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.

Over the past few weeks we’ve been working with the fine team at Zeald who provide an E-commerce engine for small businesses to sell online.  The interface allows invoices generated from Zeald to be automatically sent into Xero. As payments are received into your bank account it’s super easy to reconcile them against invoices, saving you time.

We need a few beta customers to make sure everything is working properly. If anyone is using Zeald and Xero and would like to help out please send a note to network@xero.com.

We’re really excited by how our partners are using the Xero Network.

The Xero Network is how we work with other software solution partners to integrate our solutions together to make it easy for small businesses. The Xero Network is how we transfer data securely between Xero and other systems.

iPayroll have just added more features to their Xero interface.  iPayroll is a set up once and forget process.  Once you have assigned Xero Account and Tracking Codes in iPayroll your payroll accounting entries are automatically entered into Xero.

Their help desk had issues checking that Account codes were entered correctly.

The Xero Network allows our partners to pull data from Xero as well as push data in. So iPayroll have added a page to their application that shows the Xero Account codes inside iPayroll. 

This means the iPayroll helpdesk does not need access to their customer’s Xero account to ensure that accounts are mapped correctly.

Another partner, WorkflowMax needs to dynamically assign Account codes to jobs, so in their user interface you can directly select an Account directly from the Xero Chart of Accounts.

We know the frustrations that small businesses experience because they have data sitting and duplicated in a number of disconnected software solutions. By making software talk over the Xero Network small businesses now have access to connected solutions that work together seamlessly.

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.

I’m one of the developers working in the engine room at Xero. Recently, I’ve been doing some work on the Xero Network, which is our API (Application Programming Interface) that lets different software solutions exchange data with Xero. For instance, a project management system can exchange data with your Xero account so your contacts are all in sync, your account codes come across and the invoices you create will automatically appear in Xero.

These software connections help make your life easier, it automatically keeps your accounts up-to-date, and it eliminates data-entry errors.

For software developers, we currently publish information on how to use the API with Microsoft’s .Net programming language. However, I wanted to build something in Ruby, another popular programming language. So I spent a day coming up with a few examples of using Ruby to connect with Xero.

I’ve posted my Ruby examples over on my personal blog. Have a play with it and please let us know how you’d like to use the API. We’re always looking for useful ways to connect Xero with other software.

Proworkflow is the latest application to connect with Xero. When people use Proworkflow to raise an invoice it automatically appears in Xero.

This is remarkable because…

• Proworkflow can now offer an accounting solution as an extension of their product
• The accounting solution works seamlessly with their existing software
• It’s super easy for their customers to start using instantly
• It was super easy for the developers at Proworkflow to setup

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.

Earlier this year we launched the Xero Network. In addition to letting you send and receive invoices directly with other Xero users, the Xero Network can exchange transaction data with other software.

You can visit our Solutions page to get info on the different applications that currently connect with Xero and how to set them up - including solutions for payroll, project management, ecommerce, and many more in the pipeline. With these connections you get extended functionality that makes it much easier and faster to process transactions, while reducing error prone data re-entry.

Please let us know if there’s a particular software app that you’d like to see connected with Xero.

Over the last month we’ve been working closely with leading web-based payroll provider iPayroll to save you more time when processing your payroll.

For most companies, your payroll provider will generate a number of bank transactions which can be quickly processed into Xero with our self learning bank reconcilation - for many small businesses this is all you need.

For companies that want to track salary expenditure into cost centres, iPayroll uses the Xero Network to automatically and securely send the accounting transactions into Xero saving you considerable time each pay cycle. You can then approve the invoices from iPayroll and reconcile them quickly with a single click when the transactions hit your bank account.

iPayroll supports both a traditional chart of accounts (with headers and sub-headers) and also the new Tracking features of Xero. Once set up in iPayroll you’ll find accounting for payroll a breeze. It’s set and forget, approve and click!

You can read the help for more detailed information.

We use iPayroll ourselves at Xero and have been impressed by the work they have done on KiwiSaver and other changes that reduce complaince costs. Using iPayroll + Xero saves us 2-3 days a month.

An article published in The Dominion Post yesterday outlines the Xero Network.

The Xero Network is an “ecosystem” concept where we expect Xero to work in with other online providers, creating an integrated community that makes running a small business easier for business owners.

Partners that are already on board with Xero are: payroll solutions provider IPayroll; workflow and job-costing software WorkflowMax; real estate software suppliers My Desktop and Real NZ; and a provider of mobile sales force tools, ITLink.

The need for Xero to be constantly innovative and improved, is summed up by the following quote from Xero CEO, Rod Drury, “As the first publicly-funded software-as-a-service [SaaS] player, we felt we needed to take a leading position on this.”

Rod explains more about the Xero Network here.