UK accounting partner Pearson & Associates have a small business client whose bank manager has stopped charging her unnecessary fees because Xero is so good!
Adrian Pearson tells the story in his blog post and explains that because the management reports produced by Xero were so up to date and detailed, their client’s bank manager has cancelled the monthly account ‘management’ fee. This Xero user is now £50 a month better off and we all think its a great result.
The bank manager in question could not justify the management fee being charged as all the financial information he had been calculating is now worked out by Xero. He waived the fee on the spot when he saw the management reports from Xero!
It’s great being asked to write for industry publications such as the ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) newsletter. I love getting the message out to the masses that online accounting is quite simply the only way forward in accounting best practice.
The following is an article, entitled ‘The future of accounting is online’, that I submitted as part of the ICAEW Software Accreditation Scheme newsletter under the banner of ICAEW Commitment to Technology. It was sent out this week to over 27 000 UK-based accountants.
As the ICAEW says, preceding the article, “The whole area of software-as-a-service (SaaS) is seen by many as the way of the future, with online accounting looking to make inroads into the accountancy market.” Too true we think. Too true.
We’re pleased to announce that Deloitte NZ has signed up as a Xero partner. Deloitte is recognised as one of the ‘Big Four’ international accounting networks who are are highly regarded and well recognised throughout the world.
Deloitte’s evaluation and support is major validation of what Xero has to offer. It also reflects their confidence in where Xero is heading.
Bridget Musker, Associate Director in Deloitte’s Accounting & Advisory practice focused on helping SMEs grow, commented…
“For our clients, Xero dovetails brilliantly with our ‘Virtual CFO’ service where our Deloitte team is on call and available to assist businesses on all sorts of strategic, financial or management issues.”
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
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:
One of our affiliates, Pennys Worth Ltd based in Auckland will be running a series of training courses for Xero customers starting with a practical, hands-on course covering the basics.
The 3-hour session uses your own Xero trial company, which means all the tasks and examples done while on the course will stay on your system, so you can access them for the following 14 days to remind and refresh you on how you have put in the information. Pennys Worth will also issue copies of handout material to take away with you.
The course will cover the following, plus more:
Basic bookkeeping principles
Invoicing
Paying suppliers
Expense claims
Basic reporting
Bank feeds
Using ‘Help’
GST returrns
The course cost is $199 + GST. The dates are: Thurs 16 October – Auckland or Tues 11 November – Auckland
Please register your interest as soon as possible, so we can reserve a space for you.
Paula Brown, Business Manager for Sports Auckland, goes into detail about why she highly recommends Xero: it’s easy, everything is online so even if you change personnel there’s no complicated handover to deal with, and of course the time and cost savings.
I work with a lot of different clubs, not just sport clubs, and they’re all talking about those exact same benefits.
Acclipse is a passionate company, like Xero, who specialise in Practice Management Systems for Accountants. They have a long history in this space and they’re pretty good at it, having over 1000 practices using their software across New Zealand and Australia.
Over the last year we’ve been listening to, and working with, accountants to ensure that their requirements for a client side accounting system are built into Xero. We heard loud and clear how important it is that the client side accounting system can link into the the tools they use to run their practice, do tax, allocate work, document management etc.
Acclipse have been investing heavily in that side of accounting. As we got to know them we saw that they shared our vision for reinventing accounting. We quickly identified lots of opportunities where we could make our software work together to dramatically improve the way accountants work with their customers. Exchanging of data between client accounting software and Practice Management is such a painful area where there has been minimal innovation. We’re excited about the things we can do.
We think we’ve demonstrated to our accounting partners that we listen and we deliver. So we’re announcing this partnership now so that accountants can start thinking about integrating Xero and Acclipse into their practice for the next financial year.
Over the next month we’ll announce a joint roadshow where Xero and Acclipse will share our vision with the accounting community on the future of accounting.
NZMac.com just published a glowing review of Xero, but I wanted to pick up on some quotes that really resonated with me…
No-one likes doing the books, partly because it’s scary, but mainly because it’s, well, boring. Until now
The easier it is to keep on top of the accounts, the easier you’ll understand your business, and the better control you’ll have of the finances. So many small businesses go under because the owners just don’t know what’s going on at the bank, because they don’t crunch the numbers. Xero can’t work miracles, but if it makes it more enjoyable doing the books, then you’ll do them, and not put it off till next week.
Xero will make you want to use it.
When we founded Xero my main motivation for doing it was that I hated doing accounting, with a passion. Unfortunately there’s no getting around accounting, so I wanted to design a tool that would make it a pleasure, rather than a pain. Business is fun! Money is fun! Accounting…ugh.
So I cannot tell you how cool it is to see people finding joy in using Xero to do their accounting. This review is just another person echoing what otherpeoplesay all the time.
Here’s another recent review from a property management perspective that gives Xero really good marks as an accounting system, although we lose points for not being a property management tool, “it’s slick and easy to use, but it’s an accounting package, not a full property management package”. Fair enough. For many property investors, Xero may be all they need to manager their properties. But it’s definitely not a property management system. Therein lies the opportunity. With the Xero Network, we’re working on integrating with property management systems so that we can provide a solution that will do everything a property manager needs.
Seeing people understand and appreciate what we’re doing with Xero is extremely gratifying.
The list of applications that connect to Xero is growing quickly. It’s impossible for each of these SaaS providers (software-as-a-service) to write their own accounting system. But that’s what their customers want and need. Now they can just connect to Xero. They get an accounting system that integrates perfectly with their software, while Xero becomes the accounting engine for any application on the internet.
With platforms like the Xero Network, SaaS providers can offer their customers a more complete solution with a wider range of options. It also opens up a very effective way to reach new customers.
