XBert's AI Audit helps Nicole Lynch sleep better at night

XBert's AI Audit has revolutionised the way Nicole Lynch and the team at Streamline Management manage their workflow.Streamline Management is a boutique bookkeeping service specialising in trades and construction, and professional services businesses.Mother & daughter team Monika Stelzner and Nicole Lynch started their bookkeeping business in 1997. To say they’ve seen some changes in the bookkeeping industry would be an understatement. From desktop spreadsheets and Express post envelopes to the world of cloud accounting and tech-based bookkeeping solutions, the team at Streamline Management mix decades of experience with a savvy tech-stack to offer their clients efficient, professional service and accurate financials.As true professionals, they have always adapted and evolved to implement best practice in their business, both for team efficiencies and excellence in client service. Now, well into their second decade of providing bookkeeping services, they have their most advanced and efficient tech stack to date. And that includes XBert.

What was needed?

“We didn’t want to be huge and have lots of clients, we wanted to work with and help good people.”

Choosing quality over quantity has always been at the forefront for Nicole and Monika. After careful consideration about who their ideal client is, they landed on trades and construction as well as professional services businesses.

“We’d been working with tradies and they’re down to earth people, call a spade a spade and get stuff done. They’re people you can chat to, everyday people – and that’s who we decided we wanted to work with.”

With a clear vision of who they wanted to work with, the focus shifted to the how. And since the introduction of cloud accounting, there has been a consistent focus on evolving and improving to implement best practice when it comes to technological advances within the bookkeeping industry. It’s this commitment that led the team to XBert.Nicole met founders Troy Brown & Aaron Wittman at 2019 XeroCon Roadshow and XBert peaked her interest. But as they were initially bedding down some other changes in their practice, it wasn’t until a recommendation came from a colleague, she took a proper look and knew it would be a game changer for their business.

What XBert AI Audit does for Streamline Management

“We know we’re pretty awesome, but occasionally errors slip through and XBert is that double-checking safety net.”

The biggest benefit Nicole and the team have seen with XBert so far is the multi-day AI audit and XBert risk alerts flagging them to issues and inconsistencies in the data.Working with trades and construction, TPAR is a big job and can come with its own bookkeeping challenges. While most of the work is done as the year progresses, when it comes time to lodge, all the work must be double-checked and issues can arise at the final hour.Before XBert was implemented Nicole ran into a couple of year-end issues.

“One of our client’s had a supplier that changed hands during the year. The business name stayed the same, but the ABN and GST status changed. It wasn’t until we prepared the TPAR and double checked the ABN we realised what had happened and so the race was on to create a second contact, reassign the transactions and change the GST coding. Because the business name hadn’t changed there weren’t any alarm bells.“XBert now alerts us to issues like that as they happen, so we can address it right away and know when we get to year end everything is correct.”

Another game changer for Nicole is XBert AI Audit's advanced attachment parsing functionality. The AI-powered business alerts unlock information from bills, invoices, receipts and other attachments in Xero to enhance our risk alerts related to ABNs, GST status and cancelled business registrations. This means Nicole and her team can be confident knowing any payments made matches an active registered entity, whether it be a trust or other associated company, and that GST is paid only to those eligible to charge it.XBert also double-checks the data added to Xero by paper and electronic document readers, giving the team an extra level of protection for their business. On top of that, XBert cross-checks the data extracted from other sources and Xero contact records to confirm that matched transactions follow past behaviour for that contact. This means the team are also alerted to any unusual activity and can either resolve it by fixing the error or file it away if the transaction is correct.“The fact XBert actually reads the attachments within Xero, then flags and GST, ABN and other issues, is such a useful feature for us. We can sleep better knowing we have that back-up system.”

The future of Streamline Management + XBert

Nicole loves that she can choose a pricing and feature plan that suits her business needs and receive personalised service from the team at XBert. This combination has her confident in a long and successful partnership between Streamline Management and XBert.“XBert is an Australian company, they have local knowledge and when we need or want support, they’re there. We’ve had quite a few calls with the team which has made all the difference – and it’s not just about asking questions and having someone listen, it’s being able to give feedback.“We love that we’re part of the team and they they’re building the product around us. We’ve been told by other apps when we give feedback we’re straight-up wrong...it’s so nice to be listened to.”