G Suite and Xero: bringing accountants and their clients closer together

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Today, collaborative cloud tools are becoming increasingly fundamental to the success of startups and businesses alike. From the ability to maintain good, clean books, to sharing data with investors at lightning speed, to chatting with colleagues and advisors using video conferencing tools – being on the cloud helps all businesses thrive.

Cory Hewett, CEO and Co-Founder of Gimme Vending, knows a thing or two about the benefits of cloud software. His company makes hardware that retrofits old vending machines so they communicate wirelessly with a mobile application that gives the owner the ability and insights to run their business from anywhere, at anytime.

Cory, along with his advisor, Kenji Kuramoto, CEO and Co-Founder of Acuity Accounting, have developed a strong working relationship thanks to the capabilities of cloud software. Even though they happen to work in the same building, Cory and Kenji have come to rely on G Suite and its deep integration with Xero to collaborate as effectively as possible.

Neighbors

Cory and Kenji met working in the same co-working space in Georgia in 2013, located in what Kenji describes as a hub for forward-thinking businesses. Gimme Vending was already using Xero for their business’ accounting, but not long after meeting Kenji, Cory realized that he and his Co-Founder lacked the proper experience to manage their business’ financials. That’s when he turned to Kenji and his team for help.

“My Co-Founder and I are not from a finance background,” Cory explains. “We need people smarter than us to help us understand what is happening in our business. Kenji’s team provides the financial technical capacity in an area where we are not technically inclined.”

Kenji’s accounting firm has been in the game for about 12 years now, and while they started out on desktop accounting software – cloud solutions like Xero are now the focus of the practice. Kenji says, today, his firm won’t take on clients unless they adopt cloud technology.

Both fully immersed in the cloud, it was a no-brainer for Cory and Kenji to harness the collaborative capabilities of the seamless G Suite and Xero integration. The two use the integration both when working together, and with others.

Instant Credibility and Secure Collaboration

With the ability to collaborate on and share documents, send messages on Gmail from within Xero and more, both Cory and Kenji agree that the integration is a winning solution because it is “credible and ubiquitous.” Cory says his company has come to rely on it.

Kenji also highlights the ability to push files out of Xero into Google Sheets and Docs as another huge timesaver for his practice. Cory echoes this sentiment, saying that he and his team rely on Acuity’s ability to create and generate reports in this way. He says the secure and collaborative capabilities within Google Docs have even helped contribute to his success with investors.

“It’s critical to keep investors up-to-date quickly,” Cory explains. “We’ve been successful fundraising from investors because, using Google Docs, we’ve been able to provide confidential data and financial reports to them almost immediately and revoke access when necessary just as quickly.”

“We are on the front lines evangelizing mobile technology for an industry that has been left behind by mobility in general,” Cory explains. “Our customers need tools that are cloud-enabled, and we require the cloud-based flexibility that Xero and G Suite provides. It’s easy to say that it would be impossible to run our business without the cloud-based solutions that Xero and G Suite provide.”

Personal Connections

Kenji says that the ability to use single sign-on to log in to G Suite through Xero, while a seemingly simple feature, has driven measurable efficiency within his accounting practice. In addition, Hangouts has helped his accounting practice grow to serve clients nationwide.

“With Cory, we can catch up with him because he’s in the same building,” Kenji explains. “In most cases, our clients aren’t located in the same city as us. Thanks to Hangouts, our other clients can feel just as if we are in the same building.

“We are able to have those face-to-face meetings over video, which really influence the nature of our client relationships. It’s enabled us to really develop our national footprint over the last 12 years.”

Thanks to the power of the cloud ecosystem, business owners and their advisors are able to work together just as closely as if they were neighbors.

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