Xero Targets Phishing Scams With eInvoicing Update

Small business accounting platform Xero has introduced an upgrade that aims to make transactions between businesses more secure amid rising phishing scams.

Wednesday (June 22) saw the release of Xero’s latest changes to its online invoicing solution, including a more responsive design that supports various platforms, whether desktop or mobile. In its announcement, Xero said the changes are meant to help safeguard businesses from phishing attacks by allowing SMEs that have turned on the two-step authentication feature to more easily send an invoice straight from Xero.

The company said doing so is more secure than sending bills via email, as users cannot make changes to these documents unless they sign into the Xero portal.

“As phishing attacks on small businesses continue to increase, hackers are gaining entry into email accounts and altering the bank details in invoices before sending to an unassuming client,” the company stated. “Online invoicing would deter this, so long as the customer sends the invoice directly to their customer from Xero and not via their own email box.”

Broader support for mobile devices means faster payments as well, the firm added, and helps businesses accelerate their rising adoption of mobile tools. The company cited Adyen Mobile Payments Index figures that found one-third of global online payments are now completed via a mobile device.

Xero, too, has seen an increase in mobile adoption, noting that its user base for Xero mobile recently surpassed 100,000.

“Ensuring our customers get paid as quickly as possible is vital to the small business economy,” said Xero Chief Technology Officer Craig Walker in a statement. “With today’s release, we’ve embraced responsive web design to ensure that our customers can not only send their customers online invoices but that those invoices are displayed beautifully, regardless of the device their customers are using.”

In a blog post, Xero also said that it has launched support for payment via credit or debit card, thanks to payment service provider Braintree. Braintree can process card payments in multiple countries, Xero noted.