In Brisbane, Xero announced that it has partnered with Macquarie Bank to build out the BPAY payments technology and functionality, to launch initially with Macquarie’s DEFT (to bill customers) and with EFTPOS provider Tyro (to pay suppliers). The functionality should be live by the end of the year, although Xero has not yet released a firm date.
Xero representatives said the partnership is a product of requests made by customers, specifically small businesses.
“We’re trying to make things as easy as possible for small businesses,” said Trent Innes, managing director for Xero Australia. “BPAY is a standardized platform — everyone knows it and understands it — so we’re building it in-app to make it as easy as possible for small businesses to make payments with BPAY or receive payments via BPAY directly out of the app.”
Innes emphasized that Xero has honed in on advisor connection, bank feed integration and their platform of choice. Xero’s surveying found that 92 percent of users consult and work with financial advisors and accountants. Almost all of the respondents said they are in sync with their financial data in real time via bank feed. Possibly, most notable is that 40 percent of survey respondents are using an app, and that number is growing.
The BPAY news was followed by two adjoining announcements.
Xero has also announced a pair-up with lending partner Fuelled, the first it has worked with in New Zealand to focus on small businesses’ access to capital. Fuelled is slated to offer funding secured against unpaid invoices.
And Xero announced Live Contacts, an alliance with Veda, a credit bureau, linking the public information of millions of businesses into the Xero accounting platform.
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