Xerocon London 2018 Summary – Day 1

Wow what a time we had last week at Xerocon London 2018. Thanks to everyone for making us feel so welcome and educating us but also the hospitality which we probably enjoyed a bit too much. You know who you are Receipt Bank and Practice Ignition.

We know there are already a hundred and one articles out there but we thought we would chip in with our key takeaways and action points from Xerocon. Primarily to serve as a reminder to us of what we should be looking at but also for those that could not attend. The world is changing, and that positive change can only be influenced and shaped by people so hopefully you find this a good read and can help us in making that change.

Opening Keynote
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
09:15am – 10:00am
Gary Turner

“There were 3,035 attendees which is 50% up on last year, next big thing isn’t AI its people. Human at ❤. The world of work is humanizing.”

Couldn’t agree with Gary Turner more on this subject. When we talk AI, machine learning and automation with business owners the first instinct is to think about people cost savings. NO. That is wrong. Think better customer relationships, think better customer services. Think Relationship, Engagement and Experience. After all, when everyone has automated the hell out of everything why should someone choose to work with you. Its not going to be because you have the same tech and software as everyone else.

Xero now has 3,000 employees globally, 300 employees the in UK and businesses processed 152m transactions in the last 12 months, there are 355k subscribers in the UK over 100k up on last year.

New education centre in Milton Keynes with classroom training.

MTD is in public beta from 14th November 2018. Re-engineered the VAT experience from the ground up. It is faster, and you can now do adjustments Partial Exemption and VAT scale charge adjustments. First 200k letters are going out to small businesses today and expect more advertising. Xero campaign running is ‘making tax less taxing’ with Dexter. Very cheesy for our liking but hey if it gets the message through who are we to argue.

April 2020 corporation tax and income tax is likely for MTD. This is the proper beginning of digital era, the switch over from Analogue to digital. For example, the average stock holding period in 2000 was 8 months and it was 22 seconds in 2011. Spotify 40m songs with 20k added a day. There were 3.5m businesses in 2000 it will soon be 6m. It has never been easier or quicker to set up a business. We are now in the World of abundance. What do Xero need to build to cope with 20m businesses as this could soon become a reality in the next few decades. You need to start thinking about what this means for your business. Xero have, and it goes a little something like this:

• Open banking
• Code free accounting using AI (more on this later)
• Xero approved by FCA as a ISP
• Bank feed API which will probably end up bigger than current marketplace
• Instafile purchased to file accounts, corp tax and income tax which now completes all compliance elements

If you haven’t already done so then check out Google AI chat-bot in the video below to see just how big the strides have been in AI recently.

Looking to the future
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
10:00am – 10:25am
Steve Vamos

We are moving from the Industrial Age to the Connected Age. Peoples needs wants and expectations are evolving. Whatever industry you work in that needs to evolve to avoid wholesale disruption.

Accountants need to move from the green to the blue space to avoid becoming obsolete. They may not come naturally but what choice do you have? Doing nothing is not an option.

What’s new in Xero for running your practice
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
11:45am – 12:30pm
Anna Curzon

1.1m businesses are ready for MTD for VAT which is twice as many businesses as the whole of NZ. Currently only 20% are digital which equates to 880,000 migrating before April 1st. This represents a whopping 6,284 per day.  This goes someway to highlighting the plight of small business owners and their advisors right now.

This is great news for most Xero partners who have all their clients on a digital platform but not so good for those businesses whose advisers have not yet informed them about MTD.

27% of those businesses are looking for a new accountant per Xero research which is 297,000 businesses looking for a new advisor. Xero partner clients spend 6 hours less per week on work. What would you do with that free time? Family, hobbies earn more!

What do you need to complete to be ready for MTD?

• Sign up for an agent services account with HMRC
• Identify impacted clients
• Create a migration plan
• Develop a communication plan
• Register your interest in the Xero MTD for VAT beta

As Xero evolves so does the Xero Partner Programme and advisor certification process. There are now many more badges available to partners to showcase their talents. If you want to be found for the right reasons in the Xero Advisory Directory then you need to invest the time and effort to complete the relevant badges such as the Construction Industry course. Potential business is out there looking for someone to work with who knows their field.

Quicktalks – Data conversion best practice
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
2:00pm – 2:30pm
Matt Willis

If you have ever wondered how to get your data into Xero in the most efficient way then you are quite sad, but this is what this session tackled. As Xero Migration Certified users we have been through this process and have helped over 150 business through this journey.

It is true that there are free conversion tools for Sage Line 50 and QuickBooks out there that can help with the process but that data conversion is just one small element of the entire process. As such what we provide is a complete end to end solution whereby we will walk you through from which is the correct piece of software, what should be converted, configuration of the new system, conversion of data, new process, procedures and systems, staff training and ongoing support to name but a few stages. Didn’t realise there was so much to it? That’s because you are being sold software and the transition needs to be seen to be a painless, quick and cheap option.

We don’t sell software we sell business solutions so for a more pragmatic approach to a Xero migration please feel free to get in touch. You can 100% complete this yourself but I am sure your time and money is better spent doing something you enjoy rather than a one off project.

Just Add Tech can also complete a Xero Data Conversion for Kashflow, FreeAgent, VT and Tas.

That’s a wrap for day one so don’t forget to keep an eye out for day two of Xerocon London 2018 coming soon.