Xero For Dummies, 4th Edition

Foreword

I remember how excited we were when we were approached to support Xero For Dummies. We thought we’d made it as a software company — and now here we are with the 4th edition!

To be honest, we found it humorous to see an ‘old world’ book about accounting in the cloud — a book on something that changes every week! — but it’s turned out to be a valuable way for accountants, bookkeepers and business owners to discover how best to use Xero and to understand what we’ve been trying to do to make life better for those in business.

Business can be fun. For most small-business owners, it’s certainly all-consuming. In our previous roles we liked building businesses; we didn’t like the drudgery of administrative jobs and working late into the night to meet a looming tax return deadline. As we talked to other business owners it became clear that we weren’t alone — for most, doing the books was the number one pain of running a small business. It’s great to hear that the number of business owners is growing, but also that they’re capturing a better lifestyle, free to work anywhere at any time.

It’s also been great to see a thriving community of accountants, bookkeepers and add-on partners all working together to make life easier for small business owners. Many bookkeepers are creating their own new businesses, helping others, in turn, grow. As the nature of work changes, small-business ownership is becoming a way of working for many people around the world.

The move to the cloud is ...