In case you missed the latest news in the job management app space, let me recap: back in March, BlueRock, a tech-led Australian advisory business, acquired the WorkflowMax brand from Xero and announced plans to build a new product called WorkflowMax by BlueRock with familiar and enhanced functionality to meet evolving market and customer demands.

As the Head of Growth and Partnerships and employee number one at WorkflowMax by BlueRock, I want to emphasise our passion for WorkflowMax and its benefits for SMB owners, accountants, and bookkeepers. We’re thrilled to take over the reins and create an improved solution from the strong foundations Xero has set.

On the eve of the accounting industry’s major event of the year, I’m incredibly proud to update you on our progress and invite you to witness WorkflowMax by BlueRock’s innovative job management software in action at Xerocon.

Attending this knockout event for the third time, I’m excited to meet leaders of great practices and gain valuable insights from the amazing lineup of speakers. The role of the accounting and bookkeeping community is crucial to our success, as you have a unique lens into the world of small business and drive their daily operations’ performance and potential through your advisory work.

Our new solution and the rich data/insights within it can help your clients optimise operations, increase efficiency, and boost profitability. We’re eager to share our plans for growing and scaling WorkflowMax by BlueRock. So, if you’re in Sydney too, visit us at Xerocon.

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Challenges in the accounting landscape present much opportunity‍

The accounting and bookkeeping landscape today certainly is not the same as it was 5-10 years ago, and practices are continually faced with new challenges, demanding a shift towards more proactive and strategic advisory services. This could be daunting for some, but we think it is also a very exciting time. With automation and artificial intelligence (AI) becoming more widely used, accountants and bookkeepers can streamline workflows, analyse data more efficiently, and offer more-informed strategic insights to their clients.

With this transition to a new future, accountants and bookkeepers must adapt swiftly to stay competitive and ahead of the curve. Recognising an opportunity to meet these changing needs, the new WorkflowMax by BlueRock product will provide accounting professionals with a front-foot approach to advisory accounting functions.

How? The solution equips you with real-time data, sophisticated analytics, improved client management, more advanced app integration capabilities for extending your clients’ tech ecosystem, all with an improved user-friendly interface and experience — just some of the exciting features we will be showcasing at Xerocon.‍

Better technology means better advisory and healthier cash flows‍

In this digital age, technology has become a critical asset for accountants and bookkeepers, and any small to medium sized business. Despite so many technological advances, delivering high quality insights to clients based on accurate and real-time data is key to developing growth opportunities.

Recently, I caught up with Michael Howe, the 2023 Young Accountant of the Year winner at the Australian Accounting Awards and an Associate Director in Accounting & Advisory at BlueRock. Michael specialises in financial projection and analysis, strategy and business planning, and compliance management, and he had some profound insights about BlueRock’s acquisition of Xero’s WorkflowMax brand and the software rebuilding process.

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“Utilising tools like WorkflowMax at both individual and macro levels presents a substantial yet underexplored opportunity in our industry. By deepening our knowledge of such products, we can stay ahead in advising clients, optimising their success while maintaining our competitive edge.”

“Accountants and bookkeepers play such a pivotal role in the success of small businesses as the trusted advisors who provide crucial financial insights and guidance day in and out. Software like WorkflowMax enables us to advise our clients better with real-time information and act more like a strategic partner, helping businesses make informed decisions and promoting slicker operations for growth and success.”‍

Recently, one of Michael’s key clients faced cash flow issues due to limited cost visibility on projects. After implementing WorkflowMax and using a standardised process for time tracking across the business, they found some holes in their own quoting and estimating workflow and discovered they had been massively under-pricing their jobs. With the help of their advisor and using the robust reporting features available in WorkflowMax, they were able to re-scope their projects, increase revenue, and boost overall project profitability across the board, completely transforming their cash flow.‍

“WorkflowMax has been a game-changer for our clients’ financial success,” says Michael.‍

Building better businesses together‍

At WorkflowMax by BlueRock, we believe that through strategic partnerships, businesses can work together to better service the needs of the market. We live in a world of connected ecosystems, where advisors, businesses and software applications need to speak to benefit from improved operations and better business outcomes.

By working together with Implementation Partners, Certified Advisors, and Ecosystem Partners, we can collaboratively re-imagine growth opportunities for small to medium sized businesses and enhance outcomes through shared data and insights.

As an example, we will continue to leverage the deep integration with Xero and will continuously maintain our integration endpoints so we’re always offering customers a best in breed, integrated system between their accounting software and their job management needs.

We are building WorkflowMax by BlueRock from the ground up and leveraging technology via Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-based infrastructure. AWS allows us to provide advanced security and gives us the ability to easily scale operations and make releases faster. Rest assured, customers will be able to enjoy the same trusted features from one of the most sought-after Xero integrated apps worldwide, but with a more intuitive user experience and the addition of exciting new features.

Our new partnership program (launching later in October) for advisors provides a fantastic opportunity for accounting and bookkeeping businesses to grow together with WorkflowMax by BlueRock. You’ll get the benefit of potential new revenue streams in proactive advisory, retained support and education in new features and ways of work.‍

“Having WorkflowMax seamlessly integrated as an extension of our advisory packages allows us to leverage its full potential. It also enables us to analyse data at a macro level across all clients, identifying trends and opportunities to enhance their businesses as well as our own. It’s a powerful tool that empowers us to deliver exceptional value to our clients.” - Michael Howe - Young Accountant of the Year and Associate Director in Accounting & Advisory at BlueRock

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Become a WorkflowMax by BlueRock certified advisor‍

If you’re interested in getting certified on the new WorkflowMax by BlueRock product, hit the link below and register your interest. You will be the first to know when the new partner program launches in 2023.

You’ll get early access to the software and can earn commission, plus other incentives. We’ll also provide a range of resources, training and education to get you up to speed on how this solution will add value and empower your clients through a unified and structured toolkit that elevates your strategic advisory capabilities to deliver better insights.

Register now‍

Here’s a snapshot of the most frequent questions accountants and bookkeepers are asking us

Will you be making improvements to the Xero integration?‍

We are looking at numerous ways to build upon the current Xero integration. Elements like the ability to edit fields on the invoice after approval, supporting multi-currency, synchronising payments both ways, and pushing documents into Xero are some of the improvements we plan to make.

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How can I migrate my data to WorkflowMax by BlueRock?‍

There will be a free migration tool available for customers wanting to migrate their data over to the new platform. We will be releasing more details about how this migration tool will work over the next few months.‍

Will you be introducing an inventory and stock control solution or integration ability?‍

We don’t have plans to build inventory management into WorkflowMax by BlueRock currently. We will, however, be building additional endpoints in our API to allow for deeper integrations into third party inventory management solutions.‍

What support will you offer? Where will your support be based?‍

We will (at minimum) replicate the support capabilities and channels that Xero currently offers to WorkflowMax customers. The new WorkflowMax by BlueRock business will have support team capabilities distributed around the world to provide 24-hour support. Customers will have access to a comprehensive online help centre, be able to raise tickets and use in-product chat to get the help they need. There’ll be a Facebook users’ group for questions too.

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Is there an online learning course to be able to use WorkflowMax by BlueRock to its full potential?‍

We will be launching a new and improved knowledge base training guides, and courses to help you get up to speed quickly with the new WorkflowMax by BlueRock product. We also have live and on-demand webinars you can register for on our website for up-to-date information for both customers and partners.

If you or your clients have unique business requirements or more complex customisations and would like to speak with an expert, we also recommend connecting with an Implementation Partner in your region who can provide even more guidance.‍

How can I learn more and get involved?

Visit us at Xerocon: As we gear up for Xerocon, we invite you to visit our booth to see a demo and witness firsthand how you can leverage the WorkflowMax by BlueRock solution and grow your own accounting and advisory services and revenue.

‍Book in a chat: Set up a 1:1 meeting with me to explore collaboration opportunities and discuss how we can grow together.‍

Register your interest: Visit the Workflowmax by BlueRock website to register your interest to join our partner program, keep updated on our progress and to make or vote on feature requests.