8 Xero apps that will give you more time to work on your business

You’ve no doubt heard that the best way to grow your business and maximise its potential is to spend less time working in it and more time working on it. But often that’s easier said than done, especially if your business is just getting off the ground. So how can you find the time to step away from what you’re doing and think about what you should be doing?

Using a cloud-based accounting system such as Xero for your bookkeeping is a great place to start. Not only will it save you time, it will also help you make the right decisions for your business by giving you up-to-date information whenever and wherever you need it.

But what if you’re already using Xero? Well, there are plenty of apps (or ‘add-ons’) you can use with Xero to save yourself even more time.

Here at Antoinette Palmer Chartered Accountants we’ve been reviewing the various Xero apps in the marketplace. And here are eight that could save you a significant amount of time in your business.

For businesses in all industries

Receipt Bank imports the information from your receipts and invoices into Xero ready to match with your bank feed quickly, efficiently and accurately. It’s as simple sending a photo, emailing an attachment or uploading it to the website. You don’t even need to add a description, as Receipt Bank can get that information from your receipt.

And because your receipts are stored securely in the cloud, and always accessible, once you’ve scanned the receipt you can throw it away.

Timely can provide online scheduling for your business. Customers can make bookings through your website, on Facebook, and from their smartphone or tablet. It can send SMS and email reminders automatically to help reduce no-shows, and you can post an invoice to Xero as soon as the appointment finishes.

Best of all, its reporting system can give you an overview of your business and your staff, and help you analyse your bookings to eliminate inefficiencies.

For businesses in the medical and allied health industry

Cliniko the web-based practice management app, is used by more than 10,000 practices around the world. It can help you manage your schedules, notes, invoices and payments. You can even set it up to send SMS and email reminders automatically, reducing the chances of no-shows. And because it integrates with Xero’s API (Application Programmer’s Interface), you no longer have to worry about double entries.

Surgical Partners creates a link between your Practice Management System and Xero. Built for medical practices, it controls bank reconciliation and automates billings to individual doctors. Doctors can also check their share of billings in real time using the mobile app.

HealthKit is a complete practice management app. And best of all, it’s free.

It lets you Invoice patients, funding bodies and other organisations that use your services. And you can quickly create reports by practice, practitioner, patient, fee, or payment status, regardless of whether yours is a sole, group or multi-disciplinary practice.

It also lets you:

• integrate patient notes, referrals, clinical reports, appointments and invoices in one complete patient profile
• create letters, referrals, reports and notes from a comprehensive library of templates
• manage appointments under referral, treatment reports and letters in one place
• update invoices and fees within your case notes
• use a single diary across multiple locations and multiple practitioners.

Patients (both current and potential) can use it make appointments, saving administration time and streamlining your bookings. And it can automatically send appointment reminders by SMS and email.

For businesses in the building and construction industry

Fergus is a cloud-based job management app built specifically for tradies. Its Centralised Status Board provides a quick overview of how the business is running and what needs attending to each day.

Fergus certainly has all the bells and whistles, and seems to cover everything a tradie needs, including:

• detailed job cards
• scheduling system
• site visits
• calendar management
• timesheets
• notes and job history
• purchase orders
• team notice board
• push notifications
• contacts
• query management
• GPS tracking
• store files and photos
• back costing
• invoice builder
• terms of trade
• payment terms
• reporting

Tradies can email and SMS customers and staff directly from Fergus. There’s even a Fergus mobile app that lets them do everything on site as well as in the office.

Workflow Max is Xero’s own app for handling leads, quotes, time tracking, job management, invoicing and job profitability reporting. As you’d expect from a Xero product, it features two-way integration with Xero’s online accounting system and the same great support you get with their core products.

Workflow Max also has a mobile app that lets you enter job times and track their progress from anywhere.

Finally, get rid of paper timesheets by using TSheets with Xero Accounting and Payroll. TSheets lets you track time and schedule your employees from anywhere you have access to the internet. It can even record the time and GPS location of your employees from when they clock in until they clock out again.

No more manual data entry or hunting down time cards. Just click the button to export the data to Xero. It really is a one-click payroll and invoicing system.

As you can see, Xero apps can potentially save you a lot of time. And as we all know, time is money. More importantly, it will give you a chance to focus on your business’ ‘long game’ so you can prepare for the future.

If you’d like to know more about these apps, or any other Xero apps that are available, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.