Xero Updates – New Features and Improvements
As bookkeeping software is such a key part of how we deliver services to our customers, it is important that we choose the right tool for the job. As I’m sure you know by now, EOG accounting works exclusively with Xero for Bookkeeping.
It’s great that Xero also embodies one of EOG Accounting’s core values; a Kaizen Attitude, meaning continuous improvement.
Xero communicates the continuous improvement in their product through quarterly updates. Our blog will summarise what you need to know to improve your Xero experience further.
In this blog, we’ll concentrate on aspects of invoicing, reports, especially reports that can help you manage your invoices, sending quotes, and some good news about bank feeds.
Updates cover Quarters 3 and 4 of 2022.
Reports
Improvements to reports
Xero ar continuously working on improving the look and functionality of their reports. With such a wide range of reports available to view, there is bound to be one you can use if you aren’t currently using any reports in Xero. It’s worth looking at the available reports, as many will have been updated since you last looked around!
Add additional information to reports
There are new columns that can be added to many of the most commonly used reports.
Notably, you can now add last payment date, status (seen/sent), and a contact number among a range of other columns to the receivable invoices report. This is great for streamlining your process of managing outstanding invoices and chasing payment.
Credit limits
You can add details to customers in Xero such as contact information, default settings for invoices, or a credit limit. The credit limit is set on a contact-by-contact basis, and there is an option to block new invoices once the limit has been reached, again on a contact-by-contact basis.
Using Credit limits are a great way of managing risk in your business and you can now add each contact’s credit limit and current credit utilised to the accounts receivables report. This provides a great view of who owes you money, and how much each customer owes, relative to the limit you have set for them.
Report packs
You can now create custom report packs from scratch, so if you have a routine of running a certain batch of reports, you can customise and save a pack to make it quicker in the future. An example month-end report pack could contain:
- Aged payables (to check for outstanding bills to pay)
- Aged receivables (to check for invoices to chase)
- Budget variance (to see if you are hitting your budget)
Running this report after your bookkeeping is completed can help keep your payables/receivables under control and indicate if you are on track to hit your targets.
Charts on expenses/income by contact
Xero have started to improve another visual aspect of their reports. As well as the sleeker layout now live on most reports in the ‘new style’, they are starting to roll out charts to help visualise the numbers. The Expenses, and Income by contact Reports now have the option to be viewed graphically.
Keeping an eye on these two reports is another useful way of monitoring risk. Does your business rely heavily on a small number of key customers or suppliers, and what can you do to manage the inherent risk in this type of business model?
Invoicing
Editing paid invoices
You can now make small changes to paid invoices without having to remove the payment. This is great if you would like to add more detail to the description, or change the sales account used after an invoice has been paid. Of course, it is still not possible to change the amount, or tax rate on paid invoices.
Quotes Update
The quotes feature has been changed to look the same as sending invoices. This means that you will be working with a more familiar interface when generating quotes for potential customers. You can turn the quotes into invoices with the click of a button when they are accepted.
You can also now send files as email attachments when sending quotes. This is great for including plans, calculations, legal documents or more for the potential customer to view.
Invoice reminders
Invoice reminders can now be managed for individual invoices. You can customise when invoice reminders are sent to customers on a business wide basis via invoice settings. But you can now also turn off reminders for individual invoices under that invoice’s options, or even turn off reminders for all invoices sent to certain contacts.
This allows you to customise how you chase invoices, rather than having to adopt a blanket approach of all or nothing.
Repeating invoices
This is not a new feature in this update, but a noteworthy mention made by a Xero User.
Generating repeating invoices can save time and avoid missing a repeat customers invoice. You can turn any invoice into a repeating template set to send every week, month or so on. It can be set to send automatically for invoices that don’t change, set to need approval for sending if you’d like to check before you send, or to draft if there are elements that need changing each time.
Using Dynamic placeholders within the repeating template means you can set text in an invoice to automatically include the current week or month.
Using these new features and tips may help reduce the admin work involved with sending and chasing invoices, and make viewing your Xero Reports quick and easy.
Bank Feeds
Bank feeds will no longer need to be re-authenticated! Wahoooo!
Open banking regulations in the UK have been changed. Meaning you’ll no longer need to ‘re-authenticate’ your bank every 90 days. The Next time you do this should be the last!
Keep an eye out for EOG Accounting’s Xero webinar in the coming weeks.
This information is subject to change and is not professional advice. Refer to our disclaimer for more details.
