So, I am off to the 2015 Xerocon Melbourne this Wednesday. Looking forward to coming back to Perth on a high, and full of new ideas, motivated and with new direction. Last year you could have confused my enthusiasm after the event as a form of cult brain washing!!
Have I achieved as much as I had hoped after last years event? I would say YES I HAVE. In the 2015 year we went from Xero Silver Partners to one of the only 5 GOLD BAS Agent Partners in Perth. We are also Xero Cloud integrators and a Xero Training Centre. We converted or created around 100 Xero files in 2015 with WiseClick Business Services now supporting over 150 Xero users.
So what is at Xerocon that gets us so excited? 1000s of Xero Nerd for a start! We love the colour blue; we wear Xero T-shirts, write with Xero pens and use Xero on our phones to run our business. We talk Xero and also talk Xero add-ons. It’s always rewarding to mix with your own types.
I am not sure what I am expecting this year from Xerocon but last years event went way above my expectations. Last year’s speakers we inspiring to say the least. The session presented by Telstra that taught us how customers think and act was an eye opener. However – I still struggle to understand why people won’t spend four hours of their time training on a new package like Xero. Citing “I’m too busy” or I just need to get ‘this thing’ sorted before I can think about anything else. How do they not know that this is backward thinking and the change will make their day fun and SO MUCH easier? Xerocon taught me last year to just work with those that are ready for the change and not to waste my time on those that can’t see the benefits. Working with young, vibrant entrepreneurs is rewarding, they take the tools that are in front of them and use them, all of them, and early on in the business so that their business can expand without any negative effects.
I find the other accounting packages laborious and time consuming to say the least. If you asked me about my job satisfaction and how it can be improved? I would say: Get all accounting software’s to work as fast and as easily as Xero. Why can’t they all produce a large report in 2-3secs? Why cant they all be stable and NOT CRASH unexpectedly .Why cant everyone work on the same file and not notice a speed difference? Why can’t we work closely with your accountant and have them post their end of year changes directly into our online data file? My job would be much easier without the “I will finish this offsite then try to communicate with you what I have changed so your data file will match mine scenario!!! (Good luck with that!!)”.
I have attended Xerocon two times now and my main aim when I am there is to learn about as many add-ons as I can. I try to get a feel on which add-ons are the better in regards to support and features in their group and which are here for the long haul and are not too pricey for my clients.
What add-ons that I have been able to help my clients with so far? Online payment services (click on the invoice to pay with credit card), Dealing and trading in multicurrency’s at a better price (why deal with the banks if they cost more), linking your online shop to Xero so that stock levels are correct (BUY NOW button), point of sale systems that feed into Xero directly. Electronic filing systems and auto bill (systems that remember your suppliers and code them for you), and receipt coding (Optical Character recognition – OCR on receipts and they are coded for you). Converting hand written paper forms that your customer completes into electronic data, feeding directly into your software.
Why not use me this year as your eyes? Let me know what you need for your business, where are your bottlenecks with data flow? Which types of data are you entering twice, into two different systems?
Please send me an email from the Easy Email tab at the top of our website and ask a question. You will give me some things to think about when I am wandering around the 100s of add-on providers this year at Xerocon. You never know, I might stumble across that one thing that you are missing in your business that might help you to make the decision to move to Xero Accounting Software (not that I am biased at all…)
Til next time, Cheryl
