• General settings update
• Cash basis P&L
• Tweaking bank reconciliation
• Approve an invoice, add another

General settings update
Do you find yourself updating certain settings again and again? We’ve added a “favourite” function so you can add the settings you adjust the most to your dropdown menu.
Cash basis P&L
You can now get a different look at the numbers by running a cash basis P&L and Balance Sheet reports.
Tweaking bank reconciliation
We’ve improved the memorisation logic to make Xero create bank rules faster. We’ve also made some tweaks under the hood to improve performance if you churn through lots and lots of transactions.
Approve an invoice, add another
We’ve taken a step out of approving lots of invoices. From now on, when your clients approve one invoice, they’ll be taken straight to the next invoice rather than back to the invoice screen. Makes it easy to get into a rhythm so you can get through those invoices sooner rather than later.

The study (carried out by KPMG) made three key ten-year predictions for the Australian economy as more businesses adopt cloud software:

50% reduction in ICT costs
Significant improvements in business productivity and innovation
Long-run GDP increase of $3.32 billion per year
So why is this the case? What gives cloud software the potential to make such a meaningful, tangible difference to so many peoples’ lives?

Cutting costs by pooling resources

One of the big predictions the study made was that businesses will experience a 50% cut in ICT costs. This represents an enormous amount of money because ICT is such a huge part of any business.

The reason costs are predicted to fall is because cloud software is essentially a pooled resource. When you store your data in the cloud, you’re actually storing it in a large server that’s maintained by a third party, saving you the cost of purchasing and maintaining your own.

It’s the same principle we all use when we plug an appliance into the wall. By sharing the power grid and the power plants it connects to, we all save the cost of building expensive power plants in our homes.

Encouraging innovation with elastic consumption

The study also predicted increased innovation – businesses finding new ways to do things and offering new products and services. The reason for this predicted innovation is elastic consumption and the flexibility it offers.

Elastic consumption is the ability to consume as much or as little of a service as you need. If you think you’re going to need lots of power in the next couple years, you don’t have to take out a multimillion dollar loan and build or refurbish a power plant. Rather, you just pay more in the months you use more power and less in the months you use less power.

The same pricing structure applies to cloud software users. There are no (or small) upfront costs for cloud products, and there are lower (or no) costs associated with ceasing to use cloud products. You pay for it when you need it. And you stop paying when you don’t.

When you can consume elastically, you can move faster, with less risk. The barriers to trying new strategies and offering new services are lowered, thus encouraging innovation.

Boosting GDP

So how will all this boost Australian GDP by more than $3 billion a year? In a nutshell, it boils down to more productivity. One of the report’s conclusions was that “firms are able to produce greater amounts of output with the same level of input.”

Put another way, they’re doing more with less. They’re spending less time and money, and creating more. By boosting productivity, a business can expand into new markets, cut prices and make services more accessible, hire more staff, or make larger profits that end up back in the economy. And that’s a benefit that helps everyone.

What kind of productivity gains have you made by using cloud software?

Xero have just published the following on their blog:-

Last month, we were named Exporter of the Year at the annual NZ Hi-Tech Awards. It was interesting to note that, out of all the companies who won awards that night, ours was the only one accepted by a female employee (Global Training Manager Sue Pak).

We’re certainly not the only company that hires women, but the level of surprise people registered on the night highlighted a certain unfair stereotype: that tech companies can be “boys clubs.” I’m pleased to say that we certainly do not meet this stereotype. The Xero team has over 100 women working in all areas of the business, including HR, finance, customer care, sales and marketing, design, engineering, operations, software development and QA.

So with that in mind, I caught up with some of our talented women to hear their thoughts on working in the tech space and being part of the Xero team. Here’s what they had to say:

Australian based Toni McCulloch from Accounting North and Briohny de Vere of Bees Knees Bookkeeping are case in point that collaboration works.

For Toni the best outcome is achieved when the incoming information her accounting practice receives is accurate and fully reconciled. “This gives us the scope to focus the real issues at hand for the clients such as growth of the business, profit and cashflow,” she says.

Taking the bookkeeper perspective, Briohny says: “Whenever I get an accountant to review work for end-of-year, I always ask for feedback (yes positive and negative). Having an open relationship between the accountant, bookkeeper and client makes everyone’s life easier”.

How it can work?

To explain how the bookkeeper accountant relationship can work, Melanie Morris of Bookkeeping and Beyond Ltd offers this overview:

Generally day-to-day accounts functions can be undertaken by bookkeeper at a more cost effective rate than accountant such as Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, GST/ BAS returns.
Bookkeepers can notify and defer to an accountant on tricky transactions that require a higher level of expertise and which may have tax implications.
Accountants have a better understanding of the tax returns and get the best outcome for clients in terms of company set up, large purchases and depreciation.
Bookkeepers will bring any issues to the accountant throughout the year rather than wait until year-end.
The year-end work (undertaken by the accountant) should be more streamlined if accounts have been prepared by a good bookkeeper rather than someone without specialist knowledge in this area.
Accountants can outsource their overflow accounts work to a bookkeeper.
If the bookkeeper is taking care of the day-to-day accounts and base compliance, the accountant’s time is freed up to undertake the trusted financial advisor role by working with the client on business growth, strategic planning and cashflow budgeting.
Sometimes we hear about friction between the two groups but I believe this stems from the lack of visibility and transparency inherent when using desktop accounting systems, resulting in a lag in completing a client’s accounts. Products like Xero are paving the way for better collaboration between bookkeepers and accountants because both sides can now be working on the same set of data for their mutual clients.

At StressFreeBookkeeping we have a fantastic relationship with the staff at Accounting Visions and the Xero software we use encourages that co-operation. The client, ourselves and an accountant can all see the bookkeeping on line we do not need to be all together in a room! That is technology at its best.

Over the last year, the Xero Add-on Partner program has more than doubled to over 90 certified solutions now integrating directly with Xero. They’re from all over the world, and range from startups to large corporations.

Xero has essentially reached a point where most of the big-picture stuff is taken care of with regional representation across a range of categories.

But the ecosystem is far from complete. They have loads of small business customers who still don’t have an integration between Xero and the key application they use or need to run their business.

It seems like many of the old guard have not yet woken up to the fast pace of change that now dictates the software industry. But their customers have. The result is there are gaps in niche areas, such as:

Childcare: childcare management systems
Education: student management systems – regional specialists: NZ, Australia, UK & US
Farming: farm management software
Tourism: reservation & property management systems

These gaps mean opportunity for the right people. Whether you are an established player, or are just working on your first version, our global customer base is creating a market for industry applications that work seamlessly with Xero. You can tap into that market if you’re prepared to move fast.

If you’re interested in Xero Add-on Partner opportunities, we would love to hear from you – get in touch. We have customers waiting for you.

Highly successful entrepreneurs live more in their balance sheet than their Profit and Loss. The P&L is a short-term view of the operating status of the business. The balance sheet tells you where the future is and how to resource the business for growth. Pre-empting where your cashflow will be 6 to 12 months out is critical. All too often entrepreneurs grow their business, run out of cash and end up raising funds under desperate circumstances, which can be expensive.

I caught up with a friend recently who is helping investors from offshore find solid businesses to support. The businesses will not only receive $10m but the investors will use their skills and networks to open up opportunities in foreign markets. Strategic investors such as these can be a huge help to a business. While a cash injection is one thing, having doors opened for you can’t be underestimated.

Funding your business can take several turns and you should always be thinking ahead to the next step. Take Xero for example. Initially the founders funded the business; a second funding round involved employees, directors and strategic investors; the next step was a stock market listing; further capital has since been raised through strategic and retail investors as well as institutions offshore.

So how do you find strategic investors? This is much harder than finding good customers and it needs to be part of your business strategy. Here are some suggestions:

Start with those closest to you. While I don’t recommend taking money from family unless they are already experienced investors, they may be able to help you find the next person to speak to.
Look to your team or your customers. Quite often your employees will be interested in investing because they know the business. In my experience people with ‘skin’ in the game tend to push harder to make the business a success.
Find an Angel Investor to mentor you and fund you through to the next stage. These people will invest in people not ideas. Build your networks and ask for 30 minute coffee meetings to do a pitch. But do your homework first. The person you are approaching needs to be the right fit.
Move onto VC or Strategic Investors. Generally your Angel will help with this. But don’t worry, as you execute your business, pick up momentum and build your PR, you will get approached. That said it pays to seek these guys out 6 to 12 months before you need the money. Presenting your story and then coming back six months later and demonstrating you have achieved what you said you would is gold for investors.
Most important of all is to have an ongoing KPI around your equity story.

This article was reproduced from the Xero blog and shows the commitment the Company has to growning your business.

We’d love to hear your insights or questions about equity in business.

Who is it for?
Anyone involved in retailing. If you have customer and sales data in Xero and want to use this to drive repeat business, Peoplemine is worth considering.

How Peoplemine works with Xero
Peoplemine extracts and uses key data such as contacts, inventory items and invoices from your Xero organisation for detailed reporting and analysis. It automatically synchronizes at regular intervals to keep the data up to date.

Where you can use Peoplemine
Anywhere and pricing is available in all the same currencies as Xero.

Check it out
For more details on Peoplemine and to sign up for a free 14 day trial, check it out here.