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.

Profit & Loss Common Formats from Xero on Vimeo.

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 :)

Here’s a video of using Xero on your iPhone.  Xero also works on Windows Mobile and your BlackBerry. Point them to http://m.xero.com.

Xero iPhone walkthrough from Xero on Vimeo.

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.

The future of accounting is online

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 Pearson from Pearson & Associates.

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 Reader from Dennis & Turnbull.

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.

Andrew Sandiford from Target.

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

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.

As Rafe Needleman writes:

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.

In the past week Steve Balmer has started to go public with Microsoft’s Cloud computing strategy and it’s good to see they understand the issues.

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).  
• Send a statement if some debtors are falling behind.
• 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.