XU Biweekly - Issue 2 - 5th April 2021 by XU Magazine

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Monday 5 April 2021 | No. 2

XU Biweekly

The independent news source for Xero users, by Xero users

XERO TO ACQUIRE TICKSTAR

A HOTEL CHOCOLAT EASTER HAMPER

Driving adoption of e-invoicing globally T ODAY, WE’RE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THE ACQUISITION OF TICKSTAR, WHICH PROVIDES E-INVOICING INFRASTRUCTURE AND EXPERTISE TO GOVERNMENTS AND BUSINESSES AROUND THE WORLD.

We currently use Tickstar’s technology to connect Xero customers to e-invoicing networks in Australia and New Zealand. This acquisition will provide us with continued access to e-invoicing networks, while providing Tickstar with additional resources to service its existing customers and acquire new ones.

Get paid faster with e-invoicing We believe e-invoicing is one of the next big innovations that will help small

businesses and advisors streamline their accounting work and get paid faster. E-invoicing provides significant efficiencies — reducing administration time, invoicing errors, and the risk of invoice fraud. It also makes it easy for governments and businesses to pay invoices faster, as the process is automated and there is no need to manually enter data or chase missing information. As adoption grows around the world, e-invoicing is likely to become a best practice standard and natural part of the cloud accounting process, like bank feeds and e-tax filing. In fact, some governments may mandate e-invoicing in the years ahead. This will be similar to what governments have done with Single Touch Payroll

in Australia, payday filing in New Zealand, and Making Tax Digital in the UK. So if you’re already using Xero, you’ll be in a better position to comply with any future e-invoicing legislation. Take a look at our e-invoicing fact sheet to find out more about e-invoicing, including how it works and where it has been adopted around the world.

Welcoming Tickstar to the Xero team Tickstar is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and provides e-invoicing infrastructure and services to customers around the world. Tickstar will operate as a Xero subsidiary company. Following the acquisition, we plan to expand Tickstar’s development team, so they can scale the platform and develop additional product

features for their government and business customers.

Investing in the future of e-invoicing This development in our e-invoicing capability is incredibly exciting, and we look forward to helping you realise all the benefits that e-invoicing brings. It also opens up opportunities for partners in our App Marketplace to access e-invoicing networks. However, we remain an open ecosystem and continue to welcome and support partners who use alternative access points or proprietary e-invoicing networks. In the meantime, it’s business as usual for our teams here at Xero, who continue to focus on building a seamless e-invoicing experience for you.

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P3 Fluidly partner with Virgin Money

Jumio raises

$150M

By Chris Earley

N THE UK, OPEN BANKING HAS TRANSFORMED OUR LIVES, MAKING IT EASIER FOR CONSUMERS AND SMALL BUSINESSES TO SHARE DATA WITH CONSENT. IT’S POWERED NEW APPS COVERING A MULTITUDE OF USES THAT HAVE BEEN DESIGNED TO MAKE OUR LIVES EASIER.

From dashboards that help you track your finances, to seamless lending experiences allowing you to apply for finance in a few clicks. One of the most important uses of the sharing of this bank data is through powering accounting platforms like Xero. At no other time has it been more vital for small businesses to have an up-to-date view of their cash flow position. Before Open Banking, Xero had a number of direct feeds with the major banks, many of which required businesses to complete paper forms and could take weeks to connect. Fast forward to today and Open Banking has enabled them to instantly connect to a multitude of banks using their internet banking credentials. This is a vast improvement.

But there is an obstacle The implementation of Open Banking has been a huge undertaking. And in the early days, there were some growing pains, understandably so. But, performance has generally improved. There is however one outstanding obstacle that has been brought to us by

our accounting partners and small business customers. And that’s the requirement to re-authenticate using Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) (the entering of internet banking credentials) every 90 days.

So why is this an issue? Prior to Open Banking, bank feeds in Xero were typically ‘set and forget’. Meaning accountants could access their client’s Xero account and see an updated view of their financial position. Since Open Banking feeds came into play, feeds stop working after 90 days unless they are re-authenticated by the business. We believe that this has become an unnecessary measure. Accountants are now wasting valuable time chasing clients to refresh their bank feeds at least 4 times a year, sometimes more if their client has more than one business, or uses multiple banks. Open Banking was introduced to bring more competition and innovation to financial services.

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TRADIFY'S $10M INVESTMENT

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New Apps & Updates

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“It’s a game-changer”

Joiin’s New Features for March 2021

E’VE ADDED SOME GREAT NEW FEATURES THIS MONTH, FROM TOP TEN SALES REPORTS, TO CASH ACCOUNTING METHODS, ALL INCLUDED IN EVERY PLAN FOR THE SAME LOW MONTHLY PRICE.

Sorting and Top 10 Sales Reports We’ve added sorting, drilldown and Top 10 filtering to the A/P and A/R reports. Now you can quickly see the most important data and drilldown to see the detail across all your entities. Improve your cash collection and bill payment processes further and save time. Simply click on the column headings to sort, switch the Top 10 toggle on to see only the top customers or supplier – and click on their name to see the details of the Bills and Invoices.

report any time by just clicking on it in the menu – no need to go to Custom Reports first.

By popular demand we now support the Cash accounting method for Xero and QuickBooks companies. So if you’re cash based you can now use all of Joiins incredible consolidation and reporting features.

Read more on the XU Hub & get a free 14 day trial...

Newsdesk: If you have any news or updates that you would like us to consider for inclusion in the next edition of the XU Biweekly, please email us at: newsdesk@xumagazine.com CEO: David Hassall Managing Editor: Wesley Cornell Director of Strategic Partnerships: Alex Newson Communications Manager: Bethany Fulks Advertising: advertising@xumagazine.com www.xumagazine.com ‘Xero’ is a trademark of Xero Limited (New Zealand). XU Biweekly and XU Magazine is collaboratively produced by an independent group of Xero users and is not affiliated in any way with Xero. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © XU Magazine Ltd 2014-2021. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. XU Biweekly is published by XU Magazine Ltd (08811842), registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 12 Jordan Street, Liverpool, L1 0BP, United Kingdom. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. XU Magazine Ltd cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant XU Magazine Ltd a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all/any editions, including in any physical or digital format, throughout the world. Any material you submit is sent at your risk and, although every care is taken, neither XU Magazine Ltd nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily the views of XU Magazine Ltd, its editors or its contributors.

HOW WE BUILT FORECASTING IN FATHOM

By Andrew Webb

T’S TAKEN OVER 40 PEOPLE, 1.5M LINES OF CODE, AND NEARLY TWO YEARS TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOP, BUT IN LATE 2020 WE PROUDLY RELEASED THE GAME-CHANGER THAT IS FORECASTING IN FATHOM.

Now you can access your Custom Reports quicker by pinning them to the menu. Simply click on the pin icon next to the custom report and the report will appear in the menu on the left. You can then run the

INTRODUCING PRE-BUILT CUSTOM FORMS

This was the biggest update and undertaking since the initial development of Fathom over a decade ago In this video, we hear from two people who were at the very forefront of developing Forecasting, Head of Product Laura Van Doore, and Fathom Co-Founder Geoff Cook. They speak candidly about the extensive research they did with accountants, the leap thoughts that led to some of Forecasting’s unique and revolutionary features, and the sheer hard graft of making a super slick user interface move all the financials dynamically.

By James Burgess

Researching the problems

UR FANTASTIC CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM HAVE RECENTLY FINISHED PUTTING THE FINISHING TOUCHES ON OUR LATEST ADDITION TO AROFLO’S CUSTOM FORMS FEATURE.

Typically, an advisor would spend nine hours building a forecast. Laura and Geoff start by sharing some early groundwork, like ensuring they didn’t make any assumptions about the type of tool people needed, and how they found out that traditional ways of forecasting we’re taking far too long.

Say hello to Pre-Built Custom Forms. Pre-Built Custom Forms are a quick and efficient alternative to creating forms for compliance, safety, RFIs or variation requests from scratch. Rather than spending time building your forms from the ground up, you can now use a range of templates to create professional documents in no time at all. Here’s what you need to know to jump right in and

start using Pre-Built Custom Forms:

Pre-Built Custom Forms are completely editable Pre-Built Custom Forms help you skip the first few steps that come with creating a form from scratch.

NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS! EPSON SCANSMART

Supporting Cash Accounting Method

Custom Report – Pin to Menu

XU BIWEEKLY - No. 2

Monday 05 April 2021

QUICKLY SCAN STACKS of various-sized paper receipts, invoices, business cards and even extra-long pages into smart digital assets that easily integrate into Xero. With Epson Single-Step Technology on the RapidReceipt 600W, you'll capture both sides of the document automatically.

FRESHO FRESHO IS A SIMPLE online ordering, order management and payments platform that helps streamline the operation of food businesses and reduce food waste. They provide an online solution to the constraints and operational issues that food businesses experience, syncing seamleslly with Xero for invoice and cashflow.

INDEMANDLY A SUPERCHARGED contact form, completely customisable and easy to use with lightening fast messaging. Whenever a prospective client reaches out, their info will arrive directly in your WorkflowMax dashboard. Manage leads, chat in real time and increase sales.

CAS 360 SINGAPORE RELEASED TO BETA!

OR THE MARCH 2021 RELEASE OF CAS 360 WE HAVE COMPLETED OUR BETA DEVELOPMENT FOR CAS 360 IN SINGAPORE, AND WE ARE VERY EXCITED TO BE PUTTING CAS 360 IN THE HANDS OF A NUMBER OF BETA FIRMS IN SINGAPORE.

Find out more...

CAS 360 Singapore, is hosted in Singapore through our infrastructure partner Amazon Web Services (AWS) CAS 360 Singapore has some amazing features, never before seen in Singapore. CAS 360 is approved for electronic filing of the Singapore company annual re-

turn with ACRA. This is done through the seamless filing project. This unlocks huge efficiency gains for CSPs as they can now complete the filing without leaving CAS 360.

Find out more on the XU Hub...

Manage Reverse Charge VAT and open Jobs in Job Management Platform for Tradies secures 10 million dollar investment Read Only mode

ELCOME TO YOUR LATEST SIMPRO UPDATE. THIS RELEASE WILL BE ROLLING OUT INTO YOUR BUILD FROM SUNDAY THE 8TH OF MARCH.

a job or to contractor work orders. These will then display on the invoice or contractor invoice, ensuring everyone involved in the work remains compliant and aware of which party holds onto the VAT amount.

Manage Reverse Charge VAT

Read more on the XU Hub...

On the 1st of March 2021, the HMRC changed UK VAT legislation for VAT registered customers as well as VAT and CIS registered contractors. This means you may be required to manage VAT in simPRO differently.

Reverse Charge Tax in simPRO To assist your business with these changes, our latest update includes the new Reverse Charge Tax feature that enables you to record and account for reverse charge VAT while remaining compliant with the change in legislation.

Apply reverse charge VAT You can now create a reverse charge tax code and apply this to items and labor on

OB MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE COMPANY TRADIFY HAS SECURED A SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT INTO A NEW ZEALAND TECHNOLOGY FIRM, ANNOUNCING A $10 MILLION INVESTMENT LED BY TECHNOLOGY INVESTOR MOVAC. It is the first major capital raise by Tradify, which offers a job management app that simplifies quoting,

scheduling and invoicing for trades businesses. The $10 million investment is led by Movac with support from existing shareholders K1W1 and Icehouse Ventures. CEO Michael Steckler said the company had now reached a point where it is ready to scale at pace with a proven business model.

News

XU Biweekly | No. 2

XERO CERTIFIED CARBON NEUTRAL

XERO PRODUCT NEWS APRIL 2021

The home of XU Magazine and XU Biweekly

By Anna Curzon

T’S BEEN AN EXCITING MONTH FOR OUR PRODUCT TEAMS, WITH PLENTY OF NEW FEATURES IN XERO AS WELL AS THE ACQUISITIONS OF PLANDAY AND TICKSTAR. HERE’S AN OVERVIEW OF THE KEY PRODUCT RELEASES THAT DROPPED IN THE PAST MONTH. DON’T FORGET, OUR DEDICATED SUPPORT TEAM IS HERE TO HELP YOU MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR XERO SUBSCRIPTION.

By Steve Vamos

ESPECTING THE PLANET AND SUPPORTING A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE IS SOMETHING WE TAKE VERY SERIOUSLY AT XERO, AND WE KNOW IT’S FRONT OF MIND FOR MANY OF OUR PEOPLE AND CUSTOMERS AROUND THE GLOBE. Today, we’re pleased to announce that Xero has been certified carbon neutral for our owned and operated businesses in Australia and internationally, including New Zealand, the United States, Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Asia. Our certification was issued by the Australian Government’s Climate Active program, which is one of the world’s most established and respected carbon neutrality programs. We are now part of their network of organisations leading voluntary action on climate change. We’re also one of the first software as a service (SaaS) companies to achieve Climate Active certification.

Secure your account with Multi-Factor Authentication — Global To make sure we continue to keep your Xero account secure, we’re making Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) mandatory for all Xero customers globally in the year ahead. You can set up MFA on your account by downloading our new authenticator app called Xero Verify. It only takes a few minutes to set up and sends a push notification to your phone when you log in, so you can just tap and go.

Upload more documents to Hubdoc — Global With the latest Hubdoc update, you can now upload up to 1,000 documents to Hubdoc in a 24-hour period. Previously the limit was 300 documents. Remember, there’s no limit to the number of documents you can store in Hubdoc. Learn more about getting documents into Hubdoc on Xero Central.

Read more on the XU Hub...

Fluidly partnering with Virgin Money to help develop its business banking offering

By Isaac Rangaswami

LUIDLY IS TEAMING UP WITH VIRGIN MONEY TO DEVELOP THE BANK’S NEW OFFER FOR SMALL BUSINESSES. Virgin Money will use Fluidly’s cashflow and scenario planning tools to help business owners understand how they’re performing, so they can plan ahead. Fluidly will also supply data-driven cashflow insights for the bank’s relationship managers. The new partnership forms a key part of Virgin Money’s working capital health proposition, where the bank is helping custom-

ers monitor their business health and ensure they have enough cash to cover dayto-day operations. By partnering with Virgin Money, Fluidly is making its technology available to banks and their customers in an entirely new way. The partnership follows a period of significant growth for Fluidly, which now works with over 800 accounting practices, a 60% increase over the last three months.

Find out more...

Monday 05 April 2021 3

By Jon Bellamy

T’S FAIR TO SAY THE PAST 12 MONTHS HAVE BEEN TUMULTUOUS FOR THE MAJORITY OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION. THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 HAS TRULY TESTED PEOPLE EMOTIONALLY AND FINANCIALLY, AND UPENDED ENTIRE INDUSTRIES. CHARITIES ARE AMONG THE ORGANISATIONS THAT HAVE MOST KEENLY FELT THE IMPACT OF COVID-19. That’s why I’m incredibly proud to share that with the help of our amazing community, Xero has raised almost $200,000 through the Xero Community Appeal, and this week we donated those funds to eight charities around the world. All of the charities we have identified through our program are committed to supporting the most vulnerable and marginalised members of their communities.

Click here to find out which charities Xero are donating to...

Xero expands partnership with Osidon

E ARE THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE AN EXPANDED PARTNERSHIP IN THE US WITH OSIDON, A DIGITAL ONLINE ACCOUNTANCY COMPANY OFFERING INDUSTRY-LEADING SERVICES TO ENTREPRENEURS AND SMALL BUSINESSES. Osidon is a Xero platinum partner and the firm has been a trailblazer since its founding in South Africa in 2017. The firm leverages cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) to help small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers gain a competitive edge. Both Xero and Osidon share the same vision of empowering advisors through technology so they can deliver meaningful insights for their clients and focus on providing higher value advisory services. As Osidon’s preferred cloud accounting solution provider, Xero helps enable the firm to surface real-time financial insights about their clients. This allows businesses to operate more effectively and efficiently collaborate with their advisor to make smart business decisions. With the Xero platform, workflows that used to take hours can be completed in minutes.

Read more on the XU Hub...

XU Hub is now live on Apple News!

NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!

ABODE FROM THE TIME A BOOKING COMES in through your website, channel manager or other source until the guest arrives, Abode is a one-stop-shop to simplify hotel booking operations, with over 10 years serving accommodation owners. Flexible and easy to use, Abode can be used on any device for most types of accommodation.

SMARTPAD PRO THE WORLD'S EASIEST QUOTING AND business management software for window covering Retailers. It automates invoices and payments with live integrations, driving efficiency and increasing your sales.

STRATEGYX SEAMLESSLY AND DIRECTLY ALIGN corporate strategy with Xero financial information. With operating structure in one place you are in control of achieving your vision, mission and goals. Measure, monitor and manage progress in real time.

GINI PREDICT GINIPREDICT USES GOOGLE SHEETS to turn accounting data from Xero into reliable forecasts and insights in minutes. AI-powered forecasts and key driver analysis in under 5 minutes, giving you the foresight and insight you need to run your business with confidence.

Features

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Why your firm needs clarity to thrive

Monday 05 April 2021

JOIN A XU HOSTED WEBINAR

By Aynsley Damery

OW CLARITY, FINALIST IN XERO’S PRACTICE APP OF THE YEAR 2021, CAN HELP YOU INTRODUCE AND CREATE A PROFITABLE, REPEATABLE AND SCALABLE BUSINESS ADVISORY SERVICE FOR YOUR FIRM.

Compliance isn’t dead For years accountants have been told to move from compliance to advisory. “Compliance is dead!” is an often-heard rallying cry. We know this isn’t the case. Small businesses will always need assurance over the raft of constantly changing regulations and legislation. Compliance is here to stay. But for most accountants, a pure focus on compliance services doesn’t deliver sustainable profitability. Combining compliance AND advisory is a path that does work. But it’s not just about more money, it’s also about more impact and more happiness for your clients, team and the firm.

So why have firms struggled to introduce business advisory services? Traditionally, business advisory hasn’t

properly leveraged the right combination of people, process and technology. Advisory services are often delivered by more senior team members (partners and managers), to top clients and often with a bespoke service. This works well for your top-tier clients, who can afford and are prepared to pay for that type of service. Senior team members have limited time, so what happens when we try to introduce more junior members to the equation and offer advisory services, using traditional methodologies, to our smaller clients? The more junior team don’t have the experience, and existing systems and processes are still heavily dependent on timestarved senior team assisting, training or delivering. Smaller businesses are not prepared (or able) to pay the fees associated with a bespoke service. And often, partners assume that smaller businesses, who reluctantly pay for accounts and tax returns, won’t want to pay for advisory services - even though they do pay for coaches, mentors and business organisations.

XU Don’t miss the next issue! Biweekly

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It’s not about survival; it’s about THRIVAL!

Cloud note taking for small business

Stream it now!

07 April @ 9.30AM BST

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Q&A

Simplifying invoice payments Click here to watch NOW!

WITH DUNCAN BARRIGAN, CHIEF PRODUCT & GROWTH OFFICER AT GOCARDLESS

By Duncan Barrigan

U: GOCARDLESS HAS RECENTLY RAISED $95M IN FUNDING. CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT IT?

DB: In December 2020 we announced a $95m Series F funding round, led by Bain Capital Ventures. This came off the back of 46% year-on-year growth for GoCardless despite a challenging economic environment. It brings the total we have raised to-date to $240m. We will use the funding to accelerate our open banking strategy, combining the latest technology with our global bank debit network. XU: Why is GoCardless so excited about open banking? DB:

We believe open banking is gaining momentum around the world, particularly in our home market, the UK. According to recent data from the Open Banking Implementation Entity, a non-profit body created to coordinate the rollout of open banking, 294 regulated providers were in the ecosystem as of December 2020, of which  102  have live offerings in the market. Additionally, over four million open banking payments were made in 2020, up from 320,000 in 2018. In Australia, the newly announced Consumer Data Right and recent developments within the New Payments Platform also indicate open banking is on the rise. Given the maturation of open banking around the world, we plan to release features within the GoCardless offering this year to help merchants and consumers take advantage of these developments. By combining open banking with our existing bank debit network we’ll be able to offer a unique way to take recurring payments: open banking payments will deliver the speed and visibility required for instant payments, and bank debit

payments will continue to improve cash flow and eliminate the need to chase unpaid bills. We’ll be able to target businesses that we haven’t been able to serve up until now - for example, digital subscription services that require a faster way of collecting payments - by using open banking to take an immediate upfront payment and then collect subsequent payments via direct debit. We will also expand into the e-commerce market with open banking. This will provide consumers a simple and secure way to make bank-to-bank payments to merchants they use regularly, and offer businesses a lower-cost alternative to card payments.

XU: So, what does open

banking actually mean for businesses?

DB: There are a variety of different ways businesses can use open banking. Businesses using open banking instant payments will see a material improvement to their cash flow. Currently, many are unable to use bank-to-bank payments to collect from their customers. his is because they need instant payment confirmation for certain transactions, such as when providing a service outside of their regular scope of work. Companies will only want to start on a project, for instance, after they know the project invoice has been paid. Read more...

Features

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Monday 05 April 2021

Customer Service in a Digital World By Vipul Sheth

HE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE AND USE OF TECHNOLOGY HAS NEVER BEEN MORE IMPORTANT. HOW IMPORTANT ARE YOUR VALUES?

Our approach has always been to support accountants to put their clients at the focus of what they do. This doesn’t mean they need only do it for a short, or interim, period. It is about being consistent in your dealings with clients. You might ask yourself: ‘Why is this important?’ But, think about what happens when a client leaves. They will tell you that it’s because of the price, but it’s usually down to service levels - they use price as ‘cover’ for the real reasons. Clients like to have certainty in their dealings, and feel the service they receive is valuable.

Higher Consumer Expectations Think of your online deliveries. Whether we like doing business with businesses like Amazon or not, they have raised the expectation levels of consumers across the globe. Think back to a time, perhaps not that long ago, say ten years, when you ordered something online. If this arrived a week later, you were delighted. Now, if you’ve not received a confirmation within 24 hours, you’re on the phone or sending the retailer a message asking of its whereabouts. This change in expectation is not just in the retail world. It applies equally to professional services, such as accountancy, tax or bookkeeping. It is important that this relationship is managed well. Consider a retailer. The customer may buy only one item in that category each year, and may not

have brand loyalty. For professional services, the client returns year after year. They don’t have to, and you have to remember that they are sophisticated consumers. When you consider how professional services businesses are valued, the recurring nature of that relationship is important in the valuation of your firm. In our opinion, it goes beyond that. Successful people tend to surround themselves with people of a similar ilk. If you don’t share that mindset, they will deduce that and take their business to someone that acts similarly. Mediocre is not acceptable to these people. If you are having that regular dialogue with them, they understand first and foremost that you care. They understand you, your people and what drives you. Don’t be scared of showing them what you stand for. Otherwise, you’re just another corporate who doesn’t have the values they share.

How has COVID changed your clients’ view of the world? Not every business has been impacted by COVID. But, it’s fair to say, more businesses have been negatively impacted than positively impacted. As a business’s finances are tighter, they will look more carefully at all their costs, including their accountancy fees. My experience in practice was always that if you spoke to your clients regularly about what you are doing for them, there were never any surprises.

NEW XERO CONNECTED APPS!

"NOTHING GETS MISSED"

BRIGHTPAY

Accurate time tracking ensures consulting engineering firm, Projects & Designs Engineers, always deliver on time and on budget.

BRIGHTPAY PAYROLL JOURNALS in Xero automated.

TIMEDOCK FREE UP YOUR TIME, IMPROVE accuracy and streamline your time tracking process from end to end with TimeDock and Xero. Badge-based time clock system, on site and off site, with purpose-built time clocks and QR code check-in. Timesheets and job hours stream through to your TimeDock dashboard in realtime, ready to push through to Xero Timesheets for Payroll.

VAULTRE THE COMPLETE SALES/LISTINGS AND rentals management system built on the latest technology to give your CRM a fresh face. Vaultre helps raise sales invoices, apply credit notes and update salesperson's payslips with commission earned amounts. Built by a team with over 46 years of PropTech experience, VaultRE is the ideal CRM solution for your agency, whether you deal in residential, commercial or even property management.

DATASIGHTS THE TEAM OFFERS CONSOLIDATION and reporting services that guide your business to 100% automated financial and operational reporting. Our platform consolidates all your business data to make it easier for you to access and report on. Datasights is far more than just a data consolidation service though, our team puts the effort in to understand each of our clients’ unique needs and goals, remaining on hand and responsive to ensure success on your journey of automation and data-driven growth.

By Michelle Nicol

AMED FOR ITS LONG SANDY BEACHES, TOP SURFING SPOTS AND ALMOST 300 DAYS OF SUNSHINE A YEAR, AUSTRALIA’S GOLD COAST AND THE METROPOLITAN AREA AROUND BRISBANE HAVE LONG BEEN HUGELY ATTRACTIVE PLACES TO LIVE, WORK AND VISIT. Consulting firm, Projects & Designs Engineers, are well placed at the heart of this growing community with their structural and civil design and engineering business. We speak to contract administrator Stefi Larranaga about how they deliver projects that keep customers coming back. It takes a dedicated team of structural and civil engineers and drafting technicians with many years of

industry experience to carry out the highly detailed projects undertaken by Projects & Designs Engineers. Their work drawing up plans, submitting applications for Council project approval and overseeing construction on numerous site visits, combined with a customer promise of guaranteed turnaround times has earned them a reputation for delivering on time and on budget. So, it’s important that they keep track of their time, as Stefi Larranaga explains: “As soon as I receive a job, it goes straightaway to TidyWork - that’s how we start allocating time. One of the reports that we use a lot is the project statement. That shows us our time and milestones and other things like how much we invoice, how many hours we spend

on drafting and engineering time, if we have meetings, how much time we allocate to that. We look at every single time on the job.”

Managing workload from quote to completion Projects & Designs Engineers work on a wide variety of residential projects ranging from high and midrise apartments to luxury residences and commercial properties used for child and elderly care. They recently completed work on a house that sold for $A 27 million. With such large budgets and crucial deadlines, Stefi explains how every minute managed in TidyWork counts.

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Everything cashﬂow in one place From forecasting to funding, get all things cashﬂow in one place. Add Fluidly to Xero and grow your practice, launch new services and keep clients happy. We know times are tough right now. So as a special promotion, if you sign up in March you get free access to Fluidly for 12 months.

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Trusted by over 500 accounting practices and thousands of small businesses.

Features

8 XU Biweekly | No. 2

Monday 05 April 2021

CUSTOMER RETENTION IN THE TIME OF COVID By Jenny Fogarty

OW ACCOUNTANTS CAN KEEP CUSTOMERS LOYAL AND WIN NEW BUSINESS...

Tomorrow’s advisory clients today Introducing a new affordable way to be across all of your clients, all of the time By Peter Horden & Nathan Harper

DVISORY SERVICES CAN PUT CONSIDERABLE RESOURCE AND COST PRESSURE ON FIRMS, THIS CAN LEAD TO THE SERVICE ONLY BEING FOR SELECT CLIENTS. BY BROADENING THE SERVICE BASE, FIRMS HAVE A CONSIDERABLE OPPORTUNITY AHEAD. Accountants know that their ability to provide a client the right advice at the right time can be the difference between them flourishing or failing. But how can business advisors help clients achieve their goals if they don’t have regular exposure to their financial operations? Finlert has created its latest product OverSight, to give business advisors a commercially-viable umbrella across their entire client

base. It torpedoes management time and enables advisors to maximise business opportunities and better manage risk. In one easy to use dashboard, OverSight offers you access to all of your clients, all of the time. By presenting lead indicators for all clients, OverSight supports the regular servicing of premium clients, but also enables easy reference to the financial position of clients not serviced as regularly. For the business advisor this provides upsell opportunities, happy clients and increased client loyalty and advocacy. That client who is a startup today, could be one of tomorrow’s most profitable advisory clients.

What is Oversight? In simple terms, OverSight

is a dashboard which will display metrics from all connected Xero files. The customisable overview or analytical view has metrics related to Cash position, AR / AP, payroll, and organisational data. This means it can be used as a daily monitor or even an end of period tool. Let’s walk through some features…

Comparison periods Data from all clients is great, but without context it can just be numbers on a page. Comparison periods highlight where differences in the numbers are either positive or negative compared to a like period.

Tags + owners Assigning Xero files to tags and an owner within OverSight allows data to be shown as needed for an individual practice. Common examples are to create tags for things like industry and service package. Then with

a few clicks you can see the status of all retail clients on a quarterly package who are assigned to you.

Thresholds Thresholds enable advisors to set the tipping point at which a client metric needs attention. This can be for a single client, or a specific group.

Other use cases As well as advisory services, some clients have leveraged OverSight to streamline end of period operations, as a bookkeeping operational tool, to define their own version of client health and even kickstart new advisory services and offerings.

More to come Like all great SaaS platforms OverSight is continually being improved based on client feedback. Keep an eye out for new integrations and partnerships in the near future.

BOOK REVIEW: Selling To Serve

By David Hassall

U MAGAZINE’S CEO, DAVID HASSALL, RECEIVED THE REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION OF JAMES ASHFORD’S BOOK - A BESTSELLER ON AMAZON! DAVID REVIEWED THIS PRACTICAL GUIDE ON HOW TO ENSURE THAT YOU’RE NOT BEING A BUSY FOOL...

Written by James Ashford (owner of pricing, proposal and engagement letter software GoProposal and the accountancy practice MAP) this is a real-life guide on how ensure that you’re building a profitble business and not just dealing with the chaos that each day might bring when you open up your phone, tablet or laptop. Selling To Serve was initially released in 2016 with the fourth edition released in 2021. The updates have brought some concepts along further but this latest read

t o a d on a end face than to a-

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now also looks to tackle some real life issues that may be affecting your practice, such as Covid-19. The thing that has always attracted me this book is that it’s tangible and practical vice by someone who is actually doing it daily basis with their own clients and team. So many accountants and bookkeepers up managing chaos and dealing with surissues, essentially treading water, rather dealing with core issues and developments meaning that progress is very rarely or nevmade. If you look over the past 5-10 years have been so many things in society that been questioned and ultimately changed. ‘It’s always been done this way’ and ‘that’s just the industry that we’re in’ are no longer acceptable.

It’s fair to say that the past 12 months have been turbulent for accountants and their clients. With Covid, Brexit and their accompanying disruption, accounting firms must carefully consider how to win new customers, retain their existing ones and stand out with their service offering. Here are some practical steps practitioners can take to get ahead and carve their niche…

Reconsider your billing Fixed billing and/or hourly rates have been the industry standard for as long as there’s been accountancy. While it is often the agreed upon approach, it actually harbours many disadvantages for accountants and it can fundamentally inhibit growth. This is because it presents a conflict between generating profit, providing value for money, and working more efficiently. A better approach is value pricing, which assigns the price of a product or service according to its perceived value by the customer. It doesn’t calculate prices by the hours taken to deliver the service, or existing market rates. By removing the focus in billing from timesheets to providing business value, you’ll benefit from increased revenues and deeper client relationships. This is both more lucrative for you and fairer for the client: in many cases, they’d rather receive money-saving insights than billable hours.

Track the right KPIs 2020 has been a year for reassessment for most businesses. So this is a good time for firms to reassess their metrics and how these might have changed in recent months. Take a look at the following metrics, alongside traditional financial measures, to

ensure your practice is capitalising on opportunities in a timely manner: • Churn vs. new sign ups: Insight can be a key differentiator when competing for and retaining clients. These clients leave service providers for all sorts of reasons, but if firms are able to track customer wins versus losses, they’ll gain a better understanding of the correlating factors which underpin these peaks and troughs. As retaining customers is typically much less expensive than acquiring new ones, this insight will help management to hang on to more clients for longer. While this can be done manually, specialised data analytics solutions can effectively map the customer journey. • Account management: Capacity vs. demand: It might seem counterintuitive to spend time and money on new hires to remain competitive, but as firms take on new customers, it’s important to have enough employees to share the load and give each client enough time and attention. This will be especially important when offering costly advisory services, where clients will expect attention to detail and personalised service from the team. If you’re not expanding your team, at the very least consider the time commitments of a new consultancy client. • Service delivery cost: Phasing out services is a big decision, but it’s worth examining what’s working and what’s not, especially in changeable economic climates. Examine how much time is taken to deliver certain services, especially those which are admin heavy, compared to the profitability of these services. Consider what functions are draining resources, and if these can be phased out.

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ONTINUING THE MOMENTUM OF ITS HYPERGROWTH IN 2020, AIRWALLEX HAS ANNOUNCED THAT THE COMPANY’S VALUATION HAS INCREASED TO US$2.6 BILLION WITH A CAPITAL RAISING OF US$100 MILLION IN A FURTHER SERIES D EXTENSION. Lifting Airwallex’s Series D funding to US$300 million, this latest tranche followed its initial Series D round in April 2020 during the pandemic, and the extension round in September 2020. To date, Airwallex has achieved nearly US$500 million in equity funds raised. The round has been led by Greenoaks, a US-based global investment firm that has backed industry-leading technology and fintech

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companies including Deliveroo, Discord, Stripe, Brex and Checkout.com. Australia-based Grok Ventures, Skip Capital and ANZi Ventures have also participated in the round. In just two years, Airwallex has nearly tripled its valuation, following the company’s unicorn status during its successful Series C fundraising in March 2019. This latest infusion of capital will be used to further accelerate Airwallex’s global expansion, explore new partnerships and continue with product and engineering innovation. “The world will only become more digital, and with more businesses than ever now operating online, Airwallex has proudly been at the centre of this evolution,” said Jack Zhang, Co-found-

er and CEO at Airwallex. “The additional investment is a vote of confidence in the global financial infrastructure we have built, as we look to empower businesses to grow without borders.” “This year, we are focused on our global expansion. We continue to extend our international footprint, and are bolstering our capabilities through partnerships and new product launches. Strengthening our investor base with the addition of Greenoaks will also help us accelerate that progress. We look forward to their support as we forge ahead on our journey to become a global financial cloud.” Zhang continued.

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enable us to launch a host of new products and services in the near future”, says Virgilijus Mirkes, Chief Executive Officer of Revolut Bank. What’s in it for you when you upgrade to Revolut Bank? - Your money’s protected under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme - Get exclusive access to a bunch of new products and services - You can help us shape future products, and improve existing ones All of this comes in addition to the Revolut services you already love. We’re not stopping here either; there’s so much more to come. So, keep your eyes peeled for exciting upcoming announcements.

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HE GROWTH CAPITAL REPRESENTS THE LARGEST FUNDING ROUND IN THE HISTORY OF DIGITAL IDENTITY AND WILL FUEL INNOVATION AND AUTOMATION Jumio, the leading provider of AI-powered endto-end identity verification and eKYC solutions, today announced it secured a $150 million investment from Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm that invests

in high-growth, disruptive companies. This infusion represents the single largest funding round in the digital identity space and speaks to the global importance of establishing a user’s identity remotely to defend against fraud and financial crime, comply with KYC and AML regulations and boost online conversions. The investment will accelerate Jumio’s significant global lead in the digital identity space by devoting additional resources to au-

tomate its identity verification solutions, expand the breadth of the Jumio KYX Platform and grow its suite of AML compliance services. Jumio brings its pioneering document-centric identity approach to leading bluechip companies across the telehealth, financial services, online gaming and social media spaces.

WE’VE LANDED! REVOLUT BUSINESS IS NOW LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES

By Elizabeth McGrath

E’RE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THAT REVOLUT BUSINESS IS NOW LIVE IN THE US - IN ALL 50 STATES! REVOLUT BUSINESS GIVES YOU POWERFUL, PERSONALIZED TOOLS ALL IN ONE PLACE, GIVING YOU ULTIMATE CONTROL OVER YOUR BUSINESS FINANCES. SIGNING UP IS EASY, SO GET STARTED NOW!

One place to manage all things business Transfer to US Revolut accounts and worldwide instantly and free If you’re outside the US, exchanging and transferring money with your stateside partners is about to get a whole lot cheaper once they join. For starters, payments and transfers between Revolut accounts – business or personal – are always free. Enjoy free worldwide payments to anyone with a Revolut Business account! Just think how much your businesses will save over time if you were both using Revolut?! Exchange and transfer money at great rates Your partners aren’t with Revolut yet? No problem.

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