XERO – GET UP TO SPEED

Welcome to TaxAssist and Xero – you’ll love using beautiful accounting software that puts your financials at your fingertips.  Here you’ll find everything you need to know to thrive with Xero. But, before you dive in, let’s start with a quick introduction.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/118446479 

Day2Day Bookkeeping

We will set up your profile for you, so you needn’t be concerned by all the “accounting stuff”.  To lay a solid foundation it is important to know the basic principles of accounting and how it all relates to Xero.  What is bookkeeping?  Only watch this if you have no accounting background.  In this 20 minute video you will learn about the chart of accounts and how Xero automates your year-end processes. 

https://player.vimeo.com/video/108417014

We will however require your assistance with certain things to get you going. We will need the following from you before we can set up your Xero account:

  • ü  A list of all current outstanding invoices so that we may create these for you on the system, so that we can start reconciling payments from clients right away.
  • ü  Should this be your first time signing up with TaxAssist, we will need your most recent set of financials from your previous accountants to take on opening balances. (This does not apply to clients in their first year of business)
  • ü  Your business logo so that we may brand your invoices and statements.

The Xero Dashboard

The Dashboard is the first place you look when you open Xero. It's a great source of information. But most people don't realise you can customise what you see.  The Dashboard is extremely powerful. At a glance you can take a look at your bank balance, who owes you money, movements in key accounts, how much money you owe to suppliers. As usual everything is also only 1 click away, meaning you can drill down to any of the detail straight from the Dashboard as well.

The Dashboard is a fantastic tool to give you a snapshot of how your business is going without you needing to run reports or look at 10 different screens.  Of course if you don't keep Xero up to date the info will be pretty useless! The good news is you can also edit the tiles on your Dashboard. You can put Invoices owed to you at the top if that's the important part, or maybe you want to see the Cash in and out graph.  To edit the Dashboard just click on Edit Dashboard at the bottom of the screen. You can then move the tiles around to suit you.  The video below explains the dashboard in more detail. https://player.vimeo.com/video/148354438

From Quote to Invoice

It has never been this easy. Xero is extremely user friendly, and can help you to manage your clients better than ever before.  You will be able to issue a quote, convert to a Tax Invoice and even a recurring invoice to your clients.   

With Xero you can send your customer an online quote, which they accept with the click of a button. Then when the work is done you can send them an invoice, which they can easily pay online.  The following Video shows how to do an online quote;https://player.vimeo.com/video/148352688.  You can also create an invoice without a quote;  https://player.vimeo.com/video/148350586

Once approved, you can create a PDF copy, mail it directly to your client, edit or void the invoice, and much more. Whichever works best for you? We would recommend sending it directly from Xero as you will then be able to see when the client viewed it.  Pro-forma Invoices, Tax Invoices and Credit Notes work exactly the same, so once you understand one, all else is rather self-explanatory.

Repeating invoices allows you to create a template for the invoices you send and bills you receive regularly. Xero automatically creates, saves, and emails recurring invoices for you based on your custom template. You can show the invoices and bills on the Draft or Awaiting Payment tab each time they’re created. All you have to do to complete them is approve any drafts, and pay or reconcile any awaiting payment.  The video can be viewed here; https://player.vimeo.com/video/148353121

Purchase Bills (Accounts Payable)

Create a bill for items you've received that you need to pay for (sometimes called accounts payable). You can add related files to bills, and code items to different accounts.  The video explaining this in detailed is available here; https://player.vimeo.com/video/148344297

If you use inventory items you can track them during the purchase and sales process.  For more information about this feature in Xero please look at the following video; https://player.vimeo.com/video/148355852

Other Features – Smart Lists, Budget Manager, Expense Claims and Xero mobile app

Smart Lists let you create targeted lists from information you've saved in Xero about your customers. Use contact information, transaction history or payment status to chase unpaid invoices, identify who has bought a product from you, create sales campaigns and more. https://player.vimeo.com/video/148354018

With Budget Manager in Xero accounting software, you can quickly prepare comprehensive budgets and compare against performance on selected periods.  This video tutorial shows you how to build your overall budget in Xero using this function. https://player.vimeo.com/video/148342795

An expense claim is a collection of receipts from spending personal money that the organisation needs to pay back to you. After submitting an expense claim, you will be reimbursed for your spending.   https://player.vimeo.com/video/148351245

Xero Touch the mobile app that allows you to run your business from anywhere in the world;  https://player.vimeo.com/video/76839932

Reports

A myriad of reports are available in Xero, and are also fully customisable. To access these reports, go to “Reports” in the top taskbar menu.  We will not be going into further detail regarding this, but you are welcome to ask if you feel you need assistance, or would like to view a specific type of report.

Xero Apps

Xero has taken accounting from a painful monthly, quarterly or annual catch-up process to an addictive daily activity. The result? Small businesses and their advisors have an up-to-date snapshot of their cash flow position, arguably the most critical factor in their survival and success of any business.  This transformation has been achieved through the connection of bank feeds into Xero and the revolutionary design of the bank reconciliation process as well as apps.    

In the Xero app marketplace you can explore more than 500 time-savings third party apps that connect directly with Xero. https://player.vimeo.com/video/148343260

This provides you with a summary of the basic functionality of the systems we use to keep your accounting up to date. As you use the software you will no doubt become more adept at using the various features. This document however should be sufficient to get you started. Please don’t hesitate to ask should you require help with anything and we will gladly assist.

Kind regards

Marius Higgs

TaxAssist

Tax, Accounting and Financial Planning Advisor

Xero Gold Partner

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