Xero and Squarespace Partner to Drive Success for Small Businesses & Accountants

Xero (www.xero.com), the global leader in small business accounting software, and Squarespace (www.squarespace.com), the leading all-in-one website publishing platform, announced today a U.S. partnership that has produced two unique and powerful offerings to help both small business (SMB) commerce merchants as well as accountants and bookkeepers.

While working closely to integrate Squarespace's ecommerce tool-set with Xero's award-winning accounting solution, both companies realized they had a shared set of values and could unite to help their joint customers succeed. As a result, the partnership 1) helps Squarespace Commerce merchants save precious time by automatically integrating sales and accounting data for effortless bookkeeping; and 2) offers Xero's accountants and bookkeepers CPA-optimized website templates for increasing visibility and revenue.

Seamless Integration Translates into Improved Efficiency for SMBsHistorically, incorporating ecommerce sales data into financial systems required manual work, which was an enormous time commitment often filled with mistakes. Merchants typically would move sales data from their commerce platform into their accounting programs using only their eyes and keyboards, making every individual entry a possible mistake. Xero and Squarespace have solved this problem by tightly integrating Xero's accounting platform and Squarespace Commerce (via open API) to automatically incorporate all ecommerce sales transactions into the books, which productively and effectively manages revenue, expenses, tax liability and more.

CPA-Specific Website Template Provides Bookkeepers and Accountants with Marketing MakeoverAs part of the partnership, Xero and Squarespace collaborated on CPA-specific website templates. The templates offer Xero accountants and bookkeepers a marketing makeover, allowing them to create a dynamic web presence with Squarespace's all-in-one platform. The templates effortlessly generate a best-in-class website specifically tailored for CPAs. The design ensures accountants and bookkeepers can increase their visibility and establish a new sales channel with the industry's most appropriate messages and design.

"Squarespace is a natural fit into our ecosystem as both companies strive to deliver efficient solutions that propel SMB success. The partnership is already fruitful, with two unparalleled offerings helping eTailers who are strapped for time, and bookkeepers and accountants trying to promote their companies," said Jamie Sutherland, president, Xero U.S. "As always, we will continue to work closely with our partners to deliver solutions that help SMBs grow their businesses."

"As our customers grow with Squarespace Commerce, their needs around services like shipping and accounting become more complex. Much in the same way we've sought to make setting up a commerce site easy and accessible, we continuously make an effort to do the same for the rest of our customers' workflow," said Anthony Casalena, Founder and CEO of Squarespace. "Through this new partnership with Xero, we're excited to bring a new level of efficiency for small business customers that use Squarespace. We are also eager to help Xero's customers see how a well-designed website can lead to increased visibility, ultimately resulting in more customers."

WIN A SMALL BUSINESS MAKEOVER FROM @XERO & @SQUARESPACE To celebrate Xero and Squarespace's partnership, both companies have also announced a social media contest in which one lucky U.S. small business will win one free hour of website design consulting from Squarespace and one free hour of financial consulting from Xero XPAC member Ryan Watson, Co-Founder, Upsourced Accounting & Sqrl. To enter, simply tweet the one question you have about improving your business' efficiency with the hashtag #XeroMakeover.