You’re working harder, more money is going through the business, but you don’t seem to be making a profit. Sound familiar? This is the ultimate session for those who want to know their numbers. You’ll learn how to create customised reports in Xero, plus we’ll introduce you to some other reporting tools so you can easily get an accurate picture of your business’ financial health.
$75 including GST per person
Click here for more details and to reserve your place.
In business, cash flow is king and Xero has a number of ways to help you collect your money faster. We’ll teach you how to use these features and discuss best business practice around interacting with your debtors.
For this session, Bishop Toomey and Pfeifer are proud to partner with Jeannette Kwant from Undercontrol Credit Management who will be sharing suggestions on how to maximise your chances of getting paid on time.
$75 including GST per person
Click here to secure your place
At last count in our accounting firm we had 16 different systems that we use on a daily basis that all cover off a different part of our business functions. The amount of systems that businesses run has changed significantly over the last few years as it has become a lot less expensive to develop and deliver systems, cloud computing has made it a lot easier to access sophisticated systems, and mobile computing has changed the way people want to use their systems.
So, as a business owner, how do you choose what systems you should use and how you should use them?
For me this starts with a good understanding of the strategy of your business and understanding what are the key drivers for creating the results in your business. We can use a lot of systems because a particular team member likes them or they are fun to use but in a business you really want systems that make it easier to deliver the outcomes you want.
In this sense I think that systems that help you to effectively manage:
should be high on the priority list of a lot of businesses. It is also important when choosing which systems to implement that you get the team on board and can clearly demonstrate the business need for the systems you are implementing.
When selecting any system you want to think carefully about whether you want your systems to talk to one another. If you do want this, then you might want to look at your most important system first and choose the system that is a best fit for you in that area and then look at systems that integrate with that core system.
For example if you have various systems that utilise client data, ideally you want those systems to integrate so that if you update a customer’s details then these changes get reflected in all your systems. If this integration is not built in to the core product and they are cloud based solutions then you can use a tool like Zapier to provide that integration for you.
I also find that when choosing a system you want to do your homework and, if you can do, find someone who is already using the system you are considering and get their feedback about it.
With most systems these days the small part of the cost is the system cost itself, the bigger costs is in the time involved in implementing it properly. So in this sense you want to make a good choice.
Once you have chosen a system to use then I recommend appointing a system champion and get them to drive the implementation. I see a lot of businesses doing minimal or no training on their systems but I think most training is well worth the investment. The majority of systems we use collect data of some form or another, and when this is the case it is really important to report on that data and examine it critically. This will then tell you whether data is being entered correctly and when it is the results you get from that system will be more meaningful. I also recommend that whatever system is being used there should be a regular meeting where the results of that system are reviewed and discussed.
A great tool for helping to manage system implementations is Basecamp. This is a high level project management and collaboration tool which is very flexible.
Conclusion
There is a lot to consider when deciding what systems you need, which system to choose and how to implement it, but in this day and age getting this right is critical to your ongoing success.
Paul Dawson will be speaking more on this topic at our upcoming seminar in Christchurch. Click here to register
With the new financial year upon us it is a great time to establish some financial targets and import them into Xero so you can compare your actual results versus your targets (or budget).
What we find, is that the understanding of the financial make-up of a business is enhanced significantly when you set targets and then report against those targets and get curious about the variances. Some good tips for establishing your financial targets for the year are:
For a video on how to import budget data into Xero click here
We regulalrly run webinars to cover establishing targets and how to upload them into Xero.
To register your interest then please click here
Xero have released the long awaited Payroll functionality for the NZ version ready for use from 1 April 2015.
Xero’s payroll functionality includes the standard features of payroll software in terms of calculating pays, managing leave etc but it also includes the ability for staff to login and view their leave balances, pay history and submit leave requests. As you would expect from Xero the User Interface looks nice and it seems very easy to follow your nose.
Xero Payroll is not a payroll intermediary though which means it will not collect and pay PAYE to the IRD on your behalf and wont automatically submit your payroll returns to the IRD. If this is a feature you would like then I recommend checking out one of the following Xero partners:
If you wish to read more then check out the following information from Xero or contact Paul Dawson to discuss.
Xero have released a long awaited feature in the past week – the ability to produce quotes.
Many Xero users have been providing quotes by creating a draft invoice but now that quotes are available it offers a much better way of providing and managing quotes to help you improve your sales results.
To read more click here for Xero’s blog post
Xero Tips & Tricks
One of the things that we have learned with Xero is that many of our clients needs are different and that knowing how to use Xero properly is an important part of the picture and that is why we have been investing in our own training and in developing ways to get more education around Xero to our clients.
Based on the feedback we have received the most common area that Xero users want assistance in is Reporting and Budgets.
So this is the first of a series of tips we will be creating to help out in this area.
One easy way to quickly get a budget in Xero and start using a budget to analyse the performance of your business is to load the previous years actual results as a budget. This is also a good way to start your budget but then you can make changes based on what you expect to be different in the next 12 months.
One method for doing this in Xero is to:
This will then allow you to run reports and compare this years results with last years by using the budget data.
Any questions about this then please get in touch with our Xero expert Paul Dawson
Here is a video which shows how it is done.
