Education Month: empowering accountants for what’s next

Accountants and bookkeepers play a key role in helping small businesses make decisions, manage change and plan for growth. With International Accounting Day coming up, I want to recognize these important contributions  and highlight a dedicated month of programming and enablement to support them. 

Practical learning for busy practices

Accounting practices are changing, with clients expecting more advice, technology continuing to evolve and firms being asked to provide more strategic support alongside their core services. Through Education Month, our aim is to provide accessible and actionable education that can help practices meet those growing demands.

From November 3 to December 10, accountants and bookkeepers can join free webinars to learn more about  Xero products and topics, such as practice improvement, advisory services, AI everywhere and more. The goal is to help them understand what’s useful, apply it in their practice and make more time for clients.

Learning that fits the work

The sessions focus on the work practices do every day. They cover products that can simplify workflows, ways to improve efficiency during busy periods, and approaches to better client conversations.

This year’s program includes:

• 25 webinars
• Live Q&A with experts
• Recordings for every registered attendee, plus resources to help put the learning into practice
• The chance to earn up to 29 CPE/CPD credits while building knowledge and meeting professional development commitments

If your firm already uses Xero, Education Month is a chance to build on what you know and make more of the tools available to you. If you’re exploring Xero, you can learn from experts and see how technology can support a modern practice.

Building confidence with AI 

Xero’s recent US Modern Practice Playbook draws on research that found that 87% of US practices have experimented with AI, and 56% use it in their day-to-day workflows. Among top-performing practices, daily use rises to 76%.

The research also found that 97% of practices using AI daily said their core processes were well documented, compared with 36% of practices that don’t use AI. That points to a practical first step: understand how work gets done before deciding where AI can help.

At Xero, we see a growing opportunity to bring AI into your firm’s everyday work so you can make the most of its potential. We’re committed to building Everyday AI and offering accessible, practical and reliable AI that’s grounded in Accountable Intelligence. It’s AI that can take a first pass at routine work and surface useful insights, while accountants and bookkeepers stay in control—reviewing the work, interpreting the numbers and deciding with clients what happens next. And, it’s AI that meets you where you work, delivering Xero’s financial intelligence in the third-party tools and applications you already use. 

Saving time isn’t the end goal. Forty-two percent of practices using AI plan to put that capacity toward advisory and other higher-value work. Education Month can tangibly help practices take that step with confidence, through understanding their workflows, asking the right questions and using technology where it creates value for clients.

Supporting the accounting community

At Xero, we believe strong technology partnerships start with listening to the professionals who use our products. Education Month is one way we put that belief into practice: by giving accountants and bookkeepers useful knowledge, practical resources and an opportunity to connect and ask questions to industry experts.

To every accountant and bookkeeper supporting small businesses across the US, thank you. We see the difference you make, and we are proud to support your work. I encourage you to explore the Education Month schedule, join a session and share what you learn with your team.