Our Xero network continues to grow and one of the interesting parts of my job at Xero is identifying new opportunities and industries to work with.

We have a number of tourism operators using Xero which led me to think about what system would these tourism operators be using for their online bookings, and how could we make their lives even easier?

BookIt is the premier online booking processing service for the tourism industry, providing solutions for many of New Zealand’s leading tourism companies including Tourism Holdings, New Zealand Tourism Online and Christchurch Airport. Suppliers of tourism products including accommodation, activities, tours and transport can benefit from the increased exposure that BookIt offers through the reseller network or use the BookIt system on their own website to take direct bookings.

The BookIt system automates many routine tasks including payments, settlements, vouchering, cancellations, amendments and invoicing. We are working with the team at BookIt to take this one step further by integrating with Xero. If you would like to participate in trialling this integration then we’d love to hear from you - please contact us on network@xero.com.

This week SPARC (Sport & Recreation New Zealand) posted a video about financial tools for clubs on their website (you can watch it here below).

Financial Tools for Clubs from Xero on Vimeo.

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.

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 other people say 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.

Here’s another upcoming event to be hosted in Wellington for the non-profit sector. Wellington ICT is hosting Engage your Community at Massey University - Wellington campus on 4 September.

This is a key opportunity for community groups to make the most of ICT and to discover resources that will help their individual, important causes.

There are a number of people involved with this event that Xero has worked with. Key speakers include: Miraz Jordan, Pamela Minnett from YMedia, David Barrow (New Zealand Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations), Russell Brown and our own Rod Drury will speak about concerns and issues that need to be addressed when embracing the online world.

This is an introductory level conference, so if it sounds like something you or someone you know would be interested in just jump online and register here.

Life just got a whole lot easier for anyone using Xero that wants to manage their investment property (ies) in it. You can now catch up on your ENTIRE year’s backlog of accounting in a few hours – just in time for the end of the financial year.

Here’s all you have to do: upload your bank statements from the last year, retrospectively create your rent schedules, then simply match the transactions to each other and tick them off.

For more information visit our property investor section.