Xero connects with over 1,000 apps that help small businesses and their advisors succeed, check out the Xero App Store. Each month we celebrate an app partner who stands out for helping small businesses thrive. Find out more about becoming a Xero app partner here.

Xero recently hosted Xerocon New Orleans, one of the most anticipated events on the calendar for cloud accounting leaders. We were excited to reconnect with hundreds of accounting and bookkeeping partners in the United States and Canada, and share the latest product developments across Xero, three years on from Xerocon San Diego in 2019.

Attendees also had an opportunity to hear from our ecosystem app partners, who are an essential part of Xero’s small business platform vision and enabling small business success. As part of our Xerocon special edition App Partners of the Month series, we’re bringing you a snapshot of the Xero app partners that exhibited at Xerocon New Orleans (24-25 August).

Getting the full picture from your data

Data and analytics continues to reshape small businesses of all kinds. This includes farmers and their accountants, who are using technology to uncover key insights about their farm and then model out their options, whether they’re looking to buy more land or diversify their operations.

Figured

One of those apps is Figured. “Figured works hand in hand with Xero to help farmers and their accountants get a true picture of the farm’s profitability and performance,” says James Higgie, Business Development Manager at Figured. “Figured was built to work with Xero from the beginning, so users can count on the accuracy of the financial data flowing through from Xero. Add in on-farm production information, such as livestock movements or yields, to track their progress and operators get clarity on their farm’s current and future performance.”

Syft Analytics

Syft Analytics is also helping accountants and bookkeepers tap into foundational data to deliver valuable insights to their clients and support client growth.

“Syft’s objective is to deliver insights to businesses that enable tangible actions to be taken by owners to improve performance” says Vangelis Kyriazis, CEO at Syft. “We do this by getting closer to the operational and transaction-level data supported by Xero. Using this foundational transactional data, we empower accountants and bookkeepers to deliver valuable advice to their clients and strengthen their business partnerships.”

Improving cash flow in times of inflation

Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business, particularly during times of economic uncertainty. As inflation continues to rise, small businesses need to stay on top of their accounts and work with their advisors to ensure they’re maintaining cash flow and profitability.

Relay

“Relay is helping small business owners take control of their cash flow,” says Yoseph West, Co-founder and CEO at Relay. “With Relay, each business can use up to 20 checking accountants to organise expenses and cash reserves. We also offer each business the ability to issue 50 physical or virtual debit cards, making it easy to keep track and set budgets for team members and spending categories, like marketing and travel.”

Veem

“Veem helps small businesses save time and optimise cash flow by simplifying the way they send and receive payments domestically and internationally,” says Marwan Forzley, CEO at Veem. “Veem’s robust two-way integration uses Xero as the source of truth to eliminate double data entry, reduce human error, and provide automatic reconciliation. Businesses have the power to pay how they prefer and eliminate friction with customers to get paid faster.”

Plooto

“Whether sending money domestically or internationally, Plooto’s platform saves accountants and bookkeepers across North America hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars each year, allowing them to grow their business faster and wow their clients,” says Hamed Abbasi, Co-founder and CEO of Plooto. “Plooto’s AP and AR platform is a staple in any firm’s cloud accounting tech stack today, particularly if they want to move their entire payment operations to the cloud and eliminate manual data entry, manual payment processing (including cheque payments) and reconciliation.”

Going paperless and staying compliant

A common theme we observed during the pandemic was the accelerated digitalisation and shift to paperless processes in accounting firms, bringing with it increased efficiency and compliance.

ApprovalMax

“Our customers say ApprovalMax is a game-changer that delivers improved efficiency, time savings, easier compliance, as well as data accuracy,” says Helmut Heptner, Managing Director at ApprovalMax. “We’re thrilled that our integration with Xero is transforming and automating the approval process for so many businesses globally, and that together we’re helping so many businesses go paperless.”

OnPay

Automating payroll also helps to drive accuracy and efficiency, and minimise compliance risk.

“OnPay helps accountants and bookkeepers scale their services with easy, accurate payroll and HR software,” says Katelyn Hockmeyer, Senior Director of Partner Development at OnPay. “Accountants can run payroll in a few clicks, automate taxes and keep every detail synced to the general ledger with our customisable integration with Xero. Backed by 30 plus years of payroll experience, we get things right for every kind of client.”

Democratising enterprise-level technology for small businesses

Encouraging greater digital transformation and democratising access to technology for small businesses is a key focus for the Xero App Store, as well as Amaka.

“We believe everyone should have access to enterprise-level automation without the enterprise-level price tag,” says Pedram Afshar, CEO at Amaka. “Amaka’s accounting integrations allow small business owners and accounting professionals to connect ecommerce, POS and e-signature platforms to Xero. Over the past couple of years, we’ve grown rapidly to over 40,000 connected users globally as a result of our community-based and partnership-first approach.”

Congrats to our app partners

That’s a wrap! Congratulations to our August App Partners of the Month from Xerocon New Orleans.

The final Xerocon of the year, covering Asia, Australia and New Zealand, is taking place at the ICC in Sydney on 7 and 8 September. Follow the Xero and XeroAPI social media channels to keep up with all the action.