Whether you’re an advisor or a small business, there are ways you can use Xero to get more done. These are the best productivity hacks that my team use daily in my accounting firm.
Find & Recode
Find and Recode has transformed how accountants and bookkeepers use Xero. This feature makes it easy to clean up a client’s file. Instead of updating transactions one at a time, you can use Find and Recode to update up to 2,000 lines at once. Accounts, tax rates, tracking and contacts can be easily updated on both paid and unpaid transactions.
Jobs that could take hours now take minutes to get done. You can clean up accounts in Xero at lightspeed. If you’re an advisor and you’re not using Find and Recode, you may be spending hours on tasks you don’t have to. Find out more by watching the video or refer to the documentation.
Bank Rules
If you deal with cash transactions or don’t enter all transactions in Xero before you import bank statements, set up bank rules. Bank rules are a quicker and easier way to reconcile imported bank statements.
You set up the rules to match your imported statement lines. After you import a bank statement and go to reconcile your account, your rules run. For each bank transaction that matches a rule, Xero creates a transaction based on the rules you’ve set. If the transaction Xero creates based on the rule is wrong, you can edit it, create a new one or find a transaction you’ve already entered into Xero to match with your statement line. It’s powerful, and saves hours.
This video will help you get started.
Cash coding
Another productivity winner, cash coding allows the rapid coding of a large number of transactions. Accountants and bookkeepers usually download a new client’s old bank statements when they start working when them, quickly re-coding all transactions back to cash. Cash coding makes it quick and easy to process a bank statement (or a whole year’s worth of bank statements) in a single operation.
What’s more, cash coding is more accurate. You can select accounts and tax rates for multiple statement lines at the same time so items can be coded consistently. When you save and reconcile, Xero creates a matching spend or receive money transaction. Fast and accurate processing – in bulk. You can get an overview of cash coding by watching this video.
CSV upload for bulk inventory changes
Don’t enter your inventory items one-by-one. If you have multiple inventory items to enter in Xero, you can import the new items in one go using our CSV template. You can import both tracked and untracked inventory items.
Check out the help documentation for more.
Untracked inventory for regular services
When most people think about inventory, they think about the products they sell. Tracked inventory in Xero does just this; it helps small businesses manage their inventory items.
If you’re a services company, you can use untracked inventory to record the types of services you provide. Next time you create a quote or invoice you can easily add these service lines from your inventory. It not only saves time, it ensures you’re consistent when presenting your services to your customers. You can find out more about Untracked Inventory here.
Online payment feature for invoices
When you send an invoice you want it to be paid. Online invoices make the process of sending an invoice easy, but why not ask them to pay online at the same time?
Once you’ve signed up with one of the supported payment services your customers can pay you immediately when they receive an online invoice. They simply click the Pay Now button, enter their credit card details and voila – you’re paid!
Not only will the money shoot its way into your bank account but Xero will automatically create the payment for you to reconcile once the transaction appears in your bank feed. Better cashflow and reducing the time and effort involved in processing payments. This video shows you how to set up Payment Services.
Automatic invoice reminders
This feature saves time and helps your cashflow too. Businesses get paid faster, but it’s difficult to find time to chase overdue invoices, or have those sensitive “money” discussions.
Invoice reminders does that for you: turn it on, work out how often you want to send emails, tailor your standard email message, and you’re off. Simply set and forget and invoice reminders will send your customers an email reminder when an invoice is overdue or is approaching its due date. See how invoice reminders can work for you by watching this video.
Xero Search
Whether you’re new to Xero or an established user with thousands of transactions, you’ll benefit from Xero Search.
Xero Search lets you find what you want, and get to where you want, from anywhere in Xero. It saves time when it comes to finding information and moving around the app. Use Xero Search to search across almost any type of transaction, with results instantly appearing in front of you. Xero Search also allows you to move around Xero using keystrokes, letting you get more done in less time. You can easily add new records, saving even further time.
Have you got any productivity hacks to share? What’s your favorite Xero time saver? Let us know in the comments.
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