One of our most requested features has been the ability to raise a credit note directly against a customer or supplier account. We’ve delayed for a while delivering on this so that we could take some time to extend our accounting engine to support this and a lot of other future features we have on our roadmap.
As of yesterday, you can now raise a credit note directly against a customer or supplier account and you will be prompted to apply it to any outstanding invoices, or you can carry it as a credit until the next invoice you raise.
We’ve also made some improvements to our Accounts Receivable dashboard and to all reports that include credit notes. You can read the full release notes here.
This is an exciting release for us as even though we’ve kept the changes to a minimum, we’ve set up the accounting engine for the next 12 months of features that we’ll be delivering like foreign currency invoices and bank accounts.
As you’d expect, raising and applying credit notes is as simple as working with invoices - here’s a quick walkthrough.
The upgrade to Xero over the weekend has been completed. We hope the downtime didn’t cause you too much inconvenience.
Improvements to credit notes are the major part of today’s release. You can now raise credit notes directly against a customer or supplier in either accounts receivable or accounts payable.
We’ll post more details soon, in the mean time you can view the release notes here.
Thanks to all those who fed me coffee and zapped me to keep going - I’m off home now!
As announced, this weekend we have some scheduled downtime. Many members of our devoted team will be working around the clock to make this upgrade go smoothly.
We’re installing a live webcam so you can keep an eye on Craig Walker, our Chief Technology Officer.
In addition, you will have the option to supply Craig with coffee OR give him a jolt of electric shock therapy - your choice - as a way to make sure he stays focused and motivated.
Be sure to visit go.xero.com during the scheduled maintenance period and show your support.
We’re doing some upgrades to Xero this coming weekend, 8-9 November. During the upgrade Xero will be unavailable for approximately 24 hours beginning at 12:00am Sunday 9 November NZT (click here for your local times).
The upgrade includes some great improvements to credit notes, plus it lays the foundation for many upcoming features, including multi-currency.
We’re sorry if this causes any inconvenience.
You might regard it as a welcome holiday from your accounting!
Since releasing our Common Formats feature in Profit and Loss reporting a few weeks ago we’ve had some great feedback from our accounting partners that this very useful. Especially when used with tracking categories.
Most companies use P&L reports to see how their business is going. P&L reporting is especially useful in Xero as the numbers are up to date every day so they are a valuable management tool. How is my income doing compared to last month? Are my expenses under control?
We had lots of feedback that while everyone uses a P&L, there are many ways to look at the information.
This month compared to the last few, so I can see how I’m tracking
Actual vs Budget
This month compared to the same time last year - for businesses with seasonal variations
As we designed this Andrew came up with the idea of just creating some common formats so that you could quickly look at your P&L in a number of ways. Here is a video that shows you how simple it is.
You probably spotted that I’m using the Blue microphone I picked up in Palo Alto a couple of weeks ago. We use Screenflow to capture the tour and Vimeo to host the video. It only takes a few minutes to make a movie and get it up so you’ll see many more of these from us. And yes - we all dislike the sound of our own voice :)
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.”
I’ve long been concerned at how off target the last versions of Microsoft Office were after we’ve seen the real time collaboration features of Google Docs.
To my mind, the killer feature of Google Docs is not that it is Web-based, per se. It’s that it makes real-time collaboration easy. You can invite a user into a document you currently have open, and you both can edit the file at the same time. It’s not a feature you’re going to need all the time, but when you’re on a deadline and need to get sign-off from one or more other person on a document right away, it’s a life-saver.
I think what people want is something as rich as Microsoft Office, something that you can ‘click and run’, if you are not at your own desk. Something that is compatible, document-wise with Microsoft Office and something that offers the kind of joint editing capabilities that is nice in Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Will Microsoft Office offer that? Yes! Standby for details in the next month.
We want software that is more powerful than runs in a browser. Does that mean we will not have some neat stuff that does run in the browser? No.
We think you’ll actually want the full power of Word, Excel and PowerPoint - and you’ll want to be able to get that simply. But, if you just happen to be in an Internet cafe kiosk and you want to do some light editing, perhaps we need to have a way to support you in that as well, inside the browser.
This is great news and the best example of Software + Services. Using the power of the PC and the connectivity of the Internet together. I really believe that Collaborative Office could be one of the most exciting breakthroughs in productivity for enterprises and small businesses since online accounting.
However there are a few concerns that came immediately to mind.
Now I’ve moved to a Mac and that Mac:Office runs a year behind Windows Office will Mac users have to wait a whole year after this is released? Hopefully the Mac:Office team will clarify.
Will Microsoft tie the collaboration features to SharePoint services - as there needs to be a mechanism for communicating changes and central document viewing? That may not be so great for small businesses.
Will this be a global product or, because of the reliance on hosted services, will it be rolled out by region?
If I was in Microsoft’s strategy team I’d seriously look at tying Office collaboration into their stack. For many enterprises they don’t want working documents out of their firewall so SharePoint would make sense - and be justifiable.
Looks like some of the details will be revealed at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference later in the month. But this is exciting news.
There’s obviously a lot going on at the moment in terms of the markets and how this downturn is going to hit some small businesses. It may seem like a momentous leap – from Wall St to your small business – but the ethos remains the same, how do you protect your assets, your business and most importantly, your cash.
Accounting software such as Xero is there to help in the leaner times as well as the good..
Here’s some ideas on what you can do.
Process your bank transactions daily to see what your available balance is, if you have excess funds then you may want to transfer money to a higher earning interest account. You’ll then know exactly who owes you money.
Keep on top of your debtors – make sure that people are paying you. You can check away from the office on your mobile device (m.xero.com).
Be aware if anyone one large debtor creates a disproportionate exposure .
Tighten up your expenses – identify expenses that are unnecessary and costly. Keep a close eye on travel especially.
Monitor your staff’s expense claims. It might be useful to send an email around your team to clarify your policy around expenses.
Enter your Budget and use the Budget Variance report to see how your expenses are tracking against the actual budget – and whether you need to re-evaluate what you’re spending.
Invoice as soon as you have completed a job rather than waiting unto the end of the month. You can change your payment terms to be pay on invoice.
Prepare your management reports each month and send them to your bank manager so they can see you’re on top of your financials.
We know there’s huge demand for an alternative to MYOB and we’re very proud to say the wait is finally over.
Australia’s 2.5 million small businesses can now join the thousands of businesses already using Xero in New Zealand and the UK.
We’ve worked closely with Australian businesses and accountants to make sure Xero simplifies the management of GST and the preparation of Activity Statements.
We’re also pleased to announce that two of Australia’s largest banks will be providing automated daily bank feeds soon after launch.
Pricing is $49 for the first organisation, $24 for additional organisations (AUD, exclusive of GST).
As a special limited time offer, if you already have a New Zealand based Xero subscription, adding an additional Australian organisation will only cost $24 (AUD, exclusive of GST). Contact sales@xero.com for complete details.
If you know any Australian business people or accountants please send them a link to our sign up page so they can try Xero for free.
