Having just spent most of this week at Xerocon we have lots of new Xero product updates as well as some exciting new apps to share with you.
Xerocon is an exciting annual conference run by Xero for its accounting partners and the Xero app community. It is an inspiring event where we get the chance to learn not only what is in the pipeline for Xero, but we also get to hear from some amazing people about the landscape for small businesses and what we can and should be doing to support you.
You might be especially interested to hear about these updates.
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New Navigation menuXero is launching a new navigation bar to make it even more intuitive to navigate your way around the site. Already available to test out in the demo organisation. |
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Xero AppDo you use the Xero app? If you don’t it is worth taking another look at it as there are a few improvements that I think you will like. As well as seeing your monthly cashflow summarised nicely, you can now also see your profit figure and can choose what to compare it to – last month, last quarter or last year. |
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Email in bills to XeroXero can now auto-generate bills directly from an email. That bill will be pre-populated with some of the information on the bill and the original bill will be attached. |
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ExpensesThis is a big one! Data capture directly from a bill is now possible and can be done using the expenses app. 50% of all expense claims in the UK are for mileage. Very soon Xero will be releasing a mileage function. |
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SoldoWe are really excited about this one. This is a new fintech company that looks like it is going to be a great way to manage staff expenses. A soldo account gets 5 cards (backed by Mastercard) that you can give to staff as an alternative to a corporate credit card. Spending limits can be set in a variety of ways and, best of all, direct bank feeds are available into Xero that include not only the amount spent but the details that support what that spend was for. Imagine that, no expense claims and up-to-date financial records! |
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Sales invoicesThe look and functionality of this is changing and details such as email addresses can now be added for new contacts directly from the invoice screen. Invoices will now be auto-saved every 3 seconds so no more losing a half created invoice when you stop to make yourself a cup of tea! |
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Xero ProjectsIf you have tried out Xero projects before but were not sure about it, it may be worth taking another look now. User roles and permissions have been improved and a start stop timer has been launched to enable live time recording. Xero projects now also integrates with Xero expenses meaning more up-to-date and accurate project accounting with less effort. |
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Making Tax Digital for VATOk so this is not new but in case you missed it, we can confirm that Xero is MTD compliant. We have signed up to beta test the new Xero MTD VAT filing so that we are well prepared for when it goes live in April. We’ll share updates on how it goes. |
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PayrollEncrypted payslips can now be emailed to employees directly from Xero. |