We’ve ended 2018 on a high - fantastic to be awarded Xero’s UK Small Firm of the Year 2018 at the recent Xero 2018 conference attended by 3,000 accountants at London Excel.
This is a huge achievement for Rowdens. Xero is currently the market leader cloud based accounting package. It’s used by over 350,000 businesses in the UK alone and has revolutionised the way small and medium sized businesses run their bookkeeping and accounts and work with their accountant.
Why we won
We were judged on the following:
- All round excellence in looking after clients on Xero
- Expertise in assisting clients to transition to Xero from their desktop software
- Training of staff on Xero
Our approach to integrated apps was also taken into account. Xero’s app marketplace of over 750 cloud based apps (all integrating with Xero) provides the majority of the business functions that most small and medium sized businesses require and Xero judged the quality of our advice a winning formula.
We were thrilled to win the Award. It is recognition of the efforts we have made over the last 7 years in adopting cloud technology to do the processing and improve the work/life balance of our clients. Today, over 90% of our clients are using Xero and relevant apps and the Rowdens’ team is always on hand to give advice, assist with bookkeeping queries or just be a friendly voice on the end of the phone.
Words from Penny Rowden
'Let’s face it,' says Penny, Director at Rowdens, 'no person ever went into business to spend a lot of their time doing their bookkeeping after a hard day’s work. Anything that we can do to minimise the amount of time spent doing this task has to be a huge win. We use as much technology as possible, ourselves, and encourage our clients to do the same. Let the software do the heavy lifting and the boring bits so we and our clients can focus on what we all went into business for!'
Use Xero and save hours
Research undertaken by Xero shows that business owners can save hours in a month by using Xero and integrated apps like Receipt Bank to undertake the more routine parts of their bookkeeping. The time saved can be used in many ways, either for working on the business or, perhaps more importantly, spending time with family.
Penny enthuses about Receipt bank which she thinks, like Xero, is a game changer for many businesses.
'We love Receipt Bank! All you need is a smart phone and a finger and you can photograph those little paper receipts which so often get lost or screwed up in people’s pockets. Just click submit and with a little bit of magic, a copy of the receipt can be in Xero in minutes, enabling the business to go paperless if they want to. Larger bills can be emailed or uploaded to Receipt Bank and read by the software. It is amazing and getting better all the time!'
'Beautiful dynamic reports in real time'
Jonathan Rowden, Rowden's other director, also adds to Penny’s comments when he says:
'Giving our clients back time is just one of the benefits of using Xero. Other benefits include being able to ask us for advice at any time. Because we all have access to the same data, we can look at their financial information straight away which enables us to give better and timely advice.
With the Government’s initiative on Making Tax Digital (MTD) starting to be rolled out from April next year, all businesses with a turnover of over £85,000 and submitting VAT returns, will be required to keep their records and submit their information digitally. This is of great concern to many businesses who aren’t using MTD compliant software such as Xero.'
Jonathan continues, 'We also have some very sophisticated management accounts and forecasting software which integrates with our clients’ Xero data and enables us to produce beautiful dynamic reports in real time of how their business is performing. This is proving very popular with our larger clients and enables us to act as an outsourced financial director in helping them take their businesses to the next level.'
If you want to know more and how we can help, please call us on 01243 776088 or contact us via the form.
And finally...Private Eye cartoonist salutes us!
We were chuffed to be approached by Private Eye's award-winning cartoonist, Neil Kerber, following Xerocon. Neil presented us with our very own cartoon celebrating our Xero Small Firm of the Year award - what a coup!
Neil Kerber's cartoon