Not only did Xero tore the house down as the MES Theatre was filled with over 700+ attendees, but they’ve also managed to make some exciting announcements, especially for those businesses in Singapore who are using the accounting software. Here are some of the highlights from Xero Roadshow Asia 2018!
1. Exhibitors at Play
Of course, one of the special things that happened at the roadshow was the appearance by 18 of Xero’s stellar add-onpartners. From HR, data and document management, conversion and so much more, all of them were present at the roadshow.
2. DBS Partnership With Xero
It was also announced that DBS (The Development Bank of Singapore Limited) , regarded as one of Singapore’s finest multinational banking and financial services corporation will be partnering with Xero in aims of simplifying the payments system.
With this new found partnership, small businesses would be able to send out payment instructions from their Xero account to their DBS banking account. It’s really a great feature announced by Xero, for it dissolved the process of double-entering bill details, thus saving time and effort for users of both platforms.
Check out this article from Xero’s Help Centre to know everything about this new partnership between Xero and DBS.
3. A Timely Reflection
“The trick (for accountants) is figuring out where you can still value-add” — Evan Law
Evan Law, Chief Executive of the Singapore Accountancy Commission (SAC) appeared at the Xero Roadshow to share his insights about the importance of embracing technology on improving the accounting industry itself, as well as how today’s accountants can utilise Xero’s unique set of tools on transforming their practice.
We’ve also learned that the accounting industry is suddenly growing really fast. Looking back, we’re just employees who would usually crunch numbers with the use of a paper and calculator.
Now, things have changed ever since the emergence of cloud computing, and we believe that in order to sustain our growth as we make that transition to digital accounting, we would need to acquire these 10 skills:
- Complex Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Creative Analyzation (Out-of-the-Box Comprehension)
- Proper Management of People
- Continuous Coordination with People
- Emotional Intelligence
- Concrete Judgment and decision making
- Relevant Service orientation
- Cognitive Flexibility
- Harmonious Negotiations
Aside from the skills mentioned above, it’s also important that not only we would equip ourselves with this knowledge, but also be able to share these technical skills with other firms through seminars and training sessions — that way we’d be able to empower them on becoming “future-ready” as they face much complex acquisitions ahead of them.
4. Importance of Client Satisfaction
In order for a firm to sustain its exponential growth, one needs to have constant communication with clients. We should always remember that our clients are the heart of our business and we need to ensure that they’re happy and satisfied at the end of the day.
Talking to our clients and asking them on how good we’re performing as of late, accepting suggestions that would help us improve for the better and finding out what their needs could make a good example out of that factor.
Not only we’d be able to shift from a simple bookkeeping to an efficient consultancy/advisory level firm, but we could also sustain and attract more clients in the process.
5. The Answers are Still Out There, Don’t Be Afraid to Explore
As part of today’s league of modern accountants, one of our main objectives is to continuously evolve our practice with the help of today’s technology, which is why we need to keep ourselves updated and with the newest products available in the market, explore them and utilize it at our full potential, do gradual processes and look for more rooms of improvement if necessary, so that we can focus on the 20% of our clients that we get 80% of our revenue from, and as much as possible cascade it to the team. — We believe that the answers are still out there, and we still have many things to learn.
6. GST Advancements for Xero
Also announced in the roadshow are the enhancements that were made for the GST functionality in Xero, wherein the multi-currency feature would now be available for the GST audit report — with many other improvements underway, businesses in Singapore will soon be able to streamline their management of financial data through the use of Xero.
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