Going digital: Where next for the UK practice?

I recently had the pleasure of hosting our Xero On Air episode on the future of compliance – Going digital: Where next for the practice. We talked about the impact of COVID-19 on accountants, and the latest regulatory changes, including the announcements around Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and Self Assessment, and how products like Xero Tax form part of the solution.    

Here are some of the key takeaways from my session. Click here to watch the full episode online or keep reading to find out more. 

Xero’s next generation practice vision

At Xero, we want to provide a unified experience across the tools accountants and bookkeepers use every day, to onboard, collaborate and manage client workloads in the cloud. 

In the UK, this means we want to simplify practice management. As part of this, we launched Xero Tax in March 2020 to close the compliance gap and support accounting firms as they digitise. 

Xero Tax is transforming the compliance landscape in the UK. It’s one of the only cloud-based tax and accounts production solutions in the market. It’s designed by accountants for accountants to save time, reduce errors and cut costs.

And we’ve gathered proof that it’s working. We surveyed a number of our accounting partners who regularly use Xero Tax and 90% told us that it saved them a significant amount of time (base size of 44 partners). A third of those partners told us they save over an hour, per client job.

Xero Tax is available at no extra cost, as part of the Xero partner programme. It transforms compliance by bringing tax and accounts closer together in one seamless process. It also reduces human touch points by removing the need to manually import or re-enter data. 

Latest Xero Tax developments

Xero Tax plays a huge role in helping close the compliance gap for our accounting partners, and we’re excited to share some updates we’re making to the product. 

Corporation Tax and Accounts Production

We recently launched features to enhance the Corporation Tax module:

• Corporation Tax and Accounts Production for small companies (abridged) NEW filing options (you can now submit an abridged P&L and balances sheet)
• Corporation Tax and Accounts Production for small companies (full accounts) NEW
• Session storage: To give users the ability to do multiple filings at the same time across different browser tabs or windows to save time. This means you can work on more than one client at a time.

We’ll continue to develop the accounts and tax modules and keep you updated as we do. 

Personal tax for self-assessment

We’ll start testing later this year and launch the open beta to Xero partners in 2021 so make sure you look out for that.

Xero HQ Document Packs

We’re excited to share a few highlights about our new Document Packs feature in Xero HQ:

• Document Packs allows you to share documents with your clients so they can be approved and electronically signed via Adobe Sign. 
• Document Packs enhances the workflow for everything from tax, through to payroll, new client engagement and annual accounts. 

Be among the first to try the new tools we’re developing, like the early release of Document Packs, by becoming a next gen practice insider. Sign up now and we’ll be in contact. 

Xero Tax – we’re just beginning

We’ve worked hard to get to where we are today with Xero Tax, but we’ve only just scratched the surface, in terms of what we can, and will achieve in the months and years ahead.

Waking up on January 1st, we wouldn’t in a million years have imagined that things would have turned out the way they have this year. It has and continues to be an incredibly challenging time for many around the world.

Technology like AI and automation through tools like Xero Tax helps make life a little simpler, more seamless and smarter for accountants and bookkeepers. 

If you haven’t already, it’s also worth checking out the two Xero On Air episodes hosted by Anna Curzon, our Chief Product Officer, to learn more about your future experience and your workflow enhancements.

• Next gen practice (part one): Your future experience  
• Next gen practice (part two): Your workflow enhancements

If you’re a Xero partner, visit our Xero Tax resource centre for more information and resources to get you up and running.

If you’re not yet a Xero partner, visit our Xero Tax page where you can find out more about becoming a partner and getting started with Xero Tax.