Our people attended Xerocon 2019 last month to learn the latest updates from Xero and its App partners.
The main theme was ‘Communities of Purpose’, which fits perfectly with what RL is about.
Here’s some quick sound bites from our team and what they took away from the event:
“I really enjoyed the Brad Burton talk. He talked about motivating yourself and sorting issues out in your life before they become bigger issues.
Also Xavier – I like the integration with Xero and how easy it is to see the potential mispostings etc. The new work flow option will be handy to set up work programmes for checking bookkeeping and vat returns so everyone carries out the same checks.”
“The best talk that I attended was with GoCardless where cashflow was the main talking point. I found it amazing to see the figures on average that SMB’s are currently owed from their customers. I also very much liked the idea of getting as many of your regular customers to sign up to a direct debit method of payment to ensure payment is received as promptly as possible. The addition of being able to make payments from Xero is also a welcome one, as this can save a lot of time instead of having to log on to your bank and pay each supplier separately.”
“Best Talk was Tim Peake.I found the Xavier App interesting and could see this being a benefit to us and our farming clients. We have a number of large bookkeeping clients where having the ability to easily health check these Xero accounts, that are maintained mostly by more junior staff, in one place would be of benefit to those staff members and managers overseeing the work more efficiently.”
“Service M8 – one of our clients is currently using this and after talking to the people on this stand I would feel confident on recommending this to more of our clients. The best talk I attended was with Receipt Bank, Will Farnell and Emma Fox – they explained about how all of their clients use the same app stack and have daily bookkeeping. This has reinforced the importance of having that close relationship with clients so that we are involved in their business decisions.”
“On a personal level – Tim Peak – Very fascinating. On a professional level – Brad Burton – Really motivating and inspiring. My approach on a business and personal level will be different moving forward. From a work perspective – HQ VAT – I found this to be the most useful as I was able to learn more about how the Xero VAT returns work.”
“I would say the talks that I found most inspiring were those from Craig Hudson and Brad Burton and can see these having an effect on both my personal and professional decisions. They really highlighted the need to build meaningful relationships with our team and our clients, not only to understand the business needs but also their personal reasons, motivations and struggles. It was also good to see the Xavier app in action and the changes being made to Xero tax.”
“ Soldo offers a great solution for a client of mine who is trying to find a smarter way to work with their CC solution. Currently they use Lloyds Bank, however they have found that this is very inflexible and due to the lack of controls easily available, are reluctant to roll this out company wide. Soldo fixes this solution with their prepaid card. Benefits include the fact that a prepaid card is exactly that. They can top up the card based on the allocated budget for the month (which initially seems like a hit to the cashflow) however due to the fixed spend limits, will streamline their cash efficiencies and benefit the company in the long run. They also have a lot of control over the types of spend per employee with rules and budgets, the ability to chase for receipts with instant prompts from the mobile app, clear and simple Xero integration.”
“Transferwise – currently this same client is dealing with finances in multiple countries. In particular, Poland where an employee is based. As a result, they are incurring a lot of international expenses. Their current solution to avoid banking charges is to transfer a large sum of money to the employee based in Poland. This employee is then paying the suppliers as and when required. Transferwise will solve this solution with its international banking showing clear fees (which are minimal in comparison to Lloyds) and stating the exchange rate which is commission free. With the instant banking feed, Xero should reflect in real time what is going on in that account. We also see the future capabilities of it working seamlessly with Xero in it preparing the payment runs simply and easily enabling better control over the weekly banking tasks.”
As you can see, there are A LOT of learnings and takeaway action points, all to help improve the lives of our clients and a make a positive impact on them and their businesses. Contact us for more info on how Xero can help you and your business.