Xerocon 2016: Whither Online Accounting?

The CEO of a company that’s considered to be a market leader and a true innovator walks onto the stage. He/she looks at the auditorium full of people eagerly waiting for the big announcement, then starts the presentation. At first, it’s just the list of achievements of the company in the past business quarters; but then ‘one more thing’ and the big update or the new product is revealed, followed by a standing ovation.

If you thought this is a true description of a special Apple event hosted by the late Steve Jobs or nowadays Tim Cook, then you are not far from the truth. The only difference is that this is Xerocon, the annual conference of Xero for the leaders in cloud accounting, making it the Apple event of the online accounting world.

The key message of Xerocon: move to the cloud ASAP

No matter who stood on the San Francisco stage, they all emphasized the importance of cloud accounting and the automation of every process possible, especially in the lives of small businesses. Amy Vetter, Global Vice President, Education & Head of Accounting, came with a complete 4-step strategy for small businesses on the verge of switching to online accounting: thorough planning of moving to the clouds, the employment of aspiring millennials, the reassessment of billing and the implementation of a good social media strategy.

Rod Drury, CEO of Xero, said using an online accounting solution like Xero is beneficial for small business owners, as not only new business opportunities are created, but as a consequence of continuous data flow between business and financial institute the risk of lending capital to small businesses has decreased significantly. Related to the then-recent integration of Microsoft Power BI, Xero Australia Managing Director Trent Innes encouraged small business owners to integrate as many apps to their Xero account as possible, as this way you can quickly get insight into your business in a digestible and straightforward format.

New Xero tools for effective data processing and business management

Speaking of easily manageable and understandable data, enter Xero HQ (available from November, 2016) with which accountants and bookkeepers can review the needs of each client without digging deep into their individual Xero files. Xero HQ significantly speeds up the work by prioritizing your to-do list from most important to the least important things in the activity feed, creating a full list of clients and helping you get an insight of how your clients work. To make a fluent transition from My Xero Partner Edition, which will continue to be available after November, 2016, the reporting feature remains the same as well as Xero Practice Manager, Tax and Workpapers.

Xero HQ already seems to become a big game changer in online accounting, but does this hinder Xero from finding more and even better solutions for perfect customer satisfaction? Of course not! We already talked about the upcoming neat solution that is the Hey Xero intelligent chatbot, but Xero has more up its sleeves: the company says it plans on simplifying direct deposits and will introduce pay history onboarding in the near future.