All Aussie Accounting Adventures - Tech Edition
All Aussie Accounting Adventures - Tech Edition
XeroCon's Tech Revolution LIVE-ISH
Jack and Amy take you behind the 'tech' scenes at XeroCon. With over 3,500 attendees and enough tech news to crash your browser, it really is the Coachella of accounting.
From the flashy product reveals to the quiet coffee chats that spark big ideas, we dig into all the latest. Xero’s new Partner Hub is aiming to be your one-stop dashboard dream, Jax AI is flexing some serious smarts thanks to a new OpenAI partnership, and Work Papers is teaming up with BGL to make compliance just that bit smoother.
Payments were the buzzword of the week, with nearly every app provider adding some kind of solution. And with AML requirements looming, there’s a wave of new tech surfacing to help firms stay ahead.
The app ecosystem’s not slowing down either. Tools like Link, Content Snare and FYI are rolling out upgrades like nobody’s business.
Oh, and if you're heading to the Safari Glitterati wrap party tonight… come say hey! We’ll be the ones nerding out over app stacks in between dance breaks.
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PRODUCTION
David Easton (@davidjeasty) | Insta...
Hey, jack hey.
Speaker 2:Amy.
Speaker 3:You sound?
Speaker 1:fresh, how you doing I am so fresh, buddy, I am. Look, I'm good. I'm a little weary at the moment, but not in a bad way. It's just, we're coming to you from ZeroCon 9am day 2. To you from zero con 9 am day two. Oh yeah, I am party weary. I think I am human weary, but equally I've loved every second of this whole entire week.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's been mega like I think they're saying three and a half thousand people are here yeah half of those are first timers at zero con as well. So, yeah, I first day was absolutely buzzing and packed and yep, I mean it's nice. It's been two years since we've had zero con, so it's good, it's good I agree, I've.
Speaker 1:I've been really looking forward to this week for a long time. I was you're so right, I was sitting in the um keynote yesterday. We were both sitting there with the um the opening keynote and, uh, suklinda uh you know did a show of hands for, you know, first timers. I was gobsmacked that over half of the audience put their hands up yeah, it's like wow, there's that many people.
Speaker 2:It's the first time to zero con which is great because I mean, I mean I think the the every two year cycle. Initially I was like devastated because I love it likewise, I mean likewise. I mean I still love it, but I think it does mean everyone's a little bit hungrier for it when it comes around. So I can see it kind of playing in its favor, and by the time the next two years rolls around, we're all going to want it desperately again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, very much agree with that. So Dragon kicked off the Coachella of accounting events of the southern I know that was great morning which was a bit of fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they were actually they're really good.
Speaker 1:I was, I'm not gonna lie. I was sitting there going who are these guys? And then I was like oh, hang on, I know that song, I know who these guys are.
Speaker 2:I loved the little mosh pit that was going on.
Speaker 1:Yes, there was. There was a little mosh pit, that was really funny.
Speaker 2:it's just, I think setting the scene here is because I asked my team what were your highlights so far, and it was funny because so, if you're familiar with Zerocon Week or you're not, basically the night before Zerocon kicks off, ignition run a great pre-con party, so that always happens and it's a great chance to catch up. So you, you know, we managed to get our way into there towards the end of the night.
Speaker 2:um, but then we got our uber home and we were in the uber with this lady and she and she was like, oh, what are you guys doing in brisbane? And we're like, oh, we're here for an accounting conference. And she just went on to be like, oh, you know, that's, it's gonna be a tough few days, sounds.
Speaker 3:Sounds terribly boring kind of thing and and I'm like, nah, you don't know, you've got no idea, it's more of a party than a mechanic conference.
Speaker 1:It's so true, that is so true. It definitely is a party, by the way.
Speaker 2:And so I mean, from your side, what's the? Yeah, I suppose we should probably cover what's happening. Yes, from a tech perspective, did Xero kind of announce anything key, critical, any specific things from your side?
Speaker 1:From my perspective, a couple of things that they announced which was actually really nice. I'm like, finally they've done it. I'm so excited by this. They announced the Xero Partner Hub.
Speaker 2:That did look good.
Speaker 1:And that's going to be epic. The Xero Partner Hub is basically bringing all aspects of their products together under one banner. So at the moment, you've got Xero Tax, you've got XPM, you've got Xero Work Papers and obviously you've got your ledgers and financials. But accessing those oh sorry, you've also got zero HQ. Accessing those under one banner, you actually have to click in and click out of them as it stands right now and there is, you know, obviously you can flick between them, yeah, but it's actually it's not a very fabulous experience. I mean, it's fine, but what they've now shown us of what it's going to be, it's going to be all under one dashboard.
Speaker 1:I think the thing that I was most excited by about that two things was A the widgets, and the widgets being that you can actually design your own dashboard so you can see what's important. So, for example, I'm a practice manager. I want to see my job workflow changed straight on my dashboard. Great, I can see that. Or, you know, if I'm an accountant, I might not want to see that. I might want to see, you know, a whole list of clients that haven't done their reconciliation. That's a widget, that kind of thing, right? The other really exciting widget that I loved was the tax one, the ATO lodgements. So, yeah, they're actually going to be bringing in you can actually see where your lodgements are up to and also your on-time lodgements, so you don't actually have to go into the ATO portal. Now, interestingly enough, nz have actually had that function within their XPM for years, but that's based on that's an in-land revenue versus ATO type scenario as to why it's not happened, but they're doing it now.
Speaker 2:No, that did seem huge. That was kind of number one on my list of things that I thought felt like a big announcement for the people in the room. Like everyone here, 99% of people are running an accounting practice or bookkeeping practice. So all of them close to all of them, are going to be using those products and so to have it kind of moved into all in one.
Speaker 1:I think that's great, yeah, great. It's very exciting. What about you? What was yours?
Speaker 2:I mean they also announced some stuff around Jax, and I think I mean it was obviously key.
Speaker 1:Jack or Jax.
Speaker 2:J-A-X.
Speaker 4:Jax.
Speaker 1:Just ask zero is what it stands for.
Speaker 2:Correct, and I mean obviously.
Speaker 2:well, maybe not obviously but Jax has been around for a little while now over 12 months definitely and I think it's still been in its infancy for most of that time. I've definitely heard feedback of people saying oh, I tried to do this and it's not helping. Obviously, it's going to take time for it to get to a very valuable, very useful position, but I think it's really important that Xero have a core focus on AI, given clearly it's going to impact us all and it already is, so they feel like they're heavily invested in that space. They've got a big vision there. I think there's still a lot of actually like cool, let's see this play out and let's see what actually gets delivered in due course, because obviously I think we're all keen for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it looks like it's going to be pretty cool in terms of what they're saying that's going to be able to do, in so far as, like jack's is actually going to sit across the practice hub, which means you're going to be able to ask insights around your client, like I was sitting in on a demo yesterday where it was basically the idea was you could sit there and go all right, I'm preparing for a meeting for a client. Um, what am I going to? I just need a snapshot view of what position they're up to. What did we chat about last time? Um, what's?
Speaker 1:their financial position. What's outstanding? Are there anything? Is there anything? I need to remind them of that kind of thing? And literally within 30 seconds it's pulled that information into one little snapshot viewpoint. It's like that.
Speaker 2:That shit's awesome I didn't get to see that I was back on the booth at that point.
Speaker 1:So that's cool.
Speaker 2:And then it is cool. I heard they announced um a partnership with open ai they did.
Speaker 1:They did announce a partnership with open ai, which is very it's an interesting move did they reveal more?
Speaker 1:no, it was a that came up. Um, it was yesterday morning still, but it was just something that they actually mentioned on stage two. I'm going to be a bit watch this space and my main reason for that is how will they do it, given that we're dealing with sensitive information, and then it's open ai? You know what I mean. Like, I'm just I'm gonna be really interested to see what plays out with that. But there was also some other stuff from the ai, like from the jack's perspective and the ai sort of stuff where, um, it can help you build out, rather than you know, having standardized templated emails and things like that. When you're sending an invoice, it will help you build that invoice information if you wanted it to. So it's not just helping you build the invoice, it's also helping you build the comms around that.
Speaker 2:That seems very practical.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's a bit more practical use that sort of thing. So that was cool Work papers.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, the new BGL partnership there. That does sound like that's been well, potentially well, delivered as well. You know, actually gone above and beyond. Kind of very minimal, because sometimes you expect that with the first release of new product yeah, this is going to be very raw, but it sounds like they've gone at least to the next step and said no, it needs more, it needs a bit more functionality than that. So I mean, you know this space well, you live in it. Are you excited about that?
Speaker 1:um. Look, as far as a non-accountant can be, I'm very excited about the integration. Sorry, being a little facetious, right? So I'm probably not as excited as all the accountants here are, but from a zero work papers perspective, I'm actually I am thoroughly delighted that they are doing something, because they had to. That product hadn't been touched for years. It is, you know, anything at this present moment, in my opinion, is going to be better than what they've currently got.
Speaker 1:I think that zero work papers in its current state definitely has a place in the market, for it depends on your client base, right, um?
Speaker 1:But what it's going to turn into is going to be really cool for the industry and I think it's it's giving some of their competitors a bit of a run for their money, like um. So I think it's actually a really cool for the industry and I think it's giving some of their competitors a bit of a run for their money. So I think it's actually a really cool thing that's going to be implemented and rolled out. I think the other thing that I really liked about the Zero Partner Hub was that they really stressed that you don't need to migrate to a new platform, so it's not like oh, I now have to add this extra app to my space. It's actually going to evolve, so you'll start seeing changes in your current app stack basically, and they're going to be evolving that over the course of the next couple of months. I think beta is being rolled out in November and I think it's available to people kind of early next year. I hope I'm right with those dates.
Speaker 2:I thought it was beta for new zealand in november oh maybe, but in australia it will be available rolled out.
Speaker 1:Oh, maybe oh, cool, even better.
Speaker 2:So there we go yeah, don't hold us to that, sorry I don't know, just in case, but it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that was a nice thing. It's not like, oh god, I now have to implement something new and I need to change, and that's going to be. It's actually just going to be evolved over time. Yeah, you'll just start seeing changes, which is kind of cool yeah, no, I thought that.
Speaker 2:I thought, yeah, those those couple of announcements were really good for the accounting bookkeeping community. I mean also the so so beyond zero. Obviously there's still the entire ecosystem of apps that are here, so there must be close to 100 exhibitors. I've no idea. It's a massive room.
Speaker 1:I did wonder that I was standing back yesterday thinking I was like how many are there? Yeah, I reckon there'd be about 100.
Speaker 2:Well, there's yeah, there's 1,200 plus in this app store. I reckon there's a solid. I reckon there would be close to 100 here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in different capacities, you've got eight of them in a little corner. Yep, some of the bigger players are here, but anything coming out or standing out from a app app stack. You know ecosystem perspective, because I talk to a lot of people who who come in and say, ah, it's not. You know, it's not the zero of 10 years ago. You know I don't go and sit in the keynote and they surprise me with all these features that are ready to go today but it's a different organization, organization, of course they can't do those things anymore.
Speaker 2:It's exciting that they're announcing what they are announcing.
Speaker 2:They're doing that. But I think the other side of it is all of these apps around us would have released a ton of new features over the past 3, 6, 12 months that you wouldn't know about. Some of these could be really game-changing for you. So I think, accepting that Xero will announce what they announce, but you can go and find these little pots of gold around the place as well that you might not realise are out- there. So I don't know if there's anything that's kind of standing out to you in the room.
Speaker 1:The one that I wanted to check out. I went and spoke to the guys at Link. So they have a bit of workflow and capacity that they're building out. At the moment it is intrinsically linked to XPM. But I heard on the grapevine that their longer play is they want to go after the American market because they can. But that means that eventually they'll probably detach from like still be linked to XPM, but detach it so that it could be standalone effectively. It's a couple of years away away, don't get me wrong, but that's. But even just looking at what they've got from a capacity perspective, it's really cool.
Speaker 1:Having said that, what I saw yesterday in relation to what zero is doing there's sort of a little bit of that too, because capacity is probably one of the biggest beefs. Generally speaking, I would say that's the outstanding thing. I know the guys at Seamless are doing a few little bits and pieces with workflows and jobs and bits and pieces around that. So that's kind of cool from that front. I know that Content Snare have a very good integration, a push and a pull integration now with XPM. So content's doing well. What else? Fyi released a few features.
Speaker 2:They've got forms. Now, they've got forms. Yes, that's one that I can absolutely see. I mean, for anyone who uses or is experienced with most other CRM systems and things like that, that forms are quite a a critical way that you work yeah so I think that's quite. That is definitely a cool release yeah um, I was talking to cory from anitra last night, um, and so I wasn't aware, but they've obviously released this in the past, not recently there's the payments component of their product.
Speaker 1:they've got the id verification like it. It's about 12 months old, exactly.
Speaker 2:But that's the thing I was saying oh, what are you getting? Are you getting any customers coming up to you and talking to you? Or it's like well, last Xerocon people would come up who were customers, but they're already customers. You're saying hey, you're helping them out and that's the product.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so they've integrated with Pinch, yes, cool.
Speaker 4:They've integrated with Pinch Payments. I mean.
Speaker 2:I think payments as a whole is definitely a theme of this Eurocon. Yeah, I agree, there are so many different products in this space. I was talking to my sister, lauren, and I said what's kind of the key app that you're walking away from this with?
Speaker 1:For her it was OF. Signed up to them a couple of months ago and I haven't been using it. So I'm like boys. Can you help me use this better? So yeah, ofx is really cool actually.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think they do a lot in the cards spend management space. Airwallex are getting more into the spend management side of things. So if you don't have a, you know I was talking to the Approval Max guys as well. You know they're seeing more firms offering almost AP as a service and saying if you're an accounting firm or bookkeeping practice, why are you not offering this to your clients?
Speaker 2:I say we'll handle your AP for you, because there's so many tools out there that can automate a lot of those workflows, handle the payments, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:So interesting. I spoke to the guys at Fee Synergy.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, aml, oh, that's a big thing that's coming in the next 12 months, and it's not just the tech around that. Like and I also spoke to the guys at BGL same thing, like, at the moment you can do that through CAS360, but they are apparently going to be again detaching that so it can be standalone, so that it's, you know, an additional product as well. It can either be as part of your current CAS360 or standalone, but the AML stuff. So, yeah, it's not just about the tech, it's also about the stuff that you have to do and know from your clients.
Speaker 1:You're going to have to be able to rate your clients like categorize them from a risk perspective, that kind of thing. There's lots of kind of documentation, processes, procedures associated with it. So I think, unlike the TASA changes that came through recently with everybody going, oh my God, we have to do engagement letters more regularly I, the AML stuff's going to be, that's really going to force people to be a hell of a lot more compliant. So, yeah, the guys at Feast Energy have got all of that.
Speaker 2:So if anybody's kind of curious, go and speak to them it's interesting because I did a bit of work with the firm check team. They started in New Zealand as Connectworks, I think, and now they're over in the UK as firm check they they are. They started in new zealand as connect works, I think, and now they're over in the uk as firm check they.
Speaker 2:They had skipped the australian market because we hadn't yet had the focus on aml that we're about to have so they may also be one to watch if they come into the market, because they are probably a leader in new zealand and the uk in this space yeah, yeah, it's gonna be cool, like it's gonna be a big thing for for them, for the accountants out there.
Speaker 1:I mean, like it's just another I to dot and another T to cross, I know, but it is what it is, but otherwise anything else you've seen. Actually, workflow Max was the other one that I saw, obviously, the new version of Workflow.
Speaker 2:Max.
Speaker 1:Sure, yep, they have. Like it's huge in terms of what they've actually been able to achieve and what they've actually, you know, developed in that space too. So not so much for a you know, an accounting practice, more for clients, potentially yep, your clients. So that's another one to watch out if you do have any clients that and I mean on our side.
Speaker 2:We just um, we've come with some new features as well so just like all the other apps in the room, uh, but we've brought with us deferred revenue and prepayments for the firms that do kind of manual schedules in Excel and recurring journals in Xero, those kinds of things. So if you've got any clients with a lot of volume on the deferred revenue or prepayment side, that seems to be getting a lot of interest and a lot of traction.
Speaker 1:But to be honest guys, I don't think that we'd find out half of the stuff that's going on so much yeah, so I'm hoping that that's given everybody a little insight, a little snapshot, because I know this was also the first time that zero have opened it up to be online. So there's about. I believe they said that there was about 8 000 people something logging in and you know, joining zero com for the first time online and I think on that, on that note of.
Speaker 2:There's so much happening, how do we stay on top of it, all this kind of stuff? I did actually pop over to the zero dev day the other day, yeah, and they are doing some interesting things with the app store and saying we need, we need, uh, or they putting in a lot of smarts in terms of how do we present the right tools to the right businesses or the right partners. So you know, if you're, I don't know exactly how it works behind the scenes, but there's obviously some algorithm that's going through and saying, look, these are the kinds of businesses you work with or support. Potentially, these are the solutions that might be relevant for you. So just trying to help sift through those 1,200 apps in the ecosystem and say, look, maybe these are four or five that are worth a look.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cool.
Speaker 2:So that seems to be getting a fair bit of love too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was actually just before Zerocon. I was at the Account Kit Power-Up Conference which was a bit of fun too.
Speaker 2:That's cool too. A new addition to the Zerocon week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly a new addition, and that was really cool too, and just to see what those guys are doing in terms of workflows and bits and pieces, they've got some really cool integrations as well, so just so much I'm sad for a lot of people because I know that the tickets for Zero Con sold out so quickly this time around and there are a lot of people like, no, it sold out.
Speaker 1:I didn't get a ticket. I was like, oh, but you've been coming for years. They nah, it's sold out. I didn't get a ticket. I was like, oh, but you've been coming for years.
Speaker 2:They're like yeah, I know. So I think, now that it's every two years, you've got to be hot on it this time around, absolutely yeah, don't let that pass you by, because it is good fun.
Speaker 4:And.
Speaker 2:I mean beyond the tech. Like the community is awesome.
Speaker 1:It's so great just walking the room and chatting with everyone. My halo, my neon halo.
Speaker 2:For those who aren't here I'm looking at it right now and it should really be on. It's off right now, but I've got headphones on, so I couldn't wear the halo and the headphones at the same time Just imagine someone wearing the Clarity Street C with the dime on T, but it's glowing and it's sitting on top of Amy's head, literally Well, I had to one-up.
Speaker 1:There were just too many apps out there that had decided to copy our neon sign for their branding, for their stand. So this time I was like right.
Speaker 3:I'm just going to one-up you all.
Speaker 1:I'm going to walk around wearing neon.
Speaker 2:I like it, I like it, I like it.
Speaker 1:So wrap party tonight.
Speaker 2:Yep. As we are coming to the wrap Safari glitterati.
Speaker 1:Safari glitterati. I have my glitterati, I have my pink sparkly sunglasses.
Speaker 2:I nearly brought my sunglasses from a couple of years ago. You know what?
Speaker 1:I might have a spare pair for you.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:You can wear some tonight.
Speaker 2:I'm definitely in the safari edge of the thing, American, so yeah, my glitterati might need some work I'm looking forward to tonight.
Speaker 1:I think I'm glad that we did this today, because if we had have done this tomorrow, jack, I don't think I'll have a voice at all tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it would have been terrible, horrible. It's already pretty bad.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening in everybody.
Speaker 2:We appreciate you and if you're, around, not that you're going to hear this.
Speaker 3:Before you leave, come and say hey, otherwise, yeah, I hope you really enjoyed this episode with amy and jack. What did you think, andrew?
Speaker 4:oh, stunning. As always, the two of them are brilliant minds and are brilliant communicators. So we hope that you have got some incredible learnings out of this episode and if you'd like to continue to follow us, make sure you check out our website. Find us on the socials.
Speaker 3:You'll see Accounting Adventures, or look for All Aussie Accounting Adventures wherever good stuff can be found, whether that's conferences whether that's websites found, whether that's conferences, whether that's websites, whether it's podcast or social media, remember to share it around my friends like review. We love that stuff, so come on, join the adventures with us.