Introducing the Xero Health Check
Much like a regular check up at the GP, the Ascentis Xero Health Check serves as a comprehensive assessment of your financial system's overall wellbeing.
For new clients starting their journey with Ascentis, we perform the Xero Health Check which is a thorough check of over 50 different aspects of your financial software, rating them as either good, potential for refinement or urgent attention required. Whether you use Xero or another accounting platform, this evaluation is designed to ensure that your financial software is configured correctly and functioning seamlessly.
The Xero Health Check focuses on the critical task of fine-tuning your financial processes, helping you identify and address potential issues at the earliest stages of your financial journey.
Why is the Xero Health Check Essential?
If your financial software is set up incorrectly or not working as it should, it could lead to inefficiencies, errors, and missed opportunities, all of which can impact your business performance. The Xero Health Check serves as your proactive approach to detecting and rectifying potential issues, ensuring that your accounting system operates at peak performance right from the start.
The Xero Health Check is a comprehensive assessment designed to cover various aspects of your accounting software setup, helping you identify and address potential issues proactively.
The Xero Health Check begins by reviewing the foundational settings of your accounting system. It verifies the completeness of essential information, accurate user rights allocation, the thoroughness of invoice details, and the availability and connection of payment services. Additionally, it checks the organisation's payroll settings, including organisation and HMRC details, and the setup of pay items.
Moving beyond the basics, the evaluation assesses advanced settings critical for your financial wellbeing. This includes ensuring the utilisation of fixed assets and that the depreciation postings are up to date. It also reviews financial settings such as the financial year-end, VAT details, VAT scheme, and lock dates. Additionally, it validates the naming and categorization of accounts and evaluates the use and consistency of tracking categories.
The Xero Health Check evaluates your dashboard and accounting settings, ensuring you're on the right track. It assesses the presence of direct bank feeds, reconciliation of bank transactions, and the setup and usage of invoices and quotes. It also looks into the usage of Dext Prepare and the currency of data. Furthermore, it checks the utilisation of expense claims and the functionality of the inventory system.
Your bookkeeping practices are crucial for financial navigation. The Xero Health Check scrutinises your profit and loss account, confirming the correct allocation of items, monthly consistency, and inclusion of essential components. It also reviews the balance sheet for item classification, "switch rules," prepayments, accruals, and reconciliation. Additionally, it provides a financial score and recommendations for data accuracy through the Dext Precision Report.
Lastly, the evaluation explores your software integrations. It assesses the presence of connected apps that streamline your financial processes. It also looks into the use of Xero features like projects and My Payroll. Furthermore, it checks the up-to-date status of VAT returns and ensures the availability of HMRC login details for HMRC VAT MTD.