The way ahead for New Zealand
Today the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key made a statement to Parliament which maps out the Government’s main priorities for the year ahead, including rebalancing the tax system. After listening to John Key’s speech I agree on a number of issues and feel this makes a lot of sense for this country. The following are the three most important elements for me:
- If we need some more tax to help our country to invest and grow, then raising the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is fair and is sensible, because it taxes those who spend and promotes saving and investment. Remember our GST system in NZ is very simple and far less complex than Australia and the United Kingdom, so raising (and lowering) GST rates is relatively simple. This is even more sensible if personal income tax rates are lowered at the same time.
- While John Key did not explicitly state how the tax of property will be affected, he did say more tax revenue will be gained from the NZ property investment market. I assume this means the Government will stop taxable depreciation of residential property investments. Generally residential property increases in value. Allowing taxable depreciation has been used by many investors as a way to off-set taxable losses against their salary income and use the resulting tax refunds or saving as a way to help finance the properties. As a country we need to decrease our love with investment in property and develop a more sophisticated understanding of different investment instruments, and anything that helps our capital markets will be great for the growth and export capability of current and prospective NZ public companies.
- Aligning the top tax rates just makes sense. For too long we have used complicated tax structures to minimise tax. If the top rates for companies, personal and trusts are the same then the benefit of using complex structures is removed, making compliance with tax for most SMEs in NZ much easier.
Some may and some may not agree, but that’s how I see it, although with an open mind to other’s arguments and thoughts. I eagerly await the Budget release on the 20th May to get into the details.
Hamish Edwards is the co-founder of Xero and Chartered Accountant.
Melbourne and Brisbane this week
I’ll be in Melbourne Thursday and Brisbane Friday this week meeting a number of our partners.
Never missing an opportunity we’re hosting a breakfast presentation and discussion in each city. We’d love to see a few of our blog readers and customers come along to hear the back story of Xero and answer any questions you might have.
Please click here for details and to register: Meet and talk with the CEO of Xero – Rod Drury
Aussie Payroll
This week we’re delighted to announce 4 new Australian payroll providers that link with Xero. We’ve heard loud and clear in Australia that you expect Accounting and Payroll to work seamlessly so we’ve been working with some key providers to make it easy to get the best of breed payroll and accounting solution.
ePayroll, WEBpayroll, and ADP are available now. Paycycle is in beta and due shortly.
When I was travelling with Rod in Australia last week an Accountant commented “… we hope you keep updating the software. We’re sick of just being milked for maintenance fees.” After the meeting we discussed what an odd comment that was for us.
What I quickly learnt at Xero is our team LOVES delivering well designed software that makes life easier. We’re working on what our customers ask for as fast as we can and the list doesn’t get any smaller. We’ve got so much to do the thought of stopping or slowing down doesn’t even register. We’re just getting started!
Radio Xero
It’s challenging for any advertiser to grab the attention of their target audience. Even more so for the business-to-business advertiser who also has to compete against – and cut through – a plethora of consumer advertising messages. Our busy lives mean we wear multiple hats – from cook to care giver, DIYer to business decision maker– the list goes on – these are “roles” that every advertiser is vying to appeal to. So choosing the right media that reaches your target audience is fundamental.
In the early days at Xero we dabbled in traditional mediums of print and press with no measurable success. Of late, we have been getting superb results online. But we wanted to overlay this with something that would also raise awareness of our accounting partner channel, particularly in New Zealand as we lead into the financial year end of 31 March. So this week we have launched a radio campaign – initially in the Auckland region.
We are running two ads – the first is based on a testimonial from one of our customers, photographer Eva Bradley (above). This is followed with a referral to our homepage to find a Xero Certified accountant – where we’ve created a tile that links through to our Partner Directory.
Here are the ads – tell us what you think. (They’ll play in the Auckland region on The Rock, Classic Hits, Newstalk ZB and The Breeze.)
30 sec ad
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15 sec follow-up ad
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All around Australia
Australia’s a big place, and with Xero being online it’s possible to serve customers and partners wherever they are. But it’s also nice to put a face to a name, which is what I’m doing this week in the Australian main centres.
Over breakfast I’m getting to talk to accountants who are thinking about taking their business online, but want to know more. I’m also enjoying talking to accountants who are starting to convert clients on to Xero and who are noticing what a difference it’s making. There really are some accounting software horror stories out there.
Many of the accountants I’m meeting have been searching a long time for a solution like Xero that gives them better control and visibility, plus the ability to make efficiencies when working with clients. A closer client relationship is the end game, but they realise this is not going to happen without a smart enablement platform.
For a lot of accountants it’s a relief to learn that Xero won’t become between them and their clients. They love that our partner programme is free too. Another talking point is Xero’s ability to integrate with other solutions such as time tracking or e-commerce. Accountants really love this flexibility.
It was a full house in Melbourne today. Sydney’s tomorrow (where I’ll also host an after 5 session) and Brisbane on Friday. Phew!
For more details about my presentation go to xero.com/breakfast where you can also register for some webinars I’ll be running next Monday and Tuesday for those who couldn’t make it.
Xero Personal gets closer
We’ve been amazed at the feedback we’ve received after announcing our plans to launch Xero Personal and delighted by the number of people who’ve asked to be kept informed.
Beta testing of Xero Personal is going well and the full launch is on track for some time in March 2010.
As you know we’ve partnered with Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) to help develop and launch this new service in the New Zealand market. BNZ will be opening up pre-registration for BNZ customers from mid February 2010 via their Internet Banking , with the service branded under the bank’s product name ‘MoneyMap’.
Keep an eye on our blog for further updates and feedback from Xero customers and followers. If you haven’t already, you can register your interest at www.xero.com/personal.
An era of personal consumptivity?
Like Rod, I was initially underwhelmed with the iPad’s launch. I’ve since had a couple of days to reflect and read some of the commentary and I’m cutting it a little more slack. I also suspect its tepid 8 marks out of 10 reception in some quarters had much to do with the unbelievable amount of hype that preceded its unveiling – nothing could ever live up to that.
But what’s most interesting about the arrival of the iPad is the notion that it marks the beginning of – or rather, more an inflection point on – a splintering move away from the thirty-year-old PC paradigm. Not so much in respect of physical form factor as tablet style computers are patently not new, but more in terms of purpose. Some have hailed the iPad’s arrival as the death-knell of the PC, but I’m not so sure.
It gets really interesting when you get on board with the notion that personal productivity – the PC’s raison d’être – now has a sibling which I have given the somewhat cheesy label; personal consumptivity.
What others are saying
The year is back in full swing and more and more people are finding out about the Xero experience which is fantastic. We get lots of questions, feedback and suggestions through our Customer Care team, on Twitter and comments here in our blog – a mix of every day queries we can answer using Xero’s Help Centre, plus some curly questions and requests. We’re monitoring all your feedback, discussing and prioritising it all the time. Thank you!
As we get more experienced in the market it’s become clear that the decision to choose accounting software is often based around what other people think and say about your product. So it makes sense to use social media (including blogs and Twitter) to help build your reputation and fan base online. We work hard on our online profile and that’s one of the reasons I took on the role of community manager last year.
We’ve learned that having a social media strategy takes real commitment. It’s an evolving journey. And social media can’t work without a real focus on customer satisfaction. They go hand-in-hand.
It’s also great to see what we’re doing is working. Here are some examples we’ve spotted of Xero love and commentary since the start of the year:
The iPad Morphing Machine
At first I was disappointed, but last night I got to watch the key note presentation and having reflected over night I think the iPad is more important than I first thought. But let me come to that soon.
Why was I disappointed:
- Lack of Flash support in the browser. Flash is everywhere on the web. We use Flash objects in our Xero charts and my little boy lives in Club Penguin. That lets down the ‘best browser experience’ claim.
- The camera didn’t make it, so obviously there is a version 2.0 coming soon. Also the big bezel looks very V1. Version 2 will be nothing but screen. So the iPad creates a dilemma. I want one, but there is a better one coming.
- For business it’s not a note taking device so it doesn’t replace the A4 notebook I carry around in my bag. With no stylus it can’t be a Microsoft One Note, but applications like Things will allow tasks to be entered. For the iPad to be used in business it has to work like a pad – where you can write on it, but not look like you’re checking your email. Apps might bridge this gap. I assume that ActiveSync still works but connecting to Exchange is conspicuously omitted on the iPad site.
RWW also advocates holding off to version 2: 5 Reasons to Wait for iPad 2.0
Clearly the iPad overlaps the iPhone and the MacBook. The question is, is there a space in between for an eBook reader and intimate lounge surfing device?
It’s all about you…
A few days ago we staged our inaugural partners’ conference. As it was our first we invited our top performing accounting partners from New Zealand and Australia to get their feedback on how we’re doing and see what sort of regular event we should do.
It was a lot of fun putting partners in the picture about the Xero roadmap and being able to answer those 110 questions. Partners really seemed to get a lot out of our session on the impact traditional media and social media have on small business advertisers. A real highlight was having Justin Hygate from the Ministry of Economic Development talk about the future of the Companies Office and business.govt.nz.
As we build our business it is a great thrill to see the varied and wonderful ways our accounting partners embrace Xero. So to acknowledge this and celebrate their success we’ve introduced a series of awards. Here’s the line-up of winners for 2009 which we presented at a gala dinner:
