The Power of Smaller Xero Add-Ons
Whilst accounting software Xero boasts an impressive series of best-in-breed add-ons across a range of industries, such as DEAR Inventory, WorkflowMax and simPRO to name a few, many businesses miss the power of ‘smaller’ add-ons for repetitive tasks.
Here are just a handfull of our favourite Xero add-ons that allow you to automate repetitive tasks to save time, money and boost your productivity.
Ignition (formerly Practice Ignition)
Sell your services, easily create online proposals and engagement letters, and automate invoicing and payments - all from one place. By making things effortless for you and your clients, we help you build strong relationships that work.
We absolutely couldn’t operate our business as efficiently as we do without Ignition. Any professional services business that sends proposals, such as accountants, bookkeepers, advisors, helpdesk specialists (and the list keeps going) will always come up against the same bottleneck when it comes time to propose; creating an engagement letter and turning an acceptance into a paying client.
Ignition makes this entire process a breeze from start to finish, even allowing you to capture your client’s payment information ahead of time so that, once they agree to your scope of works, you can get on with what you do best without having to work through a tedious manual billing process.
Use this link to get 50% off your first three months.
Dext (formerly Receipt Bank)
“Dext extracts the key information from your bills, receipts and invoices, removing the need for manual data entry. Dext can then publish the data to yout accounting software or it can be downloaded as a spreadsheet or used to create expense reports.”
We love Dext for two reasons. Firstly, we use it at Waypoint for both expense claims and bills. Secondly, it’s a value-add we can provide clients during our bigger projects, that always wows them without fail. For us, it’s true love.
The simplicity of Dext astounds clients when they first see it in action, and it really is that simple. The work reduced by just taking a quick photo of a bill, only to see it appear in Xero with all the correct information is stunning. If you’re using Xero and not using Dext, you really are missing out on half of the benefits… and half the fun!
Futrli
“A complete practice management and client experience tool. View multiple Xero organisations, the way you want to, side by side and collaborate with clients in real-time.”
Futrli is a reporting solution that has taken the Xero add-on marketplace by storm. It’s simple to use and provides high-level reporting where Xero stops. Useful for administrators, office managers and directors, you can do everything, from simple profit and loss reporting to department costing and three-way cash forecasting.
PencilPay
“Automated trade credit and payments integrated with your inventory system”
Probably one of our favourite additions to an inventory system, be it DEAR Inventory, Unleashed, or NetSuite. PencilPay allows you quickly set up your trade credit criteria, embed account application forms into your website, credit check your trade account applicants, and allow you to seamlessly bring them over to your inventory and accounting systems. From there, the system automates payment from your trade accounts.
Additionally, your trade customers can manage their billing and split their payments up into more manageable pieces. During the global COVID-19 pandemic, cash flow was a huge issue for a number of wholesale businesses. For those who went with PencilPay, it proved an indispensable tool. It’s a must for wholesale inventory-based businesses.
Get your first 60 days of PencilPay free (trials are normally limited to 30 days).
Chaser
“We know that if your chasing emails are obviously automated, they are much less likely to get your invoices paid. Emails from Chaser look and feel like regular emails from you to your customer.”
Far too many small businesses are handcuffed by poor payment, and the automation of this process saves time for other more important tasks. Obviously, we don’t expect any add-on like this to take care of the truly ‘bad payers’ and ‘disputes’, but having an automatic follow-up to your standard terms will ensure that those people who just mislay an invoice or forget a payment will get followed up in a reasonable time frame.
Chaser is a really strong accounts management add-on. We can always tell internally when the ‘chasers’ go out, as we see payment notifications flood through to email, saving so much time and pressure internally.
Chaser is one of our favourite recommendations to clients as a value-add.
For tailored advice about the best Xero add-ons for your business, get in touch with us today.
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