We attended the recent XeroCon – one of the Accounting and Finance industry’s biggest events of the year. It was clear that the most efficient businesses – big and small – are tapped into some fantastic apps to save time and money. Here are some of our favourites.

There are so many apps, it is important to firstly ask: ‘what is the business need I am trying to fulfil?’. This is a crucial part of navigating the myriad apps and options available to you, and will ensure you don’t waste any time trialling something that isn’t right for you.

No matter what app you choose to meet the pressure points in your business, it is essential that it integrates with your existing systems, such as Xero, and that you’re using it to its maximum capacity with your accountant. An experienced human will beat the advice of technology every time, as well as bring the technology to life in a tailored and accessible way.

• Syft –  great for reports, graphs, forecasts, consolidations, budget, valuations, financial statements and tax and industry statements. Syft Analytics will integrate with Xero and transform your accounting data into financial reports and insights. All features can be combined into custom PDF report packs. Syft’s plug-and-play interface requires no training or setup with reporting available as soon as your data has been linked.

• Modano – an efficient three-way financial model with custom forecast drivers, scenario analysis, dashboards and monthly performance reporting. This is a major step forward in empowering advisors with strategic insights previously only available to larger businesses with bigger budgets.

• WorkGuru – bridges the gap between spreadsheets and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, and lets small business clients stay in the Xero ecosystem when complexity used to mean a migration to a larger ERP.

• Claxa – maps multiple scenarios and models the cashflow effects helping business owners to make vital decisions to survive and prosper. Especially helpful is Calxa’s ability to amplify Xero’s tracking categories for slicing and dicing data and tailoring reports.

You can explore all of these apps and more at the Xero App Store. If you’re after some tailored recommendations to meet your business needs, contact us for a complimentary Business Discovery and we will gladly share our top app picks.

Remember, as cyber-attacks become more sophisticated, business owners can’t afford to operate their IT in isolation anymore. Talk to you accountant and IT team about how you can operate your sensitive data at optimum security. The risk of doing nothing in the cyber security space doesn’t bear thinking about.