BDO & Xero Client Stories - Gisborne

Homeware store Kō is about providing things – for the home, family and life. Every product has a story, nothing is brought from a sweatshop in China, and all come with an environmental awareness.

The woman behind the business that opened September 2016, is local Anna Holdsworth. She is a business owner, wife, mother of four, lover of style, but underneath it all, it is our Gisborne community that drives her, with a strong passion for developing youth.

The Holdsworth family have a long-standing relationship with BDO Gisborne, which means BDO Consultant, Jacqui Logan, was able to quickly get things off the ground from the outset.

“You get the best advice. Jacqui has been amazing. She’s there to help and teach you, rather than dictate to you, which is very empowering. She holds the accounting and systems knowledge, so I had confidence that she knew what she was talking about. Jacqui is exceptional in bridging that technological gap.”

From Xero to Hero
Xero has given Anna much more of a snapshot. “Being able to log on and quickly get a report to show where my profit and loss is, and also sharing with my husband and business partner, where we’re at. The way Xero is setup has made the compliance side of things easy, that’s probably how it’s enhanced the backend of my business the most.”

There’s a feature that links Xero with IRD. “By simply pushing a button in Xero, your GST is filed without having to speak with IRD separately and without the hassle of logging in online.”

“This is automated and it just makes everything simple. It’s my favourite feature.”

Building upon software as a platform is imperative to the way BDO Gisborne operates, having always strived to exceed basic accounting services to offer in depth advisory knowledge backed by decades of experience.

“The work went beyond simply integrating Xero, with advice around structuring the organisation to best suit us and the business. Nothing was ever off topic or too hard.”

The next step for Anna is to explore Xero’s eco-market – an ongoing intent to achieve more efficiencies, receive meaningful and timely information and watch bottom-line figures constantly improve. BDO Gisborne encourages clients to collaborate on developing a bespoke accounting software solution that best suits their business goals.