Xero news

We announced a while ago that February is Xero’s ‘Education Month‘, but they’ve also made some changes to the software that you may have missed.

As Xero Partners, we’re able to attend their quarterly product updates, so hear about changes that have been made, and find out what’s planned too!

I’ve listed the major changes from this quarter’s update below:

Xero Verify

We all know how important security is, so Xero are developing Xero Verify to make two step authentication easier. It’s not available yet, but has been billed as a way to streamline the existing process of using your phone and computer.

We’ll keep you posted on developments with this one!

Do note that from April, two step authentication will be mandatory within Xero. If you’re not already using it, you might want to get it set up sooner rather than later so that you get the benefits of the security and have no last minute panics!

Payroll

A new ‘Payroll Learning Centre’ has been launched, which you can access it here. As part of this launch, during February, March and April, Xero’s dedicated Payroll Education Specialists are hosting live Xero Payroll learning sessions, to help users get the most out of the system. Find out more about those here, along with details of available pre-recorded support sessions and videos.

Help Menu

This can now be accessed directly from Xero, without having to leave the system, and will prompt you with support articles that could be relevant to the are of the system you are in.

Bank Reconciliation Changes

Previously, Xero would make multiple suggestions where it wasn’t sure of the transactions to match, but now it will look at all the information in the statement line to improve the likelihood of a correct match.

Xero Mobile App

The iOS App now allows you to edit or remove part payments easily while you’re reconciling them.

The Android version of the App allows you to reconcile part payments and to delete invoices that are in draft or awaiting approval.

Both versions have an updated ‘find and match’ interface, and on the list view for the bank accounts, you can see which amounts have been reconciled.

Xero Expenses App

Two changes here will further enhance what we think is a great way to streamline your expense claims.

1. Updated receipts analysis will reduce errors and make the process faster
2. You can now upload pdf receipts, and the App will extract the data and create a claim, attaching the pdf.

‘New’ Invoicing format

Although it’s now been around a while, the ‘new’ invoicing format continues its evolution.

The primary one of note is the opportunity to apply an existing credit on a customer’s account when you’re raising a new invoice. As you raise the invoice, Xero will tell you how much the credit is, and you can choose to apply the full amount, apply a partial amount, or skip the allocation and continue to raise the invoice for the full amount you were originally going to.

Expenses and Projects

These are ‘extras’ to the Xero system, and chargeable as such, but can make big differences to your business. Until now it wasn’t easy to see how they work, but now it is! Both Projects and Expenses now has a landing page of its own, from where you can see the App in use, as well as seeing the benefits that they can bring.

Xero App Marketplace

With over 900 Apps to choose from within the Marketplace, finding the right one for your business can be tricky. To make it easer, Xero have now included reviews. This is a very new feature, so don’t panic if an App you’re looking at doesn’t have any yet!

Paypal Commerce Platform

New from Paypal, the Commerce Platform now integrates with Xero, hopefully making it easier to increase your range of payment options.

If you’ve got any questions about Xero, their support is really good, but we’re also happy to help if we can! Just pop us an email over and we’ll come back to you as soon as we can.