Ramp up your business with XERO

Nobody goes into business with the intention of doing paperwork. Long days are made even longer by manual data entry, chasing up receipts, reconciling bank accounts, and following up customers for payment. How much time would you save if all of this was automated?

With Xero, you can save time, reduce your stress levels, and get paid faster. You’ll gain valuable insight into how your business is performing and be able to project your cashflow, enabling you to make better informed decisions.

To kick off, some statistics... did you know that 50% of small businesses fail within the first 5 years? That’s a scary thought! And around 82% of small businesses fail due to poor cashflow.

However, the good news is that 85% of Xero small businesses who worked with a Xero certified advisor were still in business after 5 years.

This shows how important it is for business owners to work with a trusted advisor, using Xero to automate processes, get paid faster, and monitor and measure results.

Let’s have a look at how you can work with us and Xero to ensure you’re still in business in five years and beyond.

Save Time Reconciling

Using online accounting software like Xero is one of the easiest ways to save time and reduce stress. I’m sure you’ve all spent time at night trying to sort out your accounts, reconciling your transactions while rifling through receipts - all after a long day at work. I’m sure none of you started a business intending to spend nights doing paperwork instead of spending time with your family or friends.

With Xero, you can automatically reconcile your transactions to your bank account. Xero records and categorises everything for you, so you don’t have to print your bank statements and sit with a highlighter and ruler to mark off each transaction. It starts to learn from your behaviour and make suggestions for you and scans Xero for invoices or bills that might correspond to the transactions coming through the bank, so you don’t need to match them yourself.

You can also set up bank rules so recurring transactions will automatically be coded throughout the year. 

• Auto suggestions, based on where a previous transaction was coded
• Auto match when there are transactions already in Xero
• Bank rules, for transactions that get coded the same time and time again.

Online Invoicing

• Sending invoices through Xero saves you time and means your customers receive their invoices instantly via email or an online link.

• You can reduce data entry by copying previous invoices or by setting up a repeating invoice template so Xero automatically creates recurring invoices for you send to customers for you.

• You can also set up automatic reminders so Xero sends a reminder to customers that their invoice is due.

• Enable online invoice payments so your customers can pay faster

Have Time with Hubdoc

This needs a blog post on its own!

• All Xero subscribers have access to Hubdoc.

• Set it up so any bills you receive via email will be forwarded to Hubdoc and the accounting data automatically appears in Xero for you! This simplifies the process by seamlessly matching transactions to your bank feeds.

The result is less paper, more accurate data and a better view of your finances, not to mention the time you’ll get back.

Features in Xero to help you get paid faster

Late payment of invoices is a huge contributor to poor cashflow: the faster you get paid, the better your cashflow will be

• Online payments – customers can click a ‘Pay now’ button and pay directly from their online invoice. Online payments in Xero allows you to connect a payment service like Stripe or Go Cardless, which adds a 'Pay Now' option to your online invoices.

• Invoice reminders – Xero will automatically email customers when their invoices fall due
• Short-term cash flow projection – A dashboard style tool to help you project your cash flow 7 or 30 days out.

Xero add ons

• Xero Payroll
• Xero Projects
• Xero Expenses

To help ensure your business is as efficient as possible, Xero has developed add-ons which can be added to your Xero subscription if your business requires the extra functionality. Xero’s add-ons are Payroll, Projects and Expenses.

Xero Payroll ensures you pay your team the correct amount every time. It automates tax calculations, saving you time, and it’s IRD compliant so you can have peace of mind. Xero Payroll automatically updates when any legislation changes occur, so you’ll stay compliant. With payday filing, returns are automatically filed with IRD.

With Xero Projects, you can quote, invoice and monitor your jobs, helping you monitor how much money your business makes from each one. This all-in-one tool tracks time, cost and profitability on every job. It integrates with other areas of Xero to avoid duplication.

Xero Expenses allows you to easily capture, track and manage your team’s expenses. The free mobile app allows your team to take a photo of receipts while out and about and track their mileage using the map feature. As it’s fully integrated with Xero, you can use the batch payment feature to quickly reimburse team members and reconcile in your bank account. This ensures you have an accurate view of your team’s spending and know when reimbursements are due, which helps manage your cashflow.

Save even more time with outsourcing

Of course, many of you may prefer not to deal with any reconciliations, coding, and other financial and administrative tasks, even with the time savings Xero provides.

So, for many of our clients, we look after that side of the business for them too. We use Xero and take on all of these tasks, so you don’t have to. The clients we do this work for already often comment that it’s given them total peace of mind and time freedom to enjoy the things they’d prefer to do; like relaxing at the end of a hard day or enjoying time with family.

Another advantage to outsourcing this work to us is that there are no errors to correct at year end, which in the past could’ve resulted in additional fees or tax surprises.

This blog shows you what’s possible with Xero, and you can decide whether you’d like us to do the work for you, or if you’d prefer doing it on your own. Either way, using Xero will save you time and reduce your stress. Talk to us about your preferred option and we’ll support you with implementation and training to ensure you maximise your time savings using Xero.