Liam’s Top 5 Tips to Using Xero Efficiently
After a very stressful and tough two years for all businesses, now more than ever is the time for you to know how your business is doing, and there is no better Accountancy Software than Xero to help.
It can seem to be a daunting task to keep Xero up to date, but here are my top 5 tips to keeping your Xero software up to date, while also doing it efficiently:
- Xero’s Automatic Bank Feed
If you are a small business with 10 transactions a week, or a big business with over 100 transactions every week, there is no better way to bring your bank account transaction into Xero than using Xero’s Automatic Bank Feed. This helps you save time typing up each individual transaction and importing it in.
Instead, a click of a button on Xero will take you to your bank login screen, from here you are able to login into your Bank Account as normal and select the bank accounts which you want to feed into Xero. No hidden fee or charges, no hassle, just an easy way to save you time which you can then spend on making your business fulfil its potential.
Next time you come to reconcile your bank, have a look for the blue button above, and it will save you time going forward.
- Xero Bank Rules
To save you time reconciling the same reoccurring Direct Debits or payments, why not try setting up Bank Rules in Xero? Xero Bank Rules will automatically fill in the information for where you want to post that payment on your Xero software, saving you time wondering where you put it last month and having to look to see where you posted it.
Even if it’s your monthly accountancy fee, your monthly van insurance, or even your HMRC payments, you can set up Bank Rules for all of these transactions. All you’ve got to do is go to the Bank Account you want to set them up for, go to the Bank Account options button, and there you will see the link for Bank Rules.
Once there, click on “Create Rule” and then you will be to fill in the details for which transaction you want to set reoccurring rules for. But be careful as for Box 1 will need to match that with what it appears on your Bank Statement line as, and Box 2 is the contact which is on Xero.
If it is money being received into your Current Account, money going out of your Current Account, or money being transferred to another Business Current Account, you can set Bank Rules up for them all.
- Short-term Cash Flow Projection
More than ever, every business is wanting to know their Short-term Cash position, and there is no better tool than the Short-term Cash Flow Projection on Xero. Either if you are wanting to know the position for the next 7 days or even over the next 30 days, Xero has the facilities to project this for you within a click of a button.
- Scanning Purchase Invoices to Dext
Are you fed up with typing up the same invoices for the supplier onto Xero? Why not try Dext? Dext is an automatic extraction software that pulls off all your Purchase Invoices and receipts details. All you need to do is download the Dext app on your mobile phone, or access it through your online browser, take a photo of your receipt or invoice, upload it to Dext and let Dext do the rest of the work. The best thing is that it links to Xero!
Dext will pull off the Supplier, the Gross amount, the VAT amount, the date, and all you need to do is select the nominal code you want it to go to, then click publish and it will send it the Invoice to Xero for you, saving you have to type each individual invoice onto Xero which will seem tedious for many!
If you have multiple invoices for the same supplier which are all single sided, you can scan them all in together on a scanner, and you can upload them all together to Dext.
- Reporting
If you are wanting an oversight of how your business is doing, Xero has a range of Reports where you can see this. Even if it’s a Profit and Loss, a Balance Sheet, or even money that you owe out, Xero has a report for you.
In each report, you can customise these so you can select the date range you want to see, if that is either a month, a quarter or even if it was for your businesses’ last financial year, Xero has the capability to allow you to access these. If you want to compare your current year with your previous year, you are able to adjust the report, so it shows exactly what you want to see.
Once you are happy with your report, and you have everything you are wanting it show, you are able to publish your report, and you will then be able to go back to it at a future date for reference.
If you have any questions regarding my Top 5 Tips or any queries regarding Xero in general, then please do not hesitate to get in touch on 01228 904904.
