We have been very lucky to work with some great accounting partners in the UK who totally get what Xero is all about. It is such great fun working with people who understand our vibe so here are three stand out people who are championing Xero here in the UK;
Adrian was one of the first Accountants in the UK to embrace Xero. He immediately saw the potential of Xero that could enable him to provide leadership for his clients’ Accounting system, that is impossible with an installed application. Xero enables Adrian to keep his costs reasonable but to add value through a much closer relationship with his clients.
Carl and his team are totally focussed on getting the accounting basics done really well for their clients, using technology to save processing time and keep everything simple. For so many small businesses that is exactly what they need and that is why Carl has so many clients using Xero every day to keep up to date with their accounts.
Target have put together an awesome service offering using Xero called “Online”, which maximises the collaborative access available through Xero to provide proactive business consultancy off the back of the core accounting services that every small business needs. This is the only package of its kind that we have found in the UK that delivers such a high value connected service at such a reasonable price point.
If you are looking for an accountant to help you run your business then please contact any of our great partners. The full list of the accountants and bookkeepers we are working with in the UK is listed here
If you’re an accountant who wants to enjoy the success and improvement in the way you work as our partners have, take a trial of Xero today and sign up as a Partner here
I’ve long been concerned at how off target the last versions of Microsoft Office were after we’ve seen the real time collaboration features of Google Docs.
To my mind, the killer feature of Google Docs is not that it is Web-based, per se. It’s that it makes real-time collaboration easy. You can invite a user into a document you currently have open, and you both can edit the file at the same time. It’s not a feature you’re going to need all the time, but when you’re on a deadline and need to get sign-off from one or more other person on a document right away, it’s a life-saver.
I think what people want is something as rich as Microsoft Office, something that you can ‘click and run’, if you are not at your own desk. Something that is compatible, document-wise with Microsoft Office and something that offers the kind of joint editing capabilities that is nice in Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Will Microsoft Office offer that? Yes! Standby for details in the next month.
We want software that is more powerful than runs in a browser. Does that mean we will not have some neat stuff that does run in the browser? No.
We think you’ll actually want the full power of Word, Excel and PowerPoint - and you’ll want to be able to get that simply. But, if you just happen to be in an Internet cafe kiosk and you want to do some light editing, perhaps we need to have a way to support you in that as well, inside the browser.
This is great news and the best example of Software + Services. Using the power of the PC and the connectivity of the Internet together. I really believe that Collaborative Office could be one of the most exciting breakthroughs in productivity for enterprises and small businesses since online accounting.
However there are a few concerns that came immediately to mind.
Now I’ve moved to a Mac and that Mac:Office runs a year behind Windows Office will Mac users have to wait a whole year after this is released? Hopefully the Mac:Office team will clarify.
Will Microsoft tie the collaboration features to SharePoint services - as there needs to be a mechanism for communicating changes and central document viewing? That may not be so great for small businesses.
Will this be a global product or, because of the reliance on hosted services, will it be rolled out by region?
If I was in Microsoft’s strategy team I’d seriously look at tying Office collaboration into their stack. For many enterprises they don’t want working documents out of their firewall so SharePoint would make sense - and be justifiable.
Looks like some of the details will be revealed at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference later in the month. But this is exciting news.
There’s obviously a lot going on at the moment in terms of the markets and how this downturn is going to hit some small businesses. It may seem like a momentous leap – from Wall St to your small business – but the ethos remains the same, how do you protect your assets, your business and most importantly, your cash.
Accounting software such as Xero is there to help in the leaner times as well as the good..
Here’s some ideas on what you can do.
Process your bank transactions daily to see what your available balance is, if you have excess funds then you may want to transfer money to a higher earning interest account. You’ll then know exactly who owes you money.
Keep on top of your debtors – make sure that people are paying you. You can check away from the office on your mobile device (m.xero.com).
Be aware if anyone one large debtor creates a disproportionate exposure .
Tighten up your expenses – identify expenses that are unnecessary and costly. Keep a close eye on travel especially.
Monitor your staff’s expense claims. It might be useful to send an email around your team to clarify your policy around expenses.
Enter your Budget and use the Budget Variance report to see how your expenses are tracking against the actual budget – and whether you need to re-evaluate what you’re spending.
Invoice as soon as you have completed a job rather than waiting unto the end of the month. You can change your payment terms to be pay on invoice.
Prepare your management reports each month and send them to your bank manager so they can see you’re on top of your financials.
Posted by Catherine Walker in Product News on October 3, 2008
As the Xero application grows and grows, so does the Xero Help Centre (http://help.xero.com/).
From it’s humble beginnings as pure help text per screen we’re learning from our customers’ experiences and feedback and are now trying to pre-empt familiar scenarios by providing help beyond “you can type a negative number the price field”. Hopefully you’re finding the ‘How Do I?’ scenarios, guides and Google site search helpful in finding information to answer your questions, and just this week we’ve introduced a page of quick tips and videos as another way of showing you examples of how to do things in Xero.
For example, did you know that you can often type just one letter into a date field in Xero to auto-populate a particular date … and not necessarily today’s date?
We covered some industry trends, I talked about building a platform for scale, James Murfin from Mural Consulting did an excellent talk on SaaS Marketing and Sean Williams from Collectsoft talked about funding options for SaaS. There were some great questions.
We know there’s huge demand for an alternative to MYOB and we’re very proud to say the wait is finally over.
Australia’s 2.5 million small businesses can now join the thousands of businesses already using Xero in New Zealand and the UK.
We’ve worked closely with Australian businesses and accountants to make sure Xero simplifies the management of GST and the preparation of Activity Statements.
We’re also pleased to announce that two of Australia’s largest banks will be providing automated daily bank feeds soon after launch.
Pricing is $49 for the first organisation, $24 for additional organisations (AUD, exclusive of GST).
As a special limited time offer, if you already have a New Zealand based Xero subscription, adding an additional Australian organisation will only cost $24 (AUD, exclusive of GST). Contact sales@xero.com for complete details.
If you know any Australian business people or accountants please send them a link to our sign up page so they can try Xero for free.
We’ve heard from many of accounting partners (especially the Diva team in Pukekohe) that there are lots of different ways people want to look at their Profit and Loss accounts. Our common formats allow you to quickly pick which view you want.
Posted by Rod Drury in Travel on September 27, 2008
Had a day and a half in Silicon Valley this week on the way to the UK. I’ve been staying in Palo Alto, right in the center of the valley.
I’ve been coming up here for 16+ years and it’s always exciting as Silicon Valley is the heart of the hi-tech world. I love sitting in the cafe’s and everyone is talking tech. I immediately feel like I belong and its hard not to just jump into other people conversations.
As you drive down the 101 you see the head offices of all the big tech brands you know. SalesForce.com, Oracle and all the rest. Walking around Palo Alto you see FaceBook are right in the downtown area. (which has caused local parking and cafe issues).
I feel differently about the Valley now. I don’t think web 2.0 companies need to be here anymore. If you can get funded outside of the Valley and if your market is really global then Web 2.0 is not as dependent on the Valley as early technology models were. I maintain that our competitive advantage in New Zealand and Wellington in particular is our ability to build multi-disciplined teams. In a place as big as the Valley it must be harder to build a multi-faceted A team. Though you see the investment at schools like Stanford and you know there are so many well trained people here. People in the Valley are all fired up to create the next big thing. There are no limits to success here. But the tech world, web 2.0 world does feel more global.
Some of the interesting things I’ve seen over the past few days. Tesla has a final assembly workshop and showroom in Palo Alto so I swung in and had a look. No plans for a right hand drive version or an Australasian support center. “You’d have to ship your car to Europe for servicing.” Yeah right. The design for their family model is due later this year.
Met up with some folks at Microsoft in Mountain View. As we were walking around I noticed a Surface computer. Of course I had to have a play. The graphics and design were stunning. The interaction was still a bit lofi but that will just get better. It does feel magical.
Did the normal geek walk around Frys. Managed to not buy anything. I did pick up a Blue Snowball for podcasting at the Apple Store though. At the one-on-one desk I got a quick 5 minutes on how to use GarageBand for podcasting. Cool! As I checked out the cashier just had a handheld device. She scanned my card and I was wondering how I was going to get a receipt when she asked “Would you like your receipt printed or emailed to you”. That was clever. Save me time and they have my email address. Simple but clever.
As I write this the 1st Presidential debate is on. I was living in Texas when Clinton did his and was here when Bush and Gore were going at it. With the financial crisis going on CNN is just 24×7 analysis and comment. Addictive even though it’s hours of pre analysis, short event, hours of post analysis. There is so much information. I watched Recount on the plane. Fascinating.
The Business Success Group recently attended and passed our tests to become the latest company to receive Xero certification. We are very pleased to have rocketed to this 100th milestone over the past 3 months, and we’re especially happy to reach that milestone with a company of accountants who truly understand the value of Xero.
Their niche is around supporting entrepreneurial businesses or those in startup mode, and they see Xero as being a powerful tool in delivering business advice on top of traditional accounting services. Most businesses in startup mode clearly need to keep a tight rein on finances. The real-time nature of Xero means that growing businesses are right on top of their financial position – now, not at the end of the month. Not many small businesses can afford bookkeepers to keep manual systems up to date, so Xero nicely provides this critical service.
I know its sounds obvious, but it’s really important for small businesses to keep their financial position up to date, they just don’t have the deep pockets to ride out bad debtors and creditors. So in addition to being operationally efficient, the up side is that your business can produce accurate and immediate business reports on your cash position or P&L. Why is that an up side? Most small businesses generally need to raise money or get credit for something sooner than they think, so being able to quickly show a prospective investor, bank or a finance company where your finances are at – quickly, efficiently and affordably, definitely reflects well.
Would you invest in someone who has their finger on the pulse, or one who says “I’ll get back to you”?
Upcoming Xero certification training dates
All run from 9am to 1pm, please contact your account manager if you’d like to attend:
The dedicated pet sitters and dog walkers UK franchise Paw Pals is getting its franchisees to keep their accounts up to date using Xero and they love it!
Paul Wright, a Paw Pals franchisee who has just started using Xero, had this to say after the first time he used it:
I’ve had a look at the Xero software, imported my Bank statement and done a reconciliation (albeit with two transactions!). It looks really impressive. Some of the reports that you can access are fantastic, the sort of thing that is invaluable to help run a profitable business. I need to spend a bit more time getting more familiar with it and seeing exactly what it can do for me. But my first impressions are excellent.
I also had a look on the accountancy support website [provided by Xero partners Dennis & Turnbull] and that looks equally as good. Even though I’ve been dealing with businesses for the last 15 years or so, running one is different and I’m sure that some of the answers to my questions will be here, or available here.
We’re really delighted with this feedback and we think Paw Pals Managing Director Victoria Reinthal summed it up nicely when she sent this comment to us and added her response of “Super Dooper!” – Victoria we can’t agree more!
Met up with some folks at Microsoft in Mountain View. As we were walking around I noticed a 
