Software which can’t be that easy
But Xero’s accounting package is — and is winning new converts when they try it.
“I had one client who really did not want to change because she had only just got up and running with another system and was standing firm,” says Haley. “Then something went wrong, she gave Xero a try and hasn’t looked back.”
You could say the Xero accountancy platform is so good that many businesses might think they can do without their accountants. Haley Wilson knows better.
Wilson started accountancy and bookkeeping firm My Two Cents in 2014 and, when she shows people how easy it is to use Xero, they often think they won’t need any more help.
“I get that a lot,” says Haley. “So yes, anyone can use Xero. But if you have no understanding of how you’re coding transactions, or why some things aren’t GST claimable, or how to treat assets and depreciation for example — you might come unstuck.
“So sure, Xero is very easy to use but you do need some bookkeeping knowledge to understand what you are doing — and that’s where accountants and bookkeepers come in.”
In one example, she untangled three years’ of incorrectly-coded entries for a new client who ended up with a GST bill to pay.
“I always say to clients ‘if you’re not sure just ask’. I like helping people so they get it right.”
Wilson, a winner of the Institute
of Certified Bookkeepers’ 2019 Excellence award for ‘Bookkeeper in a Small Practice’, has some clients she only sees once a year: “They keep their entries up to date in Xero and I log in to their account at the end of the year to reconcile it. If there is anything wrong, then I can see when it was done and who did it.”
Although Wilson used Xero before starting My Two Cents, she initially tried another accounting package for her business. Realising she spent a lot of time entering the same data more than once, she gave Xero a try.
“It was so user-friendly and saved so much time that I was sure I was missing something or doing it wrong,” she says. “But no; it really is that simple. No more entering the same information twice; reconciliation is a simple click of the mouse.”
She says clients who have staff, and are using Xero Payday linked to their Inland Revenue accounts, can’t believe how easy it is to do Payday filing: “We all thought it was going to be very timeconsuming,” she says. “It isn’t.”
Wilson was a beta tester for Xero and helped iron out minor issues with its Payday filing addon before it was rolled out.
“That was really cool because I had a hand in making sure things worked properly and checked there were no little glitches.”
Wilson concedes she was sceptical as to how it would work when she first heard of it: “But payday filing is completed with one click and, once it is hooked up correctly to your Inland Revenue account, it happens in the background.”
Haley says the feedback she’s had from people who have moved to Xero is “why didn’t we change sooner?”
“I had one client who really did not want to change because she had only just got up and running with another system and was standing firm,” says Haley. “Then something went wrong, she gave Xero a try and hasn’t looked back.”
A lot of Haley’s clients are tradies who don’t get to use computers every day: “They use Xero to send invoices and manage their accounts,” she says. “They haven’t got all day to work out how to use it — so Xero’s simplicity is a key attraction.”
Because Xero is cloud-based it can be accessed from anywhere, including from overseas “and for Xero advisors like me, we have a log-in that gives us access to any of our clients’ accounts. Having the software in the cloud has really upped the game for accountants and bookkeepers.” For more information on Xero Payroll — go to xero.com/payroll