Jun 25, 2026 Small Business Resources
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Aug 4, 2026
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Empowering IP Teams with Analytics: the JD Consulting & Xero Story
Launching a boutique intellectual property firm takes a lot more than just legal expertise. For John Dean, founder of Bristol-based JD Consulting, the early days of his practice in 2015 brought a significant shift toward day-to-day business administration. While his days were spent securing patents and trademarks for clients, his evenings were consumed by the time-consuming tasks of manual invoicing and tracking payments.
During the early days, John handled everything himself, from drafting individual invoices in Apple Pages to manually chasing down late payments. Everything changed in 2018.
“My practice was revolutionized by Xero,” John recalls. After exploring various accounting options, he found the cloud platform to be the perfect fit.
John was drawn to the system’s simplicity, particularly its efficient invoicing features and automated payment reminders. “It seems simple, but I’ve seen practices struggle without these reminders,” he says. “When I showed them how to enable that feature, their payment turnaround improved immediately.” Beyond invoicing, John used the platform to generate custom reports and perform year-over-year profit and loss comparisons.
Today, he helps the founders of other intellectual property firms get set up on Xero. “They’ve started an IP practice, they’ve got a laptop, they’ve got some clients, they’ve got some insurance and they’ve got a cup of coffee, but they need to be able to send invoices and keep track of cash flow” he says.
This is where Xero comes in. John helps them get started and make the most of the tool.
Introducing Analytics
As his business grew, John began to look for more in-depth analytics features and Xero Analytics fit the bill. The first Analytics feature he tried was Cash flow manager, a short-term cash flow forecasting tool. He says, “That was great because, when I had my little practice, it nearly ran out of money because I had my first tax bill and I hadn’t prepared for the expense.” Back then, managing cash flow was a time-consuming manual process. By contrast, Cash flow manager shows you when you have an upcoming tax bill, using AI predictions so you never have to worry about manual projections – or running out of cash.
“The use of AI to predict expenditure is really exciting because cash flow is a really important thing for these little practices that work on trust… The Cash flow manager has proved increasingly useful, and I’m excited about the opportunities AI brings in making the predictions of future expenses even better.”
John Dean, advisor at JD Consulting
Everything in one place
John uses the Xero Analytics dashboard to view key metrics in a single screen. He loves its customizability and particularly enjoys the ability to compare cash in and cash out side by side.
He also recently noticed the addition of the new Industry benchmarks feature, which he thinks has great potential for helping organisations see how they stack up compared to industry peers.
Scheduling insights to send automatically
Additionally, John finds the Scheduled Send function in Xero Analytics highly effective. It automates insight sharing, ensuring clients receive essential updates directly in their inboxes without needing to log in daily.
“For many people, it’s really helpful to have something which goes ‘ping’ in their inbox as opposed to having to go into Xero every day.”
John Dean, advisor at JD Consulting
While John checks his Xero account daily to see the money that’s coming in, he knows that for many other people, having analytics sent to their email account is a game-changer.
Unlocking a clear snapshot
The biggest impact of Xero Analytics for John has been the ability to quickly get a snapshot of the financial health of the firms with whom he works.
“It’s really easy now for me to look at the Xero of the firms I work with and see quickly how they’re doing. Features like the Business health scorecards provide quick insights, and Analytics keeps getting better.”
John Dean, advisor at JD Consulting
In addition, John likes the AI insights option in Dashboards, as it helps founders to quickly identify areas where they are spending too much money, for instance. He gives the example of high advertising costs as a quick place to cut down because, for most intellectual property firms, word of mouth is the best advertising.
Closing thoughts
Xero Analytics has become an essential part of John’s workflow, streamlining the way he delivers insights and keeping his clients informed about their financial standing. He values the collaborative relationship he’s built with the Xero team, noting their commitment to incorporating feedback from users. As John continues to champion Xero within the IP legal community, we remain dedicated to evolving our analytics tools to help him – and the firms he advises – thrive.
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