RA Business Advisors

Xero

Introducing Xero Projects

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September was an exciting month for Xero partners and small business owners in Australia, as Xero held their annual Xerocon conference in Melbourne. Xero utilised the event to announce an abundance of new apps and features, along with some changes arising in the cloud accounting system. One exciting new feature announced was Xero Projects, which is a tool that will give small business advisors like us the ability to collaborate even more closely with our clients. Projects will give business owners the ability to track their jobs more precisely, ensuring easier planning and budgeting and more efficient resource allocation. The essential goal for Projects is to help drive business efficiency and profitability.

Xero Projects Features

Xero Projects is a new simple time and cost tracking tool that:

• Focuses on the financial side of project management.
• Integrates with key Xero features, including contacts, invoicing, and very soon bills and bank reconciliation.
• Provides flexible, easy project invoicing.
• Supports fixed price and time billing.
• Monitors project budgets and financials.

It has been designed especially for small businesses with simple costing needs, allowing for collaboration with Xero accountants who will be able to provide live informed decisions and allow small business owners to manage their business more efficiently.

xero projects

Pricing

For businesses working with Xero accountants such as ourselves, Xero Projects is going to be free to use for the rest of 2017. Following 2017, this feature will initially be priced at $7 per month in the introductory period, then $10 per month thereafter.

We love this new addition from Xero, tools such as Projects are making Xero’s software an even more attractive proposition for small businesses owners – further expanding the platform to achieve efficiency and profitability.

If you are interested in learning more about Xero Projects or any other Xero add ons, our Xero experts are always available for a chat. Get in touch with us on (07) 3367-0852. or schedule a free Xero Consultation session below:

Post Contributor:
Andrés Pascoe

Make the Change to Xero

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With 30 June on the horizon the end of this financial year is fast approaching. If you have been struggling with old accounting software or Excel worksheets why not try eliminating these struggles before the new financial year? Why not change? Xero is beautiful online accounting software that is both easy and affordable to use, so much so that thousands of small businesses have made the transition. Utilising the power of the cloud Xero holds many advantages over other accounting software.

The cloud is, in basic terms, the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product over the internet. The software and data are hosted by a provider on their servers off site which we can access via the internet through a web browser. We already utilise the cloud checking emails, online banking, social media applications and many more. However, the cloud has consumed the way we live because of the power of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, the ability to access information anywhere and at anytime. For more information directly relating to the cloud please refer to our previous blogs.

Traditional desktop software carries a multitude of problems and with it brings unnecessary stresses:
• Data and system isn’t up-to-date
• Only works on one computer and data bounces from place to place
• Only one person has user access
• It’s costly and complicated to keep back ups
• It’s expensive, difficult and time-consuming to upgrade software
• Customer support is expensive and slowThe benefits of Xero speak for themselves:
• Cloud security is world class (same security as online banking)
• Clear overview of current financial position, in real-time
• Multi-user access makes it easy to collaborate online with your team and advisors
• Worry-free maintenance
• Everything is run online, so nothing to install and everything automatically backed up
• Upfront business costs are reduced – version upgrades, maintenance, system administration costs and server failures are no longer issues
Many of our clients have made the move and loving it.  So if you want to avoid the software induced stress of the next financial year now is the time to change. If you have any queries in reference to changing to Xero please do not hesitate to contact us, as we will be more than willing to help you change over.