Blog Plato’s Integration with Xero will Send your Accountant Over the Moon

Tell your accountant to say goodbye to manual data entry, forever.

Good accountants do more than simply keep your business’ financial health in check. They double as business advisors to companies that find themselves struggling with growth and sustainability.

Accountants servicing medical businesses, however, don’t have it easy. Not only do they tediously input data line by line, but also tackle months’ worth of records and information gaps.

To make their lives easier, Plato has integrated with Xero, the cloud-based accounting software platform that accountants love. Now, your accountant can securely post all your financial data directly from Plato to Xero in one click, without any data entry required.

“Xero has an established app ecosystem comprising 800+ app partners. We take pride in curating business apps that help our accounting partners and SME clients reap the full benefits of the cloud,” explains Kevin Fitzgerald, Managing Director of Xero Asia. “Historically, clinic management software tends to be traditional and desktop-based. This is why we are excited to integrate with Plato to offer cloud-based clinic management system to better serve business owners in the medical sector.”

Digitising the accounting process does more than enhance productivity. It gives medical business owners greater visibility over their company’s financial health, and saves them from the hassles of executing time-consuming administrative tasks, such as recording expenses and creating invoices.

“With the Xero-Plato integration, private clinics will be able to automate a large portion of their data entry work and obtain clearer visibility of their financial health at their fingertips. As the users integrate more business apps with their Xero cloud accounting platform, they will be able to better determine their business performance and make strategic decisions based on accurate data,” adds Fitzgerald.

As with any business, maintaining a healthy cash flow is vital for growth. Poor cash flow sets off a trickle-down effect on account payables, including staff salaries, payments to suppliers, and loan repayments. A good system that manages working capital used for day-to-day operations can help you better regulate company finances.

For Singapore start-ups in particular, managing business cash flow was cited as a major struggle according to the SME Development Survey 2018 by DP Information Group. The top finance-related issue was delayed payments from customers, which rose from 81% to 84% between 2017 and 2018. The survey found that 44% of SMEs surveyed responded that they faced internal struggles managing finances.

“By moving their accounting to the cloud, a clinic will be able to obtain real-time visibility into their accounts for better cash flow management,” Fitzgerald explains. “Furthermore, they can issue invoices or carry out transactions digitally which helps to shorten payment cycle. Research conducted by Xero on its small business users shows they are able to shorten the number of days in between invoicing and getting paid (2015-2017), from 43 to 30 days in Singapore.”

“With cloud technology, the clinic will also be able to automate a large portion of manual and routine work such as data entry, reconciling accounts and preparing invoices. With time saved on administrative tasks, the business can dedicate extra time and resources to activities that directly add value to the business.”

Where security is involved, both Plato and Xero take the privacy of their clients’ data very seriously. Rather than storing information as physical copies or on USB drives that can easily be misplaced or tampered with, Plato and Xero’s cloud-based systems have stringent safeguards in place to protect clients’ privacy. With data on the cloud, businesses can restrict access to select users, while promoting greater accessibility through multiple devices.

Book a free demo today to learn how you can eliminate unnecessary double data entry from your workflow through Plato’s integration with Xero to make life easier.

– Wong Yoon Sann