Xero’s widespread adoption owes something to its branding as the accounting software for small businesses.
One of the things that makes Xero successful is the number of small businesses who have been able to integrate their own products with Xero.
These businesses produce apps that handle or automate one or more aspects of your business, and by integrating them with Xero you can get a much better financial and operational picture of where your business stands.
Whether you’re looking for a payment gateway, time-tracking, stock control, a CRM or forecasting software…there are Xero add-ons out there to fulfil your requirements.
Let’s take a look:
Business Management
Dext
Automation is all about time-saving. Formerly Receipt Bank, Dext impressive credentials back up their tagline – “Effortless bookkeeping”. The concept is simple – clients submit photos of physical receipts and send them to you via Dext which automatically detects relevant information from these photos and does the data entry for you in Dext.This information can then be published (automatically if you wish) into Xero. Heavily adopted by both large and small firms, from major accountancy practices to sole traders, Dext is well worth a look.
Payments
GoCardless
GoCardless gives your customers an easy way to pay you via direct debit and automatically reconciles these payments in Xero. It can also add a ‘pay now’ button to your invoices, which should in theory improve your cash flow, giving customers a convenient prompt to pay. With a fairly low price tag, GoCardless competes well with other add-ons in this area.
Stripe
Stripe’s claim is “Get paid up to 19 days faster” – this nifty add-on is all about improving your cash flow. This online billing solution is smart and modern, also offering a ‘pay now’ button on invoices and generates a Stripe transaction in Xero when payments are made.
Airsquare
Airsquare is a clever “all-in-one” web platform. You can create a website, sell your products online and sell event tickets. With clever inventory management features and website themes to suit most businesses, it’s super easy to get up and running. Their Xero integration automatically generates invoices and sends them to your customers, making reconciliation simple!
CRM
Insightly
Insightly CRM isn’t just an add-on for Xero – it also connects to Gmail, Outlook and MailChimp. Insightly grabs relevant data from all of the sources to provide a complete picture of every interaction you have with clients and prospective customers. You can also create invoices for your clients from Insightly CRM.
Breadwinner
Breadwinner has a simple mission – integrate Salesforce CRM with Xero. Meshing Salesforce data with the actual invoices being paid (or not paid!) creates a web of information that any accountant would be pleased with. As a bonus, you can use Breadwinner to raise invoices from Salesforce. They are also blessed with a friendly support team should you run into trouble, which is always a plus in my book.
Exsalerate
Exsalerate is a CRM with a significant Xero integration. With only one price point, it’s bound to be enticing for many. Featuring colourful dashboards highlighting the real, lifetime value of customers, how long it’s been since you last had contact, so you can effectively plan activities to retain their custom. Exsalerate integrates with Xero in real time, sending sales information, customer details, invoices…you name it, Exsalerate probably has it!
Inventory Management
Unleashed
https://www.unleashedsoftware.com/
Unleashed focuses on linking up Xero to an accurate inventory management system, sending information on customers, suppliers, purchases, sales, stock, credits and returns to Xero. Unleashed itself offers real-time stock visibility, stock tracking and tracing and order management. Unleashed is Bristol-based, with several avenues of customer support available.
Cin7
Cin7 is a particularly attractive inventory management integration for businesses that buy and sell in different units of measure (clothes, food & beverage, tiling, etc). Cin7 positions itself as a multi-currency solution, taking exchange rates, duty and freight into account when purchase orders bring in stock.
Reporting & Forecasting
Brixx
We couldn’t just couldn’t help ourselves!
Brixx is far more than the ‘reporting’ category we’re placed in.
Brixx provides detailed financial forecasts for startups, small businesses and accountants. By building a financial model from your Xero chart of accounts you build up a picture of your business that generates a flexible, testable cash flow, profit and loss, and balance sheet reports and beautiful charts.
Brixx will also populate your actuals directly from your Xero data, allowing you to perform actuals vs forecasts and detailed variance analysis with ease!
Brixx also works independently of Xero.
Zoho Analytics
https://www.zoho.com/analytics/
Zoho Analytics is a business intelligence and analytics platform that allows users to pull in data from a wide variety of sources. This amalgamation of data allows you to create dashboards, reports and more with style.
Zoho Analytics has over 100+ data connectors and hourly data refreshes making it suitable for any type of business.
Clarity HQ
Built for accountants, bookkeepers and advisers, Clarity HQ is a “systemised business strategy & goal setting tool that enables business owners to understand and improve their numbers and create a clear strategic plan to build their ideal business.”
Their integration with Xero (& Quickbooks) pulls data from your Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet to calculate what Clarity refers to as the ‘7 key numbers of your business’, including revenue growth, EBITDA, gross profit etc.
Financial Plans Made Easy
These integrations are great for making your day to day business activities run more smoothly and for providing solid data on how the business is performing financially and operationally.
But what about the future? For businesses that have not yet started trading and those which are taking on new ventures and wish to test the sensitivities of business decisions, a different kind of tool is needed. Brixx provides detailed forecasts for startups, small businesses and accountants. By building a financial model you build up a picture of your business that generates a flexible, testable cash flow and beautiful charts and reports.
