Benefits of Xero to a IT contractor
‘Cloud’ based software solutions are becoming the norm in terms of how Software is distributed and accessed these days and Xero is one such software package.
The terminology need not be restrictive in terms of how you use, interact and understand what Cloud based solutions can do for you. The interface is merely an enabler – by including software in the Cloud it can provide for you a significantly higher level of IT security and access control than a bespoke Excel solution or a server based solution can. The benefits of being part of a community of many thousands of user who have switched to the Cloud and Xero in particular is that such a collective solution affords you a greater level of Xero based expertise to keep on top of the ever moving and complex area of Cyber security.
Upsides to a cloud based service like Xero
With that worry/business risk managed by Xero, what are the actual upsides of moving to such a solution? The fact that the package is web enabled allows for great flexibility in terms of how the data held there is accessed and updated. Basically, wherever Internet connectivity can be established, your Accounting, Bookkeeping and Management Report needs can be fulfilled by providing you access to the system and it’s reporting capabilities.
Such flexibility can also be a positive if you want to share information with colleagues or business partners who are geographically remote. If each can log onto the internet you can easily provide them with an appropriate password for them to access the real time information that you are looking at and this is clearly a great enabler for meaningful discussions and meetings to be had. Ditto if you want to have a conversation with your Accountant such that they can make changes to your Accounting postings and/or bring your Accounts up to date for the purposes of Year End Account preparation, this can be facilitated by the possibilities for remote access.
Reducing manual errors
If you are preparing accounting entries in-house, there are checks and prompts built into the Xero that can result in a significant possibility for the reduction of error that could accrue from using Excel for your Accounts records capture. Monthly, you are prompted by Xero to complete a Bank reconciliation which in itself provides a very useful housekeeping process to ensure that matters are not getting out of hand – that your invoices are actually being paid for example and that you are not getting unexplained charges and deductions from your Business bank account. Each debit and credit is checked by Xero to ensure that they match each other numerically – so your accounts are always balanced in this way.
Excellent reporting
The system has a wide range of automated reports, available to you at the click of a button, that can provide you with an up to date Profit and Loss report for example or a Debtors report that can show you instantly which of your invoices had not been paid. The Bank Account processing function will also give you automatic prompters that show you which of your expenses and invoices is likely to be have been paid or received rather than having to go through this process manually.
Empower your business
These are merely some of the features that Xero offers to empower the modern SME Business Manager or Accountant. The good news too is that there is a try before you buy function that allows you a free trial of the system before committing live data to the systems that Xero encompasses. If Accounts frightened you at school or college, you will quickly find that modern software solutions are very much designed with the end user in mind. Xero could hardly be easier to use. Should you find though that anything is beyond you when trying to get through this learning curve there are many guidebooks already on the market to help you get the most from the system, and a helpful and prompt customer service function to answer specific queries.