Latest product news: May 2020

We know time is a luxury for small business owners and advisors, so we’re pleased to have released a number of new features in May that will save you time and give you better visibility of your business performance. Whether it’s a visual dashboard, new report or faster way to send invoices and pay bills, our team is focused on making things a little easier for you during this uncertain time.

A message from our Chief Product Officer, Anna Curzon

 

New features

Get a visual snapshot of your business – global

We’ve extended our business snapshot pilot to all Xero customers on business edition plans until 31 August 2020, so you can quickly see how your business is performing. Business snapshot provides a visual dashboard of key financial metrics that makes it easy to compare profit and loss, turnover, expenses and efficiency between different periods.

Understand your short-term cash flow – global

Our short-term cash flow pilot has also been extended to customers with business edition plans, until 31 August 2020. It visually projects your bank balance 30 days into the future, showing you the impact of existing bills and invoices if they’re paid on time. This will help you work out which invoices you should follow up, and see how your cash flow will change if you pay a bill this week versus next week.

Discover our latest quick wins – global

As part of our focus to support customers through COVID-19, we created the ShipIt challenge. It gave teams a chance to step away from their normal work to deep dive into a set of customer problems and come up with ways to solve them. Many of these small improvements have now been released and we encourage you to check them out.

Identify clients that need support – global

If you’re an accountant or bookkeeper, you can now access the new COVID-19 support page in Xero HQ, which allows you to quickly download a monthly revenue export of client organisations. The CSV file includes details on monthly revenue, revenue variance, cash balance and other information. This means you can prioritise clients and offer them better insights and advice.

Search for job costs in WorkflowMax – global

When adding costs to a job via the WorkflowMax app, you can now use the search feature to find costs in the existing database. This adds crucial information about that cost to your job and saves you from having to manually add things like code, description and default tax setting. The costs then automatically flow through to the correct accounts and tracking in Xero, if they have been set up.

Track time accurately in Xero Projects – global

We know that tracking time can be tedious. So we’ve made some improvements to the time tracking feature in Xero Projects. You can now enter the time you start and finish a job and have your total hours automatically calculated for you. This makes time tracking in Projects easier and more accurate, so you can invoice clients and pay your staff with confidence.

Manage uninvoiced work in Xero Projects – global

Today, it’s more important than ever to understand your project financials. You now have the option in Xero Projects to mark time entries, tasks and expenses as invoiced on a project, to give you a clear picture of any remaining and uninvoiced work. You can also access your summary report in one click from the dashboard, to see your project financials and profitability.

Organise your clients’ tax with document packs – AU

Digitally organising your clients’ tax returns and financial documents is now faster and easier with document packs in Xero HQ. Document packs feature a secure portal for your clients to sign documents using Xero Sign powered by Adobe Sign, and an integration with Xero Tax and published reports. It’s available to all partners using Xero Tax in Australia and available for free during tax season.

Send e-invoices to government clients – AU and NZ

Xero is the first major provider of small business accounting software to introduce e-invoicing in Australia and New Zealand. Unlike emailing a PDF or online invoice, e-invoices are sent directly from Xero into your customers’ accounting system, ready to be approved and paid. You can now send e-invoices from Xero to participating government agencies in Australia and New Zealand. 

Pay and manage bills through Xero – UK

Pay with TransferWise is a new bill payment solution to help you pay and manage multiple GBP bills. It means you can pay all your bills through Xero regardless of which bank you use, and reconcile transactions easily. When you add Pay with TransferWise to Xero, you’ll be able to choose a plan to suit the number of bills you pay each month. It’s now available to UK customers with a starter, standard or premium subscription and free of charge until 31 July 2020, with standard pricing from 1 August 2020 (prices in GBP and excludes VAT).

 

Capture client insights with new advisor report templates – UK

Xero partners in the UK can now quickly gather information for clients who need help during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond, using two new report templates. The COVID-19 Business Insights Pack helps with business reporting, while the Business Loan Pack pulls together the essential information required when applying for a business loan.

Coming soon

Save time with chart of accounts templates in Xero HQ – UK

Xero partners can save time setting up new clients, when we release our new chart of accounts templates in Xero HQ in June. Templates will be available for UK limited companies, sole traders and partnerships. Each template will be pre-mapped to Xero report codes and available as a non-VAT option.