Xero’s app marketplace has over 800 apps to help small businesses and their advisors succeed. Each month we celebrate an app partner who stands out for helping small businesses thrive. Find out more about becoming a Xero app partner here.

Shoutout to our April app partner of the month, Vonto – a business insights app that removes the noise and complexity from your business data. Elliot Cousins, Managing Director at Vonto, outlines how Vonto extracts key business data so businesses and advisors can see the information that matters most.

Levelling the playing field

With a background in fintech and financial services, Elliot had experience working closely with small businesses across Australia and New Zealand. He developed a passion for digital technology, after seeing how it can help level the playing field for small businesses. He also identified a need to make business data easier to digest for advisors and business owners alike.

“I recognised there were a lot of great apps out there for business owners and advisors, but there was a gap in helping connect owners and advisors across all those apps they connect to  in a super easy way, and across more than just the financials,” Elliot explains.

From this seed, Vonto was born – a tool that gives business owners the power to make better informed decisions every day. By bringing data together from across a selection of small businesses apps, Vonto is able to generate meaningful insights that keep business owners and their advisors up-to-date.

Bringing the data together

For small businesses using multiple apps, keeping across all of them can be tricky and time consuming. Vonto works by securely connecting to these apps and generating a centralised daily feed of 10 insights, direct to owners and advisors. These insights can be across sales, outstanding invoices, website performance, social media engagement and more.

“Vonto gives businesses and their advisors a near real-time view of how they are performing across every part of their business, and what they need to act on,” says Elliot. “It takes the guesswork out of what’s going on.”

90% of Vonto’s customers say it saves them time during their work day, and 85% say they know their business better as a result of using Vonto.

Integrating with an accounting platform like Xero, is a key part of how Vonto provides the full picture of business performance. The secure connection between Vonto and Xero means that key financial metrics can be surfaced in bite-sized chunks.

“Xero is an important partner for Vonto and has been one of our most demanded connections by customers,” says Elliot. “Vonto and Xero together are incredibly powerful for business owners.”

Connecting more closely

Providing a full-spectrum of insights from across the business means owners and their advisors see the same range of information, and can work more closely together on meaningful next-steps. Christine Hanna, Senior Account Manager from outsourcing firm hammerjack, knows this first-hand.

“Vonto has enhanced our relationship with our clients. It’s a no-brainer,” says Christine. “Vonto makes it easy to provide clear, concise and beautiful analytics and reports to clients. It’s revolutionised our conversations with easy to read reporting and trend analysis that highlight areas for us to focus on.”

Creating more for the future

For the team at Vonto, the roadmap ahead is focused on creating more features for their customers. Enhancements on the horizon include expense analytics, real-time business performance tracking, and collaborative tools for business owners and advisors.

“Most of what we’re working on has been requested by customers, which is great,” Elliot says.

Being seen by others

Vonto has had some impressive achievements since launching in early 2020, including winning the AFR Boss 2020 Most Innovative Product in Financial Services award, and being a finalist for the Emerging App Partner of the Year award at the 2020 NZ Xero Awards. While the recognition is amazing, Elliot says it’s the customer feedback that is most important:

“Personally, the most rewarding thing is speaking to customers who genuinely love our product. You can hear it in their voice when they are honestly delighted with the value it’s given them,” he concludes.

Check out how Vonto can help you with your business data.

Vonto is only available to NZ and AU subscribers. Vonto was created as part of x15 Ventures, a Commonwealth Bank of Australia-backed venture-building organisation that nurtures digital innovation.