Xerocon hits Austin with a wave of new products

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Hundreds of accountants, bookkeepers and ecosystem partners are this week converging on Austin for one of the most surprising Xerocons in the Americas yet! It’s a great opportunity to celebrate our community.

As technological transformation unfolds across the Americas and beyond, our partners are using increasingly sophisticated tools to help grow small businesses and create jobs on a global level – and that’s huge. Their change mindset is what helps us to grow ours. This year we passed a million subscribers and continue on our journey to use artificial intelligence to simplify accounting for small businesses.

We are proud to deliver a new generation of smart tools in the Americas to drive further productivity. Here is a snapshot of a few we announced today.

MileIQ

In the US, the gig economy is growing rapidly – with 36% of the workforce now freelancing. Today, we announced that we’re adding Microsoft’s MileIQ to our growing app marketplace, to give freelance workers access to more simplified reporting processes. MileIQ allows independent contractors and reimbursable employees to automatically track mileage, classify drives and accurately report in Xero. Plugging directly into Xero +C, MileIQ enables independent contractors to more accurately deduct their mileage on their Schedule C reports.

Plooto, now available in Xero HQ

Plooto’s existing integration enables accountants to sync bills and invoices from Xero into Plooto, make payments electronically through Plooto, and auto-reconcile the payments back in Xero once they are complete. Today, we announced we’ve strengthened our partnership with a software integration that gives accountants and bookkeepers the ability to send and collect payments electronically and sync all payment data into Xero HQ for automatic payment updates.

The new integration between Xero HQ and Plooto will provide accountants and bookkeepers with real-time updates on the status of their clients’ invoices and payments. This is designed to enable accountants and bookkeepers to make quick, informed decisions with their small business customers.

Xero Expenses

Xero Expenses gives accounting and bookkeeping advisors powerful visibility into how money is spent in their clients’ small businesses. Advisors can help small businesses make better spending decisions, using powerful analytics and integrated accounting in a centralized platform. The Expenses API will enable banks to link transactional and purchasing services to the millions of employees of small businesses using Xero. Taking a modern, mobile-first approach, Xero Expenses focuses on simplifying the process, making small business owners and their accountant or bookkeeper as efficient as possible.

Projects

As accountants and bookkeepers grow their practices to serve the growing number of small businesses across the country, Xero is launching Xero Projects, an important milestone in Xero’s move to become a global platform for small businesses. Xero Projects helps small businesses in service industries grow revenues and profits, by giving them the ability to track time and expenses for all of their jobs. Fully integrated with Xero invoicing and expenses, Xero Projects is simple to use and offers mobile functionality for business that work on-the-go.

Migration Certification

First impressions matter. That’s why it’s so important to give small businesses the right help when they’re getting set up for cloud accounting – or switching to a new software – for the first time. Advisors and their clients know that in a small business, there’s no time to waste on re-doing something that could have been done right the first time. Small businesses want advisors who can give them a seamless, easy set-up on Xero, so they can get running straight away.

That’s why we’re introducing a new Xero certification, Migration. It’s designed to showcase your skills at helping small business clients get set up properly on Xero, and to also assure them that you can guide them through these key steps. Xero migration sits alongside the Xero advisor and Xero payroll certifications. It’s another tool to help you promote your practice’s all-round Xero expertise. Furthermore getting the certification also counts towards your Xero Champion status.

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