Leverage the power of Google Sheets Explore with Blink Reports for Xero Accounting

Google is a leader in artificial intelligence and "Explore" in Google Sheets is a perfect example of applying this technology to your daily work.

Since Blink Reports is based entirely on Google Sheets the Explore tool comes in handy for quick analysis of data like invoice line items from Xero.

Start by clicking on the Explore icon bottom right of the Google Sheet, then click Edit top right corner to set the data range accordingly including the column names:

Once you've set the data range Google Sheets will make automatic suggestions like "Average of Amount Paid".  "Distribution of Item Code" will give you a chart with the count if Item Codes across the line items.

But even more powerful is the natural language processing built in. Type in a question like "what is the average line amount?" and you'll receive the answer without having to insert any formulas. Or type "what is total of line amount by month?" and you'll receive a trend line chart. If you like what you see click "Insert" to add it to your Google Sheet.

Enjoy!

As always feel free to contact us at Blink Reports with any questions or feedback.

Blink Reports for Xero Accounting now supports retrieving Bank Statements

We've made viewing your Xero Accounting bank statement details inside Google Spreadsheets simple to do:

=XeroBankStatement(ReCalc,Company ID,Account Code,From Date,To Date)

With access to your bank statements you can better forecast your cash flow.

Test it out now by opening the Blink Reports Template and make a copy to take advantage of the new functionality with your own data.

Blink Reports for Xero Accounting now supports listing the Chart of Accounts

We've made listing your Chart of Accounts inside Google Spreadsheets simple to do:

=XeroAccounts(ReCalc,CompanyID)

With the Chart of Accounts formula, you can use Index and Match formulas to add the account codes to any of your reports.

For any report you want the account codes listed beside the account name, you can paste the following example formula to the left of each account name:

=if(isna(index(XeroAccounts!$A$4:$A$995,match(Account Name,XeroAccounts!$B$4:$B$995,0))),"",index(XeroAccounts!$A$4:$A$995,match(Account Name,XeroAccounts!$B$4:$B$995,0)))

Replace "Account Name" in the formula with the reference to the cell directly beside it, or the location of the account name (example: “Sales”). You can view a live example of this in the "XeroPL" sheet on the template.

Test it out now by opening the Blink Reports Template and make a copy to take advantage of the new functionality with your own data.

Blink Reports for Xero Accounting highlighted in Ben Walker's podcast

Ben Walker has been using Blink Reports for building custom dashboards since 2016. He highlighted the solution on his podcast in October 2016 along with discussing how he's saved his clients over 1 million dollars in taxes.

Check out the full podcast here: http://www.keypersonofinfluence.com/ep-27-disrupting-industry-saw-ben-walker-become-award-winning-entrepreneur/

Blink Reports for Xero Accounting now supports Repeating Invoices

We've made cash flow forecasting easier with the addition of support for retrieving Repeating Invoices from Xero in Blink Reports:

=XeroRepeatingInv(ReCalc,Company ID,Invoice Type,Invoice Status,From Date,To Date,Tracking Category 1,Tracking Option 1,Tracking Category 2,Tracking Option 2,Include Line Items)

Both Sales Repeating Invoices and Purchases Repeating Invoices are supported.



Test it out now by opening the Blink Reports Template and make a copy to take advantage of the new functionality with your own data.

The Google Sheets' QUERY formula is a powerful way to analyze your Xero Accounting data with SQL like commands

Google Sheets has a fantastic built in SQL-like Query function that, when combined with Blink Reports, can instantly answer questions like; what are my total sales by Customer?

The syntax is:

QUERY(data, query, [headers])

The documentation is available at: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093343

You can see live examples by opening our Blink Reports Template and clicking on the "XeroInv Query" tab/sheet.

A simple example that calculates total sales by Contact (Customer) based on the output of the Blink Reports custom formula XeroInv() is:

=query(XeroInv!$A$11:$AF$999,"select B, sum(I) group by B",-1)

or expand it to exclude blank rows and use your own column labels:

=query(XeroInv!$A$11:$AF$999,"select B, sum(I) where B != '' group by B label B 'Customer', sum(I) 'Total Sales'",-1)

• XeroInv!$A$11:$AF$999 is the location of the data in the spreadsheet which in this case is the results of the XeroInv() formula on the sheet named XeroInv
• "select B, sum(I) where B != '' group by B label B 'Customer', sum(I) 'Total Sales'" is the actual query using Google Visualization API Query Language which is similar to SQL.
• In this example it outputs the Contact from column B and then calculates the sum by Contact of column I.
• where B != ''  filters out blank contact records
• label B 'Customer', sum(I) 'Total Sales' provides more friendly column names
• -1 means output 1 or more rows of headers depending on the source data

This formula will produce the output:

Customer	Total Sales
Bank West	1299
Basket Case	914.55
Bayside Club	234
Boom FM	1623.75
City Agency	593.23
City Limousines	1191.83
DIISR - Small Business Services	1077.14
Hamilton Smith Ltd	2173.75
Marine Systems	396
Petrie McLoud Watson & Associates	1407.25
Port & Philip Freight	1082.5
Rex Media Group	1632.5
Ridgeway University	12375
Young Bros Transport	1082.5

You can also produce pivot tables such as total Sales by customer but split by invoice status across the columns:

=query(XeroInv!$A$11:$AF$999,"select B,sum(I) where B != '' group by B pivot E label B 'Customer',sum(I) 'Total Sales' ",-1)

Which produces a pivot table:

Customer	AUTHORISED Total Sales	PAID Total Sales
Bank West		1299
Basket Case	914.55
Bayside Club	234
Boom FM		1623.75
City Agency		593.23
City Limousines	1191.83
DIISR - Small Business Services	838.94	238.2
Hamilton Smith Ltd	550	1623.75
Marine Systems	396
Petrie McLoud Watson & Associates		1407.25
Port & Philip Freight		1082.5
Rex Media Group	550	1082.5
Ridgeway University	6187.5	6187.5
Young Bros Transport		1082.5

Unlike Microsoft Excel, this query formula is built in so there are no software plugins or addons to install and keep up to date. Google Sheets make sharing and collaborating on these reports with your team as simple as sending them a web page link since they only need a web browser to view them.

The query formula combined with Blink Reports offers endless possibilities for slicing and dicing your sales or purchase transaction data from your Xero Accounting Software.

Sign up today for a Blink Report free trial at http://www.blinkreports.com/

Xero integrates Google mail - A Potent Mix

Since Blink Reports for Xero users are also Google Apps users, this may be of great relevance to you. Here is a recent update from Xero that is too good not to share.

It's often difficult to get a clear picture of where you stand with a particular customer. It's no surprise that our favourite tool to keep track of this is Xero. With over half a million global subscribers and counting, Xero provides online accounting, bank reconciliation, invoicing services, and integrates with a wide range of powerful software solutions and add-ons. Now, with the integration of Google's Gmail, it's more powerful than ever.

Just before the end of 2015, Xero pushed their final major update of the year: Contacts were updated and Google's Gmail service was integrated into the contacts screens. Essentially, this gives Xero users complete visibility of the business they've done with their customers or suppliers, making it much easier to make decisions and develop opportunities. This vital update makes Contacts a hub for customer communication and demonstrates how cloud accounting has opened the doors of opportunity for innovation and efficiency.

Features in this update enable you to:

• Connect your Gmail account to view emails with contacts directly in Xero. This saves emails to a contacts activity tab, adds email to a new invoice, quote, or bill, and allows you to download attachments to the contact record.
• View emails between you and your customers in real time.
• View emails from the email account that you've connected to Xero while they remain invisible to other users in your organization.
• Share an email with other users in your organization by simply adding it to the contact's activity tab

You can see here email messages have been pulled from Blair's account using the contact's email address or emails including the words "GotoMeeting.com"

Connecting Xero to your Google account is simple, here's how:

1. From the Contacts menu, select All Contacts.
2. Select a contact.
3. Under the bar graph, click Email, then click Connect to Gmail.
   
4. Sign in to your Google account.
5. On the permissions screen, select Allow.

You can find further details on Xero's Business Help Centre page and Xero's blog.

If you're already using Google apps and are looking for a great accounting solution to bridge the gap between you and your customers, Xero with Gmail is a robust and ideal solution. We at InterlockIT are proud Xero and Google Apps advocates and are more than happy to help make your business's IT solutions a breeze. Be sure to contact us to learn how we can assist you.