We're a headhunter agency that connects US businesses with elite LATAM professionals who integrate seamlessly as remote team members — aligned to US time zones, cutting overhead by 70%.
We’ll match you with Latin American superstars who work your hours. Quality talent, no time zone troubles. Starting at $9/hour.
Start Hiring For FreeManaging projects can be chaotic without the right systems in place.
Luckily, Xero offers features that can help enhance organization and oversight of your projects from start to finish.
In this post, we'll explore Xero's built-in project management capabilities, discussing how to set up projects, add tasks and expenses, create quotes and invoices, and monitor performance - all aimed at helping you streamline workflows for greater efficiency.
Xero's project management features offer a streamlined way for businesses to organize their operations. By enabling the projects functionality, users can create customized workflows to track tasks, expenses, time, quotes, and invoices for each project. This enhances visibility into project performance and profitability.
Xero Accounting Software provides robust tools for managing projects. Key features include:
Together, these features give enhanced oversight into project execution.
Well-structured project management in Xero delivers several advantages:
Organization is key to maximizing these benefits.
To start with project management in Xero:
Once enabled, projects can be created with customizable workflows to meet business needs. Tasks, expenses, time tracking, quotes and invoices can all be linked to specific projects for enhanced tracking and oversight.
With the projects feature enabled, Xero becomes a robust command center for managing all aspects of business projects in an organized fashion. This boosts productivity, profitability, and data-driven decision making.
Xero Projects is a built-in project management feature within the Xero accounting software. It allows smaller businesses to create projects, assign tasks, track time, manage expenses, and invoice clients - all within one system.
While Xero Projects has basic project management functionality, it is designed specifically for the accounting needs of smaller businesses. Key features include:
Creating projects and assigning them to clients: You can set up project details including name, description, start and end dates. This keeps project financials separate from regular business transactions.
Adding tasks: Break projects down into individual tasks to assign due dates and track progress.
Tracking time: Employees can log time against tasks and projects, avoiding manual time tracking.
Managing expenses: Any bills/purchases can be associated with a project for accurate financial reporting.
Invoicing clients: Simplified invoices can be generated directly from project details in a few clicks.
In summary, Xero Projects provides an integrated way for smaller businesses to manage the financial aspects of projects within their existing accounting workflow. While it has task management and time tracking features, it is not a full-featured project management solution. For advanced functionality like GANTT charts, resource allocation, etc. dedicated PM tools would be better suited.
To set up a project in Xero, follow these steps:
Once you've created the project shell, you can add additional details like:
Adding these details will enable you to:
For example, you can:
This will give you a centralized place to view the project status, keep everything on track, and have the information you need for billing and reporting.
The key is structuring your Xero projects thoroughly from the start. Taking the time to add tasks, expenses, quotes, and time tracking will enable seamless project management and help you run an organized, profitable business.
Xero offers two powerful project management solutions to help businesses of all sizes effectively plan, track, and manage projects.
Xero Projects is integrated directly into the Xero accounting software. It allows you to:
With Xero Projects you can manage the full lifecycle of a project from winning the work to accounting and getting paid. It streamlines collaboration with teams and keeps everything connected to the core Xero accounting software.
For more advanced needs, Xero also offers WorkflowMax - a standalone project management tool. Key features include:
WorkflowMax connects directly to Xero for integrated accounting and can scale to manage large numbers of projects. It's best suited for professional services firms and agencies with more complex work and resource management needs.
So whether you just need basic project oversight or an enterprise-grade solution, Xero has you covered with tools to plan, track, and profit from projects of any size. The connected accounting across both platforms keeps the back office work flowing smoothly.
Xero Projects and WorkflowMax are both project management tools integrated with Xero accounting software. However, there are some key differences:
Xero Projects is designed for smaller businesses that need basic project management capabilities along with their accounting software. Key features include:
Xero Projects is simple to set up and use, making it a good choice for solopreneurs, freelancers, and small agencies.
WorkflowMax, on the other hand, is a more full-featured project management solution focused on larger agencies and professional services firms. Key features include:
The key difference comes down to the scale and complexity of your projects. If you're small and have no growth plans, Xero Projects may be all you need. If you have more than five staff and growing, WorkflowMax is the better choice. Also, if you're small now but have ambitious plans for the coming years, start with WorkflowMax now.
In summary:
This section will provide detailed guidance on the initial steps to take when managing projects within Xero, ensuring users can confidently navigate the platform.
To create a new project in Xero:
Once created, you can further customize the project with tasks, expenses, timesheets, quotes, and invoices.
Xero allows flexibility to adapt projects to your specific business needs through custom fields and statuses:
Take time to configure projects to best suit how your business operates.
Tasks allow you to break down project work into smaller components and track progress:
Well-structured tasks are key for understanding what must be completed to successfully deliver projects.
Recording expenses against projects enables accurate budget tracking:
Tightly tracking project expenses gives visibility into where money is being spent.
Managing projects can be complex, but Xero provides features to streamline the process. From creating quotes to monitoring performance, Xero has the tools to enhance project management.
Quotes allow you to provide estimates and secure jobs before projects begin. To create a quote in Xero:
Once approved, you can use the quote to create an invoice later. You can also track the status of quotes to see which ones convert to billable work.
Xero has built-in time tracking to monitor billable hours on projects. To leverage this:
This allows you to see where time is being spent, ensuring efficient allocation across projects. It also automatically feeds hours into invoices.
Creating invoices from approved quotes or logged project time is simple:
Scheduling invoice recurrence streamlines ongoing client billing as projects progress.
Xero offers real-time reporting to monitor project health:
This level of visibility allows you to course correct projects when needed to maintain profitability.
With robust quoting, reporting, invoicing, and time tracking, Xero has the features needed for organizations to effectively manage projects of any size.
To streamline project management in Xero, first enable the Projects feature under Settings. This allows you to create projects, assign tasks, track time, log expenses, and invoice clients directly from each project.
When setting up a new project, clearly define the scope, timeline, budget, roles and responsibilities to align expectations upfront. Use Xero's project timeline and task features to map out deliverables. Automate reminders for deadlines to keep the team on track.
Standardize and simplify recurring tasks to boost efficiency. Create template projects in Xero so you can replicate processes. Set up rules for automatic task assignment based on team members' strengths. And integrate time tracking to eliminate manual entries.
Xero provides custom fields, categories and user permissions so you can tailor projects to your workflows.
Add custom fields to capture project-specific details like priority level, department, location or project phase. Use categories to tag projects for better organization and reporting.
For larger teams, restrict user permissions so employees only access relevant projects. Customize dashboard views by user role focusing on their core metrics like budget vs actuals, open tasks and timesheets.
Leverage Xero's open API to connect specialized project management tools for needs like resource allocation, GANTT charts or advanced reporting.
Many project management responsibilities involve repetitive administrative work like status updates, timesheet approvals and client notifications. Xero helps automate these to free up time.
Set up schedule rules for automatic reminders and notifications related to deadlines, deliverable submissions, meetings and more. Automatically collate timesheets, expenses, tasks and project docs to simplify status reporting.
Use Xero's 4-step automation tool to create rules like: automatically move invoices to draft when project hits 90% budget, notify supervisor when employee submits timesheet, or email clients when projects go live.
Integrate Xero with other tools like Zapier and If This Then That (IFTTT) to automate additional project workflows.
While Xero covers core accounting and basic PM, for more advanced needs integrate add-ons like:
Using Xero's API, these tools can sync project data like tasks, timesheets, expenses, invoices and billing automatically. This eliminates duplicate data entry and provides a seamless PM experience across platforms.
Using Xero's project management features can provide numerous benefits for businesses looking to improve organization and operational efficiency. Key advantages include:
By leveraging Xero as an all-in-one project management solution, companies can gain control, transparency, and insights to drive growth.
To fully capitalize on Xero for project management, businesses should focus on putting some best practices into place:
Taking these steps will streamline the integration of Xero project management and maximize its impact.
Project management is an iterative process that must evolve over time as a business grows and changes. Some areas to continually assess and improve include:
By continually optimizing and enhancing PM practices within Xero, businesses can build efficient, scalable systems to drive continued success.
See how we can help you find a perfect match in only 20 days. Interviewing candidates is free!
Book a CallYou can secure high-quality South American for around $9,000 USD per year. Interviewing candidates is completely free ofcharge.
You can secure high-quality South American talent in just 20 days and for around $9,000 USD per year.
Start Hiring For Free