Xero Adds Bill Payments and eInvoicing to Small Business Platform

Global small business platform Xero has launched two new payments features aimed at assisting U.K. small businesses in managing their cash flow more effectively.

These features, backed by the latest financial technologies, include a bill payments tool and eInvoicing, Xero said in a Monday (Nov. 13) press release .

The bill payments tool provides a simple and secure way for small businesses to manage, approve and pay bills without leaving the Xero platform, according to the release. By enabling direct bank transfers as a payment method and utilizing open banking, businesses can batch pay multiple bills directly from their bank accounts.

This streamlines the accounts payable (AP) process and gives businesses greater control over their cash flow, the release said. Xero has partnered with financial services provider Crezco to facilitate the open banking payment services.

“Paying bills is crucial for cash flow, but it’s still a very manual process for many small business owners,” Jo Copestake , U.K. sales director at Xero, said in the release. “With our bill payments feature, small businesses can avoid manual bank transfers, funding external wallets and accounts, or entering credit card details. It’s all about making life easier and saving time on everyday admin.”

The second feature introduced by Xero is eInvoicing, which allows businesses to receive electronic invoices through the secure Peppol network, according to the press release. This eliminates the need for paper or PDF invoices and the manual process of scanning, emailing and entering them. Xero customers can register to receive eInvoices in Xero, providing them with a holistic view of their cash flow position.

Copestake said in the release: “eInvoicing will be a powerful new tool for businesses to make their payment process much more efficient.”

Xero customers in the U.K. can register for the bill payments beta now, with the feature becoming available from Nov. 27, per the release.

Earlier this year, Xero was among the accounting platforms that added integrations with B2B payments platform OnlineCheckWriter.com . With this payment integration, which was added in February, users of the platform can import checks, bills and invoices and pay them, thereby avoiding manual entries.

In another development, Xero teamed up with Melio in January to let small business customers who use Melio’s payments platform automatically sync their AP and accounts receivable (AR) data with Xero’s accounting software .

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