What a way to kick off Day 1 with Dragon performing two of their songs, Rain and April Sun, live to a pumped up audience.

Next the CEO of Xero, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy kicked off the Welcome Address talking about mobile device enhancements, the acquisition of Syft and the implementation of JAX- which in my opinion will be an absolute game changer.

 

Xero updates:

Some of the changes Xero has implemented to improve their service offering include:

• Automated Super Available for all users.
• AI Advancements – Xero investing hard in enhanced AI capabilities such as
  • JAX – an AI powered tool to automate and enhance accounting tasks within your Xero file.
  • Personalised dashboards to come which provide additional insights such as cash flow projections and assist with decision making capabilities.
  • Automated actions and workflows
  • Forecasting models, benchmarking and additional reporting capabilities through Syft.

 

Enhancements for Small Business Users:

Payroll investment – In preparation for PayDay Super, Xero have now implemented automatic super on all plans (regardless of the number of employees). It will be exciting to see what further changes they roll out in the payroll module when PayDay Super comes into effect on 1 July 2026.

Invoicing in Xero – Xero are investing in payment gateways to get paid faster including Tap to pay, Buy Now, Pay Later options, invoice reminders; all aiming to help customers ensure debtor days are reduced.

Bills to pay – you will have the ability to upload multiple bills at once with Xero creating the draft bill, it saves the copy of the bill as an attachment, picks up the supplier details, invoice number, date, amount.  All you need to do is add a description and code to the chart of accounts and save.

Xero Analytics powered by Syft– this new addition to Xero family will provide updated dashboards for improved performance.  Xero is adding the ability customise your display to show extra reporting items such as net cashflow, KPI’s, current ratio, quick ratio as well as preparing graphs and charts for a more visual display of business performance.  The cashflow manager will provide an overview on bank balance, cash movements, and will show predictions as to when recurring invoices will be paid.  You will also be able to be able to prepare cashflow projections by adding a cash in / out and enable businesses to have a quick visual insight to how their business is performing.

AI – this is so exciting! Xero will be implementing smart bank reconciliations, where Xero will allow the system to automatically reconcile bank transactions that it has a high degree of certainty, and only leave more uncertain transactions, meaning 100’s of transactions can be automatically reconciled without your involvement. You still have the ability to make corrections if needed and it will learn from the corrections you have made.

JAX – Just Ask Xero – this is going to be so cool.  An AI powered tool can be used to help businesses identify trends, and allow you to benchmark performance. As you continue to use it learns how you work and adapt to you.  It will also have the functionality that you can ask business performance questions – ie who are top 5 customers last month.  You can also as JAX to prepare a quote / invoice and send it!

Display – Xero are also investing in upgrading the homepage to make it more insightful and easier to refresh navigation.

 

Leadership  and Looking after the team

In addition to the tech focus I also had the pleasure of listening to some amazing guest speakers on leadership and team builiding.

Dr. Lucy Hone who spoke about the 3 secrets of resilient people, where she spoke about

• understanding that struggle is a part of life,
• perfectionism is toxic and not good for mental health and to
• you should focus energy and attention on things that you can change.

It was an important reminder that you cannot do everything and you cannot please everyone so it’s good to ask yourself – is this helping or harming me?  This puts you in the driving seat for you own mental health.

 

Matt Church who spoke about leadership and created a lot of thought and reflection in relation to the importance of:

• Communication in developing team relationships and how to get the best out of people
• Creating the space for people to be awesome, encourage them and give them power to help provide the sense they can do things.
• Avoiding toxic situations such as gossip, sarcasm and cynicism.

And, I was lucky enough to get his book Rise Up personally signed – look forward to a summary of the key takeaways later in the year.

 

Chelsea Pottenger who spoke about how to focus in a world of distractions.

• It is vital to have a weekend reset every 6 weeks.
• She explained a quick meditation technique and breathing technique to help calm down in stressful situations.– to breathe in, then a quick breath in and a loud exhale, this helps to calm down.
• Importance of finding your own optimal morning routine.
• We should prioritise our sleep, nourish our body, move our body, have self-care and connect with family and friends.

5 Day challenge that you can try yourself.

1. If your alarm sounds is set to “beep beep” sound, you should change it to nature or music instead.
2. Resist the urge to put your phone on your bedside table
3. Say 5 things that you are grateful for
4. Positive affirmations – “Today is going to be a good day”

 

Author: Tanya Holtham