Our Day at the Xero Roadshow 2023

It’s that time of the year, roadshow season. This week we went along to the 2023 Xero roadshow (or as some call it mini Xerocon). It’s was the first dedicated Xero event we’ve attended, looking forward to soaking up the atmosphere, learn more about the ins and outs of Xero, while taking note of the best tips and information to share our community.
This years show was hosted at the Queen Elizabeth 2 Centre, in view of Westminster abbey, with this event following a similar format to the ACCA event we attended a few weeks prior. However, we we not prepared for the massive screen and a light show, giving us flashbacks to DAS.
This was also a fantastic opportunity to get some face to face with the software vendors, and also catch-up and meet some of our partners in person for the first time. But the main purpose of the day was to hear more about upcoming features in Xero itself, as well as some useful advice in response to their recent industry report for 2023.

 

Highlights

The event started off with the new developments at Xero, so that’s where we’ll start off. And, if your like us, you’ll want to know what’s hot. So, I’ve put together a list of some main highlights from the new releases and improvements:

 

E-Invoicing is coming

By the end of the year, you’ll have the option to receive your Xero invoice through e-invoicing, with the ability to send e-invoicing toward the middle of next year (we’ll have more information about this coming very soon).

Bulk client connections coming

A small quality of life feature, but it’s rather impactful and long overdue. Although still in testing but set for release in the coming months, you’ll have he option to perform multiple client connections at once to a Xero account.

Updated AP workflow and a new partnership with Crezco

Xero have updated the AP workflow, and the new integration with Crezco lets you quickly and easily make batch payments, all without leaving Xero.

Payroll

You now have the ability to download up to 15 payslips at a time, and they’ve also introduced automatic journal entries for statutory recoveries plus automatic employee numbering when creating employees in payroll.

AI Customer Support

Currently still in beta, Xero plans to use AI in Xero Central and the support pages to give you a more personalised experience, and accurate help with generative responses taking information from the entire support database, instead of providing a set of suggested articles that contain the help you need.

Xero Analytics & Analytics Plus

Updated and enhanced AI powered predictions for more in depth insight into your clients business health trends, and cash flow 90 days into the future. All of which you can access with a four month free trial. For more information on all of these highlights and more, make sure you head over to our community, Beanies for more updates and discussion over the coming weeks.

 

Tips & Tricks

The final session of the day consisted of a panel which included Dan Heelan, Michelle Morris, and Fraser Campbell, with insights about the challenges they’ve faced and how they’ve overcome challenges getting clients onboard with technology. These are the 5 most important tips we gathered from their talk.

  1. Helping clients to understand the information they will need to grow their business and the ability of the apps in helping them get quicker and more in depth data.

  2. Start small and scale up. Build your clients confidence with the technology, piece by piece. Doing this avoids confusing the client with a complete new process and system to learn, and limits the pushback they will have.

  3. Being outcome focused brings perspective if any concerns arise over introducing new technology into the mix. If the goal for the change is clear, this can be an easier hurdle to overcome for many if it benefits their business.

  4. Learn the pace that your client can work at. Some clients will move at a slower pace than others. Understanding how to best bring your client on the journey with you will make the entire process much easier for them, and will result in less pushback.

  5. And lastly, and arguable one of the most important. Don’t forget the human element when introducing clients to all this new tech. These apps shouldn’t limit the interaction you have with your clients, instead they should enable clearer communication, and allow for more touch points with them to provide the valuable insights they need to grow.

 

Final words

Wrapping things up, I hope these new features plus the tips and tricks are helpful in our practice. Overall, we didn’t have many expectations before the event, but I did get the sense it was a warm up for Xerocon next year, with many of the sessions not lasting longer than 30 minutes and a less packed schedule than we’ve come to expect at most events.

If you attended the event, we’d love to hear about your experience and what insights you found useful.

Make sure you get signed up-to the community for more insights and discussion about what we saw at the event. Get signed up now!