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Concur Roadshow: Unlocking the Value of Spend Management

Concur Roadshow: Unlocking the Value of Spend Management

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 spending 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 make 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 are ways to get more visibility and control over your spending. 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 the 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!

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Software Spotlight Series: Unleashed

Software Spotlight Series: Unleashed

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 businesses 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 industries 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 a 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 out of the trial period.

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APIntel Wrap Up: Gaining Insights from Xero Practice Manager Data

APIntel Wrap Up: Gaining Insights from Xero Practice Manager Data

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 use 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 the risk of errors or miscommunication. Andrew also suggested eliminating outdated versions of documents 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 the 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.

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Business Continuum Announced as Scoro’s Exclusive Integration Partner for Australia and New Zealand

Business Continuum Announced as Scoro’s Exclusive Integration Partner for Australia and New Zealand

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 the 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.

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Xerocon: What we Learned, Who we Met & Why it was Xero’s Best Ever

Xerocon: What we Learned, Who we Met & Why it was Xero’s Best Ever

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 the 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 apps. 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 to 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 around.

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 selves 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…

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6 Industry Movers & Shakers Tell Us What They’re Looking Forward to at Xerocon

6 Industry Movers & Shakers Tell Us What They’re Looking Forward to at Xerocon

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 be 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, and 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 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 are 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.”

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Use Xero to Give Your Business the Shark Tank Treatment

Use Xero to Give Your Business the Shark Tank Treatment

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!

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We’re Partnering with Global Industry Leader, Concur

We’re Partnering with Global Industry Leader, Concur

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.

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Cloud Technology for Regional Business: Barriers, Benefits and Success Stories

Cloud Technology for Regional Business: Barriers, Benefits and Success Stories

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.

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Business Continuum Appoints Tim Dowling as Client Director

Business Continuum Appoints Tim Dowling as Client Director

Tim Dowling, a leading technology industry veteran with more than ten years of experience has joined Business Continuum as Client Director.

Extensive knowledge of WorkflowMax for our customers

Tim brings considerable experience to his new role, including four years in-house at Xero—firstly as Direct & Channel Sales Manager, and then as General Manager for WorkflowMax.

“I’m delighted to join the Business Continuum team and I’m impressed with its success and continual growth,” said Tim. “Business Continuum is a business that really cares about its customers, and is at the forefront of cloud innovations for service industries, which is a great fit for me. I can’t wait to get stuck in.”

Strong addition to Business Continuum team following significant growth

Matthew Peng, Business Continuum’s Director, said that Tim’s experience, connections and enthusiasm make him a welcome addition to the team.

“We are experiencing a strong growth phase, so it’s essential that we manage it effectively. Tim helps us solidify our service offering and create sustainable growth whilst continuing to provide cloud solutions for our growing customer base. His in-house experience with Xero and his extensive operational knowledge of WorkflowMax will be a welcome resource for our customers.”

Tim says the opportunity to join the Business Continuum team is the perfect fit for him. “Their methodology, success and services are a winning combination,” he said. “I am looking forward to using my extensive consulting experience to help Business Continuum continue to attract and retain customers as more and more service based businesses identify the benefits of migrating to the cloud.”

Tim’s experience

In addition to his several years with Xero in various roles, Tim was previously General Manager of Commercial Operations for Vault Intelligence, leading creators of risk and safety management software.

Tim is also a well regarded technology industry commentator with a strong following on LinkedIn, where he shares business insights, advice and opinions from thought leaders across the world.

Tim holds a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Accounting and Commercial Law from Deakin University and in his spare time he enjoys reading IT and business books, making apps, camping and keeping fit with Crossfit, running, walking and swimming.

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