Interaction

With the move towards online engagements for the service industry, there has been a recent influx of new applications to cater to this demand and help provide additional means to streamline the sales and on-boarding processes for service businesses.

The online applications allow you to engage with your existing clients and current prospects to iron out the nature, scope and size of an engagement. Once the client is satisfied with the engagement, they can then confirm service and it be accepted and agreed upon online confirming the scope of the engagement and “sealing the deal”.

Although the setup processes for these tools is not a simple as "turn it on and go”, the ability to customise the engagements is essential and thus it can't be the same for everyone.

Here's a couple of the quoting tools available at the moment that are now connected with Xero:

Quoteroller

www.quoteroller.com

Quoteroller is designed to provide beautiful quotes for your clients and prospects with easy to use platform, drag and drop interface making specialising individual quotes and building templates easy.

Notable features:

• In proposal analytics
• Digital Signature within the application
• Customisable themes and design

See all of the Quoteroller in action here

Quotient

www.quotientapp.com

Quotient focuses on using the dashboard as the “heartbeat of your business” for it’s quoting application. Allowing a central place for all activity on the quotes issued by your business.

Notable features:

• One click customer acceptance
• One step quote creation
• Central place to organise and search quotes
• Status of the quote and it’s # of views

And the following, SocketApp, is not currently available as a Xero add on but fingers crossed, we hope it will be soon.

SocketApp

www.socketapp.com

SocketApp provides a similar feature set to the others mentioned above, but, it has a few additional features listed below, which, is why we use it in house at Interactive Accounting:

• The ability to embed quotes on your website (HTML + iframe)
• Direct linkages to our chosen merchant facility, which allows the order to be completed and paid in multiple currencies
• Linkage to mail chimp enabling you to add new prospects to an appropriate list.

The product is only in it's infancy and has been added to the Rackspace's startup program and acquired 100s of clients within a year of launch.

We're working with the team at Deversus Inc to bring this into the Xero Add On Partner network ASAP.

Positive effect (using Socketapp) 

We love metrics (we are bean counters), so we'd thought we'd share the effects of our new methods of automated quoting for our clients and prospects and the leads that we are generating via our new focus towards online enablement. This snapshot was taken from Socketapp on the 28th of January, we expect that there will be a few more proposals out before January 31st, giving us a constant trend upwards even over the Christmas period.

We are committed to our goal of being the place to go for your end to end online accounting needs and connecting your back end business flows to streamlines your business and investment. We even have events that help you suss out the potential opportunities for your business. See #xerocoffee and #startupbeers below to find out more.

Sticking with our theme of "focus"

We are focused on bringing our clients an Interactive Accounting service in name and nature and continually improving how we communicate as this is usually the source of many problems in the provision of accounting services. You will notice that we are actively creating more campaigns, more points of contact and working on ensuring that you have acess to the knowledge and service you need when you need it.

How do you get started with online quoting?

All of the products offer free trials and have different use case scenarios.

I already have quotes in word, why do I need this?

At Interactive Accounting we are all about streamlining your back end processes and connecting your systems so that you can focus on building your business and re-purpose any repetitive administration team members to deliver value for your business (perhaps in customer support or even sales as they have intrinsic knowledge on your business) Don't undervalue these staff members!

Having a copy and paste Word system is not scalable and it’s timely, you should really be focusing on reducing time to engagement and impressing your new customers.

Need a helping hand?

If you need advice surrounding which tools are best suited for your business and how they all connect with one another, we are able to assist you in connecting your systems and streamlining your online client engagement, sales and packaging.

Contact us about providing a professional systems assessment for your business and engage both our accounting, developers and design team to get your sales channel growing today and generate new business whilst you sleep.

With over 750 million users it’s hard to find a reason not to have a Facebook page for your business, and it's free! However, it’s not just a case of registering your business on Facebook and then expecting people to automatically ‘like’ it and start buying more of your products or services.

So, how do you ultimately drive people to your Facebook page and actual goal to buy your product or service? Just because Kevin Costner did it in ‘Field of Dreams’ doesn’t mean that if you build it, they will come. You actually have to put some work and thought into it.

Apparently, fewer than 15% of people who ‘like’ a Facebook page will ever visit the page again. The trick is not just to get people to like your Facebook page but to really engage with them so they come back to your page to hopefully drive some loyalty and get them to the real goal....buy your product or service.

So how do you do that?

Well, there is no magic dust or trick to it, just some plain old common sense and a bit of elbow grease. Don’t expect things to happen overnight either, like a lot of online marketing you have to earn trust and build your profile which will take time but if done right you will reap the rewards.

We love offers

We all like to feel like we are getting a good deal and we all love offers..well it’s no exception in the Facebook land. In fact over 25% of people who ‘like’a business or brand do so to receive a discount or offer from that business. So, create an offer encouraging someone to either try your product or service at a discounted rate, for free or offer a special one off just for Facebook friends.

The real trick here through is not only making people want to try your product or service and to ‘like’ your page but to also make them want to share it. An average Facebook user will have 130 friends, think about how many people your offer could be seen by if each of those 130 people shared your offer to each of their 130 friends!

What should you post on Facebook?

For starters, just because there is a 5,000 character limit on posts doesn’t mean you have to use it...write succinctly! Also, if you really want to engage then you need to keep it educational, informative and entertaining, that way people are more likely to engage with it and hopefully share your content with other friends. Posting tips on some of the products you sell is a good example.

Don’t use Facebook as a tool for posting sales propoganda. So, no blatant selling of your product or service. Think about why people are on Facebook, they are not looking for something to buy, they are there to socialise and have fun.

With that in mind, keep your tone conversational like you are talking naturally although don’t bore them with endless posts about what you are having for lunch, what your cat did yesterday or any other irrelevant, dull topics.

Should you allow people to comment on your Facebook wall?

Personally, I believe you should as it creates trust. If you don’t then you have to ask yourself whether marketing on Facebook is really relevant for your business. By allowing comments however, you have to be prepared to manage them and actually ‘listen’ to what people are saying. If you are concerned about bad language then you can moderate this by setting up the automated moderation tool.

Allowing people to post to your wall can also be a great customer service tool where people can go and ask questions about your products or service.

Remember

It is not a one sided communication channel, it should be a two way process. In fact, you should actually encourage people to spark a conversation.

This is by no means a definitive guide but hopefully it will help you get started in the right direction and start seeing some results.

So you've heard people talk about it but what exactly is VOIP? Here's a brief summary of what VOIP is, the pros, the cons and what you need to get started.

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is basically voice communication over the internet and is now widely used in todays consumer market and business sectors to reduce telephony expense...no more expensive phone bills!

VOIP for home use

Back in the days when the internet was not so popular, which is hard to believe I know, we were all paying extortionately high international call fees to keep in touch with our friends and/or family members. Now, thanks to the rise of internet and VOIP, international communication is no longer an expensive task at all.

What do you need to make a VOIP call at home?

The setup of a home VOIP is fairly straight forward and can be done within minutes. Most VOIP routers bought from the VOIP provider would have been pre-configured which makes everything to be plug-n-play. A typical VOIP configuration for the home user requires the following items which can be easily obtained from any computer store:

1. A VOIP provider (click here for a comparison list of Australian VOIP providers)
2. An internet conection
3. A VOIP enabled router (some standard internet routers have these built in but others don't, you will need to check)
4. A traditional telephone

VOIP for business use

In the business environment, the telephone system is usually be more complicated. Generally speaking, a receptionist will be the first point of contact of all telephone calls. After the call has been answered, the call are is put on hold while the receptionist intercoms the desired colleague. The call is then put through to the corresponding person.

The above scenario would easily be achievable with a PBX (Private Branch Exchange). A PBX is a switch which can be transferred calls back and forth. There is both office based PBX hardware and cloud based PBX systems on the market. While they all can get the work done, the office based PBX hardware usually costs thousands of dollars up front but the cloud based PBX usually un on a monthly subscription basis.

What's good about VOIP?

• Its cheap! Since VOIP is all based on the internet, the cost for using VOIP is comparatively lower than the telephone companies. The difference is even more significant in long-distance communication.
• A conference call can be done anywhere with anyone. It is not limited geographically, or to the number of people participating in the conversation. 
• It enhances efficiency.

What's bad about VOIP?

• VOIP relies on a stable internet so the quality of the internet connection can greatly affect the quality of VOIP. In the case of a blackout or your internet connection drops out then VOIP is not usable at all.
• This also means that it may not be as reliable or clear as traditional telephone.

What we think

Whilst VOIP can bring a lot of convenience and savings in cost, it is always limited to your internet connectivity.  Also, you should never solely depend on VOIP as your only telephone system. Always have a back up plan such as a mobile phone just in case you need it in an emergency.

Xero’s Acquisition Mantra:
Xero has maintained it’s speciality is delivering a Small-Medium accounting tool focusing on the single ledger since it’s inception. Looking to open up it’s platform through it’s API to other developers.

Workflow Max is widely used by Accountants in the Modern Practice as the preferred Workflow tool featuring document storage, Tax (in New Zealand) and the ability to track leads and communication with clients.

Xero & Workflow Max History

Xero openly acquired 15.9% of WorkflowMax in December, 2010 in order to assist in facilitation of building out the tax modules for New Zealand.

The acquisition of the remainder of WorkflowMax has been undertaken to tighten up the links between WorkflowMax’s practice Management and Xero’s Practice Management suite. With all accountants with >20 Xero subscriptions now getting WorkflowMax gratis.

From Left to Right: Chris Spence (co-founder), Guy Pearson (Interactive Accounting), Gavin George (co-founder). Xerocon 2012 (NZ)

Xero’s intentions for WorkflowMax

Xero will leave WorkflowMax as an application in it’s eco system as a standalone and will not close it’s integration points in the open market with the view that other firms and clients that use it will continue to build up Xero’s accounting partner acquisition.

Personally, I can’t wait for Xero’s design and UX/UI team to have a field day with this application!

There is an ever increasing move for Accounting firms to move online, this acquisition will no doubt speed up the process. With Hubone’s sync engine (Microsoft, WorkflowMax and Xero sync tool) and Practice Ignition (client facing modern practice) coming in to production shortly, our industry is set to speed up it’s move towards a connected way of doing business.

Congratulations

A huge congratulations to Gavin and Chris, WorkflowMax’s Co-Founders, their lean, mean and green application has come a long way since I first laid eyes on it in 2009 and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them both for providing kick ass service, a great sounding board and a beer or two from time to time.

It was Valentine’s Day yesterday (in case you wondered why you were in trouble today) although love was not the main reason why over 200 accountants and bookkeepers gathered at Four Points Sheraton, Sydney....The Xero Roadshow had come to town.

After receiving our name badges other Xero goodies and a coffee we headed into the main room  to take our seats and quietly unwrap and devour the chocolate heart that the Xero team had lovingly placed on every table....apologies to the woman who arrived late next to me who didn't get one. 

Wayne Schmidt, Xero National Sales Manager and owner of the shiniest shoes I have ever seen, kicked off the day in his usual charismatic and infectious style with an introduction on Xero and what lay in store for the day ahead.

After a brief break Joel Hanna, National Training Specialist and Xero Jedi Knight, ran through some of the processes involved in converting customers from MYOB into Xero amongst other Jedi like tips and tricks...the force is strong with this one.

Lunch came and I caught up with the guys from Fathom, one of the events sponsors. Usually, the mention of analysis and reporting tools doesn’t really get blood pumping, however, one look at this new add on for Xero and I realise this is something completely different. At last someone has come along and actually ‘designed’ a reporting and analysis tool that is easy to understand for the even most financially illiterate and also looks totally awesome...good work guys.

In the afternoon there were more helpful tips from Xero Jedi Knight, Joel Hanna, on the general use and configuration of Xero...the force is strong with this one.

After another chocolate heart and more coffee, Chris Ridd, Managing Director of Xero Aus, touched on some of the new Xero features to come this year including:

• Ability to import and export budgets
• Integrated payroll
• Xero personal bank feeds
• Report packs (closed and full release)
• Android app
• Purchase Orders
• Tax code updates

It’s going to be an exciting year for Xero and users of Xero!

Stuart Mcleod, General Payroll Manager and Founder of Paycyle, then took us through the introduction of Payroll to Xero. A huge win for Xero, as this is one of the features that was felt as missing in the Xero offering. Stuart explained that as well as getting it’s own button on Xero it will also include the following features:

• Xero style reports
• Super and tax liability in money going out
• Leave liability included in balance sheet
• PAYG liability hooked to BAS reporting
• Time sheets for employees 
• Expenses syncing as reimbursements

This is great news for users of Xero, congrats to Stuart and the team. We look forward to it’s implementation in April!

Wayne then wrapped up the day with a summary of how we are now living through a new evolution of computing, coming from the first industrial computers, then to PC’s and now The Cloud. He’s right, computing has come along way and when he harked back to past computing practices and software such as Wordperfect and Lotus123, I’m glad it has.

Don’t be left behind, if you haven’t already moved your business to the cloud, then maybe 2012 is the year to do so. Exciting times are ahead!