The virtual CFOs who are off to Xerocon Brisbane – and bringing their clients with them

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Never been to Xerocon? Neither has the team from Navigate Virtual CFOs, but they couldn’t be more excited to join us. We spoke to Aaron Lane from Navigate to hear what’s motivated them to come along and why it’s an unmissable opportunity.

Tell us a bit of backstory about your company

We started out 18 months ago as a cloud-only advisory firm. From the start, we saw a need for clients to have real-time reporting, which requires daily reconciliations of all their accounts. And to do so, we knew we needed a cloud-based solution. Xero seemed to present the best solution for us by a long way, and it still does. So we hopped on board as a 100% Xero firm, and truly believe in the value that it has provided us – not only as a cloud accounting software, but through the large ecosystem of app partners too.

On a day-to-day basis, Xero gives us the ability to log into our clients’ accounts and provide real-time reporting and feedback, and to offer additional support and services through add-ons. It’s a massive benefit for us in terms of scalability: we can offer support for a range of industries in real time without the client needing to step foot in the office.

What made you decide to come to Xerocon Brisbane?

We keep discovering new solutions for our clients through Xero and its ecosystem. The way I see it, attending Xerocon Brisbane will only benefit our company by showing us smarter and faster ways of doing things. Over the last year and a half, the number of solutions we provide for our clients has increased exponentially. That gives us more in revenue, saves us time and has been totally worth any set up time.

By being part of this massive event, we get to meet people who run the apps that can help us. We get to hear the keynotes that will inspire us to do better work. And we get to take all the information we learn and give it back to our clients.

We’re also taking five of our clients with us, as we want them to experience the benefits firsthand. By going to Xerocon, they’ll get to meet so many other businesses around Australia and New Zealand, and talk directly to the people who build the software they’re using. We also want them to be able to understand that what we’re doing is part of a much bigger picture.

How do you expect Xerocon to change or help your career?

Our clients’ needs are expanding, and we need to be able to provide solutions for them. Everything is real time now, everything is about instant gratification. Clients are starting to expect more, and cloud technology is the way to provide that. There are so many amazing technology solutions that our clients can benefit from. And at the end of the day, you want to do best by your clients.

The industry is changing rapidly. There are always new apps coming out at different speeds, and it’s not always easy to keep on top of it all. Coming to Xerocon gives us a way to keep in touch, and discover the areas Xero is advancing.

Watching Xero’s growth over the past 18 months and knowing that there’s so much that they’ve mastered in this time makes me excited to hear about what’s coming up. I’m also looking forward to developing my skills at some of the workshops. But I’ve heard it’s such a busy event that we need to plan the key outcomes we want to get out of it, so we’ll be looking carefully at the agenda!

Why should accounting and bookkeeping professionals consider attending conferences like Xerocon?

I can’t think of any reasons why you wouldn’t. Technology has advanced so quickly that if you don’t go to these events, your business may not advance at fast as it might. There will be so much happening, all you’ve got to do is go along and keep your eyes open. The knowledge you’ll bring home will make the cost of going worthwhile.

The bottom line is that by attending, you’ll discover new, innovative solutions for your clients. Our clients expect us to be on the phone every day, so for us to make ourselves unavailable for a few days is a pretty big step – but it’s so worth it. What we look bring home from this conference will massively influence our skills, which will benefit our clients. And they know that.

Xerocon Brisbane 2018 takes place 5-6 September, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

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