Xero Tools for Small Businesses

When you’re running an ecommerce business, there always seem to be more things to do in a day than there are hours to do them. That’s why Xero caters to small businesses with a number of tools to streamline your workflows, alleviate the pain of busywork, and ultimately save time.

Simplified Bill Payment

The early days of your business are full of trial-and-error, and bill payments are no different. Even after business owners develop their own systems, recent research found they’re spending nearly five hours each month on managing their bills. It’s a very manual and time-consuming process that many online sellers struggle with because:

• It requires manual data entry into payment systems.
• Bills cannot be managed and paid in one place.
• They have to use multiple systems that don’t integrate.

The Xero ecosystem simplifies bill payment by addressing these pain points specifically. Whether bills and receipts arrive by email or are scanned, partner tool HubDoc captures data and auto-enters it to Xero. You can then pay your suppliers through your preferred bank account, and Xero will track all the financial activity so that you can reconcile in a snap. 

Real-Time View into Financial Health 

As a savvy business owner, you wouldn’t make any major decisions about where to take your business without consulting the data first. And what better way to get the data narrative than with easy-to-digest charts and graphs? Xero shows you the numbers you need on one customizable dashboard. If you need to dive into any report more in-depth, you can. You can also set goals and track your progress, so there is always a tool to hold you accountable.

Enhanced Cybersecurity

Xero is a cloud solution, meaning it can be accessed on any device—the convenience is unbeatable, and your data stays secure. Therefore, your financial data is still secured in the cloud if your primary device is hacked or stolen. Xero also provides continuing education about small business best practices on their blog, including these tips for data safety:

• Be wary of giving personal information. Ask yourself, Why do I need to provide this? and double-check the source.
• Create strong passwords. There is a lot that cybercriminals can discover with minimal research and use to access your accounts. Create strong, unique passwords every time. Here’s a free tool that can help you create passwords for any situation.
• Enable two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication, also known as 2FA, creates two barriers (i.e., your password and a unique code texted to you) between cybercriminals and your financial information.
• Use an anti-virus scanner. Solutions such as BitDefender offer individual plans for free and business plans for a reasonable cost.

Data from VMware reveals 52% of all cyberattacks in March 2020 were finance-related, so it is best to stay vigilant.

Accounting Automation

While the Xero platform is user-friendly and intuitive, it still takes time to manually enter sales transactions, returns and refunds, and marketplace fees. It’s valuable time taken away from marketing and managing your business, and even outsourcing the data entry can be costly. Why not automate it? Accounting automation software bridges the gap between your online store and your Xero system. Simply set the scheduler to post every day (or every hour) and see all transactions appear in your Xero account like magic. 

By guest contributor Taylor Knauf