What We Learned at XeroCon 2023

The Balanced Beans team have chalked up another XeroCon.

Highlights from XeroCon 2023

XeroCon Sydney 2023 was a whirlwind of insights, innovations and networking taking place at the International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) on 23rd and 24th August.

XeroCon is a conference about all things Xero – the cloud accounting platform that your Balanced Beans Bookkeepers and Accountants use to help you manage your business accounts, payroll and tax.

From the opening welcome to country and contemporary dancers, Xero again put on quite a show for the 3,000 plus attendees. The conference includes a variety of pre, post, during and after-hours events which range from enlightening keynotes and breakout sessions to a bustling exhibitors’ hall where Xero-compatible software vendors demo their aps and latest features.

We always look forward to attending this key industry event to learn about new and planned features of the software, new apps that can add value to our clients, and of course to network with other industry professionals from across Australia.

In this post we share some of our learning and key takeaways from the 2023 conference.

XERO product updates

Deeper Stripe integration

Xero announced a deeper integration with Stripe allowing easier online payment management within Xero. Coming later this year, small business owners will be able to see key information about a Stripe transaction directly in Xero instead of digging around in Stripe, be able to issue refunds directly from Xero, and more.

AMEX bank feed

Xero and Amex announced a new partnership which will see direct bank feeds take the place of unreliable third-party feeds. This means greater speed, accuracy and stability of your financial info coming into Xero.

Unification of client records

Xero announced it is unifying the client record across Xero HQ, XPM (Xero Practice) and Xero Tax. This will help customers using all three apps: they will no longer have to manage multiple databases and instances of the same client.

Ap news

Servicem8 Tap To Pay

Servicem8, an app that helps tradies manage their jobs, staff, invoices and more, announced a handy addition to their mobile app. With the new Tap to Pay on iPhone feature, you can accept in-person, contactless payments, right on your iPhone, without the need for a separate card reader.

Next Minute App

For the residential construction tradies out there, the Next Minute job management software will give you capability to plan jobs, assign team members, allocate costs from Xero directly to jobs, include timesheets against jobs, and attach photos and files to your quotes and invoices to send to clients. It also has two-way invoice syncing integration.

XERO news

Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI)

Xero reports on improvements and declines in the performance of the small business economy. The four key indicators measured and conclusions for June 2023 were:

Sales – sales have slowed but are still around long-term average.
Time To Be Paid – payment terms were impacted by year-end but it takes 23.0 days to get paid on average and late payments are up at 6.8 days.
Jobs – jobs growth dipped below average.
Wages – wage pressures have eased somewhat.

XERO Beautiful Business Fund

Xero announced a NZ$750,000 fund to support Xero small business customers in four key categories. (Applications close 6 October 2023):

Innovating for sustainability
Strengthening community connection
Trailblazing with technology
Upskilling for the future.

So there it is! A tiny summary of what team Balanced Beans learned at Xerocon 23. It was a super experience and while XeroCon won’t be running in Aus next year, we look forward to heading back when it does.

Attending XeroCon always adds value to our clients.

At XeroCon Balanced Beans learned more ways to support our clients and help them succeed. To find out how we can help you, reach out to us on 02) 4046 1000.

Servicing Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland & The Hunter Valley

(02) 4046 1000