Xero Financial Reporting tool in Excel

The Client

The client is a professional services firm that offers a range of services, including tax, audit, and advisory services, to SMEs. They serve over 400 businesses and are responsible for maintaining accounts, conducting audits, and ensuring compliance. They have strong expertise in grocery retail, hospitality, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors. The client faced a time-consuming process for bank reconciliation and weekly reporting using Xero accounting software. Manually exporting reports to Excel, running macros, and reconciling data for each client was hindering their business growth and efficiency.

The Challenge

• Manual Efforts: The client’s team had to individually log in to each client’s Xero account, export reports, merge them into one file, and run macros for reconciliation. This process was repeated for hundreds of clients, consuming significant time and effort.
• Customization: Customizing reports required the accountant to go back to Xero, change the format, and repeat the entire process.
• Switching Between Clients: Switching between each client’s Xero report in Excel while reconciling added complexity.
• Report Management: Maintaining multiple reports for each client in specific folders created additional overhead.

The Solution

• Our expert Xero Integration team proposed an Excel add-in solution to automate the report generation process. This solution would automatically push Xero reports, including Trial-Balance, P&L Report, Aged Payable Summary, and Balance Sheet, to Excel with a single click. The Excel add-in would be accessible to all accountants, increasing productivity and eliminating manual efforts. The solution was cost-effective, saving the client valuable resources.

Results

• Time Savings: On average, the client’s organization saved approximately 200 hours. As more organizations are integrated into the automated process, the time savings will multiply.
• Cost Savings: The client achieved savings of approximately 6,000 euros for the same accounting service that was previously handled manually.
• Full Automation: The process became fully automated, reducing report generation time from 15 minutes to 1 minute per organization report. Errors and duplications were reduced to zero.
• Pruned Dependency: The client significantly reduced dependency on manual efforts, improving efficiency and reducing the risk of errors.

Platform/Technology

• Excel add-in
• Javascript
• Xero API programming

Conclusion

By implementing the Excel add-in solution in Xero Financial Reporting tool, the client successfully streamlined their account reconciliation and reporting processes. The automation eliminated manual efforts, reduced time and cost, and improved accuracy. The Excel Add-in provided in Xero Financial Reporting tool accountants with a seamless experience, enabling them to focus on more valuable tasks and business growth. Overall, the Xero Integration solution enhanced the client’s efficiency, productivity, and service quality, empowering them to deliver top-quality tax and compliance services to SMEs