Xero, the global small business platform, has launched several updates to its practice tools at UK Roadshow, including a new tax manager feature in Xero HQ, an important feature in its plan to more seamlessly connect Xero Practice Manager (XPM), Xero HQ and Xero Tax.

To move towards this connected future, beyond the tax manager feature, Xero also announced the rollout of the single client record and a new early access programme for partners to test a new integration with tax manager in XPM.

Tax all in one place

The new tax manager feature in Xero HQ enables accountants and bookkeepers to view their clients' tax obligations (VAT, company accounts and personal tax) in one place to help improve job tracking and prioritisation. Following this release, tax manager will continue to evolve to help with consolidating Xero’s customisation features across all tax applications.

Luis Sanchez Castillo, GM Product, Xero said: “Over the past year, we’ve made a number of significant improvements to Xero Tax, driven by feedback from our accounting and bookkeeping partners. Bringing this critical visibility into Xero HQ provides new superpowers for our accounting and bookkeeping partners through enhanced productivity and connectivity, while remaining in line with HMRC and regulatory standards.” Luis Sanchez Castillo GM, Product

Bringing this critical visibility into Xero HQ provides new superpowers for our accounting and bookkeeping partners through enhanced productivity and connectivity, while remaining in line with HMRC and regulatory standards.

Bringing together tax and job management

Xero is also on a journey to integrate jobs and tax management in the UK, to enable accountants and bookkeepers to manage their work and obligations in one place.

XPM is Xero’s practice management solution for accountants and bookkeepers, helping them manage client jobs, practice workflows, time tracking and invoicing.

In the future, the new tax manager feature will be connected to XPM. Attendees at Xero’s Roadshow were given the opportunity to sign up for early access to test the connection between the tools.

All client information in one database

Xero is also delivering a key milestone on the journey towards streamlining the workflows between its practice tools, by rolling out the single client record, a central database that houses all client data for XPM and Xero HQ for accounting and bookkeeping practices who use these tools. The single client record helps give practices confidence that their data is consistent and accurate, and that teams within practices are all working from the same information.

“We’ve spent a lot of time listening to advisors and what they need in their practice tools. This includes reducing the need to switch tools during their workflow, as well as removing duplicates and double handling of data. What’s key to this is ensuring there is consistent and accurate client data between our practice tools, and delivering the single client record is the next step in achieving this vision,” said Castillo.

All new accountants and bookkeepers to Xero’s practice tools will automatically be on the single client record if they sign up to XPM and Xero HQ, and existing customers can now transition. To help practices get set up with XPM, Xero has launched a new self-paced learning journey to embed XPM into a practice’s existing ways of working.

“All of these updates are part of our commitment to building better connections between our practice tools. In the future, as accountants and bookkeepers manage their clients’ tax obligations in Xero, the data will flow seamlessly into our practice management tools,” adds Castillo.