It was a huge privilege to be able to attend Xerocon 2022 in Sydney.  The vibe was exciting.  So many attending their very first Xerocon, with so many others being lucky enough to attend another Xerocon event after a two year break.

 

One of the reasons to attend Xerocon is to learn about new tech, apps and software in the market for business.

There were so many app partners, too many to include!  I had my focus app partners who I wanted to get around and chat with and attend their breakout sessions.  The key was to attend their stand, and get my details scanned so I could at least coordinate a follow up demo session or chat with a member from the sales team.

 

For me it was about what apps would benefit our clients to help create efficiencies and assist with their day to day running of their business, what apps would benefit the Alto team to help with our services, whilst still being cost effective.

 

A few notable take aways for me were:

Tradies – ServiceM8

Wow! This program in my opinion is definitely worth considering for those in trade industries.  This app helps with job scheduling, tracking availability of team members to allocate urgent / new jobs to, tracking travel time and time on site, ability to invoice on site and collect payment from the customer, being able to attach photos, compliance documents or paperwork and send to the customer with their invoice.  This history is stored with the job, so at any time in the future, all of the history is there.

 

Payroll – Keypay

While Xero has a built in payroll offering, this is  a game changer for those who have shift workers etc.  Keypay have a lot of the modern award pay scales built into their program, which means the pay rates are automatically updated.  What I found to be amazing about this app, was for those staff who are shift workers, Keypay will look at their start and finish times and suggest the appropriate pay scale to which they should be paid – hence saving a lot of time manually calculating and working out what rate of pay they should be paid.  Keypay also provides a rostering system, and the ability to build your own pay scales.

 

Fathom

Fathom is an all in one reporting, analysis and forecasting tool.  What I found to be fantastic about this financial reporting tool was the ability to be able to build scenarios into a clients business and see the impact.  It collates data on a daily basis from Xero and retains up to 24 months of historical data, meaning any scenario you put in place if you’re using a percentage increate / decrease model, means your forecasting is automatically updated.  Another wow factor for me was that you could drag and drop your project from one month to another and automatically see the updated impact on the business. In my opinion, a powerful reporting tool for clients.

 

Hubdoc

A great tool to save significant data entry time for supplier invoices.  Easy to take photos on the app of receipts while out on the road, and have supplier invoices emailed directly into Hubdoc. Once approved in Hubdoc, it pushes directly into Xero’s payable system with all of the detail from the invoice and copy of the invoice.  Best thing is Xero offers this product for free as part most of their plans.

 

In addition to the above, Xero have their app store, which is a great tool to search for type of app you are looking for – Xero then list suggested options which fit your search criteria.

 

How Can Alto Help?

Contact Alto if you would like to discuss options for apps or software that can enhance your performance or save you time in administrative tasks.  We can help analyse your requirements, determine the best program for you and support you in implementation.

Author: Tanya Holtham