Accountants and Bookkeepers from Asia, New Zealand and all around Australia will be converging on XeroCon South in Brisbane next week. With a huge lineup of speakers and exhibitors this year, here are some talks that I am most looking forward to attending. (Click here for the full schedule.) Keynote: The currency of the new […]
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Tax Office Going Digital? That’s Good News for Accountants
As we all deal electronically with the tax authorities there’s going to be more – not less – need for accountants. And it could mean new revenue streams for accountants and bookkeepers, if the digitisation of the Australian Tax Office (ATO) matches experiences in the UK. Tony O’Reilly, tax director at KPMG, told Acuity magazine that when HM Revenue […]
Microsoft Power BI And Xero – How It Works, What It Does
Last week Xero added its first enterprise-grade app, the business intelligence tool Microsoft Power BI. Power BI is notable for a couple of reasons; it is hugely powerful, it looks a lot like Excel, and it’s free. In fact, one writer described Power BI as “the future of Excel”. “Excel isn’t going away, but it’s going […]
Five Critical Mistakes in Cloud Accounting Today
Most accountants by now have received the memo about cloud accounting. Software is changing, and it will have an enormous impact on the way accountants work. Although most accountants have at least a handful of clients on cloud accounting software, firms are reacting in fits and spurts to what this means. Many are failing to […]
5 Time-Saving Xero Tips With Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Apps, etc
One of the best things about cloud accounting apps such as Xero is that you can connect them easily to other powerful cloud apps. As Xero has developed it has added more connections to one of the biggest cloud companies of them all, Google. Each year it feels like another part of Xero connects to […]
MYOB’s Tech Abundance Signals A Comeback
MYOB came out swinging at its roadshow in Melbourne last week. The company released a bunch of new technology, mostly in practice management, that puts it right back in the game. It has rethought its strategy on accounting and is building new products to match it. The message is much more nuanced than last year’s, […]
6 Accounting Trends to Watch in 2016
Many business owners are still getting used to operating in the cloud but we’ve reached a critical mass in Australia and are deep in the adoption curve. Accountants who have led the transition to cloud are already realising the number of opportunities which open up for them, especially around streamlining compliance and increasing transparency. Over […]
Why Xero Wants Your Tax Work – And How It’s Going to Get It
Visiting from LinkedIn? Jump to the big news about Xero HQ Xero has opened up a new front in the war of innovation in accounting software. Tax will take centre stage this year in Xero’s strategy to convince accountants to switch their clients from desktop accounting software. The company will give Xero Tax, an online tax […]
Free Software for Your Business? Model Spreads from US to Australia
The most popular cloud HR software for small businesses in the US costs nothing to use. Zenefits doesn’t offer a limited version of the program in the hope that a business will eventually pay to access more features. The freemium model is so 2012. Now the whole program is available for free, in perpetuity. Australian […]
Inside the Kairos Project: Bringing Analytics to Accountants
In one of the biggest surprises of 2016, the industry association Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand unveiled a project called Kairos to help its members move from analogue work processes to digital. Early reports said the project would train accountants in using data analytics tools on clients’ accounting software files. I had a long […]
Chartered Accountants Assn Reveals Secret Analytics Project
Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) has revealed a technology-driven initiative to help its members modernise their practices. The inititiative was announced this week as part of Prime Minister Turnbull’s innovation platform and had been kept secret from vendors such as Xero and MYOB, reported the Australian Financial Review. It sets the stage […]