accountancy-software

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

“The UK doesn’t really have the practice of living in multigenerational homes that other cultures do. We are one of the most age-segregated countries in the world; as we grow older, we tend to move away from family, forming bubbles of people who are the same age, who think like us and talk like us. That can lead to issues like loneliness, ageism and social isolation,” said Louise Goulden, founder of The Together Project. “Our mission is to change this and instead connect generations through joy.”

The Together Project is a winner of the 2023 Xero Beautiful Business Fund in the ‘Strengthening Community category,’ and deepens intergenerational connections within communities nationwide. We sat down with founder Louise Goulden to learn how the charity is tackling isolation, one shared moment at a time, and what impact the winnings have had on their community. 

Forging intergenerational bonds through song and art

Louise founded The Together Project in 2017, spurred by her own experience of isolation after becoming a new mother. “I went from having a very busy, energetic professional career to suddenly [being] stuck at home, unable to have a shower and get dressed because I had a very clingy baby,” she shared. This experience of disconnection led Louise to think about how many others might be feeling isolated, especially older adults in care homes.

Out of this realisation came Songs & Smiles, the charity’s flagship program which brings young children, their parents, and older adults together in care homes. “We sing songs, blow bubbles, dance with coloured scarves,” Louise explained. “It’s designed to be the most uplifting hour of the week.” After the music, participants sit down for tea and biscuits, creating a relaxed environment where connections flourish.

The Together Project also runs Crafting Connections, an arts-and-crafts program that pairs children with older adults in care settings. “It’s like a pen-pal scheme but through arts and crafts,” said Louise. Every month, participants exchange handmade artwork and letters, which helps foster relationships.

Bringing generations closer with the Xero Beautiful Business Fund

Over the last year, The Together Project has been rapidly expanding its operations. “We’ve expanded our services to new geographical locations and created some new projects as well, so it’s been a really exciting 12 months for us,” Louise noted.

However, as is the case with many small charities, rising costs and inflation increasingly threaten The Together Project’s ability to serve its beneficiaries. “It’s a really challenging time for a lot of small charities in the UK… there’s a lot of pressure and increased demand for funding and increased service demands, [especially with] the cost of living crisis,” she added.

When Louise heard about the Xero Beautiful Business Fund, the opportunity seemed like a perfect fit. “We got an email about the fund, and I thought, this is definitely something that’s worth us spending a bit of time on,” Louise recalled. The entry process was straightforward, involving a short video submission, and The Together Project was thrilled to be chosen as a winner.

Louise knew exactly where to put the money. “We used the funding to help support the salary of a new team assistant within the organisation,” she explained. This new role became crucial in expanding Songs & Smiles, managing everything from outreach to bookings, allowing the charity to scale its efforts without being stretched too thin. “Laura is intrinsic in the day-to-day management of the program.”

Thanks to the winnings, Songs & Smiles has since expanded to an additional 15 care homes, reaching even more people with their intergenerational programs. “It’s made a very tangible difference to what we’re able to offer,” Louise acknowledged. 

Towards a more connected tomorrow

As The Together Project looks to the future, the team remains ambitious. “We’re having some really exciting conversations about partnerships with other nonprofits and local authorities,” Louise hinted. Their goal is to continue expanding programs like Songs & Smiles and Crafting Connections to bring more generations together and further reduce social isolation.

With the support of the Xero Beautiful Business Fund and the passion of their team, The Together Project is poised to continue building a more connected future — one song, one craft, and one joyful connection at a time.

The 2023 winners of the Xero Beautiful Business Fund are an incredible group of small businesses and nonprofits who are passionate about solving problems and making an impact in their local communities. We spotlighted some of our past winners to hear more about how the fund has impacted their business and helped them achieve their goals. Stay tuned as winners of the 2024 Xero Beautiful Business Fund will be announced at the end of October 2024. 

The post How the Together Project is spreading joy across generations appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

This month’s Xero product updates include exciting new features and enhancements to streamline your workflows and boost productivity. 

From rolling out new tools for our accountants and bookkeepers, to improvements to the Xero Accounting app, and tools for managing inventory, Xero’s October updates offer valuable enhancements for both small businesses and advisors alike. Read on to discover how these updates can benefit you. 

Global: Get a snapshot of your client’s financial health in Xero Practice Manager and Xero HQ

Client insights is now available for all Xero partners. The insights screen in Xero HQ (and coming soon in XPM) shows you the latest shows you the latest financial data across all your business edition clients, to help you identify which clients would benefit from your support or advice and a timely conversation. Read more in the blog post: A new Xero dashboard to elevate your advisory services.

Global: Manage finances from anywhere with Xero Accounting app enhancements [Product Idea]

We’ve also made it easier to share invoices from the Xero Accounting app on iPhone, so you can manage them more efficiently on the go. You can now share invoices on any available app on your mobile device (e.g. Messages, WhatsApp and more) with a few simple taps. 

Global: Managing your inventory is now more efficient [Product Idea]

It’s now easier to navigate your products and services list and view key information at a glance with new inventory filtering options within Xero Inventory. Filter inventory items by type (tracked or untracked) and apply this filter to your export. Your export file will also show the quantity on hand. Plus, you can now customise your columns and save your preferred view as a default. These small (and highly requested) improvements will make it easier to track your inventory, to ensure you have the right stock on hand.

Global: Preview reports from the layout editor

Check out the new preview panel in the layout editor of all reports in Xero. This enhancement will  help you to customise report layouts with minimal effort. 

AU, UK, NZ: Accept payments without the hassle of creating an invoice

Xero customers can now sell any time, anywhere, by creating a payment checkout without the need to create an invoice. Simply generate a payment link to share with your customers, and keep track of when you’ve been paid. No set up is required, but you must be connected to an online payment provider such as Stripe, GoCardless, or Paypal.

These are just some of the updates that have rolled out in Xero this month. Check out the September edition here, and for a full list of what’s new this October, check out our Release Notes in Xero Central.

The post What’s new in Xero – October 2024 appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

How do you think small businesses in your area are doing? New regional and provincial data from Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI) helps track differences in small business performance within Canada and within the US. This data provides a more granular look at each country by sharing a richer, more nuanced perspective when compared to national level statistics.

The new data covers:

• Canada: Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario
• United States: Northeast, Midwest, South and West (the major regions defined by the US Census Bureau)

To help set the scene for this new data, we’ve released two new research notes covering how sales and payment times have tracked in each region and province since 2017. This includes how they performed during the Covid-19 pandemic and how they’ve recovered since. 

You can download the full research notes from the XSBI Commentary and Research page.

How can you use this data?

Regional data can be especially helpful for small businesses and advisors who want to benchmark performance against similar businesses in the region. You can take the insights and make adjustments or set achievable goals for your business or clients. Some considerations could include:

• How do your payment times compare to the average in your province? What payment services can you implement to improve them?
• How do sales in your local business compare to average sales in the broader region?
• What factors might be contributing to economic volatility in your area? How can you plan for these now and into the future?

What did we learn from these reports?

Canada: 

• Alberta has experienced more volatility in sales performance compared to other provinces, probably due to a reliance on the energy sector and the flow-on impacts of global oil price fluctuations. Payment times rose during the pandemic – a trend not generally seen elsewhere in the XSBI data – but have since improved
• British Columbia was the province most impacted during the pandemic lockdown period, probably due to its exposure to international trade and tourism. British Columbia has had the smallest improvement in payment times over the period XSBI has been tracking them
• Ontario’s large, diversified economy protects it from the fluctuations seen in the other two provinces. The most recent months of data point to improving sales performance after a weak 2023. Ontario small businesses have had the most improvement in payment times over the period XSBI has been tracking them

United States:

• The Northeast has shown the biggest improvement in payment times since 2017 out of the four major regions. Payment times improved by around three days, after earlier having the longest wait time, indicating better cash flow outcomes for small businesses
• The Midwest was the least impacted by the pandemic of the major regions, possibly due to its strong agricultural industry. However, recent statistics show only three months of positive sales growth in the 15 months to March 2024
• The South now accounts for nearly a third of the US economy according to the Bank of America, with strong and diversified industries and sectors – great news for small businesses. It had the shallowest slowdown in sales of any of the major regions during 2023 and the early months of 2024
• The West had the strongest pre-pandemic average sales growth. However, despite a diverse economy, small businesses sales have struggled to recover since the pandemic, making the West one of the weakest sales performers.

The post What new XSBI data tells us about North American small businesses appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

When you think of ‘circular fashion’ you might think of donating your old clothes and items to local charity shops, or online marketplaces. But what about consignment stores that pay you for your most-loved items and offer credit notes that allow you to refresh your wardrobe at the same time? 

That’s exactly what Kirsta Hawkins, owner of sustainable consignment store Mutual Muse, wanted to bring Australian shoppers when she opened her first store in 2014.

We had a conversation with Kirsta and her Chief Operating Officer, Emma Barton, about how they introduced a new kind of fashion sustainability to customers, and took circular fashion to a new level with the help of Xero and connected apps. 

A different kind of second-hand retail 

The beginnings of Mutual Muse came from a simple idea to offer something meaningful. “I decided to start Mutual Muse because I wanted to do something that was fulfilling in life, and I’ve always felt like I needed to have something that was really meaningful to me,” Kirsta says.

Typically, consignment stores offer the person giving their clothes a form of payment instead of just accepting donations. After growing up seeing consignment retail stores throughout America, Kirsta decided to bring her own version to life in Melbourne. 

“Where I grew up, every neighbourhood had their own little consignment shop,” she says. “And so I was living in Melbourne for a couple of years and really aching for that specific type of secondhand retail, and no one else was doing it at the time, so I thought maybe I’ll give it a go.”

And with that, Mutual Muse was born. Kirsta started by buying clothes directly from people and  offered a unique model of immediate cash or store credit for items sold to Mutual Muse. Soon, markets turned into a store. Today, Mutual Muse consists of a team of more than 30 people keeping the wheel of circular fashion turning. 

From shoebox accounting to Xero

It didn’t take long before tax receipts and bookkeeping paperwork piled up. That’s where COO, Emma Barton, came in to help shift Mutual Muse to Xero. 

“Coming into the business, it was clear that Kirsta had a preference for doing things with a pen, and paper receipts, and shoe boxes…  It was a bit of a moment for me and an entry into a conversation where I said, ‘there’s easier ways of doing this. We could digitise this, we could streamline it, we could make life easier’.” 

Emma took on moving Mutual Muse’s accounting from shoeboxes to software, with the help of accounting firm Bramble and Briar. And with the help of connected apps, keeping track of their business’s needs — from seller payments and store credits to payroll — was simple. 

“We’ve been able to pull together a system that completely automates the process and has been totally life-changing and time saving. It’s so much easier for us and our customers to understand, interact with, and more importantly get paid,” Emma says.

Moving online with Shopify

In addition to digitising and streamlining Mutual Muse’s accounting, apps have transformed the way they’re able to do business. When Covid-19 lockdowns required the bricks and mortar store to close, Kirsta and Emma needed a way to sell online.

 “We had been selling clothes via Instagram as a means to keep the business rolling, and realised that wasn’t sustainable,” Emma says. “It was an administrative nightmare.” 

Enter Shopify, which allowed Mutual Muse to move its entire shopfront online, and easily sync its sales and seller payments back to Xero via the Shopify integration by Xero. 

“It was seamless, integrating Shopify and Xero,” Emma says. “Now, we’re about to do a really exciting relaunch of our website on Shopify, and it’s just been so easy to push things back and forth between the two platforms.”

Freeing up time to spend on fashion

Fast forward to today, and Mutual Muse is thriving with three physical stores, a strong online presence and a stack of apps that keep their business and accounting running smoothly.

“Within the app stack that we use, we have payroll, sales data, payments to sellers, all of our reporting, all in one place working together seamlessly.”

Their reporting app, Syft helps create custom-built reports based on financial data in Xero, as well as data pulled from their entire app stack. 

“When we go into our finance meeting each month, we’ve got custom reporting set up that draws from the various apps we use that plug into Xero, and at a glance we can see exactly what’s happened in the business over the last month across multiple locations,” Emma says.

Emma and Kirsta can now spend more time doing what they love, knowing their app stack of software solutions are working together.

“Having apps saves us time and frees us up to be working on the things that we really want to be working on. The fun things like spending more time with our people, and spending more time in the stores,” says Emma.

“Not that I don’t love doing reconciliations, but I would much rather be at a photo shoot, or playing with clothes, or doing something creative,” Kirsta adds.

Fashion your own app stack with the Xero App Store 

Whether you’re selling secondhand items or brand new stock, your stack of software solutions can benefit from talking to each other. Get Mutual Muse’s complete retail app stack or browse retail and ecommerce apps that integrate with Xero directly, in the Xero App Store.

The post How Mutual Muse took circular fashion from trend to timeless appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

It’s an absolute honour to share that Xero has been awarded Canstar’s Most Satisfied Customer Award in the small business accounting software category, for the sixth consecutive year. 

This recognition is a testament to the support and trust we’ve earned from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Aotearoa New Zealand.

We don’t take for granted the support we get from our small business customers, and I’d like to thank everyone who rated us number one. It’s a big endorsement for the mahi we do, and we’re hugely grateful.

Canstar Blue, a customer satisfaction research and ratings business, surveys hundreds of small business owners annually to establish industry benchmarks. Business owners are asked to rate their accounting software providers across a variety of categories. 

It’s a delight to see we’ve exceeded expectations this year, illustrating the exceptional value our customers place in our software and services.

We also want to thank the team at Canstar Blue for their unwavering support and recognise the incredible work they do to shine a light on Kiwi business achievement.

We’re a Kiwi-born company, here for Kiwi small businesses. 

Our community of small business here in Aotearoa New Zealand is our greatest asset and we will continue to champion you all during these tough economic times. 

To our valued customers and all those who support us, again, a heartfelt thank you. Your willingness to trust in Xero is at the core of our success, and we are deeply grateful for your continued support.

The post Celebrating Xero success with sixth consecutive Canstar award appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

As a busy accountant or bookkeeper, we know you don’t always have time to go through each client’s books to proactively identify issues or opportunities. That’s why we’re thrilled to share that we’ve been testing a new client insights dashboard for advisors, which gives you a snapshot of the financial health of all Xero business edition clients, in one place.

Client insights makes it easy to run your eye down the page and quickly see how your clients are tracking overall, and which ones might need your attention. If you spot something that looks like it might need more analysis, you can dive into the client’s individual organisation from the dashboard, and get to work.

The dashboard will be available to all Xero partners globally, and rolled out over the next couple of weeks. We’re releasing it now so you can enjoy all the value it currently offers, but have big plans to enhance it with more functionality next year. We’d love to know what metrics you’d like to see in the future — let us know over at Xero Product Ideas.

Get a snapshot of your clients’ financial health

We’re releasing client insights with key financial metrics for the current month, and will continue to enhance the dashboard based on your feedback. Our next priority (based on our testing with Xero Insiders) is to add more financial metrics and date ranges, so you get even more value from the dashboard. Right now, you can:

• Identify concerns or opportunities: Quickly identify clients that need attention, by viewing key financial indicators for all Xero business edition clients in one place
• Easily view key financial metrics: See clients’ overall cash balance (in Xero), accounts receivable, accounts payable, current ratio, revenue, expenses, net profit and industry
• Dive deeper into the data: Sort, filter, drill down, and work efficiently with your clients’ data, all within Xero
• Have confidence in the numbers: View the status of your clients’ bank reconciliation, including the date, value and number of unreconciled items
• Enhance client conversations: Use Xero Analytics in client conversations, so they can monitor and keep track of business metrics themselves

Use Xero to scale your advisory services

We know that many advisors want to grow their advisory services, but struggle with the time, confidence, and ability to engage clients. Client insights not only gives you the data you need to start those conversations, but gives those less experienced in advisory services the confidence to go beyond the billable hour, so you can scale advisory across your practice.

As advisory moves toward being an essential service for all small businesses, we hope this tool frees up your time to focus on high-value work and gives you the confidence to take your advisory services to the next level. I encourage you to jump in and give client insights a try — we can’t wait to see what you think.

The post A new Xero dashboard to elevate your advisory services appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

I was excited to sit down at Xerocon Nashville recently with Ashley Francis, a CPA with almost 25 years of experience, who has become an accounting expert on using artificial intelligence. Based in the US, Ashley is a well-known speaker, teacher and writer in the accounting industry on the value of incorporating generative AI (GenAI) and automation into practices.

Ashley builds prompts and uses AI to automate routine tasks. She’s developed an approach that enhances personal relationships, whether that’s rehearsing difficult conversations or empowering new hires. Here are some highlights from our conversation, where Ashley shares more about her unique approach and how you might apply it to your own practice.

What is the industry like now versus when you started as an accountant?

I’ve been in the industry for 24 years, but I grew up in the accounting world. As a child, my mother worked for a CPA firm. I would come home from school and sit underneath the front desk, and see the amount of work that went into preparing a tax return. What I learnt was that it was actually never about the tax return. It was always about the people who were coming into the office who had concerns, who needed someone on their side that could help and support and comfort them, as well as help them understand and navigate the complex rules and regulations.

It sometimes feels like our profession is a competition of who’s the smartest person in the room, because of the complexity required and the need to keep up with legal changes. But the thing is, the original value proposition of accountancy was to be the person who could look at numbers and interpret them into human language. So I see the way the industry is evolving (such as using technology like GenAI) as bringing us back to our roots. GenAI is just a tool to help us make complex concepts simple, as we continue to engage with our clients and support their business needs.

How are you using AI in your practice?

I use AI a little differently from many other accountants, because my practice is different and tax heavy. AI helps me a lot with building relationships. I find my clients are very distracted; there are so many different things capturing their attention. And if we only touch base with them once a year or once a quarter, we’re not on their mind. I needed to find a way to cut through. 

What I find helpful is to use GenAI to create communications and automate those communications. This helps put myself in my client’s brain space and support them when they’re so distracted. 

Another way I use it is by building prompts to practise difficult conversations. I’ve built several prompts for different scenarios — for example, how to have conversations with challenging clients or prospects. When you’ve finished the exercise, the chatbot tells you what you did well, and what you need to work on. And it’s not just useful professionally — I’ve shared it with friends in personal conflict situations who speak to the prompt and work out how to solve the conflict.

I shared another prompt with a friend for him to use as he practised for a big proposal. He’d never presented that proposal before, and so he practised with the GenAI prompt several times. By the end of it, he felt more comfortable going into that conversation.

It’s about using GenAI to help accountants and bookkeepers get better at the things machines are never going to be really good at, like those human relationships and interactions.

I think one of the things a lot of people in this industry are thinking about is the problem we have with talent and training. You have a really interesting approach to this. Can you tell us how you are using GenAI prompts to help address this problem?

As I mentioned, I’ve been using prompts for relationships and practising those human interactions. Another use case that I think could become even more helpful in the next few years is helping us train new employees. 

We all know that training new employees is important, but it’s also really time-consuming. And we want our new employees to know things they’re not necessarily taught, like critical thinking, time management and project management. Also, fresh graduates who are new to the workforce might have trouble remembering all the accounting rules. 

I find we sometimes say to staff, “We’ll just do what we did last year”. But when you weren’t at the practice last year, then how are you supposed to know what to do?

I created a ‘superstar staff’ prompt with all the important information that a new staff member needs to know. They can ask all their questions without worrying that they are asking too many. With the help of this prompt, new staff members can get up to speed more quickly, becoming more independent and proficient.

GenAI can even help us look at non-traditional pathways into the profession. Think of your administrative staff – is building prompts something that they could upskill in? Here’s a coaching prompt I’ve developed that you can use to help staff learn particular concepts relevant to your practice.

If an accountant wants to move from experimenting and exploring to actually using AI in their practice, what are your recommendations?

I think GenAI is a tool best learned socially. Individually, people tend to throw things at the wall to see what sticks, and that’s not going to gain traction in a practice. In your practice, get together and brainstorm the one thing the team finds most annoying. Use all your efforts and experimentation to solve that problem together, and share your learnings. Then, only once you’ve solved that problem, move onto the next one.

If you’re keen to find out more about Ashley’s approach and how you can implement it in your own practice, check out her blogletter ‘Kitchen Table Automations’, sign up for her GenAI for tax and accounting course, or follow her on LinkedIn.

The post Beyond automation: How AI can transform the human side of accounting appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

We know how important it is for small businesses to have access to powerful insights to help them run their business better, no matter the economic environment they’re facing.

To accelerate our mission to provide powerful insights, we are thrilled to share that Xero is acquiring Syft, a leading global cloud-based reporting, insights and analytics platform for small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers.

Today, Syft is available through the Xero App Store as an app partner. And we know that many Xero customers know and love Syft for its beautiful custom reporting and visualisation features. Syft is the most used reporting and insights app in the Xero App Store and has been awarded several accolades this year, picking up Xero Awards across multiple countries.

Following the acquisition, we plan that Syft will continue to be available as a standalone offering to small businesses and their accountants and bookkeepers – no matter who their accounting software provider is.

How does this benefit Xero customers in the future?

We’ve always been focused on reimagining how accounting software can empower small businesses, as well as their accounting and bookkeeping partners, by providing insights to help them to run their business better. Syft supercharges our ability to serve customers in this way.

There is strong alignment between Xero and Syft, and we couldn’t be more excited to work together to accelerate our joint goals. Current customers love Syft for its custom reporting, visualisations, benchmarking, live analysis views with drill down, ability to consolidate across financial data sources, budgeting and forecasting, reporting automation and data quality assurance.

Syft also provides insights by aggregating data from other software that small businesses and accountants and bookkeepers use – whether that’s accounting software, Excel, or partners such as Stripe, Square, Shopify and Gusto. These are all things we believe will bring greater value to the Xero experience and support small businesses and their advisors to have a deeper understanding of their business to make informed decisions.

We’ll also work to embed Syft’s functionality within Xero over time, to provide powerful visualisations, analytics and reporting capabilities for new and existing customers.

We look forward to bringing this exciting vision to life by strengthening our insights, advanced reporting and analytics offerings through capabilities such as benchmarking, long term cash flow forecasting and multi-entity reporting. Our goal is to bring the power of premium insights and advanced reporting functionality to our customers so they can reap the value for their business.

Our commitment to our open ecosystem

We know our customers have different needs and that there may be other solutions that suit customers needs better and so we will continue to support other insights and analytics providers on our platform just as we have done before. This is what our open platform is all about – providing our customers choice so they can use the software that best meets their specific needs.

The acquisition of Syft aligns with our values and open ecosystem principles. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome the Syft team to Xero so we can continue to empower small businesses and their advisors customers with the tools they need to make informed business decisions.

Diya

Xero’s acquisition of Syft is expected to close in Q3 of Xero’s FY25 (Oct – Dec 2024).

The post Xero to acquire Syft to enhance reporting and insights capability appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

In today’s rapidly evolving accounting landscape, embracing cloud technology is no longer optional – it’s essential. But for many small firms, navigating the sea of available solutions can be overwhelming. That’s where Xero ambassadors like Scope Solutions come in, bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and practical implementation.

I recently sat down with Brian Ferris and Neville Micallef, co-founders of Scope Solutions, our Xero ambassador for Malta, Cyprus and the UAE, to discuss how they’re helping accountants and bookkeepers harness the power of the cloud to grow their practices and better serve their clients.

The cloud adoption challenge

Adam (Xero): Brian, what’s the biggest hurdle you see accountants facing when it comes to cloud adoption?

Brian Ferris: The sheer number of options can be paralysing. There are fantastic solutions out there, like Xero, that can truly transform how accountants work. But for those without a strong tech background, it’s challenging to know where to start. That’s why we position ourselves as a tech partner, guiding accountants through this transformation and connecting them with the right-fit solutions.

Tailoring solutions to individual needs

Adam: How does Scope approach helping firms with their unique needs?

Neville Micallef: We recognise that every accounting practice is at a different stage in their cloud journey. Some are just starting out, while others are looking to optimise their existing tech stack. Our approach is to first understand their specific needs, challenges, and goals. Then, we create a tailored plan to help them utilise cloud innovations to streamline financial management, automate routine tasks, and access real-time data.

Navigating the Xero App Store

Adam: With so many apps available in the Xero App Store, how do you help accountants avoid app overload?

Brian: It’s true, the choices can be overwhelming. Xero alone integrates with over 1,100 connected apps. At Scope, we take a hands-on approach to curating the best solutions. We research thousands of apps, rigorously test hundreds, and ultimately recommend only those that meet our strict criteria for security, flexibility, and scalability. This way, accountants can trust that they’re implementing tools that will truly add value to their practice.

The evolving role of accountants

Adam: How do you see cloud technology changing the accounting profession?

Neville: Cloud solutions like Xero are freeing accountants from time-consuming manual tasks, allowing them to evolve into trusted advisors for their clients. By automating routine work, accountants can focus on providing strategic insights and value-added services. It’s an exciting shift that’s taking the profession to a whole new level.

Looking ahead: The future of cloud accounting

Adam: What excites you most about the future of cloud accounting?

Brian: The potential for integration and automation is incredible. We’re seeing systems that can talk to each other seamlessly, providing real-time insights and freeing up accountants to focus on high-value work. With Xero leading the charge, we’re excited to help more firms make the most of these tools to drive growth and deliver exceptional client service.

Partnering for success

At Xero, we’re proud to work with ambassadors like Scope Solutions who share our vision of empowering accountants through technology. By simplifying cloud adoption and providing expert guidance, Scope is helping accounting firms across Malta, Cyprus and the UAE thrive in the digital age.

About Scope Solutions: Founded in 2012, Scope Solutions is a leading cloud solutions and SaaS specialist based in Malta. As a Xero ambassador for Malta, Cyprus and UAE, its team of cloud transformation experts and qualified accountants helps finance professionals navigate and optimise their use of Xero and cloud solutions.

The post Navigating cloud adoption: A conversation with Xero ambassador Scope Solutions appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

It’s been a huge three months: we’ve hosted Xerocons in both London and Nashville, and have been hard at work delivering numerous product updates, many inspired by your ideas, requests, and feedback. In last month’s edition we shared how we’re making it easier for you to navigate and tab through fields in invoicing, and in July we rolled out the ability to toggle payment methods on and off in your payment settings without leaving Xero. We heard your feedback about wanting faster, simplified content searches, so we rolled out AI-generated search results in the help menu, and you’re now able to bulk void bills, credit notes and payslips on a single page. (Read more in the June edition).

This month we’re excited to share more exciting enhancements with you. We’ve added more ways for customers to pay, including Tap to Pay on Android (initially in Australia), released Xero Inventory Plus in the US, and continued improving new invoicing. 

Global: Offering small businesses more ways to get paid with Tap to Pay and Klarna

We know from the Xero Small Business Insights Special Report, Crunch: Cash flow challenges facing small businesses, that late payments are the number one cause of cash flow concerns for small businesses and that chasing payments is both stressful and time-consuming. To provide more ways for small businesses to accept payments and help manage cash flow, we’ve launched Tap to Pay on Android (the first major accounting platform to do so) in Australia, and in the UK (coming soon), via our partnership with Stripe. Plus, we’ve added even more ways to pay with one single sign-on, including online bank transfers in the United States as well as Klarna, a buy now, pay later option available in the United States, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Canada. 

Global: Further enhancements to the new version of invoicing [Product Idea]

More features from classic invoicing are being rolled out in the new version of invoicing. This includes the ability to view tax rates and breakdowns in the invoice creation screen, and because of your idea, record overpayments against invoices so that credit can be applied to future invoices. 

Global: Duplicate items in your products and services inventory list [Product idea]

When creating new items in your products and services inventory list, you can now duplicate and edit an existing item. This will make it quicker to add similar items to your catalogue, with less chance of manual error.

Global: Quickly see how accounts are mapped to report codes in chart of accounts

If you’re a Xero accounting or bookkeeping partner, you might be interested in the new report code column in the chart of accounts screen that helps you quickly see how accounts are mapped to report codes.

AU: Improved user experience for the employee opening balances tab within Xero Payroll

To help save time and ensure more accurate payroll from the first pay run, we’ve modernised the user interface, included more informative content, and ensured the page meets accessibility standards.

NZ: Making payroll admin easier with flexible working patterns [Product Idea]

Payroll processing in New Zealand just got easier in Xero. You  can now specify a work pattern of up to two weeks in length for employees, which gives you more flexibility in defining their working hours. This allows for more precise tracking and more accurate leave accruals. Additionally, annual leave is now displayed in weeks, eliminating the need for adjustments when work arrangements change. These enhancements will streamline processes, reduce manual tasks, and ensure greater legislative compliance.

UK: Auto-extraction of payment details from bill attachments

For businesses paying supplier bills directly from Xero, this new feature streamlines the payment process by automatically extracting and validating bank details from bill attachments. This automation reduces the need for manual updates and checks, saving time and minimising errors. By ensuring that the payment information flows seamlessly into the payment process, the auto-extract feature helps prevent failed payments due to outdated or incorrect payment details and reduces the risk of fraud.

UK: Improving RTI filings in payroll

If you’re a payroll admin, it’s now easier for you to access historic real-time information (RTI) submissions for reverted and deleted pay runs, giving you better transparency and ability to self-serve. You can download your historic RTI  submissions from the RTI filings table in payroll.

US: Connect  Amazon (FBA) with Xero Inventory Plus to manage your inventory more efficiently

We’re excited to announce the official launch of Xero Inventory Plus with a brand new integration with Amazon. Through the new Xero integration with Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) program or the existing connection with Shopify, you can manage inventory, fulfilment and reordering in one place and get key insights to grow your business. You can add Inventory Plus to your Xero Growing or Established plan for $39 USD/month. Simply click here and get your first month free.

US: Simplify sales tax with state-based sales tax reports

It’s now easier for you to find and use sales functionality tax in Xero. The revamped sales tax home screen centralises Xero’s sales tax features, providing easy access to reporting and calculations alongside helpful information to guide you through the reporting process. All US users can now access sales tax reports that are automatically generated by state and by filing period with filing deadlines, saving you time in preparing to file reports and simplifying sales tax  management. Click on the Accounting tab within Xero to get started.

US: Streamline 1099 preparation with third-party payment exclusions 

Xero helps you automatically detect and filter out third-party payments from Stripe, PayPal, and Venmo that should be excluded from your 1099s. This reduces the manual work you need to do, saving time during the busy season, and helping your clients stay compliant.

These are just some of the updates that have rolled out in Xero this month. You can check out the August edition here, and for a full list of what’s new this September, see the release notes in Xero Central. 

The post What’s new in Xero – September 2024 appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

As National Payroll Week kicks off today, the team at Xero wants to extend a special thank you to our incredible community of small businesses and accountants across the UK who manage payroll. This week is dedicated to shining a spotlight on the importance of payroll and recognising the invaluable work done by those who ensure employees are paid accurately and on time.

The impact of payroll on the UK economy

Payroll might seem like a behind-the-scenes function, but its influence is profound. In fact, payroll professionals contribute significantly to the UK’s economy, helping collect a staggering £404 billion through PAYE, income tax, and National Insurance.* This revenue supports public services, infrastructure, and much more, underscoring how crucial accurate payroll management is to our daily lives.

Faster payroll with Xero

Xero understands the complexities of payroll and aims to make running payroll as easy as possible. In fact, our recent survey found that 92% of small businesses say they run payroll faster with Xero.**. Xero brings your accounting and payroll together in one place and is designed to streamline payroll tasks, so that you can handle payroll efficiently and confidently. With Xero, you can:

• automate payroll calculations: reduce errors and save time with automated tax calculations and deductions
• ensure compliance: stay up-to-date with the latest regulations and compliance requirements
• simplify administration: manage employee records, timesheets, payslips and more with ease

To learn more about Xero payroll and what it can do for your business, check out the payroll webpage.

Join Xero’s live payroll webinar

To mark National Payroll Week 2024, our payroll experts are running a live, interactive webinar. Register now to discover the latest in the industry, how it might affect your work and how Xero payroll software can help. 

Webinar: Discover Xero Payroll for your business

Tuesday 3 September at 2pm BST

Register now

Need assistance? Check out our YouTube channel

If you find yourself needing a bit of extra help with payroll, head over to the Xero YouTube channel or Xero Central, where you can find a range of new videos designed to assist with payroll management. From step-by-step guides to troubleshooting tips, this content will help you get the most out of Xero payroll.

Thank you to our community

As we celebrate National Payroll Week, we want to express our sincere gratitude to all our Xero small businesses and accountants. Your dedication to managing payroll accurately and efficiently is instrumental in the success of countless businesses and the overall economy. Thank you for trusting Xero as your payroll partner and for all the hard work you do, day in and day out.

Let’s continue to work together to make payroll a little less daunting and a lot more rewarding. Happy National Payroll Week!

*Source: Tax receipts and NI contributions table.  https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk 

**Source: Survey by Xero of 254 small businesses in the UK using Xero, May 2024

The post Celebrating payroll professionals on UK National Payroll Week appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

It’s no secret the accounting and bookkeeping industry has been battling a critical talent shortage for some time. In fact, we’ve conducted new research that reveals almost two-thirds of employing practices (65%) have experienced challenges with finding and keeping the right staff in recent years.

Our report, Reshaping accounting and bookkeeping: Image, talent and the way forward, suggests this talent problem is, in part, due to an image problem, with most accountants and bookkeepers (81%) agreeing their industry needs to do a better job of conveying the full scope and impact of what they do. While these issues can’t be solved in isolation, there are things we can do to help resolve them.

This is why we’re launching Xero Mentor Match, a new peer-to-peer mentoring initiative for Xero’s Australian accounting and bookkeeping partners. The program aims to offer you – the accounting and bookkeeping community – a platform for connection, whether you’re looking to educate and inspire your peers, or learn from industry-leading role models who represent what it means to be an advisor today.

How Mentor Match works

Xero has partnered with Mentorloop – which provides mentoring software trusted by organisations worldwide – to bring the Mentor Match program to life. It uses a unique algorithm to analyse program cohorts and create equitable, peer-to-peer connections. This means mentors and mentees are matched according to their complementary interests, skills and goals. 

Mentor Match is for all Xero partners (ie, anyone who works in an accounting or bookkeeping firm that is part of the Xero partner program), from practice owners and decision-makers through to undergraduates and interns. Regardless of your age, experience or skill level, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from the industry’s brightest minds, or inspire – and be inspired by – the next generation of talent.

Meet the foundation mentors

Speaking of bright minds, we’ve launched Mentor Match with some of the industry’s best. Anyone who joins the program could have a chance to be matched with one of the foundation mentors. This is a group of Xero Partner Advisory Council members, past Xero Award winners, and some influential names in the accounting and bookkeeping community, including:

• Aly Garrett, Founder at All in Advisory
• Andrew Van De Beek, Founder and Head of Purpose at Illumin8
• Bec Buchanan, Director at Straight Up Bookkeeping
• Cassandra Scott, Director at Laurus Bookkeeping
• Grace Occleshaw, Client and Advisory Manager at BYO Group
• Jarrod Morris, Partner at Pitch Labs
• Karla Hourigan, Co-Founder and Head of Purpose at MAD Wealth
• Lisa Turner, Director at Accounted For You
• Mark Lawry, Chief Operating Officer at Suntax
• Moushumi Sikand, Director at Ethical CFO Services & Bookkeeping
• Ryan Miller, Chief Executive Officer at Keeping Company
• Sarah Lawrance, Founder at Hot Toast
• Sarah Pilling, Partner at Bramble and Briar
• Shannon Smit, Director at Smart Business Solutions
• Zac Hayes, Managing Director at HA Accounting

Are you ready to meet your match?

If you’re looking to help shape what it means to be an accountant or bookkeeper today, Mentor Match is the program for you. Head to the Xero Mentor Match web page to learn more, and sign up to become a mentor, mentee, or both in just a few minutes. 

Let the matchmaking begin!

The post Introducing Xero Mentor Match, a mentoring program for accounting and bookkeeping partners appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

The anticipation is building as we count down to the Xero Asia Roadshow in Kuala Lumpur. We’ve got an exciting programme for you and we can’t wait to share it!

Winning on purpose

This year, we’re all about helping you win on purpose. 

We all have a purpose that drives us, whether that be supporting our customers and clients with world-class experiences, growing our businesses, or nurturing our staff. At this year’s Xero Roadshow, we’ll share how technology, trends and changes will help us all deliver on this goal.

You’ll get the latest updates from Xero, which are designed to better support you and your small business clients. Expect actionable insights that will not only enhance your practice but also infuse it with a renewed sense of purpose.

The future of accounting with AI and more

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the game, and we’re here to show you how it can supercharge your services. At the roadshow, you’ll get a sneak peek into the future of small business and discover how you can stay ahead of the curve with AI.

We’ll also cover crucial topics like data privacy and security, especially important as new technologies come into play. Plus, we’ll show you how Xero can help your practice stay compliant with Malaysia’s new e-invoicing mandate.

Connect, learn, and grow together

One of the best parts of the Xero Asia Roadshow is the chance to connect with our amazing partner community. Whether you’re attending solo or with your team, take the opportunity to network with accountants and bookkeepers from across the region.

And don’t miss out on meeting our app partners. With an exciting lineup of exhibitors, this is your chance to learn about the apps that can take your practice to the next level.

Ready to see what’s next for your Xero journey and the accounting industry as a whole? Join us at the Xero Asia Roadshow at Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur on 12 September. Plus, you can earn CPD points while you’re at it. We can’t wait to see you there!

The post What you can look forward to at the Xero Asia Roadshow 2024 appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

We’re committed to continuously improving your invoicing experience in Xero. And as we transition to the new version of invoicing, we’re rolling out more features and enhancements designed to streamline your workflow and boost productivity. 

As a reminder, there are some important changes happening in Xero invoicing:

• Beginning the week of 2 September 2024 at 9am NZT, we will be defaulting users to the new version of invoicing experience on a rolling basis. From the time you are defaulted, you will see the new invoicing experience each time you log in to Xero.
• We’ve extended the availability of classic invoicing, so users can choose to temporarily switch back to it until 20 November at 9am NZT, when classic invoicing will be retired.

What’s coming before classic invoicing retirement

We have been making many improvements to new invoicing based on your feedback to better accommodate a wider range of invoicing needs and complexities. For example, many of the ideas shared with us related to ways we could improve the experience when creating a regular high number of invoices.  By making improvements for these complex scenarios, customers with more basic needs also benefit. If you haven’t tried new invoicing recently, we encourage you to jump in and have a look at the latest enhancements. 

And there are still many more product updates coming before retiring classic invoicing. If you are worried about a feature that is missing, be sure you first check out the list below to see if it’s still on the way. 

• View tax rates and breakdowns in the invoice creation screen.
• Set currency exchange rates for your invoice.
• Record overpayments against invoices so that credit can be applied to future invoices.
• Efficient date entry, including easy access to calendar picker and new keyboard entry options.
• More compact line item display, reducing the need to scroll horizontally and vertically.
• Easier inventory management, including the ability to edit items, view more items in the dropdown faster, and view stock on hand in quantity cell for tracked inventory.
• Add new tracking options while editing an invoice to see how different areas of your business such as departments or locations are performing.

We also have implemented some performance enhancements to speed up the new invoicing experience and will continue to do this over the coming months. These enhancements build on the features already available in the new version of invoicing, you can see the full list here on Xero Central.

More innovation coming for new invoicing

The switch to new invoicing will unlock the ability for us to deliver many really important feature requests that you’ve been asking for. So what are some of the exciting updates planned? 

• New customisation tools: The launch of our new invoice template editor, designed to help you create invoices that leave a lasting impression. This new experience will give small businesses the ability to easily customise invoices that truly represent their brand – including customised colours, renaming columns, new font options, and more flexible payment settings. We’ll be launching a beta for our US customers later this year before releasing it globally.
• Send invoices via SMS:  Available in beta for our Australian customers now, with plans to roll out to US customers soon (and other regions to follow). This exclusive functionality allows you to initiate an SMS send for your Xero invoice, making it simple and efficient for your customers to pay you wherever they are.
• Streamlined payments experience: We are working to better enable the way payments are collected globally. We recently announced a range of ways we are improving the experience and offering more ways to pay. 
• Credit notes updates: We’ll be updating the user experience to make it more aligned to the invoicing experience, with improved file preview and more detailed history.

There are also a range of other requests this functionality will unlock that we are building into our roadmaps after the retirement of classic invoicing. For example:

• Providing options to set up flexible payments for a project, including the ability to take deposits or split total balances into multiple payments over time. 
• Improving how outstanding invoices are managed, including automated follow ups and better visibility over payment status.
• Making the setup of recurring invoices more flexible with improved scheduling options and payment methods to collect recurring payments.
• Enabling multiple invoices to be paid at once via a statement. 

This really is just the beginning of our journey to bolster our invoicing product and we want you to know how committed we are to continuing to improve it. 

Keeping you informed, every step of the way

Your feedback has been important to us and as we approach the retirement of classic invoicing, it remains important. 

As a reminder, to see which features have already been released in new invoicing, which features are coming before classic invoicing is retired, and how new invoicing compares to the older version, visit the new invoicing releases page on Xero Central.

We encourage you to share your ideas in Xero Product Ideas, and the support team is also here to help and give you a hand with any questions about these updates.

The post New features coming to Xero invoicing appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

“I used to volunteer at a local food distribution program. Seeing the kids we served take food to their home made me want to do something beyond just providing a basic necessity,” said Mae Anderson, Chairman of Art Outreach, a non-profit arts intermediary dedicated to supporting art practitioners as well as championing art appreciation and visual literacy in Singapore. “I wanted to spark their curiosity and help them get the same sort of education my kids benefited from.”

Art Outreach was one of the 2023 winners in the ‘Strengthening Community Connection’ category of the Xero Beautiful Business Fund. They were recognised for their work with students, local communities and artists to raise visual art literacy and appreciation in Singapore. We spoke with Mae and with Colin Wan, General Manager & Chief Creative, about the advent of Art Outreach and how the organisation works towards art education for the community, by the community.

Sparking a love for art

Art Outreach began as an organisation offering art education programmes for primary and secondary school students. “Back in 2003, the local school curriculum was challenging and focused on STEM subjects. There wasn’t a lot of emphasis on arts and humanities,” said Mae. “And that’s a shame because art can be a strong source of motivation and education.”

Mae and the team would champion art education as a way to fill this gap in the syllabus. “When we put an artwork in front of a child, we often ask them questions like, ‘What do you see?’, ‘Why do you think that or feel that way?’, ‘If this piece of art was about something that happened in Singapore at this particular time, what do you think was happening in Vietnam at the same time?’. These questions may sound simple but it helps a child think through what they’re seeing and draw connections across places, time periods and communities.”

Working with students remains a big part of the organisation, particularly through school assembly talks and the ARTLink community programme for underprivileged children. Art Outreach also works to support local artists, partnering with both young and experienced talent to reach new markets for their work. “A lot of contemporary artists here want to engage audiences as part of practising art. We offer a space for them to create and exhibit their work, as well as opportunities to learn from their peers and experts on how to grow their career as artists sustainably.”

As of this year, Art Outreach has helped 339 practitioners and reached almost 500,000 people through all their programmes.

Staying above board with Xero

With so many different programmes running throughout the year, keeping track of operations and managing finances has always been a key priority for the team. As a registered charity, Art Outreach is recognised as an Institute of a Public Character (IPC). They are required to submit an annual report and financial statements every year to maintain their status, a task that requires careful data management and one that the team takes seriously. 

“It’s because we are a charity that we need to be even more responsible for our cost-to-income ratio. We need to show our funders that they can trust us and that we will carry their ambitions alongside ours all the way to the finish line,” said Mae. “Xero has been an incredible help and allows small organisations like ours to punch above our weight.” Their effort has paid off: Art Outreach was one of four art nonprofits to win the Charity Transparency Award several times, since implementing Xero in 2019. 

“We can’t live without Xero,” said Colin, who had spearheaded the move. “Before implementing Xero, the process was tedious and time-consuming, requiring frequent trips to our bookkeepers. Now, it’s much easier to extract the information we need, especially when preparing annual reports and applying for grants.” 

Colin was the one who heard about the Xero Beautiful Business Fund and suggested Mae record their entry video. “After 20 years of pitching our charity and doing outreach, I couldn’t believe that all it took to enter was to share our message,” Mae said. “Xero made the entry process incredibly easy, which tells me that they genuinely want to empower small organisations like ours.”

Building capacity for the future

“It’s very rare to see funders who are willing to trust that a charity knows where and how to apply the funds they give thoughtfully,” said Mae. “The money we won was able to not only cover the cost for a particular new programme, but also towards unglamorous things like capacity building and overheads, allowing us to keep growing sustainably.”

That particular programme was Off the Wall, a new initiative that invited three urban street artists to transform an indoor space into an immersive exhibition. “Visitors could come and see the murals which were painted live over the course of six weeks, speak to the artists to hear about the vision behind the work, and even purchase a print of a section of the mural in support” explained Mae. “The project proved so successful that we chose to bring Off the Wall back with three new artists this year.”

Winning the fund allowed Art Outreach to launch new programmes and offset some of the costs that come from running a non-profit. But it was how they put the funds to use that made the real difference. 

“I always advocate for charities to understand how to prepare to receive funding. Running a successful charity requires both the donor and the beneficiary to come up with a programme that really drives catalytic change while adhering to sustainable business practices,” said Mae. “Ask the hard questions like ‘How do we hire the best people?’, ‘How can we take care of them?’ or ‘How do we ensure financial viability over the long term?’ These are things that all charities need to be thinking about.”

We’re thrilled to share that the Xero Beautiful Business Fund is back for 2024. Entries close on 27 August 2024 NZT.

The 2023 winners are an incredible group of small businesses and nonprofits who are passionate about solving problems and making an impact in their local communities. We’re spotlighting some of the past winners to hear more about how the fund has impacted their business and helped them achieve their goals. Read the stories of other Xero Beautiful Business Fund winners

The post How Art Outreach is drawing on the Xero Beautiful Business Fund to create new possibilities for education appeared first on Xero Blog.

If Xero is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that offers numerous benefits. It simplifies financial management with automated bank feeds, allowing you to save time on data entry. Create, email, and print professional invoices effortlessly. Access your finances in real time via the cloud from any device. Retain records of income, expenses, assets, and liabilities securely online. Whether you’re a small business owner or an accountant, Xero streamlines your financial processes and provides a clear view of your financial health.

“I kept seeing a lot of useful material getting thrown out to the landfill, construction waste mainly, things like metal, wood, plasterboard and concrete which are all reusable with a little work,” says Dan Butterfield, owner of Kiwi Skips, a New Zealand-based on-demand skip hire company committed to sustainable waste management. “Watching it all go to waste felt wrong – but it was pretty easy to fix.”

Kiwi Skips was a winner of the ‘Innovating for Sustainability’ category in the 2023 Xero Beautiful Business Fund for their work promoting zero waste management. We sat down with Dan for a chat about his journey from engineer to entrepreneur, and what he has in store for the future.

Starting from scrap

Construction waste makes up about 50% of New Zealand’s total waste, with 20% going straight to landfill. “My parents ran a scrap metal facility. It makes me a fifth-generation recycler,” said Dan. “But I’m the first to take this beyond just recycling scrap metal. My wife and I started Kiwi Skips because we wanted to do things differently, we wanted to get people thinking about what can actually be done to dispose of waste responsibly and create real change in the industry.”

At 21, Dan started an engineering company working on upcycling metals and scrap for resell, which eventually grew into engineering skip bins for his parent’s scrapyard. Those early successes also brought with them some hard lessons in the industry. “A competitor put in a big order of skip bins and then backed out. I was left with a bunch of brand new skip bins on my hands and nowhere to put them,” said Dan. “Then I thought, why not hire them out?”

Out of that encounter, Kiwi Skips was born. One of the early tools that helped Dan grow his business was Xero. “It makes managing our finances really simple,” Dan said. “The software’s flexibility is very useful for a capital-intensive business like Kiwi Skips. We offer a lot of services – renting out wheelies and skips, and now liquid waste disposal – so being able to track all the different services on one platform helps us ensure each service is profitable, which has allowed us to grow to where we are today.”

Building a foundation with the Xero Beautiful Business Fund

Six years and a lot of work later, Kiwi Skips has won multiple awards for their efforts promoting sustainable waste management in Southland, handling a range of waste types from both construction sites and households. The next step in their plan was to get their own recycling and sorting facility specialising in construction and demolition waste. This plant would process waste from Southland and sort them before packing the recyclables to be shipped out for reuse. “For too long, most of this waste has ended up in landfill, which only serves the interests of the big players,” Dan said. “We want to get people to think differently about what can be done with it, and having our own facility is a big step towards that change.”

However, a brand new plant could cost upwards of $8 million, prompting Dan to apply his convictions about waste to the task. “Building a plant the traditional way would be both expensive and labour intensive, so we wanted to find a better alternative,” explained Dan. “We thought, ‘How cool would it be to build the recycling plant from recycled materials!’”

Kiwi Skips had secured most of the equipment needed for the plant including pre-used stacking conveyors from scrap yards, industrial magnets, and even the conveyor from the old Queenstown luge, which would function as the facility’s main sorting conveyor. But they needed additional resources to turn those ambitions into reality – making them a perfect fit for the Xero Beautiful Business Fund. 

“Our accounting team, who told us about the fund, gave us the kick up the pants we needed to finally put our application through,” Dan joked. “We spent a lot of time and effort on the video application trying to tell our story. We’re serious about what we’re doing and we don’t like to do things  in a half-baked way. But we knew that if we won, the fund would help a lot of people in the community.”

Turning waste into gold

After winning a share of the fund, the team decided to put the cash into hiring architects to design the facility. “Building with used materials meant we were constantly running into design challenges at the beginning. A lot of the time, it felt like nothing lined up,” said Dan. “The Xero Beautiful Business Fund gave us the resources to get professionals onboard and paint a much more cohesive picture of the whole thing.”

The new design charts a recycling facility that is cheaper to build and operate and transforms traditional recycling into a data-driven business. “Every piece of trash we collect will be weighed, categorised and sorted, with the data summarised into a digital report,” Dan explained. “This facility will be fully automated and capable of identifying recyclable and non-recyclable waste in real time.”  

Safety measures are also being put in place. As waste fires remain a big concern for recycling facilities, Dan plans to make worker safety paramount in the new plant. “The plan includes safety precautions like a comprehensive fire and evacuation plans to prevent any accidents,” said Dan. “We want to create the best conditions possible for the people in the building.”

Kiwi Skips is still raising the funds to finish the build, but instead of the quoted $8 million, Dan thinks it’ll be possible to complete for around $1.5 million, largely due to their architects’ advice on how to best combine new and refurbished materials. 

Winning a share of the fund has also helped spread the word about Kiwi Skips and their goal to build an eco-friendly recycling plant. “People are now sitting up and going, ‘Hey, these guys are serious!’,” said Dan. “We’ve got the attention of large companies now, which is something I could only have dreamed about before. It’s been a great year for us, and I’m optimistic about our future.”

Kiwi Skips may have been born out of a cancelled order of brand new skip bins through Dan’s engineering company, but Dan credits the support from his team and industry as his biggest win. 

“The pivotal moment for me was getting help from people with experience, rather than trying to do everything myself,” Dan explained. “Sometimes the best thing you can do is to reach out to others who are experts in their fields. Don’t be afraid to ask someone who’s done it before to mentor you. Most of the time, someone’s been where you’re going, and they’re more than happy to share some advice.”

We’re thrilled to share that the Xero Beautiful Business Fund is back for 2024 and entries are officially open.

The 2023 winners are an incredible group of small businesses and nonprofits who are passionate about solving problems and making an impact in their local communities. We’re spotlighting some of the past winners to hear more about how the fund has impacted their business and helped them achieve their goals. Read stories from other Xero Beautiful Business Fund winners by visiting the blog.

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