Our Member of the Month feature celebrates our members and the work they do. This month we’re taking a look at Xero and how BASDA has supported them in shaping the legislation around software for businesses.

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Xero provide cloud and SaaS accounting software for SMEs; their software manages invoicing, bank reconciliation, bookkeeping and more. Xero began ten years ago in New Zealand and have expanded in that time to include bases in Australia, the United States and the UK. They now have 862,000 customers worldwide and employ over 1500 staff in their four global bases. Xero believe that everything a business does should be assessed from the perspective of the customer and their experience, while everything a customer touches in the business has to be exceptional.

Gary Turner, co-founder and UK Managing Director, is a longstanding member of BASDA and has even served on the General Council. Gary said, “prior to setting up Xero in the UK I was with Microsoft and prior to that I was with Pegasus, so when it came to setting up Xero in the UK it was logical to join BASDA”. Xero have used their BASDA membership to keep on top of the changes and challenges that they have met with from HMRC. He continued to say, “the principal benefit we get from BASDA membership is the engagement BASDA has with HMRC – we certainly benefit from their technical insight into the changes from HMRC on things like VAT”.

When asked about the industry today, Gary told us, “speed rather than size is an advantage in the digital era. It’s not the big that eat the small, it’s the fast that eat the slow – that’s one of the challenges larger companies will always struggle with. In our first year in the UK we didn’t have any people but we were able to do things really quickly.” He cited the lack of software engineering skills and talent as the biggest threat to the software industry today. With Maxing Tax Digital legislation approaching, BASDA is the conduit between Xero and HMRC during this digital transformation. He expressed, “we’re grateful to have representation through BASDA to help us through that”.

Further information can be found on Xero’s website: https://www.xero.com/uk/

If you would like to be featured as a Member of the Month, or if you are not already a member and are interested in joining BASDA, then please contact us at info@basda.org