XERO – GET UP TO SPEED

Welcome to TaxAssist and Xero – you’ll love using beautiful accounting software that puts your financials at your fingertips. Here you’ll find everything you need to know to thrive with Xero. But, before you dive in, let’s start with a quick introduction.

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Watch: Get started with the basics of Xero (video playlist)

Day2Day Bookkeeping

We will set up your profile for you, so you needn’t be concerned by all the “accounting stuff”. To lay a solid foundation it is important to know the basic principles of accounting and how it all relates to Xero. What is bookkeeping? Only watch this if you have no accounting background. In this video you will learn about the chart of accounts and how Xero automates your year-end processes.

Watch: Basic Bookkeeping – accounting principles explained (Xero)

We will however require your assistance with certain things to get you going. We will need the following from you before we can set up your Xero account:

• A list of all current outstanding invoices so that we may create these for you on the system, so that we can start reconciling payments from clients right away.
• Should this be your first time signing up with TaxAssist, we will need your most recent set of financials from your previous accountants to take on opening balances. (This does not apply to clients in their first year of business)
• Your business logo so that we may brand your invoices and statements.

The Xero Dashboard

The Dashboard is the first place you look when you open Xero. It's a great source of information. But most people don't realise you can customise what you see. The Dashboard is extremely powerful. At a glance you can take a look at your bank balance, who owes you money, movements in key accounts, how much money you owe to suppliers. As usual everything is also only 1 click away, meaning you can drill down to any of the detail straight from the Dashboard as well.

The Dashboard is a fantastic tool to give you a snapshot of how your business is going without you needing to run reports or look at 10 different screens. Of course if you don't keep Xero up to date the info will be pretty useless! The good news is you can also edit the tiles on your Dashboard. You can put Invoices owed to you at the top if that's the important part, or maybe you want to see the Cash in and out graph. To edit the Dashboard just click on Edit Dashboard at the bottom of the screen. You can then move the tiles around to suit you. This video explains the dashboard in more detail: How to customise your Xero Dashboard

From Quote to Invoice

It has never been this easy. Xero is extremely user friendly, and can help you to manage your clients better than ever before. You will be able to issue a quote, convert to a Tax Invoice and even a recurring invoice to your clients.

With Xero you can send your customer an online quote, which they accept with the click of a button. Then when the work is done you can send them an invoice, which they can easily pay online. This video shows how to do an online quote: How to create and send quotes in Xero (official Xero video). You can also create an invoice without a quote: How to create and send invoices in Xero

Once approved, you can create a PDF copy, mail it directly to your client, edit or void the invoice, and much more. Choose whichever works best for you. We would recommend sending it directly from Xero as you will then be able to see when the client viewed it. Pro-forma Invoices, Tax Invoices and Credit Notes work exactly the same, so once you understand one, all else is rather self-explanatory.

Repeating invoices allows you to create a template for the invoices you send and bills you receive regularly. Xero automatically creates, saves, and emails recurring invoices for you based on your custom template. You can show the invoices and bills on the Draft or Awaiting Payment tab each time they’re created. All you have to do to complete them is approve any drafts, and pay or reconcile any awaiting payment. This video shows you how: How to set up repeating invoices in Xero

Purchase Bills (Accounts Payable)

Create a bill for items you've received that you need to pay for (sometimes called accounts payable). You can add related files to bills, and code items to different accounts. This video explains it in detail: Xero purchases overview – track bills to pay

If you use inventory items you can track them during the purchase and sales process. For more information about this feature in Xero watch the following video: How to manage stock and inventory in Xero

Other Features – Contact Groups, Budgets, Expense Claims and the Xero Mobile App

Contact groups let you create targeted lists from information you've saved in Xero about your customers. Use contact information, transaction history or payment status to chase unpaid invoices, identify who has bought a product from you, create sales campaigns and more. (Note: Xero has retired Smart Lists – contact groups now do this.) Contacts in Xero (official Xero video)

With budgets in Xero accounting software, you can quickly prepare comprehensive budgets and compare them against actual performance for selected periods. This video tutorial shows you how to build your overall budget in Xero using this function: How to create budgets in Xero

An expense claim is a collection of receipts from spending personal money that the organisation needs to pay back to you. After submitting an expense claim, you will be reimbursed for your spending. In current versions of Xero, this feature is found under “Expenses”: A guide to expense claims on Xero

The Xero mobile app allows you to run your business from anywhere in the world: Manage payments on the go with the Xero mobile app

Reports

A myriad of reports are available in Xero, and are also fully customisable. To access these reports, go to “Reports” in the top taskbar menu. We will not be going into further detail regarding this, but you are welcome to ask if you feel you need assistance, or would like to view a specific type of report.

Xero Apps

Xero has taken accounting from a painful monthly, quarterly or annual catch-up process to an addictive daily activity. The result? Small businesses and their advisors have an up-to-date snapshot of their cash flow position, arguably the most critical factor in their survival and success of any business. This transformation has been achieved through the connection of bank feeds into Xero and the revolutionary design of the bank reconciliation process as well as apps.

In the Xero App Store you can explore more than 1,000 time-saving third-party apps that connect directly with Xero: Find the right apps for your small business with the Xero App Store

This provides you with a summary of the basic functionality of the systems we use to keep your accounting up to date. As you use the software you will no doubt become more adept at using the various features. This document however should be sufficient to get you started. Please don’t hesitate to ask should you require help with anything and we will gladly assist.

Kind regards

Marius Higgs

TaxAssist

Tax, Accounting and Financial Planning Advisor

Xero Silver Partner

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