The collaborative process for bookkeepers, accountants and business owners can sometimes be a pain in the you-know-what. I know, because I’m a business owner and guilty of creating many headaches, messes and moments of, “Uh oh. Hell no! Please help fix this”. You know the type.
After years of success in business, the global financial crisis hit, and my books no longer looked so good. I also uncovered personal expense items charged to the business that shouldn’t have been. Then, I was told I’d been making decisions based on bloated cash reports due to duplicates and non-reconciled payments.
Human error and a dishonest colleague meant the collapse of my business.
I had needed simple, up-to-date, accurate reports and to know early about any risks, errors and unusual behaviour.
Speaking with my friend and now co-founder Aaron Wittman, a business owner with a background in technology and software, we realised our similar experiences, learnings and skills could be used for a solution to keep businesses a step ahead.
That solution is XBert, a proud finalist for Emerging App of the Year in 2019’s Xero Awards Australia.
Tax professionals step in
During our research and development phase, we consulted with many bookkeepers and accountants from practices large and small. We wanted to ensure XBert would be the best possible solution for everyone and provide the accuracy, transparency and compliance benefits we envisaged.
We were told areas like collaboration, risk detection, data integrity, process and workflow management, and automation needed improvement. So, we stepped up!
XBert uses AI, sophisticated algorithms, predictive analytics and machine learning to analyse your Xero accounting data hourly and detect anomalies, patterns and potential bookkeeping errors.
XBert alerts you to risks before you know the risks exist!
We created our XBert CONNECT portal to manage multiple Xero organisations efficiently. AI can work for you; you shouldn’t have to overhaul how you work for the tool you use. With XBert, you can become the sustainable, streamlined practice of the future - on your terms.
XBert aims to make everything faster and easier for bookkeepers, accountants and business owners, so they focus more on what they love.
Manage workload by exception, not by routine
You said you’re fed up with manual bookkeeping checks and audits. The process is inefficient, and sometimes you put in all that effort only to discover everything is okay. Or, discover problems and spend ages scrutinising transactions and reports to find the origin.
Then there are the risks you can’t know without checks for every new bill or invoice, e.g. a supplier that’s cancelled their business and is still trading or changes to sales tax status.
XBert does the work for you and automates key manual checks and audits. XBert finds things that would otherwise be time-consuming or hard to find.
Forget wasteful jobs and reduce the chance of human error. XBert’s hourly risk alerts mean you and your team can manage workload by exception, i.e. knowing an issue exists and fixing it.
You’ll save you hours!
XBerts – Your risk alerts
We know that everyone’s ultimate goal is data integrity. The bookkeepers we spoke with said they’d welcome a tool that helps ensure a high quality of work. With hundreds of transactions to reconcile, accounts with similar codes and names, questionable records from clients (sorry) and everything else that comes your way, typos and small errors can happen.
You’ll receive hourly, data-driven alerts for many different types of risks in your clients’ data, and can be confident that your minimising errors, improving compliance and saving your clients money.
With outsourced bookkeeping on the increase, XBert provides transparency over the quality of the work being done, safeguarding your practice and your clients.
XBert’s data warehouse of business information checks for discrepancies and changes to active sales tax statuses and business registrations - so that you don’t have to.
XBert is the name of our app and our alerts taken from EXPERT BUSINESS ALERT.
Some of the types of XBerts you’ll see include:
• Duplicate invoices, bills and contact records
• Account coding errors
• Accounts payable process hasn’t been followed
• Payments or invoices to contacts with an inactive or changed sales tax status
• Incorrect or cancelled business registrations
• Overdue invoices or bills outside normal behaviour
• Unusual monthly invoicing or billing
• Missing supplier payments
• Manual adjustment of Profit and Loss
Plus, so many more - and we’re continually releasing new XBerts.
Investigate the XBerts you receive. If there’s an error, fix it using a direct link to the associated Xero entry and business registry record if relevant. If it’s a new recurring invoice or new account code, then simply file that alert, and you won’t receive an alert in future.
Collaborate and kick goals
We’ve all had enough of email back and forth, missed phone calls and frustrations caused when everyone uses different collaboration tools. We want bookkeepers, accountants and business owners working together better by closing communication gaps and removing inefficiencies.
It can be a struggle to get business owners to adopt software. XBert is the simple solution business owners actually want to use with up-to-date cash flow monitoring and reports they can understand while on-the-go.
Invite your internal team to XBert CONNECT and assign a team member to a client to manage. Invite your clients and their staff to the relevant linked organisation only.
Create tasks and set them to recur if needed. Assign tasks and XBerts to a team member or client and set deadlines. Choose whether clients see all XBerts and tasks, or only those assigned to them. All client requests, team discussion and activity are tracked in one place.
In XBert CONNECT, you can create Template Tasks with subtasks for your practice’s unique approach, e.g. a tax or compliance checklist, that can be assigned in bulk to all client organisations or selectively.
Productivity and efficient processes designed by you
Bookkeepers told us they wanted easy monitoring of clients and workflow; automated checks and audits; transparency over the work done, or not done in Xero; to increase productivity; and to keep working the way they want.
XBert CONNECT is there to help you achieve your business goals through efficient processes and task management. The AI-driven Process Status dashboard allows you to track the health of your clients’ businesses and your team’s workload easily. You see any outstanding XBerts and tasks, categorised with tags and customised to your practice needs.
XBert comes to you
You’re busy enough. It would be great if you were notified of any risks, issues or XBert tasks associated with entries while you’re in Xero. We agree, so we developed browser extensions that cross-check XBert while you work. Create and manage tasks and resolve XBerts all from within Xero!
Remember, XBert is browser-based so you can access it anywhere, anytime on any device.
Actionable insights and better decisions
XBert provides an up-to-date picture of your clients’ financial health. Smarter, more accurate data and reports mean better advice and, ultimately, better business decisions.
Simple, visual snapshots, charts and insights provide easily understood forecasts, patterns and trends. Use this information to discuss with clients their business story, encourage questions, and work together to change habits, set goals and create a sustainable business.
Your relationship with clients will be enhanced. They’ll feel empowered and have a clearer understanding of their cash flow and business, will trust the numbers, and make informed decisions.
Your new workday
With XBert’s AI-powered automation, risk alerts and collaboration features, you’ll win back hours of your workday. Use that time to generate income, source new clients, nurture existing clients, for training and career development, or increasing advisory services.
Grow your business while you help others do the same.
Pricing
XBert CONNECT has a tiered pricing structure, you pay per Xero file you add to your account. As you load files, the organisations appear on your dashboards. You can switch between, search or filter organisations as needed.
There are no additional fees for features or the number of users – your monthly subscription covers it all.
The next step
Start your free trial of XBert CONNECT (our multi-business portal).
It only takes a few minutes to sign up and load your first Xero file. XBert analyses your data, and soon you’ll have an up-to-date picture of your client’s business and know any risks found in their data. Continue to load files, invite your team and clients, then start collaborating to resolve risk and save money.
