Xero, the global small business platform, unveiled a suite of new product innovations that streamline accounting and compliance tasks for its US customers. The new innovations, announced at Xerocon Nashville, can help small businesses and their advisors manage cash flow and finances more efficiently, simplify sales tax and compliance, and gain deeper insights.

Diya Jolly, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Xero, said, “We are committed to delivering on our business strategy which includes building winning solutions in payments and core accounting for our US customers. Today's announcements demonstrate our investment to address the unique needs of this market. This includes enhancing our core accounting capabilities with an improved bank feed experience, new bank reconciliation features, sales tax and 1099 improvements, while also continuing to localize Xero for the US. Additionally, we are launching new technology to facilitate making and collecting payments, saving businesses time and importantly, helping them get paid faster.”

New features streamline payments for small businesses

Managing cash flow is more important than ever for US small businesses, with Xero research showing 58% spending a considerable amount of time chasing late payments from customers. To help them get paid faster and better manage their cash flow, Xero is introducing new features, including:

• New beta for bill payments: Xero's new embedded bill payment solution, powered by BILL, simplifies paying vendors and improves cash flow management with the ability to quickly and easily pay within the Xero experience. Soon available in beta, this solution allows small businesses and their advisors to approve and pay bills, without leaving Xero. By embedding BILL’s payment capabilities and payment choices into Xero, small businesses gain the flexibility to pay bills via ACH transfer, credit or debit cards or can choose for BILL to send a check to the vendor. This saves valuable time on administrative tasks and having greater visibility and control over cash flow. See the demo here
• Get paid in more ways: With 62% of US consumers* wanting an easy payment process to ensure they pay invoices on time, Xero is equipping small businesses to provide consumers with more choices. In partnership with Stripe, Xero is enabling more new payment types including direct bank transfers and ‘buy now, pay later’ options, in addition to existing options for credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets
• Tap to Pay: Early next year, through our partnership with Stripe, Xero will launch Tap to Pay, allowing small businesses to quickly create an invoice in the Xero Accounting app and take a payment on the spot using their mobile, helping small businesses get paid faster
• SMS invoices: Xero will provide customers the ability to send invoices to their customers via mobile SMS, available in beta later this year in the new version of invoicing

Powering up core accounting with critical new features

Xero is further localizing its US product with a number of core accounting updates:

• Enhanced bank feed experience: Xero has increased the number of its direct feeds in the US and Canada from 20 to over 700 in the past 18 months, through partnerships with aggregators like Yodlee and Flinks. It includes banks like American Express, Charles Schwab, PNC Bank, and TD Bank in the US, as well as the National Bank of Canada and EQ Bank in Canada, with hundreds more coming soon
• New bank reconciliation to a period feature to support reconciling to a period or bank statement: The new feature allows accountants and bookkeepers to easily identify discrepancies between bank statements and entries in Xero. This will enable them to verify the accuracy of their financial data and categorize and balance transactions at the end of each month, helping to ensure their data is accurate
• Enhanced bank feed monitoring of bank feed reliability and operational status: We’ve developed new technology that helps us more accurately detect when a bank feed is down. In the coming months, Xero will integrate it into the platform to notify customers of disruptions, and allow for customers to report a bank feed issue directly to us by clicking a button in Xero
• New localized chart of accounts and reporting features: Xero will soon have localized charts of accounts optimized for business types (i.e C-Corp, S-Corp, LLC, etc.) and to help businesses seamlessly onboard with standardized accounts set up. Additionally, Xero updated financial reports to meet the unique needs of the US market with an enhanced trial balance report that enables users to set custom date ranges

Enhanced sales tax and compliance features, and powerful client insights

Xero continues to invest in freeing up US accountants and bookkeepers to focus on advisory by releasing a suite of new features, including:

• Streamlined W-9 collection: Xero has integrated W-9 requests and collection into contacts, helping small businesses with independent contractors capture and track W-9 information throughout the year, making 1099 preparation more seamless
• Expanded state-based sales tax reporting: Building on Xero’s auto sales tax calculations, powered by Avalara, Xero has expanded state-based reporting to all invoicing users, enabling businesses to automatically generate sales tax reports for each state and filing period. This improved workflow eliminates manual work, reduces filing stress, and helps businesses meet deadlines
• Preview of client insights: This is a new dashboard, soon to be available in Xero Practice Manager and Xero HQ, that provides advisors with visibility into their clients’ key metrics and financial health. Now in beta, this feature enables advisors to quickly identify clients in need of support and target advisory services more effectively

These innovations reflect Xero's commitment to tailoring its product experience to meet the needs and expectations of US customers.

*‘I want to pay that way’ - A Xero report