Connected accounting launched at Xerocon Atlanta

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Building on our vision of rewiring the global economy, Xero is bringing connected accounting to the platform – the next step in our code-free accounting vision. The first wave of connected accounting features was announced today at Xerocon Atlanta.

In his keynote, Xero Americas VP of Products and Partnerships, Herman Man explained how connected accounting means that Xero will intelligently connect the different interactions that occur in the day-to-day operation of a business so that routine tasks, such as paying bills, happen automatically.

Beyond automatically categorizing accounting data, connected accounting uses rich, accurate and automated data to help small business owners and their advisors answer the big questions, on profit, cash flow or invoicing.

“Xero has long had a vision to rewire the global small business economy by giving small businesses and their advisors access to a powerful, global platform,” Herman said.

“With the features introduced at Xerocon Atlanta today, we’re delivering connected accounting so accountants and bookkeepers can help their clients ask the big questions, on cash flow, profit and revenue. It is these kinds of capabilities working seamlessly together that enables small businesses to pursue their passion, be successful and do beautiful business.”

It’s all about creating a more connected world for every small business and accountant.

Connected accounting comes to bills, saving small businesses time and helping advisors add value to clients

Bank rules and reconciliation already save businesses time by automatically categorizing bills. Now, Xero will capture and automatically populate key information from PDF bills received from other businesses on the platform — like their accountant or suppliers — eliminating the need for manual entry altogether and helping businesses get paid even faster.

Beta testing has already shown a 25% saving in the time it takes to enter bills in Xero, saving business owners hours of time across the month. Code-free accounting also increases the accuracy of business data, giving owners and advisors more quality information about their financial position.

Xero makes bank reconciliation more intelligent, expands financial web with Citibank

Citibank and Xero are joining forces to give joint US customers access to direct bank feeds from within the accounting platform. Bank feeds give business owners the ability to get a real-time picture of a business’ finances, making it easier to stay on top of cash flow, navigate tax time, and uncover deep insights about business performance.

The partnership with Citibank is the latest in a number of relationships Xero has built with financial institutions around the world — including NAB in Australia, Barclays in the UK, DBS in Singapore and ASB in New Zealand — that build a financial web to give businesses greater access and opportunities to grow using their financial data.

And available soon (first to select beta customers), Xero will now automatically approve bank reconciliation rules set up by the business or advisor for matching transactions. With 97% of Xero bank rules already correct the first time, the intelligent automation will mean businesses and advisors can spend significantly less time on reconciliation and retain complete visibility over the process.

Xero Projects brings new features and US availability to create a more powerful global platform for business

Xero Projects, the simple job tracking tool for any small business, has become even more powerful with new features that give business owners more control and real-time visibility into projects, and drive profitability with simple time and job cost tracking within Xero.

Xero Projects, now publicly available for the first time to businesses using Xero in the United States, seamlessly connects to the wider Xero platform so businesses can build on top of the existing rich data in the platform, including contacts, invoicing, bills and reporting, to manage their business on a single platform and drive profitability.

New updates to the Xero Projects app for iOS and Android help businesses not miss a minute of billable time again. Employees can track project work wherever they are with stop and start job timers, and the ability to record the project they are working on, from within the app. And business owners gain greater control over access permissions for their team, with admin, standard and limited user tiers ensuring they can easily control the level of information each staff member can access or actions they can perform.

Ask and Relationships in Xero HQ helps partners communicate with clients easily

Ask in Xero HQ has expanded to make it even easier for accountants and bookkeepers to focus more time on client work and less time chasing information. Practices that use Ask have seen 83% of all queries on average answered within one week, eliminating back-and-forth emails and the time it takes to get clear, accurate information.

Ask will soon automatically remind clients to respond to information queries, to cut-down on the time advisors need to spend individually chasing information.

Also coming soon to Xero HQ, Relationships will make it easier to help partners maintain client contacts, ensuring accurate data across their practice from within the Xero platform.

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