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Xero Software has numerous advantages and features for small businesses. Let's take a closer look at some of the latest feature updates:
A custom suite of reports will help you get answers fast, and streamline your financial analysis. As part of this work, Xero have released some new reporting features, including customised management report packs, refreshed Xero HQ report templates, more flexibility in executive summary reports and more.
With recent updates there is more flexibility and customisation to Xero reports to help you get quick access to answers and give you insights on how your business is performing. The updates to the reporting suite also include greater control over accounts and balances in the Account Transactions report. The new report includes filters to exclude zero balance transactions and new ways to group or summarise the report.
Xero has added a side panel that gives access to alternate and even custom versions of reports, such as income statements. For example, a user could create and then select from a choice of reports that looked at the income statement by month, quarter, or just for Cyber week. It also makes it easier to modify date ranges or add extra summary information with a couple of clicks. Xero will also give the ability to add comments to reports enabling accountants or business leaders to explain what lies behind specific numbers on a report.
It will also add a new Reports centre, adding a search capability and the option of saving and highlighting favourite reports at the top of the window for easy access. As of now, reports are grouped under categories; in future, users can collapse report groups, thus seeing only the reports that users wish to use. It will also add brief report descriptions, so new users can quickly understand what each report does.
Doing bank reconciliation in Xero just got easier, with an update to one of their favourite time saving features: memorisations. This update will surface more suggestions in your bank reconciliation fields, to take even more manual data entry off your plate.
To distinguish bank payments from card payments, they’ve updated the language used in Xero. ‘ACH payments’, ‘Direct debit’ and ‘Pre-authorized debit’ has been updated to ‘Bank payments’. This update won’t change the functionality of payment services in Xero.
Xero are continuing to roll out their fresh new look across Xero. This upgrade helps them deliver the features you need in your business or practice, while also improving speed and accessibility. Here are the most recent design changes in Xero:
The updated STP Phase 2 rollout has kicked off within Xero in three key stages as of late August. Xero has been granted a deferral on the start date of the STP Phase 2 for their payroll software, and this applies to all new and existing customers.
This means that all customers reporting STP using Xero Payroll have until 31 March 2023 to report their first STP Phase 2 pay run, instead of the 1 January 2022 ATO deadline. This gives Xero Payroll users more time to ensure that payroll records are STP Phase 2 compliant.
The first part of this process is transitioning your new and existing employee profiles to be STP Phase 2 compliant. Using the employee transition tool, you’ll be able to update existing employee records to capture relevant STP Phase 2 items – like whether they’re an employee or contractor. Any new staff members recorded after this release will automatically be STP 2 compliant.
With the pay item transition tool, you can identify and replace non-compliant pay items with the new earnings categories defined by STP Phase 2. These new earnings categories are already available in Xero Payroll, like Directors’ fees and Bonuses and Commissions, if you want to get a head start.
This is the final step in the STP Phase 2 transition and will break paid leave down into additional subcategories. With the leave transition tool, you can update existing leave categories to meet the new reporting requirements. From January 2023, you’ll need to report parental leave and workers’ compensation separately in Xero Payroll. These leave types can now be added to employees’ pay template and payslip. When they are used for employees, the amounts will be correctly classified so you will be compliant when STP Phase 2 is up and running.
