Understanding Xero Accounting Software: A Comprehensive Guide

For a business to run smoothly, its owners must be aware of its financial position at any given time. This can help the business managers to make sound financial decisions, which is key for business growth. The business managers should have access to transactions that detail how cash flows in and out of the business. The business managers also need to stay aware of how the business spends on different areas. Being aware of any pending bills from suppliers is also key for the smooth running of a business. 

This means that businesses should have a platform that can help the business managers to keep track of the business expenditure and bills. This will ensure that the business is accountable for any coin that is spent. The best approach to this is the use of accounting software like Xero Accounting Software. Xero Accounting Software can make it easier for business managers to monitor the financial transactions in an organization. In this article, we will be discussing Xero Accounting Software in detail. 

Understanding Xero Accounting Software

Xero Accounting Software is a Cloud-based accounting platform designed for use by small and growing enterprises. It connects businesses with their trusted advisors and gives business owners instant visibility into their financial position. Since it is a web-based platform, its users can access it with their devices from any location provided they have an active internet connection. 

Xero Accounting Software comes with robust accounting features, allowing small businesses to view their cash flows, account details, and transactions from any location. Bank transactions are imported and coded automatically. It has an online bill payment feature that helps businesses to track their spending and know their bills due and maintain a good relationship with business vendors who supply critical business materials.

Xero Accounting Software also makes it easy to manage personal expenses with mobile review and the approval of every receipt. It can also be integrated with various data sources including Bill.com, ADP, and Vend. It comes with a 30-day free trial period to allow you to test and evaluate its features. After the expiry of the trial period, you must pay to continue using Xero. 

Understanding How to use Xero Accounting Software

In this section, we will be showing you how to use Xero Accounting Software. First, let’s discuss more about the Xero Dashboard. 

1. Understanding The Xero Accounting Software Dashboard

The dashboard is the first page that you will see once you log into your Xero account. The dashboard has a lot of data that you can see at a glance as well as a number of shortcuts. 

The top part of the dashboard shows your Bank Accounts, Balances for Important Accounts, and a chart that shows the Unpaid Customer Services. 

The “Bank Accounts” section shows the Reconciliation Status of bank accounts and the Statement Balance. The “Daily Bank balances” is shown in the form of a line chart. 

“Invoices owed to you” shows information about your outstanding customer invoices categorized by invoice status and displayed on a bar chart. You can hover the mouse over the bar chart and you will see more information about it. 

The “New Sales Invoice” link provides you with a shortcut to the “New Sales Invoice” page. 

The “Total Cash In and Out” shows the Cash Flow. It is also summarized in the form of a bar chart. Whenever you hover the mouse over the chart, you will see more information about balances. 

The “Bills you need to pay” gives you information about your outstanding supplier bills per bill status and categorized by date and visualized on a bar chart. 

The “New Bill” link is a shortcut to the “New Bill” page. 

2. Understanding How to Set Up Organization Details

If you run a limited company, it’s good to have a registration number as well as the registered office address. This information should be displayed on any invoices that you give out. 

To add the contact details of your organization, open the Organization Settings page . You will be required to provide your business information such as:

• Display name
• Email
• Legal / Trading name
• Registration Number
• Physical address
• Organization Description
• Registered address
• Phone and fax numbers
• Organization type
• Logo
• Website

3. Understanding How to Configure Financial Settings

You should visit the Financial Settings Page to add the financial details of your company. You will be prompted to enter the following information:

• Financial year end- This will give you the right year-end for your products. 
• Sales Tax/VAT Details- The VAT scheme (cash, flat, or accrual rate), VAT number, and the VAT period. 

4. Understanding How to Set Up Direct Bank Account Feed

A direct bank feed helps you to automatically import your banking activity into Xero Accounting Software. This means that your bank and Xero will be working together to send your financial data over a secure connection to Xero. This means that you will have direct feeds. 

To know whether your bank provides direct bank feeds, visit the partner (direct) bank feeds page on Xero and click your region. You will see the list of banks that Xero has direct feeds with. 

Click your bank and see the account types that are supported. Fill the application form. 

Note that Xero Accounting Software only allows you to have one feed per bank account. It can take up to 10 days for them to set up the direct bank feed. Note that for this to be successful, your Xero Accounting Software account MUST be set up correctly. 

5. Understanding How to Set Up Payroll

Xero Accounting Software Payroll can make it easy for you to monitor your staff costs by keeping your payroll costs in one place. You can get more information on the various steps needed to set up Xero Accounting Software Payroll on the following page. 

If you need to transfer the payroll from another system in the middle of a financial year, ensure that you add the opening balances. 

6. Understanding How to Add Payment Services

You can create a link between your Xero Accounting Software account and any active payment services. Examples of these payment services include PayPal, GoCardless, and Stripe. By providing a wide variety of payment options, it will be easy for you to receive payments from your customers. 

To set up payment services, navigate through Settings -> Invoice Settings -> Payment Services. You can then add the payment service of choice by clicking the “Add Payment Service” button. 

7. Understanding How to Add Users

You can add users to your Xero Accounting Software account and assign them different roles like Accountant, Bookkeeper, etc. 

You can do this by visiting the “Users” page located under “Settings”. 

Next, you can click the “Invite a user” button and fill in the user’s details. 

Once you send the invitation, they will receive it in their email.

Understanding the Limitations of Xero Accounting Software

The following are the limitations of using Xero Accounting Software:

• It takes some time to learn how to use Xero Accounting Software. 
• It limits the number of transactions that you can complete in a month to 2000. 
• Users face challenges when they need to transfer data between Xero Accounting Software and other platforms. 
• It only allows a maximum of 10,000 contact lists. 

Conclusion

In this article, you’ve learned more about Xero Accounting Software and how to set up and use it.

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