A few weeks from now Paycycle will be fully integrated with Xero.  For those of you already using both Paycycle and Xero the changes will be pretty minimal - rather than logging into Paycycle as a separate site you will now have a payroll tab on your Xero file.  For those of you using Paycycle only you will now log into Xero (but use the payroll section only).

Here is a sneak preview of the new Xero screens including Paycycle.

 

I was reminded again a few days ago of one of my favourite features of Paycycle - we processed super both for our own employees and for a number of clients.  All bar one of those clients was on Paycycle - the exception was one recently acquired client who had been reporting their super manually.  That one client took longer to process than all the others put together - run reports, log into super fund websites (lots of them), upload payment details by employee, create BPays.  Yuk!

By contrast the reporting out of Paycycle involved:

• One click to add the super batch
• Select all pays in the quarter
• Submit for approval
• Enter security code (received by SMS)

So quick, and so easy!  Payments direct debited, reports lodged electronically.

If you'd like to know more about how much time Paycycle can save you please contact Viridity.

At the beginning of January Paycycle released the new HTML version of their software to all users (we had been running our payroll on this release since the early December as part of their beta testing).  As of this week this is the only version available – they have now shut down the old Silverlight version (the “black and green” screens many of you will have been familiar with).

The new “look and feel” of the product is in line with Xero – lots of blue!  My first response was a bit negative but after running 4 payrolls in the new release I can scarcely remember the old screens and am really impressed with this new version.   This video shows an introduction to the new release, plus there are extensive help notes on the Paycycle website.

 

The next major objective for Paycycle is a full integration with Xero, so for those of you who run both these products you will have the option within a few weeks of running your payroll inside Xero, it will just be a separate tab (and yes access will be controlled by user log on, so your payroll data will remain confidential).  Keep an eye on our blog over the next few weeks for news of this.

If you need any help transitioning from the old version of Paycycle to the new, or are interested in implementing either Paycycle or Xero in your business please contact Viridity.

The whole team here at Viridity is excitedly finalising preparations for CeBIT which starts in Sydney tomorrow (and runs till Thursday).

We will be co-hosting a stand with our good friends from Wendy Field Business Services, and showcasing a whole range of solutions aimed at small and medium business.  So if you are interested in:

• Xero (for bookkeeping / accounting)
• Unleashed (inventory)
• Dremus (e-commerce)
• Paycycle (payroll)
• Any combination of these
• Or a range of other related solutions (such as reporting and CRM)

Please call by and talk to us - we will be at stand K43. 

If you haven't got a ticket yet you can still get in for free, as long as you book by midnight tonight and use a promo code.  If you don't have a promo code click on this CeBIT Sydney link, type "CeBIT promo" in the other comments field and we will forward one to you.

Looking forward to seeing you over the next three days!

A few weeks ago the guys at Paycycle asked me if I would Beta test their new super payments solution.  Even though Viridity only has 4 employees paying super is still not a lot of fun as all 4 of us are with different super funds.  And yes I know I could use a clearing house, but that doesn't work all that well when we run payroll for our clients - every time we take on a new client we have to learn our way around another super fund website.

Cue Paycycle's automatic super payments solution.  For March quarter I logged into Paycycle, clicked on the "Super Payments" button to generate a list of the super that was due to be paid for myself and my team for the March quarter.  I reviewed this against the reports I had run earlier (all balanced), then clicked "submit".  That was it - it took less time to do than it has taken me to write this blog post!

If you want to see how easy this is to do sign up to Paycycle, or if you would like to outsource not only payroll processing but the whole of your payroll administration, contact Viridity.

The last 18 months has been a pretty hectic time for Viridity, with a shift of focus from desktop to cloud solutions.  We have become dealers for Xero, Paycycle & Unleashed and now have many clients up on one or more of these products (with more being added every week). 

We use Xero & Paycycle internally, as well as a number of other cloud solutions: Workflowmax for our internal workflow, time recording and lead management, Google Apps for email and Box.net for our data storage / data transfer.  We continue to review other cloud solutions that might add value internally or for our clients.

Migrating to these products has involved a learning curve, but far less than with corresponding desktop solutions - and without these solutions we would not be able to provide the level of client service that has allowed us to grow our business.

Not everyone in the market is ready for cloud solutions - we still sometimes hear concerns about security, speed or other issues, but we are seeing a continual shift in the market as more people become comfortable with cloud solutions. 

It is clear (to me at least) that these concerns will continue to diminish over time: 5 years ago many people refused to use their credit card on-line, yet by 2011 the majority of us are comfortable with a wide range of on-line transactions.  Most projections of the IT world over the next 3 or 4 years see significant ongoing growth in take up of cloud solutions.

For those of you who currently prefer to keep you data on your local PC or server please keep reviewing what is available in the cloud - there are no right and wrong answers, so I am not suggesting that by rejecting the cloud you are "wrong".  But as the balance continues to tip you might be missing out on options that could deliver huge benefit to your business.  If you do decide the time is right to make that switch we would love to talk to you.

Today sees the launch of Xero's integrated payroll solution.  It is a relatively basic solution, without some of the smarter features of Paycycle (which is the cloud payroll solution we use in-house & recommend to clients).

But if you do have a small & simple payroll this offers a great built in solution: and no more having to pay out up to $700 every year just to get new tax tables for one of the desktop solutions!

Whilst it is a simple payroll solution it does have some really smart features built in, such as copy previous payroll, auto save a payroll if you have to exit a run part way through, you can instantly generate a batch file to pay employees and much more besides.  It is an integral part of Xero and after watching the online videos is easy to get started.

On the downside it does not apply rules on PAYG or Super, you have to calculate these manually - not difficult if your payroll is the same every week, but a drag (and prone to error) if you have to re-do the calculations everytime you run a pay.

So who would want to use Xero payroll?  If you have a small & simple payroll this could be a cost effective solution for your business.  By small I mean up to about 5 employees, and by simple I mean mainly salaried or hourly paid staff who pretty much work the same hours every week. 

If your payroll is larger than this or has more complexity whilst you could still use Xero without any problems at all, you are likely to find that you could save enough time to more than justify the cost of Paycycle. 

To provide Viridity's perspective on this, we provide an outsourced payroll solution to a number of clients, and we run them all through Paycycle - we will continue to do so (even though it means we absorb an extra $20 a month in cost) because of the time we save.

So it's your choice: a really good entry level payroll built into Xero at no additional cost (and no annual upgrade fees) or a higher end solution from Paycycle.

I have written about the security issues of holding data in the cloud on a number of ocassions, both in this blog and on various forums.  it is an emotive topic, with some people completely chilled about the idea, others very worried about issues ranging from their data being hacked by competitors, data being lost or corrupted, data being accessed by various government agencies and so on.  I have felt for a while (and argued in this blog post) that much of this fear was not entirely rational (still valid of course, but just not warranted based on the facts). 

Today I came across an interesting survey from the UK on this topic that very strongly suggests that this really is one of those classic "fears of the unknown".  Once people overcome that initial fear and investigate this a little further their experiences are overwhelmingly positive.  Based on these positive experiences and a better understanding of the risks involved their concerns about the cloud change dramatically.

The survey looked at levels of concern about cloud security and privacy, compared to the respondents current experience with cloud apps.  Looking at the graphs below we see a very clear trend of those with significant experience rating cloud / Saas as better or no different, whilst those with limited or no experience perceive the risks on both these measures as being far higher.




It is of course important to note that not all Saas providers have an equally good record on either security or privacy.  There have been some well documented breaches of security / privacy in the cloud, but equally many in-house businesses have been broken into, had data hacked, lost records through breaches of security and so on.  And many cloud apps have an exemplary record.   Once again I find myself coming to the conclusion that I know where I believe my data is safest!

I am sitting writing this at Auckland airport waiting for my flight back to Sydney, feeling pretty zonked after a few full on days, but also very excited about all the great new features that will be released in Xero over the coming weeks and months.  A few of my favourites:

Opening API access to the General Ledger (GL)

Even typing that I am starting to feel like a geek!  But in plain English this means that any external program (examples below) will be able to post transactions directly to the General Ledger.  This will make interfacing from Paycycle, from Unleashed or from any of the many other apps that integrate with Xero even better.  This will be available just over a week from now - the benefit is in the next few new features.

External Reporting tools

Xero already has a great range of built in reports, but sometimes users want a range of other reports.  Because developers can now read data direct from the GL they can develop reporting tools.  This has already started, with Spotlight due for release in around a month.  Without doubt there will soon be many more options.  I will be looking at Spotlight in detail during Feb and blogging my review.

Prepayments / overpayments

You know that pesky problem when a customer pays you too much - sometimes by just a few cents or dollars, sometimes a lots more.  From an accounting sense it is quite hard to deal with - the next release of Xero will have an automated solution for this, rather than the manual work around that is required now.

Budgeting

We spend a lot of time with clients preparing budgets and management reports.  Xero will be introducing mutliple budgets (or budgets and forecasts) within the next few months, including the ability to "round trip" the budget to that invaluable budgeting tool Excel.

Benchmarking & Cashflow forecasting

No dates on these 2 yet, but on the development roadmap.  I have treated them together as they are both such great tools for helping business owners / managers improve the performance of their business.

Lots more coming, lots of enhancements to the many apps that integrate with Xero, but I hear my flight being called - more blogging on this soon.

I do so love working with software in the cloud (Xero, Paycycle, Unleashed, etc)!  Of the many delights the speed of release of new upgrades is one of the best.  It is hard to believe that in the past 6 weeks we have seen 3 releases from Xero, including:

• a release on November 2nd – enhancement to bank feeds, notifications inbox (a really neat feature) and various upgrades to repeating invoices and contacts;
• a release on November 30th – Yodlee bank feeds for the US, and a really nice enhancement to bank feeds for all users (users can now check within Xero if a direct fees is available from their bank).

And now a release today that contains a whole list of great new or enhanced features: a couple of these are thinks I have been requesting (along with many others, I can’t claim all the credit) so they will be in use by several of my customers before today is out!  My pick of the list is as follows:

Custom Invoice Templates

You can now – get this – simply create your very own templates using Microsoft Word for invoices, credit notes or statements.  Once uploaded Xero will automatically merge with your data to produce PDF documents that are unique to your company.  So all of you graphic design types who have beautiful crafted invoices, you can now do these direct in Xero.  Wow!  Take a look at the video to see how easy this is.

Bulk Emailing of Statements and Invoices

You can now send invoices or statements to a batch of clients with one click of a button (for me this is one of the “implement today” features)!  Documents can be batch printed, emailed or sent via the Xero-to-Xero network.  If need be you can update contact email addresses on the fly.

Updated Bank Account Transaction Tabs

This is a bit more mundane, but for those of you who do the bank reconciliations Xero have added a new set of tabs to make it easier to navigate between the list of account transactions, statements, reconciliation and cash coding screens when viewing a bank account.

Lots of other new features specific to the US or NZ (details on the Xero blog).

Plus there are few things for the accountants & Bookkeepers out there to get excited about:

• Detailed Account Transaction Report
• Edit Reconciled Spend / Receive Money Transactions
• Edit Posted Manual Journals
• Trial and Demo Organisations to include multicurrency

Check out the Xero blog for details, if you need any help or advise on any of these please contact Viridity, we would love to help you join the cloud.

Over the past few months we have seen a change in the size and complexity of businesses implementing cloud based solutions.  Prior to that Viridity had implemented lots of micro businesses (single person, or maybe 1 / 2 staff) most of whom had gone live with either a single solution (Xero) which adequately met all of their accounting requirements or with Xero plus Paycycle (for payroll).

More recently we have been referred an increasing number of “small / medium” clients (from maybe a half a dozen employees to 20 or more), each of which have more complex requirements in one or more areas.  In each case we have been able to meet all their needs entirely through cloud solutions, and have done so far more effectively than would have been possible with desktop software.  A few examples of the businesses we have set up over the past couple of months, or are in the process of setting up right now include:

·         A multi-location service business, running an industry specific (cloud based) “front desk” solution, which we have integrated with Xero for back-office accounting.  We have implemented Paycycle for all their payroll needs, and in addition this client was already using both Dropbox and Basecamp – very eager adopters of cloud solutions!

·         An inventory based business in WA for whom we are in the process of rolling out Unleashed for inventory control & Xero for their accounting.  In addition we are working with their web designers to integrate their e-commerce module into Unleashed / Xero.

·         A training organisation for whom we have provided a complete virtual Finance department (from bookkeeping on Xero and payroll via Paycycle, through to an outsourced CFO service).

A couple of these warrant a far more detailed “case study” write up, which we will be working on early in the new year.

Interestingly none of these clients are local to Viridity (in North Sydney), but the use of cloud solutions has allowed us to provide them great solutions irrespective of location. 

This move to adopt not only online products but solutions made up of multiple online products is very exciting.  The key to implementing solutions comprising multiple components lies in the level and ease of integration.  At times I am put in mind of the wonderful Arthur C Clarke quote “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. 

When I watch the way that Unleashed integrates into Xero I am constantly amazed at how easy this is, and by the thought that all integrations should be like this!  When I demo how these systems integrate (for example how an invoice raised in Unleashed integrates into Xero) I am often asked to “do it again”, because the client can’t quite believe it is that easy.

If you would like to see how easy this is please contact Viridity – we would love to help you make the move into the cloud.