When you use Xero as your accounting system, there will be a simple graph of the payments you owe.
The bar chart shows the net amount owing on a day from the invoice date and includes the invoices you have marked as paid.
This graph will help with your cashflow planning as it is essential that you have the money available to cover any creditors.
At times of business uncertainty, your Aged Debtors/Receivables Control is more crucial than ever.
Xero will help with your ‘Money In’ control by displaying on your Dashboard a graph showing the money owing to you based on the invoice date and how many days the money has been outstanding.
These easy to understand graphs will help identify what monthly money is owed to you so that you can keep control and receive your payments quickly into your bank account.
When you want to get money from your customers you need to raise an accounts receivable invoice. Xero has designed a very easy and straightforward process so that invoices are quickly sent for someone to pay you.
Rather than wait until the end of the month, we recommend you send your invoices as soon as there is approval to do so. We will talk you through the accounts receivable process and once you have saved and approved your invoices, Xero can turn your invoice into a PDF for you to print and post or you can email directly through Xero to your customer.
If you have saved your customer’s email address within your Contacts, the address field is automatically populated with their email address. The ‘Subject’ will be the subject line that displays in the recipient’s email in box the ‘Message’ will appear in the body of the email that your customer receives. The email will show in the recipient’s in box as having come from your name as it is displayed in your profile and email address you are signed into Xero with.
Your Xero Dashboard generates bank account graphs for the bank, PayPal and credit card accounts we have set up for you.
This is an incredibly helpful and powerful tool giving you a quick overview of the running balances for the last 7 days since the most recent account information was uploaded into Xero.
We will set up the ‘Get daily bank feeds’ link for all your bank accounts so that they are imported automatically into Xero.
There are 2 types of automated bank feeds available with Xero:
1) Partner bank feeds are feeds through banks Xero have a relationship with. If you have a bank account in Xero supported by a partner bank, you can set up a partner bank feed by downloading and completing the relevant bank feed authority form.
2) Yodlee feeds are feeds from banks that are part of Yodlee’s online banking solution service. If you have a bank account in Xero that belongs to a bank that’s part of the Yodlee service, you can activate a Yodlee feed while you’re logged in to Xero.
As we talk you through your Dashboard, if you have any key categories or balances in your Chart of Accounts that you want to keep an eye on, we will add them to your Account Watchlist.
Then each time when you login, you will immediately see any movement or changes to those balances such as your sales income or overhead transactions like rent or rates.
After we have completed your Xero setup and you login, the main screen you will see is your Dashboard.
Based on your transactions we are entering into Xero, the Dashboard is essentially a snapshot or overview of your organisation’s financial position.
The Dashboard allows you to directly drill down into a transaction or item of interest and you can also use it to perform common actions quickly like bank reconciliation or adding invoices.
We will give you a full explanation of the Dashboard so that each time you login, you can feel confident that the information being shown will help you make informed business decisions.
Click the image below to see an example of the Xero Dashboard:
So that we may match any data that you have in your current accounts system, we will need from you the following information but again, we will give full assistance to ensure nothing is missed. It is important that you are feeling confident that we have all the records needed to get you started.
If you are uncertain about these reports, we will help work out your balances.
If you do not have a current Chart of Accounts we will design a list of coded account categories for you e.g. Rent, Stationery, Sales etc.
The layout for a Chart of Accounts comes from two reports – the Profit and Loss account which uses income and expense accounts to show profit for a period and the Balance Sheet which uses asset, liability and equity accounts to show your financial position at a point in time.
During our review time before starting you on Xero, we will talk you through the setup of the categories so that you are able to easily and simply understand the accounts information presented to you in your management and year end accounts.
There will be a specific format or account group structure that makes sense for your business and so we will create a bespoke chart of accounts with your organisation in mind.
For your accounting records, we will start you on Xero on the 1st day of a month however you will need to choose which month. This will depend on how you’re currently managing your accounts and what data you want us to bring across. We would suggest:
Please note that the start date for using Xero can be different to the start of your financial year. If you have a current accounting system, we will be able to generate a Trial Balance which will show the balances of all your accounts and these will be entered against each account in Xero during the Setup process.
If at your Xero conversion date there are invoices or credit notes in your current accounting system that haven’t been paid or received payment we will enter these as historical transactions. Each invoice/credit note shall be entered individually so when you receive payment, we can match them back to these invoices.
If your conversion date is part way through your current VAT period, we will not be able to use Xero to generate an accurate VAT Return for that period because Xero does have all the relevant transactions to calculate the VAT from. We will discuss this with you in more detail and may recommend you choose the start of the following month for the conversion date if that is when the VAT quarter begins.
So we can get you quickly started on Xero, you will need to provide or decide on the following few things:
1) The legal name of your organisation you want to appear on all your financial reports
2) Your organisation’s financial year end which is the last date of your accounts. So if your accounts start on the 1st of April, your year end is the 31st March
3) If you are registered for VAT we will need specific information – VAT Number, Period (whether you file your VAT returns monthly, quarterly or yearly) and Scheme (cash, accrual, flat rate cash or flat rate accrual). If you are currently not VAT registered but would like to be, we can help organising the relevant paperwork
4) A logo and contact details for your organisation so that we may add them to your outgoing (Accounts Receivable) invoices and credit notes
5) A conversion date and account balances – the date you want to start using Xero from for your day to day business, and balances for the accounts you’ve been using up until this date
6) Your Chart of Accounts or a list or an idea of income and expenses categories
If you are unsure of anything, please contact us and we will discuss things through with you.
As Xero is web based, you have access to your company’s data anywhere and at anytime. It also means that different people in your organisation privy to your business information can access it too without having to rely on a stand alone accounts system on just one computer in the office.
The information produced by Xero is easy to read and interpret. With our support, you have an opportunity to understand your current finances without having had years of bookkeeping experience.
These are some of the main functions available with Xero:
