Xero Bookkeeping, Set Up the Way It Should Be
Xero is excellent software that most businesses use at about a third of its capability, because nobody ever configured it past the signup wizard. The gap between a default file and a properly built one is enormous.
Setup, clean-up and day-to-day bookkeeping in Xero, every week.
Seven Things a Default File Does Not Have
This is the work, whether we are building a new file or fixing one you have had for five years.
The Xero default is a generic starting point, not a design. We rebuild it around how your industry earns and spends, so your profit and loss groups things the way you think about them and the report is worth opening.
The transactions that recur every month coded automatically and consistently. This is the highest-leverage feature in Xero and the most commonly unused.
Job, location, channel or department, whichever dimension your decisions actually turn on. Two categories are available; using them well is the difference between reporting and insight.
Templates that look like your business, with terms, payment links and reminder schedules set so following up is automatic rather than a task.
Anything that recurs on a schedule created once and left to run, with the GST treatment correct and a review date so nothing keeps billing after it should have stopped.
Receipt capture, job management, rostering, POS or e-commerce, connected and, critically, reconciled. Xero has the largest app ecosystem in Australia, which also means the most opportunities to connect something badly.
The right permission level for each person, so your bookkeeper, your accountant and your office manager each see what they need and nothing more. Adviser access for everyone is common and unwise.
Where Xero Needs Help
We work in Xero more than anything else and we would recommend it to most businesses starting fresh. Being useful about it means also saying where it needs help.
- Bank reconciliation is genuinely best in class. The matching, the rules and the cash coding screen make routine work fast.
- The app ecosystem is the real advantage. Whatever niche tool your industry uses, it probably connects to Xero first.
- Complex award payroll needs help. Xero Payroll is compliant and capable, but heavy penalty-rate environments usually want a proper rostering app feeding it.
- Inventory is basic. Fine for modest stock, not sufficient for serious warehousing or manufacturing. That wants a dedicated inventory app.
- Watch the pricing tiers. Plans step up with payroll headcount, so adding one employee can move you a tier. Worth knowing before it happens.
Before You Ask
It is the platform we work in most, every week. What you actually want to know is how many files someone maintains and whether they have handled a business like yours before, so ask us that in the consult and we will answer specifically rather than pointing at a badge.
Almost always, and that is nearly always the better option. Starting a new file loses your history and comparatives for the sake of avoiding some clean-up work. We restructure the chart of accounts, fix the coding going forward, clear the suspense account and build the rules that should have existed. Genuinely starting fresh is a last resort and we will explain why if we ever recommend it.
You do, directly to Xero, at their published price. The subscription is in your name with you as the subscriber, and we work inside it as an invited user. That keeps the file unambiguously yours and means leaving us costs you nothing but revoking access.
Yes, and we would rather they knew what they were doing than be dependent on us for everything. Training on the parts they actually touch, such as raising invoices, approving bills and running the reports they need, is included in onboarding, and we are happy to run a refresher when someone new starts.
Get Your Xero File Sorted
A free health check with written findings on the chart of accounts, the rules, the suspense account and what is not reconciling.