Eye on Platinum

Eye on Books' Road to Xero Platinum Partner

We recently became the FIRST INDEPENDENT BOOKKEEPING firm in Australia to reach Platinum partner status with Xero. We achieved this through natural client growth (not buying clients) and simply providing the best possible service to our clients.

How did we achieve this? What road blocks did we overcome? Read on as Charles shares the milestones that got us there.

September 2010 - "Yeah ... Xero?"

Team Size: 3.5

Clients: 40 (none in xero)

“Yes, of course, we know Xero. If you’re using it, we help you with it.” That’s what I told a potential client... I had heard of Xero in passing months earlier. It had looked like a great idea. But it lacked a lot of Australian bank feeds, which meant I hadn’t been ready to jump into it. So I certainly “knew” Xero but little more than that. I knew I could help this potential client though.

Of course, seeing how this potential client had just passed me a double scotch & coke, perhaps I had an inflated sense of what I could do.

October 2010 - ABN Conference – Gold Coast

We landed the client. And now actually knowing Xero became important. I noticed that Xero had a stand at the Aust Bookkeepers Network conference, and so I made it my mission learn about this new kind of accounting software, where everything was on the cloud via a web browser, nothing on the computer.

I dropped my card in Xero’s bowl, and soon I had an email from them. Welcome as a Xero bookkeeping partner. You get a free version of Xero!

Well, that was nifty, I thought. Now I’m a partner, and I get a free version. These Xero guys seem pretty cool.

Later that night, I met Wayne, the Xero Australia general manager, and Sally Schmidt. They opened my eyes to what Xero was all about, and the great culture Xero was building in Australia.

November 2010 - The beginning

TEAM SIZE: 3.5

CLIENTS: 2 xero clients

Freshly armed with my Xero partner account, we added a second client to Xero. A MYOB convert. The three staff members then working at Eye on Books made a late night of it. Munching on pizza, we followed the step-by-step guide on converting from MYOB to Xero. Four hours later, we had done our first conversion from MYOB to Xero. All seemed well.

 February 2011

CLIENTS: 5 XERO CLIENTS

In the months that followed, we discovered that Xero solved all the difficulties we had with looking after our clients.

• Quick access to data – We didn’t have to book a time to see clients at their premises. We didn’t need them to email us their files while making sure they didn’t change anything on their copy while we worked on ours.
• Easy bank data – We didn’t have to wait for clients to fax/email their bank statements, and inevitably leave off the last page, which would then take another two weeks to get.
• Better schedule – This meant that we could finally book in client work when it suited us. We didn’t have to wait for the client to send us data. As a bookkeeping business owner, I could finally trust that, when we slotted in work on a client on a particular day, we could do the work on that day.
• Better service! – When they had an issue, we could simply log on to their financials and take care of it. We didn’t have to describe to them over the phone which buttons to press, or have them try to describe the issues.

We now looked like superheroes to our clients!

March 2011

TEAM SIZE: 3.5 Still

CLIENTS: 7 perth small business xero clients

That month Xero ran a promotion. Get three clients on Xero, and Wayne and Sally would do a free website and marketing evaluation on your practice. We made a push and got three more clients on.

Eye on Books had just leased its first commercial office premises. Wayne and Sally came out and went through some of our plans. I was impressed that the general manager of this software company, who I thought was awesome, took the time to visit our new office and help us build our business. This was the kind of forward-thinking company I could identify with.

We also had our first office function with clients. A sundowner that was a 4th Birthday/Office Warming/Brand relaunch function. A new WA Xero staff member was there to represent Xero. Some guy called Andrew Whitelaw on his first week with Xero. Seemed like a nice guy but seemed a bit overwhelmed at our function. Time would tell!

July 2011 – SILVER partner!

TEAM SIZE: 3.5

CLIENTS: 20 clients in xero!

One week before the first Xero conference, we hit silver status with 20 clients. With pride, I attended the first Xero conference in Melbourne with my new silver status. There I met many Xero staff, who were very helpful (shout out to Tim Wright!), and met “THE FOUNDER,” Rod Drury.

The pre-conference drinks were a great idea. As a nervous newbie to Xero from the other side of the country, I was a little intimidated by all the accountants and bookkeepers that already knew a lot more about Xero than I did. I spent a fair while talking to a new Xero staff member that had just moved from New Zealand to join Xero. Apparently she had a successful bookkeeping business in NZ using Xero but came to Australia to help promote the Xero advantages. She seemed quite passionate about bookkeepers using Xero. Her name was Anna Cochrane.

They gave practical tips on moving your firm to the cloud and a special invite to lunch the next day for some of the partners. I felt humbled by the company I was in. So many bookkeeping and accounting firms that were larger than us, and lunch with the MD of Xero. Wow!

It was also at this first Xerocon that a charismatic new staffie led a band on guitar at the gala dinner. Chris Ridd, the new MD of Xero, rocking out on guitar. Was this serious? An accounting software with a Rock God as MD (or at least that was what my wife said to me afterwards!)

December 2011

TEAM SIZE: 4.5 staff

CLIENTS: 30 xero clients

Mid-November, Xero launched a promotion. Whoever added the most number of new Xero clients by Christmas would win a special branded Xero iPad! I wanted that iPad! (We didn’t have one at home yet.)

To help win MYOB clients over, we adopted a plan to simply show them a set of management reports from Xero. “Want this? Then we’re moving you to Xero. It won’t cost you any more, and you’ll have these beautiful reports, and access to your accounts anytime from anywhere.”

The tactic worked. We got thirteen new clients onto Xero. A 30% increase. Xero ran a Christmas function in Perth that year, which Chris Ridd attended. Chris came up to me and knew who we were. (Oh my god, the MD actually knows my name and who we are?!) However, he gave me the sad news, we didn’t win that iPad. A Perth accounting firm had beaten us to it on the last day.

No new iPad for my wife that year!

March 2012 - Workflowmax

CLIENTS: 50 small business XERO CLIENTS

By this stage, it was getting hard to manage clients and their jobs. We had Excel timesheets saved on OneDrive, which we could access from anywhere. This was kind of working, but compiling the numbers at the end of each month was getting laborious. We were 95% hourly billing for clients.

I knew there was a Xero addon called Workflowmax. After much discussion amongst the guys in the office, we put it in place at Eye on Books. It cost us $80/month, but I hoped it would save me some time on the weekends.

When putting it in place, we originally planned to run it side-by-side with our Excel systems for 3 months. After just 2 weeks the advantages were clear. We ditched excel, and fully went to Workflowmax. We’ve never looked back!

July/August 2012

TEAM SIZE: 5.5 STAFF

CLIENTS: 65 XERO CLIENTS

Xerocon 2012 was still a one-day affair. But for the first time, there was an addon alley. A ton of new addons that would help us take care of our clients that much better. It was a great concept. We needed to better help our clients, and here were all the tools in one place.

In those days there was no payroll in Xero. For the clients that wanted Xero, but needed payroll, we ran their payroll in MYOB and then journaled that into Xero after each payroll. At this Xerocon, they announced that Xero had purchased Paycycle, a payroll addon provider, and would start providing payroll in Xero. I thought it was an interesting idea and looked forward to what that would look like. We had two clients in Paycycle already, so knew what it could do.

It was at this Xerocon, I quietly looked up the bookkeepers ahead of us on the partner listings, and sat myself down to someone from Sydney to learn more from him. That was how I met Darren McMahon from Dardee. He didn't know me, but I knew who he was, and asked him how he grew his pratice,

Around this time, the first bookkeeper made Gold, Jill Rossow from Jill of All Trades. Shortly there-after, Tina Kay from Abacus also made gold, and I read eagerly her Xero blog post.

Wandering around the Melbourne conference venue the day before Xerocon, I noticed a signboard “Xero Gold Partner function – 1pm.” What was this? A special event for Xero gold partners? That was it. All the signs pointed toward one thing. I was determined that next year we would get an invite to that gold partner function. The goals were set!

February 2013 - GOLD!

TEAM SIZE: 5.5 STAFF

CLIENTS: 100 XERO CLIENTS

Wayne Schmidt had always known what button to press with me. With updates near the end of each month. “Charles!” he would send. “You’re just three orgs away from the next person on the advisor list. Charles, you’re now five clients from your next competition. Do you want to beat them or what?” Finally it was “Charles you’re two orgs from gold.”

I replied, “You want me to get there? Watch this!” And I added the last two clients I had up my sleeve into Xero. We finally achieved that Gold status. What a day!

By this stage, we had partnerships with Unleashed Software and Workflowmax as implementation partners. We were probably about 80% hourly billing, and still about 5.8 full time staff in the office.

April 2013 – The game was changing – What now?

CLIENTS: 110 perth XERO CLIENTS

By now, the word was getting around the business community about Xero. Prior to this, we had to explain to new business owners the concept of “cloud accounting” and what it meant. That “Xero” had nothing to do with Xerox but was instead a New Zealand company that provided beautiful accounting software that was so much easier to use than MYOB and solved all their issues. It helped us help them so much better. And at the end of the day that was most important.

We ran information sessions at the local business incubation centre on “cloud accounting.” We charged $75 for a 2-hour information session and explained a lot about what was happening in the space. This positioned us as the experts in cloud accounting, and we gained several new clients and set them up in Xero. Most of them are still clients today.

But we started to see a shift in the services our clients needed from us. Traditionally we did everything for clients. So much so that, apart from reports on their business, they often had little to do with their financial accounts. The advent of Xero meant these clients wanted more control and, what’s more, they looked at their reports more often. This meant they cared a lot more about how we entered transactions. It was no longer good enough to simply put all rent & outgoings to rent. They wanted it separated to give more meaningful insights. They were more involved in their businesses, and it meant we needed to be more exact in their financial data.

Plus, a new type of client came into the mix. The client that did everything themselves but still wanted us, as the expert, to review what they’d done once a month/quarter and prepare their BAS for them. We quickly had to adapt and review how to look after these business owners. We needed to support them with their Xero work but only review them at quarter end. We developed new checklists and a new value pricing scheme to look after these guys.

This gave the business owners the power to save money on bookkeeping but still have the peace of mind that everything was correct.

Around then we got our first large business wanting to convert to Xero. They didn’t want ongoing bookkeeping work, just conversion to Xero. I thought I was clever and ramped up our hourly rate to $100/hr for the conversion.

It took me 4 hours to convert them. With training, their total investment was around $600. This was for a multi-million turnover business. They got the deal of a century! For them, implementing other software took in the realm of $5,000 or more. We were encountering the concept of a value-based conversion investment. We needed to look at how we evaluated our Xero conversions, especially when there was no further bookkeeping work to come, which was a new concept as well. Prior to that, Xero conversions were for existing clients, and we were guaranteed further work. Here was new challenge to overcome to better help our clients.

August 2013 – Xerocon - Partner of the year!

CLIENTS: 160 XERO CLIENTS

Prior to Xerocon that year, I was approached to present a 45-minute slot at Xerocon – “A Day in The Life of an Online Bookkeeper.” I resolved that I would give valuable information to potential bookkeepers. Although we weren’t 100% in the cloud with all clients, I put together the path that had taken us up to this point in our business lifecycle.

I was incredibly nervous and practiced relentlessly. The key to my “great” presentation? Some Eminem to ramp me up and get me in the zone two-minutes prior to the session!

It was also just prior to that Xerocon when I received a phone call from Wayne, a man I had seen as a mentor, to let me know he’d made the sad decision to resign from Xero. I was floored, and a little bit lost. I wondered what the future held.

Also! I got that invitation to the gold partner only lunch with Rod Drury. I made that goal happen!

That 2013 Xerocon was at the old railway yards in Sydney. I thought the contrast between old technology vs the new cloud accounting technology was fantastic. I pointed it to Chris Ridd and told him he should mention it in his keynote the following day. I even made a bet that it was so obvious a connection that he’d mention it. I lost that bet for some reason!

At the end of the second night was the gala, this year at the Sydney casino. During the awards part of the ceremony, I was certain that the Bookkeeping partner award would go to a number of bookkeepers above us on the “partner ladder.” I was completely blown away when Eye on Books was named as “Bookkeeping Partner of the Year.” I joked on stage that Chris owed me the bet I lost on his keynote address. He seemed to deny any knowledge of it!

Even more touching was the hand-written thank you note I received from Chris after Xerocon, thanking me for my time and effort in presenting my session at Xerocon. It still holds pride of place on my bookcase in the office.

 April 2014 - Yep Xero not xerox

TEAM SIZE: 7 STAFF

CLIENTS: 210 XERO CLIENTS

Xero was growing from strength to strength. By this stage, business owners were approaching us already wanting Xero. No longer did we need to sell the advantages of “the cloud” and what the cloud was. Instead business were seeking us out as the Xero experts.

Xero now released statement lodgements straight to the ATO through Workflowmax, closing the loop for us. Now our own team members could take care of all the BAS/IAS lodgements, without needing the ATO portal or ECI, which was what we had used previously.

Finally, I could start letting go of some of the responsibilities and allow my staff to lodge their own clients’ IASs as required. However, we continued with one crucial concept at Eye on Books — that every BAS was also reviewed by a staff member other than the one who did most the work. This review process ensured that our clients had the most accurate/precise set of accounts.

Of greater note, at this time, the accounting partner of the year before opened a bookkeeping arm, Zerobooks. It emphasized systemised, commoditised bookkeeping services for small business owners and promoted these somewhat directly to accounting firms. I read with interest an interview with the founder, Greg Tuckwell, in which he conceded that there would always be a need for a more tailored bookkeeping service, which was not what Zerobooks was about.

I made the conscious decision that this would be the Eye on Books point of difference. We would offer a bespoke, tailored bookkeeping service to clients. The service would not be provided by an outsourced labour force, but we would develop our own local staff to further their skills. A service where business owners could phone or have a coffee with the bookkeeper actually doing their work. The greatest point of customer service? The fact you speak with an actual person!

I put into place systems within our practice to ensure customer service was our greatest point. We ensured clients got the best service, the way they wanted. Everything from their financial accounts to their bookkeeping was delivered by us in a friendly, efficient and professional manner. All done with a process that suited them best, not what suited us best.

September 2014

TEAM SIZE: 7.9 STAFF

CLIENTS: 240 XERO CLIENTS

Around this time, we put eWay in place. Clients were able to pay via credit card, and this fed automatically into our Xero accounts. I was excited about this addon, which could make clients’ lives easier at a fraction of the cost of traditional bank merchant facilities.

This was also the advent of the Xero Partner Advisory Council. I was awed to be in the presence of such Xero partners as Steph Hinds, Paul Meissner and others. I also met a gung-ho bookkeeper insistent on helping other bookkeepers grow, Mel Power. During the short XPAC meetings, she pushed hard on “What do you want us to ask partners? How do we give Xero the feedback from these partners?” I remember wondering who this person was, and why she cared so much. Time would show her to be a passionate believer in the bookkeeping industry worldwide.

This time at Xerocon I was on-stage as part of a panel about looking after your staff and building a team. One of the other partners on the panel, mentioned what a turning point it was for her to hear me speak the year prior. I was amazed that my nervous, humble talk the year prior had made such an impact!

November 2014

TEAM SIZE: 7.9 STAFF

CLIENTS: 260 small business xero clients

After seven years, with the number of staff we had and the number of clients, we were no longer a micro/small business. New challenges were arising with our workload and the flow of all the requirements of a business that size.

Up until this stage, new clients simply went to whoever in the office had space available. This meant everyone was doing a little bit of everything, which I soon realised wouldn’t work long term. Based on the natural capabilities of the guys in the team, I classified the business into four main departments:

1. Hospitality (which then evolved into “Full Service”) – These are the clients where we act as their full accounting department, taking care of almost every facet of the financials, from paying bills to processing and paying the payroll
2. On-site clients – We are a “full-service” bookkeeping firm. Meaning we take care of every type of client. So our on-site team members specialise in seeing clients at their premises on a regular basis.
3. Off-Site clients – These clients can be looked after completely from our office but aren’t full-service. Perhaps we only do the bank reconciliations, maybe we only do the accounts payable and payroll. Or variations
4. Charles’ clients – The eclectic bunch of clients that I work with and don’t always neatly fall into a category above.

Dividing into departments gave us some order in how new clients were allocated and allowed us to develop our staff in the area that suited them best.

September 2015 – 310 clients – 8.9 staff

TEAM SIZE: 8.9 STAFF

CLIENTS: 310 XERO CLIENTS

Xerocon in Melbourne again that year. I was involved in the Xeroband for the first time. After a few years of not playing, I had dug out my trumpet. It took many months of practice to be good enough to play in front of so many fellow Xero partners.

It was also at this Xerocon that yet another bookkeeping partner was named partner of the year. It happened to be a guy that I knew, a drinking buddy from some Christmases prior. I also distinctly remembered him from a Xero certification a few years before. Why did I remember? His business was called Little Miss Bookkeeper, yet he was a blokey bloke! Good old Jamie Davison from Carbon Bookkeeping. I had taught him Xero and certified him many years before. A well-deserved award, given to a guy from the great state of WA.

Speaking of WA, after some changes in the Xero WA office, we were allocated a new Xero account manager. Some dude previously in recruitment but new to the field. He came to our office with muffins, the stylish Michael Kerr. I wasn’t sure about this guy, but he also brought beer, so I figured he must be all right!

January 2016 - The Final countdown

TEAM SIZE: 10 STAFF

CLIENTS: 360 XERO CLIENTS

I could see our next goal in sight – platinum. We developed a poster to help the office track our progress toward “The Road to Platinum.”

To help us get there we started promoting Xero non-GST ledgers for personal purposes. Many clients joined the program, and so did some of our staff. It really is an easy and simple way to track your personal budget, and the interest in this offer reflects a need in the marketplace that currently only non-GST ledgers can meet.

The countdown had begun…

September 2016 - counting chickens

TEAM SIZE: 10 STAFF

CLIENTS: 395 XERO CLIENTS

Xerocon 2016 had arrived, and it had come with some disappointment. At the beginning of 2016 we had set the goal to reach platinum by Xerocon, but we were a fair bit off. Perhaps getting 150 points in six months was a bit much to ask after all!!

It was, without a doubt, the best Xerocon to date, even though it a different feel from the intimate Xerocon of 2011.

By now, although Eye on Books was the largest independent bookkeeping firm in Australia, we were still not platinum Xero partners. Two other bookkeeping partners had already achieved it. Zerobooks and Carbon Bookkeeping.

At Eye on Books we consoled ourselves with the knowledge that we were independent from any accounting firms and had grown organically, without purchasing other businesses. But had we missed the point? Was consolidation the true way forward?

November 2016 – A new system?

TEAM SIZE: 10 STAFF

CLIENTS: 910 xero bookkeeping partner points

Through mid-2016, a rumour arose. A change to the Xero partner program was coming. Would this mean that, after twelve months of hard work towards reaching our target, platinum wouldn’t exist anymore? Or would several bookkeeping firms reach it at once, negating our achievement?

The new partner program put emphasis on organisations with payroll and less emphasis on those cashbooks that we had provided earlier for personal use. The new target was now 1000 points and our fancy poster was no longer any use.

We found ourselves with 910 points on the new system. This meant we only needed a total of 80 points. Which could mean just shy of 30 clients with payroll or a phenomenal 90 cashbook clients. The race was on!

January 2017 – 950 points

CLIENTS: 910 XERO bookkeeper PARTNER points

A new year, and so close to that sweet goal that everyone in the office could taste it. Every sales lead that came in got us excited and then incredibly frustrated if we didn’t win them over. Quite a few updates in Xero started flowing through, which kept us busy helping existing clients make the most of the new functionalities.

March 2017 – The BIG one!

CLIENTS: 1000 XERO BOOKKEEPER PARTNER points

Platinum! Need I say more?

With a local team of permanent staff and a business that had grown organically over time, six years after that scotch with our first Xero client, we finally made it.

We’ve seen so many clients from completely different industries, and have customised Xero for each of them. We’ve converted clients from MYOB, Reckon, QBO, Saasu, Excel and even Cashflowmanager, mostly by ourselves directly. We’ve set up over thirty clients in Workflowmax, and these days we’re using over twenty Xero addons to give business owners better functionality based on their needs. Even with all of this experience, we’re still learning new things every day, and Xero is developing their functionality further.

But I didn’t do any of this by myself. I’m eternally grateful for having met and had the help of many of the Xero staff along the way, some mentioned above.

It also took a dedicated, passionate group of Eye on Books bookkeepers, always eager to help make our clients life easier. My hat goes off to…

• Susan
• Rachael
• Samantha
• Lynn
• Laura
• Kielan
• Kieran
• Jessy
• Hayley

Love you guys!

Thanks also to those that were part of the journey, but moved on to different things. Thanks Tony, Shane, Nicole, Anita, Arron and Maria.

What’s next? The future for Xero is changing and constantly evolving. Eye on Books will evolve too. But no matter how we do it, we’ll always be making life easy for business owners in Australia.