Xero continues to release some fantastic new features to its beautiful cloud based accounting software.
The most recent feature includes:
- Batch deposits
- Receipts for customer invoice payments
- Faster Spend/Receive Money data entry
- New Profit & Loss report added to the new reports platform
- Disposal Schedule report added
- Improved search for contacts when entering transactions
- New inventory item fields
- Export invoices and bills
- Internet Explorer 8 support discontinued
See further detail below on all the new releases, but if you have any questions in regards to anything Xero please don’t hesitate to contact one of the HTA Advisory Team on (03) 9810 3666.
Batch Deposits
Does your business still receive cheques that you deposit in batches in your bank account? And do you have customers that make a single payment for multiple invoices? Well you’re going to love the new Batch Deposits function in Xero. This new function is going to save you data entry time and speed up your bank reconciliation. A simple process to commence using Batch Deposits:
- Create a batch deposit
- Go to Accounts > Sales
- Click on Awaiting Payment panel
- Select the invoices you want to include in the batch deposit by click on the check box next to it
- Click Deposit
- Enter information into the batch deposit fields. Batch deposit fields explained here.
- Adjust the amounts in the Payment column if you have received part-payments
- Click Deposit
- Print a batch deposit summary to take to your bank (optional)
- Send receipts to customers to customers for the invoices in a batch deposit (optional)
- Reconcile a batch deposit when your deposit appear in your bank account
Receipts for customer invoice payments
We have been waiting for this release for a while. Finally we can thank our clients for their business and payment by issuing a receipt – email or print. This can also be branded with your business’ logo and you can also manipulate the email template for sending the receipt electronically to add your own touch to thanking your clients. Click here to find out more.
Faster Spend/Receive Money data entry
When you are in the Account Transactions tab of your bank account, you can now enter transactions by clicking + New Transaction. You can easily switch between a Spend Money or Receive Money transaction using the drop down box and don’t forget to attach your invoice or receipt to the transaction as well.
You will note that the Account Transactions tab has had a slight upgrade allowing for quick switch between bank accounts and providing a more touch friendly user interface. You will see this interface more and more throughout Xero as they continue to release new features.
New Report Platform – Profit & Loss and Disposal Schedule have been added
If you haven’t already checked out the new reports that Xero has released so far, we encourage you to jump in have a look as Xero will continue to roll out new funky reports giving greater flexibility.
To access the new reports:
- Click on Reports > All Reports
- At the top of the Reports screen you will see the following banner. Click on Try out the new reports.
The most recent reports released are the new look Profit & Loss and a Disposal Schedule for those utilising Fixed Assets.
Improved search for contacts when entering transactions
With the new and improved search function within Xero, you now only need to enter 3 key letters of your contact’s name for Xero to commence searching. Another funky feature is that you can now search for the primary contact person for your contact’s organisation as well.
For example, if you want to find HTA Advisory, enter “HTA” and all your contacts with HTA in their name will appear.
New inventory item fields
Xero have added some additional fields to your Items:
- Item Name – allows more flexibility to have an item name separate from your item code and provide further assistance when choosing the correct item for sales invoices and/or bills.
- Supplier Description and Purchases Description – these two fields now allow you to add a different message or a purchase/catalogue code for your suppliers, allowing you to tailor the default item description seen by customers and/or suppliers.
Click here for assistance in adding, editing or deleting your inventory items
Export invoices and bills
It’s now easy to get your invoice data out of Xero, not just summarised totals, but line-by-line detail. Click here for further information on exporting invoices and bills
Internet Explorer 8 support discontinued
As mentioned in previous blogs, Xero was discontinuing to use Internet Explorer 8 as a supported browser. This has now been officially discontinued. If this affects you, please upgrade your browser or switch to another supported browser; HTA recommends using Google Chrome.
