The rising tide of modern accounting in the Pacific
They call it Xerocon. It more resembled a scene from a festival or new iPhone launch, than a conference for accountants. Looping artists, futurists and anti-self-help gurus dazzled the hundreds of passionate Xero support and software staff who, with an almost-reverence for the company they work for, mingled with 3500 accountants there to learn more about Xero accounting software, and its community they’ve embraced.
The annual Xerocon pilgrimage for accountants, held this year in Brisbane in early September, attracted some new followers and users from another, more underserved part of the world – the Pacific Islands, small economies with unique challenges for growing business.
With the support of Business Link Pacific, a group of SME focused firms from Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea enjoyed the conference amongst the more characteristic accounting personnel from Australia and New Zealand.
They are part of a growing cohort of accountants and financial advisors from the Pacific Islands who are using Xero – and its myriad of third party apps and add-ons – to bring about dramatic change in the way their small business clients deal with their accounting.
“It’s vitally important that Xero looks after the smaller developing countries and there is a massive opportunity for us to rise the tide of small business around the world,” said Craig Hudson, Managing Director for Xero in New Zealand and the Pacific.
Perceived high costs of accessing good accounting assistance coupled with lack of awareness of the benefits of quality, compliant and trusted accounting services has kept many small businesses owners shying away from accessing professional business advisory services in areas such as accounting.
In Papua New Guinea (PNG), the largest economy in the Pacific, it requires the accountants that operate in the country to encourage small business to engage business services that can improve their business performance and sustainability.
“One of our biggest challenges is just shifting the mindset of small business owners in Papua New Guinea, not only for PNG but the Pacific as a whole,” said Loata Qarau, Cloud Accounting Manager with KTK Accountants and Advisors – the only registered Xero Practice Partner in PNG.
“Business Link Pacific coming on board is great because that would inject some initial funding and subsidize some of the big costs that would help them shift over to using an advisor,” she said.
Business Link Pacific is working with service providers across a variety of service sectors to develop the domestic advisory service market in Vanuatu, Samoa, Fiji and PNG. In Vanuatu a successful campaign has seen SMEs offered free 12 month subscriptions to Xero, in an effort to engage them with accounting firms in the country.
Business Link Pacific supported local staff members from accounting firms such as AJC, V Solutions and Barrett and Partners from Vanuatu to attend Xerocon; it was an opportunity for their local accounting talent to attend the conference for the first time and learn from all that was on offer at the conference.
Martin St Hilaire, the Managing Partner from AJC said his staff will come back to Vanuatu after a conference such as Xerocon with a lot more individual motivation.
“It can change the spirit in each of our firms, making us keener on using new technology, and innovation. It’s not so much about the technical aspects, it’s more about opening the mind of the staff, and the people,” he said.
Having an advisor that a business can depend on is crucial for small business, particularly in the Pacific, believes Emma Crawford-Falekaono, Chief Revenue Officer at Tradify, and Business Link Pacific Advisor. This is particularly important in a business environment where access to finance is difficult.
“Often in the Pacific Islands there is less ability to go and draw lending from the banks but if you have a trusted accountant or a bookkeeper or business advisor to actually identify any headwind or any cash flow problems prior to them actually happening, that automatically puts you on the front foot,” she said.
“Business Link Pacific partnerships with innovative firms such as Xero are setup to increase the capacity of business advisory firms in the Pacific to better serve small business clients and expand the number of SMEs accessing business services,” said Steve Knapp, Activity Director of Business Link Pacific.