Xero - tips and tricks

[Steevo]

I imagine you would have to allocate them manually surely ? Just saves the initial input

According to the videos online, I think it will work out what's what based on patterns etc. But there are some times it won't be able to read your mind.

14 day free trial that might be worth a whirl.

 

[Steevo]

Edit: also useful if you have a feed tray on your scanner is scanning a pile of invoices into a single pdf and uploading to RB. It divides them into separate invoices. Quicker than doing it manually through xero.

You must have a better scanner than mine! Too many invoices of different size, on different paper, some multiple sheets (20!) stapled together etc. Often my feed tray eats more paper than it scans.

 

[Dairyfarmerswife]

You must have a better scanner than mine! Too many invoices of different size, on different paper, some multiple sheets (20!) stapled together etc. Often my feed tray eats more paper than it scans.

Simpler invoices I think! Staples are the work of the devil though. I do put duplicate book type invoices through separately but anything a4 single pages goes as a multiple. I do fall out with the scanner occasionally, and sometimes it sucks two pages through together and I don't notice so the bill doesn't get paid till I get a statement and wonder what happened to it! I can usually remember what invoices I've had, so I try and make sure the husband doesn't open the post as a) he loses them and b) I don't have any memory of them

Remember you can email invoices to it too so anything paperless is easy. Online bills, like Plusnet, I save as PDF at the point of printing and upload from there.

 

[Sid]

looking at Zero demo now,
invoice for 866.73 plus 5% vat on fuel and it rounds the VAT to 43.34. therfore making the online bill over by 1p compared to the paper bill whats the tips for that issue?

 

[Jerry]

You can over write the vat amount for small rounding errors.

 

[Boysground]

There is a box for minor corrections. Just above the final total.

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[Sid]

found it now...use to quickbooks where you can easily adjust the vat amount.
Looking to switch from qb desktop to maybe a cloud based package...i just don't like the idea of £££ a month when i last updated my accounts package in 2003 and am use to it

 

[Steevo]

found it now...use to quickbooks where you can easily adjust the vat amount.
Looking to switch from qb desktop to maybe a cloud based package...i just don't like the idea of £££ a month when i last updated my accounts package in 2003 and am use to it

I asked similar before I started with it a couple of months ago.

My Xero cashbook package costs me £9 a month. The time it saves me is well worth that. Not to mention the benefit of being able to see my current financial position at any point in the year.

On top of all that, it only has to save an hour of my accountants time to payback significantly.

 

[Sid]

I asked similar before I started with it a couple of months ago.

My Xero cashbook package costs me £9 a month. The time it saves me is well worth that. Not to mention the benefit of being able to see my current financial position at any point in the year.

On top of all that, it only has to save an hour of my accountants time to payback significantly.

You only enter 5 bills/invoices a month?

 

[Steevo]

You only enter 5 bills/invoices a month?

Nope. Just use a more limited version that does cashbook only. Works well and does what I need for now. Won't create invoices etc though.

 

[Sid]

Nope. Just use a more limited version that does cashbook only. Works well and does what I need for now. Won't create invoices etc though.

How do you deal with income such as milk cheque or lambs etc. Won't create a physical invoice as in to print?

 

[Steevo]

How do you deal with income such as milk cheque or lambs etc. Won't create a physical invoice as in to print?

No cows and no sheep help!

Grain however....

You can't "design" an invoice to send to a customer....but that's what MS Word is just fine for. Basic, and not snazzy, but the invoice still gets paid just the same!

For income you just input the details as you would for a purchase.

 

[sleepy]

How do you deal with income such as milk cheque or lambs etc. Won't create a physical invoice as in to print?

It's just cash coding. So you go through the bank statement and say this line was a spend on x or a receive from y.

Personally I think it's a bit of a waste of time because you don't get half the benefits of using Xero (mainly knowing who you owe and who owes you).

 

[Steevo]

It's just cash coding. So you go through the bank statement and say this line was a spend on x or a receive from y.

Personally I think it's a bit of a waste of time because you don't get half the benefits of using Xero (mainly knowing who you owe and who owes you).

Depends how long you take to pay your bills....and how many outstanding invoices you usually have.

Most bills here paid pretty much by return. Rarely more than one outstanding invoice either too.

 

[Boysground]

Depends how long you take to pay your bills....and how many outstanding invoices you usually have.

Most bills here paid pretty much by return. Rarely more than one outstanding invoice either too.

I am jealous, Xero currently telling me I owe slightly more than 1 invoice. I do like xero for delayed payments, I only pay for chemical from my buying group 4 times a year. I can enter an invoice when it arrives and set the pay by date accordingly, then I can plan future payments easily.

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[Steevo]

I am jealous, Xero currently telling me I owe slightly more than 1 invoice. I do like xero for delayed payments, I only pay for chemical from my buying group 4 times a year. I can enter an invoice when it arrives and set the pay by date accordingly, then I can plan future payments easily.

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Do you use it for batch payments then, or how do you pay at that future date?

 

[Boysground]

I pay almost everybody using batch payments. It works really well if you have an email to send a remittance to. When I enter an invoice I use the company's invoice number as the reference. Then when pay day comes I can select a number of invoices for a supplier and put them in 1 batch payment. Xero will create a remittance advice which can be emailed, each invoice will appear on it with its reference. Then everybody knows what has been paid. You can enter credit notes at the same time.

Hope that makes sense

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[Foregoneconclusion]

Will receipt bank handle income also like grain payments with weighbridge/levy etc? It looks like it's just payments sent not received.

None of the apps for xero seem to be able to cope with self billing invoices eg milk cheques, beef sales , grain sales - or indeed any invoice that someone other than you , generates...

I have trialed 3 automatic entry apps ..receipt bank, eezzy bills and auto entry. Auto entry is waaaaaay better and cost effective than the others, but when i asked them to ort out automatic entry of my milk cheque they said i would have to have hundreds of such sales invoices for them to bother. That said their software is ace!

 

[Steevo]

I pay almost everybody using batch payments. It works really well if you have an email to send a remittance to. When I enter an invoice I use the company's invoice number as the reference. Then when pay day comes I can select a number of invoices for a supplier and put them in 1 batch payment. Xero will create a remittance advice which can be emailed, each invoice will appear on it with its reference. Then everybody knows what has been paid. You can enter credit notes at the same time.

Hope that makes sense

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Sounds handy. I might investigate that further for the future.

None of the apps for xero seem to be able to cope with self billing invoices eg milk cheques, beef sales , grain sales - or indeed any invoice that someone other than you , generates...

I have trialed 3 automatic entry apps ..receipt bank, eezzy bills and auto entry. Auto entry is waaaaaay better and cost effective than the others, but when i asked them to ort out automatic entry of my milk cheque they said i would have to have hundreds of such sales invoices for them to bother. That said their software is ace!

Interesting to hear of someone using something other than Receiptbank. How do the two compare in more detail please?

 

[Marsh lad]

I had no idea so many people on here used Xero , it's clear by reading all the posts on this thread I'm only using a small fraction of it.