BMO Integrates Business Accounts With Accounting Platform Xero

BMO Financial Group is teaming with cloud-based accounting firm Xero to give business customers more options for automatic banking to streamline their finance dealings, a press release says.

BMO customers using the company’s Online Banking for Business service will be able to send daily bank feeds to their Xero account, which will cut down on data entry and reconciliation.

The partnership lets BMO/Xero customers automatically receive their latest BMO transactions and account balances from Xero, and will have a one-year transaction and balance history immediately. There will be a control to modify or deactivate the integration any time the user wants.

“Our clients have told us: The less time we need to spend on manual tasks, the better,” said Hugh McKee, head of BMO Partners. “Our partnership enables automatic transaction syncing between BMO and Xero, which gives owners more time to focus on what matters to them — making progress and growing their business.”

And Chris O’Neill, Xero chief growth officer, said the companies want to “enable small businesses to use technology designed to help them gain back time during their day.”

Xero has made other partnerships lately, including with GoCardless in July to add an Instant Bank Pay feature for U.K. companies.

Read more: GoCardless to Provide Payment Solutions to Xero Customers in the UK

GoCardless offers the feature on its global payment platform, and it will let Xero users get one-off bank-to-bank payments from both new and existing customers.

The Instant Bank Pay feature supports all businesses, even those with recurring revenue models. Part of the reason for the change is because 85% of recurring revenue businesses that need to collect one-off payments.

“It’s been a pleasure to work hand-in-hand with Xero over the past six years, and we’re strongly aligned in our mission to help small businesses take the pain out of getting paid,” said Duncan Barrigan, chief product officer and chief growth officer at GoCardless. “This integration is the first step to offering Xero’s customers in the U.K. access to the next era of bank payments through Instant Bank Pay, making their payments faster, cheaper and easier.”

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