We are very excited to have been certified as Xero advisors and whilst discussing the benefits with client we have been asked why do businesses need an accountant with Xero? That question was initially difficult to articulate a response to, but when you think through it the advantages are huge.
Xero brings a completely new level of ease and integration to your processes.
It offers invoicing and reconciliation tools that aren’t in place in a lot of large organisations.
It brings payroll and human resource management together with integrated financials, and on top of all that, if you can’t find what you need you just visit the Xero marketplace and find the module that works for you.
So where do accountants come into it? Well, since Xero is the modern software solution, accountants need to become the modern business partners.
We need to be able to not simply be number crunchers, but to offer our skills as guides and strategic advisors to the businesses we work with.
Xero brings a level of corporate solution to businesses, why can’t the accountants complete the solution? Our training and expertise allows us to be perfectly placed to help a business in any number of ways.
The first one is obvious – be there as a system specialist. Guide your clients through how best to use Xero, how to maximise its efficiency.
The next one is as their technical expertise, what should their chart of accounts look like? When is it an asset and when is it an expense? Do we use accruals or cash method? What’s the difference to the business? Obviously you will also need to complete the statutory returns, and check over the data for consistency. Most of that is effortless with Xero – payroll and VAT returns are at the click of a button, you can drill into any line on the ledger and check out the transaction. If you’ve been using it as your electronic filing, you can probably check out the invoice as well. From anywhere in the world!
You’re not limited to the confines of your office or the capacity of your filing cabinet. Suddenly the gains work both ways. Find an App that streamlines your data flow – for what it costs you make back in time. You then use that time to add more clients, or to develop the offering for your existing clients. Win win!
And then the final stage is the most important. Xero provides the hub for all your information. You can use this to become the trusted advisor that will offer the business growth they weren’t aware of. Take the data and analyse it in any which way you can think of.
At BCT Accountants we’ve found that when our clients understand, and engage with us, we can offer returns of almost 100%. Put another way – we have plenty of clients where for every £1 they pay us, we generate improvements to the business worth £2.
And when you look at it that way, that question suddenly becomes a lot easier to answer.
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