Xero from Setup to Insights:

A Practical 7-Week Programme

 

Presenter: Anna Murgatroyd (Xero specialist)
Date: 7-week course starting 30 April and going to 12 June.

Zoom webinar

Time: 12pm to 1:30pm 

Cost: $350 per person

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*NOTE: NFP and community groups located within the Kaipātiki Local Board area and Hibiscus & Bays Local Board area have funding available for this course at 50% off the standard cost. Email simon@ancad.org.nz for the discount code to use at registration.

 

From setup to insights: Master Xero in 7 weeks.

A 7-week practical course covering setup, daily use, compliance, troubleshooting, automation, and reporting, taking you from basics to confident financial insights.

 

Outline

Because this is a structured pathway delivered over 7 weeks, it allows for deeper learning, application, and confidence-building over time.

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A progressive Xero training program that takes you from foundational setup through to advanced automation and reporting insights.

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You’ll move from uncertainty to confidence in managing and understanding your organisation’s finances.

Many organisations use Xero but don’t feel confident using it. This programme is designed to change that.

 

7 sessions as follows:

• Foundation → basics and setup.

• Framework → organisational structure.

• Daily → day-to-day transactions.

• Check it → compliance and verification.

• Fix it → troubleshooting and corrections.

• Automate → efficiency tools.

• Insights → reporting and analysis.

 

Foundation

You will be able to:

• Explain what Xero is, where it fits in a small business or charity workflow, and the difference between user roles and permissions.

• Navigate the Xero dashboard, interpret key widgets (bank accounts, invoices owing, bills to pay), and customise the dashboard layout.

• Set up a new organisation correctly, including financial year, GST settings, chart of accounts template selection, and basic branding and invoice settings.

• Connect and manage bank feeds, including adding bank accounts, understanding feed types, and checking feed status

• Configure core organisation and user settings so Xero reflects the organisation’s structure and controls (e.g. locking dates, user access).

 

Framework

You will be able to

• Describe what tracking categories are and when to use them (projects, departments, funds, locations).

• Create, edit, and archive tracking categories and options, and apply them to transactions.

• Understand the purpose of the chart of accounts and how it underpins reporting and coding in Xero.

• Review, add, edit, or archive accounts in the chart of accounts, including choosing appropriate account types and tax rates.

• Apply a consistent coding framework so income, expenses, assets, and liabilities are classified correctly for reporting and GST.

 

Daily

You will be able to:

• Enter and process day‑to‑day sales (invoices, credit notes, receive money) and understand how these affect the bank and reports.

• Enter and process purchases and bills, including bill payments and spend money transactions.

• Reconcile bank transactions using the bank reconciliation screen, including matching, creating, and splitting transactions.

• Use contacts effectively: create and maintain customer and supplier records, apply contact groups, and view contact histories.

• Use demo bank statements or sample data to practise common daily workflows and build confidence.

 

Check it

You will be able to:

• Set up and manage GST settings correctly for NZ entities, including GST basis, periods, and tax rates.

• Prepare GST returns in Xero, review GST control reports, and reconcile GST to the general ledger and bank.

• File GST from Xero (or export data for filing), and understand how filed returns flow through to reports.

• Run and interpret basic reports (e.g. Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Account Transactions) to check data quality before filing.

 

Fix it

You will be able to​

• Identify and correct common bank reconciliation issues such as duplicated transactions, missing transactions, and incorrect matches.

• Recognise and fix overpayments, prepayments, and part‑payments so that customer and supplier balances are accurate.

• Use the Bank Reconciliation report to diagnose mismatches between the statement balance and Xero balance.

• Use Find & Recode (or similar bulk tools) to efficiently correct coding, tax rates, and tracking on multiple transactions.

 

Automate

You will be able to:

• Create and maintain bank rules to automate coding of regular receipts and payments.

• Use repeating invoices and bills to automate frequent sales and purchase transactions.

• Set up and use Hubdoc (or equivalent) for file management, document capture, and automated data extraction into Xero.

• Attach and manage source documents in Xero so that transactions are well‑documented and easy to audit.

• Use keyboard shortcuts and other efficiency features to speed up navigation and processing.

 

Insights

You will be able to:

• Build custom reports, including choosing layouts, filters, and groupings that suit your organisation or board.​

• Save and reuse custom report templates as part of a regular reporting pack.

• Set up and maintain budgets in Budget Manager, including importing, editing, and phasing budgets.

• Run and interpret budget versus actual reports to analyse performance and variances

• Prepare board‑ready reporting packages by combining key financial statements, custom reports, and commentary.