The smart new way to make Xero reporting easier
If you use Xero, you'll know it’s a great accounting package. But clients using Xero kept sharing a common problem: you can’t create a tailored profit and loss report quickly and easily. Some Clarity was clearly needed!
The standard Xero reporting features simply weren’t giving people what they needed. Manually downloading Xero P&L reports and manipulating them into the necessary format in Excel wasn’t cutting it either – it was all just too frustrating and time consuming.
So, we got to work and developed a dedicated spreadsheet-based profit and loss template that uses the DataDear add-in for Xero to connect to Excel.
A template for success
Our aim was to address everything people knew they wanted… and a couple of things we knew people might want once their initial needs had been met.
First and foremost, the template makes it quick and easy to present a profit and loss report for a single Xero company and single tracking category.
Once configured, the template is relatively automated, and more data can be brought in from Xero with just one click.
Importantly, the template includes internal checks to monitor the numbers being reported against those produced by Xero, ensuring you can trust the figures you’re seeing.
The template allows full-year forecasts and comparisons between budget and prior year. Reports can be filtered by tracking category, and a pivot tab allows you to analyse data in a number of other different ways, such as by account or reporting group.
And the presentation of data isn’t limited to tables as we’ve built in the facility to make reports more visual with a range of charts.
Problem solved? It is for many. But as word has spread, requests have been coming back to us for other variants. A three-statement version of the template is coming soon, as are versions for use with QuickBooks.
Your template, your way
Also, as our templates run in Excel, they are easily tailored to meet specific needs. Some clients choose to do this themselves, while others with more advanced requirements – or less time – ask us to do this for them.
For example, Ronak Parikh, Finance Manager at Energy Aspects, asked us to rebuild their monthly three-statements model and connect it to Xero.
As Ronak explains, “We've a number of Xero organisations, and they are all in different currencies. It was difficult and time consuming to export and consolidate numbers from Xero each month and report everything in USD. Clarity quickly understood what I wanted, and built a model that enables me to save time and create my reports pack quickly.”
If you use Xero, but the main thing you’re reporting at present is frustration, take a closer look at our Xero Profit and Loss template.
Thoughts or questions inspired by this article? Call or email to share them with us.