With the end of financial year approaching we have released an update to Payroll and are also holding free training sessions online and in our Melbourne and Sydney offices to get you ready and give you an opportunity to ask any questions you have. Book now before space runs out.

EOFY processing now easier

With an all-new design with all-new features our goal with Payment Summaries was to make this important activity simpler, more useful and dare I say it, more enjoyable. Creation and printing in bulk, sending to all your employees at once via email, capturing workplace giving and union/association fees, creation of amended payment summaries both on the employee copy and the ATO file are some of the great new features you will find today. Watch the video below or read our help to find out more.

Also with the change to the SGC rate from 9% to 9.25% coming from July 1st we wanted to take the pain out of updating your employees. Moving employees to the new statutory rate has been automatically taken care for you so you don’t have to do anything. Great news.

And your tax tables have been updated as we do every year, automatically.

Using Auto Super?

If you are using Auto Super in Payroll, the last business day of the financial year is on Friday, 28th June. To ensure your super payments are processed and funds remitted within the 2013 financial year, you must have your super batches submitted and approved before 1pm (AEST), Friday 21st June.

In the building and construction industry?

If your business pays contractors for building and construction services, you need to report these payments to the ATO on a Taxable payments annual report. Now you can easily identify reportable transactions and create the electronic annual report data file. Watch the video.

With the updates available this week, not only is the product more capable, you are, too.

If you like what you see and haven’t yet made the switch to Xero check out our conversion partners to start the new financial year on the right foot.

For full details please check out our release notes.

The post Helping you through the Australian EOFY appeared first on Xero Blog.

L-R Joshua, Corey, Tom, Chris, Steph (Also in team – Alexandra and Davinder)

This is an activity of the Young Enterprise Trust, of which Xero is a proud sponsor. The scheme sees hundreds of secondary students working in groups throughout the year developing entrepreneurial skill sets to spark new directions for themselves. Earlier this year Owen Evans talked of his role as a judge at the Wellington East Girls College event.

On arrival the first news which greeted us was one of our team was out for medical reasons caused by stress. We were now a team of seven. The evening was a chance to ensure our team got to know each other and get any awkward dynamics out of the way early and to motivate them for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday’s challenge was issued at 9am:

To develop a business proposal to increase tourism visitation and income for a national, regional, or local tourist attraction, which you will present to a panel of venture funders. These investors are particularly interested in business ideas where you need to apply science and technology to manage the environmental issues. You will need to balance the revenue needed to sustain profitability, against the cost of preserving and improving the attractions environment for future generations of tourists.

Our team brainstormed ideas, they were still a little nervous of each other at this stage. The idea everyone agreed on was self-fertilising seed paint-gun bullets to regenerate selected areas of New Zealand with native plants.

Over the next four or so hours they worked on formulating the ideas into a business plan and presentation. We arranged for Xero CEO Rod Drury to skype at 2pm for an informal “Dragon’s Den” practice pitch. The feedback was honest & well deserved – it gave our team the motivation needed to fill the holes in their plans and presentation. The energy and passion went up a couple of gears and they way they turned themselves and their work around in the next hour and a half was impressive. We were last to present, this extra time was well used honing the presentation to be word perfect and pleased to say it went smoothly. Rod would not have recognized it as the same presentation he’d seen at 2pm!

Unfortunately though, the supporting business plan wasn’t strong enough to win. The team, both students and mentors, handled the disappointment with grace and talked about what improvements were needed for their performance on Sunday. The challenge for the next day was then issued before we left – “To create an apple based product and develop a market entry strategy to export that product to Australia.”

Sunday 8am – six students arrived at the Xero offices – yes we had lost one to injury. The remaining students though had been researching and collaborating into the wee hours and were full of enthusiasm. An idea quickly developed – the product was to be gummy apple candies made out of dehydrated apple cider vinegar and targeted at teenagers to ‘eat away your acne’.

This business plan had to be submitted by 2.30pm and the team was mindful of maximizing every minute effectively. The atmosphere was charged from all the light-bulb moments happening occasionally as concepts began to fall into place. They were so confident from seeing such improvement in their outputs, that when a visiting judge arrived to answer any questions, the team felt they didn’t have any. Luckily a few well-placed nudges reminded them the value of this opportunity!

The business plan was submitted, and we had half an hour to work on the presentation and to return to Massey campus. We were first up this time. For such short preparation time the team rose to the challenge – even if one guy went rogue and presented something completely different to what was practiced back in office! Fortunately it didn’t impact the result.

In the hour or so we had to wait for news of our fate us mentors took time out to debrief with the students, as we had the previous day, asking them for their thoughts, lowlights, and highlights. All three of us were impressed with the self-awareness the students showed and interestingly both day’s results and feedback accurately reflected the student’s own thoughts.

Unfortunately our team didn’t win the second day’s challenge either. Although to look at the students, you wouldn’t know it. Their drive, and passion for business, was ignited and were already talking about how to make their ideas happen in the real world.

For myself personally, I’m filled with pride with what the team achieved. I’ve reflected on areas where I could have helped them better, and am looking forward to having another opportunity to do this with another great team of kids next year.

The post Tomorrow’s entrepreneurs appeared first on Xero Blog.

Rick Solomon

Guest Post by Rick Solomon, a CPA and the CEO of RAN ONE Americas. He is also an inspiring and motivational presenter who challenges thousands of CPAs and other professional advisors to expand their view of themselves and the value they bring to their clients.

This is the second in our series on the Virtual CFO.

Accountants have an extraordinarily rich opportunity to grow revenue by offering virtual CFO services. It’s one of the most natural, organic ways to grow an accounting practice. Most clients have little if any understanding of the financial side of their business, including how to use their accounting information to improve business results.

The CFO role is a natural for accountants and in my experience those who offer these services are finding a great deal of receptivity among many of their clients. It’s also a great differentiator in attracting new clients. The only question is, what internal changes must an accounting firm undergo to better serve their clients by providing virtual CFO services, and growing their profits as a result?

The first internal change that is required has to do with mindset. It requires stepping back and rethinking our role and relationship with clients. Think about it. Most business owners have a huge unmet need when it comes to CFO type thinking. Many of them are not aware of this need because they don’t know what it is, or that it might be available to them from their accountant. The required mindset shift means that rather than seeing the traditional accounting reports we deliver as the end product, we must view them a starting point for virtual CFO services.

It helps profits and efficiency quite a bit when the technology we use to produce financial reports provides the information we need to successfully engage in the virtual CFO role without extra effort. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you could just give this financial information to the client and they will know what to do with it. They might if they have an accounting degree, but they probably don’t. Your role is to decipher the financial data, a foreign language to most clients, and turn it into usable information that can impact their business.

If you want to get the best possible results from your virtual CFO services, you need a game plan. Start by identifying the skills needed to play the CFO role. Accountants probably have 80% to 90% of the knowledge needed to be superb CFOs. Typically there’s a bit of a learning curve, or at least the need to brush up on a few things. Some reading to better understand the CFO role could be worthwhile.

One of the keys to the successful virtual CFO role is having an expanded view of things that your client is probably unaware of. For example, it would be helpful to access industry benchmarks to compare client results to others in their industry. This can provide a wealth of information, such as identifying areas where improvements can be made. Additional virtual CFO services might include such things as monthly financial review meetings to discuss results of operations with suggestions for improvement; Cash flow forecasting, Ratio analysis, budgeting, and so on.

In deciding who in the firm will be playing this role, keep in mind it is a great professional development opportunity for much of your professional staff. For accounting professionals who are skilled at producing financial reports, the next natural area of growth would be to learn what that information tells us and how it can be used to help clients improve their business. As they grow, your firm grows.

Which brings us to the next important skill – communication. I firmly believe that to be successful, a professional must not only master their technical skills, but must also develop their communication skills. We need the ability to effectively communicate complex technical information in simple, understandable ways. We must establish a comfortable, trusting relationship with clients if we are to be an effective virtual CFO. We also need the skills to effectively communicate with clients about the value of virtual CFO services in a way that motivates them to engage and pay.

The bottom line is simple. There’s no downside to stepping into the virtual CFO role. It can be a very big win for clients, your team, and your firm. What are you waiting for?

Check out our next Virtual CFO seminar.

The post Preparing to be a Virtual CFO appeared first on Xero Blog.

Setting up to use Surface Pro at the Xero HQ

When the Surface Pro was released in New Zealand, I decided to jump head first into a world where I don’t have a desktop or even a powerful laptop anymore but instead work off a tiny 10.6″ device. I work in the operations team as an Infrastructure Engineer here at Xero HQ and the idea of abandoning my powerful PC for a lightweight alternative seemed quite scary at first.

We build our software online, so naturally believe that it should be possible to do accounting on any device, anywhere, not just from a desk in an office. We’re always looking at better ways to work and the Surface Pro presents a brand new opportunity to look at how the idea of working on an ultra portable device full time could actually work.

My job involves being up-to-date pretty much every moment of the day (and sometimes through the night) monitoring systems that make our platform tick, responding to alerts as they come in as well as keeping our developers happy. Being able to carry my device and emails with me everywhere I go is incredibly useful and makes it easier to deal with things as they come in rather than catching up (and drowning in email) every time I go away from and come back to my desk. It makes a huge difference being able to respond to an issue on the spot when your PC never leaves your side.

I’m two and a half weeks into a month long experiment in which I put my somewhat overpowered  desktop-replacement laptop away and am using the Surface Pro full time. To my surprise, it’s been extremely positive. The device just looks like any other tablet (perhaps a slightly chubby tablet)  from far away, but the power of being able to run any Windows application is much more compelling than I thought it would be.

Setting up for work

If I was given a Surface Pro and a desk to work at for my job I’d be a bit upset. While the display on the Surface is beautiful (coming in at 1920 x 1080 on a 10.6” display) it’s a bit small to get any real work done without ending up with headaches from squinting. That said, to work on the device full time – as well as comfortably – I have managed to find what I believe to be the perfect solution.

The Surface only has one USB 3.0 port, but luckily over the last few months USB docks with video out ports have become readily available. We have a few spare HP 3005pr port replicators lying around in the office so I used one of those which has a DVI port, HDMI port, a gigabit network port, four USB 2.0 ports, and sound in/out. Somehow, this all works over a single USB port which is amazing in itself.

Connecting a Surface Pro to multiple devices

This means I am able to plug in two 1080p external monitors (I could even do three if I used the built in mini-Displayport plug on the Surface) as well as network and my mouse with just one USB port. Every time I’m away and come back to my desk it’s simple to just plug in the Surface and keep working.

How the Surface Pro works better

Having a device that is as portable as the Surface Pro makes a world of difference for a number of reasons. Having a full Windows computer in such a small package is extremely freeing and is a breath of fresh air. It’s so easy to just pick it and take it anywhere.

Unlike my laptop, which didn’t go many places with me, I take the Surface Pro to meetings, coffee catch ups and pretty much everywhere else I went. It ultimately ended up even replacing my physical notebook (despite my reservations about the stylus being a bit old school) it’s quite nice to take notes directly on the device I use for everything. Now I can’t just lose all that paper! Using Onenote MX meant I was able to scratch down notes in much the same fashion I would during meetings into a physical notebook.

The device was a talking point, too, with many people I met remarking how interesting the Surface looks and their reaction when I told them it was my entire work PC was always priceless. If someone walked up to my workstation, they’d do a doubletake when they realized the screens and everything were working off such a tiny little tablet.

When on the go it’s a pleasure to use thanks to that high resolution screen, too. A large chunk of business grade laptops come with sub-par displays (generally something like 1366×768) that are frustratingly bad to use and ultimately leaves little room to work in. The ability just pull off the keyboard and go properly mobile is quite useful, especially in meetings where having a laptop propped up in front of you is actually quite rude.

The Surface Pro has a high resolution screen and detachable keyboard

The Surface has two different keyboard options. First, there’s the touch keyboard, which is similar to the smart cover for the iPad but has a touch keyboard built in (the keys are slightly raised but don’t physically move). Then there’s the type keyboard, which is for more serious typing. It’s made of similar materials as the touch but has mechanical keys so is much better for writing long documents or emails on the go. Both keyboards have tiny little touchpads built in right at the front so you can use the mouse.

When I’m away from my desk I carry both versions of the keyboard and if anyone was to ask me which I prefer, I’d enthusiastically say ‘both!’ The touch is a great keyboard for when you’re not planning on doing a lot of typing (it’s definitely got a learning curve but it does grow on you) whereas the type is great for those emails that end up more like novels.

The small, but useful, trackpad on both keyboards is augmented nicely by being able to interact directly with elements on the screen with touch. I’d say that’s part of the magic – being able to just directly tap an element on the screen it becomes leagues more natural to interact with a computer. Why would you drag a mouse around when you can just tap on what you want to use?

The media seems to paint a strange picture about this, they think it’s too hard to reach over the keyboard and touch the screen. Quotes like “Reaching over to a touchscreen is too difficult, and too imprecise” from PC World make it seem like touch doesn’t make any sense, but I disagree. When you’re presented with either touch or using a trackpad sometimes tapping things on the screen just makes a heap more sense and is considerably more natural than using a mouse.

The most amazing thing about using the Surface Pro is having the full version of Windows in such a small package. I can use lots of desktop applications at once, as well as the new ‘Modern’ style touch based ones if I want to. Windows 8 makes so much more sense when touch is involved; I often find myself working on the desktop with a chat window or my email attached on the side of my screen. I’ve never been sure about how touch would fit into my workflow, but just having the option of a Modern style application snapped to the side of the screen meant that I developed new habits. It was often easier to just touch the screen and reply then it was to click around and open the desktop version of the application.

As for performance, the Surface Pro certainly doesn’t leave me wanting, even as someone who runs virtual machines and often has a significant number of applications running. It doesn’t miss a beat, even when powering those external screens! Considering that the Surface Pro features a Intel Core i5 quad-core with 4GB of RAM, it’s pretty powerful.

The thing I loved most was that it doesn’t create an obnoxious (or even noticeable) amount of fan noise when cooling itself unlike many business laptops. My only complaint would be that there aren’t models with a bit more RAM right now but it’s unlikely the average user would need more than 4GB of RAM.

Unfortunately there’s only one set angle

There’s one big disadvantage of being part tablet and part ultrabook that I found, which comes down to the way that the device can be angled when in use.. It’s got one angle and only one for on a tabletop, so if you want to angle it any other way you’ll need to hold it yourself. It’s not a problem in most cases, but if you were to want to use the Surface on the couch or in an armchair, you have to disconnect the keyboard and go into tablet mode.

The not so good

Unfortunately some of these freedoms come with bad sides. The Surface Pro is an all round good device but because Windows 8 is such a version one touch product, it’s really not great in a lot of cases. The first and biggest issue I had with it is when it comes to DPI scaling. Because the pixel density is so high on the Surface, Windows uses DPI scaling to scale elements large enough to read and touch on such a small screen.

This works fine on the device itself, but when you plug in external screens it becomes an issue. Windows isn’t smart enough to scale per screen yet, so the external screens get that scaling too, making elements large and stretched in some cases. This meant when I was working on external monitors I would have to disable the scaling for the external screens and things on the Surface’s built in screen would become very tiny.

The other disappointing thing about the Surface line of devices in general is that there’s no 3G/LTE out of the box. It would make much more sense if the device could be online all the time, but at least it’s compatible with USB modems for now. In Wellington we’re lucky to have a CBD-wide WiFi network, so it’s not too much of an issue, but there were times when I wanted to get online and couldn’t without making a hotspot on my phone.

My other annoyance is that Microsoft is yet to release a proper touch-friendly version of Office 2013. The current version has ‘touch mode’ but all it does is slightly space out the elements and rearrange them for the screen size. The applications are OK, but I do wonder just how much more useful it would be to have a fully touch compatible Office suite. I just can’t fathom why there isn’t even a preview version of this available yet.

My final issue with the device is the onscreen keyboard. It’s not very good and makes using the Surface in tablet mode far more difficult than it needs to be; it’s oversized and not particularly good at recognizing what you’re trying to type. Autocomplete seems to be essentially non-existent and the keyboard doesn’t even suggest as you type, which has come to be expected on mobile devices..

A lot of the issues I have with the Surface Pro are likely to be solved later this month with the release of the Windows 8.1 preview. The high-DPI issue with external screens is apparently resolved and the OS now lets you choose per screen, which resolves my biggest annoyance with the device. The keyboard is getting some love too, with auto-updating suggestions and better prediction as well as a bunch of other touch enhancements.

All this said, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Surface Pro to businesses that are looking for ways to get their staff more mobile. As Ultrabooks have slowly caught on over the last year, this is the first time I’ve ever considered a tablet PC completely able to replace my entire workflow.

If you have any questions about the Surface Pro, feel free to ask them in the comments and I’ll answer them for you!

This is an abridged version of a post written by Owen that appeared on The Next Web.

The post Exploring the Surface Pro at work appeared first on Xero Blog.

The reply-to address can either be the address of the person logged into Xero – useful for smaller organizations, or can be any specific email address such as accounts@yourbusiness.com – for when there are multiple people sending and you want to centralize replies.

Check out how it works in this short video.

Note that before the release, we used a technique called email impersonation – this meant that it looked like emails were actually coming from the logged in user’s email address even though they were being sent from Xero’s mail servers. This sometimes causes email to be blocked by spam filters as this is a common hacker’s trick. To avoid this, all emails are now being sent from an unmonitored Xero email address but you get to control the display name that your customers will see in their inbox. You control the reply-to address, so your clients will most likely be none the wiser and you can rest easy that all your emails will make it through.

Some other things that got released today include:

• Taxable Payments Annual Report (Australia) – we blogged about this earlier this month and even have a quick overview video. Great news for all those Australians in the building and construction industry who are now required to report contract payments to the ATO.

• eWAY, a new payment service – we’ve added support for eWAY, a brand new payment service

• Inventory item codes in invoice imports – great news for those of you converting from other systems (or who “encouraged” us to shake the proverbial on this Community request feature). You can now include an inventory item code in your invoice import for and Xero will automatically create the inventory items for you as part of the import process.

For full details check out our release notes.

The post More control over your emails appeared first on Xero Blog.

We purchased a couple of Chromebooks for use as demonstration machines at an exhibition in London last week, and being the curious sort I adopted one for a few days to test out the viability of running a Chromebook as a full time PC replacement.

It was a very interesting experiment that I’ll document over a couple of posts.

What is a Chromebook?

The Chromebook product category is a Google invention designed to support the search engine giant’s desire to displace Microsoft from the enterprise and business world by providing a viable alternative to Windows PCs and Microsoft Office with Google Apps and Chromebook hardware.

Like Xero, Google senses that just like the prior shifts from 1950’s mainframe computing to 1980′s PC based client server computing, the next big shift to cloud computing is now well underway. And while our existing hardware real estate is capable of straddling both worlds thanks to the browser, the typical PC form factor has a bunch of kit that’s effectively redundant in a cloud computing world – not least the dependencies required to support local file storage – both on-device storage like hard disks as well as the knock-on requirement this creates for local file server infrastructure, too.

So, the theory goes; if we’re increasingly moving towards a cloud computing world where we run apps like Xero in a browser, then why not wrap some computer hardware around just the browser itself and leave all the classic PC and local network baggage behind.

Therefore at its most simplistic level, a Chromebook is exactly that – a web browser with an attached screen and a keyboard.

Déjà vu, all over again

When you think about it though, as transitions go this is not actually as revolutionary a concept as you might imagine at first.

For the first half of its existence the Windows operating system was effectively an app (just like a web browser is today) that you installed and launched on top of the MS-DOS operating system, and it wasn’t really until Windows 95 that the final remnants of MS-DOS dependency effectively vanished and Windows 95 became self-standing operating system all on its own. And so with the Chromebook it’s like history repeating itself all over again, with the now ubiquitous web browser having existed for a similar amount of time as an app before ejecting its host operating system and going solo.

And just as Microsoft had to ensure that Windows provided legacy support for MS-DOS apps for years after Windows 95 launched, so too does the cloudy Chromebook retain a small amount of legacy support in the form of local storage – mine had 16GB of super fast flash storage – in recognition of the fact that Chromebook users will still require to collaborate with non-Chromebook users and swap files around, and also to support offline working because we don’t yet live in a world where internet connectivity is omnipresent.

Critics might naturally point to the presence of these legacy features as evidence that the world is not ready for a device like the Chromebook, but when viewed in the historical context it’s perfectly logical for them to be there to support the transition just like the legacy MS-DOS support in Windows. The Chromebook is a vehicle, not yet a destination.

From the outside a Chromebook looks pretty much like any regular notebook computer. I used the Samsung 3 series with its 11” screen, and as far as dimensions and weight go it’s almost a perfect plastic doppelganger for my 11” MacBook Air.

If the outside is all comfortably familiar then it’s when you open the lid and fire one up that you begin to notice the changes.

Of course, there needs to be a little more to a Chromebook than just an abstracted web browser app suspended conceptually in an operating system vacuum, so Chromebooks necessarily come with Google’s ChromeOS operating system to provide for practical things like setting up user accounts and a small number of control panel like options for changing your desktop wallpaper and configuring WiFi.

However, beyond fleeting glimpses of the ChromeOS chassis sitting behind the scenes, anyone who has used the Google Chrome web browser on a Windows PC or Mac will be instantly at home.

In the second part of this piece I’ll dig into my real world experiences of using a Chromebook; what’s good, what needs work and how I think it might have fundamentally changed the way I work with apps.

The post Chromebook : The future of computing? appeared first on Xero Blog.

There was a wide cross section of business and government leaders from across Australia and topics ranged from cloud computing, e-health, online government services, telework and regional development. 

Regardless of political differences over the NBN rollout, there is no question about the importance of high speed broadband in Australia, and if the opinions from attendees at the conference was anything to go by then this is a hugely important initiative for Australia’s future.

Chris Ridd and Hon Stephen Conroy

Stephen Conroy, the Federal Minister for the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, opened the conference with an upbeat assessment of the opportunity presented by the NBN to Australia’s digital future and announcing an update to the government’s National Digital Economy Strategy.

This strategy announcement is “the next step to realising the Government’s vision for Australia’s Digital Future” and where a number of initiatives were announced covering the rollout of online services from government agencies, a roadmap for mobile technology initiatives and various education programs aimed at driving digital awareness.

Of particular interest to me was this last area of developing awareness, something that is critical for the government to provide more funding to in order to help small business become better informed about the compelling technology options now available to them via cloud. I was invited along with Steph Hinds from Newcastle-based accountancy firm Growthwise, to present the Cloud Computing stream and also participated in the speakers panel, along with Nick Bates (ACS) and Keith Besgrove, the DBCDE’s principal advisor on Cloud Computing.

There was a consistent message from all speakers about the inevitable dominance of cloud computing in both business and government due to the economic advantages as well as the flexibility and productivity gains that it provides. There were many real life examples explored during the session, particularly from Steph Hinds who covered case studies across retail, trade services and hospitality.

Questions from the audience during the speakers panel reflected ongoing concerns from a number of attendees about the legal, security and privacy risks that surround cloud computing. It was great to hear directly from Keith Besgrove, clearly an objective authority on the subject, dispeling a number of the myths and offer assurances about the Government’s commitment to ensure cloud computing prospers in Australia. He spoke about the Government’s work over the past 12 months in consulting with industry to create a cloud protocol that will ensure transparency of approaches and requirements of high standards from cloud providers. This is all laid out in the government’s recent paper –  “The National Cloud Computing Strategy”.

I’m pleased to say that Xero was consulted on early drafts of the paper and we are even profiled as a case study (see Page 25 of the paper) as demonstration of the momentum behind cloud computing in the small businesses sector in Australia.

The post Cloud computing and digital productivity appeared first on Xero Blog.

Bill.com allows users to pay vendors, get paid by customers, manage the payment approval process, as well as track payments online. The solution offers role-based controls, audit trails, and streamlined collections with ACH and Credit Card payment processing.  Combined with Xero, Bill.com makes it easy to get a comprehensive and instant view of cash flow.

Who is it for?

Bill.com is a great tool for anyone who is looking to grow their business by implementing cloud-based accounts receivable and accounts payable capabilities.

How Bill.com works with Xero

Once connected, users can sync their Xero Chart of Accounts with Bill.com and easily pay bills with a click of a button within the Bill.com application. All payment and billing activity seamlessly reconciles within Xero!

Where you can use Bill.com

Bill.com is available to US customers, and is a great way to pay and get paid online. Their business-to-business payments network is unique in the industry, and can help facilitate your business’s move to the cloud!

Check it out

For a free no-risk trial of Bill.com, check out Bill.com for Xero today.

The post Bill.com – command and control your cash flow appeared first on Xero Blog.

With the growth in the API, and the inclusion of the additional Payroll API, it was time to build a new home. We’ve taken all the good aspects of the previous site, restructured our home page, documentation and getting started guide, and implemented a new main navigation menu that gets you to the important stuff right away.

Developer partners
We also have a new home for our developer partner program. Here you will find not just information on our various developer partner programs such as Add-on and Xero Developer, but also some fantastic testimonials from some of our partners on the ecosystem we have built together:

What next?
We’ll further integrate our developer community and application management sites into the new interface in the coming months for an even more seamless developer experience.

Your input
To build an API that developers can pick up and develop against quickly and easily, we need to have excellent documentation and code samples. We’ve been flattered by feedback so far on this, but we know there is more to do.

Let us know in the comments if you have ideas on what we can do better.

The post Redesigned API Developer Center appeared first on Xero Blog.

With another release just around the corner we thought we’d give you all a heads up that on Monday 17th June we will be adding support for eWAY. eWAY is a global payment gateway allowing business owners to accept credit card payments via Xero online invoices.

eWAY was started 15 years ago and their focus has been on how to make payments easy. Combine that with our beautiful accounting system and you’ve got even easier online payments!

eWAY customers in Australia, Zealand and the UK will be able to take advantage of this integration next week, which is a great compliment to the other services we’ve hooked up with – if you’re not already a customer check out their website (in New Zealand, Australia or the UK) and see if you like what they have to offer.

If you already use Xero, eWAY has a bonus reason for you to get started – two months free, no setup fee, no fee to accept American Express, and no lock in contracts. And if you are already a Xero Partner Bookkeeper or Accountant then eWAY have more reasons for you to get started –  a free $100 iTunes voucher (when you become an eWAY Partner) and 2 months free trial (when you register as an eWAY Merchant).

Now eWAY isn’t the only thing we’re releasing next Monday, but I won’t spoil the surprise here – come back and read all about it next week.

The post eWAY – coming soon appeared first on Xero Blog.

Guest Post by Josh Zweig, principal of LiveCA: 

“Surprise!”

It’s not really what you want to hear from your accountant at the end of the year. Unfortunately, many business owners live in fear of such a response every billing season.

The billable hour has long been the holy grail of the accounting industry – put your head down, do the work, then punch the clock and send the invoice. How the work is done is irrelevant; the client is simply charged for the hours it takes to get the work done.

But as business owners around the world become more conscious of just what it is they’re paying for, the focus is moving to the ‘how you get the work done’ part of the equation. In Australia, for example, a number of CPA firms offer pricing that’s based on the value of the work rather than the time spent on it — fixed fees, monthly plans and even transparent prices on their website. Currently, Canadian business owners would be hard pressed to get an accurate estimate from their accountant, let alone fixed fees.

So why haven’t Canadian firms jumped on the value pricing bandwagon? Perhaps it’s because they’re simply not aware of the alternative. Changing to a value pricing model means changing the way your firm does business. It means the possibility of underpricing and losing money, or overpricing and losing clients. In short, it’s a risk – and we all know how accountants feel about risk.

However, in countries where value pricing is more prevalent, some accounting firms are switching pricing models as a means of staying competitive. As the practice of value pricing in CPA/CA firms in Canada is relatively new, competition is virtually non-existent. If there are no competitors in the space, firms reason, why go to the trouble of switching models?

The fact is there is competition in Canada – although many accountants will only be reminded of it come billing season when the all too familiar question is asked: “Why was my bill so high this year?” A range of low-cost accounting options has forced a number of accountants to compete on costs, often resulting in an embittered business owner and a frustrated accountant who feels underappreciated and undervalued.

By using the value pricing model, the accountant can be motivated to improve the client’s system year-over-year, as better metrics on a timely basis mean higher returns. This translates into happier clients and an accountant who can add major value to a business. Suddenly, the accountant is not competing solely on price anymore, but in the amount of value he or she can add to the client’s business.

It sounds great in theory. The challenge is to develop attractive prices and service options for both the accountant and the client. The model certainly isn’t perfect, but hopefully Canadian accountants can learn a thing or two from their counterparts downunder and begin to implement value billing practices, particularly as business owners start to realise that what they want to pay for are results, not hours worked.

All of which means business owners should never have to hear the word “Surprise” again.

The post Canada and the end of the billable hour appeared first on Xero Blog.

This week I’m at Apple’s big event of the year – the World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco. Yesterday’s keynote introduced the next major release of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 7.

Following the unexpectedly rapid departure of Scott Forstall as the Senior Vice President of iOS Software at Apple last October, speculation had been mounting that significant changes were in the air for iOS 7, which is exactly what we got.

Most obviously, iOS 7 takes a radically different visual design approach from the previous iterations of the operating system, which until now could be considered on the more skeuomorphic end of the spectrum. That is, the visual design reflected highly detailed graphics simulating real world objects, to give users hints and clues as to how a particular app was to be used. For example buttons had outlines, gradients, and shadows, just like real world mechanical buttons, providing a familiar cue to users that it was a button, which could therefore be tapped, and would perform a given action.

iOS 7 takes an entirely different approach, gone are the gradients, shadows, and textures. The new visual style is flat, very flat. Buttons no longer have outlines to indicate they’re buttons, instead colour is being used to identify those elements which are tappable. The system typography has been thinned to use a light variant of Helvetica Neue.

The revamp will inevitably draw comparisons to Windows Phone 8′s look. It appears some of the apps have had more love than others in the redesign process at this point. Calendar is particularly beautiful now, and Photos sports some very clever new browsing views to categorise photos into “Moments” providing a vastly improved browsing experience.

Putting the visual design to one side, the interaction and functionality changes and refinements introduced are delightful. Swiping up from the bottom of the lock screen will present a sheet full of useful functions such as toggling Airplane mode, turning on and off WiFi and Bluetooth, fast access to the timer, calculator and camera, and much more. System animations and transitions have clearly been further refined for the better.

This isn’t just superficial change just for the sake of it, there are some principles underpinning it:

• Clarity. Showing only what’s relevant. Providing features which are self explanatory.
• Deference. Users care about their content, the user interface should not compete for user attention.
• Depth. Parallax, blurs and translucency replace gradients drop shadows and cut lines in defining content areas.

At this point it’s perhaps worth noting that this is currently just a beta. It’s far from shippable software at this point. I understand the overhaul has been only 7 months in the making so far, which is a very short timeframe to overhaul an entire operating system look and feel.

I do have some concerns with some aspects of the changes. Personally I’m incredibly disappointed in the quality of the iconography. It really is abysmal. Not what I expect from Apple at all. The unrefined, amateurish gaudy gradients, the inconsistent light sources from one icon to the next. It doesn’t make for a pretty home screen. I suspect this will be fixed before shipping, it feels very sloppy visually right now.

The removal of virtually all interface chrome also concerns me a little. One of my criticisms when I looked at the Windows Phone interface, was that it was difficult to tell which elements were tappable, and which were not. It lacks a certain obviousness which is off putting, particularly to those new to an operating system.

Perhaps Apple believes that there are enough iOS devices and people in the world who have learned the interface conventions they’ve set over the last 6 years, that this won’t be an issue. Users know there is a navigation bar at the top, and that the button on the top left takes them back to where they came from, and that the button on the top right typically performs a function such as new, or add etc.

In truth it feels a bit like a knee jerk over-correction from the skeuomorphic, to the completely flat and chromeless. I think there’s a medium ground somewhere which would achieve Apple’s aim of deference, but still avoiding this potential for confusion.

Having said that, the fundamental principles driving the changes are exciting. iOS is long overdue for a comprehensive overhaul, and that’s exactly what’s happening, they just need some refinement in execution, which will hopefully come with time, before it’s publically released.

As day two of the conference wraps up, I’m also getting insight into the significant under-the-hood additions in iOS 7 relevant to us when developing our apps. While these additions are currently confidential to conference attendees until iOS 7 is publicly released, there are some exciting additions which will make developing beautiful and engaging native apps for iPhone and iPad even easier. Can’t wait!

The post Does the iOS 7 redesign go too far? appeared first on Xero Blog.

What is a Virtual CFO?

Throughout our conversations the following definitions stood out:

• A Virtual CFO plays the CFO role on a part-time business for a fraction of the cost of a full-time CFO
• A Virtual CFO cares about the health and well-being of the business
• A Virtual CFO acts as a sounding board and provides financial sanity

A Virtual CFO is essentially a financial advisor. Someone that becomes a trusted source for financial perspective at a fraction of the cost of a full-time CFO.

Why is this role emerging?

There was widespread agreement that the following overarching trends are occurring in the industry and have been for some time:

• compliance work is commoditizing
• increased competition
• increased fee compression
• technology is helping to automate basic functions

Against this backdrop it becomes important for firms to differentiate their services. Offering compliance, financial statements, and tax returns are status quo and are increasingly seen as commodities. The firm of the future  is one that is providing insight and analysis beyond basic compliance.

There are many types of firms across the public accounting industry ranging from small bookkeeping firms to large firms with outsourced accounting divisions. The following image is a simplified view of public accounting breaking it up into four segments—bookkeeping, bookkeeping+, accounting & reporting, and CFO advisory.

Of course there is more to each segment than described and not every firm will fit cleanly into one of these segments, but it is a good approximation. As you move to the right along the chain you are adding more value for your clients. The services to the left are the ones that are facing, and will continue to face, more commoditization and automation as illustrated by the greying.

Connectivity to bank feeds, for one, is driving efficiencies that are saving some firms months of employee hours. Many accounting firms are focused on working smarter, not harder.  The more efficient the process, the less time spent on fixing errors and making adjustments. This frees up time so to work on value-add services and drive more value to clients.

In addition to this, roughly 50% of small businesses don’t make it past the five-year mark. While there are several reasons for business failure, many small businesses simply aren’t making the wisest financial decisions. Unfortunately most small firms can’t afford an in-house finance head to help navigate the dark art of accounting and finance. Nor do they want to. They’d rather be running the business, talking to customers and drumming up that next sale. They need the help of an accounting professional more than ever. Interestingly, the vast majority of small businesses are unaware that their accountant can help beyond compliance and tax.

Stepping into a CFO advisory role is an obvious next step for firms. To get there, practitioners need to see themselves as a CFO first. Yes it’s a mindset shift, but not a huge one, as most have the knowledge and capabilities already.

I’m going to be chatting with several experts in a three part series on the subject over the course of this month in an unscripted interview format. If you are interested, you can register here for the first one:

Becoming A Virtual CFO: A holistic view of a new industry trend with Leslie Shiner

The post Becoming a Virtual CFO appeared first on Xero Blog.

Paul Pettit, Curtis McLean

As a “big” small practice with a team of 35 based in Xero’s backyard, we like to think we’re on top of the technology game. We’ve spent the last three years understanding the incredible shifts in our sector, re-aligning our offer and helping clients get on board with cloud accounting. Last week we launched a new website for our accounting practice to reflect that technology-focused positioning.

The process we went through in developing our new positioning told us there’s something we can offer clients beyond compliance and business advisory services. We should be helping clients take up new technology beyond Xero – or perhaps more correctly – from within the rapidly developing ecosystem of apps that integrate with Xero.

Xero is a hugely positive “Trojan Horse”. Its simplicity and beauty surprises everyone and, because of that, it breaks down the wall of fear that clients have around cloud technology. Familiarization with Xero means clients are more ready to look at technology – to “add-on” new apps. We’re the ones who should be driving clients to them!

There is a useful analogy to consider here. Smartphone operating systems thrive because there’s an ecosystem of apps developed by others. Apps that integrate seamlessly with the OS and give practical (or entertainment) value to users.

There are a lot of great Add-on apps in the Xero ecosystem already and more will come along every month. But, clients don’t always have the time to research technology even if they are inclined to. We can help them understand which add-ons are worth investigating further. There lies our first job. We should give them that help – and we are.

On our new website, we’ve created an apps library for Add-ons that we think are relevant and practical, and that integrate with Xero. We’ll be emailing our clients regularly about the apps that matter (and it’s a perfect reason to keep in touch with clients!)

The next job is helping clients understand the value new apps can bring to their particular business, and how to implement them. Our experience tells us that one-size never fits all, and therein lies the value of our advice.

We’re there to help clients make the right decisions, get the tech on board and train them up. As their No.1 trusted advisor, we’re in the perfect position to also be their most credible technology advisor too. Which is why we now think we’re also in business to help transform business life through technology. And you thought accountants were just good with numbers?

We’re taking our thinking to Lower Hutt on 27 June (at The Dowse between 4.30-6.30pm). I’ll be speaking with Xero CEO Rod Drury about the Xero success story and about some of the cloud tech that’s growing up around it. If you would like to attend, please register on the Curtis McLean site.

The post Accountants as technology drivers appeared first on Xero Blog.

Xero’s Gary Turner brings his experience of integrated game changing to Accountex

Our UK team had a great couple of days at Accountex, the UK’s only national accounting exhibition and conference, in London last week where, over Thursday and Friday, we directly engaged with several hundred business owners, accountants and bookkeepers and our beautiful stand left thousands more in no doubt as to our growing technological footprint in the UK market. Accountex has only been running for a couple of years but after something of a drought in the accounting and finance exhibition sector, it has quickly become the premier annual event for everything accounting in the UK. So, this year we pushed the boat out a little and ensured Xero had a great presence.

Over the course of two days our Xero island played host to hundreds of interested onlookers, accountants, bookkeepers and happy customers, keen to say “Hi”. The vibe was excellent.

Aside from the team delivering almost 30 live Xero walkthroughs over the two days and the many one-to-one chats, the over-arching theme for me was ‘Game Changers’.

The world according to Xero: the Xero stand was a hive of activity at Accountex

Integrated game changing technology, game changing market dynamics – particularly in the context of a modern practice - and game changing practitioners at the vanguard of embracing and capitalising on change. At midday on Friday I delivered my keynote talk entitled The Game Changers to a packed, standing-room-only venue where I elaborated on some of the profound change dynamics we can now see emerging.

Business has always been in a state of flux

Ice was big business before the technological game changer

I drew a parallel with accounting services and the ice trade where, just over a hundred years ago, the reliable provision of electrical power as a public utility launched the refrigeration business – at the same time as killing-off the ice trade. Up to that point the ice trade had served a very necessary and important function in shipping ice blocks to restaurants, hotels, factories and hospitals. The ice trade died not because it was doing a bad job or because of competition, it merely incurred the misfortune of having a game changer show up in the form of public utility electricity which quickly enabled a new, integrated, more efficient alternative.

Every company needs to become an IT company

Most of the biggest and most successful global businesses of the last 10 to 15 years happen to be technology companies.  Most, but not all. We used to think of Amazon as an online bookshop but today it’s the also world’s biggest cloud platform provider.

And this tech transition can go the other way, too – Google started off as a search engine but effectively commands the majority of world’s advertising business. The point being, technology used to be something you’d purchase as a discrete tool in your business, like a PC, a website, an accounts package, or a photocopier. But not any more.

The born-again CIO

Going forwards we’ll increasingly see technology as having an integrated and fundamental role to play in every aspect of our business processes – from the bottom up to the very top  - because we’re all becoming technology businesses, but not the way we used to think of it.

Chief Information Officers have long since suspected that in the long run, the cloud might make them redundant. Actually the reverse is true and in the next 10 years every business will need to hire a born-again-CIO just to survive.

Who are the game changers

I profiled three revolutionary Xero partners – UK small business accountants, The Wow Company; NZ/UK accounting firm, DJCA and Irish accounting firm, ProfitPal – and was very lucky that the founders of the last two, Dave Jessep and Denis Breen, happened to be in town and were also happy to participate in what I think was a high value Q&A session for the final 20 minutes of my keynote talk, both of them generously and openly telling the stories of their game changing journeys.

Xero – beautiful accounting software

All in all, a great show and an excellent couple of days – at Accountex, games were well and truly changed.

The post Gamechanging for accounting software appeared first on Xero Blog.

For the first time, accounting software leader Xero is proud to be one of the hosts in the annual New Zealand Enterprise in Action weekend. This is an event combining two challenges – the Global Enterprise Challenge (GEC), an online international enterprise skills challenge, and the New Zealand heat of the FedEx/Junior Achievement International Trade Challenge (ITA), which helps students prepare for the future. For the first time, Xero will be actively involved in mentoring New Zealand’s next generation of entrepreneurs.

“The GEC is an international online enterprise skills competition for high school students. It gives students the opportunity to develop their knowledge and experience of enterprise and business, by providing an environment where they can apply skills and improve their understanding in practical ways.”

Ten New Zealand teams will compete in the GEC with 16 other countries concurrently, within a 12-hour period on Saturday 15 June. As part of our sponsorship, Xero will host and mentor one team. At 9am all teams, and mentors, will meet at Massey University’s North Shore campus to receive the same challenge. A recent year’s example was:“Your challenge is to produce a working model of an innovative product or service that will reduce food waste in your country and help to alleviate starvation in one of the world’s poorest countries”. They have twelve hours to create a pitch and business plan, and then submit to the judges. The challenge for Junior Achievement ITA will then be given.

Junior Achievement programs ensure students’ potential is not only met, but exceeded. In addition to showing students the power of believing in themselves, and teaching the crucial skills of work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy, a cornerstone of JA programs is the importance of fair and honest competition.

The next morning at 8.00am, the team and mentors will meet at Xero’s Auckland office to work on the ITA challenge. A previous years challenge was “Create a market entry strategy to export carpets to Egypt”.

Winners for the ITA challenge will be announced on the Monday and will have the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong to compete against teams from throughout the Asia/Pacific region. Teams will find out on Tuesday who won the GEC challenge.

It’s going to be a big weekend for both the students and Xero mentors but, win or lose, the involvement in such an amazing scheme will be rewarding as this will ensure New Zealand continues to produce innovative entrepreneurs.

The post Xero mentors next generation of entrepreneurs appeared first on Xero Blog.

How direct bank feeds work

BoxFreeIT has published a great interview with Yodlee’s Joe Polverari on bank feeds and Yodlee’s role in the US market.

There’s a lot of misinformation about the safety of Yodlee and the technology behind it so it’s great to see them come out and dispel some of the myths about how they work. Fears and doubts about Yodlee have long been quelled in the US – where Yodlee and products like it are the standard for aggregation services across the US banking system. Yodlee also happens to be the best at what they do.

In New Zealand and Australia, Xero has direct relationships with all the major financial institutions and a lot of the minor ones. If you have a small business banking account in Australasia, chances are we have a direct feed for you. Long term we believe direct feeds are the right way to go and we’re excited that banks are beginning to provide more elegant ways to get your banking data into our online accounting system. But it does take time to get them to move.

If banks do not provide direct feeds we use our partner Yodlee. We do this primarily in the US but also in the UK market. We offer Yodlee as an option in New Zealand and Australia where a financial institution has has not yet been able to provide data directly to us, but this is the exception rather than the rule. Yodlee feeds generally work well and we’re glad to offer them.

As Xero’s profile grows, an increasing number of banks are working with us to enable next generation direct feeds and new ‘two way’ services. When you bring Xero and financial institutions together in a compelling way, the sum is greater than the parts. We think these new integrated services are ground-breaking and will keep customers engaged and happy.

The US market has woken up to the potential of closer banking and small business accounting integration, awarding Xero Best In Show at the Barlow Research Client Conference for what we’re doing in New Zealand and Australia, and are beginning to do in the US, to bring banking and Xero’s online accouting closer together.

New Zealand and Australian financial institutions have also woken up to the benefits of working with Xero (see ASB’s announced innovation alliance). Xero has been invited by many banks to take an active role in their strategic planning of future small business services. We believe that if we demonstrate next-gen banking locally we can open the door for new services in our large markets where things take a bit more time.

There are some exciting new things coming for small business accounting and banking and we’re delighted to be a part of them.

The post Direct Bank Feeds appeared first on Xero Blog.

Sharing war stories and lessons learned at Xero’s Australian roadshows

We travelled to five cities in five days and split the content into separate streams for accountants and bookkeepers, tailoring it for each audience. Partners loved this, appreciating that we recognize the difference between the channels and work to provide relevant content. David New and Wayne Schmidt, Our National Sales Managers for Accountants and Bookkeepers respectively, were the hosts.

The majority of accountants in attendance were still very early in their Xero journey. Their clear and overriding sentiment was that all around the country they can’t wait to leave behind the frustration of working with desktop accounting software. Gold Partners were grilled for guidance on how to move both their clients and their practice to the cloud. The big questions were around change management, both for clients but also their own internal staff, and how best to embrace the ever growing ecosystem of add-on products that integrate with Xero.

Accountants were keen to learn more about how to best position Xero with their clients and the challenges faced in moving to a more value based, integrated service offering. To hear from Gold Partners who have walked the walk before them was invaluable and the feedback we received from attendees has been overwhelmingly positive.

The roadshow also really resonated with our bookkeeping  channel as it’s invaluable for them to hear from other bookkeepers on their experiences using Xero, and obtain advice and tips. We’ve hired many former bookkeepers as Senior Account Managers and our partners see enormous benefit in working with an Account Manager that has previous experience in the bookkeeping industry.

Attendees were introduced to a wide variety of Add-on and Implementation Partners, who demonstrated the diverse and growing Xero ecosystem. This leverages Xero’s platform and Partner Program, helps us move more practices to the cloud, and disrupts the accounting software market simultaneously.

After the afternoon sessions, Xero hosted networking drinks, which were enjoyed by all. Many partners got to meet members of the Xero team for the first time, and we had partners remark how approachable the Xero team is.

At Xerocon AU on August 29/30 in Sydney we plan to pick up on many of the questions raised by accountants in attendance. A number of our sessions at Xerocon will be dedicated to how practices best make the move to the cloud and once again we will be inviting Gold Partners up on stage for attendees to ask questions of, and learn from their experiences, to date.

In the meantime, we’re hosting free online webinars covering all the content from the roadshow, for your convenience. Register here for accountants and here for bookkeepers.

Here’s some of the team preparing in the webinar room:

The post Online accounting war stories appeared first on Xero Blog.

The iAwards honour both companies at the cutting edge of technology innovation as well as leading professionals across the ICT industry. Most importantly, the iAwards recognise the achievements of home-grown Australian innovators.

The key goal of the iAwards is to discover, recognise and reward the ICT innovations that have the potential to, or are already having, a positive impact on the community – at home, in the office and on a global scale. The iAwards also recognise the achievements made and value added by ICT professionals, CIOs and innovators.

Over the last few years, Commonwealth Bank and Suncorp have been the recipients of the National Financial iAward, so taking out the final on August 8 will be no easy task. In true Xero style though, here’s the engine room of Payroll, well about six of them anyway, located in Canberra, fuelling up for another day’s work and celebrating their hard work!

Xero’s award-winning payroll team at their Canberra base

The post Accounting software wins Xero the iAward appeared first on Xero Blog.

QuoteRoller is a Xero Add-on that helps small businesses create polished, professional proposals quickly and easily. Creating, sending and tracking sales quotes and proposals is all done online through the QuoteRoller application.

Once sent to your client, they can review, sign and accept proposals right away.

Who is it for?
Whether it’s the time saving features of quickly generating professional proposals, or the advanced features such as in-proposal analytics, QuoteRoller will have advantages for businesses that rely on proposals to generate sales.

How QuoteRoller works with Xero
Once connected, QuoteRoller syncs customer contacts with the accounting sofware application and creates sales invoices in Xero from accepted proposals in QuoteRoller.

Where you can use QuoteRoller
QuoteRoller can be used anywhere and QuoteRoller plans are priced in US dollars.

Check it out
QuoteRoller has a very special two month trial offer for Xero users, so check out QuoteRoller.

The post QuoteRoller and Xero’s Accounting Software appeared first on Xero Blog.

As a business, you’re probably already familiar with the concept of CRM, or Customer Relationship Management. CRM software such as Batchbook is often thought of in terms of managing sales pipelines, but good CRM actually helps your business manage every aspect of your client relationships, from the first interaction to your final invoice.

With a full picture of the relationship, you can provide the best client experience possible. If you don’t use a CRM to bring all this information under one roof, you will have bits of data spread out all over the place. That can hurt you in the long run.

A good example of this is when you are dealing with a late payment. If you only look at the invoice, and have no other useful client data at your fingertips, all you know is that the bill is overdue. This will trigger a late notice, and maybe even a late fee.

But what if you have access to more information? By looking at your CRM, you can not only see that an invoice is overdue, but you can look at a communication history as well as comments from other team members. In this specific case, maybe you see that the sales rep promised a longer term but forgot to include it in the contract.

Being able to get context will help you decide how to move forward with sticky situations like overdue bills. Having all of your client data in one place will also help you build deeper relationships with your clients as a team.

The best thing you can do for your business is to get everyone actively using your CRM to not only input client data, but to manage every aspect of the relationship. By keeping track of everything, you can see the full story on your clients. And working out of the context of that story, your whole team can build deeper and longer lasting relationships that are good for business.

To help you understand more about how to use CRM to create a culture of deeper client relationships, Batchbook and accounting software giant Xero are teaming up to offer you a free webinar to share helpful ideas about “Xero-ing In on Your Clients with Batchbook”. Batchbook CEO Pamela O’Hara and Xero VP of Marketing Ian Vacin will be sharing a demo of Batchbook’s integration with Xero as well as discussing ideas about how to deepen relationships with your clients and why it’s important to do so.

“Xero-ing In on Your Clients with Batchbook – Behind Every Invoice is a Relationship”

Please take a moment to sign up for the free webinar. And bring your questions! We’d love to help your business become even more customer friendly with Batchbook’s Xero integration.

The post Xeroing in on your clients with Batchbook appeared first on Xero Blog.

You get the picture.

But they say that time heals and true to that comforting notion, I’m pleased to report that the world of accounting software has undergone a necessary rewiring and our category is now awash with fresh innovation and thinking.

So I’m pleased to announce that once again, accounting exhibitions are where it’s at.

And more to the point it’s where Xero is at this week in London where we’ll be proudly taking up residence for two days at Accountex, the UK’s largest gathering for accounting software, where we’re looking forward to connecting with as many Xero customers, accountants and bookkeepers as we can.

Plus, on Friday I’ll personally be delivering a keynote talk which I’ve rather grandly entitled ‘The Gamechangers” where I’ll share some of our thinking about what’s happening with accounting technology and how businesses and accounting professionals are standing on the threshold of probably the biggest change they’ve seen since the humble IBM PC first showed up 32 years ago. I’ll touch on some of the mega-trends we’re seeing unfold in the small business technology space.

I’ll also cover some of the cool things we’re seeing where the traditional, somewhat stuffy notions of what accounting practices should look like and how they should operate are being challenged by a new generation of modern practices like UK small business accounting experts The Wow Company, NZ/UK accounting firm DJCA (with a short Q&A interview with Dave Jessep, founder of DCJA in my keynote) along with Ireland’s most up and coming online accounting practice, Profit Pal. The common thread of course is each of these firms are huge Xero advocates, too.

So, if you’re at a loose end in London at the end of this week, pop along to the Xero stand at Accountex and find out what our beautiful cloud-based online software can do for you.

The post Beautiful accounting software at Accountex appeared first on Xero Blog.

We’re excited to announce that the first Xero For Dummies e-book is available in Australia and will be progressively rolled out to other regions. The print version is available for pre-order and will arrive in Australian and New Zealand book stores from 1st July and in the UK and US soon afterwards.

Pre-order the book, or if you are in Australia, use the iTunes link to download an electronic copy.

Xero is easy to learn, however we still get numerous requests from customers for a Xero “manual.” We know that everyone learns differently and while we offer video tutorials, webinars, comprehensive help, even training partners for personal assistance, some people prefer to reference a printed book.

With more than 250 million books in print and more than 1,800 titles, For Dummies is the most widely recognized and highly regarded reference series in the world. Their educational books are written with a fun, practical approach and I’m sure many of us have read one at some stage. We’re thrilled to to be involved with Xero For Dummies and know it will be a great way for people to learn about Xero and working in the cloud.

You may be interested to learn the story behind the first Dummies book DOS For Dummies which was released in 1991. Wiley recount it as follows:

“New technologies were popping up all over the place. But computer manuals were dull and difficult to understand. A frustrated customer in a computer store, was looking for a simple, basic book about the DOS operating system. ‘Something’, he suggested, ‘like DOS for dummies’. We knew the man’s frustration was shared by many other computer users so we set out to do something about it. Thus, the For Dummies phenomenon began.”

I remember learning some basic DOS commands to install desktop accounting practice software, and it felt like I was learning another language. Xero is so much more intuitive and easy to learn!

The Author, Heather Smith, is a writer, speaker and advisor on all topics small business. She is a Xero Certified Advisor and Chartered Certified Accountant. Heather says Xero for Dummies covers all you need to know to sign up and use this cloud-based accounting software solution – from the basic set-up to implementing daily routines, end of period procedures and generating useful reporting information. Understanding what you can do with Xero – how you can use its many features – can enhance the productivity of your business and give you a clearer idea of exactly what is going on within it.

Xero For Dummies is a perfect gift for friends and family – even those who haven’t yet made the switch to online accounting. We’re sure that many people will love having this resource to help them up-skill and learn about Xero. Pre-order or purchase here.

The post Xero For Dummies appeared first on Xero Blog.

It’s the time when the Melbourne supporters abandon their team and head to the snowfields, everyone in Sydney goes to Port Douglas, the weather is just perfect in Queensland! It’s also the time of the year we start to prepare for the end of financial year.

Xero is making it easier than ever to get through end of financial year in payroll.

We want to ensure that this year end is your easiest yet and updates will shortly be released in Payroll to help take as much of the pain away as we can. Emailing your employees their payment summaries, publishing them to the employee portal and providing you the file to upload to the ATO are but a few of the new features. Here’s our sexy new Payment Summary screen:

Aside from rebuilding the Payment Summary process from the ground up, we’ve also made the increase from 9% to 9.25% on July 1 in the Superannuation Guarantee Contribution as straightforward as possible. We’ll update your employees automatically to the new rate, where possible. There’s a few other product changes as well.

To get you ready for the end of year process, we are holding EOFY Payroll Training sessions. Presented by the famous Joe Salvati in Sydney on 27 June and Melbourne on 28 June, these are not to be missed Xero events. Aside from hearing about the product changes first hand, you should talk to Joe about your experiences with payroll, we always love hearing your feedback. Be sure to book today as places are sure to disappear rapidly. If you can’t make it in person, Joe is also holding webinars throughout June and July.

As a reminder, Payment Summaries need to be issued to your employees by 14th July and the annual report lodged with the ATO by 14th August. Also, annual taxable payments reports (TPAR) for businesses in the building and construction industry are due in July 2013 for payments made in the 2012-13 financial year. New functionality to support this will be released in a few weeks, so watch this space.

And don’t forget Xero automatically updates your tax tables every year, and there’s no need to backup your information, we take care of that too!

Easy as Xero.

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We’re always proud of building software that makes the lives of small business owners and accountants easier, and we come to work every day to make sure that still happens. There’s some exciting end-of-year changes that we’ll share with everyone next week that should just save you a few minutes, but they all count! In the meantime we thought it would be interesting to share some moments of note over the last two years or so.

With our sale in 2011, came a new office which housed all 12 Australian employees. It was clear from early on that our software was well down the list of priorities. Turns out that country manager Chris Ridd also needed a drummer for his band! Our own Joe Salvati (now Partner Enablement Team Leader) fitted the bill perfectly. Here’s Chris and Joe jamming out a session in the abandoned server room at the old office!

Payroll has never been a Melbourne only affair, development has always been churned out in Canberra and back then John and David operated from what was known as the “cave”. Our bootstrapped startup shelled out a whopping $500 a month for a dirty little space in the CBD. In fact, the only tiny window in the cave featured security bars, ensuring any sunlight that was trying to invade our development space was averted! Not long after the purchase, HQ afforded us a fantastic office in Canberra that now houses 13 engineers and is bursting at the seams.

Prior to the release of Payroll, Xero launched the most ambitious roadshow ever attempted at that time by an accounting software vendor. Fifteen venues and more than 2,000 attendees saw us present integrated payroll for the very first time. This was in stark contrast to the year before, and I still remember clearly while with Paycycle, we attended a roadshow as sponsor in Adelaide and there was more Xero and sponsors than there were attendees! Thankfully, we’ve come an awful long way in that short time, and here’s a shot of a packed Melbourne event. Numbers continue to grow substantially throughout the world.

Xero needed a new Australian office to house everyone who looks after our ever increasing customer base and with the Wellington being such a wonderful place to work, the desire to create something similar was strong. In December last year Xero opened a brand new office that’s also filling up fast. Of course, if you’d like to work with a great bunch of people, check out the careers site. There’s some of them enjoying the new kitchen space here, complete with Xero blue espresso machine.

So with ambitious plans of one million customers, we have firmly set our payroll sights on the US and our family relocated to San Francisco in December. Since then we’ve increased the payroll team globally from 14 to 40 and are in the very complex depths of what is essentially like building payroll for 50 countries! We have product managers, business analysts, engineers, testers, marketing managers and designers all working towards a seamless payroll experience for our ever expanding US customer base.

There’s an enormous amount happening in the Australian product as well. Commencing with end of financial year improvements including the rebuilding of the payment summary process from the ground up and adjustments to accommodate superannuation legislation changes. Longer term we’re looking forward to delivering a brand new leave process and removing the draft invoice from the post pay run function and integrating directly with the general ledger. In addition, on Wednesday we announced the general availability of payroll functionality in the Xero API, making much more functionality available to integrated applications.

There will be lots more to share about all of this in the coming months.

Finally, the Americas Cup is heating up here in San Francisco and Emirates Team New Zealand arrived last week to take on the USA on their home soil. Fun times!

Happy birthday Xero Payroll.

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