How do I choose an accountant who specialises in Xero?

26 Jun

You’ve set up Xero. Maybe you did it yourself. Maybe a previous bookkeeper got you started. Maybe it came with the business when you took it over.

Either way, you’re using it, and now you’re looking for an accountant who uses it, too.

Type ‘Xero accountant’ into Google and you’ll get hundreds of firms claiming to be Xero experts. Most of them use Xero. Far fewer specialise in it. That distinction matters.

An accountant who logs into your Xero once a quarter to pull some numbers for your accounts is a very different proposition to one who’s in there every week, tightening up your bank rules, fixing any coding errors before they snowball, and showing you how to use the bits of Xero you’ve not touched yet. Here’s how to tell which one you’re talking to.

Why ‘we use Xero’ isn’t the same as ‘we specialise in Xero’

Plenty of accountants will tell you they ‘work with Xero’. What they often mean is that your accounts happen to be in Xero, and they extract what they need from it at year-end.

A Xero specialist offers something different. They treat Xero as the operating system for your finances. They’ll be checking that your bank reconciliations are accurate, your chart of accounts makes sense for your business, your invoicing is set up to chase late payers automatically, and your reports are configured to show you what you need to see.

The trouble is, most business owners can’t spot the difference until something goes wrong.

You won’t notice your accountant isn’t really using Xero properly until you ask them a Xero-specific question and get a vague answer, or your year-end accounts don’t match what’s sitting in your Xero file.

Take something as simple as bank rules. A specialist will set these up so your transactions code themselves correctly, month after month. An accountant who only dips into your Xero occasionally is more likely to leave you doing this manually, or fixing the same miscoded transaction every quarter without ever solving the root cause.

Spotting which type of accountant you’re dealing with isn’t always obvious from a website or a sales call. You’ll usually get a clearer picture by looking at their certifications and how Xero rates them.

Check their Xero certifications and partner status

This is the easiest way to identify genuine expertise in Xero. ‘Xero Certified Adviser’ status is the baseline. It means the accountant has done Xero’s core training and is proficient at using the platform day-to-day.

Next, look for specialist certifications. Xero offers badges in areas like payroll, migration, tax and cash flow. An accountant holding several of these (we have them all!) has invested time in understanding Xero properly, rather than just picking up the basics and moving on.

Then there’s partner status. Xero ranks accounting firms by tier (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum), based on factors including how many clients they support on the platform, how long they’ve been a Xero Partner, and how committed they are to ongoing Xero training. A Xero accountant with Gold Partner status, which is what we hold, tells you they’ve built a genuine, sustained relationship with Xero.

However, don’t just take the accountant’s word for any of this. Ask to see their certifications, or check their status on the Xero website.

Any reputable firm will be happy to show you. You can view our listing here.

Ask how they’ll work in your Xero

While Xero certifications tell you what an accountant has studied, they won’t tell you how they’ll work with you.

First, ask who you’ll actually be working with. Some larger accountancy practices might route you through different account managers or whoever’s free on the day you need them, which means you’ll have to re-explain your setup every time you need something sorting. When you work with us, you’ll always get direct access to Scott, who knows your business, your Xero setup and all its quirks.

Next, ask how often they’ll look at your accounts. If it’s only at year-end, you might not find out about a coding error or a missed VAT entry until months after it happened, by which point it can be harder and more time-consuming to put right. Regular check-ins, whether monthly or quarterly, mean issues get caught while they’re still small and easy to fix, rather than turning into a mad scramble against a deadline on filing day.

Ask whether they’ll fix problems as they find them, or flag them for you to deal with. And ask whether their support covers the operational side of Xero, such as your bank feeds, bank rules, chart of accounts and automations, or just the compliance side at the end of the year.

Their answers will tell you whether you’re talking to someone who lives in Xero every day, or someone who visits only occasionally.

Find out whether they’ll train you

When it comes to managing Xero, some business owners want everything handled for them. Others prefer the independence to do it themselves.

There’s no ‘correct’ approach to this, as it depends on how you want to use Xero. But you should know which level of service you’ll get before you sign up for anything, because the two approaches can lead to very different working relationships.

Some accountants prefer you to stay dependent on them. Every query goes through them, every small fix needs booking in, and you never quite get confident enough to run Xero by yourself.

At Progression, we take a different approach. We’ll set everything up properly, then teach you what you need to know so you can handle the day-to-day yourself, with support there when you need it.

Consider how they price their support

Xero issues don’t usually wait for a convenient moment to raise their head. Your bank feed can drop out on a Friday afternoon, or a payroll question could crop up on payday. If you’re worried that asking for help would mean an extra bill, you’ll likely put it off, try to fix it yourself, or let it sit until it gets worse.

Working with a Xero accountant for a fixed monthly fee means you can ask those small questions as they come up. Because you already know what you’re paying each month, it won’t cost you anything extra to ask a quick question.

Our accounting and tax packages work this way. We can cover all your accounting and bookkeeping needs, along with ongoing support to address all your small, day-to-day issues in Xero.

And if you need a one-off, year-end tidy-up rather than ongoing support, that’s fine as we offer that too.

Why Progression Accountancy fits the brief

At Progression Accountancy, we’re 100% Xero-focused. We don’t split our attention across multiple platforms, because Xero’s all we do, and we’ve built our entire practice around it.

We’re a Xero Gold Partner, with certifications across payroll, data migration, tax, cash flow and more. We’ve been using Xero since 2010, back when it was still relatively new to the UK market, and have worked with hundreds of businesses since, from sole traders to growing companies and everything in between.

We also train our clients to run with confidence. We’re not interested in keeping you dependent on us for every small task. We’d rather set you up properly, show you what you need to know, and stay close for the questions that will inevitably pop up along the way.

Our accounting and tax packages run on a fixed monthly fee, so there are no surprise bills at year-end. We’re based in Chesterfield, but we work with businesses across the whole of the UK, in person or online.

So, if you’d like to talk through your Xero setup and what our support could look like, get in touch to book a free consultation to see how we can help you get more from your accounting in Xero.