UK Bank Feeds into Xero – a week after the release

Last week saw the arrival of the eagerly awaited UK automated bank feeds into Xero.

It is important to remember that Xero are phasing in automated bank feeds and this is the second step in the UK. The first was the bank feed from HSBC in May 2009. Although there have been a few disappointments from clients whose banks are not available in this stage, including my own bank, I personally feel that staging the process is the best way forward. Little hiccups that are bound to occur can be dealt with and solved much more efficiently.

It’s been over a week since the bank feeds were released and, as far as I know, the response has been very positive. Certainly my clients have been very excited about it and love the feeds.

I no longer have to keep asking the clients, who have banks feeds, to upload their online bank statements, something they often only want to do once a month. The feed comes through daily and I can reconcile as often as I want to, usually more often than monthly, because the transactions are then fresher in the client’s mind if I have any queries. This saves time for both of us.

Typically, I’m now impatiently waiting for the next phase so that I can offer this improved service to even more of my clients.

For Xero’s own blog on the bank feed release click here.

A Big Day for Xero – First Automated Bank Feeds (Australia)

For all of us in the UK who use Xero, we’ve been eagerly waiting for the promised UK automated bank feeds due around the end of November 2010. In order to be able to do this, Xero teamed up with a company called Yodlee, an online banking solution provider, a while ago. Today has been an exciting day for Xero as the first Yodlee bank feeds have been released for Australian users. This is one step closer for us in the UK.

For all of you who are not using Xero, I shall explain why this is so exciting.

One of the best things about Xero is the ability to be able to do the majority of your bookkeeping while doing your bank reconciliation. Traditionally, all accounting transactions are entered into a system then they are checked against the banks (bank reconciliation) to make sure everything has been accounted for and the bank balance agrees with the balance in the system.

In Xero, the sales and purchase invoices are entered as “normal”, then you upload your online bank transactions as often as is convenient for you. From the bank reconciliation screen you are able to enter payments for any purchase or sales invoices, create cash transactions and reconcile any transactions that have already been entered into Xero. This saves an enormous amount of time bookkeeping.

Once the automated bank feeds are released, even more time will be saved because you will no longer have to upload any transactions from your online banking. Your Xero account will be updated daily. You will be able to log into Xero every day, reconcile and have a completely up to date accounting system within a few minutes. You will always know where your business stands financially. You will always know your bank balance. You will always know which customers have paid (and who hasn’t!). You will always know which suppliers are due to be paid and when you have the funds to pay them.

How fantastic is that? Personally, I can’t wait!

If you’d like to read more, here is the link to “UK Bank Feeds – a new way of working” by Gary Turner, UK Managing Director

This is Xero’s own blog “First Yodlee Feeds have Arrived” which includes a short video of how it all works.

Tracking Stock on Xero

Xero now has the ability to very simply track stock. The release on the 29th September 2010 included an update to what was previously known as Price List Items and is now known as Inventory Items. Click on the video link below to see a short summary of the new feature.

All items that are added to the Inventory Items can be used to automatically fill in lines on sales and purchase invoices and credit notes. The information from these invoices and credit notes is collated in the Inventory Items Summary, showing how many items have been bought and sold, along with the net quantity, between the dates selected.

Inventory items can be imported from a csv document to save time. Editing a significant number of items can be made quicker by downloading the list into a csv document, making the changes, and then importing back into Xero.

Xero plan to have more in-depth reporting into Inventory Items and the ability to enter opening balances in the future.

http://www.viddler.com/player/f769b124/

My First Xero Training by Webinar

Up until Monday evening, any training I’ve carried out has been at clients’ offices but now I’ve now discovered another useful option, training via webinar!

Training companies to use fairly complex business management systems, such as Mamut, requires face to face training with plenty of opportunities for the staff to practice the objectives of the training session. Three to four days are usually required to learn the entire system which would be an endless amount of 1-1.5 hr webinars. So, although I had received various training  through online webinars, I had never considered training this way myself.

Then I discovered Xero, an online accounting system I love using (and so do my bookkeeping clients). It is a simple to use system and very cost-effective. How could I make training cost-effective too? Travelling to the client’s office would only be a realistic option if the company had at least 6 people to be trained. Travelling to my office would only work for companies within a certain radius of Stockport. The only, but now exciting, option left is online training.

Once I’d designed my online training sessions, I needed to find willing testers to find out if I was on the right track. Helen Stothard suggested offering my new webinars to a group of Virtual Assistants who had recently been introduced to Xero. This was quite a daunting prospect as they are proud to tell everyone that they like to test things to destruction! (see Helen’s Blog). In actual fact they are a well-informed, friendly group of women who made my debut as a webinar presenter a very enjoyable experience.

The feedback so far has been very good. I’m now very much looking forward to presenting the remaining webinars to the VAs. It’s always a fantastic feeling to discover new ways of doing things and to learn new skills.

Does Cloud Accounting Reduce the Need for a Bookkeeper?

I was asked this question by Brian Barnes of Call Assistant UK.

Brian feels that cloud accounting packages like Xero are so intuitive and easy to use that they reduce the need for a bookkeeper. He wanted to know if my bookkeeping clients had reduced my hours once they started using Xero and how did it affect my business. His view is followed by my reply:

After having used Xero for over a year for our business accounting, I don’t think we could switch back to one of the ‘old’ players of the industry.

It was with reluctance we moved away from Sage, but it certainly has been one of the best things we have ever done – for the business.

For the potential bookkeeper we would have employed though, this wasn’t good news at all!

Xero provides such a user-friendly interface that even with no bookkeeping experience, you will not only be able to do your own bookkeeping, you will enjoy it, my Business Partner certainly feels that way.

Having a lot of common sense, my Business Partner likes everything in plain English in front of him, and that’s exactly what Xero does for him, he can log in from anywhere and see that the accounts department are logging payments, chasing payments etc, and this makes for some very easy going board meetings.

Now the good points have been mentioned about Xero and how you don’t need any bookkeeping experience to use it, how is it, and other similar solutions, having an impact on the professional bookkeepers position – is it attainable?

This is my reply as a bookkeeper:

As my clients move onto Xero I find the bookkeeping part of my business becoming more enjoyable. Suddenly clients become far more interested in the financial side of their business. I’m not constantly having to ask or look for invoices and receipts, question what the expenses are for, beg for bank statements.

Clients new to Xero start by entering sales invoices and tracking debtors. As everything is so clear, they quickly want to start entering purchase invoices to keep a rudimentary eye on cashflow. My bookkeeping hours are now reduced as I’m really only required to do the bank reconciliation, entering any missing transactions and make sure the VAT figures are correct.

So is a bookkeeper needed at all?

The role has become more advisory. I set up businesses on Xero, migrate the data and show clients how to use it. I can then do as much or as little bookkeeping required. Usually it becomes less as time goes on. But this is not a problem. I am no longer a necessary evil for my clients, “Oh no, the bookkeeper is in today, I’ll have to find all my paperwork and answer loads of difficult questions.” I am someone who can help and guide them. It is me who gets the questions now. I feel I’m a useful part of these businesses. I am helping them to move forward and grow. This is so much more rewarding.

With the reduced bookkeeping hours I have the choice to take on more bookkeeping clients and be involved in more businesses or use the time to evolve my own business and offer other services. A win-win situation I think.

To Cloud or Not to Cloud?

To Cloud or Not to Cloud? by Lee Brookes, IT Manager, Beacon for Business

That is indeed the current question?  As an IT professional among the many questions I get asked here are the most popular regarding cloud

1.    Is my data safe?

2.    Where is my data?

3.    Can I get at my data whenever I want?

4.    Can I get my data out should I wish to change provider or host etc?

5.    What is the cloud?

Well In answer to my original question, to be honest it all depends.  What?  I hear you say kind of answer is that?  Well here is a definition of cloud computing:

Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, similar to a public utility such as the electricity grid.  [source]

You see, Cloud computing can mean anything from Virtual servers, virtual desktops or online applications such as Pearl CRM or Xero.  In the context of this post we are talking the lower end of the scale online applications such as Pearl or Xero both powerful tools utilising the Internet as storage medium over in house infrastructure.  Basically meaning instead of having to buy expensive Servers to store your data on its all done online also this means you can view it from anywhere.  The office home or if you so wish even on holiday!

So is your Data safe?  It certainly is, well as safe as anyones data is on the internet Amazon use cloud computing Microsoft do and Google are the granddaddy of cloud computing so that has to stand for something. I could go on but you can read here.

Where is your Data? That tends to depend on the individual company but you can always ask and then do a little research most cloud computing companies or companies that use cloud computing use highly secure server farms or data centres so the answer really is yes!

Can you get to your data whenever you want?  That is all down to your Internet access most companies have broadband these days and a good proportion of homes have a reasonable broadband link those that don’t can usually make use of a usb dongle. So accessing your data really is upto you. If you only use your broadband in the office and at home it wouldnt hurt to get a pay as you go USB dongle just in case your broadband supply experiences any downtime for whatever reason.

Can you get your data out (export) should you wish to change provider?  This really is a question you should be having before you sign up there is nothing worse than importing all you contacts/clients/suppliers using a system for a few months only to find it isn’t the system for you it isn’t powerful enough and then to find there is no export function or even worse you have to pay for it!

Cloud computing is a step in the right direction for any company and it can answer and solve or kinds of problems. To cloud or not to cloud really depends on the individual company. A good needs analysis is required before making this step but it can save time, money and help any company grow.

We have provided this service to many companies to see them expand and flourish

So to Cloud or not to Cloud you decide

Accounts System + Add Ons or Fully Integrated System

About three weeks ago I added a discussion to the Xero Community website, Xerousers and was surprised at the comments it raised.

Helen Stothard had told me a way of utilsing draft invoices in Xero as a simple way to track time. I hadn’t thought of this and was very impressed. I wanted to share it. But soon the discussion became about using add ons that integrate with Xero. Should you tweak ways of using Xero or should you invest in software that is designed to to do a particular job?

If you are a new business with very little to invest, you need to find the software that will do whatever is most important for your business; accounting, billing or time-tracking etc, at a price you can afford. This will be a compromise. As your business grows you will want to look for software that can further assist the growth. If you love what you’re using, you can look for something that integrates. And so it goes on.

Eventually you will have many integrated systems, each one costing an amount per month/year. It’ll soon add up. Also when one system upgrades it may not work as well with the other systems until they catch up with their own upgrades. This is when it is time to move over to a business management solution, which has been designed to run accounts, CRM, sales, warehouses, logistics, project management etc. It will probably be cheaper overall and all your business data can be accessed from one place.

Whatever you use to run your business it should save time and make the business more efficient. However tempting business management systems and integrated applications are it can be easy to use them just because you can. The time and organisation it takes to actually utilise a system can outweigh all its benefits. Which is why I hope Xero continues to remain a simple, easy to use accounting package, striving to be the best at what it is.

Mamut vs Xero

Originally, Totally 4 Business was a bookkeeping practice. Many of my bookkeeping clients were using MYOB. The UK division of MYOB was bought by Mamut Business Software about 18 months ago and the licenses will no longer be confirmable by the end of 2011. I became a partner with Mamut and learnt all about this business management system.

For the level of pricing, Mamut has amazing functionality and is especially suited to manufacturing companies. It is designed for small to medium businesses and I’ve seen it working really well in a variety of companies, including ones that have upgraded from MYOB.

Most of my MYOB clients were very small businesses, often sole traders. They used MYOB because of it’s simplicity. Mamut was too big and complicated for them, even the smaller versions. Of course, the majority of businesses, whatever their size, can benefit from an integrated management system as long as finances and time to learn and use the system are available, but this is not always the case.

I looked at many of the accounting packages available but struggled to find something that would suit my MYOB clients who just wanted a simple accounting system. One client showed me Xero and I’ve been a lover of it ever since. It really is straight forward and  easy to use. All the businesses I know who are using Xero were able to start using it immediately with very little guidance from me. In fact, most people say they enjoy using it!

There is a place for business management systems and a place for simple accounting systems. The two are very different and appeal to different businesses. Many factors contribute to the choice of system to be used; nature of the business, size of business, time available to implement new procedures and staff training, finances available and do the directors/owners like the look of a new system. The benefits of using an integrated system do not always outweigh basic simplicity and ease of use.