For me, it was a surreal moment, standing on stage with a handful of Xero staff, in front of 700 people, listening to Rod’s acceptance speech (as well as my heart pounding loudly). Xero had been announced winner of the NZ Hi-Tech Company of the Year, the top accolade within the industry. Earlier we had received the Exporter of the year over $5 million Award. It was particularly nice that our friends at PWC and HSBC sponsored our awards, and that so many people within the industry were there to congratulate us and share in our celebration.

Steve Wozniak from Apple was on the judging panel. They noted …

“The hallmarks of a great company are focused leadership, rational planning, and superb results in the market, Xero exhibits all of these” and “Xero is executing the Web 2.0 playbook perfectly, blending brand building, product development, capital raising and value creation, and global expansion. Xero is the new benchmark for product-based tech companies in NZ.”

The Hi-Tech awards are run annually to showcase NZ talent, celebrate outstanding achievement and encourage investment within the tech industry. This year there were a record number of first time entrants, highlighting the fact that this sector is growing at twice the rate of the NZ economy as a whole.

There were 11 company awards up for grabs, amidst stiff competition of 33 finalists, plus the individual Award for Hi-Tech Young Achiever – this year going to 2nd time winner, Robert Bell, COO, KlickEx.

There were a couple of moments that stood out for me. When the finalists for Exporter of the year award (under $5 million) were read out, I remembered accepting this award last year on Xero’s behalf. Then on hearing the announcement that our friends, Online Point of Sale Vend had won this year, it was just as exciting and and even more so when they later picked up another award.

For me, it was also a poignant moment seeing the team from Pre-Commercialisation Company of the Year  Trigger Happy on stage, with their CEO, Shona Grundy accepting their award and describing the past year as the best of times and the worst of times.

I was honored to be an invited guest at the table of sponsor Victoria State Government, Australia where Xero has a big presence. There were many inspiring people to meet, like Franceska Banga from NZ Venture Investment Fund, whose speech challenged everyday New Zealanders to invest and contribute to the growth of our tech sector.

Thanks to the New Zealand Hi-Tech Trust and all this years sponsors. The awards event not only showcased top tech companies, but also brought together a group of 700 extraordinary people and reminded us of the importance and contribution that innovation and technology makes to our economy.

We’re thrilled to receive these awards, especially the coveted Hi-Tech Company of the Year. Congratulations to all finalists and winners.

The post Hi-Tech Company of the Year appeared first on Xero Blog.

Not only was it my first experience of taking part in a live broadcast using Hangout, it was also the first outing with the technology for the team at AccountingWeb but aside from a couple of blips, it was actually good fun if a little unnerving and attracted an audience of almost 400 live viewers.

But something that I’d certainly consider doing again, so we’re looking into how we might put it to use for training or other informational services at Xero.

It runs to 45 minutes, so if you’re so inclined over your lunch, perhaps, or have just always hankered for the opportunity to listen to a Scotsman droning on about the cloud, go ahead and fill your boots!

The post It’s cool to hang out with accountants appeared first on Xero Blog.

Launched today, PracticePlus’ latest innovation in accountant websites – PracticePlus Lite – offers a superfast way for Xero partners to get online with a modern, mobile-friendly website that includes a suite of digital marketing tools built-in from the get-go.

Founder Matt McFedries says most accountants they talk to have outdated websites sending the wrong message to their cloud-savvy clients, and they’re not necessarily taking advantage of the ability to integrate the practice software.

Accountants face challenges just in committing to building a new site. They don’t know what they need or who to talk to about new tech opportunities. They don’t necessarily have $10,000+ to build a new website. But most importantly, they don’t have time.

PracticePlus’ innovation is PracticePlus Lite. As in lite in time, lite in cost, not lite in features. They promise to get you up and running with a new website in just three weeks. (One client’s job was recently completed in a weekend – at just $750!).

Lite comes loaded with a whole suite of apps that matter to accountants:

• Contacts & lead synchronisation with Xero’s Practice Management
• Integrated apps for lead tracking, online quoting and on-boarding including Practice Ignition, CapsuleCRM, SocketApp, QuoteRoller and more…
• Built-in ‘Web Apps’ that make updating your website as easy as filling out a form

Matt says outdated, disconnected software often means client information ends up being stored in multiple places. It makes the delivery of simple e-marketing campaign excruciatingly time-consuming. PracticePlus Lite brings website, apps, and digital marketing technology together in one seamless integrated solution – buildable in “superfast time”, or maybe even next weekend!

This kind of innovation is all about upping the game for accountants by providing expertise they don’t traditionally have. It offers a tremendous amount of value by harnessing the wider ecosystem, and it’s something that we can get really excited about.

Read more on the PracticePlus blog, including a case study of Sydney-based practice Your Accounts Department.

The post Your website sorted, over a weekend appeared first on Xero Blog.

There will be lots of industry banter about what this means. Here are our thoughts.

Why did MYOB buy?

This acquisition makes sense for MYOB. Under their second Private Equity owner, US based Bain capital, they continue to load the business up with debt, which is now over 700m. Bain is now looking to exit out of MYOB and is signaling an IPO.

Bain probably did not foresee how the cloud is so quickly changing the economics of accounting software. Both MYOB and Reckon ‘double dip’ by charging accountants for accountant side software to process the same set of books originated in the small business software the owner has already paid for. In the cloud this goes away with Xero not charging for accountant tools.

MYOB do not report their detailed numbers. Actually neither has Reckon but with our increased market share it’s very likely that their NZ based accountant revenues are under pressure. With so much debt, if revenues are soft then MYOB would be under enormous pressure from its bankers. When we started Xero MYOB claimed 70,000 NZ customers of small business accounting. Xero now has over 70,000 customers in New Zealand on monthly billing so unless the market has doubled Xero is likely number 1 in our home market.

MYOB is also under pressure as its cloud sync model, which moves data between the installed desktop software and the cloud, has now been shipped and seems to be having issues. All these factors are probably accelerating the Bain’s desire to exit.

So if an IPO exit is planned then the MYOB acquisition of BankLink, which presumably carries little debt, makes sense to top up any revenue gaps.

Why did BankLink sell?

So why did BankLink sell after rejecting MYOB for so long? With the cloud accounting industry just taking off why would anyone in the space sell now?

BankLink is an admired New Zealand company. And over the last two decades has been a stable supplier that has earned the trust of the accounting software industry. As Xero entered the market and rapidly innovated, especially linking banks directly to accounting software, BankLink didn’t respond. I don’t know why they didn’t move.

So over the last few years Xero has been catching up on the direct bank connections, partnered with Yodlee to provide access to banks without feeds and integrated feeds into a full accounting system. We have been migrating thousands of Banklink customers to Xero. BankFeeds have simply become a feature.

Accountants have woken up to the change. If they run customers on BankLink, those customers are likely using other software for invoicing, payables and accounting and that customer is at risk of adopting their own software. With cloud accounting smart accountants are providing accounting software to their clients which provides a degree of lock in and the clients are happier.

Xero has also announced it’s working with a number of Banks (like the ASB) on the next generation of banking connectivity.

So the writing was on the wall for BankLink, and it makes sense for the founders to exit the business after 25 years.

What does this mean for Xero?

While we have been moving thousands of Banklink customers, there has been residual loyalty to the Banklink brand as they have provided excellent service for many years. That loyalty does not extend to MYOB so it probably accelerates the transition to Xero.

Paul Pettit, a partner of Wellington based accounting firm Curtis McLean, says MYOB needs to be focusing on its own software. “It’s great to see MYOB taking steps with bank feeds but usability is their real issue. The bank feeds are only the start of the accounting system. The benefit of Xero is that it is just nice to use and has an entire ecosystem of apps around it. With updating an old system it’s a lot harder.”

Active Chartered Accountants director Ben Shaw agrees and says “MYOB has taken too long to embrace the technology behind bank feeds and to recognise the need for making them more client-focused rather than accountant-focused.”

Who are the remaining big players?

• Last year CCH (owned by European listed company Wolters Kluwer) acquired Christchurch based Acclipse
• US Owned MYOB now owns BankLink
• Reckon (ASX) and Xero (NZX/ASX) remain the last locally owned players

Accountants now have to think long and hard about who they invest in as their long term partner. We believe Xero, a listed company with no debt, 100%+ growth, largest ecosystem, $75m in the bank and a history of innovation and operational excellence has become the low risk partner. Considering we only got going 6 years ago it’s been an amazing change.

Who said accounting was dull and boring!

As always welcome your thoughts below.

The post Industry consolidation appeared first on Xero Blog.

By changing to WorkflowMax Practice Manager, they’re freeing up more of their time because the data flows from Workflow Max into Xero and vice versa  without any need for manual entry. And that’s how they’re making a difference: they’re using that extra time to offer extra services that make local businesses better.

“I’ve lived in Orange since 1998, and being a regional town, you know a lot of the people you work with and bump into them at the pub” said PMW Partner Andrew Miller. “We have a responsibility to our clients. We want to provide them with the best financial solutions that give them more time to spend with their family, instead of working”.

To that end, PMW is now offering services like quarterly business performance reports and quarterly management meetings where they talk clients through various business decisions. They’re far more active in client businesses than they were in the past, and by being more active they’re making those businesses more effective.

Sick of servers

When Ray and fellow PMW partner Andrew Miller first saw a demo of Workflow Max, they were using MYOB. Server installs, maintenance and workarounds were part of their daily life – but, says Ray, “I got sick of messing around with server installs and workarounds instead of solutions.” When he saw that Workflow Max, like Xero, was accessible anytime, from anywhere, he thought “That’s exactly what we’ve been looking for.”

PMW had been working actively to get many of their clients on Xero, which provides a simple accounting software solution  for people who prefer to work on their business rather than bookwork. PMW then looked at Workflow Max Practice Manager, a Xero add on, which pushes sales and purchase information, tracking and contacts into Xero– and it’s free for Xero Partners with more 25 or more clients on Xero.  When they saw how easily it managed jobs in and out of the office, they were sold.

Implementation experts help make it happen

Then it came down to implementation: migrating all their clients from their former practice management software and getting them into Workflow Max Practice Manager. To make this task easier, they hired implementation specialists Hansen’s to help with the transition. Hansen’s ran training presentations sessions for all staff, showing them how the implementation would work and how easy the program was to use.

Moving 5,000 clients from one software solution to another was a big job, but Miller saw it as an opportunity for housekeeping. As an interim step between their former practice management software and Practice Manager, they exported their client list to an Excel spreadsheet, then allocated a staff member to go through it and ensure it’s integrity. It was a huge job, that took many hours over several weeks, but Miller says it was absolutely worth doing to guarantee a clean database.

Miller reckons he’s saved $50,000 on servers already – and he hasn’t even begun to quantify the time savings that will come from having his entire practice run on fully-integrated cloud software. Then there’s the less-tangible personal benefit to his own happiness: “It was a great day,” he says, “when I learned our practice no longer needs to run on spreadsheets.”

We’ll check back in on PMW over the next few months to see how it’s going, so watch this space.

The post Small town, big impact appeared first on Xero Blog.

The XPAC’s remit is to represent and advocate the collective views and insights of our accounting and bookkeeper communities in a structured way. We get truckloads of free-range insight across a number of channels like social media, 1:1 relationships and so on, but we think it helps to complement that with a regular sync and two way exchange with a fixed group of expert advocates.

We held our first physical meeting at our UK office a couple of weeks back and it was a great half-day exchange of ideas, discussion about future direction and feedback on positioning and priorities.

We have a pretty good fix on where we ought to be heading but it’s a big help to be able to check our logic and thinking as we go.

So, thanks to Denis Breen (our token Irishman!), Jenny McCartney, Paul Bulpitt, Laurence Moore, Simon Clark and Nathan Keeley for contributing their valuable time.

PS. You can pre-register for Xerocon London 2013 here.

The post XPAC – UK update appeared first on Xero Blog.

The subject of the case study, Cloud Accountants, already had a great website that showed off their services and tech-savviness. They were winner of the first Xero Website of the Year Award in 2010. It had a friendly look and showed transparent value-based pricing options demonstrating their forward-thinking approach to being business advisors.

So what inspired the shift in how their website looks and feels? How has the industry changed since 2010? Mogul’s Matthew Miller notes:

• Cloud delivery of services is now a widespread software model.
• Xero has evolved into a disruptive force in the accounting world (weren’t we already!).
• A whole ecosystem of useful cloud-based add-ons has developed around Xero.
• The WordPress content management system has become a mature platform – a global standard in open-source web content publishing.
• Mobile web-enabled devices have become ubiquitous and comprise a significant part of most websites’ traffic.
• Social media has become a mainstream marketing tool.

Where there’s change, there’s opportunity for the agile. With their Partner Packages, Mogul make it easy to address these changes in one fell swoop – dealing to lead generation, referrals, conversions, regular content publishing and more.

As Miller explains, making it easy technologically is aligned with making it easy for practices to be well branded and efficient business advisors. Will McTavish from Link Solutions was also key to the story, in helping Cloud Accountants get the technology working smoothly together.

As well as a website that looks great and is syncing in seamlessly with Xero’s Practice Management and with Practice Ignition, it’s also great to see features like auto resizing for mobiles and tablets and Xero information that is kept automatically up-to-date for them. Cloud Accountant’s Justin Keen is understandably stoked, citing the way the site positions their brand and the speed of implementation.

It’s cool to see innovation in the marketing of accounting services and in how companies in and around the Xero ecosystem are working together and packaging services to support the move to value-driven service offerings.

The post Website refresh goes way beyond rebranding appeared first on Xero Blog.

The creative agency Crush + Lovely behind that project has an incredible portfolio of equally beautiful videos, apps, websites and other creative endeavors.

I was thrilled to discover Crush + Lovely has been a Xero customer for years. We wanted to talk with them about their experience using Xero to run a creative agency, to learn about their workflow, how their team collaborate on finances, and how they manage growth. We want to make sure Xero performs well for agency sized businesses like Crush + Lovely with around 20 staff based in various cities across the United States.

It occurred to us, it would be wonderful to capture their story on video. And who better to produce the video than Crush + Lovely themselves?! As you’d expect, they nailed it. It was thrilling to hear the impact Xero is having on their business and their lives.

When we spoke with Crush + Lovely’s CEO and Cofounder, Matt Blanchard, he also had these wonderful things to say about Xero:

• Xero has helped us better manage Crush + Lovely’s overall financial health
• It’s easy for me to quickly log into Xero at any time during the day to see our finances at a glance
• Xero’s mobile app gives me the flexibility to take care of accounting needs while traveling or on the go
• Using Xero helps me easily and strategically plan for future business development goals

That’s just a tiny sample of the feedback! It’s been fantastic hearing how creatives use Xero.

The post Successful and lovely creative business appeared first on Xero Blog.

Guest post by Seth David, a technology consultant specializing in trends and solutions for bookkeepers.

Thanks to today’s technology, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers are more valuable than ever before. Our roles are changing; we’re business coaches, financial planners and virtual CFOs. Yet to fulfill these responsibilities, you have to be able to leverage technology to benefit both you and your clients.

To some, this might seem obvious. But the truth is that adopting smart technology can be a challenge. For starters, I admit that I have a technology addiction! Whenever new software or applications pop-up, my mind races with possibility. More often than not, I’m quick to implement new solutions. My clients however, require more convincing.

When bringing new technology into my practice, I have just one rule: it has to make it easier for clients to do business with me.

The key is to always keep the client front of mind. Here is a checklist to help you:

1. Take the time to understand your clients’ business hurdles and comfort level with technology.
2. Make a list of the issue(s) you’re solving. Use this as your guide when selecting a product.
3. Present clients with solutions that complement their current processes or are easy to adopt.
4. Check-in and review how technology is benefiting your clients. 

As an example, even though my practice uses Google applications, not all my clients are comfortable using Google Documents or even recognize Google beyond a search and email capacity. These clients need a solution that fits them. So I tailor my service and dig into my toolbox suggesting DropBox or Smartvault instead. The result is a better customer experience for my clients and a more streamlined workflow for me.

Importantly, it’s about providing options for your clients. Being technologically agile definitely has its perks – it gives you a competitive edge. Clients recognize and value your skills beyond just bookkeeping and see you as their trusted advisor and smart business partner – which is exactly what you want to be.

Since starting Nerd Enterprises, Inc. in 2003, Seth has recorded hundreds of online videos covering productivity tools, cash flow management and software affecting the accounting industry.

The post Using technology as a competitive edge appeared first on Xero Blog.

Brand has been a strange thing to talk about in the past within the realms of the accounting profession. Only 36 years ago it was considered unethical for accountants to advertise to clients on the basis that it encouraged the business side to overstep the professional side.

Given this history, it was a big ask a couple of decades ago for the profession to change tack and become business advisors and coaches for clients – not to mention advertising these services. Onlookers at the time would have thought Noah had a better shot of slamming the handbrakes on the ark and laying some tail.

Early adopters of the advisory approach were drawn in by the promise of greater profits and a higher calling to be more than just the conduit between clients and the taxman. They proved it was ok to make more money for clients as well as their firm and made leaping over to the business side feel a little less unethical. At the same time the ‘dark arts’ of advertising started to be adopted within the profession and consideration for the firm’s brand bounced around the tables of a few partner meetings.

And why not? As it became more accepted to provide business advisory services to clients it also made sense to align the brand of the firm with these services in order to attract clients who wanted those services. It’s obvious right? An entrepreneurial small business owner looking to build their business can be expected to positively consider a firm called something like Growthwise.

As much as I use re-branding as a crude measure for the accounting industry adopting a business advisory approach, prospective (and even existing) clients of these firms are doing the same thing. Small business owners are now being approached by firms with the offer of services to grow their business, improve their cashflow, increase profitability and much more.

So the profession needs to make it easy to win the business it wants by getting the basics right. At least getting your website aligned with the new approach communicates you’re ready to offer these services. It’s not going to generate thousands of calls from clients wanting to sign up for advisory services but it will give you somewhere to point the ones who do.

Momentum is swinging in favour of the shift by the profession from compliance to advisory services. Letting clients know these services are on offer is now a key objective of these leading firms. I’ll be following up with another two blog posts to showcase firms that have adopted this new approach and the web companies they worked with to align their websites.

The post Rebranding the accounting profession appeared first on Xero Blog.

Recently we held a global training summit with our regional training managers travelling from UK, US, and Australia to join the NZ training team. There were 11 of us in total gathered together to learn and share ideas from our collective relevant experience of 145 years. Our common goal was to make the learning experience for both partners and customers as valuable and interactive as possible.

Across the week we covered a wide range of content and shared common experiences. One comment from our training managers that really stood out was that many people imagine that Xero will work much like their old desktop system. This was echoed around the world.

So why is this? There are different brands of accounting software in each market and we all get used to doing things a certain way and make assumptions that are not about accounting, but rather are based on how the software works.

Desktop accounting software has not changed dramatically over the past 20 years. Sure it was great at a point in time, but it hasn’t progressed at the same rate as the technology around it. Many accountants, bookkeepers and business owners have used a particular desktop package for a long time and have become well accustomed to it’s quirks and limitations – even justifying their “old technology” because it is familiar.

We recognized during the global training summit that our training courses involve as much “un-teaching” as they do teaching. Sure it’s a new system and it’s really intuitive and easy to learn but it’s often the un-learning that is challenging. For example, some course attendees are puzzled by Xero credit notes. There are two ways to create a credit note – one from scratch, which we’re all used to, and another where the system replicates invoice data for you and you simply enter the date! Too easy, saves you time … but it’s different.

For some the move to the cloud is scary and for others it’s simply unfamiliar and they welcome the change. As with anything new, there’s a period of readjustment, re-aligning of thinking, some sort of learning curve involved. It’s comforting to know that across the world, the same thoughts arise; How easy is it? How long will it take to learn a new system? If you’ve been procrastinating about switching to the cloud, give it a try – I’m sure there are many people across the globe who can comment further on their experiences of making the change.

If you are using cloud technology, I’d encourage you to check out our training courses – we’re always learning and you may even be challenged to un-learn some things and find there is an easier or quicker way.

The Xero training team have developed a series of starting out videos called Business Essentials, and our training partners offer many more detailed courses.

If you’re a Xero partner, there are standard partner courses available and our training partners also offer advanced one-on-one education.

The post Un-learning to move forward appeared first on Xero Blog.

It’s a 3 day event where kids are split into teams (not necessarily of people they know) and they have to come up with an idea and formulate a business plan around the idea. Obviously the time constraint means that nothing is done too in-depth (there’s not much validation of numbers that would take even the best business minds some time to come up with). But they are given a view into a world they may not be aware of or envision being able to get into. I have no doubt that some of those kids will become the future leaders in business and with the ever decreasing barrier to entry as a start up I wouldn’t be surprised if I see some of them reach for their vision sooner rather than later.

At  Wellington East Girls College the ideas themselves were really interesting. We had a quandary at the judges’ table trying to work out how we should judge the great ideas that we didn’t think could be actually produced but where they had shown some real leadership and talent in their investigation into how to get their product to market. There were some great ideas, from hair dye that should wash out after just one wash and packaged like a shampoo, to my favourite concept (and one that unfortunately I’ve since learned probably will never get made) was the simple idea of a plug socket backed by an extension cord allowing you to move the plug anywhere you want.

In the end the winning idea went to a team with a product called the suitecase, a product that could best be described as a modular suitcase with inbuilt features such as a scale to easily indicate when you’d overpacked that bag! All the teams were great presenters (better than some startup pitches I’ve seen). They all had great depth to their understanding of risks and all the aspects of getting a basic business plan together. I think they’ll all go on to do great things. Well done to all those at the College that took part.

As an aside we had Young Enterprise in the UK when I was at school and I vividly remember being on the team that won the local competition. One of the first events that fuelled my love of entrepreneurship and business, so I think it’s an amazingly worthwhile scheme.

The post The next generation of business appeared first on Xero Blog.

We now have over 1,600 active applications communicating with Xero from our Add-on partners right through to custom integrations built by amateur coders. The downside of a self service, open API, is that we do not often get to see what developers have built, unless they wish to become an official Xero Add-on or Developer partner.

What to chart?
Getting insights into the languages developers are using is actually quite tricky. We don’t ask developers this question when they setup their API app as it is not relevant to us – you can connect pretty much anything to the Xero API.

In the web world, one might be able to derive something useful from the user agent string in our server logs, but many wrapper libraries allow developers to set a custom user agent string (we encourage this, as it allows us to identify API apps when we need to help diagnose issues).

We don’t have access to the source code like GitHub or tag forum questions like StackOverflow, so we can’t come up with some as cool as the Programming Language Popularity Chart, but we do have a list of code samples & libraries in the Xero Developer Centre, so I took a look what people are accessing there.

This time last year
Looking at what sample code pages developers were accessing in early 2012, it is neck on neck with the usual suspects of C# and PHP, each with 35% of the page views.

What developers are using today
Looking at data for 2013, we are seeing a little bit of change.

Node.js is a new entrant to the list and we will need a little more data before we get a good sense of whether there has been much mainstream adoption. It does highlight the point that this data is only representative of the code samples we have available.

Learnings
We sometimes get treated with suspicion by those that do not use the Microsoft stack, thinking that our API or support of developers is biased towards users of the .NET framework since it is what we use internally. Far from it – putting an ex PHP developer like me in charge of the developer partner program is proof Xero welcomes everyone to the API fountain.

Code samples & great documentation are the two things we hear time and again from developers when we ask them what they need when integrating. We have some more work to do on the code sample front, and we hope we can energise some of the ecosystem to contribute. We are already seeing some of that happen. Scala anyone?

The data is based on page views of the Xero Developer center, for the period of March-April in 2012 & 2013.

The post Tools of the API trade appeared first on Xero Blog.

Our growing presence in Blighty prompted UK software industry veteran Jyoti Banerjee to stop by our headquarters last week to record an interview with our UK managing director, Gary Turner for use in a class that Jyoti lectures at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford on software entrepreneurship.

Here’s a clip from the interview where Gary discusses the challenges Xero first encountered getting setup in the UK.

The post Growing a software start-up in the UK appeared first on Xero Blog.

The cloud has delivered up some amazing document management platforms. Think of Box, Dropbox and Google Drive (just to name a few) and you think inexpensive, accessible, easy to use and fully functional document management solutions.

Gone are the days where as a small business owner you need to fork out thousands of dollars in server infrastructure to store your data. Driving the cost of storage down through economies of scale, firms like Box have built out a platform that isn’t just about data storage. With a richness of interface and a wide ecosystem of integrated solutions, as an SME you get a robust, low cost, feature complete storage solution with the ability to access and share your documents with clients, suppliers and staff anywhere in the globe.

So what has all this got to do with WorkflowMax? Well there are a lot of documents that WorkflowMax users store against jobs and clients. Contracts, emails, low res PDF’s of artwork, excel spreadsheets, photographs – you name it, it is in there. However there are limitations to our current document repository, with no sharing or versioning.

So rather than reinvent the wheel, we thought a much cleverer idea would be to leverage the massive investments that the storage vendors are making with their own document management platforms. As a WorkflowMax user you now have the choice to integrate with Box, Dropbox and Google Drive.

The way it works is the documents tab against the client or the job in WorkflowMax acts like a window into the document management platform of your selection. So for example if you want to take photos from your iPhone using the Box mobile app, these can be stored directly against the Client and or the job in WorkflowMax. When you look in Box they are there and when you look at them in WFM they are also there. Magic! Uploading a file directly against a client in WFM will push that same file into Box so you can see it there and even share it with your client.

If you want to leverage the power that the document platforms offer such as document collaboration, sharing and really cool mobile access then you will love this integration. Keep a lookout for our upcoming integration with SharePoint platforms like Suitefiles.

To learn more about setting up the integration and navigating this feature, you can check out the WorkflowMax Support Centre for detailed guidance.

The post Document management in WorkflowMax appeared first on Xero Blog.

SurePayroll is a lot like Xero – they want to help US small businesses better focus on the important things by turning the time-consuming task of payroll into something that’s as easy as 1-2-3.

The SurePayroll product has everything you need to manage your small business payroll: in addition to a fully featured payroll application that can be accessed from any computer (and mobile apps too), SurePayroll also handles tax filing and payment, paycheck payment via direct deposit or paper checks, and an online portal for both employers and employees.

Who is it for?
SurePayroll is all about small business from entrepreneurs starting out with no employees right through to franchises. SurePayroll is also great for accountants managing small business payroll with an accountant dashboard and partner programs available.

How SurePayroll works with Xero
Once you have completed the once-off setup and configuration, you can export your payroll data to Xero within the ‘Accounting Integration’ section of SurePayroll. This exports a bill with all your payroll journals, so it can be easily reconciled in Xero. A detailed how-to guide is available within the ‘Accounting Integration’ section of SurePayroll.

Where you can use SurePayroll
SurePayroll can be used to process payroll anywhere in the United States.

Check it out
The SurePayroll team will be happy to provide a free personalized quote to Xero users.

The post Easy. Online. SurePayroll. appeared first on Xero Blog.

We have over 150 accounting partners (many of whom are shown in the map above) who are ready to help out business owners outside our four main regions. It’s important to have Xero Partners in-country so that local businesses have trusted advisors to turn to with their accounting and tax affairs, advisors that use Xero as their core accounting platform.

Some regions are showing notably strong organic growth; namely Canada, Singapore and South Africa, where we recently welcomed our first Global Gold Partner – Colin Timmis from Real Time Accounting. We also have Partners in other beautiful locations like Seychelles, Curacao and the Maldives – all places that in the name of equal and fair partner treatment may require Xero staff visits in the near future…

But I digress. Xero Global is being ramped up and kicks off this financial year in a great position with heaps of new partners on board and our core operations such as training and marketing in place and ready for action.

The flexibility to choose your own currency and create your own tax rates lies at the heart of our ability to grow outside of our main regions. This is in tandem with making sure most of our features are regionally agnostic. We continue to extend our reach to wider audiences, over greater distances and no one gets left behind.

We have Add-On Partners who also serve global customers, for those unique organisations that need a little bit of salt in their software setup. Whether it be CRM integration, advanced inventory or project management, we can help out by working alongside the applications they love to use. We’re constantly looking to make the business environment in our global regions more and more comfortable for partners and users alike. For instance, our recent integration with Checkeeper has enabled our global users access to cheque/check-printing functionality.

We’re also really interested in working with local payroll providers and want to fill this key gap; Singapore cloud payroll solutions, this one’s going out to you. There’s a real opportunity for local software providers to integrate with us to support our Xero users in areas like payroll and to piggyback each other’s regional growth.

Direct bank feeds, a feature we’ve all come to love and expect are not common practice in many countries. Through our Yodlee integration, we’ve been able to connect with over 300 global financial institutions, with plenty more in beta, to deliver bank statements directly to your Xero account and automate the way you handle your data. Where there is demand, we’ll look to make the connection. We’re always looking to support the main banks in a country growing in popularity so it’s worth getting in touch so we can add your bank to the list.

We’re seeing a lot of interest from outsourced accounting offices in regions like Malaysia, the Philippines, Pakistan and India. They are also engaging with our current partner channel and offering low-cost, outsourced solutions to them. This is a great example of how remote collaboration is simplified by leveraging the benefits that cloud solutions bring.

We now face the task of growing out our globally-targeted team and placing them strategically in our offices around the world so that we can cover the full range of time zones. I still find it amazing that we can reach the world with a few early mornings/late nights on Skype, all from New Zealand.

On this note, I’m happy to announce that we’ve recently welcomed our new Global Direct Account Manager Stephen Burgess, who resides in our UK office. He’ll be like our Xero missionary, spreading the good news to the masses.

Here’s to an exciting year ahead! (For a full list of our global accounting partners, check out the advisor listing on our website.)

The post Here’s to Xero partners around the world appeared first on Xero Blog.

Workpapers makes core compliance services much more efficient by allowing accountants to seamlessly connect Xero data with online workpapers, for faster preparation and review than traditional products. Improved client query functionality provides clients with the ability to upload any additional information straight into the software. Check out the video for a full overview:

Workpapers in Xero from Xero on Vimeo.

Workpapers is part of our disruptive single ledger strategy of building core accountant features around the same data as client features. Within the next 18 months, Workpapers will be redesigned and merged with practice management, tax and reporting software into a product called Practice Studio. As a further disruption to the accounting software market, we’re giving these tools away as part of the Xero Partner Program.

This is an exciting time as we continue to invest heavily in providing our accounting and bookkeeping partners with all the tools they need to work more closely with small businesses. By helping to streamline compliance work we free our partners up so they can invest their efforts in providing higher value advisory services that really make a difference to small businesses.

We’re working hard on getting Workpapers out the door for UK partners later this year, with the US to follow.

The post Workpapers are live for Australia and New Zealand appeared first on Xero Blog.

Great news in Australia today – Deloitte is offering its clients the ability to migrate to Xero.

Photo from a meeting today in Melbourne shows (from L-R) Gavin Fernandes – Xero Key Accounts Manager , Ben Shields – Deloitte Partner, Chris Ridd – Xero Managing Director, David Hill – Deloittte National Managing Partner, Rod Drury – Xero CEO.

Here’s the announcement as posted to the NZX and ASX:

MARKET RELEASE

Deloitte offers Xero to clients for small business accounting

19 April 2013

Online accounting software provider Xero Limited (XRO) is pleased to announce that in Australia professional services firm Deloitte, in response to growing client demand for cloud accounting solutions, is now offering its clients the ability to migrate to Xero’s single ledger accounting solution.

Based on current client demand for cloud-based accounting solutions, Deloitte expect that by the end of its financial year approximately 2,000 ledgers will have been migrated to Xero’s platform alone.

For clients wishing to move to the cloud, single ledger accounting solutions provide business owners with real-time visibility of their financial performance and position.

Xero’s Australian Managing Director, Chris Ridd, says Deloitte’s decision signals Xero’s growing stature in the Australian financial marketplace.

“We are excited to be working with Deloitte who are well known for their technology leadership. Deloitte has strong reach in the private and family business market, which gives us the opportunity to expand our brand in the Australian market alongside a leading global professional services organisation.”

David Hill, National Managing Partner for Deloitte Private, says “the professional services sector is being digitally disrupted. Our response is to embrace this disruption to improve the efficiency of our operations and enhance the way we deliver value to our clients.”

“Cloud or single ledger accounting solutions give clients the ability to access their financial data and reports from anywhere and at any time. Such solutions also provide us with the opportunity to regularly connect with our clients and offer timely insights and solutions to create and deliver value.”

The post Deloitte offers Xero in Australia appeared first on Xero Blog.

ZenPayroll is a new addition to the US payroll space, enabling businesses to get setup and run payroll in minutes from any web-enabled device. As a full-service payroll provider, all government payroll taxes, reporting, and compliance are taken care of automatically and paper free.

The ZenPayroll team have focused on making the application easy to use, so you don’t need to be an expert to get up and running. Employees can also access their information and ZenPayroll uses bank grade security to keep your data safe.

Who is it for?
ZenPayroll is available for a wide variety of businesses, from flower shops to technology start-ups. With ZenPayroll for Accountants, Xero partners such as CPAs & bookkeepers can manage multiple clients from a centralized dashboard.

How ZenPayroll works with Xero
Once connected, ZenPayroll automatically syncs payroll transaction data with your Xero account – a payroll invoice is easily reconciled with your payroll checks or automatic bank debits.

Where you can use ZenPayroll
ZenPayroll is currently available for customers in California, with additional states coming in June. If you are based outside of the golden state, register to get notified as new states launch.

Check it out
Sign up with ZenPayroll and get 2 months for free.

The post ZenPayroll – modern, delightful payroll appeared first on Xero Blog.

TradeGecko is a web based inventory management application designed for businesses looking to work smarter. It combines three key features:

1. Inventory management provides a clear picture and easy way to control your stock.
2. Sales management brings together multiple sales channels such as e-commerce, wholesale & distributor orders into one place.
3. Customer management keeps customer (and supplier) details and communications all in one place.

Who is it for?
TradeGecko is used across many industries – if you need to track stock, manage customers and orders or sell through multiple channels, it is worth checking out. TradeGecko already has customers in industries as varied as gas and oil to jewelry and apparel.

How TradeGecko works with Xero
Sales and purchase orders are automatically created in Xero as invoices. Cost of goods sold, stock on hand and stock adjustments are also automatically created so your accounts in Xero are always up-to-date. TradeGecko have a document outlining the integration details.

Where you can use TradeGecko
TradeGecko is available anywhere and pricing is in US dollars.

Check it out
TradeGecko has a free 21 day trial so check it out.

The post TradeGecko – inventory for smart businesses appeared first on Xero Blog.

So what’s new?

Allowing you to quickly and easily find and report on your information were our main priorities when building this update. Some of the key features you will notice include:

• Extensive filtering and sorting: Choose to report on all kinds of information including employees, employee groups, custom dates, and employee status.
• Custom views: Choose the columns to display on the page making viewing different types of information, straight forward.
• Easy as: Predictive search helps you find information already contained in the report without the need to remember.
• Export: All reports can be exported to PDF and Excel.
• Results in seconds: Our advanced technology can generate search results in a flash.

New Reports

As well as enabling you to find and report more effectively on your information, this release also includes 14 new and updated payroll reports including:

• Payroll Activity Summary
• Payroll Activity Details
• Transaction Listing Summary – New
• Transaction Listing Detail – New
• Timesheet Summary – New
• Timesheet Details – New
• Superannuation Accrual
• Superannuation Payment
• Leave Balances – New
• Leave Transactions
• Leave Requests – New
• Payment Summary Details – New
• Employee Remuneration – New
• Employee Contact Details

For more information on the above reports please take a read of our release notes.

You might also notice the fantastic new videos that we announced a few weeks ago are now located entirely within the application, on the relevant pages. Helping you navigate the potential complexities of payroll is a real focus for us and hopefully these videos will just help a little bit!

If you’d like to go through an overview and demonstration of the latest features of the new Payroll Reports you can also sign up to our webinar for more information.

More updates to Payroll will be released before the end of financial year so keep an eye out for more information coming soon.

The post Payroll reporting in real time appeared first on Xero Blog.

Viv Brownrigg is a New Zealand accounting industry leader who spends her time helping accountants work more effectively with their clients. At Xerocon in February, she spoke about there being too many poor performing firms, who are stagnating or have declining revenues.

Conversely though, the accounting firms at the top end of these KPIs are doing extremely well. They’re growing, attracting new clients like you wouldn’t believe and exploding their business advisory revenues to boot. So the opportunity is there to not just overcome poor performance but to turn it into great performance.

Viv specialises in turning firms into great firms and she starts by asking accountants one key question: What would your clients say if you asked them to summarise your job description? Would they say that you do their accounts and keep the IRD away? Or would they say that you’re a key part of their business, advising them of opportunities and warning them of pitfalls on a regular basis? More importantly, what would you rather hear them say?

By making it so more clients give the second answer rather than the first, accountants can really change the way they do business. That’s what Viv and her organisation The Accountants’ RePublic specialise in doing. They help accountants get the most out of available technology and move on to more collaborative relationships with their clients.

Right now they’re putting together RePublic 2013, a series of one-day events where they’ll show accountants how to break free of the misconception that their only purpose is to take client numbers.

The day will kick off with the ultimate test. Each firm will be asked to articulate their point of difference, with NZ’s foremost brand specialist Brian Richards helping firms to create the right experiences across key touch points in their business.

Successful practitioner Michelle Hill of ReSolve Accountants will take you through the education programme that re launches you as Business Advisor. Her business advisory revenue grew from 13% to 42% in 3 years. Before Michelle learnt how to really engage her clients, she too believed that clients were getting all they needed. Her view of that world has changed forever.

Viv will take you through simple ways to demonstrate and monitise your value to clients, busting the myth that clients won’t pay for more services. She’ll also take you through many specialisation case studies and with the help of Robert Simon from The Resilience Institute, help you get creative about delivering new ideas and resilient practice growth.

Ready, set, grow!

It’s great to see accountants helping other accountants like this. After all, nobody knows the industry better than those who live and breathe it. So, if you’re a New Zealand accountant who wants to move to a more hands-on, collaborative way of working with clients, register for RePublic 2013.

The post Seeking great performance in New Zealand appeared first on Xero Blog.

Financial visibility over the franchisees is key for a franchisor. Working in desktop software restricted his financial visibility because he never had an accurate view of his cash position. After all, his figures may tell one story, but without up-to-date data from his franchisees, that story wasn’t really complete.

It made for a difficult situation because he couldn’t make business decisions without complete cashflow information. However, getting that cashflow information sucked up all his time because he had to get in touch with franchisees, ask for the relevant details, then wait for them to send the data through.

So shifting all of his franchisees from Sage to Xero meant he no longer has to ask for information. He can now just log in and see real-time business data because it’s in the cloud.

Shifting to this way of working has given him the capacity he needed to focus on business development and sales. That’s how he’s doubled his turnover – by spending time working on growing his business rather than spending time on the day-to-day admin of running his business.

What about the franchisees?

The news that the franchisees would be switching to Xero was “met with a trepidation at first,” said Rob, “ but our franchisees are joiners, not finance people, and they love the level of support they can get with their finances.”

Rob and his staff help with everything “from cashflow to pricing to debtors,” and can “catch things which might have taken two or three months to pick up otherwise.” This means that just like Rob focuses on sales and growth, his franchisees can focus on restoring sash windows. Everyone focuses on what they’re good at – and the business is thriving.

Rob’s not the only franchisor on Xero. Find out why franchisors and franchisees around the world love Xero by checking out this page.

The post Franchise doubles turnover with Xero appeared first on Xero Blog.

Paul has been banging the drum for change and innovation in the global accountancy profession for decades and so therefore it’s no surprise that Xero and Paul quickly formed a mutual appreciation society and many of the concepts and ideas that Paul shared in his 2003 book, “The Firm of The Future” are being adopted by forward thinking firms today.

After the amazing reception Paul received from his audience of a couple of hundred accountants at his keynote in November, I got chatting with Paul about the prospect of Xero sponsoring some extra events in the UK.

And so we did.

Later this month (April 23rd, 24th & 25th) Xero is hosting three half-day Paul Dunn keynotes in London, Birmingham and Manchester. I should say that while Xero is sponsoring these free events, aside from a brief intro from us these are not Xero brainwashing events per se.

Here’s what Paul has to say about them.

Past feedback points to the fact that if you’re an accountant, these events will probably be among the best half-day’s investment of your time you’ll find in 2013.

Attendance is free and places are limited, so book a place for your team here today.

The post UK Accountants : Connect with Paul Dunn appeared first on Xero Blog.