FY24 AU Xero Awards: Categories and eligibility
Here are the 12 categories in this year’s Xero Awards. Under each award name, you’ll find full entry criteria, the questions you need to answer, and a link to submit your nomination. Please feel free to use this information to draft your nomination with your team before submitting your entry. Nominations are open until 30 August 2023. Terms apply.
Partner Awards
App Partner Awards
Small Business & Sole Trader Awards
Accountants and bookkeepers
Accounting Partner of the Year
Nominations for this award category need to be made by the accounting practice. This award recognises a Xero accounting partner based in Australia who has shown commitment to leading the way with Xero to offer the best value added service/s to their clients from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.
Eligibility criteria:
- Your practice must be based in Australia
- The award is based on achievements made between 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023
What we’re looking for
These are the criteria we’ll use when assessing nominations:
- Business vision: Your practice’s why and what sets your practice apart.
- Xero product advocacy and practice tools: How do you raise awareness of the benefits of Xero for your clients and leverage the Xero brand to grow your practice.
- Xero ecosystem: How do you use the Xero App Store to boost productivity and provide client solutions?
- Customer excellence: Tell us about what sets you apart from your competitors in the way you service your clients? Does it have a wider social impact on the community around you? Testimonials encouraged!
- Innovation: Tell us how your practice is demonstrating innovation and striving for excellence in the industry. There’s no limitation to innovation - this could be an innovative sales process, marketing initiative, employee or team engagement program or client services, etc.
Bookkeeping Partner of the Year
Nominations for this award category need to be made by the bookkeeping practice. This award recognises a Xero bookkeeping partner based in Australia who has shown commitment to leading the way with Xero to offer the best value added service/s to their clients from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.
Eligibility criteria:
- Your practice must be based in Australia
- The award is based on achievements made between 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023
What we’re looking for
These are the criteria we’ll use when assessing nominations:
- Business vision: Your practice’s why and what sets your practice apart.
- Xero product advocacy and practice tools: How do you raise awareness of the benefits of Xero for your clients and leverage the Xero brand to grow your practice.
- Xero ecosystem: How do you use the Xero App Store to boost productivity and provide client solutions?
- Customer excellence: Tell us about what sets you apart from your competitors in the way you service your clients? Does it have a wider social impact on the community around you? Testimonials encouraged!
- Innovation: Tell us how your practice is demonstrating innovation and striving for excellence in the industry. There’s no limitation to innovation - this could be an innovative sales process, marketing initiative, employee or team engagement program or client services, etc.
National Partner of the Year
Nominations for this award category need to be made by the accounting or bookkeeping practice. This award recognises the Xero accounting or bookkeeping practice that has a national presence or a national association of independent accounting or bookkeeping practice’s. This practice demonstrates how it has added significant value to its clients in multiple regions across the country and champions Xero and the use of cloud technology from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023. This award also recognises how they look after their employees or franchisees to make them their biggest advocates.
Eligibility criteria:
- Your practice must be based in Australia and p
- You can provide evidence that you’re a national practice.
- The award is based on achievements made between 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023
What we’re looking for
These are the criteria we’ll use when assessing nominations:
- Business vision: Your practice’s why and what sets your practice apart.
- Xero product advocacy and practice tools: How do you raise awareness of the benefits of Xero for your clients and leverage the Xero brand to grow your practice.
- Xero ecosystem: How do you use the Xero App Store to boost productivity and provide client solutions?
- Customer excellence: Tell us about what sets you apart from your competitors in the way you service your clients? Does it have a wider social impact on the community around you? Testimonials encouraged!
- Innovation: Tell us how your practice is demonstrating innovation and striving for excellence in the industry. There’s no limitation to innovation - this could be an innovative sales process, marketing initiative, employee or team engagement program or client services, etc.
- Employee or Franchisor engagement: Tell us how your business engages with your employees or franchisors, in particular, any innovative programs, initiatives or activities that you think makes you an employer or franchisor of choice.
Innovative Partner of the Year
Nominations for this award category need to be made by the accounting or bookkeeping practice. This award recognises the Xero accounting or bookkeeping partner who has implemented creative new technologies, solutions, services or strategies in their firm that has led to significant improvements in the growth of their firm and/or clients' businesses. This partner is striving for continuous improvement and embracing disruptive technologies and business models to address challenges, drive positive change and transform the accounting and bookkeeping industry.
Eligibility criteria:
- Your practice must be based in Australia
- The award is based on achievements made between 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023
What we’re looking for
These are the criteria we’ll use when assessing nominations:
- Business vision: Your practice’s why and what sets your practice apart.
- Innovation: Tell us how your practice is demonstrating innovation and striving for excellence in the industry. There’s no limitation to innovation - this could be an innovative sales process, marketing initiative, employee or team engagement program or client services, etc.
- Thought process: Tell us why you came up with this innovative process, initiative etc. and how you went about implementing this innovation. What challenges did you overcome along the way?
- Outcome: Tell us how this innovation has bettered your practice, and the results.
Community Partner of the Year
Nominations for this award category need to be made by the accounting or bookkeeping practice. This award recognises the Xero accounting or bookkeeping practice that has made a difference in the lives outside of their day-to-day business activities. Community can be geographical (ie. local community), non-profit, cause-related, charitable, sporting, pro-bono, etc.
Eligibility criteria:
- Your practice must be based in Australia
- The award is based on achievements made between 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023
What we’re looking for
These are the criteria we’ll use when assessing nominations:
- Business vision: Your practice’s why and what sets your practice apart.
- Xero product use: How do you use Xero and our Xero App Store to boost productivity and provide client solutions?
- Demonstration: Tell us how your business is demonstrating a commitment to your community and striving for excellence in the industry.
- Thought process and implementation: Tell us why you came up with this community initiative/program etc. and about how you went about implementing this initiative/program. Including how you overcame any challenges.
- Outcome: Tell us how this community initiative/ program has contributed to positive outcomes and what they have done for your practice.
Sole Practitioner of the Year
Nominations for this award category need to be made by the accounting or bookkeeping practice/sole practitioner. This award recognises an accounting or bookkeeping partner who runs a practice solo with no additional employees or support staff and has a profound impact on their clients. With a focus on customer excellence, demonstrating how they’ve taken their practice to new heights and gone above and beyond for their clients.
Eligibility criteria:
- You must be based in Australia
- You must run a practice by yourself with no additional employees or support staff
- The award is based on achievements made between 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023
What we’re looking for
These are the criteria we’ll use when assessing nominations:
- Business vision: Your practice’s why and what sets your practice apart.
- Xero product advocacy and practice tools: How do you raise awareness of the benefits of Xero for your clients and leverage the Xero brand to grow your practice.
- Xero ecosystem: How do you use the Xero App Store to boost productivity and provide client solutions?
- Customer excellence: Tell us about what sets you apart from your competitors in the way you service your clients? Does it have a wider social impact on the community around you? Testimonials encouraged!
- Innovation: Tell us how your practice is demonstrating innovation and striving for excellence in the industry. There’s no limitation to innovation - this could be an innovative sales process, marketing initiative, employee or team engagement program or client services, etc.
App Partner Awards
If you’re a long-standing certified Xero app or new to the Xero App Store, this is the category for you.
Practice App of the Year
This award recognises an app that has improved the lives and livelihood of our Xero accounting and bookkeeping partners in Australia. This app should be involved in the practice space, or their customer base should mostly consist of accountants and bookkeepers.
Eligibility criteria:
- Commercial availability: The app must be commercially available (not in beta version) since 1 July 2022 or prior
- Must be signed to Xero App Store T&Cs
What we’re looking for
These are the criteria we’ll use when assessing nominations:
- Contribution to customer success: Tell us how your app has had a positive influence on the success of your customers’ business. And since we’re working hard to make business beautiful, we’d love to know how you’re contributing to making the lives and business of your customers run better, smoother, and more efficiently.
- Joint go to market activity: Show us an example of your commitment to the growth of your app to Xero customers.
- Promoting Xero as a platform: Tell us about your work in promoting Xero to your non-connected customer base.
- Excellence in customer relations: We want our app partners to have a great reputation with both their customers and ours. Show us that you have a good track record in delighting accountants and bookkeepers (app reviews a big part of this).
- Continued innovation: Tell us about how you’ve continued to make your app the best of its kind. Have you made pivots in the past two financial years to deal with the changing environment? Have you released new products to aid your customers? Do you provide regular updates to ensure your users are always one step ahead?
Small Business App of the Year
This award recognises an app that makes small business, beautiful business. This category celebrates apps that are designed for and used by SMBs in Australia (outside of the accounting and bookkeeping industry).
Eligibility criteria:
- Commercial availability: The app must be available (not in beta version) since 1 July 2022 or prior
- Must be signed to Xero App Store T&Cs
What we’re looking for
These are the criteria we’ll use when assessing nominations:
- Contribution to customer success: Tell us how your app has had a positive impact on your customer’s business. And since we’re working hard to make business beautiful, we’d love to know how you’re contributing to making the lives and business of your customers run better, smoother, and more efficiently.
- Joint go to market activity: Show us an example of your commitment to the growth of your app to Xero customers.
- Promoting Xero as a platform: Tell us about your work in promoting Xero to your non-connected customer base.
- Excellence in customer relations: We want our app partners to have a great reputation with both their customers and ours. Show us that you have a good track record in delighting SMBs (app reviews a big part of this).
- Continued innovation: Tell us about how you’ve continued to make your app the best of its kind. Have you made pivots in the past two financial years to deal with the changing environment? Have you released new products to aid your customers? Do you provide regular updates to ensure your users are always one step ahead?
Emerging App of the Year
This award recognises a new and exciting member of the Xero App Store who are bringing technological advancements to the wonderful world of business. Whether for practices or small business, we want to hear how they’re using the latest innovations to catapult Xero users into the future of business.
Eligibility criteria:
- Must be a fully certified Xero App Partner, listed on the Xero App Store since 1 July 2022 (with discretion)
- Must be signed to Xero App Store T&Cs
What we’re looking for
These are the criteria we’ll use when assessing nominations:
- Contribution to customer success: Tell us how your app has had a positive success on your customer’s business. And since we’re working hard to make business beautiful, we’d love to know how you’re contributing to making the lives and business of your customers run better, smoother, and more efficiently.
- Joint go to market activity: demonstrate your commitment to the growth of your app to Xero customers.
- Promoting Xero as a platform: Tell us about your work in promoting Xero to your non-connected customer base.
- Excellence in customer relations: We want our app partners to have a great reputation with both their customers and ours. Show us that you have a good track record in delighting SMBs/partners (app reviews a big part of this).
- Radical new ideas: Tell us how your app is bringing positive changes to businesses? What are some of the never before seen ideas and technology you are leveraging, or how are you doing things differently to produce the best results for small businesses?
Small business and sole trader awards
If you’re a small business or sole trader operating outside of the accounting and bookkeeping industries, this category is for you. Please note, if you’re in the advisory industry, please see the accountant and bookkeeper category above.
Small Business of the Year
This award recognises a small business that uses Xero to add value and boost its productivity, and one that has also been in operation for more than two years. This small business uses Xero to add value and boost its productivity and demonstrates a positive impact within customer and community groups, as well as the broader industry.
Eligibility criteria:
- Have a registered ABN
- Not be a listed company or franchisee/franchisor
- Not be a listed accountant or bookkeeper practice or firm
- Earn less than AU$10 million in annual revenue
- Employ less than 20 full-time employees
What we’re looking for
These are the criteria we’ll use when assessing nominations:
- Business vision: What’s your business vision and purpose? Tell us how you actively thread your business’ ‘why’ into your day-to-day operations. Tell us what sets your business apart from others.
- Xero product and ecosystem use: Tell us how your business uses the Xero suite of products including; Xero the platform, Payroll, Expenses, Projects, Analytics Plus etc. to manage your business and boost productivity. And how your business uses the Xero App Store.
- Customer excellence: Tell us about what sets you apart from your competitors in the way you service your customers (We encourage you to include testimonials or references to demonstrate this).
- Innovation: Tell us how your business is demonstrating innovation and striving for excellence in your industry. There is no limitation to innovation - this could be an innovative sales process, marketing initiative, employee or team engagement program etc.
- Social impact: Tell us how your business has implemented processes/products and/or practices to positively contribute to known social or environmental issues and challenges for the community it operates in. Community can be geographical (ie. local community), non-profit, cause-related, charitable, sporting, pro-bono, etc.
Emerging Small Business of the Year
This award recognises a small business that uses Xero to add value and boost its productivity, and that has also been in operation for less than 2 years. We want to hear about the purpose and passion behind your emerging small business, including how the Xero platform has enabled it to grow. This business also demonstrates a positive impact within customer and community groups, as well as the broader industry.
Eligibility criteria:
- Have a registered ABN
- Not be a listed company or franchisee/ franchisor
- Not be a listed accountant or bookkeeper practice or firm
- Earn less than AU$10 million in annual revenue
- Employ less than 20 full-time employees
What we’re looking for
These are the criteria we’ll use when assessing nominations:
- Business vision: What’s your business vision and purpose? Tell us how you actively thread your business’ ‘why’ into your day-to-day operations. Tell us what sets your business apart from others.
- Xero product and ecosystem use: Tell us how your business uses the Xero suite of products including; Xero the platform, Payroll, Expenses, Projects, Analytics Plus etc. to manage your business and boost productivity. And how your business uses the Xero App Store.
- Customer excellence: Tell us about what sets you apart from your competitors in the way you service your customers (We encourage you to include testimonials or references to demonstrate this).
- Innovation: Tell us how your business is demonstrating innovation and striving for excellence in your industry. There is no limitation to innovation - this could be an innovative sales process, marketing initiative, employee or team engagement program etc.
- Social impact: Tell us how your business has implemented processes/products and/or practices to positively contribute to known social or environmental issues and challenges for the community it operates in. Community can be geographical (ie. local community), non-profit, cause-related, charitable, sporting, pro-bono, etc.
Sole Trader of the Year
This award recognises a Sole Trader who uses Xero to add value and boost productivity for their business, who have been in operation for less than 2 years. We want to hear about the purpose and passion behind your business and how you’ve used the Xero platform to support its vision. This sole trader also demonstrates a positive impact within customer and community groups, as well as the broader industry.
Eligibility criteria:
- Have a registered ABN
- Must be registered as a sole trader
- Not be a listed company or franchisee/franchisor
- Not be a listed accountant or bookkeeper practice or firm
- Earn less than $10M in annual revenue
What we’re looking for
These are the criteria we’ll use when assessing nominations:
- Business vision: What’s your business vision and purpose? Tell us how you actively thread your business’ ‘why’ into your day-to-day operations. Tell us what sets your business apart from others.
- Xero product and ecosystem use: Tell us how your business uses the Xero suite of products including; Xero the platform, Payroll, Expenses, Projects, Analytics Plus etc. to manage your business and boost productivity. And how your business uses the Xero App Store.
- Customer excellence: Tell us about what sets you apart from your competitors in the way you service your customers (We encourage you to include testimonials or references to demonstrate this).
- Innovation: Tell us how your business is demonstrating innovation and striving for excellence in your industry. There is no limitation to innovation - this could be an innovative sales process, marketing initiative, employee or team engagement program etc.
- Social impact: Tell us how your business has implemented processes/products and/or practices to positively contribute to known social or environmental issues and challenges for the community it operates in. Community can be geographical (ie. local community), non-profit, cause-related, charitable, sporting, pro-bono, etc.
Enter the Xero Awards now
Nominate yourself today to be in to win one of our many Xero awards!