By Katie Insights • • • • • • • 0 Comments

Manu Online Software For Manufacturers

For those of you involved within the manufacturing industry, you will fully understand that there are numerous time constraints in place which obviously make it a highly pressurised environment to work in.  With that in mind A&C Chartered Accountants have partnered up with Xero and in particular Xero Cloud Accounting which allows us to offer you a completely tailored approach to your accounting and business workflow.  We are able to offer experienced support to help you with the initial migration and setup of Xero and in-turn provide a custom built solution to fit all of your needs and requirements.

One of the main issues within manufacturing is that it can become highly complex due to it requiring a fully scalable ERP solution.  Add to that the need for your chosen ERP solution to interact with your accounting system and you start to get a feel of what is required to really help streamline your business and help to get it working more efficiently on a daily basis.

Well fear not as Xero have thought of this and allow their Xero cloud accounting to integrate with yet another cloud-based solution called Manu Online.  Manu Online is a cloud-based ERP solution which has been specifically tailored for the manufacturing industry alone.  This ERP solution includes a feature rich set that will allow full and complete control over every area of your business be it sales through to warehousing through to production and finally through to accounting.

Manu Online also offers the ability to include additional add-ons which will allow the user to customise their experience even further and what’s more – it simply plugs straight into your existing Xero account to fully automate your processes.

As you would come to expect from Xero and in particular the above Manu Online there is direct integration with Xero which allows a fully automated accounting process for you and your business.  Imagine how simple life could be – no more issues with manually having to track warehousing and production issues.  Fully automated accounting process in place – leaving your businesses workflow completely streamlined allowing you to focus on other areas of the business that may also need further attention.

If you are interested in taking your business to the next level and would like to find out more about how the Xero cloud based accounting system can help you within manufacturing please get in touch today – we would love to hear from you!  We can guarantee that xero is more than able to give you powerful automation, collaboration and accounting flexibility that simply cannot be matched by any rival provider.  This will allow you to remain in firm control of your financial data
while still managing to have it available in real time at the touch of a button.

So what are you waiting for – our cloud accounting team are waiting to hear from you and are more than ready to take your accounting and business practices into the cloud and beyond!

xero partners with spotify
By Katie Insights • • • • • 0 Comments

XERO partners with Shopify strengthening the relationship of 150,000+ merchants

Xero (@Xero) announced today that it is partnering with Shopify (@Shopify), an industry leading commerce platform that allows anyone to easily sell online, at their retail location, and everywhere in between. The exciting new dual platform integration is expected to go live later on this year (2015).

With more and more businesses turning to Shopify as a true, powerful and robust, yet intuitive and simple e-commerce platform it’s perfect timing for XERO to announce their seamless cloud accounting integration. Here is the official statement from Xero relating to their timely and much anticipated big step that’s just been waiting to happen: Shopify partners with Xero

If you’re not familiar with Shopify (helped massively by US entrepreneur Tim Ferriss of 4 Hour Work Week fame) it is a platform that allows any one to sell online regardless of technical skill. Shopify provides everything you made need to sell online anywhere and trusted by over 150,000 business owners. Shopify offers a professional online storefront, a payment solution to accept credit cards, a point of sale system to power retail sales and a card reader to process credit card transactions through a mobile phone.

“The Start-up’s Secret Weapon: Contests” or “How to Turn $100K into $12,000,000”

– Tim Ferriss,

Read here on the 4 Hour Work Week blog the background about Shopify and it’s inception, and how it’s helped so many entrepreneurs succeed across the globe.

The partnership between the two technological giants now allows Shopify merchants to seamlessly track the impact of sales on their business financials, frees up time spent on manual data entry, and minimises the frustrations created by working with two separate systems.

Here at A&C Chartered Accountants we believe the future of accounting truly lies in cloud accounting. Not only that, we are very excited to see so many technologically advanced small to medium sized businesses starting out, making use of both our cloud accounting services, but also of so many fantastic services such as Spotify. 5 years or so ago, when such services didn’t exist, people’s life choices to go into business for themselves were restricted by cost and know how.

We’re extremely proud to be at the cutting edge of cloud apps and software integration and you can read more about our holistic integrations here: partner services and partner apps.

To learn more about our ethos and motivation to create something new and exciting with A&C Chartered Accountants, have a look at our article “Take A Walk In The Cloud“…

xero vs sage uk
By Katie Insights • • • • • • • • • • • 0 Comments

XERO – have they already won?

What a fantastic year it has been to date already for XERO. And now, with the financial sector press literally buzzing with the truly awesome battle shaping up between XERO (ASX-XRO) and MYOB (an Australian accounting software rival), we have to ask – has XERO already won?

Some of the latest data that has come to light (ref: www.fool.com.au) certainly indicates a warning for anyone interested in buying into the upcoming MYOB IPO.

Remember back to the great battle between Facebook and Myspace? Here we had a very market dominant leader (MySpace) that most people genuinely believed had won the online social media revolution game, set and match, when in reality, Facebook derailed them like a steam roller by focussing relentlessly on user experience and innovation… there are some very strong parallels here between MYOB and XERO, with the thesis for investing in XERO is that this innovative upstart from a tiny country will be able to overthrow it’s established rivals. Something we’re seeing almost every day in the news.

One metric that was fascinating in that battle was the popularity of searches on Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Once Facebook had overtaken MySpace in Google search term popularity it was already game-over for MySpace – in only a matter of months Facebook was also winning on user count and engagement.

Yesterday we shared news that Russell Fujioka (formerly of Dell) joined the XERO team as they announced a whopping $111 million capital investment. This comes shortly after XERO announced the addition of the fantastic innovative move to integrate cloud Payroll successfully into the XERO platform.

To test the above thesis when comparing the search term popularity for XERO against MYOB using Google Trends, alongside ‘Quicken‘, ‘QuickBooks‘ and ‘Reckon‘  pitched for battle in XERO’s home market of New Zealand. Here you can see the trends for yourself.

xero vs myobIn terms of popularity, XERO clearly took over from MYOB back in July of 2011 on their home ground of New Zealand. Ever since they have been putting clear and growing distance between them in the popularity race. As a clear indicator of market popularity, from gaining the winning position in Google search, XEROs market share almost doubled over the following year in New Zealand. It’s showing no signs of slowing down.

Without a doubt, XERO is now the undisputed leader in the cloud accounting market in New Zealand.

Now take a look at the growing curve in the United Kingdom pitched against Sage, Quickbooks, Quicken and Myob (view the trend here). Although Sage take the market dominance overall since 2004, XERO is showing the biggest growth curve in popularity. Could this mean that XERO is already setting the stage for pole position in the UK for 2015 and beyond just like Facebook versus Myspace?

xero vs sage uk

Of course, winning the Google search race was a massive turning point for XERO on home ground in New Zealand. Now, this trend is being duplicated all over the world. You can see the same popularity growth curve in Australia. Over the past few months alone in Australia and New Zealand, XERO’s popularity via Google Search is soaring ahead of New Zealand based MYOB.

Zooming out on this search we see see the true impact of XERO’s GLOBAL appeal! Since as early as 2013 XERO has seriously widened the gap between themselves and MYOB in terms of worldwide popularity.

xero vs myob worldwide

This performance is a testament to the wall of innovation that Xero has been releasing, not to mention the company’s relentless focus on user experience and customer engagement. Xero still has a big mountain to climb in the United States, but Xero’s massive cash injection from one of the world’s biggest and most successful VC funds is a great indication that Xero is armed and ready for battle there too.

This is just further evidence to keep your eyes on XERO, and further establishes exactly why we have partnered with a global leader in cloud accounting innovation.

@Xero has just raised $147m from US investors
By Katie Insights • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 0 Comments

$111 million Raised by XERO – Hires New US Lead For Cloud Accountancy Global Growth

@Xero has just raised $147m from US investorsXERO limited (XRO) goes for growth in the Northern American market and raises £110.8 million in capital – a massive boost for the New Zealand founded cloud accounting software firm to take even more market share.

XERO, one of the fastest growing cloud accounting software platforms worldwide provides high technology accounting solutions for small to medium sized businesses world over with one of the most intuitive and feature rich platforms on the market. The new investment funds come from XERO’s two largest institutional investors – Accel Partners (a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm) and Matrix Capital Management (current shareholder). Accel is providing the lion’s share of capital in the deal — $100 million at a $15.052 per share value — which is expected to close by the middle of March 2015.

XERO will be putting the money into growing market share in North America primarily. The knock on effect is showing signs of massive growth globally, with XERO bolstering it’s team with new hires both in the US and worldwide. Importantly, Russell Fujioka (53), formerly of Dell and a current partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, has taken on the role of U.S. president, based out of Xero’s San Francisco office. Fujioka brings significant experience in sales, digital marketing and operational management of high growth businesses.

“Xero’s world-class cloud platform has the power to make a real difference in the lives and success of millions of small businesses and entrepreneurs,”

said Russell Fujioka.

“Xero is already one of the worlds fastest growing software companies and I’m excited to be part of the journey that will see Xero become the preferred financial platform for millions of small businesses and their advisors, especially in the United States.”

“We have a world-class leadership team and board in place to support accelerating growth,”

said Rod Drury, Chief Executive Officer, Xero Ltd.

“Russ has already proven within Xero the value of his operational experience and results-focused energy.”

Excitingly, as a further addition, former Salesforce (worlds #1 CRM software) CFO Graham Smith (55) has joined the XERO team as non-executive director on the board. Smith brings significant experience of scaling SaaS businesses.

“Xero is revolutionising small business software and has an amazing culture of innovation,”

said Graham Smith.

“I’m very excited to be joining the Xero Board of Directors.”

“Graham’s strategic and financial skills complement a strong technology and business focused Xero Board,”

said Chris Liddell, Chairman of Xero Ltd.

“His experience with fast growing technology companies will provide additional insight and knowledge for the next phase of Xero’s growth, particularly in North America.”

@Xero has just raised $147m from US investorsOther critical hires in the past three months include James Maiocco (General Manager, Business and Corporate Development U.S & U.K), John Forrester (Vice President, U.S. Marketing), and Greg Volm (Vice President, U.S. Sales).

XERO has previously bolstered up it’s US team back in February 2014 a year ago, bringing on board, Peter Karpas, who has since moved on, and it looks as though Russell Fujioka will be taking on board his responsibilities within his new role.

Over in the US, there is stiff competition in the online cloud accounting market, which is seeing rapid growth as an industry sector. As you can imagine the power of technology connecting business with in-the-cloud 24/7 powerful accounting has brought about a streamlining, cost saving, power house to all businesses, allowing greater financial insight, faster processing of decisions and strategy. Over in the US XERO is sparring with Intuit Quickbooks (arguably the largest player in the market), and smaller rivals such as Freshbooks.

Prior to today, Xero had raised over $240 million from investors, according to CrunchBase. Its most recent round was $150 million in October 2013, led by Peter Thiel-backed Valar Ventures and Matrix Partners.

XERO has over 400,000 paying customers in more than 180 countries around the world and over 1,100 employees. Xero is listed on the NZX and ASX

Official statement from XERO Dated 25th February

We feel this is just the beginning for XERO as the company grows from strength to strength, pivoting it’s sales approach, and prepares for US IPO. Read more from XERO.

Sage versus XERO
By Katie Insights • • • • • • 0 Comments

XERO announce Payroll Integration at Xerocon 2015 – Sage on the defensive?

We’re bringing some fresh ideas and innovation to payroll, which hasn’t really seen much interest in the last ten or 15 years,

Xero managing director Gary Turner  told Accountancy Age.

“The problem is legislation changes so frequently that most payroll software companies can just about keep up with that. The prospect of anyone innovating in payroll in the last ten years has been pretty remote and so a lot of it today is quite tired and it feels like 2005. We’re looking to do what we’ve done for bookkeeping for that sector.”

Sage, the UKs largest business software company has hit back at this statement from XERO, suggesting that a wealth of innovations and fresh ideas have been forthcoming over the past few years.

XERO Payroll Review

Rather powerfully, the XERO innovation allows the real-time communication to HMRC, with submissions automatically handled with each PAYROLL, along with PAYE, NI contributions and student loan. The latest XERO offering even allows small business owners and employees to schedule time off and view payment information from any device ‘in the cloud’ at any time 24-7.

The absolute power and flexibility awarded by such a system delivered in XERO’s easy to use and intuitive interface, is certainly causing a stir in an otherwise stagnant pool of progress until recently. Could the latest XERO Payroll facility gain further leverage for XERO to take an even bigger slice of the market away from Sage?

Sage has previously been under fire back in 2013, when a software issue saw 5000 clients have end-of-year payroll submissions filed incorrectly.

Accordingly, Lee Perkins (Managing Director of Sage UK) did issue a strong defensive response suggesting that the company is “immensely proud” of it’s record in “enabling hundreds of thousands of UK businesses get to grips with RTI and Auto Enrolment”.

We’re seeing more and more real world user feedback showing a big thumbs up for XERO and it’s increasing services such as Payroll.

Take a look at the Sage versus XERO review below (courtesy of TrustRadius)

Sage versus XERO
Sage versus XERO

Combining the power of XERO with the services of a skilled accountancy practice

Team-8Here at AccountancyAnywhere we hold traditional values, yet we fully harness modern technology. We’ve witnessed first hand over the years how accountancy is changing, and for the better. Especially for small business.

We were one of the first accountancy firms to be introduced to XERO and are proud to be a XERO Gold Partner. Quite simply, we care about our clients success. Our approach is simple:

We put you and your business first – Always!

And now we are able to remove the traditional constraints and endless paper trail baggage of traditional accounting, and offer you, a new form of accounting that is more efficient, streamlined, and tailored. Now we can harness the power of true cloud accounting no matter what industry or business size.

Read more about our background and how we can help you and your business grow – A&C Chartered Accountants making accountancy faster, smarter and easier…