Xero seeks gurus to ease conversion pain

Cloud-based accounting vendor Xero is looking to make it easier for competitors’ customers to make the switch, putting out a call for developers keen to collaborate on tools for easing the pain of conversion.

In a post on the company blog, Xero’s Andrew Tokely says the company is keen to hear from people who have ‘had a look under the hood’ of other accounting systems such as QuickBooks, MYOB or Sage.

"We’ve defined a data format that contains all the information you would normally need when setting up an organisation in Xero,” Tokely says.

"Before the final schema is confirmed, we’re interested in hearing from anyone who can verify that this sort of information can be extracted from other systems (which you’re familiar with) and find out if we’ve missed anything.

"It’s a great opportunity for gurus in desktop software, consultants and integrators to create value as small businesses move from the desktop to the cloud.”

As a starting point, the company has provided a draft XML document that contains the information collected when new customers sign up. Click here to download it.