This article originated from the Xero blog on July 1st 2022. We are independent from Xero, any content and links below are directly from Xero and not produced by XU Magazine, the independent magazine for Xero Users by Xero Users.

Our teams have been busy adding lots of value across our platform over the past month, including enhancements to Hubdoc, short-term cash flow, tax updates in the UK and more. We’re also getting some fantastic feedback on our latest features in new reports — especially sticky headers and report annotations. If you haven’t tried new reports yet, it’s a great time to give them a go.

If you’re a Xero partner, don’t forget to register for our upcoming quarterly product update, where our education team will walk you through a demo of all the latest releases, so you can maintain your advisor certification.

New features

Automatically add Xero contacts in Hubdoc — Global

When Hubdoc publishes a document to Xero, it requires a contact name. Previously, you had to manually search and attach a contact for any new suppliers in Hubdoc. However, we’ve introduced a new feature that automatically adds the supplier extracted from the document if it’s already a contact in Xero. This automates more manual tasks, giving you back more time in your day.

Update overdue bills and invoices in short-term cash flow — Global

In the weeks ahead, you’ll be able to change the planned and expected dates of overdue bills and invoices in bulk within Xero Analytics and Xero Analytics Plus. This will ensure your short-term cash flow projection is as accurate as possible and will help you make informed decisions about your business.

Make the most of recent releases in new reports — Global

We’ve made a number of enhancements to new reports in Xero over the past month.

Sticky headers
We’re making your life easier by introducing sticky headers to transactional-style reports in Xero. This functionality freezes heading rows at the top of the browser when you scroll down the page, making it easier to analyse the data.

Report annotations
We’ve also introduced report annotations to new reports. This allows you to add commentary to entries, so you can alert your clients to areas of interest or attention and really bring the numbers to life.

Tracking categories
If you have up to 100 active tracking options in a single category in your organisation, you’ll now have the option to use our tracking common format report in the side panel of the Profit & Loss (Income Statement) report, rather than building it from scratch. This improvement was based on customer feedback following the release of common formats late last year.

Transactions by contact
We’ve enhanced the Income & Expenses by Contact and Drilldown reports in new reports. New features include the ability to group and sort, add text blocks, and add the contact name to the title of your report.

Reimagine your Xero experience — Global

We’re continuing to roll out our fresh new look across Xero. It’s all part of our work to upgrade the technology that underpins the Xero platform, so it doesn’t slow us down over time. This upgrade will help us deliver the features you need in your business or practice, while also improving speed and accessibility. Here are the most recent design changes in Xero:

• We’ve made improvements to the design and layout of bank reconciliation within the Xero Accounting app, to make your experience easier and more accessible (iOS and Android).
• A new layout for the main forms in Xero Tax (Australia only) has been introduced to improve the way you find, navigate and add information. These changes are currently switched off by default and you can continue to use the older version, if desired.
• In the weeks ahead, we’ll be rolling out changes to the way links and buttons are displayed in bank widgets within the Xero dashboard, so you can clearly see the most important action.

Adjust your VAT flat rate scheme returns — UK

Organisations on a flat rate scheme can now add non-posting adjustments to boxes in the VAT return and access a new VAT audit report, Non-Posting adjustments by VAT box. This enhancement means you can make adjustments that are not sent back to the general ledger from within the return.

Improve your workflows in Xero Tax — UK

We’ve recently made a number of enhancements to the features in Xero Tax.

Company accounts tax
You’re now able to see backing computations, which are a detailed breakdown of figures that make up the company tax return (CT600) in Xero Tax.

We’ve added additional disclosures to company accounts, to explain assets under lease agreements, dormant company filing status, dormant company disclose employees, and increased the number of directors who can sign. We’ve also made substantial improvements to the formatting and presentation of accounts.

Personal tax
You can now file tax returns where capital gains income needs to be disclosed. We’ve also included a downloadable capital gains report to show breakdown of disposals for CGT.

In addition, we’ve been making compliance updates to existing schedules, including adding  additional information to a self employment schedule from the 2020/21 tax year onwards; supporting foreign earnings; resubmitting rejected returns; generating IR marks; and improved search functionality in the foreign income schedule.