1. The Watershed on the Harbourside in Bristol has free wifi and caters big events really well, good choice of venue guys.
2. Thank goodness we could preload with lots of coffee, because those cinema seats are very comfy and the dark was kind of soothing.
3. Each year we come to expect Xero to deliver constant improvement and an enhanced feature set and this was no different: sturdy cotton, long handles and a pocket for a drinks bottle. But enough about the conference bag, let’s look at the software.
4. From the update session: Xero is now being used in 180 countries worldwide, has had $250m investment and released over 400 updates last year. Crikey.
5. Xero has introduced Payroll (we knew about that, we read our emails) but we had a whole session on this new feature: it’s all about the automation and there’s going to be an app very soon.
6. Tracked Inventory – we think this will be a game changer for SMEs. Whilst it’s not got the functionality of a fully featured stock software system like Unleashed, the inventory features in Xero will allow tracking of stock items, display quantity on hand, average cost and total value and will allow adjustments either by product or by exporting or importing a CSV file. Nifty.
7. The Spotlight Reporting guys are amazingly chipper at 9 o’clock in the morning. We'll have whatever they're on.
8. Online Quoting – you can now create quotes online in the same way you’ve always created invoices, and you can send them directly to your customer electronically. You can also upload a file to be attached with the quote, like a picture of your product or a specification. Your customer can then either accept, decline or comment on your quote and if they accept (why wouldn’t they?) you can copy the quote straight into an invoice. Save time, keep track, sell stuff. Brilliant.
9. Custom Dashboard – bored of seeing the same dashboard each time you log on to Xero? Feel that the current layout doesn’t reflect what you want to see? Now you can drag and drop the individual boxes, or hide information that you don’t need. Move the furniture around, see what suits you.
10. Coming Soon to A Cloud Near You: the Business Performance Dashboard. This will show all your business KPIs in one place, with information about what they are, compare your business results month on month, allow you to drill down into individual months for more information and, best of all as far as we’re concerned, they spin. We’re looking forward to seeing these in the next few months, and you’ll have a green “Ask Your Advisor” button added as well so you can send us any questions you have about what you’re looking at.
11. You’ll also be able to install the Business Performance Dashboard as a widget on your main dashboard.
12. Vend HQ have great merch. Thank you.
13. Find and Recode: this is only for Xero advisors (ie, us) but it will allow us to fix up things quicker and was probably the new feature that got a room full of accountants and bookkeepers the most excited. And you know how crazy they can get.
14. Receipt Bank have the brightest t-shirts in the room and a new shiny user interface for us to enjoy. Remember, Receipt Bank is included as standard in all our Business Partnering Packages to remove the hassle of receipts and invoices.
15. Back to Payroll: employees will be able to view their holiday entitlement, booked holidays and make holiday requests online, they’ll also be able to self-serve their payslips. Employers will be able to authorise holiday leave from their phones. There will be an app, oh yes, there will be an app.
16. It’s all about the automation in Payroll: journals are automatically posted to Xero, RTi submissions are done, Auto Enrolment is handled. Set it up once, set it up right and then sit back seems to be the message.
17. Social Media: blimey, Xero know their social media and there was a very enthusiastic session about it which, obviously, we tweeted all the way through (cause they SAID WE COULD). The holy trinity, they identified, was Facebook-LinkedIn-Twitter so we won’t be pinning any more screen shots of manual journals to Pinterest any more, sorry everyone.
18. There's an education team at Xero now and they've produced a whole heap of excellent and free training videos, step by step guides and other really helpful stuff. Definitely check out the Xero TV and Xero U sites.
19. We had a blast, and we’re looking forward to the next one! #xeroroadshow