Bluehub Talk With Personalities From The Cloud Accounting World

Mel’s role in Xero is to champion the profession of Bookkeepers while representing them back to Xero to develop the product to reflect their needs and requests. She comes from a business background, having run a number of small businesses from technology to motorcycle sales. She had a traditional accountancy practice with manual data entry, labour intensive site visits and billed time that was exhausting. She sold this in 2006 and it wasn’t till 2012 that, on the sale day of the motorcycle dealership, her accountant showed her Xero. That night with a glass of wine she created a new bookkeeping business using Xero which she her business partner still operates while she is away with her Xero role. Mel explains the importance of bookkeepers within the accountancy process, it is the foundation and provides the information that everything else is built on. Now, bookkeeping can be more efficient and with cloud, the whole process can be kept in house as the service has greater profitability. Bookkeepers have the opp

Glen has been involved in technology for accountants for 12 years. He worked with practices to ensure they made the most of the technology available and provided services such as installations and sever management. After a coffee with Gary Turner 7 years ago, Glen joined Xero with his wealth of knowledge and contacts in the UK accountancy industry. He has been focused on educating practices on the benefits of cloud accounting and is pleased to move into a role where he can promote system benefits that improve both practice and client functions. He enjoys the opportunity to guide accountants though the partner journey. The process looks at where the accountant is now, where they want to be and creates a plan to get them there. Plans can cover years as the client to cloud transition is no two week event. Recent changes to the learning area have seen an improved Xero university and certification area, all of which are free to Xero partners. Due to the length of time Glen has worked in the accounting technology s

Blake started out on the path to being a cellist in an orchestra. He was working in a music store and tutoring when the bookkeeper in the company left suddenly during the busy season. He saw an opportunity for a regular role and despite his lack of experience with the software, he stepped up and took the position. He found the flexible hours and the work and went on to study bookkeeping at UCLA. It was while studying that he was approached by Xero and invited to a certification event. Blake was looking for a better way of working. He wanted to get away from driving from client to client, writing cheques and all the manual data entry. He knew cloud was the answer, he did not realise he would be the second person in the US to gain the certification and he was soon contacted by various businesses in need of help. In 2012 he started his own company. Very quickly his practice had a number of clients. He built a company with 12 remote employees and was focused on creating a smooth and transparent onboarding process

Steven has a varied background having started in bio tech and pharmeceuticals following a PhD in genetics. He went on to complete an MBA after discovering an interest in business information systems while consulting and this was the starting point for Satago. The app is designed to help small businesses improve capital and cash flow through credit control software. The automation of chasing debtors, using credit risk data with sales ledger information to provide warnings is a significant asset in financial control. Satago is free for cloud accounting users as the app also provides a dynamic finance option where it makes a small profit to offset the other functions of the software. Users can select specific invoices to gain finance through the app and the program will recommend the most effective financing options to avoid higher charges while freeing up cash. There is no commitment to take the financing at any point although due to the option being available, a credit agreement is required. When asked about t

Matt talked to David, the founder and CEO of Xero add-on Chaser, recognised at 2016’s add-on partner of the year. David qualified as an accountant through the Deloittes grad scheme and went on to head up SME finance teams in businesses that all sold on payment terms. When first exposed to cloud accounting and the Xero platform 3 years ago, David learned a little about software engineering and had the idea for Chaser. The app was launched in August 2014. Chaser is designed to help a business transform and carry out credit control using artificial intelligence and automation to improve cash flow. They are enjoying great working relationships though the Xero ecosystem, being introduced to key figures in the industry early on due to the apps strengths. David explains that Chaser can be configured by users to manage the credit control process, adjusting settings to be unique to the individual business. This can be set right down to individual invoices and creating templates that reflect the unique tone of the user

Garrat has been with Expensify for over 4 years, working up the ladder to Sales Lead for the UK, US and Australia. His describes Expensify as a tool for “expense reports that don’t suck.” Expensify aim to take the pain out of expense reporting by automating as much of the process as possible. They also help users to improve the process by providing pointers to improve data entry. The company have been operating since 2008 and were born from the frustration that founder, David Barrat was having with expense management. He created a great system but the timing with the market crash was awkward. Garrat has found that the transition to cloud accounting has been slow. They are still working on moving people away from the existing desktop based systems. The Expensify app for IOS or Andriod allows users to simply snap a photo of a receipt and the app will do the rest, sending the expense straight to Xero. You can capture mileage, time and trips as well as informing you if your planned flights are running late. Matt

Fresh Financials started out life as Platinum Numbers back in 1999, explains Emma. It was a very traditional bookkeeping service, on-site visits spent sifting through paperwork. Back in 2012 Emma started looking for an alternative way of working. Having used Quickbooks desktop program, she first tried Quickbooks online but didn’t suit her needs. She trialed Xero and found it so easy to use she signed up and moved her practice into the cloud. Although originally her clients were based in and around East Sussex, now Emma works with businesses around the country, with a couple of clients in Canada and France. The ability to work remotely has allowed her to grow her business, removing the limits set by traditional time-restrictive practice. Emma explains that her work has gone far beyond the basic data management. The saving that Emma has offered businesses in time, she has converted to providing business advice, helping businesses grow and make sound strategic decisions. Being specialists in the hospitality s

Today’s guest was Matt Wilkinson from Bizink. Matt is originally from Liverpool and emigrated to New Zealand in 2010. Before leaving the UK, Matt gained experience in eCommerce, setting up his own business after university. He continued gaining experience in eCommerce, including website design and has worked with the Internet since the 90s. Matt explained how he first started working with Xero through Eclipse, his first employer in New Zealand. Eclipse were an accounting software firm that were eventually acquired by CCH which pushed Matt to set up on his own to avoid working for a large corporation. Bizink was created to bring together all the elements that Matt enjoyed during his career. This is a mixture of technology, online marketing, websites, small business advice and working in the accountancy industry. The purpose of Bizink is to help accountants become 'incredible online', generating more leads and converting these to valuable clients. In the same way the Matt outsources his accounting, he helps fir

Matt had a chat with Andrej Glezl, CEO of Datamolino. Andrej went into business with his brother after working in law. He is from a family of accountants so there is a great deal of knowledge of the industry and the pain points businesses need help to solve. Initially, they worked with banks to create a payment system. Through listening to their clients they identified a need to reduce data entry and Datamolino was born in 2013. Although they are based in Slovakia, the company has around 20 staff with offices in the UK and Australia. Datamolino started with customers from previous ventures and has seen a consistent growth from the beginning. The customer base now spans the globe, with the strongest uptake in the Asian Pacific and recent growth in South Africa. Andrej describes Datamolino as a ‘tool that takes away the pain of data entry’, saving time and human resources. This automation offers the opportunity for business growth by increasing capacity.  The add-on has an open API and they welcome integrations