Do you stand by your data analysis?
How we made sure our reports were watertight for COVID-19
When COVID-19 hit, many teams across Xero had to pivot their work to focus on immediate support for small businesses and their advisors (accountants and bookkeepers) around the world. A huge amount of change took place in a very short period of time, from government assistance packages to new ways of working.
To help our teams build features that supported these changes, we needed to provide more internal reporting. We also needed to share high-level insights to governments on the health of the small business sector.
Most data is not designed to be reported
A global pandemic is not the time to accidentally release inaccurate data analysis, especially when it’s also used by governments and industry analysts to measure the health of the small business sector. Our analysis was very much in demand, so we needed to make sure it was 100% accurate. That’s not to say we don’t normally check the accuracy of our work. We do. But data is complicated and often not structured with ease of reporting in mind.
In some cases, data that is customer friendly is not analysis friendly. For example, we allow customers to date invoices whenever they need to — today, next month, three…
