Released Jan ’17

  • Preview Invoices
  • Change invoice reminder settings in bulk
  • Partner Toolkit in My Xero & Education Tool
  • Add Stripe as a payment option in Xero (NZ, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong)
  • Payroll updates
  • Leave Liability Report (NZ)
  • Statutory payments (UK)

What’s Coming in the next 90 days:

  • Fixed asset tax depreciation & pooling (AU)
  • Xero for iOS updates
  • Quotes on Xero for Android
  • Live contacts & risk indicators
  • Check printing
  • Copy/Transfer bank rules
  • New invoices beta launch
  • Auto-enrolment PensionSync integration
  • Backpackers Tax (AU)
  • WorkflowMax app for Android (for Xero Practice Manager users)
  • Practice Overview in Xero HQ

Remember you can find All Changes & Release Updates to Xero on the Help Centre and of course more information on our enhancements and releases can be found on the blog.

Released in January 2017

Preview Invoices

You are now able to see how your customers view an invoice as you create it. Use the new Preview button on the invoicing screen; you can switch between web browser view and mobile view to make sure you’re happy with the invoice layout. Invoice users are able to see their edits to the invoice in real-time. This release allows you to send beautiful invoices faster and easier than before. Find out more here.

Partner Toolkit in My Xero

Our partners are now able to access the partner toolkit from within My Xero. Previously, partners weren’t able to access the new toolkit while using Xero day to day. You have quick access from within Xero, to tools that help yours practice grow beautifully. Learn more about what tools are available to you.

Add Stripe as a payment option in Xero (NZ, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong)

Now users around the world can set up a Stripe account and start accepting credit card or debit card payments on their Xero invoices. Don’t have a Stripe account? Get set up now, begin taking payments and spend less time chasing overdue invoices and more time working on the things you love. Learn more about Stripe and Xero on the blog.

 

Payroll Updates

Leave Liability Report (NZ)

When businesses prepare their annual financial statements or monthly management reports, they need to include the value of any leave liability. We are pleased to announce that this feature is now included within Xero Payroll for NZ. We are also working on improving the employee opening balance experience to create a better overall experience with reducing time and improving accuracy around understanding leave liability.

Statutory Payments (UK)

Payroll in Xero now lets you work out if your employees are eligible for statutory maternity (SMP) or sick leave (SSP), and capture any leave when you process your pay runs. This is the first in the statutory release series, with others following a little later. You’re now able to enter statutory leave for any employee in the ‘Time Off’ section of Payroll. Xero will do all the background calculations and checks for you, and if the leave is allowable it will add the relevant pay items to the pay run with the appropriate amount to be paid. This will be a great time saver as you won’t need to use the HMRC calculator anymore. Find out more about this release in our help centre.

90 Day Window – What’s Coming

We’re eager to provide you with as many updates as possible around what we’re working on. We have restricted this to a 90 day window as we’re moving at a rapid pace and things change all the time.

Things can change and occasionally product releases will be delayed, and so, in order to give you an update of ‘What’s Coming’, we ask that you bear this in mind.

What’s coming…

Live contacts look-up & credit risk assessments (AU) payment risk assessments (NZ)

Coming soon is the long awaited live contacts look-up and credit risk assessments in Xero. With contacts in Xero, it’ll be simple to search businesses using the live look up function. Once a business is selected, their info will be pre-populated – no more half empty, inaccurate contact cards from the Business Name Registry in Australia and the Companies Office in New Zealand.

Along with the business’s contact details, Xero will display a credit risk assessment (AU) or payment risk assessment (NZ), which is an assessment of your contact’s risk of default or non payment based on their credit history (AU) or payment history (NZ). This information arms you with insights that could help you decide to ask for full payment or a deposit up front, or offer a better deal if they’re reliable payers.

Copy/Transfer Bank Rules

We’re currently working on a release that lets you easily transfer any bank rule applied to another organisation. The ‘copy bank rules’ button will allow you clone rules from another org and bring them into a current org, saving you time and effort. You’ll have the option to set up rules as default and apply to all bank accounts. The enhance validates each rule and should any information be missing, the rule will show up as ‘pending’ until edited and saved to get it activated.

Xero for iOS updates

We’ve been working on a number of enhancements for Xero for iOS. A summary of those available to you now:

New login:

You’ll now have the option to unlock the Xero app automatically when you unlock your iOS device – no Touch ID or pin are required should you choose this security option.

Org Search:

We’ve added org search on the My Xero screen, so you can start typing the org’s name and the results will be show up right away without having to scroll through a long list to find the right one. This enhancement is particularly useful for our accounting partners.

Create Quotes on Xero for Android

With the latest Xero for Android release you can now create and send a quote while still on site for example, and get approval faster. We’re working on the same feature for Xero for iOS, sit tight and watch this space for any updates.

Change invoice reminder settings in bulk

You are now able to select your invoice reminder preferences in bulk. Allowing you as a small business owner to bulk select groups of invoices and switch reminders on or of from the main invoicing list without having to open each invoice individually. You can already do this for your customers from the main contact list, but adding the same functionality to your invoice list makes managing reminders even easier and more tailored to your preference. Bulk selecting invoice reminders will save you time and lets you manage debtors and your cash flow the way you want.

Fixed Assets

Tax Depreciation & Pooling (AU):

Australia has some of the most complex Fixed Assets rules and regulations in the world. To alleviate the pain for our Xero advisors, we are building out the functionality of Fixed Assets in Xero. In addition to managing book values, you will also be able to calculate tax depreciation values and pool assets.

We are doing a progressive roll out of the Tax Depreciation & Pooling function over the next 6 weeks. We will notify your practice as we turn these features on.

0% depreciation (Global):

Fixed Assets will soon allow for assets to be added with 0% depreciation. This is important for customers who want to have assets on the register but not depreciate or add the expense to the P&L, and to assist with private apportionment of assets.

Auto-Enrolment with PensionSync (UK Payroll)

Soon we’re introducing Auto-Enrolment with PensionSync. PensionSync is a 3rd party that provides an API to automate the data exchange between payroll and multiple pension providers. This is a critical component of the Auto Enrolment effort and will allow customers to integrate with many pension providers through a single API connection.

Backpackers Tax (AU)

We’re working on a new functionality that allows AU employers to set up and tax employees on visa subclasses 417 and 462 (working holiday visa); according to new tax legislations.

The post Product wrap-up January 2017 appeared first on Xero Blog.



Source: Xero