Supercharge these five Xero features with apps

The new financial year in Australia is here, bringing with it a fresh wave of opportunities and, let’s be honest, a bit of a paperwork pile-up.

As a small business owner, you’re no doubt always looking for ways to streamline operations, boost efficiency, and ultimately, supercharge your business. Using Xero to manage your books is a fantastic start, but did you know you can unlock even more power from Xero by connecting to the right apps? 

Xero is designed to simplify your finances, but even greater potential lies in its huge ecosystem of connected apps. Seamlessly integrated with Xero, these apps allow you to extend its capabilities and tailor workflows to your unique business needs.

This financial year, find out how apps can supercharge some of your favourite Xero features, helping you achieve new levels of efficiency and profitability.

1. Beyond payroll: Simplify employee management

Xero’s payroll function makes it easy to pay your staff and meet ATO requirements. On the Xero App Store you can find apps that connect to Xero payroll to help save time onboarding employees, tracking time and managing leave requests. 

These apps can be particularly handy for businesses with diverse teams or complex scheduling.

Apps to try:

• XonBoard helps you manage new employee onboarding, ensuring a smooth start for your new hires. From collecting documents to automating government obligations, it takes the manual hassle out of the process. 
• Timedock offers precise time tracking. Integrating seamlessly with Xero payroll, this app captures accurate work hours, breaks, and even job costing data. This means less manual entry and more accurate payroll, freeing up valuable time for you and your team.

2. Invoicing made easy: Take the pain out of getting paid

Cash flow is the lifeblood of any small business, and Xero’s invoicing features are fantastic for sending professional invoices, tracking payments and sending invoice reminder emails. Apps can help you encourage timely payments and improve your cash flow without feeling like you’re hounding your customers.

Apps to try:

• Statey helps automate the process of sending customer statements, giving your clients a clear overview of their outstanding balances on a regular basis. 
• Paidnice takes invoice reminders a step further by offering automated payment reminders via SMS, and even the option to apply prompt payment discounts or late payment fees directly through Xero.

3. Expenses managed smoothly: Streamline bills and expenses

Managing bills and expenses can be time-consuming, but it’s essential for accurate financial reporting and tax purposes. Xero makes it easy to track your spending, whether reimbursing staff expenses or paying bills. Connected apps can significantly reduce the amount of manual data entry and therefore human error in these processes, giving you more accurate financial records with less effort.

Apps to try:

• Dext makes it easy to keep track of invoices and expenses. Snap a photo of a receipt on the go, email receipts and documents, or sync bank feeds and Dext will extract the key information and publish it to Xero.
• ApprovalMax provides multi-step approval processes for bills, purchase orders, and even sales invoices, ensuring that the right people sign off before anything gets paid. 
• ExpenseOnDemand offers flexible expense management for your team, allowing employees to submit expenses easily while maintaining control and visibility for you. 

4. Sales and inventory, supercharged

No matter what or where you are selling, managing sales and inventory efficiently is key to boosting profitability. Xero helps you manage up to 4,000 finished items in your inventory, and add items to invoices and purchase orders. 

Specialised apps can support you as you launch into ecommerce or expand your inventory volumes, keeping all of your data synced with Xero.

Apps to try:

• Square integrates seamlessly with Xero, allowing you to easily reconcile sales directly from your point-of-sale system.
• A2X automates the reconciliation of your online marketplace sales (using platforms like Amazon or Shopify) with Xero, ensuring every sale and fee is accurately recorded, no matter where it happens.
• Cin7 Core offers advanced inventory management features like ecommerce integrations, robust reporting, and B2B portals, all syncing with your Xero account. 

5. Drive project success: Boost profitability of jobs and projects

For service-based businesses, understanding the profitability of each job or project is critical. The project-tracking feature in Xero’s Ultimate plans help you track time and project costs within Xero. For more complex projects and jobs, apps can provide granular insights into costs as well as help with resourcing and revenue, keeping you constantly in control and helping you make informed decisions to boost your bottom line.

Apps to try:

• ROLL helps professional services businesses with employee resourcing, detailed time and expense tracking, and comprehensive project reporting, giving you a clear picture of each project’s financial health. 
• Tradify and ServiceM8 are invaluable for trade and service businesses, assisting with accurate quoting, managing field staff, timesheets, and customer communication to ensure your jobs run smoothly and profitably from start to finish.

Ready to supercharge your business this year?

Streamlining any one of these five areas – managing employees, getting paid, handling expenses, simplifying sales, and boosting project profitability – can help your small business this financial year. By connecting Xero with the right apps, you’re not just optimising your accounting; you’re working to build a more efficient, profitable, and ultimately, more beautiful business.

Explore all the apps that can power up the new financial year in the Xero App Store.