Getting those bills under control

Published in Personal on 16 September 2010 by Sara Goepel

Today we’ve released some great new functionality in Xero Personal around planning for some of the bigger expenses you’ll face over a three month period.

Plans & Reminders lets you anticipate upcoming payments whether they be expenses or income. Not only does it give you better visibility of when money is going to be coming in and out of your accounts, but you can see in advance if you will have enough money to meet substantial regular or one-off payments. You can also opt to be sent a reminder email before the payment date.

So there’ll be no excuses for missing a bill payment or running out of funds just before the due date! Watch this video overview to see just how it works.

18 comments

Anton Gerner
16 September 2010 #

That’s all very well indeed, but why can’t I spend cash and record this in Xero Personal?

Andrew Haynes
16 September 2010 #

Any plans for bank feeds for Xero personal in Australia?

Randall
16 September 2010 #

As per Anton’s comment, I too can’t believe that users are still unable to manually record cash expenditure. It’s the most requested feature and we’ve only been offered roundabout solutions: http://answers.xero.com/Personal/Question/761

Sara Goepel
16 September 2010 #

@Anton, if you take cash out of a bank account that’s part of your Xero Personal setup, you can categorize, then use splits and labels to record what you spent the money on. We’re looking at making it possible to enter in such payments as we continue to develop Xero Personal.

@Andrew, as yet we don’t have plans for Australian bank feeds but we’re in continuing discussions with Australian banks, so we’ll let you know when we have some news.

Anton Gerner
16 September 2010 #

@Sara I know that, but I want to be able to track spending of cash from my pocket. Also some credit cards that I use (such as Wizard) can’t export feeds and therefore I can’t import them. I should be able to manually enter these. Is there a way?

Sorry to take over this exciting launch of ‘Plans & Reminders’ !! You are doing a great job!

David O'Toole
16 September 2010 #

Is it possible to enter data ahead of time like I can in my Xero business area and then reconcile? All my friends in the US rave about mint.com as it is live with feeds in every way are you planning that style?

Sara Goepel
16 September 2010 #

@Anton, thank you and no there isn’t a way to enter in a manual payment at this stage. It’s good to know the demand for the feature is there and we’ll be looking at it.

Glen Parker
16 September 2010 #

Hi, I have to add my interest for manual transactions too – I only recently purchased a 12 mnth license & didn’t realise this wasn’t available already (my bad, to be fair). But I wouldn’t have paid my money had I understood this current limitation… and wonder how many other sales Xero have lost as a result too. Can only encourage it’s prioritisation in the list of developments Otherwise the software does seem pretty cool… the regular updates are encouraging.

Glen Parker
16 September 2010 #

Oh, and +1 for Australian banks (in Sydney here)… although it seems to be working OK for my records out of Westpac & ANZ accounts (based on what I know of the system so far) with the exception of “current balance” (currently set to 0.00 or an incorrect value after each import… but that’s probably a newbie issue on my part & not meant for this thread )

Kelly
16 September 2010 #

This is fabulous – I love it. Thanks for listening and working out solutions. I love Xero.

Sara Goepel
16 September 2010 #

@David, We are currently working on getting Yodlee’s bank data gathering service integrated with Xero business to provide more automated feeds in that application. Once this is done we’ll certainly be looking at if we replicate this integration into the Xero Personal product. To some extent this will depend on the progress we make with getting direct feeds to Personal from partner banks.

Right now there isn’t the ability to add data ahead of time and then reconcile. Be sure to give us your thoughts about how you would use this type of feature in Xero Answers.

Catherine
16 September 2010 #

Thanks for the lovely comment Kelly – I read it out loud in the office & everyone simultaneously said “awwwwwww” – really pepped us up on this wet & windy day

Ian
16 September 2010 #

Hi.
This is great news. Thank you.

Can I ask that you extend this a little further? When I set up a future dated payment in BNZ, can that be imported as a plan/reminder?

Andrew
17 September 2010 #

Can you give any indication of when or if you might be able to link directly to UK bank accounts like Nat West or Santander for the Xero Personal product? Otherwise, I can live with manual importing. I think this is a great product and the interface is brilliant. BTW, a native offline app for iPad would be a good innovation.

Sara Goepel
17 September 2010 #

@Ian, that’s a really interesting idea and we’ll pass your feedback on.
@Andrew, we don’t have a specific date for UK bank feeds, but as mentioned above we’ll be looking at if we replicate Yodlee integration for bank feeds into Xero Personal after the work is completed on Xero business.

Nickie
18 September 2010 #

This is what I’ve been waiting for from Xero Personal. Finally I can get rid of my spreadsheet. Love that you can select which accounts to include in the planned spending. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Smallfurrything
18 September 2010 #

This is a very useful feature! Being able to see your expenditure in advance. Well done Xero, with each update this product get better and better!

Stephen Gibson
12 November 2011 #

Quite often transfer cash btw accounts. I can do this in Business, but not in personal. Currently I have to spend from one account and receive income from the other. Also, why can’t Plans and Reminders be ticked off and updated in the bank account when the spend or income occurs?

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