I’m excited to kick off this month with a number of new releases that help us provide you with a custom suite of reports to help you get answers fast. We’ve also introduced new features in invoicing and employee expenses. Let’s take a look.

If you’re a Xero partner, don’t forget to register for our upcoming quarterly product update, where our education team will walk you through a demo of all the latest releases, so you can maintain your advisor certification.

New features

Enjoy ‘More’ customisation in your reports – Global

We’ve released a new feature that allows you to add ‘Total’ and ‘Year to Date’ columns from the ‘More’ button in your Profit and Loss report. These will show you an overview of these periods in your report, without the need to build the formula manually in the layout editor. Once these columns are added, they dynamically update in line with other report changes.

Add text blocks and footers in reports – Global

For advisors, we’re enhancing your reports by adding an ‘insert content’ menu button to all reports in report view. This allows you to quickly add text blocks and footers without needing to open the layout editor. We know this is a feature you love in the older version of our reports, so we’re pleased to be able to introduce them in new reports.

Access commonly used reports with one click – Global

New one-click access to common formats allows you to quickly navigate to commonly used date ranges and periods for your income statements and balance sheets. Common formats can now be accessed from the overflow menu and within the report on a side panel, so you can quickly access commonly used reports without timely customisations.

Manage employee expense claims in Xero Me – Global

If you have employees currently using Xero Expenses to submit expenses and mileage claims, you’ll be pleased to know that soon they’ll be able to do this via Xero Me, eliminating the hassle of moving between apps. The expense technology inside Xero Me will have the same functionality your employees know, but with a fresh new look to make managing their everyday admin easier than ever.

Use progress invoice templates in WorkflowMax – Global

If you use WorkflowMax, your invoices will now show even more detail about the progress of a job compared to the original quote – thanks to updated fields on the custom print invoice template. You can add new merge fields that will pull in detailed information about quoted and estimated amounts, previous invoice amounts, total claimed and unclaimed amounts as well as the remaining balance.

Filter expenses in Xero Analytics Plus – Global

If you have Xero Analytics Plus and use business snapshot, you can now customise your table of expenses to include what’s most important in helping you understand how your business is performing. Quick options allow you to display either the largest expenses, or the expenses that have increased the most. You can also select a custom list of expense codes to better fit your needs.

Gain better visibility of repeat invoices – Global

If you’re creating an invoice in new invoicing that has been generated from a repeat template, a notification banner will now appear notifying you of the invoices frequency, as well as directly link you to the repeat invoice template itself. This change will help you to gain better visibility at a glance and stay on top of your invoicing activity.

Request signatures for free with Xero Sign – AU

Using the Xero Sign add-on within document packs can be a seamless way to obtain signatures on important documents. Each new Xero Sign account created within document packs will now automatically have a starter bundle of 25 free transactions included, with 14 days to try them out. These apply whether a return or document is sent from within document packs or Xero Tax.

Send and receive attachments when e-invoicing – AU and NZ

When sending an e-invoice from Xero, the option to attach a PDF version will now be set to ‘on’ as the default option, so your recipient will always have their PDF copy to hand. Incoming e-invoices sent to you will also appear in draft bills with their own accompanying PDF attachments as standard.

Enjoy quick access to your reports – US

Our new report centre allows you to group reports under clear headings that can be collapsed or expanded. We’ve also added the option to toggle report descriptions on or off, as well as enhanced search functionality so you can easily search for a report even if you don’t know the name. You also have quick access to your favourite reports from the top of the page or Accounting menu.