This week Team PTAM attended the 2016 Xero Roadshow at Noah’s On The Beach in Newcastle. It was our second Xero Roadshow and just like last year’s it didn’t disappoint.
Attending an accounting conference while overlooking beautiful Newcastle Beach on a summer’s day would normally make even the most nerdy accountants and bookkeepers wish to be anywhere other than in a room full of other accountants and bookkeepers.
But there is something different about a Xero event. Listening to the Xero Team unveil their vision for the future of accounting technology and the opportunities this brings is exciting.
That’s right, the accounting conference was exciting. At Precision Taxation Accounting & Management we believe that innovation is crucial for business success and we practice what we preach. In 18 months we have become an accounting and advisory firm that operates almost exclusively from the cloud and we believe that Xero gives us the greatest ability to deliver the services that we do.
So as a business owner, it is exciting to hear how Xero’s commitment to innovation will save me valuable time, provide high levels of automation and increase efficiency on many levels. As an accountant, it is exciting to hear how these same innovations can be used to deliver cutting edge services to our clients. Put simply, these developments will help us to improve our client’s business. It’s hard not to be excited about this.
Kelly has listed some of the Interesting Facts and Practice announcements from the day and Melanie has given her view on her first Xero Roadshow.
Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow each of us on Twitter as Kelly was tweeting throughout the day. Some of these tweets were liked and re tweeted by Xero heavyweights Rod Dury (CEO of Xero) Trent Innes (Xero Managing Director – Australia) and Mel Power (Xero – Head of Bookkeeping).
Peter McCarthy
Interesting Facts
- 500,000 Australian employees are paid through Xero payroll each month;
- 99.99% uptime availability;
- 50+ direct feeds into Xero;
- 40% of AU & NZ invoices are paid more than 1 month late;
- 8,600 users have enabled two-step authentication;
- Only 4.5% of subscribers use a Payment Service add-on;
- Ability to apply for an NAB loan from within Xero;
- 50,000 searches are completed everyday using the global search function;
- 11.5 million transactions updated using Find & Recode;
- 1 million tax lodgements since June 2015.
More for Practice
The next 90 -120 days are so exciting with a lot of new neat features being released:
- The big announcement of today for partners was Xero HQ – this will replace the My “Green Xero” with a new look alerts dashboard combining all the great things from Xero Practice Manager (XPM), Xero and Workpapers. It will give the ability to set reminders and allocate tasks etc to staff. This will be available to all partners irrespective of status.
- Xero Tax will be free for certified Bronze Partners from April 2016. To get started today, talk to your Xero Account Manager and sign up for a free trial.
- The New Activity Statement – an awesome overhaul for those that are already using Xero Tax.
- From mid-February this will take effect, you will also be able to create a new blank form (for those times when the ATO doesn’t want to co-operate), amend a previously lodged BAS via Xero Tax and the long awaited e-sign for BAS.
- In the next 90 days we will also see the painful manual entry of the W1 and W2 labels being automated.
- FBT forms are to come in March.
- Consolidating Reports and the option of using multiple layouts.
- For problems with the Bank Account Reconciliation, a cool new feature will be the “Find & Fix box”. This will assist in trying to work out where and when the mistake or error occurred, even offering suggestions.
- Bulk Approval of Fixed Assets for depreciation;
- The Assurance Dashboard – this will consolidate exception reporting from all areas in Xero which will give accountants, bookkeepers and financial advisors confidence in the integrity of the financial information within the Xero file. This will help you identify and rectify errors as well as address any miscellaneous activity.
- Xero’s new partnership with VEDA – allowing for free credit ratings on customers within Xero Contacts and also taking it a step further with the option to buy the full report.
- On the mobile – in the 90-120 day timeframe:
- Xero Me timesheets (I know we cannot wait for this one and our clients that use this will be the same);
- Split screens for those who love to multi-task;
- Ability to mark invoices as paid.
If you have any questions on the above don’t hesitate in contacting Kelly for more information and stay tuned for her article on Xero tips and tricks in the coming months.
My First Xero Roadshow
This week I experienced my first Xero Roadshow and found it very interesting. I am only new to Xero and attending the roadshow taught me a lot about the cloud based software, which I was able to compare to your desktop applications such as MYOB that I have used previously.
Even though I haven’t had much experience with Xero as yet, I have already noticed the changes and improvements Xero has made with Tax Returns and BAS’ and how efficient it is.
I also noticed that they listen to their client and partner needs and do their best to fix or make changes to the software where appropriate to improve the user experience.
I am looking forward to learning and using Xero more on a daily basis and I am excited to see what was announced yesterday being implemented. I now can’t wait to attend Xerocon in September this year.
Melanie Partland