all of our systems across in the

@SuiteFiles

Molly Banister, Marketing Manager, SuiteFiles Molly heads up SuiteFiles Marketing. She is passionate about communication and how technology can help create more effective channels for information storage and sharing, providing greater clarity in business.

instances there wasn’t a lot that Xero suite of products. It wasn’t we had to do manually. XPM and a “must have” back at the start SuiteFiles work so well together, all of 2019 to have everything in the we really needed cloud, but with the power to do was decide of hindsight, it’s proven Cloud access, on our folder invaluable. SuiteFiles obviously during structure and & XPM are known Covid-19 this has SuiteFiles took to integrate really been a source of care of the rest, a well with each incredible relief, we piece of cake. Our other, which made are so thankful to documents were the decision that be completely cloud all migrated over much easier. a weekend, so there based. was minimal business How did you implement interruption. The team went Xero & SuiteFiles into your through training online, and it’s not practice? a complex system to learn. We started with the conversion What has been the biggest impact and migration of our MYOB general of implementing SuiteFiles & ledgers about 4 months before we XPM? moved our practice & document management data across. In both Having all of our data in the cloud, We were very lucky we did that back at the start of 2019. At the time of course, we couldn’t have known that we’d be working remotely for long stretches of 2020. It has made all of the difference in keeping our practice running as close to normal as is possible in this environment. It means we haven’t had to maintain a server, try to arrange access from remote locations, and has minimized downtime in what is already an incredibly stressful time for businesses. We’ve been able to better support our clients because we’re not scrambling for information, we have regular and continuous access from wherever we are. It has ended up being a definite time and money saver. XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

Case Study

What are your favourite SuiteFiles Features? Cloud access, obviously during Covid-19 this has been a source of incredible relief, we are so thankful to be completely cloud based. Having security settings on every folder so that we can set up specific users per folder for access has also been great. The common login with Office365 saves another set of credentials and makes it easier to get up and running each morning. The integration with Outlook has been a must for us, just the ability to save emails easily and then quickly find them alongside other client information, as well as being able to see our documents from within the Outlook app. The integration with Xero is also fantastic, and a big part of why we chose SuiteFiles. Being able to see a single view of the client and their documents in XPM, as well as the effortless creation of new clients

in both systems whenever a new client to XPM saves time, especially when you can just choose which templated folder structure you’d like underneath and then implement it in a click. What else would you say to firms who are not yet using Xero & other cloud technology? We originally implemented SuiteFiles as we wanted to move away from our server based MYOB solutions. We were happy with our decision before Covid-19, but after Covid-19 we are just so relieved and thankful that we made the move away from server solutions. Moving across was a relatively simple process, and the time we’ve saved given the current state of the

world has been so important to our practice. If you’re not yet working in the cloud, now is the time to switch, it’s never been more of a “must have” Thank you to Nick at the team at Withers Tsang for taking the time to talk through their changes with us. If you want to know more about SuiteFiles & XPM, get in touch with us via our website.

FIND OUT MORE... Sign up for a demo or free trial at: > suitefiles.com

NEW

New feature for Xero: creating bills directly in ApprovalMax Read more in our blog! Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 73

Why listening, collaborating and customer engagement is critical for app development Since launching in September, XBert’s customer-centric and collaborative mindset has seen the powerful AI audit and risk detection tool grow into an integrated, automated practice management and client engagement solution...

o-founder Troy Brown and I decided to create XBert in response to the experiences we’d had owning and managing businesses. We knew we could build a solution to help others avoid common pitfalls and identify risks early. What we didn’t realise was how much time-sapping, manual work was involved in auditing the data and completing the necessary bookkeeping checks. During XBert’s development, we spoke with hundreds of advisors and business owners. Accountants and bookkeepers told us they spend hours checking reports, thousands of transactions and lines of data; fixing any found inconsistencies and errors; then checking everything again and again! They needed an efficient and reliable way to audit accounting data and financial information and to automate manual checks. As a technologist, I was spurred on to solve this fundamental problem using AI and machine learning and unlock these advancements for everyone by creating a scalable solution.

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That was the beginning of our journey, and wow, what a fantastic ride it’s been. We knew we were on the right track when, after a very short time in the market, we were named an Emerging App of the Year finalist in 2019’s Xero Awards Australia.

Aaron Wittman, Director and Cofounder, XBert Aaron is a total techie and data fanatic whose mission is to build software that makes a difference. After more than 25 years of experience running and managing businesses in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and India, a chance meeting set him and cofounder Troy Brown on the path to XBert and helping accountants, bookkeepers and business owners manage risk, automate their business and achieve success.

Our AI and machine learning technology analyse your Xero files and attachments hourly and monitors business information warehouses to alert you to anomalies, patterns, errors, entry behaviours, potential fraud and more. These alerts are also called XBerts, short for expert business alerts.

AI designed by busy accountants and bookkeepers

Originally an end-of-day audit tool to deliver real-time, accurate insights, now our AI process Coming from a business owner automation makes standpoint, Troy and I know XBert THE essential the risks from outdated start-your-day and inaccurate Hourly AI audits and tool for complete reports, fraud, and imported attachment practice and client simple bookkeeping management. mistakes. We’re checks ensure data also well aware of quality. Working closely with the implications and our customers and poor decisions that can partners, we developed result. XBert CONNECT, which is XBert at scale. You’ll save hours with We heard the challenges faced extensive process management, by accountants and bookkeepers around the day-to-day management workflow and collaboration features, and Template Tasks that of ledgers, handling clients and ensure consistency of service. communications, and frustrations with the number of non-billable A truly customer-led solution hours spent on tasks like rework and administration. We’ve made a huge difference Everyone told us what they needed, for our customers by creating efficiencies; streamlining and we set about building the addworkflows; providing full visibility on they wanted. over data, work queues, deadlines XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

and client risk; enabling more advisory and value-added services and helping them grow their practices.

with the item, you can manage these in Xero and can also create tasks and assign them to team members.

By actively listening to our partners and engaging them throughout the entire development process, together, we’ve built an app that customers use all day, every day to solve the real-world problems faced by sole practitioners and small and mid-tier firms through to enterpriselevel operations.

Data integrity and reduced rework Any XBerts (alerts) are resolved quickly and easily with a direct link to the corresponding Xero entry. The hourly AI audits find errors like duplicates and account coding mistakes, unusual activity and inconsistencies early.

We use optical character We’ve expanded outside Australia recognition (OCR) to scan into the US, the UK, Asia, South attachments in Africa and New Zealand. Xero like bills, We’re developing receipts, invoices, custom compliance, Your data is accurate, and attachments tax and company reducing rework and from Receipt Bank, registration Hubdoc and other database alerts for the time needed for automated reader these regions and review. apps. support for more regions is on the way. OCR enhances the accuracy of our XBerts and provides added We want to continue to make layers of protection by checking XBert the most advanced and amazing Xero add-on, so new alerts entries and imported data against the past behaviour of your clients’ and features will keep coming suppliers and customers. based on the wish list and needs of our partners and customers. You have more confidence your data is accurate and therefore so Seamless integration with Xero are your reports. XBert helps reduce costly rework and the time needed It only takes a few minutes to sign for manual, labour-intensive review. up using Xero single sign-on and start loading multiple files at once. The complete visibility you always Invite your internal team to your wanted CONNECT account and you can also invite clients and their staff to One of the biggest pain points for the relevant linked organisation. every accountant and bookkeeper Choose whether clients see we spoke with was not having all XBerts and tasks for that an integrated system to know organisation or only the items they the risks, the status of all work need to help resolve and complete. and what was due by when. This keeps their dashboard clean, They wanted complete, real-time so they focus on the priorities you visibility over workflows, team set. workload, client risk and business health. Load your workpapers and other To solve this, we’ve put all your attachments into your client clients, process workflows and engagement hub to track and tasks together. manage enquiries, requests, communications and reporting In XBert CONNECT you track requirements. work queues, team workload and deadlines on your AI-powered There’s also an innovative browser Process Status and Team View extension that follows you around dashboards using the Reporting and cross-checks XBert while you Period Selector. Create Template work in Xero. You’re notified of any Tasks with subtasks and notes, issues or XBert tasks associated Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 75

map these to the best of breed, customisable processes, then allocate them to clients.

a team member, set a due date and map the task to one of your processes.

You can create ad hoc tasks as needed and add workpapers and attachments to tasks. For better management and process monitoring, Template Tasks, ad hoc tasks and XBerts are mapped to a process.

Our email integration is another way you use automation to improve productivity and manage and nurture client relationships. Start your day with XBert for complete visibility over your practice and clients.

The Client Console gives you quick access to each linked organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s XBerts, tasks, health snapshots, insights and activity feed.

Smarter analytics, real-time risk analysis and improved advisory

Team View for each client lists all process workflows along with the total number of outstanding items and items assigned to each team member. You can monitor and manage workloads, redistributing tasks as needed, and stay on top of deadlines. Forward emails into XBert to create tasks automatically and track discussion. If you want, you can include smart tags in the email to allocate the task to a client, assign

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Save hours and have the visibility you need to focus on your practice with XBertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s AI-powered audit and process automation, risk alerts, workflow and collaboration features, and trusted analytics. You can put more time towards income-generating activities, sourcing new clients, providing higher-value services for existing clients, for career development, or doing more of what you love. The next step

Powerful, visual snapshots and charts trigger meaningful conversations with clients. Our integration with leading business intelligence platform Power BI delivers interactive Risk Reports for real-time client risk analysis. Use these reports as a starting point for advisory and to educate clients. With accurate insights you can provide accurate advice and help clients make better business decisions.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to continue building our network of customers around the world and develop XBert as the powerful software add-on making a real difference to the working lives of our customers by revolutionising the way they work.

FIND OUT MORE... Start your free trial, request a demo or ask about our onboarding program at: > xbert.io

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

Get paid on time, every time At the click of a button, Practice Ignition will automatically generate invoices in your accounting software, collect the payment and mark your invoices as paid. No more receivables.

Create professional engagement letters with clear services, fees & schedules that easily collects payment details Allow your clients to sign your engagement letter digitally. Securely collect direct debit or credit card details right within the proposal. No need for other forms. Practice Ignition will automatically raise the invoice and collect payment using your clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s selected payment method.

Learn more landing.practiceignition.com/getpaid Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 77

Maximise Xero For Your Accounting Firm

Donnie Buchanan, Xero Expert & Trainer, EntryCounts.com

Are you getting your monies worth from Xero? Cashflow, client needs, economic conditions and technological change. These are just some of the factors that accounting firms need to consider. As a Xero user, you also need to consider whether you are using it well and getting all the value you can.

winner is a dreamer who never gives up - Nelson Mandela. Consider this, you have this vision, you want this leading edge Xero accounting firm which automates your compliance services and creates more valuable services for your clients. Costs are reduced, processes are simple, you make more money for your time and everyone is happy. So the natural next step is “How on earth do we do this?”. That question is where I come into it, using all Xero’s resources, we can reach for the stars. I run my own Xero accounting firm, using Xero, Xero HQ, G Suite / Google apps and other government portals (Australia). I started my business as I was frustrated with the timeliness and quality of information coming to my family and friends businesses, it was not fast enough, not clean enough and not valuable enough. We needed more. Each Entry Counts, make them count. EntryCounts.com was born.

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What I can help you with What I offer you is a one-on-one service where I create this system which enables your accounting firm to reach that vision and beyond. My process for you is extremely simple and highly successful, I use a plan called “The 4 P’s”.

@BuchananDonnie

Donnie loves to work with forward thinking, innovate and professional clients. He helps accounting firms maximise their free Xero resources and create leading edge systems which enable accounting firms to reach their goals. He has used Xero since 2012 and worked in Xero’s reporting team from 2014 to 2017, since 2017 he has helped accounting firms reach for the stars all around the world.

Being able to fit each decision into a category allows us to work together seamlessly and meet and exceed all your goals.

Are you getting your money’s worth from Xero and maximising your time?

The 4 P’s help me divide your accounting firm’s goals into 4 categories, product, platform, people and processes. Each decision we make falls into either of these 4 categories and allows us to execute your vision. The 4 P’s In summary, the 4 P’s are: • Product - these are the services you sell to your clients. Most accounting firms are similar service providers • Platform - this is Xero, along with some other apps, depending on your size and strategy • People - this is the part where we really focus, making sure you and your team are fully equipped to get this done • Processes - these are the operational techniques we employ to get this done, the best systems have the best processes

The beautiful thing is that I have done so many of these, that each accounting firm is pretty much the same and needs support around the same items.

So I have mastered the system well and created a service for you that ticks as many boxes as you need. How I work is: • You book me for a 30 minute scope chat • We figure out if this will work for you, if you are ready and have the resources • When you are ready to move ahead, we design a plan with a shared folder and documents • I login to your Xero HQ and reconfigure the system for you • I build you compliance financial statements, management reports and tax / cash flow planning reports • I give you a master chart of accounts • I train you and your team via Zoom meetings, this is a huge part of the success of your plan and I provide you an operations

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

manual (Word & PDF) • I provide email / zoom support as we move forward You and your clients Each client you have will be slightly different, however, if you use The 4 P’s, you will be able to at least help them help you. This enables more success through what is called “FETA” with “data flow”. FETA is another concept I use called “from event to advice” which refers to us managing as much “data flow” as we can. Some examples are: • We provide them some other apps or systems which flow into Xero • We try to keep your clients from using certain parts of Xero, such as the chart of accounts • We have a bulletproof chart of accounts that is 100% synced to not only your reporting but any other advisory app you may use The data then flows from event to advice, giving you peace of mind in knowing that whatever advice you are providing is backed up by a slick and professional set of quality data. The common issues you will face Here are some typical questions and issues that accounting firms face with Xero: • I am a CA / CPA accounting firm, can I be sure that these reports will meet my requirements? • Will I need to keep paying for my other accounting system? • Xero’s financial statements are very basic, unprofessional and

take too long to produce, surely there is a better way? • Can I produce valuable advisory reports for clients? • How much will this all cost me? • Xero doesn’t roll over at the end of the financial year, what do I need to do? • Xero doesn’t have an income distribution, income tax or dividends function, how do I do this? These are the same questions I get all the time. Which is great for you as I have created solutions for all these issues.

Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

I have clients in many countries around the world, all with the same requirements and same objectives. Let’s get together and have a chat about how we will work together, I am looking forward to hearing from you. Find us on Youtube, search “Entry Counts”.

FIND OUT MORE... Jump onto my website and book me for a Zoom meeting! Let’s chat. > EntryCounts.com

Issue 24 / 79

Smash It, Rebuild It! With lockdowns, social distancing, and the sheer heart attack of economic and social dislocation, why not ‘smash’ our status quo and ‘build up’ a different business model, fresh objectives, markets, or a new way of working?

ith the world still kneedeep in the global pandemic and recession, it’s hard to see any silver lining to the sobering experience we’ve endured this year. However, if I was to search for an opportunity for positive outcomes it would be this: In such a profound and unsettling time in our lives—an era that is requiring nations, governments, industries and individuals to challenge and re-evaluate almost everything—what better time to look at our businesses and do the same? Let’s lock in learnings from this present shock wave and reconsider: • Our Why • Our business model; and • The trajectory we’re on. I’ve likened the process to dropping our existing preconceptions on the ground, picking up the pieces and rearranging them for the new normal. Having the discussion, debate, and analysis around this can be very powerful. Our Why? At Spotlight Reporting, our ‘why’ has always been based on our passion for empowering the accounting industry to transform outcomes for small and mediumsized business clients. We haven’t changed this guiding principle, but we certainly have looked 80 / Issue 24

closely at how we can better serve accountants, bookkeepers, and CFOs at a time when it is ‘survival of the fittest’. That’s why we’re doubling down on investment in Spotlight Forecasting, to ensure that the cash flow of the future is clearly understood, projected, and discussed by accountants and clients. Scenarios can be crafted and debated, whilst loans, grants, and relief payments can also be factored in.

@spotlightrep

Richard Francis CA, CEO, Spotlight Reporting Richard is a CA and trusted advisor with 20+ years of advisory experience. As the director of a boutique professional practice, Richard saw a need to improve analysis and forecasting for his clients that led to him founding Spotlight Reporting – a global company and also the #1 Reporting and Forecasting app in the Xero ecosystem. Richard was also GM of Workpapers for Xero.

model of engagement. For us, we feel we can connect just as well and in some cases better with: • Live webinars with industry peers • Expanded online training (live and recorded) • Targeted content, case studies and more; and • Bite-sized podcasts that allow us to share some Spotlight magic quickly and easily.

That doesn’t mean you won’t We’re also actively involved in a see Spotlight Reporting at future number of charitable endeavours events, but at Spotlight Reporting, so it does mean it’s close to our heart we’re committed to ensure that Not I’ve likened it to to reducing for Profits are dropping our existing our planetary given the financial preconceptions on footprint by 50%, insight for effective the ground, picking whilst allowing governance at this up the pieces and customers, time. This is why rearranging them. prospects, and we’re offering small partners to benefit charitable entities from our experience, massive subscription expertise and support in new discounts and free group training ways. until further notice. Our Business Model

Trajectory

Over the last 10 years, we’ve been to hundreds of events, travelled over 1,000,000 miles and made dozens of visits to regional centres to share our passion, our software, and our people. We wouldn’t change this legacy of active involvement and commitment in our core markets, but the enforced lock-down and travel obstacles have certainly had us rethinking our

Having helmed a company that has grown each year for 10 years and now partners with 2,000+ firms, we’ve always enjoyed a growth trajectory and entering new markets. The learnings of 2020 have us reflecting more on a trajectory that: • Grows our skillsets and careers, more than just head-count • Allows us to double-down on core

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

markets and be more present for customers • Prioritises ‘design thinking’ for the customer journey and experience over break-neck pace; and • Ensures that we, our partners and customers are ‘OK’ and that we’re there to help as part of their ‘support and thrive’ network. We hope that you embrace the challenge of the times we live in and rebuild towards the future state you most want to achieve!

Getting Started 1. Carve out some decent ‘blue sky’ time for you and the team. 2. Start with a blank whiteboard, hand out the markers and start asking: • Why do we do what we do? What gets us out of bed in the morning? • What’s changing, or could change? What have we learnt? • If we capture the changes and the learnings, how does our business model evolve? (Discuss, debate, design and draw)

Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

• With this new model, what are our fresh objectives and how do we achieve these? What projects, actions and activities do we need to progress? 3. Note it all down, assign priorities, deadlines and owners. Lock in accountability!

FIND OUT MORE... Our integrated reporting and forecasting creates insights that inform better business outcomes: > spotlightreporting.com

Issue 24 / 81

Streaming in 12 conference channels

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XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

16 - 17 November 2020

Coming to you live, wherever you are

The Digital age comes to life! The ďŹ rst of its kind, this two-day virtual event will focus on the strategies, technologies and big ideas that will be essential for accounting and ďŹ nance leaders in 2020 and 2021. Over the two days we will be broadcasting practical and informative presentations, demos of leading tech solutions, and live and interactive panel sessions from leading experts, running alongside live virtual networking.

Get your free ticket accountingbusiness.com.au Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 83

Event

The Asia accounting and finance technology event of the year goes virtual Driving digital innovation in accounting and finance across Asia, 100% online

@accandfinshow

Laura Binns, Project Director, Terrapinn Asia Having spent many years working with accountants and finance professionals, Laura joined Terrapinn in February 2018 to launch the Accounting & Finance Show Asia. Laura has enabled the show to go from strength to strength and has been integral in re-thinking and re-creating a fully virtual event for 2020.

The virtual doors to the third Accounting & Finance Show Asia will open at 9am Singapore time on Tuesday 3rd November and registrations have been flooding in, with 4,000+ attendees expected to join the two day technology showcase and expert-led fully virtual conference.

he Accounting & Finance Show Asia 2020 will run virtually this year at the end of a year of unprecedented disruption. While digital technology has been revolutionising accounting, financial and HR management for many years across Asia, the need for businesses of all sizes to adopt technology and digitise has never been more urgent. The show, returning for its third year, will look different. It will continue to bring together the latest technology and solutions, the experts, the SMEs, the enterprises, and the accountancy practices. The difference? This year the show will run as a 100% online virtual event to ensure that the accounting and finance community can continue to come together, network, learn from one another and identify solutions to help their business now and for the future. Attendees will gather virtually, from the comfort of their desks, joining from across the Asia for two days of discovery and learning: The exhibition The virtual exhibition hall will feature a wide range of companies, 84 / Issue 24

In addition to the exhibition hall from market leaders through to the latest startups showcasing products you will also have the chance to view a wide range and services designed to of on-demand Tech help SMEs, enterprises Demos in our Tech and accounting firms Unsure if the virtual Showcase so that alike to transform event format is for you can compare their accounting, you? We tested it and review different financial with a Hong Kong solutions designed management and virtual show and our to help digitalise business processes. attendees loved it! and streamline your business, without Xero returns once leaving your desk or again as the Showâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Title picking up the phone! Sponsor and will be joined by a range of its app partners, who will The conference present fully integrated solutions in the Xero Connected App Partners Show visitors will not only have Pavilion. Xero and its app partners access to the virtual exhibition, will also be joined by international they will also have the chance to giants such as Intuit QuickBooks, build their own conference agenda DocuSign, Western Union, and from five channels of educational, Kaplan as well as innovative practical and expert-led content Asian companies such as Osome, running throughout the two days: HReasily and Zave. The exhibition will provide attendees with a unique opportunity to discover and review a wide range of accounting software platforms, ERP solutions, document management systems, payments solutions, payroll software, practice management tools, analytics and reporting technologies and much more.

Digital Innovation In this channel, be inspired by the latest technological solutions in accountancy, finance and HR. Hear how AI, blockchain, automation, machine learning and cyber security are changing the finance function forever.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

Event

Accounting Tech: Adopt The Adopt channel will cover everything you need to know about starting out with the digitalisation of your accounting and finance, from adopting cloud-based solutions through to finding simple ways to automate manual processes. Accounting Tech: Connect & Grow For those who are well on their way in their digital transformation this channel will help you to explore the vast range of more advanced tools available. Go further with your adoption and automation to generate greater efficiencies and deeper insights. Digital Practice With more accounting firms across

STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX!

can genuinely meet, share and learn from other attendees.

Asia than ever before switching over to digital ways of running their practice, this channel will help you to find out how technology can enable you to futureproof your practice, run more efficiently and win new clients.

You will be in fantastic company. With over 4,000 accountants and finance professionals set to attend the show you will be able to connect with other attendees and even set up one-to-one virtual calls, right in the platform, to make business connections, share experiences and learn about the latest solutions available to help your business.

Cash & Treasury Cash is King! This has never been more the case than in 2020. Discover in this channel how to leverage technology to enhance and streamline your cash flow, liquidity, payments and working capital management. Networking

FIND OUT MORE...

In a year where most of us have spent more time in our own homes than ever before, the Accounting & Finance Show Asia team have created a virtual event in which you

If you havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t already signed up for your free visitor pass, make sure to visit to register your place and start to plan your show: > www.terrapinn.com/afshowxumag

Join our newsletter for regular news updates and also be one of the first to know when a new issue of XU Magazine is released.

> xumagazine.com

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Issue 24 / 85

How should accounting professionals evolve to deal with the “New Normal”? Conserve cash, reduce costs and save time to help you focus

@compleatp2p

Neil Robertson, Executive Chairman, Compleat Software Neil is the Executive Chairman of Compleat Software, having previously held the role of CEO at Compleat since April 2008. A 40+ year veteran of the accounting software industry, Neil has a long track record of building and growing global finance application businesses and with new disruptive technologies bringing these to market.

Neil Robertson explains how contemporary pressures faced by accounting clients and peers in commerce, can be eased by adopting readily available technology and services.

hether you are working in practice, or for a business, every accountant globally recognises the “New Normal” is going to have a significant impact on the way organisations will work in the future. Business leaders are now looking to them for advice and guidance on what steps they should take to survive and prosper in this new order and it represents a heavy responsibility. The “New Normal” priorities for almost every CFO are now to conserve cash, control and reduce costs and increase productivity, reflecting their current lack of visibility and confidence in the forward revenue projections. So how can accounting professionals help their clients or business colleagues achieve these priorities? Online digital applications / WFH The new Working From Home (WFH) regime has already demonstrated the importance and value of online digital accounting applications enabling remote access, as many organisations with on-premise accounting / ERP applications are struggling to undertake even basic processing during lockdown. WFH has also highlighted 86 / Issue 24

weaknesses in accounting processes that still rely on manual activities. WFH is here to stay, so processes need to change to accommodate this.

highlighted as a major area of frustration. OCR has been replaced with “digital invoice capture” applications, reflecting the 90% adoption of emailed PDF invoices as the primary method of invoice delivery and the ability to access the digital data layer of these PDF’s to extract the key invoice information. Digital invoice capture is considerably faster, more accurate and usually cheaper than using “legacy” OCR technologies.

It is clear that increasing the amount of digital automation is fundamental to the wellbeing of every business, irrespective of size, and accounting professionals need to become familiar with what is possible,and with the significant benefits that are readily available to their clients, or Every business should the business they review their current represent.

WFH has also highlighted the invoice capture and Invoice capture approval processes and problems of a manual invoice and accounts take them digital. approval process. payable automation Whilst finance have has evolved been innovative, building workarounds for WFH approvals, Whilst most Xero users are already very familiar with the ability it has introduced additional work and considerable delays. to “capture” their supplier invoices, There are separate applications they are commonly not aware of available that can automate the the limitations of provider offerings invoice approval processes, but and the lost opportunity that segregating the invoice capture and represents. approval processes has significant disadvantages, especially with too Most of the current offerings utilise many errors on the invoice capture OCR technologies which results process. Combining the invoice in delays in processing time with capture and approval processes too many inaccuracies in the data within a single application provided, both of which are often XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

addresses these challenges, delivering a single and holistic experience for everyone involved. Every business should be reviewing their current invoice capture and approval processes and taking them fully digital, whether to support their WFH strategy, or simply to ensure they have total oversight of their cashflow requirements, can pay critical suppliers on time, or simply to increase the productivity of everyone involved. Online and digital purchasing Lockdown has also driven people to personally buy more online. The same is true for businesses, especially for day-to-day supplies to support working from home. The problem for finance is this being a disconnected process, lacking any form of oversight and control and often resulting in multiple invoices from a single order, all creating more work. We individually know the benefits of buying online – convenience, breadth of choice and ability to get “best value” for our own money, being the balance between quality, price and availability. But for businesses, first we have to address the legitimate concerns of finance professionals. By delivering fully integrated online buying into the accounts payable process, we transform the entire purchasing process for the

automate the entire online buying, purchasing, accounts payable and accounting process into a single seamless experience to save time and save money. This includes Using Amazon Business automatically (AB) as the example, Transform the passing through the user accesses purchasing process the PDF invoice AB through the of into Xero as part volume application, shops for the high of that integration, in the normal way low value invoices that but also being and with a single ‘waste’ time. able to review every click from within AB, transaction and then creates a requisition. access the Xero entry Finance now have full with a single click from within the visibility and control over every iCompleat application. purchase before the commitment is made and also control the approval Summary processes. On final approval, the digital order is delivered into the As finance professionals look AB infrastructure and they “pick for better ways to conserve and ship” for their great customer cash, reduce costs and increase experience. productivity, we hope you agree that by combining online buying, AB automatically delivers a digital purchasing and accounts payable invoice which is captured (with line automation, you now have level detail) and matched to the access to the applications and approved order, which can then be technologies you and your clients automatically coded for the general need to better achieve these ledger as well as being sent out for objectives. approval, without a touch. high volume of low value invoices that “waste” so much time both inside and outside the finance department.

Online buying and purchasing automation are the future for every business for an ever-increasing proportion of spend. It saves time, it saves money, it addresses WFH and most importantly, it enables everyone to focus their saved time on more important work. Advanced integration

FIND OUT MORE... How Buy to Pay automation makes accounting professionals appear smarter, to clients and colleagues: > https://hubs.ly/H0trTJ_0

Our strategy has been to

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Issue 24 / 87

Case Study

Perfecting the payments process How one TaxAssist Accountants franchise manages proposals to payments in one platform

@ignitionapp

Emma Crawford-Falekaono, Head of EMEA, Practice Ignition Emma is an accomplished business leader with a demonstrated history of success in the tech industry. Following senior roles with Xero, Tradify, and Bastion Consulting in New Zealand, Emma recently returned to the UK and now leads the Practice Ignition EMEA team.

We caught up with Lloyd Stubbs, owner of the Grantham-based TaxAssist Accountants franchise, to learn more about their transition over to Practice Ignition Payments. His team had long been using Practice Ignition for the contract needs but only recently made the full transition — so we were keen to learn more.

i Lloyd, thanks for joining us. First up, why did you decide to move from your original provider to Practice Ignition payments? To be honest, we didn’t actually have a particular problem with our original provider, it just seemed like PI would make everything so much more efficient and streamlined. Our old process was semi-automated and semi-manual — we’d have to download a CSV file, move data into a template, upload into Xero, and then reconcile payments when they came in. While this doesn’t sound like much work, it’s completely unnecessary. It’s more of a psychological burden when you think: “Oh, on top of my other 1,000 tasks, I’ve also got to remember to do this data entry/ admin”. With PI, it’s completely automated. Once the contract has been raised, invoices are then produced, sent to the client, and payments are reconciled. It’s just so much easier knowing that the entire process will automatically be handled on your behalf. Did you have any worries or hesitations in switching? If so, how were these addressed? 88 / Issue 24

I didn’t have any concerns at all. We’d been using PI for a while so I knew that it was a great piece of kit, it’s just we weren’t using its full range of functionality. My team was initially slightly reluctant which is understandable — we had a process in place and so introducing a new way of working meant a slight amount of upheaval. That said, once I sat them down and spoke about the long-term benefits, they were totally on board. We’re starting to really see our investments in automation pay dividends. Now that we’re all working remotely and dealing with a mountain of work, I’m so glad that there are certain activities that we can fully automate — it means we can focus on important, high-value activities instead. Has PI payments made it easier to sell services to clients? Personally, I don’t think it’s really made it easier to sell services — people have likely already made their mind up by the time that you send out a contract. However, it’s definitely speeded up payments. We used to have to send out a PI request, it would get accepted, and then we’d also send out a direct debit form.

Sometimes people would immediately send it back, but other times, they’d forget all about it and I’d have to spend unnecessary time chasing them up. That’s no longer an issue — all the necessary payment details come in straight away. As you’ll know, with PI, payments take 4-5 business days to clear. Has that been an issue within your firm? If so, what have you done to address this? This hasn’t been an issue for us, we’ve just had to manage our cash flow differently. Our previous provider had a clearing time of 2 days so it’s not all that different, to be honest. We’ve literally just moved our payment dates back so that contracts and the payments match up. When you switched clients to Practice Ignition payments, did you use this as an opportunity to renew client fees? If so, do you have any figures on extra growth that you can share with us off the back of this? Yes, we actually took it as an opportunity to review all our clients’ fees. Every client is different — that goes without saying — but on the whole, we probably saw a standard

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

Case Study

increase across the board of around 5%.

our pricing reviews and certainly more process-driven.

It just seemed like the perfect opportunity to revisit our fees as we were already going through all the necessary client information and collating it in one place (PI). We’ve also now introduced a new process where every time we sign a new contract, we’ll first undertake a fee review and make sure that everything looks good. PI has helped us become less ad hoc with

What advice would you give to other firms thinking of switching to Practice Ignition payments? I’m really pleased we did it — it was definitely the right decision to make. It saves so much time that we’d otherwise have to spend on manual data entry, checking invoices, etc. As I mentioned before, it’s great to be able to focus on

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more important things than chasing up clients. I’m all for introducing technology that makes your team’s life easier, and PI payments has 100% managed to do that.

FIND OUT MORE... To learn more, visit: > practiceignition.com

Issue 24 / 89

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90 / Issue 24

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

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Unlock your XU-exclusive offer today www.receipt-bank.com/xumag Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine Issue 24 / 91

Case Study

Spend control for multi-site plants in the renewable energy sector: from construction to operation

Jonathan Fryer, Accounting and Payroll Outsourcing Partner, Mazars Thailand Jonathan is a UK-qualified chartered accountant who moved to Asia in 2007. He is head of outsourced accounting and payroll services for Mazars in Thailand and across Asia-Pacific. He particularly enjoys solving complex problems, finding new ways to support clients, and building teams that work together across multiple countries.

Spend control is essential in many industries, especially those that involve huge procurement budgets and require rigid management reporting to secure external funding. Find out how a leading Xero-based spend control and approval automation solution enabled Mazars Thailand to successfully serve and advise one of their renewable energy clients throughout the complex construction and operation stages...

eet the client: a renewable energy group

With its ambitious goal of building and launching multiple renewable energy plants in Thailand, Mazars’ client faced the daunting task of performing strictly under budget and within limited time frames. The build as a whole involved several parallel construction projects, each of which financed with a substantial amount from a leading commercial bank in Thailand that, in turn, demanded extremely rigid management reporting to secure further project financing. Complexities and challenges of the construction phase “When we came in, our client had three operational plants and five more under construction in Thailand. The building phase was pretty busy as they had lots of subcontractors and procured plenty of very expensive equipment; some of the invoices were worth 92 / Issue 24

10 million USD. And the fact that all of this was spread out between 15 legal entities did not make things easier,” says Jonathan Fryer, Partner – Accounting & Outsourcing Services at Mazars Thailand. “Usually, construction projects of this type last just about nine months. But in this rather short time you’re spending a great deal of money and – they require financial derivatives such as hedging instruments. We had to pay attention to a whole host of elements because, in the end, all of them can have a significant implication on the final amount of the actual spend,” Jonathan continues. Spend tracking to facilitate management reporting Timely and precise management reporting was crucial for construction continuance. “If both management and general reporting on the project was not delivered on time, the bank would not release any funds. Not only did this affect

payments to the suppliers, the whole project was impacted,” Jonathan explains. “With this client, we had to account everything against the budget with a detailed breakdown of all approval-related information, all the suppliers, all the categories, all expenses. Everything had to be monitored tightly; the reports had to show “the actual against the budget” and the budget had to tie in with the project financing,” Jonathan describes. Approval automation as key to timely supplier payments All the procurement in this kind of construction projects is performed under project financing terms and at the end of each month, all incoming bills have to go through various sign-offs to obtain the proper authorisation of supplier payments. Unlike in other industries though, the specifics of such construction projects mean that the client has to

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Case Study

perform an official acceptance of the rendered work or service – every time, without fail.

“ApprovalMax allows us to complete reporting accurately and on time”

“In fact, suppliers can only issue their bill to the scope agreed on beforehand after the formal acceptance has taken place. Incoming invoices first go to the respective engineer, then to the head of engineering, finally to the company’s CEO. And, the whole procedure has to be completed within a very short time span at the end of each month,” Jonathan details. That’s why approval automation is essential. It ensures that the designated approvers are instantly notified of approval requests, allows the whole spend authorisation process to run as quickly and smoothly as possible and also provides an automated audit trail to back up management reporting. The “before” and “after” approval automation “When we started working with our client, supplier bills would end up on someone’s desk. We actually had to chase invoices to get them into the accounting system on time and included in management reporting. “Everything was on paper, so, getting approvals meant literally a lot of paperwork, often lastminute. Obviously, this wasn’t

the safest way of doing it. There was always a risk of something getting lost or overlooked on a crowded desk, which meant it wasn’t entered into the correct accounting period or would even only appear in the following month,” Jonathan recalls. With ApprovalMax, things improved significantly. Apart from the automated approval workflows with automated notifications, the option of approving on the go is a major advantage and makes a real difference. No more late supplier payments, and spend tracking is delivered with exactly the required level of granularity. “When our client started using ApprovalMax for their approval workflow, the company’s CEO really liked it because she travels frequently and is often not even in the country. It’s vital that she can see on her phone all approvals already made when it’s time for her to do the final one. By looking at the supporting documents attached, she can authorise with confidence and right away – which allows us to complete reporting accurately and on time,” Jonathan concludes. Plants in operation are still using ApprovalMax and Xero Even though there are now not such pressing requirements as before, the company still uses ApprovalMax

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for its operational plants to this day. Normally, these SPVs are legally separate entities, with one entity often holding all the contracts and its PPA. So, everything will be captured in the one SPV. Once these SPVs are operational, they are very simple businesses because there’s only one invoice per month when you sell electricity. Some maintenance and other overhead expenses, but it’s all pretty straightforward. Today, they use purchase orders and invoice approval workflows with up to 5 steps as well as purchase order to invoice matching. They have someone who validates that entries are booked correctly into the accounting system, a person who checks if goods or services have been received as ordered, and another one who confirms any spending against the project funding. The last step is always the CEO’s approval. ApprovalMax helps them establish control and transparency for all aspects: accurate bookkeeping entries, correct delivery of services or goods, and compliance with the terms of financing and funding.

FIND OUT MORE... To find out more visit: > approvalmax.com

Issue 24 / 93

Managing cash flow with finance: Helping clients survive and thrive

@MarketFinance

Nikki Gandhi, Partnerships Manager, MarketFinance Nikki’s hands-on approach means she’s our accountants go-to for all things funding. With over a decade of experience at major UK banks in retail and commercial banking, Nikki is best placed to understand the needs of both you and your clients.

Maintaining healthy cash flow is key for businesses at any stage, but it’s especially so amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With the government’s coronavirus business support schemes coming to an end, Nikki Gandhi, Partnerships Manager at MarketFinance, explains how to choose from the financial support still available and how accountants, as the trusted advisor, can best support businesses to not only survive COVID-19, but thrive.

he impact of COVID-19 on the UK economy became clear this August as the ONS confirmed a 20.4% drop in GDP for the three months to June 2020. Government lockdown measures, which took effect from 23 March, forced the closure of businesses across the UK. For some it was temporary but for many the impact was permanent, resulting in the biggest drop in GDP between quarters since records began. Britain has now officially entered its first recession since the 2008 global financial crisis. Government support schemes nearing closure While the recession will knock business and consumer confidence, the closure of the UK government’s coronavirus support schemes for businesses in the coming months will add to the pressure. The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) as well as the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), designed to support businesses adversely affected by the pandemic, have done well to get the economy 94 / Issue 24

back on its feet in the second quarter. CBILS applications are due to close at the end of September. Lenders have until 30 November to approve this government-backed funding. The BBLS, for loans less than £50,000, will close in early November. As the furlough scheme ends, and with uncertainty around the direction the economy will take, there have been calls to extend both CBILS and BBLS applications into 2021. This has the potential to save many businesses that haven’t yet made it over the hump. Understanding the schemes: setting clients up for success With these government schemes soon coming to an end, now’s as good a time as any to consider how you can help your clients secure funding. The Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) If your clients need up to £50,000 of working capital to get through

this rocky period, for example, to pay staff salaries or simply maintain cash flow, a bounce back loan is a compelling option. The BBLS allows a lender to provide a loan between £2,000 and £50,000, up to 25% of a business’ turnover. The government will cover the first 12 months of interest payments, while for the remaining five years the rate is set at 2.5% per annum. Around 1.16 million businesses that have lost revenue or seen cash flow disrupted due to COVID-19 have already accessed finance through the scheme, totalling £35bn so far. BBLS loans are available until 4 November through a range of accredited lenders or partners. The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) The CBILS was launched to support small and medium-sized businesses losing revenue or experiencing cash flow disruption due to the pandemic. Businesses with an annual turnover of up to £45 million

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can apply for between £50,001 and £5 million in government-backed loans, asset finance, overdrafts and invoice finance before 30 September. At MarketFinance, we make it quick and easy for businesses to get funding through invoice finance and business loans. We’re now also accredited to provide revolving credit facilities and loans through the CBILS. According to CBILS figures published by UK Finance on 11 August, lenders have now approved £13.4 billion worth of funding to 59,520 companies impacted by COVID-19. So with just one month left to apply, what do businesses need to know to secure finance through CBILS? Choosing a CBILS funding option At MarketFinance, we offer two options through the CBILS: loans and revolving credit facilities (which work in a similar way to invoice finance). While having options is great, deciding which to choose can feel overwhelming. These solutions could both potentially help your clients, but depending on client cash flow needs and business models, there may be one option that’s more useful.

CBILS loans

CBILS revolving credit facilities

A CBILS loan can be helpful for any business that needs a lump sum to kickstart their way back to business as usual. For those that don’t rely on invoices being paid to keep cash flow healthy, an instant cash injection from a CBILS loan could keep the books balanced and help a business get back on track faster. For example, if a business needs to make practical changes to comply with social distancing guidelines, a CBILS loan is a quick and easy way to access the funds needed to cover those upfront costs. A CBILS loan can also be used to refinance a loan taken out through the BBLS.

For most growing businesses, invoices issued for completed work are the biggest asset. But they might not be paid for 30, 60 or even 90 days, with COVID-19 disruptions pushing out normal payment terms even further in some cases. That leaves a lot of cash tied up in outstanding invoices.

Businesses will still need to pay the loan back in full. However, the government will pay the first 12 months of interest leaving the business to pay regular instalments on the principal. After the first year, a business’ repayments will be made up of both the interest and the principal. We offer CBILS loans from £50,001 to £150,000 for 2 to 3 years. We also offer businesses the flexibility to choose our no-payment option. In other words, businesses can opt not to make any repayments for the first 12 months so they only start paying off their loan in year two.

MarketFinance offers a CBILS revolving credit facility which enables businesses to unlock that cash. Think of your outstanding invoices as a tank full of working capital. Having a CBILS facility lets you open the tap whenever you like to instantly let that cash flow. When invoices are paid, the tank gets topped up again so you can continue the cycle. This option is great for businesses looking to trade their way back to the new normal. Because the facility is backed by invoices, business owners will need to make sure they have outstanding invoices available. It’s a good fit for those that want a flexible way to bridge gaps in cash flow, accessing funds as and when they need to. As with a CBILS loan, fees and interest are covered by the government for the first 12 months. >

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Issue 24 / 95

CBILS funding in action

Chris Sharp, Chairman, Video Partners Limited

Chris Sharp, Chairman of Video Partners Limited, said the business didn’t meet the lending criteria of his bank, so was referred to MarketFinance where he was approved for a £350,000 revolving credit facility.

current government regulations on VAT,” Chris explains. “It’s a tough market, but if you qualify for a CBILS loan and believe that your business can repay the loan, the finance gives some security in these unstable times.” Beyond government support

“We are a free entertainment service, where our viewers watch movies and TV shows online for free,” Chris says. “Our revenue is driven by advertising and so we saw first hand how the recent crisis affected advertising spend in our sector.” MarketFinance’s revolving credit facility gives Chris access to the cash he needs to keep the business running while Video Partners awaits payment from its advertisers. Their accountant, Kasa Business Services, played a hands-on role in the CBILS application process. “They were key in helping me prepare documentation for MarketFinance: filing accounts, keeping management accounts up to date and understanding the

Whether taking out a governmentbacked loan or looking for alternative financing, cash flow management and forecasting is essential for helping your client’s business to stand the test of time. Online accounting software is almost a given now for businesses and advisors who care about staying on top of their finances. Software like Xero includes short term cash flow projections that can provide business owners with a view of their cash position for the next three months. Meanwhile, more complex cash flow forecasting apps like Float, Fluidly and Futrli can help you to prepare for various eventualities, and much further into the future. These apps

integrate with your accounting software to predict future cash flow, helping you and your clients make the right decisions well ahead of time. But bear in mind, the information you get out is only as good as the information that goes in. Making sure your clients have real-time financial data flowing in, and reconciling regularly, will ensure the numbers you’re looking at are accurate. Knowing whether your client can afford to borrow £60,000 or £600,000 could be the difference between that business surviving the coming months, or thriving in years to come.

FIND OUT MORE... To learn more about how MarketFinance can support your clients right now, visit: > marketfinance.com

Create Financial Art. Link Xero general ledger data to Excel, seamlessly. Create

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Consolidations Proformas Tracking Category Analysis Bespoke P&Ls 3 Statement Financial Models And24much more! Issue

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Issue 24 / 97

New Xero Connected Apps

New to the Xero App Marketplace New App shout-out Are you a new Xero-connected App? Let other Xero users know... email alex@ xumagazine.com

Allocat allocat.io

Evenly PayPredict evenly.com.au/paypredict

problems for organizations that deliver high-value services.

Bookkeepers have already saved half a day per week using Allocat - a simple-to-use Xero app that matches multiple credit notes, prepayments and overpayments to invoices in one go. It’s built for companies who regularly have debits and credits to allocate.

If you issue invoices, you need PayPredict – after all, what’s the point of doing work if you’re not going to be paid as promised? Connect Xero to PayPredict and in seconds you’ll get new ways to understand payer behaviour, the impact on cashflow and tools to improve payment speed.

HireHop hirehop.com

Biller Genie billergenie.com A cloud-based solution that automates accounts receivable from bill presentment, to follow up, collection, and reconciliation - without changing your current process. We do all the heavy lifting. There is no new software to learn. We integrate with your accounting system, and you can keep your existing payment processor. bluesheets bluesheets.io The must-have automation tool for businesses looking to save on time and expenses. Bluesheets seamlessly connects with your existing business systems to automatically process accounts payable, receivables and expenses - all your bookkeeping data, and publishes straight to the ledger to set your bookkeeping on autopilot. Escalate Law escalatedisputes.co.uk

Please note: this is not an exhaustive list of new Apps in the Xero App Marketplace. You can see all Xeroconnected Apps at www.xero.com/ marketplace

98 / Issue 24

Escalate is an award-winning commercial dispute solution that is transforming how SMEs resolve disputes, late payments and bad debt. Our fully funded solution provides a fast, risk-free and cashflow-friendly alternative to the traditional dispute resolution process, and has so far unlocked nearly £100 million for businesses.

FieldInsight fieldinsight.com For Small to Large field service businesses we help you manage the team across the Office & Field effortlessly. From Installation to Service/Maintenance we seamlessly manage information relating to the jobs/projects in Xero to remove double entry. Job costing, field service, scheduling, invoicing, performance reporting and more. Flowlens MRP Software flowlens.com Flowlens is user-friendly cloud software that works with Xero. Designed for SME equipment / machinery manufacturers & dealers, our integrated materials planning, sales, service & reporting keeps everything together. With affordable monthly subscriptions, and expert training to help you get started, Flowlens transforms your team, saves time and grows sales. Flywire flywire.com Flywire is a high-growth vertical payments company, trusted by organizations around the world to deliver on their customers’ most important moments. Unlike other payment companies, Flywire is proven to solve high-stakes verticalspecific payment and receivables

Rental and hire company software in the cloud, that’s powerful, easy to use, feature rich and affordable. Manages invoices, purchase orders, maintenance, availability, calendars, jobs, projects, analytics, etc. Comes with free support, integrates with other apps (including Gmail, Microsoft 365 and your website) and can produce documents looking like brochures. LiveCosts.com moula.com.au/moula-pay-xero Get paid upfront with Moula Pay. Moula Pay is a smarter way to offer your business customers payment terms. When your customers pay an invoice with Moula Pay, you get paid upfront. Your customers enjoy up to 12 months to pay, with the first 3 months interest and repayment-free. Moula Pay livecosts.com LiveCosts increase a construction company’s profits by exposing their project costs in real time. LiveCosts just do costs meaning we do it best. With so many moving parts to a construction project, tracking real time project profitability is a difficult and time consuming task. LiveCosts is a smart cloud based tool that collects, automates and analyses all project cost data. Railsware Products, Inc. coupler.io Coupler.io pulls data from Airtable, Xero, Pipedrive, and other apps to Google Sheets. It works on a schedule, is extremely easy to use, and requires no coding. The

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New Releases product helps entrepreneurs and small businesses, including people working in operations, accounting and finance departments, synchronize data between apps and Google Sheets. Reach Reporting reachreporting.com Reach Reporting is a robust reporting tool-set that pulls live, workable data from your accounting software to producing visually stimulating metrics, statements, dashboards, and reports in minutes. Enhance your advisory services by providing quick, actionable reports that decisionmakers love.

Scott’s Add-ins scottsaddins.com Scott’s add-in gives you additional Excel & Google Sheets functions such as: =XGL, =XRANGE, =XTRACK, and =XDESC. These functions allow you to pull Xero ledger balances directly into your Excel spreadsheet. For example, =XGL (4000, 01012019, 01152019) returns the balance of ledger account #4000, for the first 15 days of January. Teampay teampay.co

spend - made by anyone, from request to reconciliation. We give finance teams proactive controls and real-time visibility, while empowering employees to spend with confidence. Uncapped weareuncapped.com Uncapped provides founder friendly capital to online businesses. Get up to £2M in 24 hours for a flat fee of 6-12.5%. There’s no dilution, interest, or personal guarantees. Connect your Xero account, receive an offer and start growing your business!

Teampay’s distributed spend management platform is an entirely new way to manage company

Updates and new releases from the Xero App Marketplace AccountancyManager accountancymanager.co.uk Bring company credit checks and risk assessment in-house AccountancyManager now allows you to complete credit checks for individuals and businesses, store multiple risk assessments and flag them as high, medium or low risk. Automate VAT payment reminders We’ve enhanced our automation even further to include automatic VAT payment reminders. Download documents in bulk - To speed up your internal processes and ensure you have all the documents you need, you can now download multiple documents at once

ApprovalMax approvalmax.com A new ApprovalMax feature allows to create bills for Xero directly in ApprovalMax, which increases data security and integrity.

direct integration between Receipt Bank and ApprovalMax that enables Receipt Bank to push digitally captured invoices directly to ApprovalMax for multi-step approvals. As an additional convenient option for users to sign up and sign in, ApprovalMax has just introduced support for Goggle SSO. Compleat compleatsoftware.com Compleat is proud to announce the availability of our OpenAPI to help organisations establish real-time integration to their preferred ERP/ accounting software using restbased APIs. This allows partners and clients to open up the number of integration opportunities in addition to our Xero interoperability. We have further improved our invoice to order matching capabilities in support of our automatching with new guided matching dealing with price variances and total corrections.

ApprovalMax also released a Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

infoodle infoodle.com There is never a quiet time here at infoodle, and improvements and new features are a constant. Some of the most important updates include an ability to track campaigns and add stock items to forms to enable better visibility of ticket sales. We have also added additional functionality to the check-in feature and made a few tweaks on the app!

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

Practice Ignition practiceignition.com The new Client Billing Schedule gives you client level (rather than proposal level) visibility into all of your proposals and engagements, invoicing and payments. The Client Billing Schedule also allows you to set fractional quantities for billing purposes - think 3.25 hours. Receipt Bank receiptbank.com Receipt Bank now connects to over 1,400 suppliers, email, PayPal and more to digitise data, automatically Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 24 / 99

organising and categorising into a single digital dashboard. Our new suite of upgraded tools are built to help you to check against live bank data, as well as giving your clients the financial insights they need to help grow their business. Re-leased re-leased.com Introducing CREDIA, the Property Intelligence Platform. CREDIA is the next step in the cloud ecosystem for accountancy practices and commercial real estate businesses. The CREDIA Index is updated monthly to help shape an accurate and timely picture of the commercial real estate market. Your firm can leverage CREDIA to add value to your service offering by informing and educating your property clients to help their businesses to grasp opportunity and be the best they can be. Sapaad sapaad.com Sapaad Cloud POS & Restaurant Management System improved the usability and performance of its fully-integrated online ordering & home delivery solution. With Sapaad.Online, restaurants can create their own online channel in minutes, built with a beautiful web and mobile ordering experience, online payments, order tracking, and more. With Sapaad Connect, restaurants can manage orders from leading online food delivery platforms easily in Sapaad Cloud POS for effortless menu management and order fulfillment.

Scott’s Add-ins scottsaddins.com Scott’s Add-ins has recently released Speed 2. Speed 2 updates the Excel / Xero transaction set nightly, resulting in even faster spreadsheet recalc times! simPRO simprogroup.com Automated invoicing has arrived in simPRO. Field service businesses billing ongoing jobs for preventative maintenance, security monitoring and other regular services can now automate this once manual process. simPRO will automatically generate a sales invoice and email a PDF to the customer based on the invoicing cycle unique to the maintenance agreement or job progression. Your clients in the field service industry will benefit from: • Invoices sent to their customers in a timely manner • Increases the opportunity to be paid on time • Streamlines the invoicing process, freeing up valuable time SuiteFiles suitefiles.com We’ve launched a new Suite search engine - after closely listening to our users feedback. We’re proud to launch a whole new search engine, including full text search and more! You can read more about these changes in our most recent blog!

We’ve improved the design and useability of our website, and we hope we’ve made it easier to navigate. Take a look. We’d love to hear your feedback on Twitter @Tidyint Wolters Kluwer wolterskluwer.com Basecone is a 100% cloud solution for invoice capture, processing, approving and booking of sales and purchase invoices. Now seamlessly integrated with Xero – experience true accounting magic. Scan it, get it recognised, approve it and book it with the easiest automated workflow around. Take full control over your document flows. Meet tax requirements without storing a single piece of the paper. Approve or reject your supplier invoices anywhere, anytime. XBert xbert.io OCR and AI scan attachments and check Receipt Bank, Hubdoc and automated reader app entry behaviour. We’ve integrated Power BI for real-time risk analytics, and Payroll, starting with Australian customers. Load workpapers into your client engagement hub to manage queries, communications and reporting. XBert has best of breed, customisable processes for streamlined management. We’ve upgraded the Process Status and Organisations dashboards and introduced Team View and a Reporting Period Selector.

Tidy tidyinternational.com Tidy is excited to ‘shout out’ that we have a new website!

A leading New Zealand ﬁnancial service provider enables cloud-based budget control for schools Read more in our blog! 100 / Issue 24

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Issue 24 / 101

How to instil good accounting habits with your clients Encourage your clients to maintain more accurate receipts, invoices and statements, with a combination of automation and habit.

@AutoEntry

Brendan Woods is founder and CEO of AutoEntry Prior to founding AutoEntry, Brendan was a software development manager at a global hedgefund administration company where he led the development and maintenance of fund accounting and investor relations financial reporting for onshore funds, offshore funds and fund of funds. It was there that inspired an idea that would solve a very real problem for the wider financial services industry - the automation of manual data entry.

Accounts automation works best when accountants, clients and even their clients work together in tandem. Here’s how to make that happen...

ccountants are - or should be - well aware of the wonder of automation. This is especially true for accountants who deal with numerous external clients. With the right automation tool, clients can email, photograph or upload invoices, receipts and bank statements, and the Software as a Service will do the data entry for them.

The greatest challenge is arguably obtaining buy-in from clients. Most sole traders, whether they’re butchers, record store owners, journalists or florists, did not get into their chosen field because they love accountancy and paperwork. And some will be are reticent when it comes to new technology, especially one they have to learn to use.

Naturally, this is a great benefit for all parties. It frees up time, slashes the need for paper documents and ensures greater accuracy.

A tool is only as effective as the person using it

On the surface, it’s software, but the important part is the process. It’s an ongoing habit, as opposed to a one-off purchase.

102 / Issue 24

For an accountant and their client, a tool like AutoEntry is more effective the more buy-in there is. It can be tricky and abstract to convey the benefits of a software like AutoEntry, so identifying a

customer who is a ”super user” is a good starting point. Find an example of a customer who uses AutoEntry, and now enjoys more time operating their business and less time on manual data entry. One of AutoEntry’s biggest champions, Sarah Gibb, grew her bookkeeping practice with the help of automation. In a recent case study, she said: “If you can take a selfie and post it on Facebook, then you can use AutoEntry. It’s probably one of the most empowering updates to accounting software in the last decade or so.” For non-accountants, someone like The Fruit Seller has an even more compelling story. They talk of the immense time-saving opportunity

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afforded by AutoEntry. If you have a client already using the software successfully, introduce them to other clients. They can become evangelists, not just of the product’s benefits, but of its ease of use.

in the English language are “the meeting has been cancelled”. With automation, it’s not just paperwork that’s streamlined, it’s communication.

It means that in many cases, bookkeeping is done without having to meet one’s accountant Internal education and good habits (either online or in person). Even if the meeting is over Zoom, The most successful a cancelled implementations With any software as meeting is of this kind of a service, the people another spare technology who use it the most hour given back involve the reap the most benefits. to someone’s establishment of All the efficiencies working day. good habits

are compromised if someone isn’t using it effectively.

So, it’s worthwhile having set dates for specific data (which is easier with AutoEntry). With every mention of the deadline, remind them how much easier automation is. Insist on clean invoices. Download the app and get your client to do the same. Tell your clients the deadline for filing, and how to carry out filing the new way. One of the accidental benefits of recent times is that people are getting more skilled at communicating and using tech to do so: even if your client is a luddite, they should be able to take a picture and send it; or add an attachment to an email. Communicate the time saving benefits

The best incentive for automation is, for many, the gift of extra time. Ask your client how long they spend on gathering receipts, invoices and bank statements and manually entering that data. Then ask them what they’d rather be doing instead - whether it’s taking a long break or focussing on the more fulfilling aspects of their business. To illustrate, you could tell them what you do with your new spare time, or what other clients do. Mention the fact that they’ll be seeing you less frequently! Five of the most popular words

Talk about the pain of paper offices

The paper-filled office was already in freefall before 2020. But recent events have accelerated its demise. Even beyond the ease of transferring documents from storage spaces to the cloud there are the actual logistics of maintaining and documenting paper documents.

their suppliers/wholesalers can use it too, meaning that payments (or at least information about payments) are dealt with faster. A veritable chain of automated data can be created between traders, their financial institutions, their suppliers (from utilities to supplies) and their accountants. The more effectively people use it, the more people along the chain engage with it, the faster and smoother the automation machine moves. Be patient in training them Not everyone will be immediately on board when you introduce automation. Change can be a challenge. But demonstrate to them how it’s especially easy on their end to maintain data entry. You’ll be trying to convince them of the return on time investment at the beginning of this process: time spent learning now will save countless hours in the long run.

It’s also important to remember that for yourself; time spent educating and training (and maybe retraining) clients will be worth With automation, it.

Compare these two practices: 1) Photographing a receipt, uploading it, it’s not just forgetting about it paperwork that’s A tool is only as 2) Keeping a streamlined, it’s effective as the receipt, filing communication. person using it it, accumulating receipts, then either Automation tools manually entering become exponentially more them or handing them to an effective the more buy-in it has: accountant. frequency and breadth of use makes for a more efficient, accurate Show them how it can streamline business for everyone involved. their other processes Training and being trained are time investments - paying hours of With any software as a service, the people who use it the most reap the dividends after an initial, small time investment. most benefits. All the efficiencies are compromised if someone isn’t using it effectively. Something like AutoEntry can create a whole ecosystem of automated data entry and bookkeeping. To illustrate: a sole trader might use it to streamline their data entry, and

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FIND OUT MORE... Find out more about AutoEntry at: > autoentry.com

Issue 24 / 103

Cloud accounting: A road to better spending? Managing costs is vital for business success, but price comparison is a time-consuming process. Fortunately, tech-focused accountants are fully equipped to facilitate smarter buying decisions for their clients.

he digital takeover of the accounting industry has given accountants access to more information on their clients’ businesses than ever before. Increasingly, accountants are differentiating themselves by widening their remit and capitalising on the business insights made available to them. One area emerging for accountants to branch out to is business costmanagement.

through price caps and cooling-off periods, businesses have to fend for themselves. The role of cloud accounting Cloud accounting has made it easier to look into a clients’ spending at the click of a button. With real time insights, it’s much simpler to spot when a monthly bill spikes or a particular utility is draining cash.

When a client’s bills are uploaded to their cloud account, costmanagement becomes even more accurate as you can see, in one place, the For many businesses, Businesses exact spend on a line their cash flow simply don’t by line basis needed struggles can be have the time or to make truly precise pinpointed to a lack inclination for comparisons. Even of focus on spending. effective costso, you’re still left UK SMEs overpay by management. with the task of calling an estimated £5bn per multiple suppliers to see year on utilities alone, what prices they offer. with some businesses paying more than double others for Improving spending in just a few exactly the same service. clicks Businesses simply don’t have the time or inclination for effective cost- Reducer was created to combat these challenges, eradicate the management. lengthy price comparison process, and offer businesses an easy route Suppliers know this and take to smarter spending. advantage. Pricing isn’t published on the web, loyal customers are The software allows accountants to penalised with hiking tariffs, and facilitate better buying decisions a lack of standardisation prohibits by using the invoice data attached comparison. Unlike domestic to their clients’ cloud account to consumers who have protections Challenges to business costmanagement

104 / Issue 24

@ReducerUK

Joe Gallard, CEO and Co-founder, Reducer Joe Gallard is the CEO and Cofounder of Reducer, the most comprehensive business price comparison solution in the UK. As a qualified accountant and former Finance Director, Joe wanted a tool to integrate with his accounting software and find him savings. With nothing available on the market, Reducer was created in 2018 to empower SMEs to make smarter buying decisions on their business essentials.

source cheaper deals across up to eight spend areas. Reducer works well if: • You’ve already gone down the digital journey and are avidly uploading bills to your cloud platform • Your business clients are brick and mortar businesses rather than remote freelancers or contractors • You’re already in the process of going through quarterly or monthly updates with clients • Your clients trust you and are open to change • You’re in the UK The result of the partnership is a personalised cost savings report with accurate quotes for a business to choose from. Following our complimentary consultancy service, we handle any switches, making the transition as simple as possible for both parties. Simply connect, share, and save your clients an average of £1,500 each year. All in just a few clicks.

FIND OUT MORE... To book in a call and see how much your clients could save, head to: > reducer.co.uk

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Issue 24 / 105

Interview

Q&A Craig Macfarlane Managing Director Accounting Business Expo 106 / Issue 24

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Interview

As the saying goes, ‘the show must go on’. Pivoting to virtual in unprecedented times, how Accounting Business Expo is adapting and making the move to go completely virtual. We catch up with Craig Macfarlane to hear how Accounting Business Expo is modifying its business model to not just survive but thrive...

XU:

You were 2 weeks away from opening the doors for Accounting Business Expo 2020 when the decision was made to postpone, how have you developed the show over the past 5 months?

CM:

We (Terrapinn Australia) acquired ABE in 2019 and we’re still in the transition period on top of everything else to navigate. We were devastated we couldn’t run the show in March. We worked tirelessly to develop the high standard National Media had established but the health and safety of our attendees and staff is of most importance. The first thing we did was postpone ABE till November. Secondly, we merged our other accounting show - Accountech.live – into ABE, so as not to fragment or confuse the market. Between March and November, we’re running a highly successful series of webinars, some of which have been collaborations with the Australian Taxation Office. These have been very well attended, usually with well over 1000 viewers per webinar. We’ve partnered with a robust and professional virtual platform provider called Swapcard, which is used by many of the largest event organisers in the world. Our sponsors and exhibitors have been very impressed with the demos we have done to show how Swapcard works. The good news with going virtual is that we have more opportunities to grow, improve and re-work the content and platform and we’re motivated more than ever now to put on a great virtual show.

XU:

The event industry pivoted on its head in favour of virtual, how do you think this reflects on the people on the ground in the industry?

CM:

Our industry is full of amazing and resilient people and it’s this that is going to ensure we can come out the other side stronger and more together than ever before. The cornerstone of any business is the right people. I am very lucky with the team I have – technology enables fast, efficient growth, and I take my hat off to my team that have jumped in and gotten on with the job with professionalism and grace. Our staff are as committed as ever to deliver an amazing event to all our attendees and partners.

XU:

the ‘virtual’ experience is better and more effective than a physical expo: its cheaper and easier to attend; attendees can pop in and out; its more accessible to a wider, bigger and more global audience; it’s easier to collect data and share information; easier to schedule meetings; simple to hold one-onone meetings; presentations are hosted on-demand for 30 days after the event; and exhibitors don’t need to spend as much time, money and resources on building and attending their trade booths. Not to mention the superior AI matchmaking, back end analytics and reporting. We are providing on-going training and coaching to attendees and exhibitors prior to the show, so everyone will be familiar with the ‘virtual’ platform before the event starts.

Events like large scale expo’s and tradeshows are known for bringing people together, will hosting the same experience virtually amplify this?

How do you guide your firm and provide answers to your clients through this change?

CM:

The delivery method may be different, but a virtual event still delivers the same objectives of a physical event: leads, data, demos, education, connections, meetings, special offers, entertainment, PR and sales. Whether ABE is ‘virtual’ of physical, it’s still about bringing people together, supporting the industry and uncovering opportunities. With so much disruption happening this year, ABE is more relevant and important than ever before. In a year where we have no other choice, going ‘virtual’ is an excellent business idea for both buyers and sellers. It’s amazing how quickly most people have adapted. Everyone soon realised they can’t meet face-to-face, so they simply adapted. In some ways,

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XU:

The first reaction of most people is to resist change and blame someone. However, when they realise this change is unavoidable and there’s no one to blame other than the Coronavirus, they start to realise that it makes good business sense to embrace the new-normal and get on with learning and building. As the organiser, we are delivering loads of training, tutorials, demos and webinars to educate the market on how the virtual platform works and what both buyers and sellers can expect on the day of the event. The idea is that by the time ABE runs, everyone will feel comfortable and ready to engage and do business. >

Issue 24 / 107

Interview

XU:

As more and more event organisers turn to virtual events as an alternate way to deliver their content the question that comes to mind is can virtual events fill the live event gap?

they will still play a huge part as we adjust to the new normal.

CM:

Absolutely - virtual events can deliver everything that physical events can deliver: education, insights, thought-leadership, connections, lead capture, demonstrations, meetings and conversations. People have already adapted to the new-normal. Many of the biggest companies in the world have already shown flexibility and pivoted to virtual events, including giant multinationals like Microsoft, Google and Apple. The only element missing from a ‘virtual’ event is the ability to touch one another and physically shake hands. However, in this environment, most people don’t want to touch and shake hands, so ‘virtual’ events make complete sense.

XU:

Speaking of flexibility, do you think virtual events will continue to grow in popularity after the pandemic has passed?

CM:

I think virtual events are here to stay. Now that we’ve all seen the benefits, I expect most physical events will include a virtual component in the future. At the moment, we’re finding virtual offers much more than we originally thought. It’s now not just a way for us to stay relevant, but for us to branch out of our comfort zone. Our world drastically changed this year, and we’re stepping up the content to deliver these changes and inform the industry. Events are a way to strengthen and solidify relationships, and I think virtual is on track to reinforce this. I see virtual events being integral to helping businesses stay up to date with industry trends, finding new suppliers and making valuable connections. And certainly, after the worst of the pandemic is over,

108 / Issue 24

XU:

How do you feel this flexibility to switch from in-person to virtual will serve future events and businesses? Virtual gives us the opportunity to reach a bigger market, more lead generation, more branding and better reporting. You can plan and bookmark everything you want to see and who you want to meet, and to me that’s so exciting because our Exhibitors, Speakers and Attendees are truly in the driver’s seat.

XU:

It’s times like these when the ability to maintain communication becomes critical despite the lack of inperson interactions, how important is Accounting Business Expo now and what are the added benefits?

CM:

It’s more important than ever! And plus, with zero travel costs and on demand streaming you can be included from anywhere in the world. It’s awe-inspiring. You can get so much more out of the show. You still get all the amazing information and insights from speakers, you reduce the time and financial commitments required to attend these events, and you can attend the entire conference whilst in your pyjamas.

XU: CM:

What lessons have you learnt?

So many it’s hard to count! I have 25+ years in this industry and I’ve never experienced anything like this. With everything moving online, we’re working hard to not lose the “meeting” aspect of our show. We pride ABE on being un-biased, and it’s palpable that this industry thoroughly enjoys coming together to network, learn and find new solutions. We’re experts at running events, but at the end of the day it’s the industry and sense of community who make the show what it is. We’ve seen this happen

already in our Webinar series and we know that just because ‘faceto-face’ isn’t an option, that feel of community will still be there. It sounds cliché, but the biggest lessons have been to plan, but not plan too much, and, most importantly to be open to new ventures. Our industry looks completely different now, but we still need to deliver the same service. We want ABE to be not only a celebration of all the insights, opportunities and hard work the finance industry has achieved over the last year, but as a hub for people to spend time engaging with the experts to see what’s new and next for the industry.

XU:

What bit of advice would you give anyone who attends a virtual event to get the most out of it?

CM:

I would say planning is most important! Treat the virtual event the same as you would a live event and block out time for who you want to meet, what sessions you’re attending and exhibitors you want to meet. You’ll get what you put into it. Make sure you update and edit your profile so the AI match-making works effectively. Watch the tutorials on ABE website so you know how the virtual platform works and what to expect on the day. Log on to the event the week before and make connections and send meeting requests. Watch demos in advance so you know which exhibitors you want to meet; and plan what questions you want to ask. An excellent way to find out new tips and tricks to put into practice right away is to jump into the Q&As and reach out to participating partners. Most importantly though, minimize distractions. When you’re watching

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Interview alone, it’s easy to “multi-task” and get distracted. Instead, try to reduce notifications, grab a notepad, and get ready to start learning! There’s a tonne of opportunity for networking – right from the comfort of your own couch! Make sure to take advantage of conference hashtags, live chats, messages or video calls through the platform or any other way to connect with attendees. It’s crucial to engage in the opportunity as deeply as you can to get as much meaning as possible. Remote events offer chances for distraction or complete focus and comfort, depending on the attendee. And the attendee needs to take responsibility for that. Oh, and usually remote events offer much better coffee. At least in my house.

XU:

A major part of in-person events is getting out of the office and meeting other likeminded people. Why should I bother with a virtual event and how can I manage my time best over the event?

CM:

It will be an adjustment. Going virtual was not our original plan, but it’s our chance to make the

STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX!

best of a bad situation. My advice is to prioritize the time to be truly present in the experience, engage with the sessions and presenters, and use the chat and other networking tools regularly to connect with other attendees.

XU:

What does the future of Accounting Business Expo look like?

CM:

We’re focused on providing the best quality possible, whether that’s virtual or in-person. We’re always listening and motivated to improve the user experience for all our attendees whether that’s our Exhibitors, Speakers or Attendees. We’re going to continue to push the envelope and inspire people to be better professionally.

2 key things I would say are; check your email and put your sessions and meetings into your calendar so you don’t forget. The community of our show is key, and we’re working hard to build this in as much as we can so our partners and attendees have the same or similar sense that they’re a part of something bigger than just them over the 2 days. Speaking from my experience, I know early on in March and April of this year my team and I got together for zoom catch-ups once a week, and that helped build morale because we went from seeing each other every day to working remotely – and it was an adjustment, but we made it work.

We’ll miss the in-person atmosphere, but that doesn’t mean it’s disappeared.

XU:

When will Accounting Business Expo be

held?

CM:

We realise virtual shows aren’t natural social situations but joining chats and Q&As through the platform, on social media, and with your colleagues in slack or teams is the best way to build that community.

16-17 November 2020.

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Issue 24 / 109

Focus: Mental Health

Navigating Coronavirus while Maintaining Good Mental Health I

f I was asked in January what I was planning personally and professionally in 2020, the plans would have looked a whole lot different compared to being asked today. It was to be a year filled with lots of fun activities, plenty of family and friends time and a focus on business.

I found each day was different. I was awash with many feelings and emotions: fear, anger, panic, hurt or loss. The constant barrage of global information was overwhelming. Each day a new crisis or challenge seemed to greet me. I felt like I was sitting in a small dinghy in the middle of the ocean during a storm. I had to take action.

Then in March life changed dramatically for me and everyone else. What I once took for granted like travel, socialising or attendings events now seemed to be a luxury and at times unattainable. The constant change and uncertainly was unsettling. At times it felt like I had no control over my life. This had a high impact on my mental health and wellbeing.

Building Resilience

While it is normal to feel overwhelmed and stressed by what is a very challenging time for so many in our community. Each one of us will react to stressful situations in different ways. Some people may need mental health support to cope with the effects of widespread uncertainty, self-isolation and loneliness or business collapse, job loss and financial hardship. Others may find ways of coping with these situations by incorporating daily routines to help them deal with the impact on their lives. 110 / Issue 24

To begin, I realised I need to rebuild my resilience. While I had activities that help me maintain good mental health, I had let some of them slip. When things are going well, and I am feeling ok I tend to miss some activities that keep me well. Things such as exercise, diet, sleep, gratitude and positive thinking all are important tools I use for better mental health. Having experienced mental health conditions in the past I was able to use these mental health skills to respond more adeptly to this situation. I was very quickly able to do what I know helps me. I was able to get back to thinking more positively and managing the impact of all the information and changes that were occurring. Understanding what plans, actions and routines to put in place to

Tim Hoopmann, Speaker and Trainer Experienced founder with a demonstrated history growing small business. Strong entrepreneurship and professionally skilled in Business Planning, Cloud Technology, Sales, Marketing, and Operations Management. A passion for helping small businesses use technology as a key enabler to increase productivity and decrease costs. A volunteer speaker for beyondblue, an Australian organisation that works to raise awareness of anxiety and depression, reduce the associated stigma and encourage people to get help.

support yourself will in the long term have a positive impact on your mental health and wellness. If you haven’t developed that toolkit, you might be at risk of feeling completely out of control. Reframing the situation The amount of information about coronavirus has been overwhelming. Gaining knowledge and understanding what’s relevant in my area was important. Overloading with too much information becomes tiresome. I found by breaking it down to manageable pieces it allowed me to return to a sense of control. I needed to make a conscious shift in my perspective of coronavirus. When I did it allowed me to watch the news, gather information and observe what’s going on. I now focus on what I can control. My frame of reference is smaller and easier to manage, and I’m feeling more in control Being Present I’ve learned to be present with my feelings and emotions. They can vary from day to day. Initially I fought against them because I wanted everything to go back to how it was. This created more stress and it was exhausting. So, I allowed

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Focus: Mental Health

these feelings to flow through me without fighting against them all the time. I became present with my feelings. In doing so it helped me to think positively even when my feelings or emotions were not. I might feel anxious or fearful when things happen that impact me personally. By being present with these feelings It allows me to acknowledge the situation and then try to focus on positive outcomes. There have been times when I have been quite hard on myself or not reacted well to situations. This is understandable given these challenging circumstances. Throughout all this it is important to be kind to yourself. Like many people I have been trying to get everything back to being normal. It’s actually okay not to be okay at the moment. However, we all need to learn to manage the negative feelings and emotions and to be present with them. This will allow us to tackle each day in a more positive manner.

not be alone in this thinking. All of these thoughts and questions are understandable and might be making it challenging to practice gratitude right now. However, our thoughts play a large part in impacting our mental health and wellbeing. Therefore, where we can, it is important to keep them positive. It is possible to practice gratitude during a crisis, and indeed, it can help.  With everything going on I needed to turn my thoughts more positive. Practicing gratitude was a great place to begin. It was about being thankful for the most basic things I could think of, like walking in the park, a sunrise, family or that I am alive and well. This allowed me to momentarily feel happier and satisfied, giving me the hope to go on. Without downplaying the suffering many people are experiencing or the seriousness of the situation right now, find a moment to stop and focus on what you’re grateful for?

Practising Gratitude While we are still in the midst of this global pandemic, practicing gratitude may seem like the last thing you are thinking about. There must be many other things to do first. Or you are thinking “what do I have to be grateful for?” You would

One way to practice gratitude is to think of things you are grateful for, say them to yourself and then write them down. Gratitude, just like mindfulness, is something we need to practice. And the more we practice, the more spontaneously grateful we may become.

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Try to think of at least five things you are grateful for now. Look around you as the answers may be closer than you think. Write them down and then say them out loud. See if they make you feel happier or help to change your thoughts into positive ones. Staying Connected Humans are social animals. We crave connection. As we spend more time in our homes, cut off from friends and family in a bid to stop the spread of the virus, the lack of physical connection can be mentally challenging. For people who live alone especially, this extended lack of contact may be particularly tough. But just because we’re physically distant from each other doesn’t mean we can’t still be emotionally close. Maintaining regular human connection is more important than ever as we navigate these difficult times. I have been working from home for over 3 years. Prior to the coronavirus I would be out of my home office many times each week at meetings, speaking events and consulting gigs. It was easy to stay connected and interact both personally and professionally. When that ceased, I needed to rethink my plan for staying connected. > Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 24 / 111

Focus: Mental Health Staying connected involved focusing on how I could connect with colleagues, family and friends and make it part of my every day. Calling rather than email or SMS was a great start. People like to hear your voice, have a chat and share their thoughts. Whether you leave a voicemail, have a quick chat or talk for ages, the sound of people’s voices can be a great comfort. Contacting your customers and suppliers shows you care. Everyone is going through challenges and how each person is coping may be different. It is time to check in with your wider network. Start a conversation. You might be worrying, “what am I going to come up against if I call?” Don’t be fearful as it might provide the best outcome in your day. I have received a number of calls over the past months. One in particular was a colleague who called to say hello and ask if I was ok. It was the best thing that happened to me that day.

112 / Issue 24

How joyous to receive a call! It’s more important than ever to stay connected so you don’t feel isolated and alone.

others. It may also be the best thing you could do for you as well as others. Beyond Blue

If you are a business owner with teams then staying connected with them is vital for their mental health. Technology has provided many and varied methods to allow this connection. Being consistent goes a long way to helping them with the challenges of feeling isolated. Create a routine for checking in with the team. Talk to them about how they are coping, Focus on their wellbeing. Chat about their projects or key deadlines. Mix it up and make it fun, just like you would in the office. Every conversation does not need to be about work. As a sole trader you may be feeling more alone and isolated during these past months. Now is the time to look to your wider community, industry or networking groups. These can be a lifeline for you. They can provide support and connection during these challenging times. Do not be afraid to reach out to

If you would like to find out more about looking after your mental health during the coronavirus outbreak, Beyond Blue has some great resources www.coronavirus. beyondblue.org.au The new “Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Support Service” offers 24/7 information and support online and by phone. The free service is available around the clock, delivering clear, evidencebased information, advice and support specifically tailored to the mental health and wellbeing challenges raised by the pandemic. The service offers easy access to a broad range of support like online wellbeing tips, self-help tools, phone counselling from trained mental health professionals and peer-to-peer support in our online forums.

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BETTER DATA, BETTER ADVICE Xavier is the award-winning data toolkit for Xero users

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Issue 24 / 113

*Xavier is currently available to all Xero users in the UK and Australia. The ambition is to extend the offering to Xero users globally, and gradually, to users of alternative general ledgers.

Industry Focus: Property

Navigating the New Normal with CloudBased Financial Tools The coronavirus pandemic has shocked the world this year. Companies around the world have been forced to adjust quickly to social distancing measures and working remotely.

ome businesses have struggled to change their working environments and processes to fit this new normal. Hospitality and manufacturing industries in particular have been negatively affected in 2020. However, there have been many firms that have adapted very well to these circumstances. Citigroup has 96% of its employees working from home indefinitely and many other companies have similar policies. The technology and operations departments in these businesses have had to make sure that they have the systems to support the new normal of mobile working. This increase in demand for services to assist working from home has given rise to applications like Zoom. They have seen their user base increase from 10 million to 200 million within 3 months this year. As the infrastructure improves and companies adjust to employees working from home, we might see this more flexible mentality continue as the severity of the pandemic decreases. This might incentivise companies to cut office costs, however, the CEO of Barclays recently stated in an interview that although their employees are succeeding working from home, they are still keen to reunite their organisation and get back to a unified environment and culture. 114 / Issue 24

So as the pandemic carries on and cases in the US and Europe still seem volatile, finance professionals need to utilise all the tools available so that we can still be efficient and productive at home. Cloud-Based Solutions Prior to the outbreak, many companies were still using legacy systems and software. The new normal has made the issues of these outdated systems and their inflexibility very apparent. Consequently, many companies have been forced to leave behind these outdated processes in favour of cloud-based solutions in order to adapt. Cloud-based finance software, like Xero, help accountants to maintain work for clients and provides a holistic system to manage their organisation. These platforms can perform the majority of financerelated tasks including creating invoices, help with billing and PO creation. Working from home, you may need a software that can manage inventory and track expenses automatically. Cloud-based platforms offer the functionality to really be your own accountant, with inbuilt help and tutorials, plus a very user-friendly interface it is hard to not learn quickly. Furthermore, the ability to integrate your bank

@arthurproptech

Patrick Caulfield ACA, Financial Director, Arthur After graduating from Durham University with a Masters in Economics, Patrick joined EY (London) where he became a chartered accountant. He then spent 3 years in M&A and investment banking with Citi Group and an early stage VC. Patrick now works at Arthur Online where he manages everything finance and investor related, from fundraising to shaping and rolling out Arthur Onlineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ambitious growth plans.

account live into these platforms really makes them a one-stop-shop for accounting needs. Therefore, anyone that needs to cut costs with outsourcing finance to other professionals or needs a solution for their newly remote team, can really feel comfortable transferring to these cloud-based software packages. Software like Xero also allows finance professionals to help clients through the platform, something that the pandemic cannot negatively impact. Benefits The primary benefit of cloudbased software during the new normal is that it keeps employees connected despite not being in the office. As all documents, data and transactions are stored on the cloud, employees can access everything they need to do their job from anywhere and on any device. Having everything in a central location streamlines processes and saves time for your team by improving communication and reducing the risk of errors. What stopped many companies from making the move to cloudbased software sooner is the concern over security. There is no need for concern, however, as cloud companies use market-leading

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

Industry Focus: Property

data security. Measures such as notifications of unknown logins and data backup and recovery have been implemented to make sure your data stays safe. Project Management Tools There are also lots of new cloudbased tools that help with project management, task specialisation, and contact between employees like Slack. Slack is a chat system that has team abilities, private messaging, an open API, and the ability to integrate with Google and Dropbox. Using software like

Slack means that communication between employees is not limited at all. Zoom similarly facilitates tasks that are important for work at home. Zoom allows employees and clients to have face to face meetings, which are not limited by size. Whole departments can have meetings on Zoom and can share screens, operate each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s computers, etc. These tools mean that accountants are not limited when working from home.

posed many problems for financial work around the world. However, the rise of cloud-based accounting tools has meant that many professionals can rely on these platforms to make adjusting to the new normal of working from home much easier.

FIND OUT MORE... To find out more, please visit: > arthuronline.com

In summary, the pandemic has

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Issue 24 / 115

Advisory services – a key to business growth in a post COVID-19 world? The rise of advisory services in a post COVID-19 world... Y

our clients will be looking for two things as they face this period of change and uncertainty in the new normal. Firstly, data-rich conversations in real time that will allow them to prepare for the unknown landscape before them. Secondly, advice and insight as they navigate the compliance and lockdown incentives put in place by the government. In short, there is an appetite for your expertise. Many of our customers have already seen that the future of the accountant may well lie in advisory. While the shift to advisory has been in place for a few years, the uncertainty brought on firstly by Brexit and then by a global lockdown has accelerated the reliance on sound guidance from accountants. Why? There is no one better positioned to advise your clients on how to improve profitability, prepare forecasts and build a strategic narrative. You have the intuition, experience and resources to guide them through the changes and help them put their business in the best financial state possible. What you need to be asking yourself is do you have the tools you need to do this?

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Accountants are poised for growth if they can seize the opportunities that will present themselves over the coming years. Once you embrace the role the accountant can play in the post-lockdown world you need to make sure you have the tools and technology to deliver.

@wolterskluweruk

Phil Thornton, Lead Technology Product Manager for Digital, Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting UK Phil Thornton is Lead Technology Product Manager for Digital and is responsible for bringing our digitalisation strategy to market. Phil spends his time working with our customers to understand what becoming a digital practice means to them, what is happening in the market and how to build solutions that will support our customers on this journey. Phil believes that digitalisation will bring about many opportunities for the industry.

will look to their trusted advisers to help guide them through new legislation, tax and VAT regulations, and any other outcomes that may occur.

For most of the first half of 2020, while the COVID-19 pandemic spread across Europe, practices Uncertainty: the In 2020 we have and businesses catalyst to diversify quickly adapted to your services heard from the challenges. As customers that there you have navigated While digitalisation has been a sharp the impact of the has certainly been increase in clients global pandemic a catalyst for this asking for their across their practice change, business advice. and clients, practices growth in the face of and businesses alike EU-wide uncertainty will turned to technology and tools to also mean an acceleration in the help continue operating as close to need for business and financial ‘business as usual’ as possible. advice. It is where the accountant will come into their own, leveraging In 2020 we have heard from tools enhanced by technology to practice customers across the UK give real-time, data-rich advice. and Europe that there has been a sharp increase in clients asking for 2019 signalled a period of change their advice – from cash flow advice with Brexit dominating the political to managing the government rules and economic agenda of the EU around lockdown. and the UK well into 2020. This uncertainty will have had an Becoming the partner of choice impact on any business decisions regarding investments, exports and Any major change in the business employment. and economic landscape often triggers businesses to review their Brexit and the aftermath of the agreements will drive businesses to professional advisers. COVID-19 is no different. To mitigate the increasingly rely on the advice and expertise of their accountants. They challenges they face, businesses XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

might look to new advisers for fresh ideas and advice on how to survive the change. This is an opportunity for your practice to shine, both to existing clients and prospects, by providing valuable insight.

today include the changing expectations of individuals in the workplace, shifting social norms and values, and new types and levels of connectivity and demographics.

In becoming their partner of choice in these troubling times, you have the opportunity to help clients recoup any losses they may have made and, in turn, recoup any short-term losses of your own. It’s a rewarding cycle of insight and gain.

Still searching for time to add these new, higher value services? The move to digitalisation is the key component to making a practice more efficient. Efficiency creates time to prioritise data analysis over data entry and real-time, datarich conversations with clients over retrospective reports and compliance-led work. In short, it allows for higher-value advisory work.

But with a reduction in the profitability of compliance services and the increase in digitalisation of practice processes, what insight or value does an accountant add? It’s what differentiates you from the software you work with - the personal consultative approach, or human touch, you bring to helping a business through tough times. The key is working with that software to provide a higher-value service. Working with technology, not against it Technology is changing the global economy. It is changing the fabric of accounting. Contenders for the top challenges facing accountants

The synergy of accountant and machine can be an enabler for higher-value work, making practices more efficient, more productive, more interesting, and more meaningful. Automating routine tasks like data entry and complex calculations frees up time for your team to do more of what your clients value most – providing insight and supporting their business ambitions. Just as uncertainty has been a catalyst for the rise in advisory

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services, COVID-19 has become a catalyst for investment in cloud and hosting technologies, enabling secure remote working and business analytics. The next step is to make technology work for your advisory. Why accountants will be the answer to business growth Businesses across the board are trying to manage complex growth and regulatory challenges and need advice and help to navigate them. Up-to-date information has never been more important for the accountant to gain better insight and remain competitive. What’s more, the speed and quantity of data, as well as the added pressure of GDPR compliance, has necessitated the need for future-proofed systems that produce accurate data in real time. Seeking out advice from accountants with future-proofed systems that produce real-time insights will be paramount as businesses prepare for the unknown. Business insights create actionable items that can Follow us on Twitter: @xumagazine

Issue 24 / 117

help a business plan for different scenarios.

Creating efficiency in advisory

Development at Wolters Kluwer is always driven by our focus on They will be the person business owners seek advice from on matters customer success, so we can help you when it matters most from compliance and cashflow to during times of retirement planning and uncertainty. With education. The key The synergy of that in mind, we for accountants accountant and have worked to will be to accept create tools that the helping hand machine can make enable insight, that technology practices more both to your provides and efficient, productive, practice and to your diversify their interesting, and clients in an efficient services to provide a meaningful. and profitable way. higher value. You might already be playing that role. How many â&#x20AC;&#x153;quick questionsâ&#x20AC;? have you answered over lockdown? Answering that quick question is when the accountant will deliver a significant amount of added value. This moment of unconscious scope creep equals potential profit loss for you. The decision of whether to price an additional service is a conscious one, and therefore one that your practice can manage and take accountability for. It is also one that you need to be armed with the correct tools to make and, once you have, software tools can enable advisory services that clients have an appetite for.

In Europe, research we have done across more than 700 tax and accounting practices and 400 businesses in six European countries has helped inform development of our software solutions so that we can support our customers through rapid and fundamental change and the evolution of advisory services. Our aim is to provide tools, products and functionality that make you more productive and that make advisory an efficient service for you to provide. Introducing effortless financial insights Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting

118 / Issue 24

will soon be bringing finsit, its cloud-based financial insights platform to the UK . This platform will enable you to effortlessly deliver financial insights in visually appealing and effective graphics, making it easier for you to have insight-rich conversations with your clients and provide proactive advice. This periodic reporting tool will enhance your output, provide key insights, help identify advisory opportunities within your client base, and provide clear reports and KPIs which are easy for the client to understand and interpret. With finsit you will be able to provide a standard set of dashboards and reports using data from many of the major bookkeeping products being used by your clients, such as Xero, Twinfield, Sage and QuickBooks.

Find out more... For more information, visit our website: > wolterskluwer.com

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Asia's Largest Virtual Festival for Accountants Digital Innovation in Accounting & Finance 100% Online This is the must-attend event for finance professionals working in SMEs, enterprises and accounting firms with operations in Asia.

3 - 4 NOVEMBER 2020 Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

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Building a Sustainable Online Business Amidst COVID-19 Shifting to online has been imperative for restaurants to keep business going. Whether you’re starting an online store or growing an existing one, there are numerous ways to maximize your online presence.

OVID-19 brought on many challenges to businesses worldwide, with the F&B sector among the hardest hit. To adapt to the new business environment and continue serving their community, F&B establishments completely shifted their sales strategy to online. For Daryl Saw, CEO of Singapore’s Santa Fe Tex-Mex Grill, expanding their delivery operations and setting up an online ordering channel was a strategic way to keep business going. “As soon as we decided to venture into online and delivery, I went to my POS system and enabled online ordering with one click,” Saw recalled. With social distancing drives and government restrictions temporarily suspending dine-in services, online ordering has become the main revenue-generating channel for restaurants to stay profitable. The future of dine-in remains unclear. Setting up and maintaining a sustainable online ordering operation may be the best way to ensure business continuity. Fully-Integrated Solution Many leading POS systems offer out-of-the-box solutions that can get your online store up and running in as quick as 48 hours. An integrated online channel is built to seamlessly work with other modules and add-ons to streamline operations. 120 / Issue 24

Modules like Home Delivery Management and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) go hand-in-hand in boosting your online operations. A Delivery Manager gives you LIVE insights into your entire online ordering cycle as it happens. A robust CRM helps you maintain the quality of your deliveries and also boosts customer engagement. Manuel Wazen, Marketing Director of UAE-based enterprise JJ Chicken, mentions the importance of utilizing customer data as the bulk of their orders are processed online. “Data is now very valuable because it allows us to target customers and keep them within reach,” Wazen shares. What’s more, leading point-ofsales are integrated with cloud accounting software like Xero. This means that your online store’s sales data is seamlessly synced between the applications. As a cloud-based software, Xero allows you to access your business finances anytime. By automatically syncing the daily sales data, you can track your cash flow in real time, giving you an easier and more accurate overview of your online store’s performance while ensuring data integrity. Redefined Customer Experience A shift to online ordering amidst COVID-19 also requires a shift in customer experience. Online ordering provides a safer alternative to dine-in and take-away through

@SapaadPOS

Stephanie Te, Product Specialist, Sapaad Stephanie Te is a Product Specialist at Sapaad, a leading cloud-based restaurant POS and delivery management system that empowers restaurateurs worldwide to drive business growth and enhance customer experience with the power of the Cloud.

the use of online payments. Online payments require zero physical contact and reduce the risk of contagion for both your customers and drivers. With this, you can fulfill orders through contactless delivery. Your drivers can simply place the order on the doorstep and stay at a reasonable distance when your customer receives the order. Open New Revenue Channels with Social Media Social media channels, such as Facebook and Instagram, are some of the most heavily-visited platforms. This makes them great avenues to build a strong online presence for your restaurant. By effectively leveraging social media, you open new revenue channels for your business. ”We heavily invest in social media to offer discounts and encourage customers to order directly from our website. Whenever you visit JJ Chicken’s Instagram page, you’ll see the link in our bio which sends you straight to our ordering page,” Wazen explains. Aside from adding the link of your digital store to your Instagram and Facebook profiles, you can also take advantage of Facebook Messenger’s Automated Responses. By enabling it and adding your online ordering link, any customer that messages your profile will receive an autoreply that’ll direct them to your

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

online store. Adopting this strategy makes it super convenient for prospects to go from simply browsing your profile to placing orders within a few clicks. Optimize your Digital Communication Strategy An effective digital communication strategy will transform your strong online store to a sustainable one by consistently attracting potential and existing customers. The key is to experiment as you may need to try different strategies until you find the one that works best for your restaurant. One simple strategy is to display your latest deals and discounts on your online ordering page. This encourages customers to order more than what they initially intended. On your social media platforms, the optimal way to attract visitors is to consistently post engaging

content about your business through boosted ads, promotions, or customer reviews. Build a Loyal Fanbase It’s no secret that the most powerful method to market your business is through word-of-mouth. In the era of virtual dining, it’s vital to maintain relationships with your customers to keep them coming back. Simple gestures such as a personal message to thank them for ordering goes a long way in strengthening engagement and experience. You can encourage them to share their experience and tag your restaurant on social media. “A recommendation is worth ten times more than an advertisement. Every post, share, like, and comment counts,” Saw reveals. The shift to online ordering Whether you’re completely new to the game or are optimizing your existing online strategy, the

shift might leave you pleasantly surprised. Saw recalls how Santa Fe’s shift to online helped them achieve new records. “As a 35-seater restaurant, we would have been content with a full house of dine-in guests for Mother’s Day. But this year, we managed to serve more than a hundred online orders.” The shift to online may have been a necessary move for your restaurant to adapt. But by taking advantage of the many tech capabilities to build a sustainable online operation, you’ll be able to sustain the shift and grow your business to new heights.

FIND OUT MORE... Find out more about Sapaad cloud-based restaurant POS & delivery management system, visit us at: > sapaad.com

Partner success story: Putting ﬁnancial controls in place to successfully outsource the ﬁnance function of a PR agency Read more in our blog! Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 121

4 Simple Tips for Charities to Increase Productivity How Xero and infoodle can help you serve your community more efficiently

@infoodle

Richard Smith, Founder and CEO, infoodle Richard is the founder and technical lead for infoodle, a Xero add-on for the charity sector. With experience in NGOs in Europe, Africa and New Zealand, he brings his technical expertise and software skills to this important sector to organisations around the world. He is one of those geeks who can translate tech into English!

Running a charitable organisation can be extremely rewarding; however, not many realise how much time goes into serving a community. This article walks you through a few steps that will help your organisation spend less time on administrative tasks and, instead, use your resources to focus on your mission and make a difference.

xcessive paperwork and administration can be draining and reflect negatively on the work that you are doing as a charitable organisation. However, the secret behind productivity is simple. It lies in creating systems and streamlining your processes. Charities can benefit from establishing structures that allow them to remove the overwhelm and run more effectively. Entrusting your processes to Xero and infoodle will help tremendously with managing your resources and making time to focus on your mission. Here are a few tips on how to achieve maximum productivity: Streamline your management systems Using powerful tools such as Xero and infoodle together, you can store all your information in one place. There is no need to remember multiple passwords and log in details, just as there’s no double entering of information, which reduces errors and improves reliability. Track payments, send reminders and generate receipts easily within one centralised database. Another important aspect is that having both Xero and infoodle hosted on the Cloud, there will be no stressing about 122 / Issue 24

access, updates or support. Finally, while both tools are intuitive and work together seamlessly, comprehensive navigation and regularly updated help systems make finding information easy and straightforward. Reduce stress by avoiding mistakes Most accounting errors are associated with double entering of information and unavoidable typos or missed records. Their number can be reduced by automating the process of capturing and importing transaction data from bank feeds. Xero provides an option of collecting data directly from the bank, while infoodle has automatic reconciling of Xero data. These features make the process of handling finances both simple and secure, allowing you to quickly produce reports for stakeholder meetings or tax reviews, and protecting your data with an option to enable “permission dependent” access for your employees or volunteers. Simplify by creating workflows Creating reliable step-by-step systems that you can automate can help you to accomplish

more without taking on more responsibilities or adding to your workload. The efficiency of charities, often under-staffed and time-poor, depends on automating repetitive tasks to ensure that all processes run smoothly. Workflows, which are an essential part of infoodle, are an excellent way of streamlining these processes. For instance, customisable email templates allow you to respond to inquiries, follow up with donors and send thank you notes in minutes. Improved communication, in turn, helps to develop stronger relationships with your stakeholders and ensures that you consistently deliver professional experience. Use time management strategies Schedule your most important tasks during the time when you are most productive. Setting up to-do lists and highlighting your priorities can help you gain better focus, avoid procrastination and keep up with deadlines. Use calendars in order to distribute your time and resources better. Colour coding works great for blocking time to complete different projects. Try task batching: group similar tasks together, so you don’t waste time switching between tasks. It is also

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

important to establish support structures, such as creating automated task reminders based on projects you are currently working on. With infoodle, you can even set up text or email notifications to make sure that no time-sensitive tasks get forgotten.

These steps to boost productivity are quite simple, yet effective. Taking advantage of the features provided by Xero and infoodle, you can cut the time spent on administrative work and dedicate it to things that truly matter: following your calling and serving your

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community in the best possible way.

Find out more... For more information go to: > infoodle.com

Issue 24 / 123

App Partners of the Month

Xero App Partners of the month

July 2020

Xero’s app marketplace has over 700 apps which help small businesses and their advisors reach their goals. Each month Xero celebrates an app partner who stands out for helping small businesses thrive...

Find out more at: > unleashedsoftware.com

e’re proud to be recognised by Xero as App Partner of the Month for our work helping businesses bridge the gap during Covid lockdowns. Unleashed Software launched the good products Marketplace to help consumers discover artisan producers and independent manufacturers during lockdown.

August 2020

The Marketplace supports hundreds of Unleashed customers who predominantly sell directly to other companies, or through wholesale relationships to shops and hospitality businesses, to switch their sales channel to sell direct to the public during the

The Marketplace provides the public with a community platform to browse and easily find everything from craft beer, ethical tea and coffee, handmade chocolates and vegan food. Currently over 680 companies from across the UK, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Asia, the Middle East and Africa are listed. As Lisa Miles Heal, COO of Unleashed Software says, “Our customers have something in common - they’ve set out to change the status quo in how we source, make and buy good quality

products and this fits with our own company values. We’ve had in mind for some time to create a marketplace to help companies who have set out on this mission reach more people. However, we’ve decided to launch sooner than planned in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now people can discover and share great brands with friends and family, and we can all help smaller artisan companies carry on and thrive in difficult times.” The Marketplace can be visited on goodproductsmatter.com and for more information on Unleashed see unleashedsoftware.com.

Find out more at: > pipedrive.com

e’re delighted that Pipedrive has been chosen as Xero’s app partner of the month. Pipedrive is a customer relationship management tool that enables sales, marketing and many other teams to manage their pipelines, track performance and stay focused on closing deals and driving revenue. Pipedrive’s integration with Xero simplifies the invoicing process, giving our users greater access to Xero’s world-leading features while within Pipedrive. We know that the majority of

124 / Issue 24

covid-19 pandemic.

Pipedrive’s users regularly create invoices as part of their sales processes, so anything that can speed things up is hugely beneficial. The integration enables you to generate invoices based on the information you already have in your Pipedrive account and have those invoices tracked in Xero’s management software, giving you a better understanding of the revenue being generated for your company by your Pipedrive deals.

so you’ll know when they are approved, paid or overdue. The integration works on Mac, PC, tablet and phone, so you can access a real-time view of your cash flow at your desk or on the go. Thanks to the teams at Pipedrive and Xero who made this integration happen, all our customers using and benefitting from the app, and a special thank you to XU Magazine for featuring Pipedrive this month.

You’ll get status updates on invoices created in Pipedrive, XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

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Conserve cash, Reduce costs, Increase productivity

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reducer.co.uk www.icompleat.com 126 / Issue 24

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XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

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CollBox | @CollBox collbox.co CreditorWatch | @creditorwatch creditorwatch.com.au Debtograph | @Debtograph debtograph.com Debtor Daddy | @debtordaddy debtordaddy.com/xero Debtze| @DebtzeCollect debtze.com/xero Ezi Debt Collection ezidebtcollection.com.au EzyCollect | @ezyCollect ezycollect.com.au InvoiceSherpa | @invoicesherpa invoicesherpa.com IODM | @IODM_Software iodm.com.au Late Fee Manager | @LateFeeManager1 latefeemanager.com/xero LedgerLive ledgerlive.com/xero Mentio | @mentiohq mentio.ca/xero SMS My Debtors | @smsmydebtors smsmydebtors.com Vision6 | @vision6 vision6.com.au XO Cashflow | @xocashflow xocashflow.com/Xero-Integration

Webrecs | @Webrecs webrecs.com.au/xero

eCommerce A2X Accounting | @a2xaccounting a2xaccounting.com/xero 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 Checkfront | @Checkfront checkfront.com Connex jmawebtechnologies.com CS Cart by 4Sprung | @cscart marketplace.cs-cart.com Dear Systems dearsystems.com Dremus | @dremus dremus.com eBay by OneSaas | @onesaas onesaas.com eBay by Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs stitchlabs.com eCC Cloud | @webgility webgility.com ecwid | @ecwid ecwid.com/xero ecwid by Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs stitchlabs.com Expandly | @expandly expandly.com ezimerchant | @ezimerchant ezimerchant.com EZ Rent out | @EZRentOut ezrentout.com/xero Handshake | @handshake handshake.com/integration/xero Intellibook | @intellibookapp intellibook.co/features/Xero Loaded Commerce by Carry The One carrytheone.co.uk Magento by OneSaas | @onesaas onesaas.com Magento by Unleashed | @unleashedteam unleashedsoftware.com Magento by Zapier | @zapier zapier.com Magento Integration (Fooman) | @foomanNZ xero.fooman.co.nz MINDBODY | @mindbodyonline partner.mindbodyonline.com Neto | @netoecommerce neto.com.au

check-business.co.uk/xero

Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 127

App Directory Fundbox | @fundbox

Opencart by Carry The One

fundbox.com

carrytheone.co.uk/xero

Fundera | @fundera

Order Space | @orderspace orderspace.com/integrations/xero

fundera.com

MRPEasy | @mrpeasy mrpeasy.com

ascora.com.au

simPRO | @simprosoftware simprogroup.com

briefcase

FundTap

getbriefcase.net

fundtap.co.nz/xero

carrytheone.co.uk

BriteBiz | @britebiz

GetCapital | @Get_Capital

Rocketspark | @Rocketspark

britebiz.com/xero-crm-integration

getcapital.com.au

rocketspark.com/nz/xero/

BuilderTREND | @BuilderTREND

iwoca | @iwoca

Sendle | @sendle

buildertrend.com/xero

iwoca.co.uk/xero

sendle.com

BuildXact

Kabbage | @KabbageInc

Shopify | @Shopify

buildxact.com.au

kabbage.com

shopify.com Shopify by Pipemonk | @pipe_monk

MarketFinance | @MarketFinance marketfinance.com

stitchlabs.com

Chargebee | @chargebee

liberis | @LiberisUK liberis.co.uk

pipemonk.com Shopify By Stitch Labs | @StitchLabs Shopify By Tradevine | @TradevineTeam

TidyBuild | @TidyInt tidyinternational.com TidyStock | @TidyInt tidyinternational.com

global.co-construct.com

squarespace.com

commonsku | @commonsku commonsku.com

taxjar.com TidyCommerce | @tidyint tidyinternational.com/ecommerce

BUSINESS FINANCE MADE EASY

Commusoft | @Commusoft

STOCK MANAGEMENT

marketfinance.com

tidystock com moolahsense.com Moula | @MoulaMoney

POWERFUL eCOMMERCE

Financial Services Beyond Merchant Capital | @beyond_cap beyondmerchantcapital.com.au

equifax.com Everline | @everline everline.com Financiery | @financiery financiery.com

128 / Issue 24

moula.com.au OFX xero.com/uk/financial-services/ofx SmartBiz Loans | @SmartBizLoans smartbizloans.com TradeLock | @TradelockCover tradelock.co.uk Validus validus.sg Waddle | @getwaddle waddle.com.au

TradeGecko | @tradegecko tradegecko.com

veeqo.com Vend xero.com/uk/marketplace/app/vend Viberent | @viberenthq viberenthq.com Vinsight | @VinsightSW vinsight.net

Invoicing & Jobs Accelo | @accelo www.accelo.com ActionStep | @Actionstep actionstep.com/xero Active Collab By Trio | @Trio_Tech triotech.co.nz Acuity Scheduling | @AcuitySchedulin acuityscheduling.com AffinityLive | @affinitylive affinitylive.com apparelmagic.com

farmflo.com fishbowlinventory.com Hike | @hikepos hikeup.com/xero-pos-integration

corecon.com

unleashedsoftware.com

Apparelmagic | @ApparelMagic

Fishbowl | @fishbowl

Corecon

Veeqo | @Veeqo

Expandly | @expandly expandly.com

wise-sync.com Copper | @copperproject

Unleashed Software | @unleashedteam

evopos.com

Farmflo | @farmflo

commusoft.co.uk ConnectWise by Wise-Sync | @wisesync

copperproject.com

MoolahSense | @MoolahSense

credi.com

cliniko.com/xero Clio | @goclio Co-construct | @coconstruct

TaxJar | @TaxJar

Equifax | @equifax

chargebee.com/integrations/xero Cliniko | @Cliniko

landing.clio.com/xero

tradevine.com Squarespace | @squarespace

Credi | @CrediPlatform

b2bgateway.net bookingbug.com/xero

fundingoptions.com

zapier.com PrestaShop by Carry The One

B2BGateway | @B2BGateway BookingBug | @bookingbug

Funding Options | @FundingOptions

PayPal by Zapier | @zapier

Ascora | @ascoraapp

ApprovalMax | @ApprovalMax approvalmax.com/xero AppsForOps | @AppsForOps appsforops.com AroFlo | @aro_flo aroflo.com

CLOUD-BASED CONSTRUCTION

SOFTWARE www.corecon.com coreplus | @Intracore coreplus.com.au CurrentRMS | @currentrms current-rms.com Cushion | @cushionapp cushionapp.com Dentally | @DentallyApp dentally.co/integrations/xero DonkeyBean donkeybean.com EMAC | @EMACsoftware emac.com.au ePrint MIS | @eprintmis eprintmis.com etz Technologies | @etzTechnologies etzpayments.com Experieco experieco.com Fergus | @FergusApp fergusapp.com

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

WorkflowMax | @WorkflowMax

Qwilr | @Qwilr

workflowmax.com

qwilr.com

i2b-online.com iCOS LIVE | @iCOSLIVE icoslive.com InvoiceTracker by eBillity | @eBillity invoicetracker.com

getboxkite.com businesssorter.com/xero

simprogroup.com

Chata.ai | @thechataHQ

Smart Reports | @smartreports

chata.ai

smartreports.com.au

Start your FREE trial: workflowmax.com/xero

SmartTrade | @SmartTradeSW smarttrade.biz

synergist.co.uk syngency.com The Service Manager | @theservicemgr theservicemanager.com TidyBuild | @TidyInt tidyinternational.com

Invoxy | @invoxy

Workshop Software | @workshoponline workshopsoftware.com.au XEDI | @xediLtd xedi.com

Manufacturing AroFlo | @aro_flo aroflo.com Tidy Enterprise | @TidyInt tidyenterprise.com

PROJECT & INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT tidybuild com

loc8.com

mytrucking.com/integrations/xero NextMinute | @NextMinuteApp nextminute.com Okappy | @ok_appy okappy.com Order Space | @orderspace orderspace.com/integrations/xero Patchability time.patchability.com pay RIGHT AWAY | @PayRIGHTAWAY payrightaway.com.au Preno | @prenohq prenohq.com/xero ProWorkflow | @ProWorkflow proworkflow.com Quotient | @QuotientApp quotientapp.com/integrations/xero

imaginecurve.com Customer Lobby | @CustomerLobby customerlobby.com EntryRocket | @entryrocket

farmflo.com Flowrev | @flowrev flowrev.com/xero Freshmethod | @Freshmethod freshmethod.com.au

tidyenterprise com

MinuteDock | @minutedock MyTrucking | @MyTrucking

cradle.io/integration/xero Curve | @imaginecurve

Farmflo | @farmflo

kickserv.com/xero

minutedock.com

nzi.co.nz Cradle | @letscradlenz

expensecheck.com.au

itrade.net

Loc8 | @Loc8com

control-c.com/landing-xero CoverKit by NZI

Expense Check | @expensecheck

Kickserv | @kickserv

leap.co.uk

cloudbusinessllc.com

entryrocket.com

invoxy.com iTrade

LEAP | @LEAP4LawFirms

Cloudbusiness | @CloudBusinessLt Controlc

Synchroteam | @synchroteam

Syngency | @syngency

Boxkite | @getboxkite Business sorter | @BusinessSorter

simPRO | @simprosoftware

synchroteam.com

getharvest.com

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a match made in heaven.

simplesalon.com/xero

Synergist | @Synerg1st

i2B | @i2B_Limited

blendo.co

servicem8.com Simple Salon | @SimpleSalon

goproposal.com

bizequity.com/xero Blendo | @blendoapp

ServiceM8 | @ServiceM8

Harvest | @harvest

BizEquity | @BizEquity

www.accon.services Google Calender By Zapier | @zapier zapier.com Imporex

deltek.com

imporex.com.au

Vinsight | @VinsightSW

InView

vinsight.net

inviewapp.com

Vintrace | @vinx2

JobReady | @JobReadyNSW

vinx2.com

jobready.com.au

vWork | @vWorkApp

Kitomba | @Kitomba

vworkapp.com

kitomba.com

WHMCS for Xero | @edgehosting

LEAP | @LEAP4LawFirms

edgehosting.uk/whmcs-xero-addon

leap.co.uk Avalara | @avalara trustfile.avalara.com Backupmybooks | @backupmybooks backupmybooks.com

Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Fresh Projects | @ukfreshprojects G-Accon | @G_AcconServices

triotech.co.nz/xero

worketc.com/new_landing/xero

www.freshmethod.com.au

freshprojects.co.uk

arlo.co

Union Square | @unionsquareltd

Work[etc] CRM | @WORKetc_support

The IT Company for Accounting Firms

LeaveCal finlert.com/leavecal-xero.html Office 365 | @Office365 xero.com/uk/office-365

Issue 24 / 129

Vinosmith | @thevinosmith

IntegraPay | @IntegraPay

vinosmith.com

integrapay.com.au

Wise.NET | @WisenetLRM

InvoiceSherpa | @invoicesherpa

wisenet.co

invoicesherpa.com

Workato | @Workato

iZettle | @iZettle

workato.com/xero workshopsoftware.com.au zapier.com

xero.com/uk/financial-services/ofx

zapier.com

payrightaway.com.au Payoneer | @Payoneer

zapier.com

Zenoti | @ZenotiSoftware

PayPal | @PayPal

zenoti.com/xero

paypal.com pennypipe.com/info/xero Pin Payments | @PinPayments

Acuity Scheduling | @AcuitySchedulin

pin.net.au

acuityscheduling.com

app.plooto.co

reseller.authorize.net

polipayments.com

billandpay.com

progressclaim.com PropertyTree | @PropertyTree propertytree.com RDvault | @rdvault rdvault.co.uk Re-leased | @re_leased re-leased.com

satfxonline.co.uk

chargify.com/xero

Shieldpay | @shield_pay shieldpay.com

checkeeper.com/xero

Stripe | @stripe

CheckVault | @CheckVault

stripe.com

checkvault.com.au

Square | @SquareUK

CreDec | @CreDec

squareup.com

credec.com

transfermateonline.com

debtordaddy.com/xero

TransferWise | @TransferWise

Directli | @Directli

transferwise.com

directli.co.uk DPS Payment Express | @PaymentExpress

ezycollect.com.au Real Estate Investar | @reiaustraila realestateinvestar.com.au Rerun | @Rerunapp rerunapp.com Sharesight | @Sharesight sharesight.com/xero

eWay | @eWAY_ eway.io

IMS Payroll

Transfer Mate | @TransferMate

Debtor Daddy | @debtordaddy

EzyCollect | @ezyCollect

uCollect | @ucollect_biz ucollect.biz/xero Worldpay

Payroll & HR appogeeHR | @AppogeeHR appogeehr.com citrusHR | @citrusHR

ezidebit.com.au

citrushr.com/xero

gocardless.com

cloudpayroll.com.au

Track1099 | @Track_1099 track1099.com TransferMate | @TransferMate transfermateonline.com

130 / Issue 24

Synergy 8 | @SynergyEight

tax1099.com

ipayroll.co.nz KeyPay | @KeyPayApp

Payescape | @PayescapeUK

pro.sharesight.com.au

Tax1099 | @efile1099

timesheets.com.au iPayroll

parolla.ie

CloudPayroll

Sharesight Pro | @Sharesight

synergy8.com

imspayroll.co.nz Intertec TimePro

keypay.co.uk

business.worldpay.com

Ezidebit | @Ezidebit GoCardless | @GoCardless

hrpartner.io

SAT FXOnline | @satworldwide

Checkeeper | @Checkeeper

eazycollect.co.uk

HR Partner | @HRPartnerApp

rerunapp.com

chargebee.com/integrations/xero

paymentexpress.co.uk

HR Assured | @HRAssured

Rerun | @Rerunapp

Chargify | @Chargify

EazyCollect | @eazyCollect

zenpayroll.com Happy HR | @happyhraus

receivabl.es

bill.com Chargebee | @chargebee

Progressclaim.com | @progressclaim

Gusto | @GustoHQ

Receivabl | @receivabl_es

Bill.com | @billcom www.practiceprotect.com

flexitime.co.nz Gpayroll

hrassured.com.au

POLi Payments | @POLiPayments

Bill and Pay | @BillandPay

epayroll.com.au Flexitime | @FlexiTimeTeam

happyhr.com

Plooto | @PlootoInc

Authorize.Net | @AuthorizeNet

ento.com ePayroll | @ePayrollAus

gpayroll.com

PennyPipe | @PennyPipe

Payments Secure and control client data, wherever your team work.

Ento | @entohq

Pay RIGHT AWAY | @PayRIGHTAWAY

Zendesk by Zapier | @zapier

enableHR | @enableHR enablehr.com.au

OFX

Zapier | @zapier

deputy.com employmenthero.com

Kwanji | @KwanjiX kwanji.com

Wufoo by Zapier | @zapier

crystalpayroll.com Deputy | @deputyapp Employment Hero | @EmploymentHero

izettle.com

Workshop Software | @workshoponline

Crystal Payroll

Made for recurring payments Xeroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Financial Services App of the Year

New Zealand

ipayroll.co.nz

Payment Evolution | @payevo paymentevolution.com PaysOnline | @paysonline paysonline.com.au PaySpace | @PaySpace payspace.com

Australia

cloudpayroll.com.au

Simplepay.ca | @simplepaycanada simplepay.ca

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

qvinci.com/xero Recount recount.com/xero-homepage-uk Ranqx | @ranqxHQ ranqx.com Report Amigo | @reportamigo reportamigo.com/xero Saasabi | @Saasabi saasabi.com/xero Savvy Reports savvyreports.com Scottâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Add-ins scottsaddins.com

linksolutions.co.nz superconcepts.com.au

Intelligent Cashflow fluidly.com

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

Rated on the Xero marketplace

Create Financial Art. www.scottsaddins.com

Asset Guru | @Asset_Guru asset.guru/xero Benchmarking.com.au benchmarking.com.au Bizeo | @bizeo bizeo.com.au BizEquity | @BizEquity bizequity.com/xero Blink Reports blinkreports.com BPM bpmglobal.com Brightgauge | @BrightGauge brightgauge.com/xero

Btc | @BTCSoftwareUK

Shopify | @Shopify

Fathom | @fathomhq

QVinci | @Qvinci

SuperConcepts | @SuperConceptsAU

bstar.com.au

Try Sapaad for FREE www.sapaad.com

quickwindevelopment.com

Link Solutions | @LinkSolutions

Bstar | @BstarAustralia

Connect Xero and Sapaad Cloud POS for a total business solution.

Excel Int. Tools - QWD | @quickwindev

Futrli | @Futrli futrli.com Infoodle | @infoodle infoodle.com/xero joiin | @joiinreporting joiin.co Klipfolio Dashboard | @klipfolio klipfolio.com

Simple Numbers | @gregcrabtreecpa simplenumbers.me Simply Cashflow | @simplycashflow simplycashflow.com/xero StatX | @StatXapp statx.io Spotlight Reporting | @spotlightrep spotlightreporting.com

Maus | @MAUS_Software maus.com.au Momentum atsora.com/xero My Cash Flow app | @MyCashFlowAppSa mycashflowapp.co.za My work papers | @myworkpapers

#1 Reporting & Forecasting app in the Xero Ecosystem

myworkpapers.com My Own CFO | @myown_cfo

spotlightreporting.com

myown-cfo.com Numerable | @NumerableSW numerable.io Onestop reporting | @OneStopReports onestopreporting.com/xero Panalitix | @panalitix panalitix.com ProfitSee | @MyProfitSee myprofitsee.com/xero

Thomson Reuters | @TaxAccountingUK tax.thomsonreuters.co.uk Unleash unleash.us Visible | @VisibleVC visible.vc/integrations/xero Vistr | @VistrTeam vistr.co Wink Reports ;) | @WinkReports winkreports.com/connectors/xero Watchful Eye | @watchful_eye_sw watchfuleyesoftware.com Xavier | @xavieranalytics xavier-analytics.com

DonkeyBean donkeybean.com/xero Dryrun | @Mydryrun dryrun.com/xero

Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 131

App Directory XBert | @XBertapp xbert.io

KeyPay | @KeyPayApp

Tradify | @tradifyhq

keypay.com.au

AccountKit | @AccountKit

tradifyhq.com

Microkeeper | @Microkeeper

account-kit.com

TriggerApp | @triggerapp

microkeeper.com.au

triggerapp.com/xero

MinuteDock | @minutedock

class.com.au

Total Synergy | @totalsynergy

minutedock.com

totalsynergy.com

Doc2Data | @doc2data

tsheets.com/xero

doc2data.com

Tymwise | @kapaitymwise tymwise.com workflowmax.com

Datamolino | @datamolino

Outlook Int.Tools - QWD | @quickwindev

futrli.com

Patchability

Hubdoc | @Hubdoc

time.patchability.com

hubdoc.com

ProWorkflow | @ProWorkflow

Practice Ignition | @ignitionapp

proworkflow.com Quick Win Development | @quickwindev

nowinfinity.com.au

fathomhq.com Futrli | @Futrli

quickwindevelopment.com

Time Tracking

practiceignition.com

quickwindevelopment.com rollhq.com/xero SmartBiller | @smartbiller smartbiller.co.nz Synergist | @Synerg1st synergist.co.uk Tanda | @TandaHQ

Practice Ignition | @ignitionapp

300+ five star reviews

tanda.co

Receipt Bank | @ReceiptBank

temponia.com/xero TidyWork | @TidyInt tidywork.com

receipt-bank.com Receipt Bank | @ReceiptBank

spotlightreporting.com suitefiles.com

Xero Workpapers | @Xero

Fergus | @FergusApp

xero.com

JOB MANAGEMENT

fergusapp.com Freshdesk | @freshdesk freshdesk.com/xero

tidywork com

GeoOp | @GeoOp

File management for accountants Xero add-on marketplace

geoop.com

icoslive.com IMS Service Track i-man.com.au Intertec TimePro timesheets.com.au JobPro Central | @JobProCentral

suitefiles.com end-game.com

ebillity.com

Management | @iCOSLIVE

Suitefiles | @SuiteFiles Time Tracker by EndGame | @GoEndGame

Suitefiles | @SuiteFiles

eBillity | @eBillity

Spotlight Reporting | @spotlightrep spotlightreporting.com

receipt-bank.com Spotlight Reporting | @spotlightrep

deputy.com

iCOS LIVE - Online Transport

practiceignition.com Quick Win Development | @quickwindev quickwindevelopment.com

Temponia | @temponia

Deputy | @deputyapp

getharvest.com

Manage ASIC affairs with our leading Corporate Compliance solution.

Roll | @rollhq

chrometa.com/xero

Harvest | @harvest

myworkpapers.com NowInfinity | @Now_Infinity

Fathom | @fathomhq

nextminute.com

mogul.nz/xero My Own CFO | @myown_cfo My work papers | @myworkpapers

use.expensify.com/xero

NextMinute | @NextMinuteApp

Mogul | @MogulDigitalNZ

myown-cfo.com

datamolino.com Expensify | @expensify

nexonia.com/xero

zoho.eu

goproposal.com

bomamarketing.com/xero Nexonia | @nexonia

Zoho | @Zoho

ezzybills.com

Boma | @Boma_Marketing

zivora.co

EzzyBills | @EzzyBills GoProposal | @GoProposal

Xero HQ

Zivora | @ZivoraApp

Exsalerate | @exsalerate exsalerate.com/xerointegration

WorkflowMax | @WorkflowMax

zenflow.me

DataDear | @DataDearApp datadear.com

Tsheets | @tsheets

Zenflow

Class Super | @Class_Ltd

TimeTracker by eBillity | @eBillity ebillity.com TimeCamp | @timecamp

Free 30 day trial www.suitefiles.com

timecamp.com Timely gettimely.com/timely-xero Timestamp | @timestampio timestamp.io/add-ons/xero Total Synergy | @totalsynergy totalsynergy.com.au

Practise Management 2shakes | @2ShakesNZ 2shakes.co.nz

Year End Wolters Kluwer | @wolterskluweruk cchoneclick.co.uk

Tools to digitalise your practice wolterskluwer.co.uk

AccountancyManager | @accountancymgr accountancymanager.co.uk

jobprocentral.com

132 / Issue 24

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 133

...and finally

Xero acquires Waddle to help improve small business cash flow We’re excited to announce the acquisition of Waddle, a cloudbased invoice lending platform. Waddle helps connect small businesses to invoice finance, a form of secured lending that relies on a business’s unpaid invoices...

he acquisition of Waddle is an important step in our strategy to grow Xero’s small business platform and to help our customers better manage cash flow and gain access to working capital as needed. Waddle’s lending platform has the potential to enable a wide range of banks, fintechs and other lenders to better support small business financial needs. We’re excited about the benefits Waddle can bring to small business and our banking partners. Welcome, Waddle

has huge potential and we’re excited about our future together. A flexible solution for small business and lenders For businesses looking to manage gaps in cash flow, Waddle provides a flexible, ongoing line of credit based on their invoices, with no minimum contract period. Borrowers typically receive funds the same day. For lenders, Waddle’s platform helps to automate many of the manual processes involved in invoice finance.

Waddle currently has agreements with banks and lenders in the UK and Australia, and we look to expand these relationships with financial partners to support more small businesses. Waddle also manages a small direct-lending portfolio used primarily to refine its product development. We will continue to support Xero’s open ecosystem, with over 200 financial services partnerships and API connections. Xero customers can select the apps and lending products that best meet their needs. We believe choice benefits our customers. In these times, small businesses need support more than ever and we look forward to the next steps in our future with Waddle and opening new avenues of capital to small business.

Founded in Australia in 2014, Waddle’s lending platform service allows banks, fintechs and other lending partners to easily and quickly deliver invoice finance to small businesses that have elected to share their accounting data to enable a loan.

Steve Vamos, CEO, Xero

134 / Issue 24

Waddle will remain a standalone company, however together we will jointly explore ways to expand our small business customers’ access to forms of lending beyond invoice finance. Waddle’s lending platform XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.

Offer a total cashflow advisory service to your clients → → → →

FUNDING FO R EC A ST I N G PLANNING D E BTO R M A N AG E M E N T

Visit fluidly.com to find out more

Rated on the Xero marketplace

Visit the XU Hub: Go to www.xumagazine.com

Issue 24 / 135

CORPORATE MESSENGER

Manage ASIC affairs with our leading Corporate Compliance solution It couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be easier to handle all of your ASIC compliance including annual statements, debt reminders, and all other lodgement documents.

STAY ON TOP OF LATE FEES

REMAIN EFFICIENT

Proactively track debts across all client companies to reduce late fees.

Stay one step ahead of ASIC on compliance to avoid unnecessary complications.

PERSONALISE YOUR COMMS

SAVE TIME AND MONEY

Enhance your client relationships. Personalise and automate your outgoing communications with your branding and customised templates.

Eliminate repetitive data entry. Avoid human error in form filling.

136 / Issue 24

PROACTIVELY MANAGE LODGEMENT STATUS Effectively track the lodgement status of all your companies.

STREAMLINE YOUR WORKFLOWS Implement streamlined workflows so that you save time. Leverage efficiencies to scale your business.

XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users.