Latest product news – December 2021

Last updated 9 December 2021

As we close out another big, but challenging year in business and practice, we hope that the products we delivered in 2021 helped to make a real difference in your day to day. We’re thrilled to share the final product news of the year, and look forward to seeing you achieve even more successes in 2022. Have a safe holiday period from all of us at Xero.

New features

Connect data from Shopify quickly – Global

To help you make the most of ecommerce opportunities, we’ve built a new Xero & Shopify app that’s available in both the Shopify App Store and Xero App Store. You can see how much revenue and profit is being made each day, send sales transactions to Xero for easy bank reconciliation, and easily track your cash flow. Customers using existing Xero-Shopify integrations will be unaffected.

View transactions your way to reconcile – Global

To create a consistent look and feel across the Xero platform, we’ve started rolling out a new update that gives you two ways to view transactions on your bank reconciliation screen. You can now choose between an enlarged, zoomed-in view, or a compact view that displays more transactions. Simply move the toggle to choose the view that best suits your needs.

Reconcile with ease using machine learning predictions – Global

As part of our mission to take the toil out of bank reconciliations, we’ve developed machine learning algorithms that can predict your transactions’ contact and account codes using millions of reconciliations across Xero. We are rolling out this functionality in a phased approach, so if you aren’t seeing these predictions yet, you should soon.

Plan with confidence using Xero Projects – Global

If you’ve been using Xero Projects for a while, you may notice some feature enhancements aimed at providing you with more actionable insights. A new project report details financial transactions to help you see how your expenses are tracking against your budget, and dates for expenses are now editable within projects. You can also access project reports from within the Xero Projects page, saving you the hassle of accessing them from reporting.

Enjoy quick access to your reports – Global

Our new report centre allows you to click the star for quick access to your favourite new reports, common formats and older versions of reports from the top of the page or Accounting menu. Reports are grouped under clearer headings, and you can also toggle report descriptions on or off. We’ve also enhanced our search functionality, so you can easily search for a report even if you don’t know the name. The new report centre is now available in Canada, and will be followed by other regions in the months ahead.

Access common formats in more reports – Global

We’ve extended our popular common formats functionality to new Income & Expenses and new Account Transactions reports. This means you can customise more of your reports at the click of a button and get the answers you need fast. Common formats for these reports are located in our new report centre. This report is now available to customers in the US, and will be followed by other regions in the months ahead.

Enjoy more control in your Budget Variance report – Global

The new Budget Variance report is being refreshed with a new design and some updates to help you with your financial analysis. You’ll soon be able to use the layout editor to format your report, and view arrows to help you better understand your budget variance formulas. We’re also including the ability to sort by account code in the new ‘More’ button. This report is now available to customers in the US, and will be followed by other regions in the months ahead.

Add ‘More’ detail to your reports faster than ever – Global

To help you discover our new reporting features, we’ve replaced the existing cogwheel icon with a single, intuitive ‘More’ button. Depending on the report you’re creating, some of the options you might notice include being able to quickly add ‘YTD’ and ‘Total’ columns, show or hide decimal places, or opt to display your report on a cash or accrual basis.

Customise your Cash Summary report in a click – Global

The new Cash Summary report will soon include a number of additional features, including more flexible date ranges with comparative options, full layout editor control, visual performance indicators and the ability to save custom reports. Plus, the ‘More’ button will offer the ability to sort by account code, as well as show percentage of income. This report will be available to customers in the US first, followed by other regions in the months ahead.  

View ATO information directly within Xero Tax — AU

We’ve now made it easier for you to prepare tax returns for your clients, by viewing even more documents held within the ATO’s online portal. Information such as capital gains tax events, or whether the taxpayer has sold cryptocurrency can now be viewed as a PDF directly within Xero Tax. It’s available for 2020 and 2021 income tax returns.

Manage employee profiles with a fresh new look – NZ

We’ve released an updated design of employee profiles in Xero Payroll. It has everything you love from the older version but with a few improvements. This includes the ability to view a full history of salary and wage information, create new custom pay items with fewer clicks, and new page names for a better experience when setting up employees.

Forecast with confidence using Xero Analytics Plus – UK

You’ll now see a VAT breakdown in your Xero Analytics Plus short-term cash flow projection. We’re hoping this helps you factor these payments into your upcoming cash flow. If you’re registered for Making Tax Digital (MTD) and sales tax, you’ll now see VAT payable and refundable for both current and previous sales tax filing periods when it’s due.

Streamline file management in the VAT report – UK

If you’re a small business or adviser preparing a VAT return, you’ll know how often you need to view or attach files associated with the transaction to validate accuracy. To help you become more efficient, we’ve added a much-anticipated feature request within the VAT report that enables you to view, attach and delete files with drag and drop functionality in line with the transaction.

Save time with automated pension re-enrolment – UK

To help you manage your important pension re-enrolment compliance obligations, we’ve created a pension re-enrolment workflow. You can now enter a re-enrolment date, and we’ll automatically assess and re-enrol the employees within the pay run that includes your chosen date. When you’re close to your next re-enrolment, we’ll prompt you to provide either the last completed date, or the next one.

Prepare 1099s more efficiently – US

We’ve added a new contact management dashboard within the 1099 report to help you easily identify and view contacts — all in one place. Using the dashboard tool, you can update contact details, indicate a business type, and add contacts to a new 1099 default group with the tick of a box. To save you more time, you can also copy rules over from the previous year. 

Personalise your Executive Summary report – US

The new Executive Summary report will soon be available to customers in the US. It will be located in the new report centre and include a number of new features that you’ve requested, including more flexible date ranges, more comparative periods and the ability to add commentary text. You’ll also have the ability to save custom reports.