How we’re making it easier for practices in Australia and New Zealand to manage clients in Xero

We’ve made some great progress towards creating a single source of truth for your client data across Xero Practice Manager (XPM), Xero HQ and Xero Tax.

This is an important part of our work to connect our practice tools, so you can work more efficiently, collaborate with your clients more effectively and get the most out of the entire Xero platform. 

Here are our latest updates and what they mean for accountants and bookkeepers in Australia and New Zealand.

What’s new in our practice tools

To make sure we’re reducing duplicates and double handling of your client data, we’ve made some updates that provide greater consistency between XPM and Xero HQ.

One of the most common requests we’ve received in Xero Product Ideas is the ability to reuse contacts across multiple clients in XPM. We’re excited that this is now available and appreciate the feedback that allowed us to deliver this value.

Other recent updates include:

• aligning the way business structures are recorded across practice tools
• renaming ‘Relationships’ to ‘Contacts’ in Xero HQ, to match the language in XPM
• aligning client and contact names across both tools

You also have more control over client records, when you create an organisation outside of Xero HQ. Until recently, if you created an organisation in My Xero Partner Edition, or had a subscription transferred to your practice, we’d automatically create a new client record in Xero HQ. 

This often resulted in duplicates, especially for those using XPM. To avoid these duplications, data will no longer flow from My Xero to Xero HQ.

Rolling out the single client record

Now that our team has built a central place to store client records across our practice tools, we can start rolling out the single client record to our accounting and bookkeeping partners, starting with Australia and New Zealand.

We’re pleased to announce that new practices who joined the Xero partner program after 6 March 2023, and those who have only ever used Xero HQ, can now enjoy a single client record. 

If that’s you — it’s a great time to try XPM and easily manage jobs, time tracking and billing in your practice, with the same client data that you’ve been using in Xero HQ.

As soon as you start using XPM, you’ll have all your clients, contacts and groups details from Xero HQ in there straight away. If you offboard a client, they’ll be archived in both lists.

Giving XPM users access to the single client record

Now that we’ve rolled the single client record out to new practices, the priority for our team is making it available to existing XPM users. This is a little more complex, because you already have two sets of client records that may not align.

That’s why we’re building a tool to help you reconcile your existing data into one single client record. We’ll keep you updated on our progress, but please know you will have complete control over how and when your client data is updated, to make sure it’s accurate at all times.

We’re excited for all practices across Australia and New Zealand to enjoy the benefits of a single client record, and will make this available to you as soon as we can.

What’s coming next in our practice tools

In the months ahead, we’ll be making a number of updates as we continue connecting our practice tools, so data can seamlessly flow between XPM, Xero HQ and Xero Tax in the future. 

These updates will help you:

• better manage connections between Xero organisations and clients, such as seeing their subscription status in the client list, and removing an organisation from a client record
• see and manage client groups easily in XPM and Xero HQ, within your single client record
• assign client access and permissions more easily to staff working across your entire client list in Xero HQ
• quickly see the level of access your staff have in XPM, and easily assign and manage their permissions
• send reminders in bulk when sending document packs for approval and signing

Helping you become more efficient is the number one priority for our teams, and we’re excited about the progress we’re making towards a single client record.

In the meantime, it’s important to make sure your client list is in good shape. Here’s a best practice guide for onboarding a client, so you can avoid duplications in your client records and make sure you’re ready for what’s next.

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