In today's business landscape, leveraging accounting software has become indispensable for efficient financial management. Accounting Software, like Xero, is a brilliant tool and makes the job of keeping and producing records and financials so much easier. But sometimes even the most adept clients can encounter challenges when using it. 

In this article, we look at some of the common challenges we encounter with businesses when navigating the use of Xero and provide constructive guidance on how to enhance proficiency. Plus, we share a couple of additional tips to make working with us easier.   

• Ensure you match the supplier/outgoing payments to the documents correctly when creating a new transaction for payments. Otherwise, this can create a duplicate. 
• Ensure you reconcile bank statements correctly. Often clients think that once they have coded a transaction this is all that is needed. But if a regular bank reconciliation is carried out, this would highlight any errors when they arise, making it easier to correct. 
• Check the details behind the GST Return Report before you file the return. By checking the report, you can correct any errors before filing it with IRD. 
• Be careful not to create duplicate contacts. Contacts are a good way of recording transactions for a particular customer/supplier and allow you to track what you are spending with a supplier or how much income you are receiving from a customer. 

Save Time and Cost with these Tips 

Complete the Business Questionnaire in full  

To help save time and cost for you, each year we ask you to complete a business questionnaire, so we have a checklist of all the paperwork/records we need to check whilst preparing the year end accounts. It is helpful if you complete the questionnaire in full, so we have all the information we require. Otherwise, we will need to contact you before we can start any work, which can sometimes involve numerous emails and conversations, and mean additional charges to you for our time and services. 

Answer all questions asked in full 

If we have contacted you with a question about your accounting, please ensure you answer the question in full. If we receive a response that is unclear and requires further clarification, we will contact you again. 

At Ōmokoroa Accounting we strive to continually improve our communication processes and adapt to each client. We want to make the financial year-end process as easy as possible for both you and us to save time and money. It is a team effort for us, so if you have any feedback on the above, please feel free to get in touch.