We’re celebrating a year of growth: offering clients more solutions, more capability and more expertise.

It’s been a fulfilling year for the Business Continuum team. We’ve broadened our service offering and attracted many new clients, whilst continuing to deepen numerous loyal and longstanding existing relationships. We’ve also diversified our offerings by adding several talented experts to our team. It’s important to take time to reflect and celebrate, so here’s a few highlights from 2017.

Merger with Realtime Business, appointment of Greg Harrison

In April, we merged with Realtime Business, and founder Greg Harrison became a Director of Business Continuum, alongside Matthew Peng and Chung Hui. Greg’s arrival signified a combining of forces between our two teams, giving our clients access to his many decades of experience in the IT, business management and project management industries. Greg’s approach is pragmatic, process driven and client focussed, making him a perfect fit for the growing Business Continuum team. The merge empowers us to more efficiently service more clients, and increase the breadth of the services we provide.

Appointment of Tim Dowling

In July, we further strengthened our team with the appointment of Tim Dowling as Client Director. Tim’s focus on understanding the client’s overall business objectives and his extensive, in-house knowledge of Xero Practice Manager and WorkflowMax make him a valuable asset to our team. Since his arrival, he’s delivered many successful projects, particularly those that require expert configuration of Xero Practice Manager to help modernise workflow processes for accounting firms.

A bigger team means more expertise for clients

In 2017 we welcomed several new staff to the Business Continuum team. This has allowed us to offer more services and increased capability to more clients. Our new team includes:

• Sianne Hussey, Client Manager, bringing inventory management expertise with products such as Unleashed, Cin7 and DEAR
• Ben Harrison, Client Manager and our resident Scoro guru (more on that below)
• Connor Reich, Graduate Analyst and our data configuration go-to guy
• Tejas Chandra, Client Manager and specialist in Scoro and Xero SMB sales expert
• Shelley Foster, Client Manager, with expertise in Concur and business system implementations

We’re also thrilled to announce that we’ve hired our first Sydney-based team member. Rikki Phillips joins us in January with a strong background in XPM and other cloud-based applications.

Partnerships with leading software providers

During 2017 we continued to build partnerships with leading global providers of cloud-based software platforms Concur, Scoro and Unleashed.

Our Client Manager Ben Harrison recently spent time in Estonia, taking a deep dive into Scoro’s capabilities, and he came back impressed with the team and the technology.

We've also been delighted to announce our official partnership with Concur. The commitment Concur is delivering to the Australian market, with significant investments in local servers, events and tech development ensures its offering is competitive, diverse and reliable.

We’re also excited to be working with Unleashed. Expanding our suite of services to focus on inventory management is a logical step for us, and a move that has been welcomed by clients looking to get their cloud-based operational systems working as effectively as possible.

Working closely with these new providers as well as others enables us to develop a deep and intricate understanding of their software and capabilities, and which clients may benefit from it the most. As a cloud integrator, working alongside a variety of different software providers empowers us to be channel agnostic: we prescribe the right solution for our clients, not just the only solution we know.

We’ve also cemented our position with SuiteFiles—the content management solution for XPM environments—having been awarded “Partner of the Year” for the second successive year. We’re delighted to extend our relationship with the team at SuiteFiles and we’ve been impressed with the product enhancements they’ve released in 2017.

Events: APIntel, Xerocon and Xerocon Roadshow

Alongside industry peers, we hosted a pre-Xerocon event that offered insights on how to achieve growth, efficiency and productivity using Xero Practice Manager. Our Client Director Tim Dowling spoke alongside AccountKit’s Paul Murray and SuiteFiles’ Andrew Sims at Accounting Practice Intelligence (APIntel). His presentation encouraged firm Principals to focus on profitability by driving more engagement with current and new clients.

And of course, who can forget Xerocon, the granddaddy of industry events for cloud-based integrators like us. Our Director Matthew Peng presented at Uni Day, a range of in-depth sessions designed for accountants and bookkeepers, showing them how to upskill their Xero knowledge to improve profitability and efficiency.

At Xerocon itself we learned of many new announcements, including the relaunch of expenses, the lifelong learning platform, and Xero Projects. (By the way, if you’re weighing up Xero Projects or WorkflowMax for your business, here’s our take on both.)

Business Growth

Our team has more than doubled in size to a total of 11 staff this year. What all of this growth means is more scale in the business to remove bottlenecks of access to people, more specialisation, and more options we can bring to the table for clients. We’re in a far better position than we have ever been to help clients scope out and execute change at a business process level. Our goal is to be a more capable and comprehensive business partner every year, so there’ll be no slowing down in terms of growth.

We’re also pleased to report that we’ve diversified the size and types of our client base. While continuing to work with smaller businesses, our increasing expertise has attracted larger clients as well.

No matter what part you may have played in our achievements this year, we thank you, and look forward to seeing you in 2018.

Business Continuum is excited to help accounting and financial planning firms strengthen and grow their business through the Future of Choice framework.

An innovative approach to client service that focuses on creating more value for clients as well as the firm, Future of Choice is an integrated and holistic approach to planning that helps clients achieve their business, family and lifestyle goals.

What does the partnership mean for Business Continuum?

Greg Harrison, Director at Business Continuum, says the partnership extends his company’s footprint in the accounting sector, and opens up new opportunities in the financial planning field.

“We see huge appetite in the market for firms to transform their businesses and Future of Choice enables us to help them with this aspiration,” Greg says.

The Business Continuum team can help accounting and financial advisory firms drive growth, refine their marketing strategy and deepen their client relationships through Future of Choice.

What is Future of Choice, exactly?

It is a clean, concise framework and set of software tools that helps advisors identify the ‘whole picture’ of a client, centering all of the advice around them and their family in order to help them achieve their financial and non-financial goals.

Designed by accountants and financial planners for accountants and financial planners, Future of Choice enables these firms to be more consistent in their approach to client goal setting.

How does Future of Choice benefit the firms that adopt it?

It gives firms a deeper understanding of what is important to each client – be it in relation to their business, family, lifestyle or education. This will help firms who usually deliver compliance work to accelerate the advisory side of their business.

By keeping the work diverse and interesting, Future of Choice also addresses another hurdle many firms are struggling with – the retention of young and highly capable staff. As the methodology is easy for any member of the team to adopt, it opens up opportunities for younger advisors to delve into more interesting client work and helps them build a new, very foundational skill set.

Keen to find out more about Future of Choice?

Get in touch with one of our experts today to find out how Business Continuum can set you up as a Future of Choice provider.

Concur is a terrific cloud-based spend management software platform comprising three core elements: expenses, invoices and business travel. It’s the global leader in streamlining spend management processes, and can be linked to almost any back-end finance system, including Xero.

However, with Concur, some users may find themselves not getting exactly what they expected. Concur can be configured to any size business, from large multinationals to SMEs. If an implementation is rushed, it can be difficult to align it with your specific business processes and mistakes at that initial stage can hinder your long-term results and devalue your investment. Furthermore, if key internal staff have moved on, there can be a skills gap that hinders a firm’s ability to extract maximum value from the solution.

Our Concur Health Check service helps you get a better return on your Concur investment. We identify opportunities for more accurate and efficient processing, lower processing costs and faster turnaround times. We fine-tune the system, the data, the business processes and deliver additional training—all in order to achieve better outcomes for your business.

Implementing software can be challenging

The common hurdles that users can experience include:

• lack of efficiency with the process—it’s still slower and less accurate than desired
• variance in user adoption across the business—staff using it in different ways and in different levels of engagement
• low quality of data within the system, such as account codes or project codes, leading to inaccuracy of output
• lack of tailoring the expense management process to company policy in areas like submission and approvals
• inability to effectively manage the solution on an ongoing basis due to staff turnover

Encountering these kind of problems may tempt you to rely less on Concur than you should and supplement it with manual processes. But we’re here to encourage you to seek expert help as the tuning required is often straightforward and can yield excellent results.

As a certified Concur Solution Provider, we’re continuing to invest significantly in our skill and the Concur relationship. It is an outstanding platform and we know how committed Concur is to ensuring their customers have a great user experience.

Our five step Concur Health Check process

Concur Health Check step one: broader business objectives

Businesses that get the best from Concur align it with their cold-hard business objectives. There’s no point executing change to a system that doesn’t support your goals. During our Concur Health Check process, we will ask questions such as:
what does success look like?
how do you know you’re not successful with Concur at present?
what’s the adoption level of Concur at the moment?
what would it take to achieve a better outcomes from your Concur investment?

Concur Health Check step two: application administration

If your expense management process and policy is not as structured as is could be, then your results from Concur will reflect that. It’s important to consider the policies and procedures that will align with your use of Concur. Roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined, and communicated appropriately to staff. The administrator should be able to resolve most issues internally, and be aware of how to escalate issues externally. All change management processes should be documented and followed according to policy.

We also find that when a Concur administrator leaves a company, there’s a significant knowledge loss. Good documentation will help mitigate this risk, but sometime additional on-site administrator training will be required—especially if new staff are involved.

Concur Health Check step three: training and support

Like any software solution, Concur is only as effective as business processes and staff behaviours allow it to be. Like any change in procedure, it’s important to get staff buy-in. If they haven’t learned how to use the features properly, they’re more likely to make mistakes or avoid using it altogether. New staff need a solid induction process, and everyone needs periodic refresher courses. Manuals and tutorials should be widely available to empower staff to be able to resolve their own minor issues. If issues can’t be resolved, it’s essential to give staff access to internal support and online help.

If one staff member is struggling with application or process and shares their opinion with others, a negative sentiment can spread through the business. When working with organisations that strive to get the best out of Concur, a key element of our Health Check process is to increase user satisfaction and adoption.

Concur Health Check step four: input, processing and output

Data capture must be accurate. If you haven’t already, creating a policy document for staff around data capture and their responsibilities is a good first step. Establishing positive habits such as submitting expenses on time and communicating deadlines will ensure that expenses are accurately allocated within a reasonable time-frame. Costs can blow out if expenses are reviewed months after a project’s conclusion. Taking the time to make the expense process as easy and user friendly as possible can deliver big rewards.

Concur Health Check step five: integration

You may experience hurdles with Concur if its expense function isn’t adequately integrated with other relevant systems. The import/export process should be seamless, easy, cost-effective and accurate. If your integration isn’t right, any time saving benefits are negated with cumbersome exporting or importing processes. It’s important to regularly reconcile between Concur’s expense function and external applications to ensure they’re aligned.

Need help with Concur?

If you’re considering Concur, or you’re less than thrilled with the results you’ve had so far, then consider our Concur Health Check service. The investment made in improving your Concur processes will certainly bring returns in efficiency, time saving and better processes. Contact us to find out more about our Concur Health Check service today.

How we helped Canopy Fitouts harnesses the power of WorkflowMax.

The client

Canopy Fitouts is an office design and fitout company based in Melbourne. After working in construction for more than 15 years, founder Karl Simity realised there was an opportunity to offer a specialised office fitout service. The business launched in February 2016 and grew rapidly, turning over more than $4.4 million in just its first year of operation.

“Every day thousands of people go to work in offices across Australia, and we believe everyone has a right to a beautiful office to work in,” says Karl. “We create office environments that help our clients improve staff effectiveness, happiness and productivity.”

The situation

As the business grew rapidly, Karl knew he was losing visibility of his projects and control of his spend management. “I quickly realised that in order to maintain control I needed to have better understanding of how my costs were tracking in real time. As I began to hire employees I found added complexities.”

Spreadsheets were not cutting it for Karl, who was losing track of ongoing profitability, a common problem in the construction industry.

“High end cloud-based software solutions designed for the construction industry were not the right fit for my business,” says Karl. “Those platforms aren't designed for the quick pace of the fitout industry and it takes just as long to enter the data than it does to run the project. Software should enable effectivity, not slow you down.”

“I used Xero for day to day financial management and bookkeeping, but it didn’t have the project management functionality I needed. I was thrilled with the growth in business but I was running blind, not knowing what costs were ahead of me in the next four to eight weeks.”

Managing cash flow and accurate forecasting is critical, and Karl was ahead of many businesses by realising he had a problem early, and addressing it before the business grew too rapidly. Also benefitting Karl was his very solid mapping out of his project processes. He was ready to find a new solution and had a good understanding of his pain points. By the time he came to us, ready to embrace the solution and set up systems that would support his continued growth.

The first meeting with Business Continuum

“My accounting firm, Young & Grant suggested Business Continuum so I met with the team,” says Karl. “I was impressed with their approach. They worked hard to understand my business and crucially, they didn’t overpromise. They didn’t force their favourite software solution to fit, but rather came up with a considered approach. Making the effort to understand my business problems was the big difference.”

Enter WorkflowMax

“We knew that WorkflowMax was the solution for Canopy Fitouts,” says our director Chung Hui. “We met in person to confirm the solution and go through a few limitations—because no solution is 100 percent perfect. But, it’s always a vast improvement over older manual and legacy systems.

“After Karl gave us the green light, we spent time configuring WorkflowMax to Canopy Fitouts and its unique project processes. It’s important that any solution is able to process any exceptions that arise in individual projects. We then created a dummy platform and presented it back to Karl, and after a few tweaks it was ready to roll out.

“We took care of the migration by importing data across from the current system. Then, we staged a half day training session,” says Chung. “The team learned everything, from how to process invoices, manage quotes, enter and track leads, add costs to individual projects and much more. And, after the launch client can contact us to answer any questions as they learn how to use it on the job.”

Outcome

“I have no idea how I lived without it,” says Karl. “Now, we can have up to 45 projects in the lead stage and 35 active projects. My project manager loves it. He uses it to delegate tasks and stay on track with delivery. And, he can quickly and easily process 80 invoices a week.

“I can easily plan the design team’s time based on the phase of each project, seeing at a glance where they are and what’s coming up. I like to get a broad, birds-eye view of the entire business, seeing where everything is at, financially and operationally. I’m across everything: payments, leads, weekly numbers, schedule, discussions, work in progress. The benefits for CRM are vast—navigating clients through the conversion process is more efficient.”

“Now, our business has quadrupled. Of course, there’s many factors to our success, but Business Continuum and WorkflowMax have played a big part. We’ve exceeded our targets, because it allows us to stay on top of costs and workloads and deliver amazing results for our clients on time and on budget. It definitely helped facilitate our growth, without it I would be buried in paperwork.”

Praise

“I often recommend Business Continuum, because they are methodical and outcome driven. They took the time to understand my business problem. From there, they find and configured the right solution. It’s hard to find people who care to this level. They make integrating software solutions manageable and easy. And, they’re a great bunch of people to work with.”

Here’s the second blog post in our ongoing series, where we take a deep dive into the latest cloud-based software solutions for your business. We’ll be exploring the big players, the up-and-comers and the niche products to help you decide which option is right for your business.

Today, it’s SuiteFiles.

What is it?

SuiteFiles is a comprehensive content management system built on Microsoft Office’s 365 platform. Fully integrating with Xero Practice Manager, it’s a central and secure depository for all client communications, documents and emails. Anyone working with a client can save that content into the relevant client folder for all other approved staff members to access.

Who uses it?

It’s fundamentally a product for accounting firms, but legal firms use it too. Essentially, any service-based business that deals with clients and needs solid record keeping functionality will find SuiteFiles a powerful addition to their business.

Templates that do all the work for you

Because they interact with Xero Practice Manager client data, you can use a template to quickly build a document, populated with all the relevant fields. For example, you could be sending an email reminding a client that it’s time to prepare the annual tax return. With a few clicks, you can create a letter using client data from Xero Practice Manager and your Word template. It draws down relevant data using conditional formatting. So, for example, perhaps the client doesn't have a rental property. Then, the paragraph relevant to rental properties isn’t included in the letter.

Using these templates, each client gets a customised letter, and there’s consistency across the business in your client communications. There’s no other tool on the market that can create templates like this at the speed of SuiteFiles. Decades ago, you would’ve had an assistant writing these letters from scratch. Now, you can have them prepared and distributed in a few minutes.

Security in case disaster strikes

It’s much safer to store your client documentation in the cloud than in a server at the back of your office building. If that server dies or is stolen, all your precious, confidential client information is lost and your practice is in a world of pain. SuiteFiles has greatly enhanced backup and recovery capabilities compared with those within Microsoft Office 365. The native backup Microsoft provides lacks the ability to access single files. If you’ve lost a file, you need to restore the entire database just to recover that single file. But with SuiteFiles, you can easily access and restore that single file if your data is lost. Also, the data is located in Australia, which is ideal for most accounting firms dealing with client data.

Why not use a storage system?

Of course, you can always use storage systems like Dropbox, Box or Google Drive. But those tools, while very useful, are fundamentally just document storage solutions. Whereas SuiteFiles is a much more advanced content management system. It empowers users to store information beyond files, in order to better manage client interaction and project work.

Comprehensive content management

These days, most accountants are used to recording every type of client interaction throughout their day. Because SuiteFiles is built on Office 365, it extends the value of that investment for firms. So when an email comes in, you can click and drag it to SuiteFiles and it is automatically added to that client folder. The easier it is for everyone to habitually record client discussions, especially advice and decisions, the better your firm will service clients.

What are the alternatives?

Unfortunately, other content management solutions don’t integrate with Xero Practice Manager, so they’re less efficient. As mentioned, there’s always simple storage systems like Box, DropBox or Google Drive. We estimate that around 200 accounting firms around Australia use SuiteFiles and many more are in the process of migrating from legacy solutions such as MYOB, HandiSoft or APS. SuiteFiles is the only cloud solution to provide the functionality that accounting firms will be familiar with.

What should you be aware of?

It’s a great piece of software, but it can’t fix cultural or behavioural attitudes in your firm. If your employees aren’t in the habit of regularly recording time and client interactions, it may be difficult to introduce this new record-as-you-go-along approach. SuiteFiles works best if users make regular updates throughout the working day (no filing everything in a rush on Fridays at 5pm). You need to be confident that your staff will stay on top of internal processes to get the best out of SuiteFiles.

Although documents in SuiteFiles can be accessed directly through documents tabs in Xero Practice Manager, it isn’t the most functional of features. We recommend using SuiteFiles as a standalone application with the integration being XPM feeding client data through to SuiteFiles.

Be clear on your objectives

The most successful implementations of SuiteFiles are underpinned by clarity of vision, and the problem that is being addressed. By clearly defining your objectives and your success criteria, you’ll be in a better position to make the most of SuiteFiles (or any cloud software solution for that matter). What is your clear business need? SuiteFiles can’t magic away process problems within your practice, so it’s worth getting clear on your expectations at the onset.

Is it expensive? Is it easy to migrate from a legacy system?

SuiteFiles costs A$18 per user per month, so it’s an easily budgeted-for expense that will adjust as the user population expands or contracts. Migrations costs vary according to the legacy system holding the data—but we’ve migrated accounting firms from Windows file systems, through to MYOB and APS SQL based systems. Typically, firms migrate around 80GB of data, but we’ve undertaken migration ranging from less than 10GB to in excess of 300GB.

It’s important to have a free trial

We like our customers to have a free trial before implementing SuiteFiles across their business which we can arrange on their behalf. A trial ensures that you and your team are comfortable in the SuiteFiles environment and the way it works before making a permanent transition.

At Xerocon 2017, Xero introduced Xero Projects, a new platform that offers small business owners simple ways to track projects, timesheets, invoicing and other factors to ensure better profitability. Because Xero owns both Xero Projects and WorkflowMax, it can be confusing for small business owners: which solution is best for your business?

Here’s the key factors to consider when deciding which of these impressive cloud-based software solutions is right for your business.

Xero projects is very new

Yep, since the announcement of Xero Projects at Xerocon in mid-September 2017, AFL club Richmond has not lost a football game (we checked). Even though it’s new, it’s well thought out and is priced accordingly with a $7 per user introductory rate (that will increase to $10 per user in 2018). But bumps are to be expected, and Xero is yet to roll out the full suite of functionality for Xero Projects. Features like iOS and Android apps, and integration with Quotes and Expenses are not available yet. But, it’s only getting better from here.

What is Xero Projects good for?

The current incarnation is suitable for small businesses with simple costing needs, such as freelancers, sole traders and micro businesses with less than ten staff. If your small business is in the creative, IT, finance, design, consulting and digital marketing space, you’re the ideal customer.

For example, a freelance web developer can use it to record time, cost jobs, manage subcontractors and track progress of projects. Importantly, it allows you to easily build reports to assess each project's profitability and cost effectiveness. This reporting allows you to quote more accurately and concentrate on the most profitable aspects of your business. It’s a great way to bring quality project management software to smaller businesses, potentially giving them a more level playing field with larger competitors.

What is WorkflowMax good for?

WorkflowMax is a sophisticated cloud-based project management tool, with much more complexity and functionality. Managing larger teams brings further complexity in scheduling, operating processes, task tracking requirements and job costing that WorkflowMax is capable of handling. Importantly, WorkflowMax can be configured to your business processes. For example, your business might follow a process of initial scoping, getting approval, integration and then final delivery. WorkflowMax can be configured to these stages in your project life cycle.

And with its lead management and CRM tools, you can track your leads pipeline from one place. Taking leads on a journey from initial interest through to signed proposal can be streamlined and simplified with WorkflowMax. If you have sales staff, you can track how they are performing by assessing how many of their leads convert to customers and the value of the customers they are bringing in. WorkflowMax makes costing jobs easier as you can access data from similar jobs, meaning you’re less likely to underquote a job and be stuck delivering an unprofitable project. And with more than thirty add-ons, WorkflowMax can integrate with other cloud-based software tools that produce financial reports, track expenses, manage payroll, schedule staff shifts and much more.

Simple versus complex

As you can see, WorkflowMax offers a lot more features and functionality than Xero Projects. But with that complexity comes difficulty. It’s not a system you can set up easily yourself. In contrast, Xero Projects is quite easy to get started on your own, if you have basic cloud software experience (such as Xero). If you’ve no plans for extensive growth and can’t see yourself using many features of WorkflowMax, you may find yourself happily using Xero Projects for years without issue. However, as a growing business with intention to increase sales, revenue and staff numbers, you may find yourself outgrowing Xero Projects in it’s current form within a few years.

Migration

If you’re small, you might be tempted to start with Xero Projects and move on to WorkflowMax later as your business grows. However, there is no path in place to enable simple migration from one to the other. (Or back again, if your business is scaling down in its twilight years.) So, it may be wiser to start with WorkflowMax while you’re still small, building in the functionality along the way, rather than going through the hassle of upgrading to WorkflowMax in the middle of a complex growth stage.

Pros and Cons

Benefits of Xero Projects:

• simple, with good user interface
• less complexity makes it easier to use and navigate
• easy to get started on your own
• suitable for small business of less than ten staff

Cons of Xero Projects:

• less functionality for complex reporting
• less integration with other tools
• no iOS or Android app (yet)
• you (or your accountant) must be a Xero customer to access it

Benefits of WorkflowMax:

• offers a number of sophisticated reporting tools
• can be configured to your business processes
• manage deadlines, invoicing, job allocation, profitability and efficiency
• you can get WorkflowMax without having to purchase Xero
• suitable for businesses with up to 100 staff

Cons of WorkflowMax:

• Complex features may not be required for smaller business
• Needs expert setup by cloud integration partner for maximum efficiency
• Requires training for staff to learn how to use it

The upshot: our recommendation

If you’re small and have no growth plans, Xero Projects may be all you need. If you have more than five staff and growing, WorkflowMax is the better choice.

Also, if you’re small now but have ambitious plans for the coming years, start with WorkflowMax now. Choose a platform that will support your rapid growth down the track.

As we approach the halfway line for the financial year, now is a good time to look at your company’s spend management program. Expense management software experts Concur are putting on a free roadshow to help you do exactly that.

Unlock the value of managing spend with Concur

During November, Concur is offering businesses across Australia and New Zealand the chance to gain access to the latest expert advice on spend management.

This is a great opportunity to learn about integrated spend management solutions that makes the process easier and more efficient, allowing you to better manage your cash flow. Learn from global experts about future industry disruptions and be prepared to take advantage of the advice on offer.

Why spend management matters

Our Director Greg Harrison says there’s a variety of new cloud-based software solutions to help with spend management, but we’d place Concur well ahead of the pack..

“How do you know if you’re tracking well and what's the best way to compare budget versus actual costs? Does your current staff expense system and processes mean you are entering costs from months ago? How can you make your expense process easier for staff? This seminar is a great way to learn about better ways of getting these questions answered.

“There’s ways to get more visibility and control over your spend. And that matters, because it empowers you to make better financial decisions about your business. In addition, making cumbersome processes easier for staff will bring you happier, more productive employees.”

Whether your business is starting from scratch or you want to engage us to undertake a health check of your current Concur implementation, we’d recommend that you take advantage of this event series.

Event details

Unlocking the Value of Managing Spend
November 2017

Australia: Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney

New Zealand: Wellington & Auckland

Time: 8:15 to 10:00/10:30
Venue: Each roadshow event is held at a top city based hotel or conference venue

See the event schedule for details for your city.

Leading speakers

Michael McQueen, an award-winning speaker, author, researcher and futurist will speak at the Melbourne and Sydney events. He has helped some of the world’s most successful brands navigate change and stay ahead of the curve.

Andrew Patterson is a broadcaster and business correspondent and the host of NPR’s weekend podcast Sunday Business. As a business journalist he has travelled to more than 55 countries and interviewed more than 1,000 CEOs and business leaders. Andrew will be presenting at the Auckland events.

Digital disruption from Deloitte

Guests at Wellington, Auckland, Perth, Canberra and Melbourne will hear from Deloitte’s team of expert analysts. They’ll explain why it’s important to keep up with latest developments or risk your future to more digital savvy competitors. By embracing these tools and committing to continually learning the latest industry approaches, you can maintain your competitiveness in a cut-throat industry.

Check out the Concur event page to register your interest—see you there!

Welcome to our blog series investigating the latest cloud software solutions for your business. Each blog will explore the software solution, sharing our expert take on its strengths, weaknesses and best user application outcomes.

With almost 30 inventory management cloud based software options on the market, it can be difficult to know what’s best for your business. Each option promises to save time, increase efficiencies and boost profitability, but they differ in areas such as customer support, integration and industry specific features. We share our experience working with each application and reveal its strengths and weaknesses, hopefully giving you a clearer understanding of the best options for you.

What is Unleashed?

Unleashed is an inventory management software company founded in New Zealand in 2009. It’s now one of the world’s leading SaaS (Software as a Service) providers of inventory management systems to businesses, with more than 6,000 subscribers in 84 countries.

Like all cloud-based inventory management systems, it gives you real-time visibility over your stock levels. But that’s like saying the iPhone is great at making phone calls. Just like the benefits of the iPhone go way beyond making calls, Unleashed offers a variety of measures to help you control your purchasing, sales orders and dispatch processes.

More than stock in, stock out

Unleashed offers a suite of features designed to help you take control of your stock levels. These include the ability to:

• quickly identify and re-order stock that's sold out or below pre-set minimums
• back order and split orders so you can ship and invoice what you can
• accurately cost products, factoring in landed cost into the unit cost of your products
• turn stock data into financial reports including stock on hand value, cost of goods sold and profit margins
• tailor stock reports according to your needs with flexible customisation options
• use the iOS app to monitor your stock levels from your iPhone whilst on the road
• monitor your stock across multiple locations and warehouses
• integrate with other leading cloud-based software programs such as Xero, Quickbooks, Shopify, Magento and Vend, ensuring your business data is up-to-date and consistent across all.

Ultimately, Unleashed helps maximise the profitability of your business by helping you take control of your stock management. If you are losing sales because you’re out of stock, then Unleashed can help.

Things we love about Unleashed

Unleashed definitely helps speed up the sales process. By using features such as barcode scanning and attaching documents and images to products, it makes information easy to find.

For example, a beverage manufacturer might attach a product fact sheet, with information about the ingredients used in the product. Unleashed offers multiple tabs for attaching data to product files, including tabs for codes, dimensions, suppliers, cost pages, supplier prices, retail prices, warranties, care instructions labels and many others. Access to this product information can be restricted or freely available.

There are other great features of Unleashed worth mentioning that you won’t find on a feature checklist:

• responsive customer support—its support ticket response times are very good
• it can be easily customised for your business needs (by a developer)
• the Unleashed forum is a community of users where you can connect with similar business to get ideas and troubleshoot problems

Why would you choose Unleashed?

Most other vendors don’t offer the iOS app, which shows your stock levels while you’re on the road—great for meetings with clients making real-time purchase orders.

Unleashed is suitable for a wide variety of industry and business sizes. In particular, it’s ideal for the food and beverage industry. These types of businesses will appreciate Unleashed’s ability to capture batch numbers, serial numbers and product numbers as well as creating different types of reports, such as costs of goods sold or sales by customer group.

What are the alternatives?

While Unleashed is suitable for many inventory-based businesses, it doesn't handle variance in products well. So if you're a fashion retailer (for example) you may find Unleashed isn't suitable for tracking different garment sizes and colours across your inventory.

Other great cloud-based inventory management options to consider include DEAR, Cin7 and TradeGecko. As part of our Software Spotlight series we’ll be looking at these solutions in the coming months.

What’s the pricing model?

Unleashed offers a subscription model with variety of monthly payment plans depending on the size of your business and the number of users requiring access.

Like any investment in software, it’s about considering the returns—by committing to using the full suite of its features and functionality, you will find the investment pays for itself. If you put a high value on the time it will save your business, then your investment will undoubtedly be worthwhile.

Want to find out more?

Get in touch with us to find out if Unleashed is right for you. We can help arrange a free trial and make sure you get the most of the trial period.

Last month the Business Continuum team participated in APIntel (Accounting Practice Intelligence), a pre-Xerocon event held to demonstrate how accounting practices could achieve better profitability with Xero Practice Manager. Three industry leaders shared insights to help practice owners make the most of data insights to improve workflow, find efficiencies and achieve business growth, including our very own Tim Dowling.

In case you missed it, here’s a summary of the advice from the three speakers at APIntel.

Kit out your practice | Paul Murray, AccountKit

Paul talked about adopting a policy of always seeking better ways of doing things, and using tools that enhance staff visibility of client and practice decisions leads to better productivity, engagement and retention. He also reminded us to ensure integration with cloud-based software solutions to avoid unnecessary double handling of data. He also demonstrated how to use AccountKit to create stunning and precise client entity maps that illustrate complex entities in one impressive image that takes just a few clicks to create.

Print...File...Find | Andrew Sims, SuiteFiles

Andrew discussed the benefits of storing and managing practice files in the cloud, and how this can integrate with Xero Practice Manager to create efficiencies. Andrew emphasised the necessity of simplifying setup and filing of ongoing communications with your client. SuiteFiles is a file management solution that offers email and document templates that can be pre-populated with Xero Practice Manager data. This means your communications are consistent, up-to-date and using the right client information, straight from the source.

Professional client communications can be the difference between an impressed or an unhappy client, so it’s an important process to get right. With the use of multiple cloud-based solutions, Andrew stressed the importance of filing emails and attachments to maintain ‘one source of truth’ from any device. This ensures staff have access to the latest correspondence and files, reducing risk of errors or miscommunication. Andrew also suggested eliminating out-dated versions of document and email templates (It’s very 2005).

Transform Practice Data Into Relationship Insights | Tim Dowling, Business Continuum

Tim challenged the audience to think about growing profitability even if not actively looking to grow client base. Growth should not be for growth’s sake, but better profitability is always worth striving towards. With almost endless amounts of data now available to us, it can be difficult to know what to concentrate on. Tim suggested these three areas:

1. client wealth information
2. firm service utilisation
3. client referral and churn

With this data on hand, it can form the basis of open discussions with clients, with the aim of improving your range of services as well as the underlying quality.

Lastly, Tim emphasised that selling is not a dirty word. All successful and evolving practices concentrate on achieving stickier, more engaged and more profitable clients. Focusing on client satisfaction has always been, and will always be, essential for success—we simply have better ways of measuring it with the many cloud-based software solutions on the market.

As the event finished up, it was a great chance for the Business Continuum team to catch everyone for a drink and a chat before Xerocon.

It’s packed with features, easy-to-use, and the most comprehensive new project management tool to hit our shores in a long time. Meet Scoro. We’re thrilled that Scoro is now available in Australia and New Zealand, and that Business Continuum has been announced as the exclusive integration partner for this region.

So, what is Scoro?

This cloud-based software solution is considered to be the Salesforce equivalent in the project management software space. It’s seriously impressive and packed with features, and it’s customisable for any business with project management needs - like creative agencies, design studios and other professional service businesses. Users can get more work done, organise multiple projects, track timesheets, invoices and payments and manage the entire business within a single cloud solution.

Effective immediately, Business Continuum will be introducing Scoro’s broad spectrum of services to Australian and New Zealand businesses that need advanced project management support.

Ben Harrison, in-house Scoro expert

To ensure Business Continuum has advanced in-house knowledge of Scoro and all its features, we recently sent our Client Manager Ben Harrison to Estonia for an intensive two week immersion course with Scoro’s founders. Ben spent time working with the Estonian founders of Scoro, learning all facets of its impressive features and enjoying the sights of Estonian capital Tallinn.

“Because I was concentrating on my deep-dive into Scoro as much as possible, I didn’t get much time for sightseeing,” said Ben. “But I did enjoy getting around Tallinn. Estonia is a beautiful country with an ancient history that is visible with the walled city in the centre of Tallinn which I enjoyed exploring. It’s a fascinating contrast of different styles of architecture from significantly different eras.

A great welcome from Scoro.

“The Scoro team was really welcoming. What’s impressive about Scoro is how seriously they take improving their product—they average five major releases a year, all with 20 or more significant updates. They are very open to suggestions on how the features could be improved and they are keen to understand the unique requirements of the Australian market.”

Project management features for complex projects

“Scoro is a modular product, one of its core strengths. It does very specific things and yet it remains very customisable. If some features that are not applicable to certain types of business they can easily be switched off. And, it offers great ways of assigning tasks within teams or offices. Because it provides customisable views, users can create a dashboard showing who’s doing what as part of the project.

“Now that I’ve learned it intricately, I am looking forward to helping Business Continuum clients get the best out of its project management features.”

Attention to detail and speedy responsiveness

“This (the Scoro team) is a young, diverse and enthusiastic team,” says Ben. “It was great to be part of such a positive and enthusiastic organisation. To me, it’s a brand that feels more human and authentic now that I’ve worked closely with them. They’re really dedicated to quality and continual improvement, so if an issue is raised, it’s corrected within hours or days. They move fast. There is no defensiveness. If a user or a partner raises an issue, they take it on board and do their best to fix it rather than pushing back. I’m convinced that’s part of the reason for their phenomenal success and quick uptake around the world.”

A typical day in Scoro’s Tallinn office

“For the fortnight I was there, I would set myself up in a meeting room, and check in with emails from the Business Continuum team back home,” says Ben. “I would then typically have meetings with the team to talk through the processes and features of Scoro in detail. At lunch time, like clockwork, everyone would take a break at the office ping pong table. Actually, plenty of good ideas got their origin at that ping pong table! Of an evening, I would join up with the team to enjoy the dining scene of Tallinn, it’s right on the Baltic so it’s famous for its seafood dishes.

“Being there for two weeks allowed me to really immerse myself with the software and actually use it for applications. I can confidently say I know Scoro inside out now and have built some great relationships into the heart of the business.”

Party like an Estonian

“I was lucky enough to be with Scoro during their annual summer get together. The Scoro office from Riga in Latvia joined the Tallinn team for a weekend retreat in a stunning lakeside cabin in Latvia. And, they did not hesitate to let their hair down! There were plenty of team building games and drinking. All terrific fun, and I was honoured to be invited along.

Want to know more about Scoro?

Contact us for a chat about how Scoro can help improve your project management workflow.

Whew! Last week was busy for the Business Continuum team at Xerocon 2017. We were thrilled that Xerocon came to our home town of Melbourne, bringing more than 3,000 visitors from around Australia and further abroad to our magnificent city. It was great to rub shoulders with accounting professionals from around the globe.

Uni Day

Xerocon started with Uni Day on 12th September, a great event for accountants and bookkeepers looking to skill up on all things Xero. Our Director Matthew met with plenty of first-time Xerocon attendees and answered questions about lead automation and change management.

“Young accountants are embracing new technology and seeing how it works in the business world,” said Matthew. “I shared plenty of practical advice on a variety of cloud-based software solutions, such as Xero Practice Manager, FORMbasic, Streak for Gmail and Boomerang for Outlook.

Matthew also met with attendees from far and wide, and enjoyed the opportunity to share ideas with those from economies both smaller and more developed than Australia. “Practitioners from smaller economies, like Vanuatu, attended to gain insights about cloud accounting and practice management to share back home—it’s great to see,” he said.

The Power of Us

The recurring theme woven throughout Xerocon 2017 was 'the power of us'. It’s the idea that people are innovators, not technology, but technology helps us achieve innovation. It’s a powerful reminder that there are real human people behind every bit of seemingly faceless technology. And it’s those human connections that really matter.

New announcements and new products galore

Plenty of people attend Xerocon for the new product announcements. And it did not disappoint.

CEO Rod Drury was first up on the keynote stage and made a record number of new Xero product announcements. These included:

The nine integration partners for Xero HQ

The first integration partners announced for Xero HQ included cloud file management system SuiteFiles, (our buddies and co-presenters at our pre-Xerocon APIntel session), as well as Boma, the much-hyped marketing automation app for accountants. Boma’s stand was flooded with interested accountants and bookkeepers—the joke doing the rounds was that Xerocon should in fact be renamed Bomacon!

The relaunch of expenses

The expenses function within Xero has been given a major refresh to make the expense process easier and more intelligent. Users can now capture and submit expense claims on the run with the iOS and Android app. Approvals are now more flexible and easier to control. Also, users can now submit expenses on behalf of others in the organisation, no doubt a popular new feature for those who struggle to get their receipts in order each month.

The Lifelong Learning Platform

This program gives schools and professional accounting bodies a platform they can use to equip students for the real world of cloud accounting. Students can practice using Xero to complete a variety of real-life accounting processes, in a safe and highly repeatable fashion. It’s good to see Xero creating products for Universities and TAFEs, giving students access to Xero rather than MYOB or Reckon (which both have academic trial versions). Consequently, more students will be graduating from courses with good Xero skills and experience with cloud accounting—a benefit to the entire industry.

Xero Projects

Forty percent of Xero clients are professional service-based businesses, so it made sense for Xero to introduce a project management function. It allows creative, digital and IT businesses to better manage the progress and profitability of projects, and helps them stick to plans and focus on the most profitable types of work. This is not replacing WorkflowMax, but rather bringing light capabilities into the core platform so that the smallest of Xero clients can have access additional project management functionality. For now, it’s better suited to smaller projects, but look out for more features to help with more complex projects in future.

Other highlights included:

In line with the conference theme, author and consultant Tim Leberecht talked about retaining the valuable human touch in business, as technology automates more and more of the day-to-day.

Dan Gregory and Kieran Flanagan from The Impossible Institute challenged everyone to get clear on their business values, align these with our desired clients' values and "deliver a nowhere-else experience."

IT industry veteran Steve Vamos urged us to put people first in business and reminded us that technology amplifies human disruption—not the other way round.

Magda Szubanski talked about her career achievements (as well as the professional and personal insecurities she’s overcome) and encouraged us to all embrace our own true self as well as celebrate the diversity of others around us.

And to wrap it up, we enjoyed one heck of a block party in the laneway alongside the conference venue—the biggest wrap party we've ever seen!

We’re already looking forward to Xerocon 2018…

Going to Xerocon? It’s the major annual event for the cloud accounting industry’s biggest player, so it’s likely that plenty of your LinkedIn connections will be there. To help you get the best out of your visit, we asked six industry veterans to tell us what they’ll be doing, who they’ll seeing and how they make the most of their time at Xerocon.

Paul Meissner, Cloud Accountant, Founder of 5Ways Group and Freedom Accounting System

“I’ve been to nine Xerocons, and they always announce something big. It’s important to know Xero’s priorities for the future and the keynotes let me hear it from the top. I will spend most of my time around the exhibitor area. No other event gives me access to all the add-on providers in one place. I like to cut straight to brass tacks with exhibitors and ask them: “What problem do you solve?” Getting a little bit of information from all exhibitors leaves me time to go back later to the ones I’m interested in. I suggest new visitors come armed with a need (better payments, gateways or reporting, for example) and look for products and seminars that meet that need. Because there are so many exhibitors, it’s easy to be overwhelmed, so just get to as many as you can.

“Networking is a huge part of Xerocon, but it’s not about getting clients. I like to meet industry connections that I usually only communicate with via social media—nothing beats that face-to-face contact. Everyone is willing to meet, and as a solo entrepreneur I don’t have partners to bounce off. So, I’ll be asking my contemporaries what their favourite tools and products are, to see if there’s anything I should be using for my practice and clients. I would encourage anyone who wants to meet a big industry influencer to be bold and come and say hello—people are very friendly and open.”

Paul is participating in a panel session on Day Two: The Power of Small and Agile Firms at 12:20pm.

Carolyn Stebbing, Director of digital marketing and creative agency, Little Village Creative

“This is my third Xerocon. I was lucky enough to wing my way in as a speaker in 2015. We (Little Village Creative) have a few clients actively involved in Xerocon this year, so it'll be a busy two days on the ground for me. I'll spend most of my time checking in with clients, running social media, briefing writers to draft quick-turnaround content and generally making sure things are happening as they should be on the marketing front.

“During the rare moments of downtime, I'm looking forward to catching up with industry connections and meeting new people. I'd like to catch Dan Gregory and Kieran Flanagan's talk on amplifying your influence and developing commercial clarity around your competitive advantage. And I'll most definitely be at the block party for a Melbourne-style Xerocon send-off. My biggest tips for Xercon newbies are to drink buckets of water (it’s so easy to forget) and leave the high heels at home.”

Sholto Macpherson, Editor and Publisher of DigitalFirst.com

“I’ve been to six Xerocons and I have three main reasons for attending. Firstly, I enjoy the community. Because this is the group of the most tech savvy accountants in Australia, everyone is enthusiastic about exploring new ideas. Secondly, I love that Xero shares its roadmap and constantly pushes the definition of what cloud accounting software can do. So I am looking forward to hearing its new announcements. It’s great to hear their fresh ideas about what is possible, and I appreciate their transparency. And thirdly, as a journalist, I look forward to interviewing industry leaders.

“It’s easy to be overwhelmed by Xerocon, so I suggest new attendees prepare three top priorities for their business or clients and concentrate on those. Take time after the event to digest everything you’ve learned and make plans, because without action the inspiring ideas will soon be forgotten.”

Tim Dowling is a Client Director at Business Continuum

“This is my eighth Xerocon. I am looking forward to seeing what Xero is planning around AI, machine learning, and what they’re doing with big data servers. I always get plenty of value out of the product sessions. I plan to check out the new products on the market and spend time networking. It’s incredibly valuable to hear from people on the ground using the products.

“I encourage new visitors not to be afraid to chat—everyone at the stands will love to connect and industry leaders are welcome to being approached. Make sure to explore on behalf of your clients—what problems are they facing that can be solved? And bring a big bag for all the free stuff—enjoy the many giveaways like chargers, beach balls, balloons, frisbees. If it can get a logo printed on it, you can find it at Xerocon.”

Andrew Van De Beek, Founder and Director of accounting practice Illumin8

“I was so inspired by my first Xerocon. I learned plenty of technical skills, and I also I felt energised to grow my practice and better service my clients. Now, attending my fourth Xerocon, I still get the same combination of technical learning and creative inspiration. I like to check in with other accountants to see how they are doing, what makes them tick and how they solve problems they’re currently facing. I want to help those starting out in the industry too, so I’m attending the Uni Day to help students better understand branding and marketing. I encourage anyone with questions to come and see me.”

Illumin8 is the winner of Xero's Victorian Partner of the Year award. Andrew is hoping to take home the gong for AU Accounting Partner of the Year, to be announced at Xerocon on Day Two.

Troy Townley is a partner in HTA Advisory, an accounting and small business advisory practice based in Melbourne

“I always like to see the roadmap of Xero and where its ecosystem is going. It’s great to see the add on partners and other businesses—sharing and collaborating on ideas is what Xerocon is all about. This will be my sixth Xerocon and nearly every year I have found one or two products that I rollout to my business and to our clients. I’ll be on the lookout for anything that solves problems that we see in client businesses and makes us more efficient and saves us time. In particular, I am looking forward to seeing Anna Curzon’s keynote and Rachael Powell’s presentation on building positive workplaces.

“I recommend first time visitors make time to see as many vendors and sponsors as they can. It’s a huge ecosystem and there is so many different products. You can never learn them all but Xerocon gives you a great introduction. Have an open mind about the change that is coming to the industry—don’t dismiss products without giving them due consideration.”

The latest series of Shark Tank on Channel Ten is captivating. It features entrepreneurs pitching to a group of self-made investors (the ‘sharks’). Each pitch features an entrepreneur asking the investors to purchase a stake of their business with their own money.

The sharks are:

Janine Allis, founder of Boost Juice Bars

Andrew Banks, founder of Morgan & Banks and Talent2 International

Steve Baxter, tech entrepreneur and multimillionaire

Dr Glen Richards, founder of Greencross Vets

Naomi Simson, founder of RedBalloon

The breadth and depth of innovation amongst these entrepreneurs is impressive. But what really fascinates is the sharks’ penetrating questions.

With just a brief investigation (or so it seems on TV) the sharks clarify the opportunities and weaknesses of a business. Nothing frustrates the sharks more than an entrepreneur that doesn’t know the numbers. And regardless of whether you plan to pitch your business to investors (on TV or otherwise), it's vital to have a detailed and depth knowledge of your financials.

Give your business the Shark Tank treatment

Appraise your business with the cool, calculating and experienced eyes of your inner shark. It can help you identify opportunities, move through challenges and seek more growth and efficiencies.

Cloud-based finance software solution Xero is the ideal tool to give you the bigger picture insights you’ll need. Whether you simply review these numbers yourself, or you’re going into a Shark Tank-style pitching situation with investors, using Xero to understand the numbers is a vital investment of your time and energy.

How to use Xero to create reports to answer typical Shark Tank style questions

Xero gives you the ability to generate complex detailed reports that give yourself or a potential investor a terrific overview of your business. Using the typical questions often posed on Shark Tank, you can use Xero to create the reports to see the answers for yourself. Of course, this is just a snapshot of what you can do with Xero—its features go far beyond this kind of analysis.

What is your gross margin?
What are your debtor days?
What is your average selling price?
What is your average revenue per customer?

What are the biggest expenses of your business?
What is your customer lifetime value?
What percentage of customers are return customers? What are your manufacturing/production costs – cost of goods sold?

It’s not just the numbers

Of course, there are some elements that interest the shark beyond just the numbers, and it’s important to give these questions considerations as well. Elements like brand appeal, value of the market and your own dedication to your business come up often. But, overwhelmingly, there are two simple questions the sharks always ask:

What customer problem are you solving?
Why are you the one to solve it?

These are questions only you can answer and it is worth taking the time to consider your responses honestly. It’s a simple strategy that could be a game-changer for you.

The value of the expert opinions

Shark Tank serves as a reminder that it’s important to take any opportunity to get expert advice. Sometimes on Shark Tank the sharks don’t invest but they give excellent advice. Make sure to seek out and listen to that advice for your business whenever possible.

The art of the counteroffer

The fascinating element of Shark Tank is the negotiation element, so learn all you can about the art of negotiation if you’re going to be pitching for investment soon. Knowing the value of a well-crafted pitch can be the difference between success and failure.

In conclusion, whether you are actively seeking investment or simply looking for a tactic to give yourself a fresh perspective on your business, you need to ensure the numbers stack up. Using Xero’s many tools to know your numbers better might just help you get a shark to invest in your business!

The Business Continuum team is thrilled to announce its partnership with Concur, one of the biggest names in expense management software.

Director Greg Harrison says the company was drawn to Concur’s growth, truly global presence and their world-class partner program, which will all contribute to Business Continuum’s ongoing move into the mid-market enterprise space.

So, what exactly is Concur all about?

Concur specialises in expense management and accounts payable automation, and its software can be linked to almost any back-end finance system, including Xero. It is also a global leader in streamlining travel expenses.

The Business Continuum partnership will initially focus on expense management and accounts payable solutions, with the longer-term intention of becoming a full-service provider for Concur.

What this means for Business Continuum’s growth

Greg says Business Continuum has always set out to solve “cold hard business problems”. Expense management and accounts-paid automation are two critical functions that many companies struggle to streamline.

“We’ve done our research, we believe that Concur is an awesome solution and we’re delighted to stand alongside them,” he says.

“We’ll be able to add strength and value to the Concur offering, so it’s good for us, good for them, and even more importantly, good for clients.”

How will existing clients immediately benefit?

Business Continuum’s current small to mid-sized clients will have the option of integrating their expense and accounts systems using Concur’s software. The fact that both tie in with Xero makes Concur a natural fit for these companies.

Meet your Concur expert, Shelley!

Business Continuum is pleased to welcome Shelley Foster to the team, to ensure clients achieve the optimal outcome from implementing Concur. She comes armed with strong credentials in IT implementation, having worked as an IT manager, trainer, project manager and business analyst. So her role as project manager and trainer for Concur solutions is a perfect fit for her.
Greg says Shelley’s experience working with diverse business applications ­– from time and attendance, to accounts, payroll, asset management, HR and CRM – will be extremely valuable to the work Business Continuum carries out with Concur.

More about Concur's offerings

Manage Expenses With Ease with Concur Expense

Automate your expense management from receipt capture to employee reimbursement. Submit and approve from any mobile device. This streamlined process gives business leaders insight and control over compliance and costs. Lose the paper and get back time with Concur Expense.

Process Invoices Faster with Concur Invoice

Simplify your business by automating accounts payable. Get full visibility into spend, before it happens and as it happens. Easily track invoices, manage exceptions and speed up vendor payments. Approve from anywhere on a mobile device. Catch duplicate invoices before you overpay. Concur Invoice saves you money and time.

Simplify Business Travel with Concur Travel

Let travellers easily book flights, hotels and cars in the way they want while capturing all travel data in one place. Concur TripLink helps you get full visibility into travel spend while encouraging compliance. And with more information about supplier spend available, companies can negotiate better rates.

Contact our experts to find out how Concur’s expense management and accounts payable features can integrate with your cloud software. No matter where you are in your business journey – starting out fresh, rapidly expanding, or well-established ­and steady – Business Continuum can help you select the best cloud software solutions for your needs.

Cloud technology does so much more than make it easier to manage your finances, workflow, timesheets or compliance. For regional and rural businesses it can open up a whole new world of efficiency and opportunity. The efficiency comes from streamlining processes to work smarter, not harder—a benefit for any business, regardless of location. But as someone who is regionally based myself, I witness first-hand the benefits that cloud technology brings to local businesses, and the broader effects it has for communities. When regional businesses embrace cloud solutions to increase competitiveness and attract a wider client base, they thrive. The benefits are considerable for any business, especially service based businesses such as accountants, designers, marketers, surveyors, consultants or lawyers. And thriving local businesses means jobs, investment and economic stability for rural and regional communities.

Benefits of cloud technology for rural and regional businesses

With cloud-based technology becoming more accessible, rural businesses can attract non-local clients, creating new revenue streams for their business. In the past, a regional business could only be strong as its local economy. Serving clients outside this community was a rare occurrence without incurring significant travel time and costs, but this is no longer the case. Business Continuum itself is a great example of this. Whilst we are not regionally based ourselves, we have clients across Australia, in locations such as Port Hedland, Bunbury, Launceston, Port Augusta, Mildura, Wagga Wagga, Mullumbimby, Dubbo, Newcastle and many others. We have seen these regional businesses use cloud solutions to save time, reduce manual labour, increase flexibility for their workforces, improve reporting and compliance, drive down costs and enjoy many other benefits.

Another benefit of cloud technology for rural and regional small businesses is being able to access interstate or international workers. This gives regional businesses access to a wider pool of talent, if they are willing to forgo the traditional nine to five ‘everyone at the office’ mode of operation. These benefits bring greater resources to regional and rural businesses, making them more competitive.

Broader community benefits

Of course, having a hub of thriving locally-based businesses is great for regional economies. Businesses with solid profits invest back into local resources such as real estate, hospitality, design and professional services. Cloud technology also gives regional business a better chance of competing with inner-city based service providers who may have higher overheads. And if your regional businesses has lower operating costs, you might choose to pass on savings to your customers.

Businesses that reduce costs via cloud technology can also invest the savings in employing the local workforce. With a thriving local economy, younger workers are far less likely to have to move to the city to get professional jobs. For example, a skilled graphic designer living in Lorne could be working for an agency in Toowoomba, using cloud-based project management to get the job done without ever setting foot in the office. Time saved on the commute can be spent surfing at the beach instead.

Barriers to entry

It's reasonable to question the wisdom of migrating your entire business online when your local broadband service is sketchy. Fortunately, regional internet access is considerably improving with the rollout of the National Broadband Network.

The bigger barrier to cloud migration for businesses in regional areas is their own fear and reluctance. Embracing change is never easy, and this was demonstrated to me recently when I met a local plumber and his son. Nev, aged 55, established the business and is in the process of handing the reins to his son, Jack, 28. Nev wants to cruise through the next ten years to retirement. He doesn’t have the energy to try new solutions. He tells me ‘it all works fine the way it is’. His son Jack disagrees. Jack knows that the future is in the cloud, and he wants to get the business ahead of the competition as quickly as possible. I see many people like Nev, and they aren’t necessarily aged in their 50s—and this isn’t a problem exclusive to regional areas. Change is difficult, but worthwhile when the rewards are so considerable.

Case Study – Wangaratta Surveying Firm

At Business Continuum we worked with a Wangaratta-based surveying firm who have 35 staff working across three offices. We helped the firm migrate to WorkflowMax to manage applications at a far lower cost of deployment and management than its old client server architecture. By using cloud-based software and tweaking it to the company’s needs, they’re now able to do business with clients all over Victoria and interstate, offering a range of land surveying and development services. Staff are now able to log timesheets from mobile phones, giving the staff flexibility but allowing management to retaining operational visibility and control.

Case Study – Shepparton Accounting Firm

An accounting practice in Shepparton with 40 staff approached us to help them transition to the cloud, and subsequently we migrated them to Xero and Xero Practice Manager. Xero now has more than 600 add-on applications (software that integrates to provide additional services and support), so a core part of our service was utilising the right combination of add-ons for this business. This approach enabled the firm to streamline its processes and save hours of manual processing. An added bonus is that the firm has engaged remote workers, who bring additional skills to the business without being based locally. By using mobile based invoicing systems, they are now getting paid faster too!

It’s rewarding to help many regional and remote businesses embrace the benefits of cloud-based software solutions—it can really open up a new world of opportunity for them. By basing the technology around the process (and not basing their processes on the technology) they are well equipped to continue serving their clients for the next five, ten and twenty years. Good cloud-based businesses of the future will have the capability to understand data and apply it to deliver client value. Some will get left behind—don’t let that be your business!

Whether you’re an established business or just starting out, we can help you select the best cloud software for your needs. Contact us today to talk about what cloud solutions can do for your business.