By Ryan Himmel, Financial Partnerships, Xero North America
Financial problems are the primary reason businesses shutter. No matter how large a company is, cash flow is the irrefutable lifeblood of its operations. Poor cash flow can rip a company apart — forcing owners to make unthinkable decisions about payroll, creditors and order fulfillment.
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While accounting can be a repetitive, time-consuming function, you may be making more work for yourself than need be. With just a few minutes of your time, and the magic of Xero, you can teach your accounting software to do much of your recurring work for you all on its own. Here’s how to set up automatic repeating invoices in Xero!
After you’ve logged into your Xero dashboard, click on the Sales button under the Accounts tab at the top of your screen:
Here in our post-Google Docs world, a growing number of business owners are making the decision to forego Microsoft’s pricey Office suite in favor of the Big G’s comparable (and totally free) alternatives. And why not?
But if you’re going to make the leap, it’s important to make sure that your accounting system is set up to work without Excel. Here’s how to integrate Google Docs with Xero.
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Monotonous. Repetitive. Excruciatingly boring. Reconciling expenses in your accounting software is a critical, but painfully dull and time-consuming part of successfully running nearly any business. Thankfully, a little-known Xero trick can turn an hour’s worth of punching away at individual fields into just a few seconds of work.
First, go ahead and log into your Xero account. Once you’ve logged in, you’ll see all of your various accounts laid out on the homepage.
Read MoreBy Amy Vetter, Global VP of Education and Enablement, Xero
You’re all-in or you’re out
Read MoreA huge bee in everyone’s bonnet right now is IT security. And as you’re accessing your company’s financials with Xero, you’ll want to make sure your account is as secure as can be. Adding two factor authentication (or as Xero calls it, two step authentication) to your account will help you do just that.
A quick word on two-factor: While nothing can guarantee your account’s safety, two factor authentication will get you pretty close. Two-factor in security means you have to have 2 things to get access — usually something you know, and something you have. For many apps it’s something you know — a password — and something you have — an authenticator app on your mobile.
Start by logging into Xero. In the upper right hand corner you’ll see your name. Click on that.
Read MoreBy Amy Vetter, Global VP of Education and Enablement, Xero
Millennials are now the single largest generation participating in the American workforce. But arguably, they’re also the most misunderstood.
Read MoreCreating an expense report (or claim, as Xero calls them) can be tedious, especially if you have multiple receipts to add to it. With Xero you can add a bunch of files — like photos of receipts — all at once, and then attach them to your claim later. Here’s how:
Start by logging into Xero. From the Dashboard, you’ll see a file folder icon in the upper right corner. Click on that icon.
If you do any travel for work, manage a team, bring in lunch, heck, even buy paper clips and pens, at some point you’ll be filling out an expense report. And, if you’re anything like me, chances are you’ll remember to add your receipts only after you’ve finished your expense report.
But don’t panic! If you’re using Xero, you can still add that receipt to a saved claim.
A quick note here on terminology. What I call an Expense Report, Xero calls an Expense Claim. This may be a U.S. to New Zealand language thing (Xero was founded in NZ). But if you’re used to the term Expense Report, don’t worry — we’re talking about the same thing here.