Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
00:35:37 · Sian Kelly, Sarah Kocianski, Caroline Plumb
[00:35:37] S9: I'm good. Thank you. Enjoying it so far. [00:35:39] S0: Mhmm. It's still quite early, but there's a [00:35:41] S2: lot more of the [00:35:41] S0: day to go. [00:35:42] S9: So can you start off by telling [00:35:43] S0: us we haven't had you in the podcast before. So can you tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do, and why you're here at Xerox Day? [00:35:49] S9: Yep. Sure. So I'm Shyam Kelly. We're a firm of accountants based in Sutton Coalfield. The firm is called Inform Accounting. This is our... Oh, how many zero cons have there been now? Fifth or six. [00:36:02] S2: We've been to all of them. You get [00:36:04] S0: a loyalty card at this point. Right? [00:36:05] S9: Yeah. Should get a discount. Should I? Where's my discount so I can bring the whole team instead of a few of them? Yeah. So we come to zero con every year. It's great for engagement of the staff and learning about all the new sort of releases, updates, any news they've got going on, and it's a great opportunity to go around and meet all the app marketplace. [00:36:25] S0: So we were just talking a little bit about some exciting things that are happening here at Xero. Yeah. One of the announcements is that Starlink has just announced a bank feed with Yeah. With Xero. You said that's particularly exciting for some of your clients. Can you explain why that might be?
00:36:25 · Sarah Kocianski, Sian Kelly
[00:36:25] S0: So we were just talking a little bit about some exciting things that are happening here at Xero. Yeah. One of the announcements is that Starlink has just announced a bank feed with Yeah. With Xero. You said that's particularly exciting for some of your clients. Can you explain why that might be? [00:36:36] S9: Yeah. Getting bank accounts open for clients is a complete nightmare. The traditional high street banks can take weeks and weeks. Mean, I the direct feeds are amazing when you can get them. It... They are getting an awful lot better in Xero, quicker, less sort of compliance and hoops to jump through to get them set up in the first place. But something like Starling having a direct bank feed is really exciting news. And I was actually looking at this because I needed to open a second bank account, I was having a look at Revolut and Starling and things. And they're so quick to open. So for clients and small businesses who just want to get going and are happy, you still got the issue of bit of nervousness about online banks and stuff. But for the clients who are happy with all that, it's it's really, really good. [00:37:18] S0: Yeah. So so what do you... So what are the biggest pain points that you see for small businesses that sort of you're hoping to solve? Because you said you like being here and seeing all the exhibitors and different kind of solutions. What what are some of the pain points or biggest pain points that your clients have?
00:37:18 · Sarah Kocianski, Sian Kelly, Caroline Plumb
[00:37:18] S0: Yeah. So so what do you... So what are the biggest pain points that you see for small businesses that sort of you're hoping to solve? Because you said you like being here and seeing all the exhibitors and different kind of solutions. What what are some of the pain points or biggest pain points that your clients have? [00:37:31] S9: Yeah. It's it's autumn... Automating stuff, really, getting data to us. So there's lots and lots of ways to get data. There's lots of products. From very early on, we adopted Xero. It was... I think I put my first client onto Xero. We adopted Receipt Bank at the same time. Receipt Bank takes away the pain of getting all the paper to us. You've got Hubdoc come on board with Xero now. That's really exciting. But there's problems with things like, I don't know, credit card statements. They don't seem to be part of what the banks give you as a bank We're looking for something where we can automate collecting the credit card data. It's an opportunity for the staff to come. We've highlighted a few of the things we want them to look for before we've left the office, and they've got to scout and go around all the upstands now and see if we can find a solution for [00:38:17] S2: a few of the
00:38:17 · Caroline Plumb, Sarah Kocianski, Sian Kelly, David M. Brear
[00:38:17] S2: a few of the [00:38:17] S0: things we're having issues with. Yeah. So there's one the big the big questions we're asking people today, and I'm I'm hoping that nobody's gonna say no when I ask this question, but, you know, how important is it to your clients that Xero starts building out that portfolio of financial services that can be accessed through Xero? So the more the more things... [00:38:32] S9: I think it it just makes it easier. Because, I mean, one one of the things I was thinking when... On one of the first presentations, it got me sort of drifting, daydreaming on a subject. And one of the issues we still have even with the lending is that they look into Xero, take all the information, which fabulous. We haven't got to send loads of reports, but then you still have to send maybe three months bank statements as a PDF as well. Now to me, if you've got a live bank feed going into Xero, your bank statements are all there. Why can't we get to the point of actually that is good enough for the lenders that that's the bank statement? And if you've got all this open banking and it's these live feeds, that should be the right data. Yeah. So why can't the credit cards feed straight in as well? And Yeah. You know, there's an awful lot more to do there that can make things even slicker. So we're getting there. [00:39:21] S10: Yeah. So there's more [00:39:22] S0: to be done. [00:39:23] S9: Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:23 · Sian Kelly, Sarah Kocianski
[00:39:23] S9: Yeah. Yeah. [00:39:24] S0: So one of the things I know you're working on quite closely in partnership with Xero is the HMRC's Making Tax Digital initiative. Can you tell us a bit more about that? [00:39:31] S9: Yeah. So Making Tax Digital, it's gonna come to all clients who are over the VAT threshold from next April. I've been doing a lot of work to get ready for this, and we're part of the beta program with Xero. And I think the beauty for us as a practice is, we've got over 500 clients on Xero, and they are all on Xero already. So going on the beta program, it's a natural extension. We haven't got to wait till next April when a lot of accountants will be having a complete panic. Yeah. And trying to digitally file everything for their clients and finding new processes, new software. We're all completely ready for that because we've worked with Xero. They've now got their solution ready, and we're chomping at the bit ready to test it. So our clients are actually gonna have a very seamless experience of making tax digital hitting them. [00:40:14] S0: Brilliant. So they don't actually have to do anything. If they're
00:40:14 · Sarah Kocianski, Sian Kelly
[00:40:14] S0: Brilliant. So they don't actually have to do anything. If they're [00:40:16] S9: already using it, they would be We've we've we've either got clients who know they're on Xero and know that we're sorting it because we've advised them and talked to them about it. We've sent out a bit of a mail of Xero, helped with that of you're all gonna be compliant. And then you've got the kind of clients where they're more traditional. They do turn up with a box of receipts, which get whizzed through receipt bank. They end up in Xero, and they're also compliant. So I think making tax digital is gonna be a big hurdle for a lot of businesses, and a lot of practices. But for us, it's just a different way of submitting data ready to go. We just need to make sure it works, which I'm sure it does, and that's the point of the beta. [00:40:54] S0: So talking about, Xero and the, you know, the the the benefits that having additional financial services built into Xero, what what is missing do you think? Is there something that you would really like that that is coming down the line?