Using Xero’s advisor-powered app recommendations for app advisory

App advisory remains a hot topic for the accounting and bookkeeper community. An open platform like Xero offers a choice of numerous pre-integrated apps for building a bespoke solution that enables fully digital, paperless accounting with great efficiency, high security and excellent user experience.

However, navigating through a myriad of apps (there are 800+ apps on the Xero marketplace) may prove a daunting task for small and medium businesses. Sure, there are clues in the form of app categories, reviews and different tiers for Xero app partners – with the highest one, Preferred tier, achieved only by the most often used and highly rated apps (ApprovalMax is proud to have recently been recognised as one of them by Xero). And the Xero App Advisory Playbooks also come in handy when advisors are choosing the right apps for their clients’ needs.

But clients still rely on Xero accounting and bookkeeping partners to help them make an informed decision regarding which apps are best suited for them; a task that until recently required manually reaching out to each client and educating them: which app to use, where to find that app on the marketplace, and so on.

 

Advisor-powered app recommendations by Xero

Fortunately, the Xero App Marketplace team has recently unveiled two new key features that make the task of advising clients on the apps they should be using much simpler.

First, the Xero app marketplace is now integrated and directly accessible from within the Xero main product itself. So when logged into Xero, clients won’t see a generic app marketplace but one that’s actually tailored to their needs.

That individual tailoring is enabled by a second new capability in the Xero app marketplace – Advisor-powered recommendations. The innovative feature allows Xero advisors to select any number of Xero marketplace apps, which will then be pointed out prominently to their clients as “Apps recommended by your advisor”.

This is a very powerful addition to the Xero app marketplace. It supports Xero advisors in educating both their existing and new clients efficiently on the apps best suited for their requirements, while Xero app vendors benefit from the endorsement of their apps’ value by Xero partners. For finding out more about how to get the “Recommended by your advisor” label for their apps, Xero app vendors should talk to their Xero partners about this feature. With this in mind, ApprovalMax has prepared an illustrated quick guide for our valued Xero partners below.

 

How to use advisor-powered app recommendations

For recommending apps from the Xero app marketplace to your clients as an advisor, you’ll need to log into Xero and have the “advisor” user role.

On the Preferred Apps page, you’ll see a “Recommend to your client” toggle.

If you want to recommend an app, toggle this button on as you see in the screenshot below.

 

Clients will see your recommendations when they log into Xero and visit the Marketplace tab.

For more detailed information, please visit Xero Central.

This new feature puts small businesses in touch with their most trusted advisors in a more seamless way. As innovation within the Xero ecosystem continues and app partners deliver more options than ever before, advisors can help clear the fog for their clients to find the perfect add-on.