Xero training and support for new bookkeepers

If you’ve ever thought about leaving your job to start a bookkeeping business, there’s probably a voice in your head asking one question. “Do I know enough to do this on my own?”

For most people we talk to, the worry isn’t the bookkeeping. It’s everything around it. Finding clients. Setting up the business. Being the person a client calls when something in their accounts doesn’t look right.

At work, there’s usually someone down the hall you can ask. When you run your own practice, there isn’t, unless you have the right support around you.

That’s one reason First Class Accounts partners with Xero.

The software is part of the job

Xero is one of the accounting platforms bookkeepers work in every day. Clients don’t just want their books done. They want someone who can set up their file properly, explain what they’re looking at and show them a quicker way to do things.

You may already use Xero at work. But using it for one employer is very different from running it for a dozen clients, each with their own setup and their own habits.

That’s where a lot of new business owners lose confidence. It’s also the gap Xero helps First Class Accounts franchisees close.

What franchisees get from Xero

Xero works with the First Class Accounts network to help franchisees learn the platform properly, from their first weeks in the business onwards.

Franchisees receive:

Free access to Xero Tax, whatever their Xero partner status
Webinars, workshops and conference presentations
Onboarding guidance and ongoing training for new franchisees
Guidance on Xero’s practice, client and advisory tools, to improve workflows and add new services

Nick Zouros, National Account Executive at Xero, explains the thinking behind it:

“Through our partnership with First Class Accounts, we’re helping franchisees build their confidence with Xero through practical education, onboarding support and resources that help them deliver more value to their clients.”

Why it matters more when you’re new

The first months in a new business are full. You’re winning work, setting up systems, sorting your marketing and taking on your first clients, often all in the same week.

You don’t have time to teach yourself every feature of your software at night. With training built in, you learn as you go, from people who know the platform well.

We’ve written before about the hidden cost of messy business systems. Getting your software right from the start is one of the simplest ways to avoid it.

It also helps with the fear that stops many people from starting at all: that a client will ask something you can’t answer. When you know the software well, those conversations get easier.

The advisory tools also give you more to offer than data entry, which is where a lot of bookkeepers find the work they enjoy most.

You won’t be doing this on your own

Xero is one part of a bigger support network. When you join First Class Accounts, you join a community of around 130 franchisees, with training and support from day one.

That includes 9 weeks of initial training (7 by correspondence and 8 days in person), a 13-week Kick Start program, 3 months of coaching and 3 months of social media support.

Partnerships like Xero sit alongside all of that, so the tools you use every day come with help attached. If the software side of running a practice has been holding you back, you won’t be working it out alone.