Xero Global Release Update November 2017

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The year may be winding down, but the product releases haven’t stopped. Check out the latest updates for small businesses and partners, plus a glimpse of what’s coming out soon.

Don’t forget, Xero changes and release updates can be found over in the Help Centre

Recently released

Xero Projects full release, plus new features
Wordplay payment service (UK & Ireland)
Enhancements to Global Search
Discuss pilot

Mobile

Xero Projects for iOS & Android apps
Siri Invoice and quote voice reminders for iOS
Workflow updates to iOS quotes

Xero HQ

Two-Step Authentication overview in HQ
Indirect Statement of Cash flows

UK Payroll update

U.S. Payroll – Help with Year End tasks – As of 6 November, US Payroll clients are able to see draft versions of W-2 and 944 forms with live data. In prior years, clients had to wait until the final forms were available in January before confirming and filing. This left very little time at a busy time of year to ensure that all information was correct. Check out the U.S. Payroll blog to learn more.
New Zealand Payroll – We have been working to solve a big pain of paying GST registered contractors from within Xero Payroll – the need to create a manual journal every pay run in order to balance GST lines. We will simplify processing pay runs for GST registered contractors. We have also removed manual calculations and potential errors by providing the ability to flag whether a reimbursement item is GST inclusive or not. We are in closed beta to test drive these improvements and will be launching to all NZ payroll users soon.

Up next – 90-day window

New Xero Projects features
Find and recode improvements
Improvements to emails
Quotes search on iOS
Enter and view bills on Android

Xero Projects – full availability and new features

Great news – Xero Projects is now available to add to any Starter, Standard or Premium Xero business plan and you’ll get your first month free when you set it up.

We’ve also added some great features over the last few months;

Assign invoice line items to a project
Search and sort your projects list
Assign spend money, bills, and bank rec transactions to a project

Early adopters can continue to use to use Projects free of charge until the end of the year but you’ll need to add Projects to your subscription to continue using after 15 January 2018.

For those in the USA, Xero Projects will become available in the new year but you can ask your Xero Advisor to provide you early access now.

Check out this blog for full details.

Worldpay in Xero (United Kingdom & Ireland)

Taking online payments reduces the time it takes for you to get paid, so we’ve added Worldpay as a payment option for your customers in Xero. Simply add Worldpay as a Pay now button to your invoices and allow your customers to pay with credit card. Once the invoice has been paid it’s automatically marked as ‘paid’ in Xero.

Enhancements to Global Search in Xero

Now you can find what you’re looking for no matter where you are in Xero. You can search for amounts from any screen, or search for contacts by email address, phone number, and company registration number.

Search for Contacts, in Global Search, by using:

Primary contact email address
Phone number (includes phone, fax, mobile, and direct dial)
Company number (all regions except US, which doesn’t have that field)
- AU: ACN
- NZ: NZBN
- UK: CRN
- Global: Business Registration Number

Discuss pilot

We’ve kicked off a pilot with a small number of partners and small business clients in the UK, NZ and AU. Discuss is a new collaboration tool that lets you discuss items in Xero with your advisor; without leaving Xero. It can be used with many of the items you work with on a day to day basis in Xero: Invoices, Bills, Contacts, Quotes, Purchase Orders, Bank Transactions, URLs (links) within Xero.

Clear collaboration with Discuss helps maximise efficiency by making sure advisors and small businesses are both talking about the same thing. It helps advisors make the best use of billable time and make room for providing valuable business advice to the small biz.

We will look to extend the pilot further in the next few months. Next year when we’re closer to release, we’ll to let you know when you can expect this in your hands.

Xero Projects for iOS and Android just dropped

If you’re in the business of providing a service you are likely to offer up your time and expertise to clients anywhere, throughout the day. Download Projects for iOS or Android and you and your staff will no longer need to rely on your memory, notebooks or scraps of paper to keep track of time, costs and tasks when you’re out and about.

Get the scoop over on our blog.

Use Siri to create reminders for your invoices or Quotes

Got too many ‘to do’s’ running around in your head? Now you can set up quote and invoice reminders with Siri, so you never forget.

When viewing an invoice or quote on your mobile screen, simply activate Siri with a voice command – “remind me of this invoice/quote tomorrow. This creates a reminder in the Apple reminders app with some details about the invoice/quote. Then simply tap on the reminder it will open the invoice or quote in the Xero app.

Workflow updates to iOS quotes

Now you can keep the status of your quotes up to date from anywhere to stay on top of potential business. Mark quotes as sent, accepted or declined, or unmark accepted and declined, so you can follow up proactively follow up when you need.

Indirect statement of cash flows (US and Singapore)

Now you can move accounts into and out of the Cash Balances group in the Direct Statement of Cash Flows. You’ll find a new Indirect Statement of Cash Flows report as well as multi-currency in both the Direct and Indirect Statement of Cash Flows reports.

Two-Step Authentication overview in HQ

Two-Step Authentication adds an extra layer of security to your Xero account and we highly recommend you, your staff and your clients set up 2SA on your accounts. To help you keep track, we’ve added a padlock icon under the staff tab in Xero HQ. Now practice administrators will see padlock icons under all staff members with Two-Step Authentication enabled.

90-day window – what’s coming

New Xero Projects features

Hot on the heels of the Xero Projects full release (excl. US), we’ll be adding lots of great new features over the coming year. Keep an eye out for the following goodies in early 2018;

Add time on behalf of another user
View another person’s time sheets
3 levels of Projects permissions
Profitability in the Projects Summary and Details reports
Projects time detail report
Staff time overview and performance

Find and recode enhancements

Soon, cleaning up your account in Xero will be much easier with the upcoming Find and Recode improvement. You’ll be able to easily recode manual journals and search for transactions by bank account, invoice number or the reference. Hooray, more time back in the bank for you!

Improvements to emails

Already released to a small number of users and soon available to all is an improved view of your emails. You’ll be able to see your logo on emails you’re sending, include the invoice summary details such as total amount, due date and invoice number along with a button to view the invoice. It’ll be a much nicer experience for your customers when opening the email and give a better view at glance.

Quotes search in iOS

Following on from last month’s improvements to iOS quotes, soon you’ll be able to search and find quotes on iOS. Super handy when you’re out and about and need to find quotes quickly.

iOS password manager support

If you use a Password Manager, such as1Password or LastPass, then keep your eyes peeled. Soon from the Xero login screen you will be able to pre-fill your Xero login details into the login fields. Quick, simple and safe – it’s as easy as that!

Enter and view bills on Android

Early in the new year your mobile experience on Android will become even more complete. Soon you’ll be able to enter and view bills on Android. No need to head back to the office to sort out your bills. Do this on the go with your Xero mobile app.

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Source: Xero Blog