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Spotlight Reporting in 2023: A Year of Innovation

December 14, 2023

This article originated from the Xero blog. The XU Hub is an independent news and media platform - for Xero users, by Xero users. Any content, imagery and associated links below are directly from Xero and not produced by the XU Hub.
You can find the original post here:
https://www.spotlightreporting.com/blog-posts/spotlight-reporting-in-2023-a-year-of-innovation

As we say goodbye to 2023 we reflect on what’s been a pivotal year for us, defined by the eagerly awaited introduction of our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting tool, Spotlight Sustain. Throughout the year, we’ve embarked on a journey of innovation, pushing boundaries and embracing new possibilities to bring top-tier reporting tools to you.

We’ve released some highly-demanded updates to the user experience of our flagship product, had the opportunity to sit down and speak with industry experts, including Will Farnell, Amanda Watts, Joe David and more, and we’ve been on the road, attending well-known industry events around the globe, including the Xero Roadshows, Accountex London, Xerocon Sydney and The Digital Accountancy Show.

To showcase what we’ve achieved this year, here are my top five favourite product releases:

1. Spotlight Sustain

Environmental, Social and Governance reporting has become an increasingly necessary aspect of business activity in 2023 and beyond. Not only are enterprises recognising the need to be involved in ‘measuring what matters’, beyond the bottom line, but they are seeking solutions to the problems that organisations and communities face in this modern world.

Recognising this need, we launched Spotlight Sustain. Crafted with you in mind, it’s designed to radically simplify setting and tracking your ESG objectives. Now, you can effortlessly create comprehensive reports that showcase these objectives and your journey toward achieving them.

2. Main Screen Improvements

We incorporated your feedback to improve our main screen experience in Spotlight Reporting and Dashboards. You can now search for organisations in real-time, pin your favourites to the top of the screen, and conveniently sort columns.

3. Text Panels including Colour Customisation

You asked, and we listened. Insert an easily editable text panel alongside your charts, to add commentary, insert auto-text or custom tags, and format to your liking.

Make your commentary stand out by customising the colours of the fonts and backgrounds in text panels. Choose a colour from our palette or use RGB and Hex codes to set the perfect combination for your organisation. Learn more

4. Two-step Authentication

To help ensure your Spotlight Reporting account is more secure, we made two-step authentication (2SA) a requirement for all users logging into Spotlight Reporting.


With security front of mind for many, we also added support for 2SA using an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator. SMS has been removed as a 2SA option. No changes are required if you use Single Sign-On (SSO) to log in.

5. Childcare and Construction Industry Templates

Turn-key report templates are ready to use for entities in either the Childcare or the Construction industries and can be used as a springboard into regular reporting.

These templates are split into two layers—financial metrics and operational metrics—to give a well rounded view against goals and objectives.

See you in 2024!

Don't forget to check our Release Notes page for more info on our latest updates.

As we reflect on the changes of the past year and our commitment to adapt to our users' evolving needs, we take pride in the progress we've made and the vibrant community we're dedicated to serving.

The entire Spotlight Reporting team would like to wish you a fantastic holiday season. Thank you for your ongoing trust and support. We'll return in 2024, rejuvenated from a well-deserved break and poised to make strides anew.

Why leave it there?

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