Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
00:40:54 · Sarah Kocianski, Sian Kelly
[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? [00:41:07] S9: A key a key area for me or a pain point for as a business owner, I I actually do my own bookkeeping in Xero just to make sure I'm keeping up to date on, like, how to use it and stuff. And I think one frustration for me is that you've got everything in Xero. You've run your payroll. You've got all your purchase invoices to pay, yet I still have to log into the bank, mess around putting PIN codes in to set up a new supplier and setting up payments and setting up all the payrolls. It'd be such a big win if with all the banking changes that are coming, we can be automating that and batching them up in Xero and pushing pay, and that'd be a fabulous service for us then to offer to clients. So it's using Open Banking, [00:41:45] S0: using the payment initiation APIs, and [00:41:47] S9: being able [00:41:47] S0: to just go [00:41:47] S9: pay and it's done. Really looking forward to that sort of thing. And that's an add on service we can sell to clients then because whilst we do a bit of payment service, it it is a concern with the fraud, the emails that you can get in, and this will take 10 pain away. Yeah. 10 pain away. Yes. Yeah. Perfect. [00:42:02] S0: Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining me, Sean. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day, and I hope you find what you're looking for out there on the exhibit hall.
00:42:02 · Sarah Kocianski, Caroline Plumb, Gary Turner, Sian Kelly, Alexis Prenn
[00:42:02] S0: Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining me, Sean. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day, and I hope you find what you're looking for out there on the exhibit hall. [00:42:09] S2: Thank you. [00:42:09] S1: Thank [00:42:09] S9: you. Thank you. [00:42:13] S0: I'm here with Alexis Pren, who is the CEO and cofounder of Receipt Bank. We're here at Xerocon. How are you doing today, Alexis? [00:42:19] S11: I'm delighted to be here. Delighted to be here with you and delighted to be here at Xerocon. [00:42:22] S0: Brilliant. So, I mean, can you give me a little bit of an overview for our listeners who don't know what Receipt Bank is? What what do you do? What pain points do you solve for small businesses?
00:42:22 · Sarah Kocianski, Alexis Prenn
[00:42:22] S0: Brilliant. So, I mean, can you give me a little bit of an overview for our listeners who don't know what Receipt Bank is? What what do you do? What pain points do you solve for small businesses? [00:42:30] S11: So so from day one... Well, almost from day one, we have been the the global leader in bookkeeping productivity, which sounds fascinating. And I can see, Sarah, as an aficionado of this industry, that you're already on the edge of... Literally on the edge of your seats. But, no, we fell into bookkeeping productivity by accident way back in 2011, and we just simply allow bookkeepers to do what they do just a lot, lot quicker. So initially, was about data extraction increasingly from receipts, guess what, and invoices, credit notes, all that kind of the cost of a business. And increasingly now, it's more about actually where in the general ledger those documents actually go. So a typical receipt bank customer would benefit from productivity between around about three, four, five times. And so we'd like to say, just take Fridays off. It's basically code code for what it's all about. So that's what we do. We are the global leader in bookkeeping productivity. We are Xero's number one add on, have been for, gosh, a long, long time. And most reviewed and more Xero customers use Receipt Bank than I think all of the other apps combined. It's something truly extraordinary. I'm probably a little bit out of date, but we are truly at the very heart of the Xero ecosystem.
00:43:44 · Sarah Kocianski, Alexis Prenn
[00:43:44] S0: So on that note, how important is it that Xero continues to build out that platform of partners? You know, when we're looking at some of the potential, you know, financial services products that could be built out from that. Is that key to sort of helping that ecosystem thrive? Are the financial services products on top of it? So you do bookkeeping, but, you know, and you work with zero. How about payments or credit, feeding those to the platform as well? [00:44:11] S11: You know, in terms of pulling things together, simplifying it, streamlining it, you know, inevitably, the world that we live in is connected and increasingly connected. And so anything that Xero can do to to make their own platform more seamless is is bound to be good for the end customer. [00:44:30] S0: So as somebody who spends a lot of time, in and around this ecosystem, what's most exciting to you? What kind of innovations are you seeing, either out there on the exhibit hall or, you know, generally in the airwaves for helping small businesses?
00:44:30 · Sarah Kocianski, Alexis Prenn, Christoph Rieche
[00:44:30] S0: So as somebody who spends a lot of time, in and around this ecosystem, what's most exciting to you? What kind of innovations are you seeing, either out there on the exhibit hall or, you know, generally in the airwaves for helping small businesses? [00:44:45] S11: At the end of the day, it's it's about the lifestyle. I mean, for me, the most exciting things are when people say, I took Fridays off. The most exciting things, someone saying, you know what? I I I couldn't... Five years ago, I couldn't have imagined I could have built the business that I have, and I couldn't have done it without Receipt Bank and and Xero. I I couldn't have done it without getting rid of all the paper... Paperwork, which is ultimately what we what we take care of. And so we couldn't have done that. So ultimately, the... All of this is very interesting, and technology on its own is fine, but it's what people choose to do with it. And people do the most extraordinary things. They're not... This is not a, well, do this, get that. It's very much people using their own imagination as to how they wanna live their lives. One one of my favorite receipt bank partners, she likes to go fishing with her husband. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. That's what she likes to do. [00:45:37] S4: Yeah.
00:45:37 · Christoph Rieche, Alexis Prenn, Sarah Kocianski
[00:45:37] S4: Yeah. [00:45:37] S11: That's her thing. That's their thing. And we have enabled, unexpectedly enabled, that by giving her the time And giving her and indeed giving her the flexibility to work from wherever. So the ability to work from Italy. My favorite story is my wife's accountant five, six years ago. Today, is a huge receipt bank advocate. She and her husband now spend the middle week of every month in Italy, in their house in Italy. They might be working. They might not be working. [00:46:10] S0: So... Just... [00:46:12] S11: I met someone who's last night. They they they have a house in in Spain. They like to work in the summer. They go to Spain, and they they can take their work with them, and we enable that. So that's... At the end of the day, we can get excited about capabilities, but at the end of the day, I think it's about the lifestyle choices that people choose to make. That's what the bit that excites me at any rate, Sarah. [00:46:33] S0: Well, absolutely. And then as you're saying, as a small business owner, that's what you want back, your life back, your time back. So what's what's next for Receipt Bank? Is there anything exciting coming down the line? Is there anything you want to give us an insight into? Or is it just a case of bolstering the business you have and and making sure that all your customers have that lifestyle that they want and keeping helping them doing that?