Xero Accounting software offers inventory management features in their standard software but it has never been spectacular for companies where solid inventory management matters.
I saw that first hand when I was speaking with the owner of a Boating Sales, Repair and Retail business. That business ended up migrating AWAY from Xero and started using QuickBooks Online instead. This changes everything.
Continue reading Finally, Xero Acquires an Inventory Management Software Add-on in the US
In 2015 I wrote about Xero’s inventory management when it was released and how important it was to make it competitive with MYOB AccountRight. These days however it seems that Xero hasn’t done much more and they’re a bit behind Intuit’s QuickBooks Online which has a lot of inventory and stock management features.
I’ll explain and drill down a bit.. Continue reading Inventory and Stock is more beautiful using QuickBooks than Xero
I’ve written some blog posts about Xero & QuickBooks Projects and MYOB Jobs recently. In fact, if you visit our MYOB AccountRight and Xero Training Course pages, you’ll see there is now an extra course included in the COMPLETE course packages!
The course was built as a result of the needs of people who’ve been using our training materials to help in their own training. What’s interesting is how important your current inventory and inventory management is to managing the cashflow and profitability of a project.
IF YOU RUN A SHOP or business that holds stock, you should be in the habit of checking your inventory regularly. A lot of retail stores only check their inventory every quarter; others every year. This is usually because a stocktake is a big job.
The case for a monthly stocktakeThe inventory feature in Xero was a functionality that was missing for many years — but then Xero caught up.
Running an inventory report in Xero is pretty easy. The hard work sets in when you have to count your inventory to account for any discrepancies. There are usually always differences between what Xero says you should have in stock, and what you actually have on hand. The more frequently you run them, the fewer discrepancies you’ll find.
Like anything in the bookkeeping process, the more frequently you do something — be it reconciling your account or chasing up late payers — the easier and quicker it is. Where a quarterly or yearly stocktake could take half a day or more, a monthly one may only take you a couple of hours.
A monthly stocktake is a good way to get to know your business, and understand its certain trends and idiosyncrasies. In particular, it helps you with ordering and making related business decisions.
A shop selling food, for example, needs to be wary of ordering stock that doesn’t sell quickly and ultimately goes out of date. A monthly stocktake will help you keep track of this, and monitor which items sell quickly and which don’t. Likewise, a monthly stocktake of a furniture shop lets you determine which pieces spend long periods in storage, and manage your ordering accordingly.
Do a monthly stocktake by running your inventory reports in Xero. You’ll be able to work out whether your stock:
If you are new to bookkeeping it’s probably a good idea to learn more about some of the basic Xero reports you can produce for a business.
***If you only have a very basic knowledge of Xero, cloud accounting or bookkeeping, and you’re looking to gain a better understanding of basic bookkeeping terminology, get our free Basic Bookkeeping Guide.
You’ll learn how to run reports in Xero, in particular inventory reports, in our Xero training courses. Visit our website for more information or to enrol and see course prices.
EzyLearn Excel, MYOB and Xero online training courses count towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for bookkeepers and accountants. We’ve been an accredited training provider of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers ever since the organisation started in Australia. Find out how CPD points can be of benefit to you.
The premium MYOB product with the PLUS on the end of its name has always come with Inventory and Payroll. These have been the major services that justify the premium price that users have been willing to pay. Now Xero comes with it as standard! Is it another nail in MYOB’s coffin?
We’ve added a new team member, Sue from Yarra Junction in Victoria, and she has over 20 years experience performing bookkeeping and administration work for various clients as well as running her own business. Sue is writing a training guide that demonstrates how inventory (which was just announced this year at Xero) works. We’re using the same structure and information we use in our popular MYOB training course so you can see directly how the software programs are different from each other – apart from Xero being completely in the cloud so you can access it from any device anywhere.
Sue highlights yet again one of the great features about running an online business and working remotely in the cloud. Any business can work with staff or remote contractors from anywhere (in the world!). Sue is located over one hour’s drive from Melbourne and I’m sure the commute would be hell – it would cost her time and money in transport – yet because we operate on online environment our team are all over Australia! No more travel time, no more traffic, no more sitting in a carpark on the city roads in peak hour. Just a good internet connection and some competent computer skills and we’re off.
If you’re not sure by now, you’ll be happy to know that my focus has always been to help people learn how to use software. Why? So they can get the job they’re after or start their own business. If you like, you can watch a short video (sorry for not shaving for it!) where I talk about my Work at Home Seminar (or WAHSeminar) which is a program we’re constantly working on to help people operate a business or telework from their own home.
If you haven’t already read about it, read the blog I wrote about teleworking centres that are springing up all over regional areas of Australia. Make sure you ‘like’ this blog and share it with your friends on Facebook because the more we all encourage teleworking and the use of technology the more we’ll be able to take back dozens of lost hours each week in travel time (and cost).
Like all EzyLearn courses, we offer all our training courses for one low price and include every training resource we create. This Xero training course content is the same – every student who has enrolled into the Xero course within the last 12 months will be able to access these new training resources when they’re published.
If you are a business looking to move across to Xero, feel free to write your questions or comments. If you are trying to find a way of working from home, please make contact. We’d love for you to share with us what you are going through. We can very probably help – and others can learn from it.
One of the more time-consuming and tricky parts of catchup bookkeeping is reconciling your bank account and bank statement – which means going between your accounting software and bank.
In software like MYOB, even if you use bank feeds to import your transactions into your accounting software, you still need to make sure these match your bank’s records.
But what if your accounting software got the information directly from your bank daily? With ANZ in talks to buy MYOB, here’s what you need to know about where banking and accounting software meet:
Continue reading If ANZ Bank Buys MYOB will you EVER need to reconcile again?
Now that paying by card is the norm, retailers have needed to adapt to the cashless customer. If you’ve been to some local markets recently, maybe a sporting club canteen or even your regular café, you may have noticed that you’re tapping your card on a little white square instead of an EFTPOS machine.
Block Inc. – previously known as Square Inc – is a point-of-sale (POS) system winning over retailers and enterprises across the world. And it’s not just little white payment terminals, Square offers a range of technology and services that range from POS to payroll to inventory to marketing, AND, they recently purchased AfterPay!
Square integrates with Xero, and considering its popularity, let’s break down what Square is and how it compares to other Xero integrations like Planday.
Continue reading Payroll Training Course Integrations: Square Payroll versus Xero?
New year, new Xero features!
Xero has recently announced its updated product features, and they include improvements to integrations, interfaces, and information.
We updates our Xero Training Course content regularly and every student gets 12 months course access and support – this includes access to all updated and additional course content. Here’s a rundown of recent changes Xero have made to their software.
Continue reading Xero Announces New Product Features – EzyLearn Offers 12 months Course Access and Support!
It’s not a stretch to say the last few years have been tough…especially for businesses. Through lockdowns and restrictions we’ve seen businesses struggle, falter, adapt, and survive.
Now that we’re in to 2022, and things are (fingers crossed) almost looking normal again, it’s exciting to see how businesses will recover and thrive.
Xero has released a guide to small business trends for 2022, based on surveys they conducted in 2021 of their subscribers in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Singapore, Canada, and the US.
Here’s are 10 trends on the rise for small business this year:
Continue reading How are Small Businesses Changing in 2022?
MYOB has fallen behind in recent years to other accounting software like Xero. With Xero’s cloud accounting-first strategy, it’s become a leading software in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Canada – by focusing on integrations and simple accounting solutions.
MYOB, on the other hand, has caused confusion over its multiple products and unexpected updates, which have since caused users to gravitate away from it.
Now, its repackaged MYOB Essentials and AccountRight under one cloud-based solution. Will this solve its problems?
Continue reading MYOB Business is AccountRight & Essentials but can it catch up to Xero?
Xero is one of the leading accounting software for small businesses with more than 700,000 Aussie customers – it’s no wonder our Xero courses remain some of our most popular!
Xero didn’t fare too badly last year, all things considering, increasing their total subscribers by 20% and their net profit by NZ$16.4 million.
But as we rolled into 2022 Xero’s share prices took a hit, and with worries about higher inflation, what will this mean for Xero?
Continue reading Why is Xero’s Share Price Plummeting?
Xero has added yet another company to its ever-growing list of integrations. In the same country where they bought Hubdoc, Xero has acquired Canadian tax preparation software TaxCycle.
It marks a further expansion for Xero into the Canadian market, given the 4000 tax firms and 16,000 individual accountants that use TaxCycle.
Here’s what the TaxCycle acquisition looks like for Xero:
Continue reading Xero Expands in Canada with 4000 Tax Firms in TaxCycle Acquisition
There are a lot of things that contribute to a successful business, but there’s no doubt that cash is a pretty significant one. Whether or not a business can generate enough revenue to not only stay afloat, but make a profit, determines whether or not that business can continue to operate.
But collecting that cash is not as simple as swiping a customer’s credit card. From the first cent a business spends in buying its stock, to the final cent the business receives in payment from a customer, the cash conversion cycle can tell a lot about just how efficient and effective a business is.
Continue reading Here’s What You Need to Know About the Cash Conversion Cycle
Sales tax might not be high on the list of concerns for Aussie businesses since the introduction of the GST in 2000, but if you’re selling to the US it’s a whole different story.
The US doesn’t have a GST, so each state (and sometimes locality) has its own sales tax rate – which makes it difficult for online businesses to keep track of what they owe and when its due.
Whilst Xero organises all your e-commerce sales and transactions into an accounting system, it doesn’t account for how much of your income is money collected from your buyers as sales tax – which is money you must remit to the government.
Continue reading Sales Tax Simplified With Xero’s TaxJar Integration
HubSpot is better at marketing, Square at Point of Sale, Stripe at payments and QuickFee for Buy Now Pay Later for Accountants and Lawyers – and they all integrate with Xero.
Being online these software programs integrate and share data so you can manage many different parts of your business and have live, up-to-date information and reports.
Our new Accounting Software Integrations course is now available and included with selected Xero Online Training Courses.
Continue reading Integrations turn Xero into a Powerful Business Administration System for Small Business
Did you know that Afterpay (and ZipPay) and some other Buy Now Pay Later providers decline sellers? Most Afterpay transactions are centered around the selling of physical products that change ownership from the merchant to the customer. This evidence is enough to bind customers legally, but what happens if you provide professional services like bookkeeping or accounting?
Accountants and Bookkeepers, like many other professional service providers including Lawyers and solicitors charge for their time or defined outcomes (like fixed fees for a certain number of transactions).
Will Afterpay take you on as a client? We’ve heard that many industries are rejected but there are alternatives and Xero’s App Store can help.
Continue reading Rejected by Afterpay? Xero Marketplace has an alternative
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