If you run a business, you will undoubtedly have heard of Xero bookkeeping. Xero is a cloud-based accounting platform that your team can use to update your accounts, whenever and wherever they like.
The company behind the software is one of the most talented and innovative in the world, and it implements some pretty sophisticated technology. Xero is more than just a digital ledger. It’s an entire suite of services that make business accounting easier, no matter how complex your finances.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at the five reasons why Xero bookkeeping is a must-have for every business out there. Take a look.
Reason 1: Back-Up Is Automatic
The purpose of bookkeeping is to provide a financial record of the development of your firm over the years and provide tax authorities with evidence of your income. Losing your books, either physical or digital, is, therefore, a disaster.
Xero, however, makes backing up your accounting easy. Because it’s a cloud-based service, you don’t have to do anything at all to back up your accounts and statements. It’s all handled by the software on third-party servers. With Xero, you don’t have to go through the hassle of manually transferring data from one disk to another, hoping that the first won’t corrupt the second. All backing up happens in real-time automatically with the right add-on.
And because back-up is regular, you can revert to your accounts just days (and possibly hours) before data loss.
Reason 2: Xero Is Always Looking To Improve
Xero is a publicly-listed New Zealand company which appears on the Australian stock exchange. The firm didn’t get to the position it enjoys today by accident: it innovated its way there.
Xero is one of the most advanced accounting tools on the planet with excellent automation tools and diagnostics. Because it is cloud-based, Xero can update and improve its accounting platform at any time, making further improvements. As software-as-a-service, you sit back, pay a monthly fee, and let Xero make improvements as technology becomes available. It couldn’t be easier.
Reason 3: Xero Makes Collaboration Easy
In the past, if you wanted to collaborate on company accounts, you had to print out various statements and reconcile them in person. But with Xero owners and account managers can collaborate through the cloud, working on issues in real-time without the need to physically meet or even sit at a particular computer terminal. Any device with access can use the company Xero account and make updates and changes.
Xero estimates that in the pre-cloud world, company accountants and advisors spent around 35 percent of their times chasing their clients for the documents they needed. Today, however, thanks to Xero’s cloud document service Hubdoc, finding materials is easy. All accountants need is access to your Xero account, and they can take care of the rest for you.
Reason 4: Get Real-Time And Predictive Financial Reporting
Knowing the financial position of your firm when everything was paper-based was a challenge. You never knew how your recent transactions were affecting your cash position in real-time (without getting the calculator out).
Xero puts an end to all that guesswork. The software connects directly to your business bank accounts, updating the balance sheet and profit and loss in real-time.
The benefits of this are enormous. Many entrepreneurs fail not because their businesses are a terrible idea, but because they lack the cash to keep operations running. One day they wake up with a bunch of orders but with no money in the kitty to fulfill them. Customers become irate, suppliers cut ties, and staff walkout: not having cash on hand is a disaster.
Xero’s real-time and predictive facilities make these kinds of disasters and missed opportunities less likely. The program updates your cash position regularly and lets you know whether you might face bottlenecks in the future.
What’s more, a lot of what the program does is automated, cutting down on costs.
Reason 5: Expand Your Client List
Accountants have finite time every week to service their clients. Cutting down the time it takes to process each client, therefore, is a priority. Tools like Xero have automation hard-wired, meaning that they remove many of the manual, rote tasks that accountants used to face.
Automation is good news for both accountants and the businesses that they serve. Accountants can get more done in a given time, and companies get less costly accounting services. The days of time-consuming manual data entry are a thing of the past.
