Cloud-based accounting has revolutionised the method freelancers and small companies do their accounting, accounting and year-end taxes.

Over the years, these tools have actually grown so advanced that lots of costly accounting functions of the past are now within the hands of small business owners and freelancers.

Here at Pearl Accounting, we are official partners of numerous popular accounting systems and can for that reason help any person utilizing these systems so that they can get the most out of them in the quickest amount of time.

One exceptionally popular tool is Xero.

Just like all accounting tools, there is a little bit of a learning curve to begin utilizing Xero skillfully, particularly if you have no prior accounting training.

Here are 22 pointers that we can assist you get more out of your Xero accounting and bookkeeping experience!

Usage Xero's built-in calculator straight in fields. If you have a ₤ 39.99 receipt of which ₤ 27.32 were actually personal expenses, you might simply type in "37.99-- 27.32" into the field and Xero would determine the value for you.

2. Set up automatic billing tips so that you don't need to stress over going after up sluggish debtors.

3. Set up automatic billing pointers so that you do not have to fret about chasing after up sluggish debtors.

4. Customise your billing reminder e-mails with your own, personalised message.

5. Don't fret about recreating an invoice from scratch, simply copy it, and all the brand-new fields will be filled in with the worths from the original invoice.

6. If you have products that you invoice repeatedly, you can set it up that these get developed and sent immediately at a established schedule.

7. Xero has many data entry shortcuts, for instance, "Tab + t" inputs the current date.


8. Type "yes" to input yesterday's date into a date field.

Typing the minus signs (-) and then a number. Typing in "-3" would input the date of three days ago.

Typing the minus signs (-) and then a number. Typing in "-3" would input the date of 3 days earlier.


11. You can link your Google account to Xero and after that export Xero's information to Google Sheets where it can then be manipulated using's Google Sheets' built-in formulas.

12. Use the forward-slash (/) to open up the search box from any screen ( other than Fixed Assets, Reports, Projects, click here and Expenses screens).

13. Usage single-word faster ways from the search box to rapidly browse to other screens. Typing "c" into the search box when you are in the "All" or Dashboard screen will take you to "All Contacts".

14. Likewise, typing in "f" in the search box will reveal you an option to go to the File library.

15. Type "r" into the search box to take you to the "All Reports" screen.

16. Typing "s" into the search box will take you to the "Organisation Settings" screen.


17. If you are in the "Add New" Screens get more info and type in "b" into the search box, a shortcut will appear to add a new bill.

18. Type in "c" into the search box from the "Add New" screen to be shown a faster way to include a brand-new contact.

19. You can export budgets into a spreadsheet, edit them, and after that import the modified budget plan back into Xero. This can save lots of time by leveraging the spreadsheet's natural capability to quickly control datasets and numbers . By "favouriting" the budget plan, you can access it quickly and so make comparable edits in the future quickly.

20. Xero allows you to group contacts, therefore making it simple to recognize relationships. Some examples of contact groups could be Suppliers, clients and subscribers . Organizing contacts also offers you the ability to send similar invoices to each member of that group.

If you offered 100 items of "Widget X" at a current sale, you could organize those contacts under "Widget X Buyers", generate a single billing and then have the billing sent out to each contact as a different invoice! Do you see how accounting tools can begin paying for themselves as a result of the lots of time they can save you?

Xero enables you to group contacts
21. Probably among the biggest time-savers in Xero is the capability to set up automatic bank feeds. If your particular bank doesn't support bank feeds, this is so amazingly helpful that it may even be an option to switch banks.

22. By setting up as lots of Rules as possible in Xero, the system will then start matching bank feed items with your guidelines, thereby saving you time (and possible human mistake) when doing your accounting.

23. If you wish to look at several Xero screens at the same time, simply hold the Ctrl key down while left-clicking the respective link on Xero to open that screen in a different tab.

There are lots if not hundreds of other time-saving suggestions you can utilize when dealing with Xero. The above should get you well on your way.

The best teacher is practice and routine usage. By utilizing Xero regularly, you will start to get lots of tips yourself and truly conserving time (and, for this reason, cash) on your accounting.