Month: August 2021

BoardRoom + Xero | Making your life easier

BoardRoom + Xero | Making your life easier

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How cloud accounting with Xero and BoardRoom is about to make your life easier

The benefits of cloud accounting platform, Xero, are well recognised. Implementing Xero will save your company time, money and effort. It improves your team’s productivity and can even help your company to get paid faster.

However, for most companies, these benefits may take time to achieve. Setting up Xero correctly and migrating your existing financial data into it can be difficult, especially for companies with complex structures. Plus, to truly realise the full benefits of Xero, it’s important to optimise your Xero file to its fullest potential.

It doesn’t have to be hard though. With a partner, such as BoardRoom, your journey with Xero can be a simple and rewarding experience that delivers the power of Xero to your company faster.

Cloud accounting vs traditional accounting

Cloud accounting uses online software and stores the data from your accounts in the cloud. ‘The Cloud’ is a network of remote servers storing vast amounts of data. In contrast, traditional software is installed locally on your computer with data stored on a hard drive or a server on-site.

Traditional accounting has the benefits of not requiring an internet connection and lets you retain individual company control of your security levels and access – providing you continually update everything. However, the advantages of cloud accounting far outweigh these benefits.

Cloud accounting makes it easier for your team to access and collaborate while reducing hardware costs and software expenses. It also offers your company a real-time snapshot of business performance while providing data security and protection. But, maybe most importantly, cloud accounting helps you save time and improve accuracy, which assists your company run more efficiently. This is why many companies use cloud accounting, like Xero.

Xero implementation can be simple with the right partner

Switching to any new accounting system involves effort commensurate with the nature, size and complexity of your company. Unless you have a team who are confident in navigating the set-up and implementation of a new accounting system such as Xero, you run the risk of misplacing data or accidentally limiting essential user access. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, there may be negative regulatory or financial consequences if these errors occur.

Working with a Xero Platinum Partner, such as our team here at BoardRoom, will ensure your Xero implementation is seamless. We’re experienced in transferring your company’s data from your existing accounting system to Xero. We also know how to correctly set it up based on your company structure. Additionally, this process doesn’t require hours of input from yourself and your team. We request the data from you, and then work in the background to perfect your Xero file setup. This means your team can continue with business as usual.

In addition, BoardRoom offers training and support services to facilitate the change management process for your team. We work hard to help your team learn how to take advantage of all the features Xero has to offer so they can use Xero more efficiently. And if they do have any questions, they can contact BoardRoom’s Xero support services via phone, email or video conference call.

Risks during Xero set-up and migration for complex company structures

Companies with complex structures are most at risk of errors, issues and potentially expensive faults when moving to Xero. Strategic planning is often needed to ensure your company structure is reflected correctly in Xero and that it meets any regulatory reporting requirements.

Attempting a migration of existing data without an implementation partner can be treacherous. Having the support of a partner, such as our team, means you’ll have experts responsible for ensuring a seamless and certified implementation.

accounting software for small business

Our Xero data migration services ensure a complete data migration, comparative balances migration and porting over of last closing balances. Additionally, our online training modules will guide your team through purchase, sales, bank and reconciliation, inventory, reports and other advanced features.

Customising and optimising Xero to suit your company

In addition to ensuring your Xero file is set up correctly, and existing financial data migrated seamlessly, working with a partner like BoardRoom will ensure your company gets the most out of Xero. We’ll identify the apps and integrations, from the thousands available, which best suit your company’s needs and provide training to ensure a smooth transition for your team.

We also customise your chart of accounts or report templates, incorporate your logo into financial documents, or set-up tracking categories and contacts – plus more.

Remove geographical limitations through BoardRoom’s expertise

When you partner with BoardRoom, you’re not working with a regular accountancy firm. As professional services experts, we operate across multiple jurisdictions and offer a wealth of knowledge on all aspects of company administration. This means that no matter where your offices are located, whether Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China or Australia, we can assist you seamlessly integrate all of your accounts functions through your Xero.

xero implementation partners

In addition to Xero set-up and migration, we also provide incorporation, share registry, company secretarial, payroll, plus many other administrative services. Therefore, by partnering with BoardRoom, your company gains access to our wide range of skills and expertise to assist your administration and accounts teams operate more efficiently.

Save time, money and stress with Xero and BoardRoom

Minimise the risk when migrating your accounting data and ensure your team can easily operate your new Xero system from day one.

Consultations are available for full scale migration, set-up or integration of systems – such as payroll or point of sale. Regardless of the accounting system you are switching from or how complex your company structures are, our team of experts are available to provide support throughout each step of the process.

Partnering with BoardRoom to implement Xero for your company will save you time, money and stress.

Find out more about our cloud accounting software today.

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How to test a payroll system vendor’s compliance-readiness

Payroll system

How to test a payroll system vendor’s compliance-readiness

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2 Essential Questions to Test your Payroll Outsourcing Vendor’s Compliance-Readiness

Most HR professionals know not to overlook the quiet achievers in their company. These are the industrious individuals who consistently deliver quality work on time without demanding your attention. So often, it’s not until they’ve left the company that you realise their value.

The same is true when it comes to smooth, seamless payroll processing. Usually, payroll is the quiet achiever of HR and finance departments, but when things go wrong, the whole company suffers. Payroll errors can result in hefty non-compliance fines, reputational damage or employee dissatisfaction.

That’s why it’s vital to evaluate payroll outsourcing vendors on all of the qualities needed to efficiently process a compliant pay run. It’s especially important to assess how well they stay up to date with the ever-changing payroll compliance requirements in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

To help you decide on the best payroll outsourcing vendor for your company, we’ve outlined some of the key considerations relevant to payroll in the APAC region. We’ve also introduced two must-ask questions to test vendors on how compliance-ready their payroll management really is.

Payroll compliance challenges in the APAC region

The APAC region is a dynamic, fast-paced environment to do business in. Labour and tax laws are constantly evolving which makes staying compliant more difficult.

Adding to the challenge is that many APAC countries have at least four regulatory bodies that influence payroll processing rules.

So you might think that you’ve updated your payroll system to factor in all of the recent tax, insurance, wage and pension legislation changes. Then you discover that an extra governing body (perhaps one you weren’t even aware of) just changed its employee record-keeping requirements. It’s enough to give anyone a headache.

Finally, add to this the APAC region’s extra layer of payroll complexity in the form of cultural business norms. While these customary norms aren’t legal requirements, you might find it difficult to source and retain talent if your HR department fails to meet them. For example, it’s common in Singapore payroll processing to include ‘13th-month pay’ – a single annual payment on top of an employee’s total annual wage. Again, this payment isn’t mandatory, but it is the cultural norm.

Payroll Singapore

Another cultural norm is to bring pay run dates forward for significant holiday periods. For example, a company might have a regular pay date on the 25th of every month. In one year, however, Chinese New Year (also known as Lunar New Year) might fall on the 20th. In this case, a company will typically bring forward their pay run to an earlier date – for example, the 18th of that month.

Without the right processes, it can be easy to miss both important cultural and regulatory payroll requirements. It can also be easy to make mistakes in translating written legislative changes into a formula that your payroll system understands.

That’s why it’s crucial to ask two questions as you evaluate the compliance-readiness of any payroll outsourcing vendor.

01 What’s the vendor’s relationship with local authorities, and how do they maintain it?

When it comes to evaluating payroll outsourcing vendors, understanding the vendor’s familiarity with existing local payroll compliance rules is fundamental.

Every country has its own quirks and nuances. For example, part of payroll tax compliance in Australia involves withholding personal income tax from employees at source via payroll throughout the year. In contrast, employees in Singapore are responsible for filing and paying their personal income tax directly to tax authorities at the end of the year.

While it’s obviously essential for an outsourcing vendor to understand current compliance requirements, vendor evaluations all too often stop there without questioning compliance abilities any further.

Given the state of flux and complexity surrounding payroll regulations across the region, evaluators need a more accurate view of a vendor’s competency. They need to know how vendors stay up to date with changing payroll compliance requirements.

As you evaluate a vendor, ask them how they connect with local authorities to get updates on statutory changes that impact payroll. You want to understand their exact process for getting accurate, timely updates from all relevant authorities. You also want to understand how they communicate these changes to their staff.

A working knowledge of present compliance is one thing. A thorough process to stay on top of payroll updates and then translate them into accurate formulas for payroll systems is something else. And the latter can be the difference between a mediocre vendor and an excellent one. You want to work with a vendor who not only ensures that your company is compliant, but that it stays that way too.

02 How has the vendor dealt with previous non-compliance matters?

Everybody makes mistakes. It’s part of life. The best payroll outsourcing vendors are the ones who are happy to talk about any mistakes they’ve made and the lessons they’ve learned. You want transparency and honesty, because you’ll need both qualities if either they or your company makes a mistake.

Ask vendors how they’ve handled any statutory non-compliance in the past, and what the implications were for their client’s company. Experienced vendors will be willing to talk openly about this with you.

For example, there may have been a situation where tax was underpaid or overpaid. Let the vendor explain their process for addressing non-compliance issues, including:

  • when they first discovered the problem;
  • who they spoke to;
  • what remedies they applied; and
  • what measures they put in place to ensure that it wouldn’t happen again.
Payroll Tax Compliance
Choosing a compliance-ready payroll outsourcing vendor

Payroll compliance can be challenging for inexperienced outsourcing vendors in the APAC region for several reasons:

  1. Regulatory changes that affect payroll happen at break-neck speed.
  2. At least four different authorities per country make these changes.
  3. You need to factor in cultural business norms, not only to create successful, compliant pay runs but to attract and retain future talent.

This means it’s critical to quiz vendors on more than just their working knowledge of payroll compliance requirements. You also need to ask them about how well they understand local, cultural business norms, and how they stay up to date with, and then implement, any regulatory changes.

Learn more in our video on the evolving payroll compliance landscape in the APAC region.

Finally, when outsourcing something as sensitive as payroll, you want to work with sincere, transparent, open vendors who will tell you if something is wrong. Ask them about any mistakes they’ve made and the lessons they’ve learned.

If you’re looking to change vendors or are worried about payroll compliance in the APAC region, get in touch with our payroll solutions experts today.

They can help you to ensure your payroll management complies with all relevant legislation and customs in the areas in which you do business.

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