It’s been a whole year since we began using Xero Ask to gather your records and we’ve listened to your feedback and made some changes to our processes.

We will now email you directly through Xero Ask, rather than you receiving one email from us and one from Xero as well. We have also improved some of the questions to make them more relevant to different types of business owners.

There are some things that haven’t changed, though. Here are the reasons we still love our Xero Ask Checklist and why you will too:

1) IT’S ALL IN THE CLOUD
This means that we can both view your answers at any time, so if there’s something you aren’t sure about, just let us know, and we can point you in the right direction.

We know it can be very off-putting if you need to set aside a block of time to answer our questions but there is no need to answer all the questions all in one go. With Xero Ask if you’re halfway through and the phone rings or your laptop battery dies, you don’t lose any of your answers as it automatically saves your progress.

2) IT’S TIDY
Rather than sending us a separate email with your documents such as bank statements or NHS pension summaries, you can attach them directly to the relevant question on the checklist, keeping it all in one place. Refer to our handy infographic for things we often need to see.

3) IT’S FLEXIBLE
We understand that it’s not always the practice owner who deals with the finances, it takes a team. We can resend the checklist to different contacts, so if you need someone else to answer some of the questions they can do this easily. Whether that’s your bookkeeper, practice manager or business partner.

4) IT’S SECURE
If you already use Xero for bookkeeping purposes, you can use your existing login address and password to complete our checklist. If you don’t use Xero already, you will have to set up a login before completing the checklist, but it’s really straightforward and does not require a bookkeeping subscription. Here’s how you set up your login for Xero Ask.

5) IT MAKES A GREAT INTRODUCTION TO XERO BOOKKEEPING
If you read our Insights you will quickly gather that we love Xero for managing our client’s bookkeeping. It’s user-friendly, cloud-based and can link directly to your business bank accounts. The Xero Ask checklist is a separate, additional function of Xero, and does not require you to use Xero for your bookkeeping, but we highly recommend you do!

Even if you have never filled out a questionnaire for us before, we really encourage you to use Xero Ask. This acts as a ‘catch all’ and will prompt you about any new income streams or changes to your circumstances which may be relevant to your accounts and/or tax return.