2019 Xero Awards Finalist

We are blown away to learn that we have are a finalist in the 2019 Xero Awards for Small Accounting Partner of the year.

The Xero Awards recognise excellence amongst accountants, bookkeepers and Xero’s ecosystem partners. These annual awards celebrate the role of their partners in helping small businesses thrive in New Zealand.

Practices across New Zealand had the opportunity to enter to showcase just how they are using Xero with their app partners to add value to their clients.

Our practice is 100% Xero. Not only do our clients use Xero, but we use Xero tools in preparing tax returns and administering the practice. We also use and recommend a whole host of Xero app partners, part of the Xero ecosystem.

Accountancy is changing. Gone are the days when accountants just met with business owners once a year to talk tax. Owners want someone to have their back throughout the year, reviewing financial information, advising them on managing their companies and helping with governance.

The judges were interested in how we are using Xero to build these advisory services. We started offering regular advisory board meetings with clients around four years ago. These meetings allow us not only to review the financial performance of the business during the year, but also talk about broader issues like sales and marketing, human resources, funding growth and setting relevant KPIs.

For instance, we’ve been using Fathom to help clients get a much clearer picture of their business by presenting financial information graphically.

Cash Flow is taken care of by Float, a really useful tool to forecast cash flow into the future and allow business owners to take steps to ensure that their business continues to flourish.

DebtorDaddy is a firm favourite and a whizz at following up on overdue invoices and chasing slow payers.

We are also starting to use Microsoft BI to help our advisory clients gain much deeper insights into their businesses through the emerging field of analytics.

There are a number of other Xero partners that our clients are using. We are hoping to organise a function at Xero later in the year to invite clients to look at their new Hubdoc product, a fantastic new way to store all your financial documents in the cloud. More on that later.

The end result is that by using this technology we are able to help clients throughout the year rather than just focusing on end of year compliance like annual accounts and tax returns. The feedback has been really encouraging.

There were a large number of entries for the Xero Awards and we are so delighted to be amongst three very deserving firms as finalists. The award function is set for late August in Wellington.

Win or lose, we are so honoured to be recognised by our peers and want to acknowledge our clients for all their support. We couldn’t do it without you.