If you know us, you’ll know we think Xero’s the bee’s knees. But even if you know Xero, you may not know how big a deal Xerocon is in the yearly calendar for us accountants. You would think a gathering of 850+ accountants would be extremely boring – but not so! You know we’re keen to share the most modern, up to date technology with all our clients, and that Xero embodies this technology. So I was very excited to head down on the 10th and 11th February to attend Xerocon London.
And I certainly wasn’t disappointed. Gary Turner, Xero UK MD, and his UK team had definitely pulled out all the stops. Battersea Evolution is a massive, totally flexible event space – and the Xero Events team had decked the place out in amazing fashion. With Xero-branded taxis and even a Xero bus, there was no missing the fact that the UK’s leading cloud accounting software company were in town and meant business.
A new kind of technology conference
I’ve been to a lot of accounting conferences. There are good ones and there are bad ones, but this year’s Xerocon didn’t really feel like an accounting event at all. For me, this was a technology conference, a cloud conference and a future business conference all rolled into one big Xero-blue package.
I’ve heard all the jokes about accountants in boring suits, but walking around the exhibition space I was more likely to bump into a guy in jeans and on-trend specs, tweeting from a smartphone or a trendy businesswoman using a Mac, neither of whom would look out of place in your average Google advert. And that’s evidence of just how much Xero and online accounting has changed not just accounting, but the small business world too.
Casual clothes are one thing, but the underlying change here is one of ideology. Basically, accounting doesn’t have to be dull! And helping businesses to thrive, grow and become a success story is what most of us cloud accountants are about – so no bean counter gags: the only beans we’re interested in are the ones used to make our flat white.
The cloud is here…so you’d better keep up!
One of the messages for us accountants – and for you the business owner – is that if you’re still thinking ‘the cloud’ is a passing fad, think again. Judging by the people I spoke to at Xerocon, the cloud isn’t something that’s happening, it’s already happened. Start-ups, entrepreneurs and tech-savvy small businesses – and of course, creative agencies – are already using cloud-based systems that ten years ago would have been incredibly costly ERP solutions used only by large corporate companies.
So, as a business, if you’re not using the cloud, you really should be. If you haven’t evolved and moved to online accounting, you’re already falling behind the competition. And we’ve seen time and time again how the benefits of managing your finances online really do give you a competitive advantage in your marketplace.
Automation and a more efficient system
Many of the Xerocon presentations and workshops were focused on the practical benefits of Xero, both for accountants and business owners. When you’re running a small business it sometimes feels like you need the arms of an octopus and the ability to fit more than 24 hours into a day. So anything that speeds up your bookkeeping, removes the data pain and streamlines your finance processes is going to be a real miracle.
Xero lets you automate many of these processes, and that can have a huge impact on the running of your business. For example:
- Automating your accounting systems with Xero saves you time
- Less time spent on the finance basics saves you money too
- In-depth reporting gives you a better handle on your numbers
- It’s easier to create effective records and do your compliance
- That means less time spent sorting out a mess at year-end
And having all that time freed up means two things for you:
- You have more time to do what you love; truly running your business (not letting it run you)
- You can be more creative.
…and one thing for us:
We have more time to sit down with you and offer proactive, insightful advice for your financial future and the growth of your business.
An ever-growing ecosystem of software
A big thing that struck me over the two days of Xerocon was just how large the Xero community is these days. And I don’t mean just the accounting partners. There are now getting on for 400 different global Xero add-ons, all of which add new and incredibly helpful functions to the core Xero platform. And they’re a growing tribe of advocates with a common belief that Xero is simply the best thing for forward thinking businesses and their advisers.
This Xero ecosystem means we can now support your business with even more than world class accounting systems. We can bring you deep financial reporting and future performance advice. We can remove the pain of manually entering expenses and receipts. We can get you paid quicker with automatic credit control plug-ins and speedy online invoicing and payment. And that’s all down to the flexibility of this community of add-ons.
Oh – and I know it feels a bit like brag rights, but I did win Xero’s Finance Professional of the Year Award. That was pretty amazing – and humbling, too. To be in a group of this many forward-thinking accountants and be recognised in this way? Brilliant.
So for me, Xerocon was a real revelation this year. And an inspiring event to attend and take part in. I’ve never been happier to be using Xero, to be riding the cloud accounting wave and to be putting the software ecosystem to great use advising my clients.
Now, the question is, how will they top it next year?
