Xero fixed assets solution now tracks drones (Image Source: Pixabay/Powie)
Xero fixed assets solution now tracks drones
Christian Newman, Product marketing manager, Xero (Image Source Linkedin/Christian Newman
Christian Newman, Product marketing manager, Xero

Xero has announced new functionality to support fixed assets. As Xero’s customer base grows, so does the clamour for it to add additional functionality. That functionality sees it become more sophisticated. Whether it will ever become a full ERP is unknown but it is widening its appeals slowly to larger companies. The announcement about fixed assets came in a blog by Christian Newman, product marketing manager, Xero.

First in Australia

Companies in Australia can take advantage of fixed asset depreciation. Fixed assets includes things such as phones, drones, automobiles as well as the mundane things like office equipment and other capital investments. This led to the top feature request for Xero in Australia being a fixed assets module.

Xero listened and is rolling out the first set of features over the coming weeks. The rules on fixed assets in Australia are one of the most complex across the globe which is perhaps why Xero has implemented it there first. It will be interesting to hear when the new features will reach the UK, US and other countries as well. We have reached out to Xero and will update the article when we get a response.

Start small and grow.

The initial solution is aimed at customers that have fewer than 20 fixed assets. This is sensible as those companies form the major part of the Xero user base. However Xero plans to extend the functionality so that in the future companies will be able to bulk update their fixed asset register. The blog promises both bulk uploads for new assets as well as bulk updates for those in place.

Extending functionality of fixed assets

The new updated fixed asset solution will help advisors by calculating tax depreciation and will also cope with the pooling of fixed assets. For some companies this will reduce costs in both time and for those who use alternate software it might replace that providing a direct cost saving as well.

With Xero now able to track and manage everything to do with assets in a single location it makes the whole process simpler and faster. At year end all calculations can be completed quickly with no duplicate entry required. For businesses not currently using the fixed assets capability within Xero it is certainly worth considering as proper tracking of assets can improve cash flow and decrease the tax burden on a company.

Conclusion

As Xero continues to add business functionality to its systems it also creates further opportunities for its partners. The added sophistication for financial tracking of fixed assets means that partners can develop software to integrate into Xero to further enhance the fixed asset solution. This will further enrich the Xero solution. It will also enable companies to stay on the solution longer as they grow their businesses. The question is whether Xero will start to open up a market to larger companies in time.

For companies not currently using the fixed assets functionality they should be able to start using the new features now. For those who currently use fixed assets there is clearly a migration path that Xero is undertaking.  They should have access within the next four weeks according to the blog.

1 COMMENT

  1. Xero come back with the following comment:

    “I can confirm that pooling is only available to AU customers at the moment. There is no timeframe right now on availability outside of AU.”

    They also clarified that Fixed Assets have been available in Xero for several years and that these features are an upgrade to the existing functionality.

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