To our accountant and bookkeeper community

I wanted to reach out to you all personally, after the past week. A couple of unintended incidents happened, and while we worked quickly to resolve them, we recognise they had an impact on many of you. I wanted to acknowledge this and say something about where we go from here. 

As some of you are aware, an influencer talked about connecting Xero to Claude, describing how she saved significant accounting fees. I know many of you saw the post. I responded on LinkedIn as soon as it was raised. We had the post removed as soon as we could, and we’re tightening our controls across every influencer and affiliate relationship we have as a direct result of this. The messaging didn’t reflect what I and we at Xero believe. I’m sorry it happened. But I’d also gently ask that we direct any concerns about what happened towards Xero, rather than the influencer. Xero owns the process so let that sit with us.

Shortly after, some of you discovered that for those users who had accessed Xero Analytics on their dashboards, an automated monthly analytics email from Xero, via Syft, was also sent to those same users. The automated report came from no-reply@xero.syftanalytics.com. However, I understand why this hurt, especially on top of the influencer messaging that landed just before it. This email was not intended to bypass the role of the advisor and we recognise that you and your clients may have a workflow and relationships that may have been disrupted. If you wish to make changes, the automated email can be toggled off by any user from the analytics dashboard settings. We apologise for any disruption caused to you or your practice. 

Our ongoing partnership with our partner community 

Many of us at Xero have been saddened by what’s happened over this last week. We feel it because we care. This is a relationship that has always mattered to us, and will continue to do so.

I want to say something that goes beyond last week. Xero was built to make life easier for small businesses, and their advisors, and that has not changed. We believe in that mission and want to reflect on our engagement with you, especially at a time of so much change and uncertainty. What this week has done is remind us to be more deliberate, more consistent, and more collaborative with you. 

Kate Hayward
UK Managing Director, Xero