Evasive by Omission on Quickbooks @ the XERO Partner Meeting with Bagels, Mimosas & Big Dreams....

Xero founder & CEO Rod Drury believes with every fiber in his body that Xero is a more dynamic company than Intuit with a vastly superior product than Quickbooks.  He's not shy in saying exactly that and in many ways.  Our favorite is a couple months ago when  Mr. Drury analogized Xero will EAT Intuit.   That happened.  

Over at RadioLive we listened to an interview with XERO CEO Rod Drury.  Mr. Drury talks about what distinguishes XERO from Quickbooks Online and Xero's advantage over Intuit at about 6:30 into the interview. To Listen to Rod Drury interviewed, click here.   @ 07:35 into the interview Mr. Drury summarizes his arguments with a reference to laws of nature and the animal kingdom by saying,   "It's not the big [Intuit] that eats the small [XERO] it's the fast [XERO] that eat the slow [Intuit]".  We love it and we can provide lots of examples of Mr. Drury expressing this measure of passion and determination that in his battle with Intuit,  Intuit is inferior and Xero will prevail.    

Today we sat in on the Xero Partner U.S. Update hosted by Jamie Sutherland.   Why?  We were invited.   The webinar ended giving us a clear understanding why Xero is experiencing a sales malaise in the U.S...and demonstrating a stark contrast between Rod Drury and the U.S. Xero management team.

At today's webinar the words "Intuit" and or "Quickbooks" were never mentioned by anyone from Xero.  Not a single time....by anyone. Not by U.S. President Jamie Sutherland, not Ian Vacin (VP Product strategy & Marketing), not Marie Jung (Partner Marketing Manager), not Mark Pinard (Sr Product Marketing Mgr Payroll).    Mind you all these people spoke about what's coming down the pipeline (in some cases as early as next week) from Xero with respect to their specific areas.......but no one said "Intuit" or "Quickbooks".

Why is that important:  Mind you this is an event wherein Xero U.S. is trying to motivate, inspire, excite, and 'rally the troops' (the accountants & bookkeepers) on the front lines and in the trenches to go out and push Xero.   When Jamie Sutherland or Ian Vacin talked about features soon to be released (Business Performance Dashboard, Inventory Light, Global Search, Find & Recode (Re-classify - efficiency gains, etc)  there are numerous points for them in their discussion to stop and bring attention to a feature that separates Xero from Quickbooks/QBO.

They can say, "This is going to be a big selling point against Quickbooks" or "Quickbooks offers nothing like this" or "We feel this really separates us from Quickbooks", etc.

Today there was no talk of contrasting points or efficiency gains Xero delivers over QBO.  Mark Pinard, Marie Jun, even Amy Vetter (Education & Enablement in the US)...all of them had opportunities to brief the Xero Partners where Xero separates and or leads (in comparison to QBO) and delivers the clear advantage.  We have no idea why - but none of them - not a single US Xero management person drew a point of contrast of Xero in comparison to Quickbooks at today's webinar. 

What did we expect?  A reflection of Rod Drury.   Rod Drury does not miss an opportunity to drive contrast between Xero and Quickbooks, to anyone......ever.  We did not get anything close to Rod Drury.    We got pure "evasive behavior" (sidestepping by omission) of the real world for the Xero partner (contending with Quickbooks). 

Example:  Marie Jung, Xero Partner Marketing Manager spoke and posed the question and presentation, "What is the biggest challenge you face in building your Xero practice?". Participants were asked to vote for 1 of 4 prescripted answers:

1. staying on top of new tools & features  

2. finding more clients  

3. moving existing clients and files to xero  

4. creating actionable business plan

That's it.  The elephant in the room?  Can you say 'Quickbooks'?   Why wasn't 'displacing Quickbooks' or 'competing with Quickbooks' or just the word 'Quickbooks' an option?  Is anyone going to argue that it's not the biggest challenge in building a Xero practice in the U.S.? The real, key, and primary answer to the posed question is "Quickbooks".   

This is Xero being evasive by omission on the matter at hand, competing against Quickbooks.   Marie Jung did not offer any insights as to where Quickbooks is vulnerable to what's forthcoming from Xero on a marketing level.   Instead Marie Jung illustrated shrewd marketing prowess by Xero Partners such as Sabrina Covington and a little marketing event/strategy she created called, "Bagels, Mimosas, & Big Dreams".     

Seriously.  For real.   We are not making this up.   Here at the quarterly Xero partner update webinar to an audience of Xero partners and bookkeepers, no advice on marketing against Quickbooks was offered.   Instead the US Xero Partner Marketing Manager presented Bagels, Mimosas, & Big Dreams as an illustration to Xero partners of a way to market.   How does it get worse?  This is an event that took place over 1 year ago in 2013.   Is there nothing a bit more recent and fresh to point to?   Yes Rod Drury, with Xero U.S., it's come to this.....

If it were not for a question in the open Q&A and Xero Partner Cloudsourced Accounting's Blake Oliver....the word Quickbooks would have never been mentioned at all.   Blake mentioned the word "quickbooks" twice in describing the background of hired employees and stating they were not capable of transitioning to Xero; and in the Q&A, the first question was;  

1. Did you find it hard to convert clients from QB to Xero (to Blake Oliver)? 

Thank God!  Leave it to someone in the audience to have had enough of the Xero evasive by omission behavior and get to the heart of the matter.  However Blake did not answer the question in the context of a sales & marketing challenge, he spoke to the technical side only of 'conversion', advising to do the clean up of the files in QB first - then convert to Xero (as opposed to converting to Xero then doing the clean up).   

What You Should Do With Your Capital Losses Before The End Of The Year

Bernie Kent for Forbes writes: We are at the time of year when many taxpayers are contemplating year-end tax planning for capital gains and losses. Even though we have experienced six strong years of stock market returns, the volatility of the equity markets in 2014 has created some opportunities for tax loss harvesting. Also, there are taxpayers who still have capital loss carryforwards left over from the severe market decline in 2008-2009.

Ordering rules for using capital losses

- Short-term capital losses must first be used to offset short-term capital gains. If there are net short-term losses, they can be used as an offset against the net long-term capital gains.

- Long-term capital losses are similarly first applied against long-term capital gains, with any excess applied against short-term capital gains.

- Long-term capital gains are taxed at rates of 25% (real estate recapture) or 28% (collectibles) instead of the usual rate. Net long-term capital losses in any rate category are first applied against the highest tax rate long-term capital gains.

- Capital losses in excess of capital gains can be used to offset up to $3,000 of ordinary income.

- Any remaining unused capital losses can be carried forward and used in the same manner as described above.

- Unused capital losses expire in the year of the taxpayer’s death, to the extent they remain unused on the final income tax return. On a joint tax return, each spouse’s capital losses must be tracked separately for purposes of this rule.    [snip]/  The article continues @ Forbes, click here to continue reading....

Top Four Year-End IRA Reminders

Individual Retirement Accounts are an important way to save for retirement. If you have an IRA or may open one soon, there are some key year-end rules that you should know. Here are the top four reminders on IRAs from the IRS:

1. Know the limits.  You can contribute up to a maximum of $5,500 ($6,500 if you are age 50 or older) to a traditional or Roth IRA. If you file a joint return, you and your spouse can each contribute to an IRA even if only one of you has taxable compensation. In some cases, you may need to reduce your deductionfor traditional IRA contributions. This rule applies if you or your spouse has aretirement plan at work and your income is above a certain level. You have untilApril 15, 2015, to make an IRA contribution for 2014.

2. Avoid excess contributions.  If you contribute more than the IRA limits for 2014, you are subject to a six percent tax on the excess amount. The tax applies each year that the excess amounts remain in your account. You can avoid the tax if you withdraw the excess amounts from your account by the due date of your 2014 tax return (including extensions).

3. Take required distributions.  If you’re at least age 70½, you must take a required minimum distribution, or RMD, from your traditional IRA. You are not required to take a RMD from your Roth IRA. You normally must take your RMD by Dec. 31, 2014. That deadline is April 1, 2015, if you turned 70½ in 2014. If you have more than one traditional IRA, you figure the RMD separately for each IRA. However, you can withdraw the total amount from one or more of them. If you don’t take your RMD on time you face a 50 percent excise tax on the RMD amount you failed to take out.

4. Claim the saver’s credit.  The formal name of the saver’s credit is theretirement savings contributions credit. You may qualify for this credit if you contribute to an IRA or retirement plan. The saver’s credit can increase your refund or reduce the tax you owe. The maximum credit is $1,000, or $2,000 for married couples. The credit you receive is often much less, due in part because of the deductions and other credits you may claim.

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Additional IRS Resources:

• Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
• Form 5329, Additional Taxes on Qualified Plans (Including IRAs) and Other Tax-Favored Accounts