Q4 2021 Software Updates You Should Know About
Xero
In the last few months of 2021, Xero has made some significant changes to their product. You may have noticed that some pages in Xero look a little different. The Contacts, Bank Rules and Products & Services pages have had a revamp. These pages now have additional functionality and are set up for further great updates to be easily made. In particular, the Contacts page will soon provide you with more information about your customers, meaning you’ll be able to make smarter business decisions.
You’re probably familiar with the Bank Reconciliation page. It still has all the same great functionality as before but with a more modern look. Some customers have indicated that the new look doesn’t fit their screen as well as the previous layout. As a result, Xero is rolling out a ‘Compact’ viewing option. Look for the toggle at the bottom of your bank reconciling screen. If the update has been rolled out to you, you’ll be able to toggle between viewing options.
Xero has also been working on upgrading the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss reports. These are two of the most commonly used reports and the updates have made them even easier to use. Xero has added a new collapsible side panel that gives you easy access to a selection of common formats for these reports so you can view the valuable information you need in a form that works well for you. For the Profit and Loss report specifically, you can also now add Total and Year To Date columns using the ‘More’ button.
Farm Focus
As you probably know, Xero is not the only accounting software that we work with. Among many others, Farm Focus—a financial management software that provides a big picture view of farm performance—is a software that more and more of our clients are using.
A few great new features include:
- A new Bill Payments page. This makes paying bills easier than ever. You can create batches, view outgoing invoices, print invoice lists and monitor the bank balance.
- When budgeting, you can now add a “Current Month Revision” in the Working Plan. This includes unpaid invoices in the current month, which can provide a more accurate picture of your business’ financial performance.
- The Planning landing page has also been updated. A name and description is now displayed for each of your Working, Draft and Baseline plans so that you can differentiate between them at a glance. You can also see who created the plan and on what date.
Do you have any questions about Xero or Farm Focus? If you would like to chat about how these updates might affect your accounting or bookkeeping, get in touch! We’re happy to help with advice and solving problems, big and small.
