From XU Magazine, 
Issue 21

A Day in the Life… Sarah, a Bookkeeper at Fast Bookkeeping

It’s the start of Sarah’s day and she is already stressed over the amount of paperwork she is facing to meet her client’s deadlines. Sarah is a bookkeeper and owner of Fast Bookkeeping. Lately, Sarah has been finding it difficult to stay on top of things, the business is growing and the administrative time is quickly becoming overwhelming, and non-billable!
This article originated from the Xero blog. The XU Hub is an independent news and media platform - for Xero users, by Xero users. Any content, imagery and associated links below are directly from Xero and not produced by the XU Hub.
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By mid-morning much of Sarah’s time has been spent dealing with clients who are behind on their own books. A client stops by in a mad rush to drop off a box of receipts. Of course, the receipts are not categorised so they all need to be sorted before entering. Their Accountant is pressuring her to get the books up to date so they can file the client’s overdue taxes.

While eating lunch she multi-tasks and enters her clients expenses into Xero, in an attempt to cross an item off of her daily ‘to do’ list. It was at that moment Sarah realised she was fighting a lost cause, she knew it was time to find a better approach before she drowned in administration.

That afternoon Sarah finds herself trying to figure out and fix payroll errors for a client who is still using paper timesheets, post-it notes and emails to track employee time. With a sigh, she flicks through the information spending a detailed amount of  time to ensure it is done correctly so there are no tax liabilities. When she looks up at the clock it is already 6pm and getting dark out.

Sarah calls it a day and heads home for the night taking her laptop with her so she can work on her own client invoices. Sitting in front of the TV, she starts to enter her time and inventory items into her spreadsheet, and realises she forgot to log time for the previous week as well. She cusses at herself and wonders why she cannot remember to do such a simple and fundamental task. In frustration she calls on her somewhat okay memory and starts to fill in her spreadsheet.

By the time her head hits the pillow it’s late and when she finally falls asleep she dreams of invoices, expenses, cash flow and the things still staring at her on her ‘to do list’. She wakes up early, strangely fresh and full of energy. Sarah rolls out of bed, grabs a coffee and fires up her laptop to find a time tracking solution, a quick consult with Google and she is already feeling more in control.

Sarah had been a long time user of Xero and most of her customers were too so she really did need a one-size fits all solution. A few clicks later she found herself staring at the answer to all of her problems.

A free timekeeping account plus a 20% commission!

Sarah had stumbled across a timekeeping and billing app that integrated with Xero payroll and accounting. The app would allow her to automate her time and expense tracking and simplify her invoicing. She found herself daydreaming about what she might do with all her free time, but the good news was that it didn’t stop there. This product offered an Advisor Program which means she wins and so do her clients. The 20% commission was simply the icing on the cake.

Sarah arrived at work with a bounce in her step. She had applied to the eBillity Advisor Program and had been given a free Time Tracker account, she couldn’t wait to get started. She got her account setup and connected to Xero in no time at all, to her surprise it was more simple than she thought.

After only three weeks things had already started to improve. Sarah was finally feeling on top of things; her payroll was seamless and her invoices were all up to date including her timekeeping. She had no idea how much money she was losing and estimated a 20% increase in profitability by tracking her time more accurately.

With that thought in mind she opened her email and started to write a message.

Dear Valued Clients,

Over the past few weeks I have been trialing a new timekeeping and billing application that fully integrates with Xero. I have been using this successfully within my business and I am already starting to see the results.

I wanted to share this with you as a valued client of Fast Bookkeeping so that you too can enjoy the benefits. The application is called Time Tracker by eBillity, they offer a free 14-day trial. I would be more than happy to show you how this can help you run your business more efficiently to save you time and improve your profitability.

Visit www.ebillity.com and please call me should you want to learn more or talk to me about how this has made our lives more simple.

Sincerely,

Sarah Winchester

Fast Bookkeeping

To Sarah’s delight, many of her clients responded, so she decided to run a live webinar. With the help of her eBillity Account Manager, she was able to facilitate a live product demonstration that resulted in several clients signing up for a free trial.

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, into the future…

A few months later and Sarah finds herself having lunch with a potential new client at a local cafe where she had always wanted to go. While she was waiting she found herself thinking… no more bland sandwiches over data entry for me.

Why leave it there?

Do you want to be more like Sarah? Become an eBillity Advisor today and start saving time and money with your free Time Tracker account, and earn a 20% commission when your clients subscribe too. Please visit

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