Modulr makes paying bills simple, secure and automated with Xero

Modulr, the embedded payments platform, today announces its new integration with Xero, the online accounting software provider, to make supplier payments simple, secure, and automated.  

Helping accountants and businesses to tackle long-standing frustrations and save time by removing manual processes has long been an important objective for Modulr. Modulr’s partnership with Xero enables accountants and SMEs to automate accounts payable within Xero which completely removes the need to download and export files from Xero and then upload to the customer’s banking portal.  

Now, payments can be processed as single, or in batch, to remove inefficiencies when handling high volumes of transactions. Plus, unique to the Modulr-Xero partnership, for payments where there are multiple payments to the same beneficiary, Modulr enables them to be consolidated into a single payment, saving businesses and accountants valuable time and money on transaction fees. The integration also allows customers to synchronise payment information within Xero, which enables automatic reconciliation of those payments. Now, the traditionally sluggish and error-prone process is transformed to an automated workflow that is quick, secure and intuitive . 

By giving back valuable time to accountants, the Modulr-Xero integration can also help them turn payments into a profitable service. Accountants who manage their clients’ books can now offer a new, chargeable and superior payments service – boosting their revenues to provide an essential service to clients. Further, they can meet the expectations of changing client needs and complex pay runs as Modulr enables payments to be paid on time, every time and correctly, which avoids missed deadlines and associated late payment fees.  

Additionally, accountants can use the time saved from improved processes to provide added value services. Leveraging real time insights and having greater visibility over cash flow within their Modulr customer portal, accountants can give timely advice on business performance and how to improve cash flow position, to enhance their customer service experience.  

For those small businesses that manage their own bookkeeping within Xero, this integration will also save them valuable time and money. 

Later on this year, payroll payments will be added to the Modulr-Xero integration, further enhancing the benefits that accountants and small businesses will experience.      

Darcie Robinson, Head of Operations at Accounts and Legal comments, “Using the traditional approach, we might see 10 payments to 6 different suppliers had been made by a client, but whoever was doing the bookkeeping couldn’t see what those 10 payments were for. With Modulr’s integrated payment technology through Xero, everything is linked so all that reconciliation is done automatically. The time spent on admin tasks has been reduced from two hours to 30 minutes. It’s so impressive.” 

Steve Bradford MD of Channel and Strategic Partnerships at Modulr comments, “Small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers across the UK trust Xero with their numbers. This exciting partnership between Modulr and Xero offers them faster, more streamlined payment processes, richer client insights and automated workflows. On top of that, they’ll benefit from our payment consolidation feature, making this integration a truly one-stop-shop solution. 

He continues, “Modulr’s mission is to unlock the embedded payment opportunity for every business and this integration with Xero is the next stage of our journey – transforming how accountants and SMEs make and manage payments, whilst enabling firms to make better informed decisions from insights on cashflow and business performance.” 

Modulr is the payments partner of choice for leading accountancy software vendors including Sage, IRIS and BrightPay, and is already trusted by thousands of accountants and businesses. It’s integration with Xero takes it another step closer to partnering with the leading accounting software vendors – so accountants and businesses can use Modulr within their software of choice, whatever that may be. 

Thanks to Modulr’s direct access to the UK’s real-time payments network, Faster Payments, all payments clear within 90 seconds, even on weekends and bank holidays. The chance of missing or making an incorrect payment is greatly reduced because payments can be made and changed right up until the last minute. 

Note to Editor: 

Modulr is authorised and regulated by the FCA as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI), and so can issue GBP accounts with dedicated account numbers and sort codes. As a direct participant of the Faster Payments and Bacs schemes, Modulr holds and settles funds at the Bank of England, providing reliability and security for users. Modulr is required by law to use a process called safeguarding to protect customer money. This means we ensure that 100% of the funds we receive in exchange for e-money are safeguarded on receipt, plus we hold an additional 2% of the total value of safeguarded client funds in our own funds, which are held separately to those client funds. This is to ensure that in the event of any problems with our business, there are enough funds to support the process of returning client funds.  

About Modulr: 

At Modulr, we’re on a mission to unlock the embedded payment opportunity for businesses across the UK and Europe. Embedded payments is a new category which sees payments becoming an integral part of a business’ technology stack. By providing software-driven account and payment services that traditional banks just can’t offer, we help businesses to tackle long-standing frustrations. Gone are ‘business hours only’, ‘batch processes’ and ‘manual reconciliation’. This opens a world of real-time account provision, real time payments and instant actions, all delivered through API integrations. And because we’re regulated, our customers don’t have to be. Modulr’s platform enables incremental revenue, operational efficiencies and way smoother customer experiences for ambitious businesses everywhere.  

Core to Modulr’s success is our robust platform, our unrivalled connections to payments schemes and our ability to operate at scale. This is underpinned by our regulatory status as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) in the UK and Europe, and our compliance rigor. Today, we handle over £100bn of annualised payment volume and the platform handles on average 30 API calls per second.