Khalid Ahmed of EncompaaS: proving that smart scales

Khalid Ahmed has seen what a broken finance system does to a business. As CFO of EncompaaS, an enterprise software company helping highly regulated organisations automate information governance and prepare data for AI, he's used that experience to scale finance systems without the complexity.

By the numbers.

In Khalid's experience:

• An estimated AU$100,000+ in potential ERP implementation and licensing costs avoided by staying on Xero instead of migrating to a full ERP system
• An estimated AU$30,000 a year to be saved by decommissioning a dedicated FP&A platform, replaced by Xero's ecosystem integrations and AI tools
• One full headcount freed up by automating accounts payable via Xero and Hubdoc, redirected into a higher-value FP&A role
• Four entities across three countries (US, UK and two in Australia) run on Xero, multi-currency, multi-entity
• 100%+ projected revenue growth in a short period of time, without a corresponding increase in finance headcount or a system change
• Near-zero training time for new starters, thanks to an easy, familiar interface

Learning the hard way what a bad system costs.

Before EncompaaS, Khalid worked at a business running on a heavily customised ERP alongside a separate warehouse management system, processing tens of thousands of orders a day. When it worked, it was fine. When it didn't, it was brutal.

"80% of my working hours were spent just getting under the hood of the system, making sure transactions flowed and reconciled," he says. The team ended up building reconciliations outside the ERP entirely, because the system itself couldn't be trusted. Fixing or changing a single workflow meant paying ERP consultants tens of thousands of dollars.

It's the kind of experience that reshapes how a finance leader thinks. At his next role, as the first finance hire at a startup, Khalid inherited Xero from day one. "It's simple enough that anyone can pick it up and run with it," he says. From there, his philosophy crystallised: the general ledger should stay simple, no matter how complex the business around it gets.

"Financial complexity shouldn't come from your general ledger," Khalid explains. "It's all accounting transactions flowing through. As long as everything's recorded correctly, a P&L and a balance sheet should remain fairly standard."

The pressure to "graduate" to an ERP.

That philosophy was put to the test when Khalid joined EncompaaS. The business spans four entities across three countries. All of them sit under a public unlisted parent company with a large cap table and rigorous audit and governance requirements.

At the time, EncompaaS had multiple entities and around 90 staff, and there was a consistent undercurrent of whether the systems would survive the growth: hadn't they outgrown Xero? Wasn't it time for an ERP?

On top of the many hats a CFO wears at a scale-up business, Khalid was also managing an M&A transaction. Adding a full ERP implementation to that was out of the question.

"The anxiety of not moving to an ERP to support growth was always there," he admits. But it also forced clarity. "Even though we're multi-entity, multi-currency and multi-region, our business model itself is simple. Our P&L is simple, our balance sheet is simple." Rather than replatforming, Khalid decided to solve specific problems with specific apps, and keep Xero as the constant at the core.

He's since formalised the decision. "I have a standard email that I now send to any ERP implementation consultants," he says. "Xero works really well for us, and we have no intention of moving off it any time in the near future."

By Khalid's estimate, migrating to a full ERP system would have cost EncompaaS more than AU$100,000 in implementation and licensing costs alone. That’s before the disruption of a large-scale system migration during an M&A transaction. Staying on Xero meant those costs weren’t incurred.

A smarter core, with a tailored ecosystem around it.

Instead of a single, monolithic system trying to do everything, EncompaaS built a stack of specialised apps around Xero, each solving one specific problem:

• Mayday for intercompany transactions, consolidation and P&L flux analysis across entities
• Harvest for lightweight project management
• Airwallex for streamlined payments
• Hubdoc to automate accounts payable

"One of the things I still say to this day is: don't overcomplicate the applications you're using, or even the processes," Khalid says. Solving a problem with a dedicated app, rather than folding it into the core accounting system, keeps change management contained - EncompaaS only has to bring the specific team that needs a tool along for the ride, rather than the whole business.

It also helps keep costs down. Hubdoc is already included with eligible Xero Business subscriptions. "Instead of tens of thousands of dollars for systems, you're talking hundreds of dollars a month in subscription fees," he says.

Turning off a $30K tool and a full headcount's worth of manual work.

Two decisions show Khalid’s approach paying off.

The first: EncompaaS is decommissioning a dedicated FP&A platform it had used for consolidations, reporting, budgeting and forecasting. With Mayday's P&L analysis now linking directly back to Xero transactions, the standalone platform became redundant. Khalid estimates that turning it off will save EncompaaS roughly AU$30,000 a year, a saving he attributes to Xero and its app ecosystem.

The second: the Xero and Hubdoc integration helped automate EncompaaS’ accounts payable process to the point where a full-time role was no longer needed. "The automation of our AP process actually allowed for the reduction of one full headcount," Khalid says. Rather than cutting the cost, EncompaaS redirected that budget into an FP&A position, and turned an efficiency gain into a genuine capability upgrade for the finance function.

Growing without adding complexity.

Revenue at EncompaaS is set to roughly double, but Khalid isn’t planning to grow finance headcount to match.

"Even as we get larger and larger through those stages, we still have essentially everything we need to scale the business through Xero," he says. That confidence frees his team up to focus on higher-value work, rather than worrying about whether the accounting platform itself can keep pace.

The simplicity shows up in day-to-day operations too. Non-finance staff use Xero for expenses and leave, with minimal support required from the finance team. "You don't hear anything about it," Khalid says. "It's probably just because it's working in the background." And because Xero is widely used across the finance profession, bringing on external auditors, advisors and accountants is straightforward. Permissions can be granted and removed as needed, with no learning curve on the other end.

Keeping the record straight in an AI-first world.

As EncompaaS leans further into AI for reporting, research and analysis, Khalid is deliberate about where automation ends and the system of record begins.

"Regardless of AI advancements, the accounting system still needs to be the source of truth, with a clear audit trail," he says. "If judgment calls are made using AI tools, you need to be able to trace them back to the original record in the general ledger."

It’s the same principle EncompaaS takes to its own customers. As enterprises deploy AI across increasingly complex information environments, the ability to understand where information came from, how it is governed and whether it can be trusted becomes increasingly important. AI can accelerate analysis and decision-making, but the underlying information still needs provenance, governance and traceability.

For Khalid, that's the real value of building on Xero and its certified app ecosystem: the flexibility to bring in new tools, without ever losing traceability back to a single, reliable core.

Khalid's advice to other finance leaders.

Reflecting on the pressure that comes with any new finance role, Khalid's advice is consistent with the decision he made at EncompaaS:

"As soon as someone starts as a finance leader in a new organisation, the first thing you'll get is: is now the time to implement a new system? The one thing I'd always challenge is: how complex is your general ledger, your P&L and your balance sheet, really?"

For most businesses, Khalid argues, the complexity isn't in the accounting system. It's in specific processes that can be solved with the right app, not a full replatform. "If your general ledger does what it needs to do, and you're remaining compliant, let it run. Use the integrations and app ecosystem around it to solve the problems the business is actually facing."

It's a philosophy that's saved EncompaaS tens of thousands of dollars, freed up a full headcount for higher-value work and given Khalid the confidence to keep scaling a multi-entity, multi-currency business without reaching for a system he doesn't need.