XERO MASTER Botkeeper Standard Operating Procedures

Partner Points of Contact:

• The primary point of contact to be tagged in the Portal with all tasks and documentation requests is specified by the Partner for each client during scoping. 

• An additional point of contact for each client to upload bank statements may also be specified by the Partner for each client during scoping, if applicable.

The Future of Bookkeeping Points of Contact:

• Feedback & General Inquiries: @growthpartners in the Portal

• Deployment Inquiries: @customersuccess in the Portal

• Accounting Related Inquiries: @bookkeepingteam in the Portal

Scope of Services

Monthly Close Timing and Required Information

There are 3 levels of bookkeeping frequency (cadences) available for both the Basic and Advanced Service that correspond with a monthly closing date and carry a different monthly cost, as follows. The cadence is to be indicated for each client during scoping:

*There are special requirements to qualify for daily or weekly cadence, which are as follows:

• No need for manually uploaded transactions

• Connected bank and credit card feeds to GL (closely being monitored for disconnection)

First close & ongoing close timing is driven by the date deployed and the date of all required information is received.

First Monthly Close Timing

In order to ensure a timely first close, all required information* should be provided no later than 2 business days prior to the 15th day of the same start month**. To support tight timelines, a "Mutual Plan” is an available tool to ensure the smooth integration of services.

• A client is considered “deployed” within 2 business days of receipt of all required information pertinent to the services scoped for each client.

• The Partner will be tasked in the Partner Portal for any required information needed for deployment that was not provided upfront.

• The Partner will mark tasks as completed and leave a comment for @customersuccess if help is needed.

* All required information listed in the next section “Ongoing Month End - Botkeeper Service Close” must be provided to Botkeeper based on the above timetable to support a first month close
** To support tight timelines, a "Mutual Plan” is available to ensure a smooth onboarding experience
***Dependent on clean-up/ catch-up policy

Ongoing Month End Close - Botkeeper Service Close

* To ensure a timely ongoing close, all required information listed in the "Required Information" section must be provided to Botkeeper based on this cutoff date
** Botkeeper may increase the frequency the books are being serviced, but this is not a guarantee

Required Information - First & Ongoing Month End

• General Ledger (GL) access granted

  • QBO - Added as a team member to your Firm’s existing QBOA*

  • Xero - Added as an Advisor with manage user rights in each client’s GL

• Bank & Credit Card account setup

  • Smart Connect (Autopush) or general ledger bank feed (Non-Autopush);or

  • Transactions provided in an uploadable format**

• Access to Bank & Credit Card statements via one of the following:

  • Smart Connect tool within Client Portal

  • Manual upload to Partner or Client Portal

  • Access to statement fetching service (Hubdoc, QBO) granted

  • Provide Botkeeper with their own (non-shared), read-only credentials***

• All 3rd party application access required for Botkeeper to complete services outlined in the scope of services is added and shared via Password Manager (such as Bill.com if AP is scoped)

• All tasks in BOS are completed and nothing is outstanding

• Partner responsible for completing all work impacting the month-end financial reports

* Other options available
** Monthly entities only - Weekly & Daily entities do not qualify for this item
***Provided above options have been exhausted

Catch-up / Clean-up

Clean-up: If the bank and credit card accounts are not reconciled through the month prior to the services start date, Partner has the option to sign up for “clean up” services while scoping the client.

Catch-up: If deployment is delayed past the last day of the start month, the months between the start date and the deployment date are “catch-up” and add to the turnaround time of first months' close.

* Multiplied by the number of months clean-up services are required for
** Multiplied by the number of months catch-up services are required for

Transaction Categorization

Bank and credit card feeds for the accounts within scope will be processed at the designated bookkeeping cadence for each client, beginning within 7-10 business days (monthly), 5 business days (weekly) or 2 business days (daily) of being accepted to ongoing services.

• Transactions will be coded using a combination of historical data and rules that exist at the Client level, artificial intelligence and machine learning applied to the transaction data and human oversight, including quality control and exceptions management.

• Remaining transactions where there is significant doubt on categorization, including any manual checks with no backup available, will be coded to “Uncategorized Income/Expenses” in Xero while they await categorization. If the account(s) do not already exist, they will be created.

• A monthly or weekly (weekly/daily bookkeeping cadence) task will be assigned to the main Point of Contact (POC) listed for each client in the Partner Platform to request the POC to review and update transactions pushed to TM that were booked to “Uncategorized Income/Expenses” if any.

Partner Responsibilities

• Provide required information by the close cutoff date, including:

  • Categorize transactions within the “Uncategorized Income/Expenses” directly in Xero.

  • Upload check register/images to the Client Portal files tool and tag @bookkeepingteam.

• Up to 1 business day will be added to the close due date for each business day overdue.

• If the Partner or Client has not categorized in Xero nor communicated the coding for any uncategorized transaction(s) as of the close due date, the Monthly Closing task with any linked reports, if applicable will be posted to the Partner Portal on the close due date and the Partner will be responsible for any regeneration of reports for the same period thereafter.

Payroll Journal Entries

Payroll journal entries will be recorded from referencing information from synced data, payroll reports uploaded by the Partner or Client via the Portal files feature, or from reports pulled via read-only access.

• If sync between payroll provider and Xero is established, the payroll transactions from the bank feed will be matched with the synced data. If read-only access has been provided, sync issues such as mismatching entries will be troubleshot before escalating to the Partner via Portal task.

Partner Responsibilities

• All payroll processing functions

• Establish and maintain a sync between Xero and payroll provider.

• If sync is not possible, upload payroll reports at least monthly, or provide read-only access.

Bank & Credit Card Reconciliation

Standard Monthly Report Package

• Amounts will be rounded to the nearest dollar.

• Reports will be run based on the Accounting method set in the GL.

• If the Partner provides all required information on or before the close cutoff date, or if the Partner has not communicated any required information as of the close due date:

Partner Communication &
Task Management

Weekly AP Processing
(Advanced Service)

Historical Training & Deployment Timing

Historical AI model training is required if there are documents attached in the connected system (Bill.com).

• There are two training cycles per month that start on the 15th or the last day of the month (or the following business day). 

• The cutoff to provide all required AP deployment information* is 5 business days prior to the next historical training start date.

*All Required AP deployment information includes but is not limited to:

• General Ledger (GL) access granted

  • Xero -Added as an Advisor with manage user rights in each client’s GL

  • Bill.com - 2 Console-evel users with custom role.

• Chart of Account numbers turned [on] with numbers populated.

• Tasks assigned in the Portal (requesting action, information or clarification) marked as completed.

Standardized processes

• Prepaid expenses: Standard is that the majority rules. If the majority of the bill is for a future period, then the entire bill would be categorized to a prepaid account. Alternatively, if the majority of the bill is for a current period, then it would be categorized into the appropriate expense account(s).

• Capitalization: Standard capitalization threshold of $2,500 per unit will be used for account categorization purposes unless otherwise indicated.

• Bill-level descriptions: Standard is to include the account, policy or customer name or number; if present. If there is no account, policy or customer name or number, the bill-level description may be left blank.

• Soft vs. hard close: Any bills that carry a bill date of the prior month that is provided after the monthly close cutoff date of the following month will be posted in accordance with the closing cutoff guidelines at the Client level regarding the posting period (hard close vs. soft close).

  • Standard for “soft close” clients: All unpaid bills, payments, or dimension tracking details received for the processing month on or before the close cutoff date will carry the actual posting date, even if it applies to the prior period (except as pertains to the prior year).

  • Standard for “hard close” clients: All unpaid bills, payments, or dimension tracking details received for the processing month on or before the close cutoff date will be applied for the actual date of the transaction. If these details are received after the close cutoff date, they will be processed on the 1st day of the next open month.

Scope of Services

Bills will be reviewed, monitored for duplicates, and processed for partner approval.

• The first perpetual AP processing cycle for each Client will begin 5 business days after historical training is completed for the client, if applicable. If there is no historical training required, it will begin 5 business days after all required AP deployment information is received.

• After the first processing cycle, bills submitted to @firm.ai or uploaded to the Portal will be perpetually processed with a rolling three-business-day turnaround.

  • High-confidence bills will automatically post to Bill.com once they reach the state of autonomous* processing.

  • Medium confidence and non-autonomous bills will be reviewed and posted to Bill.com, based on the rolling three-business-day turnaround.

  • Low confidence bills, including bills requiring further assistance and those for new vendors, will be surface to the Partner during the review process via a task in the Portal and must be approved by the Partner before being posted to Bill.com. The Partner will also have the option to reject the bill(s) with a comment. Rejected bills will be archived and will not be posted to Bill.com.

    • *Autonomous processing is activated for a bill once the AI modeling and machine learning have reached a consistent 90% or higher confidence rating.

    • There will be a maximum of one Portal task per client per day to alert the partner if bill(s) needs attention prior to being posted to Bill.com.

• Once a vendor’s bill is posted to Bill.com, the client’s Bill.com “default approval” setting will be applied. If there is not at least one “default approver” in Bill.com, the approvers will be based on Bill.com vendor history, and thus, bills with no vendor history will be posted to Bill.com as “unassigned.”

• Categorization and dimension changes within the connected system (Bill.com) after posting are caught by the ML engines during its twice-monthly training and applied to future predictions. Additionally, the “Partner approval before posting” workflow surfaces the most likely to be changed/least confident bills (such as new vendors, items that have been capitalized, and bills with inconsistent history) and allows for any categorization changes prior to posting the bill(s) into Bill.com. If, however, the partner makes any changes to the categorization or dimension of a bill after being posted to Bill.com, they should notify @Accountant via a Custom Request task in the Portal to increase the visibility of the correction.

• At month-end, the AP clearing account will be reconciled, if applicable.

Partner Responsibilities

• Ensure at least 1 “default approver” is set up in the Client’s Bill.com account, in the absence of which it will default to the approval workflow based on vendor history.

• Provide all required AP deployment documentation 5 business days prior to the next historical training start date.

• Ensure proper client/vendor bill submission is emailed to ap+clientname@firm.ai or uploaded to the AP Bills folder within the Portal and monitor any legacy systems as needed.

• Submit or upload bills individually and avoid submitting different bills together in one PDF file.

• Review and approve any bills raised for partner approval via a Portal task, including making any categorization changes before approving the bill(s). Please see the chart below that details the different reasons that may arise for bills to be sent for approval. After approving or rejecting the bills, return to the Portal to mark the task as complete to ensure the bill(s) get posted to Bill.com.

• Notify @accountant in the Portal via a custom request task if any categorization or dimension changes are made in the connected system (Bill.com) for maximum visibility of those changes

• Manage and maintain all payment, approval, or rejection activities within Bill.com, Xero, or other systems integrated with Xero.

• Review and action non-processable documents in the “Non-Processable Documents” folder in the Portal as needed:

  • Please reference the chart above to determine non-processable vs processable documents.

Applying Payments to AR Invoices (Advanced Service)

Partner Responsibilities

• Partner or Client will upload payment and deposit details to the respective Portal AR Payment Details folder using standard file naming convention including deposit date and amount.

• Partner or Client will not need to upload payment and deposit details if one of the following scenarios exists:

  • Transactions synced into Xero from Stripe, GoCardless or Paypal to match with deposit

  • There will almost always be a 1:1 match between a deposit and an invoice

• Partner or Client will review tasks posted to the Portal (throughout the month, immediately after transaction processing) or transactions pushed to Transaction Manager (after the month ends) regarding any unknown payments/deposits and provide additional information prior to the close cutoff date.

Class & Department Tracking (Advanced Service)

Classes or departments will be assigned to transactions per the agreed upon bookkeeping cadence for that Client, based on the below criteria (listed in order of prioritization):

• • Written instructions on invoice or bill

  • List provided by Partner

  • Historical data

• If a transaction can not be allocated to a class or department based on any of the above criteria, the transaction will fall to the "unassigned" class, department, project or job for the Partners attention in the GL.

• A monthly or weekly (weekly/daily bookkeeping cadence) task will be assigned to the Partner within the Portal to review and update unassigned transactions (combined with the regular task generated for any uncategorized income/expense transactions that month/week).

Partner Responsibilities

• Provide rules for each class or department during scoping and assign a task to @bookkeepingteam in the portal to communicate rules for any new classes or departments.

  • All rules provided should support a 1:1 relationship. With the exception of Payroll, a single transaction will not be split between multiple classes or departments.

  • If a third party system is used and information without classes/department are being synced, the Partner is responsible for reclassing those transactions.

• Review and update unassigned transactions in Transaction Manager by the close cutoff date each month, to ensure the most complete monthly reports by class or department.

• Transactions classified after the close cutoff date may lead to a delay in the close due date. If the monthly reports were already posted or in process of being prepared, Partner may need to re-run reports for updated information. See reporting section for more info on timing of reports.

Scope Changes, After a Client has Been Accepted into Ongoing Services

Add-On Services Available After First 2 Monthly Closes

Administration

Journals & Schedules

• Bundle of 5 Simple Journals

• Basic Schedule Maintenance

Reporting

• One-Time Addition to Management Report

• Enhanced Ongoing Report Support

Revenue

Invoicing

• Std. Preparation & Sending

3rd Party Applications

• Point of Sales Entries / Reconciliation

• Credit Card Merchant Entries Reconciliation

• Inventory Adjustments / Reconciliation

Expense

• Job/Project tracking

One-Time Services

• Migration QBD to Xero, [other system] to Xero (conversion balances and lists only)

• Clean-up / Catch-up

• Custom Dashboards