Kiwi start up Xero makes waves in US market

New Zealand-based software company Xero has today announced customers in the US have full access to the Xero payroll platform in three states. 

"Customers now have access to complete payroll functionality for electronic filing and payment for state payroll taxes in the three top US employer states of California, Florida, and Texas," the company says in a statement. Integrated payroll for UK and New Zealand small businesses will be available in the next three months with the remaining US states to follow in 2015.

"Xero's global platform and approach allow us to develop and learn from other countries and we're excited to launch these innovations in the vast US market," says Rod Drury, Xero CEO.

"We're building on our success in Australia where we process over AU$1.5 billion of payroll transactions monthly to over 375,000 employees. Plus we're building on the recent acquisition of Monchilla in the US and the scaling of our development teams globally.

Drury says this is the start of a wave of product innovations launching early this year. "These innovations will deliver on our vision of a fully integrated platform for small businesses to work and collaborate on," he says.

Xero integrates payroll and accounting into one application. "Xero eliminates the burden and high-cost of complex add-on payroll software and services by integrating payroll and accounting into one application, saving small businesses hundreds to thousands of dollars each year," the company says. "This integration also gives small businesses a true real-time view of their finances all on one simple platform.

Xero's cloud accounting platform is evolving into a broad business management solution, exceeding the functionality provided by legacy desktop software vendors.  "Payroll is usually the biggest expense for small business owners with time-consuming process. So integrated accounting and payroll is compelling and inevitable. Over 40% of our customers already use our payroll software in markets where it is available," adds Drury.

Over the past year, Xero has continued to scale its US-based customer support team in San Francisco and Denver. "While other vendors cull their support teams, we are ensuring entrepreneurs have access to the resources they need to grow 24x7," Drury says.

Drury says cloud computing for small businesses is emerging as an exciting category. Focused on the consumer and ease of use, this category is a hybrid of the complex business software traditionally seen in the enterprise space.

"Hundreds of small business software companies collaborate to build seamlessly integrated business solutions. Accounting software needs to not just provide functionality for the small business owner but for their accountants and bookkeepers as well."

Xero is a New Zealand-based software company that develops cloud-based accounting software for small and medium-sized businesses.  Xero was recently ranked No. 1 by Forbes as the World's Most Innovative Growth Company.