Our team took a trip down to Wollongong this week to check out the Xero Roadshow and learn about the latest updates and the exciting new features to be rolled out later this year.
We’ve picked out five key developments that we think will have the greatest impact on how we can better assist you – our clients.
1. Opening Banking Rollout
The Big Four banks will be the first to roll out Open banking from July this year with all other financial institutions being available from November.
This means that we’ll be access to more information in Xero including loan interest rates, bank feeds for small business loans etc. that aren’t currently available.
Of course as the client, you’ll have control over what you give us access to as your accountant/business advisers, but it does mean that more of your financial data will be easier to view as it will all be in one place – Xero.
2. E-invoicing Rollout
With e-invoicing rolling out across State & Federal Governments between now & July, any businesses who currently have issues with long payment terms on sales to government bodies will be able to reduce this. Any contracts between the Federal Government and Small Business Entities (SBEs) are guaranteed 5 day payment terms from July.
Xero is working on building out its PEPPOL compliance framework to enable suppliers and customers to receive invoices through the same network regardless of whatever invoicing/accounting system they use.
This will be a huge win as it not only reduces errors in sending invoices to the right person/department for payment but also means that you’ll get paid sooner!
3. Business Insights “Dashboard”
There are already a handful of great Xero add-ons like Spotlight Reporting, Float & ClarityHQ that provide insights, cashflow reporting and other business metrics but it’s nice to know that Xero will be releasing it’s own short term cashflow tool and a small business snapshot tool in the coming months as part of its insights ‘dashboard’.
That means as a small business owner, you’ll be able to have better visibility of how your business is doing, anytime, anywhere.
4. Calculating Bonuses in Xero Payroll
Xero payroll is about to bring in the capability to do bonus calculations within payroll. Say ‘goodbye’ to all the manual spreadsheets.
5. Xero HQ will soon have a payroll section.
This is a special feature just for us accountants but is none the less exciting!
It gives us the ability to view all our clients’ Single Touch Payroll (STP) statuses in one place, so if there are any failed submissions, we’ll be able to get on it quickly.
