Xero is looking to alleviate the time-consuming process of creating multiple custom client reports with a new Report Templates menu option.
The new reporting layout editor enables Xero users to design and customise client reports with schedules, formula rows and extra text blocks and save these for future use as templates.
Paul Bulpitt, Xero’s head of accounting announced the UK availability, explaining how the report template evolved from a prototype trialled in New Zealand.
According to Bulpitt, the trial led to a noticeable increase in productivity from antipodean practitioners, who were able to map templates to charts of accounts across their Xero client base.
You can see below how the Report Template looks in action.
Source: Xero
Report Templates can be used in conjunction with accountants’ higher value services, rather than becoming a productivity hack.
“We have now shifted the focus from compliance reporting to reporting that enables accountants to add value,” said Bulpitt in a blog. “They can use these reports as the conversation starter.”
And with HMRC’s Making Tax Digital plans drifting slowly to shore, Xero expects this tool will help prepare accountants and their clients for the day when quarterly reporting actually arrives.
The time-saving aspects of the new tool “will ensure that financial advisors are getting their small business customers ready for the shift to digital”, he said.