Xero, the global small business platform, today announced at Xerocon Sydney — its feature event for cloud accounting leaders from across the Asia Pacific — a suite of new features designed to help small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers plan for the future and manage compliance.

The features unveiled include some of Xero’s most innovative technology, including expanded artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to help customers avoid a cash flow crunch, and insightful tools in Xero payroll to help simplify compliance.

Plan for the future with Analytics Plus

Xero has recently updated its cash flow forecasting tool to provide bulk management of planned and expected payment dates for overdue invoices and bills, further simplifying the process of forecasting cash flow.

Following this, a pilot for powerful new features in Analytics Plus, its popular suite of planning and forecasting tools, will help small businesses and advisors understand their business’ health and plan for the future with confidence.

“Every small business owner would love a crystal ball to predict the future. By leveraging AI, we’re able to provide small businesses deeper insights with a 90 day window into the future that is unique to them,” said Anna Curzon, Chief Product Officer at Xero. “These exciting changes will help small business owners and their advisors understand their future obligations, without having to do the manual lifting."

For Australian small businesses, Analytics Plus will include upcoming BAS or PAYG payments so business owners aren’t caught out in their cash flow planning. Additionally, Analytics Plus will soon include the ability to predict likely upcoming payments for bills and invoices, such as payroll or partner bills, over the next 90 days, giving customers a holistic picture of their future cash flow. This will provide an opportunity to see the impact of changing regular habits or spending, and adjust accordingly to best benefit the business or practice.

The new features, which will roll out in early access to select Xero customers, will help to complete the cash flow picture for small businesses and their advisors.

Simplifying payroll compliance

Xero recently introduced a simpler way for employees to track their start, end, and unpaid break times in the Xero Me app, helping to support more accurate payroll data and record-keeping obligations. Xero Me is included with every Xero Payroll subscription and is designed to make managing people processes easier for small businesses, allowing employees to access payslips, submit and manage timesheets, leave requests and expense claims – all in one place. By reducing manual processes through self-service in the Xero Me app, payroll administrators can spend less time on manual processes and chasing employees for missing information.

Also showcased at Xerocon Sydney for Xero payroll customers in Australia was Payroll history – a comprehensive, accurate, and trustworthy audit trail of updates made to employee details. Allowing all payroll administrators the ability to identify, audit, and reconcile their payroll quickly and accurately.

“Navigating compliance in an evolving regulatory world can be difficult for small businesses, which is why we’re committed to providing tools that help simplify this critical aspect of managing a workforce. By offering simple tools that provide businesses with enhanced visibility and more accurate payroll data, advisors can spend less time chasing their clients to validate this, and more time on higher value work,” added Anna Curzon, Chief Product Officer at Xero.

Delegates from Australia, New Zealand, and Asia are gathered at Xerocon Sydney at the ICC from 7-8 September to hear the latest from industry leaders and gain expert insight into the newest Xero tools and features to help save time, grow their business and have a greater impact on their clients’ success.

Improved practice management tools

Xero has redesigned the Job Manager in Xero Practice Manager to help accountants and bookkeepers more easily see, find, and track client jobs, their status, and due date – all in one place. The new Job Manager will help advisors monitor progress, assign and prioritise client jobs, and see where budgets may be exceeded, enabling them to manage client jobs and workflow efficiently from end to end.

The redesigned Job Manager has already been released in early access to a small number of accounting and bookkeeping partners. It will be available to all Australian Xero partners later this year. Accountants and bookkeepers can sign up to Xero’s Insider’s Program to find out more and get early access.