This October, we brought together over 1,300 accountants, bookkeepers and industry representatives in Kuala Lumpur (20 October) and Singapore (27 October) to explore what it takes to build a future-ready practice. To everyone who joined us, thank you. Whether you’re a long-time Xero partner or new to our community, your energy, questions and conversations brought both days to life.

This year’s theme, Elevate today, own tomorrow, came from a simple idea: the profession is changing fast, and the practices that thrive will be the ones taking confident steps now. And one question ran through the day: as AI takes on more of the work, who will orchestrate what comes next?

A morning that started with magic

After a lively welcome from comedian and emcee Gajen Nad, our Managing Director for APAC, Koren Wines, opened with a question many of us have been asking: why does everything seem to move so fast? Technology, she suggested, is closing the gap between action and outcome so quickly that the work behind it has become almost invisible. And when we can’t see how something happens, it starts to feel like magic.

Few people understand that better than our surprise guest, internationally renowned illusionist Cosentino, who wowed the audience with his tricks. His secret? There’s no real magic involved, just method, timing, preparation and the right tools to hand.

The same is true for accounting practices today. Technology is the apparatus, not the magician. AI can produce reports and surface insights at incredible speed, but understanding a client’s situation, making judgement calls and helping them plan ahead are still things only human beings can do.

It’s a shift the best firms are already making. Our new Modern Practice Playbook, previewed on stage, shows how top-performing practices in Asia are using AI to free up time, then reinvesting it in advisory work and client relationships. Download the Playbook for Malaysia or Singapore.

A future that feels like magic can also feel daunting at the start. That was the focus of Staying curious: Adapting to a future that feels like magic. In this session, award-winning actor and producer Tan Kheng Hua, known for Phua Chu Kang and Crazy Rich Asians, drew on a career shaped by reinvention. Her advice? Stay curious. Begin before you have all the answers. And treat the unknown as something to explore, not avoid.

The tools behind a future-ready practice

Of course, even the best magicians need the right tools. The Xero Showcase session introduced smarter tools and sharper insights to streamline workflows, and the sessions that followed put them into practice:

• In Efficient bookkeeping: Clean data, faster workflows, attendees saw how Smart Document Capture and automatic bank reconciliation powered by JAX reduce manual data entry. 
• Have more meaningful client conversations showed how Xero Analytics and JAX help shift client conversations from reactive questions to proactive strategic planning. 
• Putting AI to work: trust, control and better decisions then brought JAX to life and demonstrated how XeroForce enables practices to build their own agents and workflows without coding, while staying in control.
• To close the conference, our Adapting to digital: how modern businesses are evolving panel explored how businesses are adapting to a rapidly changing digital landscape, from working smarter to making better decisions and creating more value. Panellists also shared practical insights on building the confidence, capability and resilience to thrive in what’s next.

Roadshow attendees also got the chance to speak with and learn more about our app and financial services partners: AccountKit, Airwallex, CAS360 by BGL, Dext, fileAI, JustLogin, MuRho, Payboy, SimpleAI, Talenox and Tofu. Thank you to all our exhibitors, and to IMDA and IRAS for their support.

Relive the magic, and keep it going

Not every highlight happened on stage. Between sessions, attendees took on the Roadshow Quest, tried their hand at Shophouse Putt and Mega Pickle, and wrapped up the day with some friendly competition with Xero Trivia.

Want to look back on the day? Browse our official photo albums from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Roadshow attendees will also receive their takeaway guide in their inbox soon.

Thank you to everyone who was a part of Asia Roadshow 2026. It was great to have you with us, and we hope to see you at our 2027 edition!

The post Elevate today, own tomorrow: the magic behind Xero Asia Roadshow 2026 appeared first on Xero Blog.

For an accountant or bookkeeper, consider this: It’s a typical Monday morning and you have five client meetings. When Xero is connected to whichever AI model provider you’ve chosen, your preparation becomes ready in minutes. You can simply ask portfolio-wide questions for each client covering cash position, what customers owe and profit against the month before. AI does the first pass and heavy lifting, so your prep time for each client is spent on what changed and what to raise, not on gathering figures. 

A recent Goldman Sachs report highlights the increasing opportunity for small businesses to use AI to improve productivity, but this isn’t simply about adding more AI tools. As technology evolves, businesses are navigating a growing range of applications, new ways of working and questions about what they can trust. Boston Consulting Group data found that roughly one in seven US working professionals reported what it called “AI brain fry”: the mental fatigue associated with managing AI.

As AI continues to evolve, it can leave many wondering how to apply it without adding complexity or compromising the expertise and judgement needed for good financial management. For accountants, bookkeepers and small businesses, Xero is making intelligence and automation a seamless and trusted part of everyday work to give you time back for what matters most.

This is Xero’s vision for Everyday AI. Accessible, practical and reliable AI, grounded in Accountable Intelligence, that meets you where you already work and helps you run your business or practice more efficiently. 

Everyday AI in practice

At Xero, our approach to Everyday AI means:

• Automating routine work, with you in control. Simplifying daily tasks and surfacing actionable insights to help you make informed decisions.
• AI that meets you where you work. Making financial intelligence accessible in the third-party tools and applications you already use.

Automating the routine.

Xero’s AI, JAX, takes on routine work and runs your daily workflows, showing you what needs attention so gaps, risks and opportunities are spotted sooner. From automatically reconciling bank transactions rather than categorizing them by hand, to capturing data from receipts by snapping a picture on your phone, and executing tailored collections plans for overdue invoices, we are bringing AI to your most time consuming and high-value tasks. 

A small business owner working alongside their advisor can see the same data and take action back in Xero to complete bank reconciliation, payroll, payments and more. The difference is that the groundwork is done, and you get to review and approve it. These capabilities help prevent you from getting bogged down in the daily administrative toil, giving you the freedom to proactively run your business. 

Meeting you where you work. 

Beyond the in-product experiences that help you save time and reduce manual work, Xero meets you in the tools where small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers already work together. Our integrations with Microsoft 365, Claude, Claude for Small Business, ChatGPT and Google Gemini enable you to access your financial information in the applications you use every day, with Xero as the trusted financial operating system at the center, no matter the AI platform you choose. 

Built on secure data sharing, you can confidently bring your live Xero data into your chosen AI platform. We facilitate this access so your chosen AI platform can do the ground work, while you stay in control. For accountants and bookkeepers, these third-party integrations can surface key financial insights and accelerate routine workflows to get the first pass done faster. You can then spend time on the part that counts: interpreting the numbers, advising your clients and deciding together what happens next.

For small businesses meeting with an accountant or bookkeeper during a quarterly catch-up, the owner and the advisor can open whichever AI integration they’re using, compare this quarter with the last and finish with a one-page agenda. The business owner arrives with clearer questions and the advisor spends the meeting on strategic decisions. 

Built on 20 years of trusted data

Xero’s infrastructure is built on 20 years of proprietary data serving as the global system of record for 5 million customers across 180+ countries. This foundation provides the critical harness for powering an operating system that spans our customers’ entire web of financial operations across accounting, payments, payroll, and tax, integrating with over a thousand connected apps and processing billions of transactions. 

JAX also understands your accounting with a level of financial precision and domain expertise that general-purpose AI simply can’t match. It works from your live Xero ledger where small businesses and their advisors can see the same data. Through this approach, JAX is an intelligent, trusted layer across Xero. 

With Everyday AI, we’re making intelligence and automation a natural part of how you work. Our open ecosystem reflects a longstanding belief that you should have access to the tools that work best for you and your business. By taking away the tedium and making AI accessible, practical and reliable, we’re enabling accountants, bookkeepers and small businesses to stay competitive, build resilience and make confident decisions for the future.

The post Everyday AI: Accountable Intelligence Meets You Wherever You Work appeared first on Xero Blog.

Xero’s Auto Bank Reconciliation tool was built to take some of that work off bookkeepers’ plates. It auto-reconciles routine bank transactions when confidence is high, while keeping each reconciliation visible for review. Talk to the people using it day to day, and the more interesting story isn’t the automation. It’s what they’re doing with the time it gives back.

Xero Partner Advisory Council (XPAC) members Katie Williams and Martine Hoosen have brought the tool into their practices. Katie founded The Vault Bookkeeping in the Hunter Valley. Martine’s a 30-year industry veteran and former Non-Executive Director of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers, now running The Bookkeepers Academy. They’ve shared their top tips for automating bookkeeping workflows.

“I was skeptical [at first] and I was also nervous,” Katie said. “I didn’t know where this would then position our role [as bookkeeper]. But we’re always looking for ways to find efficiencies in the business and create more space for advisory work.”

Martine has spent three decades testing every major technological shift in the profession, from the introduction of the GST through to cloud accounting and bank feeds. Auto Bank Reconciliation was no different.

“As soon as [Xero’s Auto Bank Reconciliation] came out, I was testing it in my business on my own file straight away,” she said. “[I was working out] how can I roll this out to my clients? How can I add extra value to my clients with the extra efficiency created? How can this make my business more efficient, create capacity, bring extra revenue, make me more profitable?”

First pass by Auto Bank Reconciliation. Final say by your team.

Neither Katie or Martine treats Auto Bank Reconciliation as a switch to simply turn on. Both describe something closer to onboarding a new team member: cautious at first, closely supervised, with its use expanding as confidence in the workflow grows. 

Kate’s advice for anyone starting out is clear: start with smaller, simpler clients first.

“Turn it on for secondary accounts first — a savings account, a GST account — so you get used to how the feed works, before moving into the everyday account,” she said.

She began with the firm’s smallest, monthly and quarterly clients, avoiding businesses with third-party invoicing integrations. Her team checked the feed daily in the first week, correcting anything miscoded, before easing back to fortnightly and then monthly reviews as the file settled.

Martine ran into an allocation issue with one client whose supplier payments went out as multi-pays through internet banking, and the tool initially wasn’t splitting the payments correctly. By reviewing and correcting the lines consistently, Martine saw the results improve over time.

“Once I’d gone through and started correcting things, it began to adapt for that account – not just by the name of the payee, but also by the amounts and references of the transactions,” she said. “Within a couple of weeks of consistent corrections, it was getting it right every time.”

Both bookkeepers still lean on manually set bank rules where certainty matters most, including loan repayments and recurring subscriptions with a known GST treatment, reserving the tool’s own predictions for lower-risk transactions.

The numbers, when you actually look

Asked what Auto Bank Reconciliation had actually delivered, both emphasised the time saved that was then reinvested into client advisory.

For Martine, the time spent training the tool has paid off. Looking at the last 30 days, she estimates 97% of statement lines are now automatically reconciled.

For Katie, the clearest shift showed up across the whole firm rather than any single client — a productivity gain of about six hours per employee, concentrated in the accounts that used to demand the most manual attention: daily transfers, and merchant facilities such as Stripe and PayPal that now reconcile quietly in the background.

“Our monthly-quarterly package was actually our worst return on investment,” she said. “We had hardly any touchpoints, because most of our time was spent coding and chasing. With the introduction of Auto Bank Reconciliation, that segment has turned around to be one of our biggest revenue makers now.”

A gentle nudge toward value

Here is where both bookkeepers’ experience points somewhere useful for the wider profession: time saved through automation is a genuine opportunity to look again at how bookkeeping work gets priced.

Martine has spent years encouraging other bookkeepers to think about pricing differently and recently shared her perspective in Xero’s Modern Practice Playbook report. Auto Bank Reconciliation has only strengthened her view.

“[Bookkeepers] should never be pricing purely on how long something takes — it should always be around outcomes,” she said. “If we’re getting transactions processed quicker and accounts reconciled faster, that’s a reflection of our skill and the technology we’ve chosen to adopt. It doesn’t have to mean charging less for the same value we’re delivering.”

Katie sees it the same way, and frames it as a mindset shift her own team had to work through.

“AI is a tool we use to help us do the work we do,” she said. “The value we bring isn’t really about the number of transactions we process — it’s the knowledge, the oversight, and increasingly the advice we can offer because we’re in the accounts so regularly.”

Both women are quick to add that this doesn’t need to happen overnight, or all at once. For bookkeepers used to charging by the hour or by transaction volume, value-based pricing can feel like a big leap. Their advice is to treat it the same way they treated Auto Bank Reconciliation itself: start small, build confidence with a handful of clients, and let the results do the persuading.

Where the time actually goes

For Martine, the shift automation makes possible is about identity.

“These tools allow us to move away from being that stereotypical transaction-based bookkeeper to a trusted advisor who’s delivering insights and value and helping businesses make better decisions,” she said.

For Katie, who sits on the Australian Taxation Office’s BAS Agent Advisory board, it’s about closing a gap she sees clearly from her own client work.

“We are in your accounts regularly,” she said. “So if there’s any everyday, knowledge-based advisory a client needs, we’re going to be the ones seeing it first. I’m all about proactively closing that gap.”

If you’re still deciding

Both Martine and Katie have the same message for bookkeepers who tried Auto Bank Reconciliation early and weren’t convinced, or haven’t tried it yet: how you choose to experiment with Auto Bank Reconciliation is entirely in your hands. 

Talk to your Xero account manager about implementing Auto Bank Reconciliation in your practice or register now for our upcoming Auto Bank Reconciliation webinar to learn more.

The post Auto Bank Reconciliation doesn’t just save time. It gives bookkeepers more space for work that drives their practice forward appeared first on Xero Blog.

October highlights

AI

Business Insider | Tech leaders using AI agents at work (paywalled)

CIO.com | AI won’t replace CIOs; it will expose the ones who can’t lead people

IT Digest | Xero Launches Google Gemini Integration, Enabling Natural-Language Financial Analytics for Small Businesses

NZ Herald | AI changes accounting firm hiring with more focus on soft skills (paywalled)

The Telegraph AI and Skills supplement | Human oversight of AI is ‘not optional’ for small businesses

MyBroadband | AI’s next big test: Can it give businesses more control, not less?

CPA Practice Advisor | Turning AI adoption into measurable ROI for accounting practices

Accountants Daily | Xero connects live financial data to Google Gemini

IT Brief Canada | Canadian firms warned of AI risks to financial data

Idealog | The AI step SMEs shouldn’t skip

Singapore Business Review | Firms struggle to turn AI adoption into results

CRO First | Xero Connects Financial Data With Google Gemini to Support Faster, Data-Driven Decisions

SME horizon | Singapore SMEs reclaim capacity with AI, but face challenges scaling

Product launches and features

Business Quarter | Xero automates UK supplier payment reporting

IBS Intelligence | Xero launches supplier payment analytics tool to support fair payments

Small Business Trends | Xero and Bookkeeper360 Launch Groundbreaking Accounting Integration

Acuity (AU) | How Xero is evolving payments in Australia

Acuity (NZ) | How Xero is evolving payments in New Zealand

Small business and accounting and bookkeeping advocacy and insights

CNBC Africa | Africa Side Hustle: Beyond the Hustle: Why knowing your numbers matter

Small Business Stories podcast | Why higher sales aren’t fixing your cash flow

Lifestyle & Tech | From survival mode to strategy: How automation is giving South African businesses room to grow

South Africa Today | The competitive advantage that actually matters: Why small businesses need financial visibility before they scale

Elite Business | The £868 billion small business economy that is being critically overlooked

Business Explainer | From financial firefighting to financial confidence

Irish Tech News | The next pressure on Irish SMEs is the decision window

Wider business and economic news

Australian Financial Review | Ex-cyber spy chief says offshoring increases hacking risk (paywalled)

ABC News | Businesses find workarounds to recoup surcharge fees banned by RBA

The Post | If I was PM: Make NZ world’s smartest place to do business (paywalled)

CFOtech NZ | Xero wins Canstar small business award for eighth year

Canadian Business | CB Playbook: How TaxCycle is tackling seasonal burnout

Dynamic Business | Inside the fight over Australia’s climate disclosure rules

AccountingWeb | Xero looks for lift-off with fixes not fanfare

The post What you may have missed on Xero: October 2026 appeared first on Xero Blog.

That gap is what we’ve spent this year helping to close.

Built for you, with you

We’re improving user permissions across Xero so access can better match the job. Your feedback through Product Ideas and conversations with our teams is shaping this work. Our goal is to give you and your clients more flexibility to choose what each person can access, with a consistent experience that makes it easier to set up access for each business and the people who support it.

Access that fits the work

User permissions have regularly featured near the top of Product Ideas, with requests that are specific and practical: let someone see stock without giving them access to the entire bank feed; share one group of reports without opening up the rest; let a contractor raise a purchase order — and stop there.

We’ve been working through that list.

What changed in July 2026

The first release broke the big roles into smaller pieces.

• Inventory: Give someone view, create and edit, or stock adjustment access
• Banking: Hide bank balances, statement lines and feeds from Standard users.
• Reporting: Share sales or purchases reports without opening the full Reporting Centre.
• Payroll: Assign Xero Me timesheet and leave approvers from the Users page (AU, NZ, UK).
• We renamed a few roles at the same time:
  • Advisor is now Administrator, reflecting that business owners and their teams can hold this role as well as advisors. Your access is unchanged.
  • Invoice Only became four roles: Sales and purchases, Sales, Purchases, and Draft sales and purchases
  • Read Only is now Viewer
  • Standard has remained the same

Payroll Admin and Employee have also been granted their own high level roles.

What’s coming soon

• Purchase orders have their own permissions. View, edit and approve are separate, and you can scope view and edit to someone’s own purchase orders or to every one in the organisation. There’s a new Purchase Orders only role as well, for people who raise POs.
• Inventory reporting: Inventory reports become their own group, alongside sales and purchases, so your stock employee can run the reports they need.
• Document uploads: Employees can upload documents without getting into everything else that’s been uploaded.
• Timesheet approval: In Australia, timesheet view, edit and approve are separate permissions, so someone can just approve a timesheet. This permission is coming to New Zealand and the United Kingdom soon (not available with classic Timesheets). 

Permissions build on each other. Edit includes view, approve includes edit – designed so someone can’t change what they can’t see.

Using Partner Edition? Your permissions stay the same

If your practice uses Partner Edition plans, your permissions stay exactly as they are. There’s nothing to review or reset, and no settings to revisit.

The change is visual: the Users page in Partner Edition now matches the one in Business Edition, so the experience is consistent whichever edition you’re working in.

If you look after client files

Two things change for practices.

The first is what you can say when a client asks. A new hire who needs to raise purchase orders, a warehouse manager who needs stock counts, an AU payroll manager who manages timesheets: each of those has an answer now that doesn’t involve handing over the entire ledger.

The second is what stops landing on your desk. Day to day access requests have a way of routing through the practice, and there are now more permissions clients can handle themselves, which gives you back time for the work they came to you for.

What’s next for permissions 

There’s more to do. The next improvements are shaped by the same things that brought us here: Product Ideas, partner sessions and conversations our teams have with you.

First, reporting. We’re working through the rest of the report groups so there’s a group for each kind of work. Report Centre was grouped several years ago, and we’ve heard feedback that finding the right report can still be challenging. So we’re regrouping reports around the jobs people do, and aligning the All reports page with the user permissions screen. The reports themselves stay the same. Only the group each one sits under changes, and we’ll let you know before it reaches you.

Three themes are currently being explored

Custom roles:  Create a role that matches a job in your business, give it a name and reuse it for the next person doing that job.

Access by bank account: Set permissions for individual bank accounts, so you can share the information people need without providing complete access to business financials.

Manager access to selected employees: Limit managers’ payroll access to specific employees, rather than the whole organisation.

We’re also working to extend permissions across more of Xero, area by area, based on the permissions you’ve been voting on.

If there’s something you need that isn’t covered yet, Product Ideas is still the place to tell us. We’re acting on it.

A few things worth knowing 

• These improvements are available across Business Edition plans globally, with timesheet permissions only in Australia and using the new timesheet user experience
• Existing users keep the access they have today. Changes only happen when someone with the edit users permission makes them.

Open the Users page in Xero to see what you can set. Please see the Xero Central article for more information. 

The post Rebuilding user permissions: what’s live and what’s next appeared first on Xero Blog.

Our latest Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI) data, out this week, shows small business sales grew just 4.0% year-on-year in the three months to September. Some sectors are doing much worse than the headline figures suggest. Agriculture sales fell 6.2% year-on-year and hospitality (+0.7%) and retail (+0.8%) are barely ahead of where they were a year ago. 

High fuel prices and above-target inflation are squeezing household budgets, so many of your clients are under real pressure.

On top of that, they will be facing changes to Making Tax Digital filing penalties, eInvoicing updates and new tax and payment arrangements over the next year. They’ll be looking to you to help explain what today’s announcements mean for them and how to navigate the challenges coming. Here are six updates from the Budget that accountants and bookkeepers should know about.

1. Making Tax Digital: a first-year penalty easement and deferred groups

Taxpayers joining Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax in April 2027 will not receive penalty points for late submission of their first four quarterly updates for the 2027-28 tax year.  These will be the sole traders and landlords with a qualifying gross income of more than £30,000 joining the next wave of MTD for IT. The government is also deferring the rollout to several taxpayer groups until further notice. You can see the groups that the government plans to exempt here.

• This gives some clients a little more breathing space, but it is not a reason to pause preparation. Accountants and bookkeepers can help clients understand whether and when they are expected to join, get the right records and processes in place, and distinguish the first-year easement from ongoing requirements. Further clarity on the groups affected by the deferral will matter.

2. eInvoicing: a longer runway, with detail still to come

From 1 April 2029, VAT invoices will need to be issued in a specified electronic format. The government has published an implementation roadmap and says it will provide full details of the policy and technical design by April 2028. It has also opened a consultation on potential future uses of structured invoice data.

• The timeline gives businesses and their advisers time to prepare, but the technical details will shape what implementation means in practice. Accountants and bookkeepers will be central to helping clients understand the change and assess its implications for their invoicing processes. Clear guidance and workable systems will be essential if e-invoicing is to deliver benefits without creating unnecessary work.
• We will continue to push the government to ensure accountants and bookkeepers are a key part of this rollout and have everything they need to support small businesses through the transition.

3. Higher rates on property and savings income

From 6 April 2027, income-tax rates on property income and savings income will each rise by a further 2 percentage points. The basic, higher and additional rates will be 24%, 44% and 49%. The property-income rates apply in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, while the savings-income rates apply across the UK.

• This will be relevant to clients with taxable income from these sources. Accountants and bookkeepers can help them understand the changes and consider them in their wider tax and cash-flow planning. The different UK-wide coverage for savings income and regional coverage for property income is also worth keeping in view when advising clients.

4. Payments on Account: smaller, more regular contributions

From April 2029, taxpayers who already make Payments on Account will make smaller, more regular contributions towards their tax bill during the year, bringing payments closer to when income is earned. The aim is to help people budget and reduce the risk of large unexpected bills, overdue tax and debt.

• Accountants and bookkeepers will be important in helping clients understand how the new arrangements affect their planning. The government has said it will continue working with stakeholders and affected taxpayers on implementation, so clear communication about the final process will be important.

5. A simpler route to claim employment expense relief

The government plans to make it easier for around 160,000 employees to claim tax relief on employment expenses by removing the need to use Income Tax Self Assessment solely to make those claims.

For employees who file a return only for this reason, that could remove an unnecessary administrative step. Accountants and bookkeepers can help affected clients understand what is changing and what route will be available instead, once the details are confirmed.

6. Capital allowances: a bigger first-year allowance, lower writing-down rate

For expenditure incurred from 1 January 2027, the main rate first-year allowance will increase to 50%. At the same time, the main rate writing-down allowance will fall to 12%, from 1 April 2027 for Corporation Tax and 6 April 2027 for Income Tax.

For clients considering investment, the timing and type of expenditure will matter. Accountants and bookkeepers can help explain how the two changes interact with a client’s plans and cash flow, and when further advice may be needed.

There were also a host of other changes like additional business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, support for new founders, increase in minimum wage (and more) which might also impact your clients. Plus the measures announced last week to reduce some of the admin burden on small businesses. 

Final thoughts

One thing is clear, the role of accountants and bookkeepers has never been more important. There is a lot of change announced in today’s Budget and we know so much of the burden will fall on accountants and bookkeepers. Small businesses need advisors who can make sense of it all for them, and I know this industry will step up for them again like you’ve done with MTD for IT this year and countless other changes..

We’ll keep sharing updates as more detail emerges, and we will continue to push the government to make these changes in the right way and to ensure accountants and bookkeepers have a voice at the table. 

The post UK Budget 2026: six updates for accountants and bookkeepers appeared first on Xero Blog.

What the integration does

The integration is the first of its kind for Xero. It uses the capabilities of Melio, which Xero acquired last year and which has become one of the fastest-growing bill pay solutions in the US, particularly among accountants and bookkeepers. Through a fully embedded, white-label solution, Bookkeeper360 can offer those AP and AR services to its clients under its own brand.

For firms, the result is a payment experience that feels like part of the platform they already use. Key benefits include:

• Native embedding: The solution fits into an existing tech stack, with a firm-branded interface and client experience that includes single sign-on, client portals and internal tools.
• Enterprise-grade support: Dedicated engineering and support teams help maintain enterprise workflows, scale and long-term needs, with enterprise-level security and reliability.
• Lower software costs: There are no per-seat fees or platform overhead. Accountant users are unlimited, and pricing is simple and per client.

Importantly, the integration works whether or not a firm uses Xero. That means accounting firms can give their clients seamless payment capabilities without asking them to move to a separate platform.

Why it matters for accounting firms

Accounting and bookkeeping firms are increasingly looking for integrated platforms that let them spend less time on administration and more time on advisory work. This integration is a direct result of Xero’s growth strategy in the US, and it can be offered to other firms that want to attract more clients and grow their practices at speed.

“Our custom integration with Bookkeeper360 demonstrates what’s possible when platform connectivity is at its best,” said Jonathan Meltzer, Managing Director, US at Xero. “By utilizing both Xero and Melio’s combined capabilities, we’ve created an even more powerful ecosystem that ensures Bookkeeper360’s customers have direct access to accounting, payments, payroll and analytics capabilities in environments that are native to their core workflows.”

For Bookkeeper360, the partnership builds on a long-standing focus on pairing expert services with technology that makes running a business easier.

“At Bookkeeper360, our focus has always been on combining expert accounting services with technology that makes managing finances easier for growing businesses,” said David Emmerman, Chief Operating Officer of Bookkeeper360. “Our partnership with Xero allows us to further enhance that experience by bringing accounting and payment workflows together, helping our clients save time, streamline operations, and gain greater control over their finances.”

Looking ahead

This launch marks a significant milestone in Xero’s commitment to delivering comprehensive solutions for accounting professionals and their clients. Firms that want to explore the partner program can find more information at xero.com/us/partner-programme.

The post Xero and Bookkeeper360 launch a first-of-its-kind integration that puts Melio payments inside accounting firms’ own platforms appeared first on Xero Blog.

I see the UAE’s move to eInvoicing differently.  It’s a chance to build better digital foundations for businesses across the UAE. Invoices arrive accurately, get processed faster and leave less room for errors or fraud. Structured data sent over an open network is simply a better way to trade.

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has set out the rollout timeline, and the first deadlines are close. So let’s clear up some of the most common myths.

First, what is an eInvoice?

An eInvoice isn’t a PDF attached to an email. It’s a structured digital file, built to a fixed specification, that travels straight from one business’s software into another’s over a secure network. In the UAE, both come from Peppol, an international framework for exchanging business documents. Businesses connect via Accredited Service Providers (ASPs), and PINT AE is the UAE version of Peppol’s invoice specification. Because every eInvoice follows the same structure, the receiving system can read it without anyone retyping a single figure.

Myth 1: “My customers need the same software as me”

They don’t. Peppol is an open network, a bit like email. Any business connected through an ASP can send eInvoices to, and receive them from, any other connected business, whatever software each one uses. That openness means no business gets locked into one provider. Xero helped design PINT, the standard PINT AE is built on, and we’re live on Peppol in 15+ regions.

The mandate also requires your ASP to share each invoice’s tax data with the Federal Tax Authority (FTA), so tax reporting becomes part of everyday invoicing rather than a separate task. Singapore and a growing number of countries around the world are taking a similar approach.

Myth 2: “I’ll have to find and pay for an ASP myself”

Every in-scope business needs to appoint an Accredited Service Provider (ASP). ASPs are providers approved by the MoF to deliver eInvoicing services, and you’ll find them on the MoF’s list of accredited providers. That doesn’t have to mean shopping around or connecting a separate product yourself, because software providers can offer eInvoicing by working with an ASP.

Xero, for example, delivers UAE eInvoicing through Casim, a UAE-based ASP. When you register for eInvoicing through Xero, you agree to contract directly with Casim, then appoint Casim as your ASP in EmaraTax, the FTA portal. Xero’s UAE eInvoicing solution is included at no additional cost on Starter, Standard and Premium plans. There is no separate charge for using Casim as your ASP with Xero.

Myth 3: “I’ll need to fill in 51 fields on every invoice”

The MoF’s mandatory fields document does list 51 fields. But these are the data points a compliant eInvoice must contain, not 51 boxes you type into by hand. Most of that information, like your business details, customer details and tax rates, should already be in your accounting software. Xero builds each eInvoice from the data already in your records and checks it before it’s sent, so you’ll know if anything’s missing.

The real job is keeping that data complete and accurate, including your customers’ tax identification numbers (TINs).

Myth 4: “It only applies if I’m VAT registered”

Not so. The rules apply regardless of VAT registration status, unless a business is specifically excluded. The rules cover invoices you send to other businesses and to the government. Sales to consumers aren’t included for now. What you do need is a TIN. If you’re registered with the FTA for any tax, such as VAT or Corporate Tax, you already have one. It’s the first 10 digits of your Tax Registration Number (TRN).

Myth 5: “The deadline’s in 2027, so I’ve got time”

There are two milestones to plan for, not one. First you appoint an ASP, then start eInvoicing. According to the MoF’s latest announcement:

• businesses with annual revenue of AED 50 million or more must appoint an ASP by 30 October 2026 and start eInvoicing by 1 January 2027
• businesses with annual revenue below AED 50 million must appoint an ASP by 31 March 2027 and start eInvoicing by 1 July 2027.

Appointing an ASP early doesn’t mean you start eInvoicing straight away. Xero customers can register and appoint Casim now, then practice sending and receiving eInvoices on the Peppol test network, so there are no surprises when you make the switch.

Start the conversation now

To make sure you’re set up ahead of time, my advice is simple. Tidy up your customer and tax data, appoint your ASP early and talk to your accountant or bookkeeper. Advisors will play a big part in this rollout, and the earlier they’re involved, the smoother the switch will be for you.

If you use Xero, eInvoicing works inside the software you already know. It sits alongside FTA-accredited VAT software that maps your data to the VAT201 return, produces reports in Arabic and English and creates your FTA Audit File.

Prepare early and you’ll do more than meet a deadline. You’ll spend less time chasing, checking and retyping invoices, and more time running your business.

Find out more about UAE eInvoicing with Xero

The post UAE eInvoicing: the top five myths, cleared up appeared first on Xero Blog.

Today, Xero’s connected app for Google Gemini brings live Xero data into your Gemini conversations, where small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers already work together. As the first financial management platform to launch a connected app for Gemini, Xero makes it easy to get real-time financial answers without losing your place. You can simply ask about your cash, profit or who owes you money, and you’ll get an answer grounded in the books as they stand right now. From there, it’s easy to take the next step in Xero. 

If you’re an accountant or bookkeeper, think of this integration as a head start. Gemini prepares the first pass, but you bring the context. Your expertise is what makes sense of the numbers, advises the client and decides what happens next. Because Gemini reads your Xero data exactly as it stands today, up-to-date records matter more than ever and anything incomplete, uncoded or in draft will shape the answers it provides. 

Get to the numbers faster

Instead of switching tabs, pulling a report and understanding what it says, ask Gemini. The connected app gives you access to your live, trusted Xero data while you stay where you’re working, so the first pass is ready when you are. Building on a 20-year data advantage, Xero is anchored in our experience as the system of record for 5 million customers across their financial operations and your numbers come straight from it.

Take Monday morning. You have five client meetings this week. Instead of opening each organisation and running the same reports five times, ask Gemini for a short briefing per client: cash position, what customers owe, and profit against the month before. That’s a first pass in minutes, so your prep time goes on what changed and what to raise, not on putting together your draft briefings. (Consider your Monday morning handed back!)

It works for small business owners too. Before a quarterly catch-up, an owner and their accountant can open Gemini together, compare this quarter with the last, and finish with a one-page agenda. The owner arrives with clearer questions and the accountant spends the meeting on advice.

“An accountant preparing for a client call can now ask Gemini which invoices are overdue, how cash has moved this month and which bills are due, then switch to the next client without leaving the conversation,” said Anurag Agrawal, Founder and Chief Global Analyst at Techaisle. “Preparation shrinks, and the advisory conversation gets the time. Requiring confirmation before any change to financial data is what makes this workable for firms that answer to clients for every number.”

Here’s what else you can ask Gemini about: 

• Financial health: Profit and loss, income and expenses, your balance sheet and cash position, all through plain questions.
• Sales & money owed: Who’s overdue, invoice summaries, your highest-revenue customers, and repeating invoices like retainers and subscriptions.
• Bills & payables: Who you owe, what’s overdue and what’s due next, with less manual checking.
• Charts in the chat: Net profit and loss graphs and aged receivables, right where you’re working.
• Business & contact details: Organisation details, base currency, and contact information for customers and suppliers.

One sign-in, every client

Also live today: accountants and bookkeepers can switch between their practice’s client organisations without leaving Gemini. Now one sign-in securely connects your whole client portfolio to the integration you’re using, so real-time, client-specific data is there when you need it.

Because one sign-in connects your whole client portfolio, you can ask portfolio-wide questions. Before the holiday break or month-end, ask which clients have the oldest invoices and largest debtors and draft a note to each client listing exactly what you need from them. And when a client asks something you didn’t plan for mid-call, pull their cash position or open invoices without switching orgs and reconnecting one at a time. You stay in control of how to read and use what comes back.

Prepare routine work with Xero and Gemini 

Coming soon, customers on eligible plans can do more with Xero’s connected app by working within task toggle in the Gemini app. Leveraging live Xero data, users can switch to ‘tasks’ to set up time-based schedules and workflows for routine work, like a daily summary of pending bills and cash position, or follow-ups for overdue invoices prepared from Xero and Gmail. Any action that changes financial data or communicates externally requires your confirmation first.* As you work across these tools, your data is managed by the product controls you already have set up in Gemini and Gmail.

Trusted numbers, with Xero’s security behind them

A good answer starts with good data. Everything Gemini tells you comes from your live Xero data, or the same numbers you’d see if you opened Xero yourself. Xero’s security and guardrails apply to the connection, so you can bring your numbers into Gemini with confidence. And when an action could change financial data, like issuing an invoice or sending a payment reminder, you must review and confirm it before anything happens. The review step and final judgement stay with the accountant and the business owner. 

The point is giving you time back. This integration is designed to surface key financial insights and accelerate routine workflows, so the groundwork is done faster. You can spend that time on the part that counts: interpreting the numbers, advising your clients and planning what comes next.

Your data stays yours. In line with Xero’s responsible data use commitments, financial information shared between platforms is used only for your session, and Xero data isn’t used to train Google Gemini models. You choose the Gemini plan and account settings that suit your privacy needs.

Xero wherever you work, the trusted numbers when you get there

The Xero connected app for Google Gemini is the latest in a series of integrations that enable accountants and bookkeepers and small businesses to access their financial information, prepare work and take the next step in Xero, while remaining in complete control over every action and decision. Whether you work across Microsoft 365, Claude, Claude for Small Business, ChatGPT, or Google Gemini, your trusted Xero numbers are there when you arrive

* Note: Available wherever Gemini Apps are supported, except in the European Economic Area, Nigeria, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. 

The post Xero + Google Gemini: Trusted numbers for every client, faster appeared first on Xero Blog.