From initial contact to invoice and ongoing marketing, Xero is building deeper integrations with apps that small businesses use every day, giving them a smarter way to work

14 November 2019, Johannesburg — Xero, the global small business platform, today announced that it's building deeper integrations with apps that small businesses use everyday, including Google, Microsoft Office 365, HubSpot and more. The new integrations, built in-house by Xero, were identified as gaps that give small businesses a simple, seamless and smarter way to connect and access their most important information — from finances to customer communications — in one place.

Announced at Xerocon London 2019, where over 3,000 accountants, bookkeepers and partners have gathered, the new integrations include:

• From lead to deal in no time with HubSpot: Automatically sync customer contacts between Xero and HubSpot’s free CRM, ensuring any customer details — from changes to email or address information — are captured, managed and edited in one place
• Combined contact updates with Google Contacts: Sync all of your customer and supplier contacts from Xero to Google Contacts, ensuring contact details are always up to date, whether it’s for general communication, quotes or invoicing
• From ‘send’ to ‘send and update’ in Microsoft Office 365: Instantly update customer contacts from Xero to Outlook, so small businesses can spend less time ensuring they’re sending the invoice to the right contact, and more time in the business
• Intelligent audience marketing with Mailchimp: Use Xero data to quickly create curated audience lists within Mailchimp marketing campaigns whether it’s rewarding regular customers, or encouraging those who haven’t bought something for a while.

By connecting Xero more tightly with these apps, small businesses will no longer have to work in data silos to ensure their information is more accurate, up to date, and consistent across the business.

Adding to the more than 800 third-party apps already available in the Xero app marketplace, these new integrations are the first step in a series of changes Xero is working on to build deeper connections to the apps small businesses use the most every day.

“We didn’t want to simply build another integration. We looked at the most common friction and pain points in everyday small business workflows and we were able to create customer-focused solutions that will have a positive impact on how small businesses operate everyday. This is just the beginning of creating simple, seamless and smarter workflows between Xero and the apps small businesses use day in and out.” –  Nick Houldsworth, Executive General Manager of Ecosystem at Xero.

Scott Brinker, Vice-President of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot, said: “Any successful business needs two core ingredients: healthy finances and happy customers. So bringing Xero and HubSpot more tightly together was a no-brainer for us, ensuring our mutual customers can have better visibility across their business all in real-time.”

It is the latest in a number of major improvements to the Xero app marketplace. In September, Xero unveiled a phased roll out of Single Sign-On, a more seamless way for developers to build on the Xero platform. Xero has also rolled out advisor recommendations for the app marketplace, giving accountants a way to recommend the right apps to the clients based on their unique requirements, size and capabilities.