Xero Features You Might Have Missed
Xero has a huge amount of functionality for you to look at resulting in some being forgotten or missed, we look to highlight some of these relating to the business features of Xero.
Short Term Cash Flow Projection
The short term cash flow allows you to see where your cash will be going over the next 30 days, giving you a forecast of what your projected bank balance would be at the end of the period. You can also see a breakdown of total invoices that are owed to you as well as the number of bills that will need to be paid during the period. Xero is able to give you suggested actions to take with the information.
Business Snapshot
Here performance measures are used to help understand your organisation’s financial position. This tool is best used when your bookkeeping is kept up to date. A breakdown of cash flow, Profit & Loss, your largest expenses and comparison from the previous period of all the data included increase and decreases in income and expenses.
Quotes
Similar to how invoices work, you can create a quote for a piece of work that a customer has inquired about. The structure of creating quotes is the same as an invoice the only main difference is rather than approving the quote you will send the quote. The template of the send message and quote design can all be edited with your branding theme on the creation of the quote. The message sent can also be edited to have a standard template of your choice which can be done in the email settings, from the settings menu.
Customer Statements
Customer Statements are broken up into two types, the first being activity statements which will show all activity for a customer within the set date range including sales invoices, payments received, credit notes, prepayments (these are not included in the total statement balance as Xero doesn’t account for prepayments until it is allocated to a specific invoice) and overpayments. Outstanding statements will show you only what a customer owes during the specified date range.
Invoice Reminders
Invoice reminders provide a way to set automatic reminders to clients when an invoice is due or overdue. On the invoice page click the clock icon “invoice reminders” and you will be able to turn this on if it’s not already and edit the message that is sent out and whether this will be for before invoices are due or after. You can add or remove the number of reminders you want to be scheduled. Make sure to save changes before leaving the page.
Payment Services
Payment services can be used to set up direct debit payments for customers on invoices that are sent out. The online payment provider that you have set up is then responsible for processing the payment and depositing this into your account. These suppliers can be set up under settings, payment services when branding themes can also be applied for the service.
Set up payment services with Xero
Credit Limits on Customers
To set a credit limit on specific customers to ensure that orders don’t exceed a set limit. You are able to block whether or not invoices can be sent if a customer is over your set limit. To create a credit limit go to contacts, all contacts and for your selected customer click edit and scroll down to Financial details where you will be able to input the credit amount.
Set a credit limit for a customer
For more information email: jonathan@co-accounting.co.uk