Xero Practice Manager Virtual Assistant: a VA who keeps the job list true

Nobody chose Xero Practice Manager for the love of it. Your firm is a Xero partner, the clients live in the blue ledger, and XPM is where the jobs, the WIP and the lodgement list ended up because it was the path of least resistance. Which is also why it decays: XPM only ever shows what somebody typed into it, and in most firms the somebody is a senior at six o’clock, or nobody.

You can tell inside a minute of opening the Job Manager. Jobs from two quarters back still sitting in progress. Recurring jobs that generated against last year’s dates. A lodgement list the team quietly abandoned for a spreadsheet in March because the XPM one stopped being true. The software isn’t the problem. The problem is that XPM rewards a daily discipline no chargeable person has time to run.

The rhythm a VA runs inside XPM

Daily, on your hours. The lodgement list, worked backwards from due dates. Document requests go out early, follow-ups run on a cadence you’ve approved, arrivals get filed against the job, and the responsible accountant hears the moment a file is complete. Your seniors open finished files instead of sending the third chasing email at $150-plus a charged hour.

During onboarding. The two jobs everyone hates. First, agent nomination: since client-to-agent linking came in, a new business client has to nominate your firm in Online services for business before your team can add them in Online services for agents, and the nomination expires if nobody moves. The step is pure project management, so the VA runs it: walkthrough out with the engagement emails, client chased until it’s done, expiry window tracked, local team pinged the day it lands. Second, the ethical letter to the previous accountant: drafted from your template, sent, chased, response filed. Both happen the day the engagement is signed, not whenever someone remembers.

Weekly. Time and WIP. Timesheets chased in before the week closes, job states corrected so the Job Manager describes reality, WIP checked against the quoted fee while there’s still time to do something about it, and the report your Monday meeting runs on prepared the Friday before.

Period end. Recurring jobs checked the day they generate: current client list, right partners and managers on each job, due dates rolled properly. BAS quarter opens with chasing underway, not two days of setup and data tidy-up.

Money. Invoices raised in XPM push across the sync to Xero, and payments flow back, except when a contact mismatch leaves an invoice sitting failed while everyone assumes it sent. The VA watches the sync in both directions, reconciles the XPM client list against Xero contacts, and runs debtor follow-up from the Xero side so the firm that lectures clients on cash flow stops having the oldest ledger in the building.

The honest bit

Two things to know going in. XPM will not chase anyone for you: there’s no auto-reminder engine nagging clients about missing documents, so the chasing is human work, which is exactly why it belongs in a VA’s scope. If automated client chasing is the feature you’re actually shopping for, that’s Karbon’s pitch, and we place VAs there too. And the ATO steps that need a myID stay onshore, because an offshore VA can’t hold Australian identity credentials and shared logins are never acceptable. The working pattern is clean: the VA does everything up to and after the portal click, and someone local does the click.

What stays with you

Lodgement, anything that constitutes advice, engagement pricing and sign-off. The VA makes sure the job exists, the documents are in and the file is ready; your registered agents do the part their registration is for. And your numbers stay yours: XPM permissions are per staff member, so administrator rights are withheld and staff cost and billable rates hidden. The VA can progress every job in the practice without ever learning what anyone in it costs.

What it costs and where to start

XPM admin sits on the admin tier, $12-17 AUD an hour excl GST. If you want the same VA doing reconciliation and workpaper prep in the ledger itself, that’s bookkeeping-grade work scoped separately, and the Xero VA page covers what it looks like. Placement takes 7-10 business days, with 5-7 days supervised inside your XPM before solo work, a 30-day recalibrate-or-replace guarantee, and no lock-in beyond 14 days notice.

The regulatory lines for firms, the Tax Agent Services Act boundary, TPB disclosure, the myID rule, are all on the accounting firms page, and the VA cost guide has the full pricing picture. Or book a discovery call with Jenn, who has placed 87+ VAs into Australian businesses since 2024. Bring your lodgement list and your open job count. If the gap between the two is the problem, this is the cheapest way anyone has found to close it.