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Xero Acquires WorkflowMax

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.

WorkflowMax TeamFrom 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.

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Guy Pearson Thursday, February 16, 2012
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Xero, Capital Raising, Acquisitions and SPP

It was a busy week for Xero, in addition to hosting their annual global conference #xerocon 2012 in Auckland last week. (more about Xerocon here)

New round of capital

A new round of high level capital raising was completed in this past week. After many discussions with potential new investors, it was the existing larger shareholders and the board that provided the extra capital sort after in order to fund expansion efforts in both the US and Australia. 

The news of the capital raising was significant enough to make Tech Crunch in the US and with names like Peter Thiel (Facebooks first investor) it is not hard to see why it caught the attention of the spectators. 

With new offices planned in Sydney to bolster their Australian operations and a more serious footprint in San Francisco being established and led by Jamie Sutherland, I'm looking forward to seeing the benefits of the money spent wisely and all services around Xero boosted. 

Acquisitions

Xero's first was Paycycle last year just before Xerocon 2011 (Aust), purchase was made to offer a more competitive single solution to all small businesses in Australia.

The second made the day before Xerocon 2012 (NZ), was the acquisition of Workflow Max, a SaaS application whose focus lies in putting structure and scalability around your work flow process for any professional services business with several tight integrations to Xero already. 

Interactive Accounting has been a partner of Workflow Max since January 2010 and it's great to see that Xero is bringing the concept of the Modern Practice to life. Given our close relationship, we're extremely happy for Gavin George and Chris Spence, the two founders who've had a career together spanning 15 years. Very well deserved gentlemen.

Workflow Max will bring a nice boost for service clients, but, it's main benefit will be seen with Accountants and how they run their firms, which will benefit clients as your work flow should be taken care of.

SPP

Xero is having a Shareholders Purchase Plan that will be made available to any entity holding shares in Xero (XRO) on the NZ stock exchange by the 14th of February. 

In the past month the share price has experienced a rise of 30% + , speak to your financial advisor before making any decisions, but, it may be a good diversification for your portfolio. 

Xero is now becoming the "platform" rather than a simple accounting tool as it's add-on partner network expands and it's core feature set is continuously developed at a rather rapid pace. Always try to think about connecting your systems so that you can gain efficiencies for your business and investment management and not simply that manual input is the only option or that double entry of data is acceptable. 

Onwards and Upwards...

If you would like more info about what went on at Xerocon 2012 then you can read my personal blog post for a more detailed summary of the event. 

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Guy Pearson Wednesday, February 08, 2012
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Working in a Cloud - The way forward

The Cloud

Well, what is it? Does it really matter?

Let's focus on a question that should be key to all decisions to buy something, what benefit does it provide me?

If we focus on this in purely a benefit/cost analysis:

  • Free to trial the majority of software and cheap to purchase
  • Access anytime, anywhere
  • Less hardware requirements, you need only an internet connection
  • Regular, free, updates with little/no downtime
  • Support? - It's usually free & included
  • Simple to use

Who can benefit from the cloud the most?

Small business has the most to gain, however, everyone that likes information and places a value on it's availability should be looking into this.

For instance, Google, now has an "apps" site, with programs that provide the basic spreadsheet & document platforms that can be stored online, shared amongst peers and usage history tracked at no cost. 

What's available in the cloud for my business?

  • CRM - Client Resource Management (Client Database). We use WorkFlow Max
  • Payroll - Paycycle has a great, easy to use product
  • Mail - Google can actually host your mail and domain for free
  • Share Portfolio Management - Sharesight, can link into platforms like Xero and provide all the extra data on your portfolio automatically. 
Other options are available, for other processes and information you wish to manage. The list and features of these platforms is growing exponentially every day.

So, I want to work in a cloud with my business where should I start?:

Xero is a great way to get started in the cloud, with a simple, easy to use, versatile platform.
 
From September live feeds from all major banks & credit unions will be in place daily. No more bank reconciliations!

Want some help deciding what to use? Why not drop us an inquiry.

Alternatively, all the sites mentioned above have free trials, try them out for yourself and see the potential in the fluid concept of the cloud.
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Guy Pearson Friday, August 13, 2010
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