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- Do This Before You Reconcile Your First Transaction
Do This Before You Reconcile Your First Transaction
Not doing this can cost you hours:
Tam Nguyen
May 11, 2024
Welcome to Zero to Xero where I show you how to make the most of Xero featuring tips and tricks, best practices, ecosystem apps, and more.
Today’s Email
Xero product updates
How to request product features from Xero
Do this before you reconcile your first transaction and save hours of time
Zero to Xero course update
Ecosystem app updates
Xero has been on a roll lately and I’m super excited about it!
For updates to all country editions check out their latest May blog.
As a US resident, I’m very excited to highlight the following updates that came out last week!
PDF Conversions Directly in Xero
I’ve already talked about this update but wanted to point out that even though Xero claims this only works with supported banks…
An accountant friend of mine tried this out with a well-known local credit union’s statement that was not supported by Xero and it worked!
⚠️ Be cautious using this feature with unsupported banks as there may be a lower level of accuracy.
Marking W9s Received in Bulk
Are you ready for the 1099 season?
If you’ve used Xero’s W9 collection feature before you were marking these as received individually.
With this update, you no longer have to do that 🎉
How to request new product features from Xero
I worked for Xero for 4 years and partnered with them for 1 before that.
This is the first I’ve noticed that they are shipping highly requested product features from the Xero Community at the speed they have been lately.
This is a great sign!
If you have a product feature wishlist that would make your life easier then now is a good time to check out the Xero Community and upvote or add new product ideas.
They’re watching 👀
Status updates for requests available
Do this before you reconcile your first bank statement line
I’ve seen this happen more than I’d like to admit.
Accountants and firms who import data to Xero either from scratch or from another general ledger system.
They start reconciling in Xero.
Then they realize, whoops, there’s a bunch of transactions missing over the last year. How did that happen? 😳
Now they’re going through month by month and scrubbing the data.
This resulted in hours and hours wasted. I know, I’ve done it myself.
Please watch this video to prevent making the same mistake:
If you’ve found that the ending balance doesn’t match make sure to check:
that your conversion balances are entered correctly and the date is correct
if you messed up the data import, you can simply delete and start over again
This is the biggest benefit ☝🏼
The time suck comes when you’ve reconciled transactions and then realized you need to start over because it’s too messy to figure out what went wrong.
Being able to wipe the data because you haven’t reconciled yet can be life-saving!
Well, that’s a bit dramatic but hopefully you get the point 😄
I am very humbled by the number of interested people in my course. If you signed up for the free course, thank you 🙏🏼
I wanted to share a quick update with you because you’ve been so great.
I’ve had people worldwide sign up but I want to be very transparent that when I launch the main course, it’ll be directed towards U.S. based accountants.
I’m focusing on the U.S. because that’s what I know and where I have a background.
Does that mean I won’t be covering other Xero country editions in the future?
No.
All it means is that I’ll need to partner with the right people with the right knowledge to bring that content to you.
There’s an opportunity to expand and your interest will help me decide to invest in those areas.
If you haven’t already, please help me learn a bit more about you so I can make better decisions for you.
Here’s the latest within the last week:
When you’re ready, here’s how I can help you learn Xero:
Free Xero Beginner Course - learn more about Xero’s subscription offerings, how to get a simple client set up, reconcile transactions, and run the bank reconciliation report. This gives you a first look at my teaching style and course setup.
Zero to Xero Flagship Course (sign up for the waitlist) - my comprehensive and fully featured course featuring searchable videos, monthly AMAs, and community.
I aim to build the most engaging and fully featured Xero course, ever. I want my students to become confident users of Xero and have a way to stay up-to-date with the latest features.
Cheers,
Tam
P.S. If you find this newsletter helpful share it with people you know!