Blog

Welcome to the Cloud Accountants blog. You can expect regular updates about working in the Cloud, how to get the most out of Xero... or whatever...

Happy New Year + Systems Overview

By | March 31, 2015

With the new financial year upon us, there are the usual pieces of information that we need at 31 March for standard balance date businesses. Please see further details below. The end of a financial year/start of a new one is the perfect time to review the systems that you use in your business! We are massive fans at Cloud Accountants of using technology to not only create efficiencies in your businesses, but to provide the necessary tools for you to grow your businesses. Now is the time to... Read more

Xero Annual Meeting 23 July 2014 – Questions?

By | July 3, 2014

Xero’s annual meeting will be held at 4pm on 23 July in Wellington. 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 🙂 ) 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... Read more

Who holds your Xero subscription? It’s your call.

By | May 9, 2014

Wow, the last couple of weeks have certainly caused a stir around client data ownership, Xero subscriptions and who holds them.   At Cloud Accountants we have made the decision to give our clients (both existing and future) the choice of whether they hold their Xero subscriptions or if we do. We believe this is the right thing to do. Yes we do receive a discount for being a gold partner with Xero, that we pass directly onto our clients as a part of our agreed monthly fees. But we do... Read more

Happy New Year + Xero Files!

By | March 27, 2014

With the new financial year literally just around the corner, there are the usual pieces of information that we need as ‘bean counters’ at 31 March for standard balance date businesses. This year end we are encouraging our clients to use Xero Files for uploading these important documents. Files for Xero is another game changer with Xero and again will improve the efficiencies with preparing year end financial statements and tax returns for us at Cloud Accountants and you. We recommend... Read more

Gather – The Unconference

By | July 16, 2013

@nzgather #nzgather Bright and early last Saturday morning, like minded souls ventured out to Ormiston in south east Auckland to participate in ‘Gather – The Unconference.’   What is an Unconference? An unconference is a participant-driven meeting, a conference organised, structured and led by the people attending it. Instead of passive listening, all attendees and organizers are encouraged to become participants, with discussion leaders providing moderation and structure for... Read more

Vehicle Split when reconciling transactions in Xero

By | April 23, 2013

You can work out the business use of your vehicle by keeping a logbook for at least 90 consecutive days. After 90 days you can work out the average proportion of business to private use of your vehicle and claim this back for tax purposes. Once you have done a log book for your vehicle usage you will then need to code your motor vehicle transactions accordingly. Let’s say your vehicle split is 80% business and 20% personal which means that 80% will go to motor vehicle expenses and 20% will... Read more

Expense Claim process for Home Office expenses

By | April 16, 2013

Where a business is operated from home there is the ability to claim as a tax deduction the expenses which relate to the proportion of the home used for business purposes. For example, if a bedroom is set aside as an office for your business and the area of this room is 10% of the home, then this proportion of the expenses is a business expense. In this situation 10% of the home office expenses would be deductible for tax purposes. Compile your home office expenses e.g Power, Telephone... Read more

How to add a condition to an existing bank rule

By | April 9, 2013

Once the Bank Rule is set up, you still need to add new places you visit as a ‘condition’ to the existing bank rule you have already set up. Go to Manage Account on your dashboard and click Bank Rules Go into existing bank rule that you want to add a condition to e.g Entertainment Rules Enter in any new places you want to add under the Spend Money rule In the 1st column you will select ‘payee’ and in the 2nd column select ‘contains’ and then in the 3rd column type in the name of... Read more

How to add a Bank Rule in Xero

By | April 2, 2013

If you deal with cash transactions or don’t enter all transactions in Xero before you import bank statements, set up bank rules: a quicker and easier way to reconcile imported bank statements. With bank rules you define the conditions for each rule to match with your imported statement lines. After you import a bank statement and go to reconcile your account, your rules run. Check out the link below for a video that covers Bank Rules. Go to Manage Account on your dashboard and click... Read more

How to reconcile and split entertainment 50/50 in Xero

By | March 26, 2013

The majority of our clients entertain their own clients and they can deduct this as an entertainment expense. But it is not fully deductible and needs to be split 50/50 between ‘entertainment’ and ‘entertainment non-deductible.’ By setting up an entertainment rule, this makes reconciling these transactions easy and fast. Click ‘add details’ on the right of the screen next to the transaction you are wanting to reconcile On the first line under Description type in what it was e.g... Read more