I cannot attend this year and there does not appear to be an Auckland repeat, so I thought it would be an idea to put together some questions that I would put to the board of Xero. (and maybe, just maybe obtain some responses from Rod either at the AGM or prior )

1. Competition is heating up in the online accounting space both locally and globally. How does Xero, both now and in the future, differentiate itself from its competitors? Especially compared with Intuit and QBO in the US. What is your point of difference?
2. Culture in the workplace. Xero has grown very quickly over the past few years both with paying users and the number of team members. How do you retain the ‘small startup/everyone mucks in’ culture when the company has this extreme growth? Is it a challenge to retain some of the team?
3. Xero has a very open API so third parties can connect to the accounting engine with relative ease. Where do you see the future for this to continue for Xero? And is there any intention to buy companies/systems to add to the suite of Xero services? This is in light of Intuit in the US buying Invitbox, an accounts payable processing system.
4. There is a lot of noise in social media especially on Twitter around Cloud Accounting with different vendors. Do you have a company policy with engaging with competitors? ‘Discussions’ around their products and/or pointing out limitations? Is it not a dangerous game to go down this road?

What other questions would you add?

There are 2 parts to this:

• Transparency when it comes to your financials
• Transparency when it comes to your accountant

Financials

Do you know how your business is performing right now? In real time?

The technology is available now for you to keep a constant eye on how you are going. And now, not in 3 or 6 months time. This is important for your business so you can take the necessary steps now to change if you need to. If you find out that there are problems occurring in your business, it may be too late!

This also impacts on your cashflow and tax projections and keeping on top of your IRD obligations.

Because you will be connected constantly with your accountant, they should be advising on a regular basis. Analysis of aspects that are important to your business so there are no surprises!

Your Accountant

Do you have a clear and predetermined scope of engagement with your accountant? And also agreed timeframes on work?

You should do!

At Cloud Accountants we provide a clear proposal for engagement that is specific to our clients’ individual needs. We make sure that we take the time to outline exactly what is involved so that there are no surprises. (We don’t like surprises!)

It is made crystal clear that anything outside of this agreed monthly fee will be estimated and billed for separately. This way our clients know exactly what they are getting and when they will be getting it.

Our clients value the transparency and honesty, and they thank us for it.

Next up – Are you over the GST changes yet?

So what do you do? It may sound like a personal question….and maybe it is!

Do you relax by playing/watching sport? Spend time with the kids? Maybe DIY is your thing? Read or go to the movies?

These are the activities that you should be involved in, doing the things that you want to do!

But for many small business owners, they are spending their spare time preparing quotes and invoices, processing their business transactions and accounts, or at GST time – spending the whole weekend going through receipts and processing their data!

All small businesses (and freelancers and contractors for that matter) need to create efficiencies in their transaction processing, invoicing and dealings with the tax department!

The technologies are there (Xero, Smartpayroll, Workflowmax, Unleashed, and many many more) for you to make the financial part of your business life a breeze, and leave you free to do the things that you want to do. This could be the suggestions above or working more on growing your business.

Now there is a thought!

For many, the online world can seem a pretty scary place. Cloud Accountants can step you through the process with ease.

It is time to take back some control!

Next up – Transparency

In the early stages of setting up Cloud Accountants, I wanted (needed!) a website that was not the norm in the accounting profession. I was after something fresh, and easy on the eye! For too many firms in the profession, their websites are too wordy, and did not (to me anyway) reflect what current and potential clients required to see from their accountant’s website.

The types of clients that Cloud Accountants wants to engage anyway.

Being a big fan of Xero, and because I religiously follow the Xero blog, I came across website developers, Mogul, and liked what I saw.

Clean and fresh websites, and being able to give them an (almost) free license to develop a website for an accounting firm that was not your typical accounting firm, George and the team accepted the challenge!

The true test was that I am in Auckland and they are in the Hawke’s Bay.

Excellent (I thought), this will be a challenge.

To this day I have not met the Mogul team in person, but they have still managed to build (in my opinion!) an amazing website.

I personally believe that, in this age of the internet and online services that are readily available across numerous service industries, your geographic location should not be a barrier to doing business. As long as you have access to the internet, you can communicate across Skype and other mediums. You do not actually need to meet face to face.

And by using Xero, the online accounting system, you can access your financial information anywhere, anytime. But more than that, Cloud Accountants as your advisers, can offer you advice on your financial information, whether you are in Auckland, Taupo or Invercargill!

Thank you the team at Mogul for proving that business can be done remotely!