Quotient – simple quoting for your business
So what is Quotient?
Quotient lets you present your quotes and proposals online so they look professional. Tracking, communications and workflow features are included in the quotes and customers can ask questions and accept quotes instantly online.
Who is it for?
Quotient is great for any business where quotes or proposals are an important part of the sales process and need their own workflow, or if you want to streamline the process by bringing it online. Also, if you create a high volume of quotes, managing these separately to your Xero invoices may make sense.
How Quotient works with Xero
An accepted quote can be instantly converted into a Xero invoice. Line items that have been accepted, including quantities and costs, form part of the invoice and there’s a link back to the Quotient quote in case details need to be cross-checked.
Where you can use Quotient
Quotient is available everywhere and has pricing in several currencies including: New Zealand, Australia, United States and the United Kingdom.
Check it out
For a free 30 day trial or to learn more about Quotient, check it out here.
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TriggerApp – how to be more productive
So what is TriggerApp?
TriggerApp is designed to boost productivity by letting you manage projects including teams, clients, timesheets, tasks and budgets, all in the cloud. It tracks task pipelines, records time spent, captures client interaction and raises detailed invoices.
Who is it for?
Anyone offering professional services such as lawyers, accountants, advertising agencies, management consultants, web designers etc. TriggerApp is especially useful if you run fixed price or hourly rate jobs and need team and client collaboration.
How TriggerApp works with Xero
TriggerApp timesheets can be automatically converted to Xero invoices, with task titles becoming invoice line items. It allows you to use tracking categories for even better reporting in Xero.
Where you can use TriggerApp
Developed by Australian based Netengine, TriggerApp is available globally (Xero customers around the world use it) with pricing in Australian dollars.
Check it out
For a free 30 day trial or to learn more about TriggerApp, go here.
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Where small businesses go wrong at tax time
April 17 marks a date that very few US small businesses look forward to — the 2012 tax deadline. Many of these businesses are scurrying to get their financials in order shuffling through paper, checking old emails for receipts, and thinking about how next year things will be different. Others are relying on their accountant to clean up their mess.
As the infographic above shows we recently ran a survey across more than 500 accountants in the US and asked them what are some of the pitfalls that small businesses get into around tax time.
The number one mistake that small businesses make is not having ongoing insight into their finances throughout the year. So here we are, days away from the tax deadline, and there are tons of small businesses spending hours upon hours getting their finances in order. But why?
Read more about Accountants, United States
SEO – What every small business should know
As most business people know, having a website is one of the most important tools for promoting your business in today’s connected world. But getting a website up and running is only half the battle… how do you make sure potential customers can actually find it among the millions of other websites cluttering up the net?
Of course, you can (and should) promote your web address within your promotional material such as TV, radio, newspaper ads, business cards, etc. Directly promoting your website online via ads on Google and Facebook can also be effective. However, arguably the best technique for promoting your business (when done well) is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Search Engines such as Google are the gateway to the web for most people – SEO is the art of getting your website to appear at the top of the list of search results. An analysis of 2006 data leaked by AOL indicated that search results listed on page 1 received almost 90% of all clicks, so obviously, a high position is very important. For instance, how often have you clicked through to Wikipedia from a search engine instead of visiting the website directly? According to this 2008 study by Nielsen Online, Wikipedia generates almost 90% of its traffic from search.
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Help us decide
The Xero Mobile team is just working on adding bank transactions to Xero Touch. We’re having a heated discussion internally on whether the default list of transactions should be ‘Unreconciled’ (currently on the left on the screen shot below) or ‘All transactions’.
We’d appreciate it if you could help decide by letting us know what option you’d prefer and why?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
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Fathom – reporting awesomeness
So what is Fathom?
Fathom is a management reporting and financial analysis tool that lets you see how your business is tracking using your Xero accounting data. It looks at profitability, cashflow, growth and tracks the KPIs that drive your business. You can also compare the performance of multiple Xero organisations such as franchisees, branches or subsidiaries.
Who is it for?
Fathom is useful for accountants who are seeking to deliver more frequent and engaging management reporting and KPI tracking to their clients. There is also a Fathom plan for businesses using Xero that want the same insights.
How Fathom works with Xero
Fathom extracts key real time financial data from Xero and allows you to view a variety of reports and analysis. It’s a simple one-click process to update data from Xero.
Where you can use Fathom
Fathom recently completed beta-testing in the Australian market and launched at the Xero Australia Roadshow in February. It can be used anywhere in the world – pricing is in Australian dollars for now.
Check it out
For a free 14 day trial or to learn more about Fathom, check it out here.
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Crowdfunding: bringing Wall Street to Main Street?
Are we about to start a new era of American capitalism? With the Jumpstart Our Business Startup (JOBS) Act just days away from being passed into law, start-ups will soon have new avenues to raise money. Currently, only accredited investors can buy equity in private companies. If the JOBS Act passes, private companies will be able to present securities offerings to the masses through the Internet. This is known as equity-based crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding itself isn’t new. Donation-based crowdfunding (such as kickstarter.com) and debt-based crowdfunding (such as LendingClub.com) are both legal forms of this. In the former, “investors” receive either a gift in return or no return at all. In the latter, investors are actually creditors, lending companies up to $50,000 a year.
Under the JOBS Act, equity-based crowdfunding will allow anyone to purchase equity in a company and receive a portion of its profits. It’s like selling shares on a public stock market without actually going public in the traditional sense.
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Connect2Field – software for the mobile workforce
So what is Connect2Field?
Connect2Field is a field service and job management application that lets staff manage customers, jobs, schedules, inventory and billing from a web browser or mobile device.
Who is it for?
Connect2Field is ideal for any organization that has a mobile workforce such as service technicians responding to jobs, then invoicing in the field; tradespeople travelling from customer to customer; or anyone who receives jobs remotely and also needs to provide HQ with timely information about their work.
How Connect2Field works with Xero
Connect2Field syncs contacts and items between Xero and Connect2Field and exports invoices raised in Connect2Field to Xero.
Where you can use Connect2Field
Connect2Field has global pricing. Online support is available around the clock. Customers are spread around the world – all you need is a web browser to get started.
Check it out
For a free 14 day trial and to learn more about Connect2Field go here.
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End of financial year checklist
If you live in New Zealand or the UK you’ll be well aware the 2012 financial year has just ended. The good news is that if you’ve been using Xero for the past year, you’re very close to being ready for your accountant to begin work on your end-of-year reports.
In response to some requests about year-end which were prompted by our Last day of the year blog we’ve put a check list together that you can follow to make sure you’re on track:
Read more about Business, New Zealand, United Kingdom
ABUKAI – expense reports in a snap
So what is ABUKAI?
ABUKAI takes the pain out of creating expense claims. Data is entered from the receipts and categorized automatically. This can happen on the move too using ABUKAI mobile apps (for iPhone, Android and Blackberry).
Who is it for?
Anyone who wants to cut down the time it takes to code receipts and create an expense claim – whether you’re a sole trader on the move or you are managing a team on the road.
Read more about Business
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- 21 ABUKAI - expense reports in a snap @Rob ABUKAI scans the information on the receipts like vendor, amount, city, state, country and categorizes the receipts automatically among many other things.
- 1 Report Packs update - custom Report Fields @Richard - thanks for the update good sir. We're looking forward to seeing the report packs in business before 30 June, 2012 (hopefully).
- 3 What needs to be taught in school to become a small business owner? Hi I agree with all of the above but the accountants language around debtors and creditors seems archaic. We have just got stuck ...
- 24 Budgets and checks @Michael - you're obviously passionate about this feature, would love to hear what things you'd like to see. We're currently working on supporting multiple budgets ...
- 4 Accountant needed in America I am in the U.S. (#2 in Xero clients there) and have an international team that can support Xero in seven languages.