Xero’s the best thing that’s happened around here for a long time

When you’re running a club it’s hard to keep everyone up-to-date with current accounting information. But now, using Xero, club managers can nominate all the relevant club staff to have access to view the club’s accounts, 24/7 from anywhere.

Robin Moore, Eden Epsom Tennis & Squash Club manager, says New Zealand sports clubs live and die by the presence or absence of volunteers. Most clubs struggle to get volunteers because the work is seen as too laborious and time-consuming.

"Every club needs volunteers and a good support crew – you can’t do it all on your own. You just get burnt out. Volunteers and their time are the keys to a successful club."

The Eden Epsom club has about 600 members over the two codes, with a predominantly senior membership. Robin has been involved in sports club management for a number of years.

"I saw Xero as an opportunity to solve a lot of our club’s problems, not only for my role, and the office administrator’s role, but also for our treasurer. Xero saves us so much time and makes life easier for us. At the end of the day putting your hand up to be a volunteer should be more fun than it currently is," he says.

Robin now finds accounting easy. He says the treasurer, the president of the club and he can keep track of the numbers. It used to take a while to find the information that was asked for, and then even longer to deliver it.

"Our old system was constantly crashing and we would lose data. There was no support and we often had to revert back to spreadsheets. There was so much double-handling – it made even more work for us."

"Now because our accounting is online, it’s so easy to find what you want, and see the true worth of the club, without wasting time."

Most clubs enforce the rule requiring dual signatories to sign off on any of the club’s accounts. Therefore, responsibility is shared and not on the one head – which can be risky for a club and the person involved. Robin says Xero’s authorisation and approving process is great, allowing the necessary people to access the accounts.

Using Xero makes it easy for Robin to look after the club’s subscriptions – most of which are monthly. These just go directly to the correct areas as they are already set for automatic approval, and all Robin has to do is reconcile them.

Robin also says working out the club’s tax in Xero was much easier than in other systems he’d used.

"Tax – the word – is usually enough to put anyone off. But Xero certainly makes even that easy."

"I don’t know where we’d be without it. Xero’s the best thing that’s happened around here in a long time."

www.clubedenepsom.co.nz