10 useful apps to help Kiwi small businesses kick off FY24

With FY24 officially upon us, now is the perfect time for small business owners to take stock, and look at what tools you can leverage to become more efficient and effective in the new year. All so you can spend more time doing what matters most. 

This is where the Xero App Store comes into play. With an ecosystem of more than 1,000 connected apps you can plug into Xero, they can help manage everything from automated invoicing and reporting, through to cash flow forecasting and financial services. We’ve rounded up just a few useful apps that we think can help take your business to the next level.

Build new automated workflows

Complex layers of approval processes can hold up your accounts payable and receivable, no matter how large your business is. These apps can help take away those manual workflows.

ApprovalMax works to streamline your financial document workflows, meaning you no longer have to send multiple emails to get the green light. The auto-approvals feature means you can add rules to specific workflows, ensuring they get the automated all-clear without onerous sign offs and review processes.

Another great option is Lightyear, which focuses on automating Purchasing and Accounts Payable. It automatically extracts data line-by-line from supplier bills or purchase orders and integrates them directly into the approvals workflow, eliminating manual data entry. It can also link into point-of-sale and inventory as needed.

Useful job management tools to support tradies

For those working in trades and services, such as builders, Tradify is an all-in-one job management tool that allows you to process everything from supplier bills to client invoices and keep track of cash flow. 

Fergus, built by tradies, is another great option focused on worksite to back office job management. It wraps together quoting, scheduling, invoicing, timesheets and you can even track jobs using GPS. 

There’s also Simpro – an app focused on end-to-end field service management that eliminates manual data entry and duplication by transferring contacts, invoices and credits to Xero, as well as timesheets, payments and inventory.

Simplify PAYE/payroll and shift management

One of the most complex aspects of being a small business employer is payroll – from overtime and leave entitlements to Kiwsaver and PAYE, the requirements are onerous, and can be time-consuming. 

Beside our own Xero Payroll, there are plenty of industry specific apps. If you’re working in the agricultural sector in NZ, Agrismart is another great option for HR management and NZ specific payroll settings. It caters to farmers’ timesheets, biometric time clocks, invoicing and jobs, NZ health and safety regulations, employee data management rosters, inventory, and budgets.

If you’re more focused on rostering, RosterElf, covers everything from staff availability, rostering and shift swaps, clock-in-out, and has payroll integration features for Xero.

Kiwi apps to support your inventory management

Whether you’re creating, storing or shifting inventory, one of the key areas that can cause stress as a business scales is inventory management and logistics – this is especially important if you’re moving your business online to leverage ecommerce platforms.

Kiwi app Unleashed provides inventory management software built for manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors across all industries, automatically tracking your stock geographically, while linking them to their digital documentation such as purchase orders or sales quotes – all in one hub.

Another homegrown app is Cin7 Core, which aims to centralise all inventory management. This means that all inventory-related purchases, sales, and manufacturing are organised in one place and then synchronised over to Xero in the form of invoices, bills and journal entries.

Kickstart FY24 with the right apps for your business

These are just a few of the options available in the Xero App Store to help you approach the new financial year in new ways. To make things easier, you can search for apps tailored to your needs by function, industry, and collection – all to make FY24 your best (and most efficient) year yet. 

You can visit the Xero App Store at apps.xero.com.

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Source: Xero Blog