#xerocon17 my key takeaways for practice

1. Life is too short for BAD software

Xero are releasing even more functionality into their core product (Xero blue)

It will bedazzle and declutter our clients lives and our practices.

There is just NO reason to use bad outdated and clunky software. To harness these changes - the clients need to be on board with Xero and here is a wee bit of what is ahead……

Expense Claims - has had a major overhaul - the app will be even more friendly and useful to clients who spend money from personal accounts and require reimbursement. It will rock the world of paperwork right here. We will be able to submit on behalf of the client, analyse their spending and manage unplanned expenses. This functionality will grow legs and morph into even better experiences for collecting data.

Projects - a foray into managing time and billing on projects for service based businesses - it will in some cases remove other time keeping software and time sheets for recording and managing billable time. It is available to partners now to try before it is unleashed onto clients so I am planning to use it in my practice to see how it can eliminate some of the time tracking I currently do.

Life Long Learning - a core set of modules to train up new staff in the accounting industry with REAL data in Xero blue. It will up skill new entrants so they come to the practice already skilled in Xero. A bonus for the industry.

Users in Xero - getting a much needed overhaul so we can easily manage what clients can see and do in a Xero file.

Payment Services - forget BPAY - think QR codes and ability for the PAY NOW button to practically entice clients to pay their bills when the invoice is issued from Xero. A major selling point to those clients on old software.

Auto Super - has also been overhauled to make super payments even easier and stress free when payments bounce back and need to be re submitted.

Bills and Batch payments - the future is automatic payments direct to bank - no more download the ABA and upload in bank - it’s not there yet but it is coming.

Fixed Assets - OH MY - there will be an ability to set a Private Use % - woo hoo!

Bank rules - yep they now include Bank transfers between accounts - pretty darn cool to eliminate clients mucking up transfers and doing what we call as ‘double entry accounting gone mad”

Find and recode has been pimped to allow to make bulk changes to journals amongst other functionality. No matter how predictive Xero gets - and it is getting smarter by the day - we will still have to fix client mistakes.

Finally - Xero Discuss - collaborate with clients on a whole new level - start a tracked discussion so you can assist them where and when you can and ask questions - it is the Discuss tab on steroids and you need to see it to believe it.

2. Forget work/life balance - what we are actually after is a Third Space .

We need to develop behavioural agility.

There was a wonderful speech from Dr Adam Fraser (go ahead and google him) around creating a happier self through focus and clarity - I am not going to go in-depth here - needless to say - check out some of his writings and perhaps even his book - his ability to show us a roadmap to achieving balance is mind-blowing. Its essential in this instant-gratification world our clients are born into.

3. Efficiency - it is the new driver for your practice.

Yep I thought disruption was the over used buzz word in the accounting industry - now its efficiency . However what I learnt at a session hosted by Emma Crawford-Falekaono, is that we need to rethink our existing accounting workflows and find the opportunities to eliminate waste. I took some awesome shots of the process she tells us to follow with our teams to actually achieve this - I plan to implement this program of change with my team in the coming weeks. We are good at what we do but I can now see ways to be even better.

First we need to get the customer feedback, then map our current workflows as a team - end to end - identify the waste - then map our ideal state and implement in a continuous improvement culture.

Obviously this topic has a whole more detail in-between but you get my drift.

4. The machines are going to radicalise our world but the human interaction will become more crucial than ever.

Rod Drury (founder of Xero - and a demi god in my opinion) explained that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will create efficiency, automation and monitoring but it will be the humans who provide the inspiration, purpose and empathy.

5. Xero HQ is about to explode into APPS.

9 core apps will PLUG in to Xero HQ - the flow of Receipts to Receipt Bank for example will be alerts in Xero HQ so we know exactly how behind our clients are with their paperwork without even logging into their file. Reporting apps like Fathom, cash flow forecast programs like Futrli will TALK back and forth to Xero - seamless integration and delivery of even easier analysis of clients numbers - at your fingertips.

BOMA will revolutionise the social media space for accounting practices. Xero will curate content that is relevant to your clients and allow Boma to push it out there with practice branding direct to them.

Xerocon is all about getting the heads up on where the accounting industry is headed and how machine learning, AI and awesome software is going to allow us to delight our customers.

I can’t wait to get back to the office and get my hands dirty with all these brilliant new tools.