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Product updates featuring AI will take centre stage at Xerocon in Sydney.
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Xero to unveil raft of enhancements at flagship event
23 August 2023
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Xero will announce a raft of product enhancements at its flagship Xerocon event in Sydney today including features using AI “designed to help small businesses and their advisers work smarter”.
The range of innovations on the way include:
- Enhanced AI-powered predictions in bank reconciliation and Xero Analytics Plus.
- Generative AI pilots in Xero Central to help deliver a better customer experience.
- Planday’s award interpretation tool expanded for the hospitality sector.
- Deeper payments integration with Stripe.
- More seamlessly connected practice tools.
Chief product officer Diya Jolly said Xero was innovating to help businesses streamline processes and make more informed decisions.
“By creating simpler, smarter and more seamless platform experiences for our small business customers, Xero can help them tackle common pain points such as managing cash flow and payroll more efficiently, freeing them up to focus on other priorities,” she said.
The bank reconciliation feature will apply machine learning to populate a business’s contacts list, rather than predicting a contact and account code for transactions only where there was already a relevant contact. The feature will “save time and eliminate repetitive data entry” Xero said.
Xero Analytics Plus short-term cash flow forecast now includes predictions for regular invoice and bill payments to give small businesses a clearer picture of their potential future cash flow.
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Xero said it was conducting two experiments with generative AI.
In Xero Central, its customer support site, the goal was to provide customers with quick access to information and assistance.
Additionally, Xero’s AI assistant would aim to help small businesses with the onboarding process by supplying relevant information and guides to completing tasks.
Employee software supplier Planday will expand its award interpretation tool to help businesses paying staff under hospitality, restaurant and fast food awards.
The hospitality industry, which employs nearly 950,000 people, has a number of awards each with different rates and penalties.
Xero, which owns Planday, said the interpretation tool would “help improve compliance confidence for employers in managing their payroll and rostering requirements”.
“It also makes it easier for small businesses to manage staff shifts and communicate with teams.”
Xero’s partnership with Stripe aimed to enable small businesses to manage more of payments directly in the Xero platform.
“Stripe customers using Xero will be able to access this embedded experience later this year, which will initially include viewing payment transaction details and issuing refunds to customers,” it said.
As part of the development, Xero and Stripe would aim to add more flexible payment options for customers in-person and online.
Xero said it would also unveil a single client record that would allow advisers to work seamlessly across Xero Practice Manager, Xero HQ and Xero Tax, without duplicates or double handling.
The system was already available for new customers of Xero Practice Manager or Xero Tax while those already using the software would be transitioned across.
“The future experience, as it becomes more connected across the practice tools, will see partners have one client list, one staff list and one place to manage permissions,” Xero said.
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