Xero: a great piece of business software for SMEs – easy to use, comprehensive, secure. One of its other strong points is the ability to integrate smoothly with add-ons. To get the most out of Xero, you’ll want to make use of this.

Zahara integrates with a host of business software, Xero included. So what do we bring to the table? In short: visibility, scalability and financial control. As your business grows, maintaining these three magic elements will become ever more important.

In this article we’ll unpack how integrating Zahara with Xero can help you achieve this. Hit the coffee machine, nab a digestive, and let’s jump in.

The perks

An enhanced procurement process

We probably don’t need to stress the importance of a robust procurement system. But Xero, for all its perks, lacks the kind of tools you need to operate one. Raising purchase orders, approvals, tracking the process of your order – all things that you can’t do in a Xero, all things you can do with Zahara.

Zahara’s Purchase Order system allows you to raise and send standardized purchase orders in one system, providing total visibility of your order’s progress. You can also shrug off the worry of duplicate orders, and breeze through the day knowing that the clear, professional communication channels your upgrade brings is fostering strong supplier relations – something else we don’t need to stress the importance of.

Automated approval workflows

So Ken from accounts has turned up to the office Christmas party in a brand-new Cadillac convertible, his wife in a fine mink coat. Meanwhile, Xero is showing your accounts don’t balance, and one swelling project budget after another is causing you to sweat.

While Xero is great for showing you where your money is being spent, it doesn’t offer you controls over how that money is being spent. Zahara can fix this.

Our software adds cost controls and approval workflows to ensure payments are authorized before any money leaves your account. You can assign the responsibility to relevant managers and department heads (or even just yourself if you’re a small team). Oversight and final say: They translate right into fraud prevention and budgetary compliance, and a little less sweat on your brow.

Streamlined invoice processing

Xero will take care of your core accounting functions, but you’ll still have to enter your invoices manually. There are many reasons why this isn’t optimal. Risking human error, chewing up work hours, and frankly boring the socks off your finance team are just a few of them.

Combining Zahara with Xero will smooth all this out for you. Our Invoice Processing Software uses three-way matching to triple-check invoices against goods received notes and purchase orders. It then syncs all this with Xero, complete with supplier info, prices and audit trails.

Not only does it do that, but it does it quickly and efficiently, freeing up the poor souls that used to spend their days labouring over invoice input. Now you can have them work on something more productive, like figuring out ways to improve your business’ financial health.

Real-time spend visibility

Xero does great historical budget reporting, but it won’t show you what’s happening in the present. Need to track the progress of your latest order? How about making sure a project is on budget?

Combining Zahara with Xero will let you do just that. With your automated purchase order system and your streamlined invoice processing, there’s no more waiting till it’s too late to discover you’re suffering from budget bloat or late deliveries.

Next-level cash flow management

A Zahara integration won’t just boost Xero’s capabilities in the present – It will also plug gaps in Xero’s ability to forecast financial futures. It does this by allowing you to include committed costs as an upcoming expense in your cash flow projection, even if it’s an as-yet unapproved payment.

Any overspending risks will be flagged before they can cause damage. Being able to see further down the road is never a bad thing…

Clearer audit trails

The past couple of points have been hitting on visibility, so we’ll add one more on the subject while we’re at it. This one ties in a lot with real-time spend benefits of choosing Zahara as an ERP integration with Xero.

With Zahara, each step in your procurement process will be visible in real time, but each step is also stored in a granular audit trail so that you can dig back through them if needs be. Lost some money along the way? Ken from accounts is now turning up to work in a different convertible each morning? You’ll have a better, clearer view of what’s happened with Zahara than you will without it.

Fraud detection isn’t the only benefit here. It’s worth remembering that detailed accounts will go a long way to proving that your business is doing things correctly should HMRC come calling.

Multi-site and multi-department control

If you’re operating across multiple departments, or even locations, you’re going to struggle without a software integration like Zahara. It’s not easy to keep track of where all the money is going or who’s spending it when your team is decentralized.

We’ve set out to solve that problem. Our software will add oversight, allowing you to make use of all the benefits we’ve mentioned above from a centralized point. You can think of it like looking at a confusing road network, and Zahara being your GPS. Appoint responsibilities, assign budgets, get real-time financial reporting and forecasting sent back, clearly, centrally and easy to digest.

Going international? Zahara works in multiple currencies, and languages making international payments and communication easier too.

Scalability

Xero, at the end of the day, is aimed at SMEs. If your ambitions are to grow beyond that, you’re eventually going to have to consider more complex business software.

Boosting your capabilities with Zahara will prolong Xero’s lifespan for your growing organisation. That gives you the time you need to make those decisions, prepare your staff for the jump to new software, and implement the change with minimal impact on your operations.

Conclusion

Matching your business software to the needs of your company is a must. As your organisational needs grow, so will the demands put on your software. Xero can take you much of the way but won’t deliver the whole package. The increased visibility, scalability and control a Zahara integration brings will allow Xero to grow alongside your business.

And look, we know we’re biased on this but we’re proud of what we do. We’re also proud that our software helps organisations like yours reduce costs, save time and reduce stress. We’ve heard it first hand from our customers. You can read the testimonials here.

If you’d like to speak to us about what we can do for you, give us a call or book a demo. We’d love to hear from you.