Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
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 I'm probably a little bit out of date, but we are truly at the very heart of the Xero ecosystem.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?
00:46:52 · Alexis Prenn
[00:46:52] S11: It's tempting it's tempting to want to look at new and new shiny things. I think one of the challenges that I I have as a chief executive and indeed as a founder is that we that we continue to to pick up and play with the new things and at the same time continue to polish the old. Because at the end of the day, the the capabilities that people actually use every day, if they can get those better and better and better, we can save a lot of time. And dare I say it, make it just a little bit more effortless, which ultimately is what our goal is. Technology seems to demand you do a lot of work, seems to demand time, seems to demand you spend a lot of time staring at a computer screen. And our challenge is really to find ways so that that becomes just a little bit effortless, and you can start to do a little bit more meaningful things, perhaps genuinely just talking to your clients. There's an eccentric idea. Whoever thought of such a who who thought of such a thing. So, in truth, there are... We define our our future based on translating the productivity that we give to bookkeepers and accountants, into something that we can deliver for small business owners. Internally, we talk about helpfulness, not selling people things, just helpfulness. And you're going to ask me, does that look like? I have absolutely no idea. But our roadmap for the next five years is basically to turn the productivity that we've built for bookkeepers and accountants, many of whom are obviously, here today, into... Translate that into something that they can make, relevant for their clients and their practice.
00:48:21 · Sarah Kocianski, Alexis Prenn, Caroline Plumb, Christoph Rieche, Will Farnell
[00:48:21] S0: Brilliant. Well, you know, as a community, as all businesses here, I'm sure everybody needs a helping hand every now and again. So why not? [00:48:27] S11: Well, I'm not sure it's necessarily a helping hand. It's just part of your everyday... Rather like having your own personal butler to deliver your slippers, to deliver your coffee, to deliver whatever it happens to be that is part of your everyday routine. It's just really catering. It's not to say that you need a helping hand up. It's really a part of your everyday experience. [00:48:48] S0: Your life easier. How to make my make my life easier, and if you [00:48:51] S2: can do [00:48:51] S4: that I think it's very helpful when [00:48:52] S11: I look up on a map and it says, it will take you thirty seven minutes to get those. Like, that was really useful. Yeah. Very helpful. [00:48:59] S0: Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for joining us. [00:49:00] S4: Thank you [00:49:01] S0: so much for giving us your time, and I hope you have a brilliant rest of the day here. [00:49:03] S11: Sarah, thank you very much. Thank [00:49:07] S0: I'm here with Will Farnell, founder of Farnell Clark. How are you today? [00:49:11] S6: I'm very good. Enjoying the conference. [00:49:13] S0: Are you you enjoying ZeroCon? [00:49:14] S6: Absolutely. Some great announcements this morning. [00:49:16] S0: What was your favorite announcement this morning? I didn't get to see anything you see. So...