This year six of us travelled to three conferences on two continents. Here is what we went for, and what we brought back.
We go to these events for one reason: the platforms our clients run on move fast, and we would rather hear about a change on stage than discover it in a client’s ledger six months later.
The year in order: Zoholics USA in Houston on 12–13 May, Zoholics Manila on 3 July, and Xerocon Denver on 19–20 August. We have put Xerocon first below, because that is where the news most likely to affect your payroll came from.
Xerocon Denver — August 19–20, 2026
Who went: George Wilson (CEO), Kirsten Gray (Bookkeeper) and Charlene Womack (Major Accounts Bookkeeper).
Xerocon is Xero’s partner conference, held this year at the Colorado Convention Center with more than 45 exhibitors. Three announcements matter most for the businesses we serve:
1. Xero Payroll powered by Gusto
Xero announced a payroll engine for US small businesses built on Gusto. For most firms that is interesting news. For us it is unusually direct: we are both a Xero Platinum Partner and a Gusto Gold Partner, and a good share of our clients already run exactly that pairing. The two halves of that stack getting closer together is the single most useful thing we heard all week.
2. Live Xero data in Microsoft 365, Claude and ChatGPT
Xero is opening up live ledger data to AI assistants directly. Xero also reported that usage of its MCP server grew roughly tenfold between December 2025 and May 2026 — a signal that this is where the ecosystem is heading, not a side experiment.
This is our lane. We built 13 purpose-built AI agents in-house — work Gusto recognised with a national AI Innovation Award this year. Native access to live Xero data removes a lot of the plumbing we have been building ourselves.
3. Practical automation for the parts nobody enjoys
A cluster of releases pointed the same direction: enhanced auto bank reconciliation, smarter document capture, cash flow gap flagging, automated payment follow-ups, and a month-end agent that drafts prepayment and amortisation journals — with human review still required. Xero also introduced native bill payments and expense management, and a scenario-planning tool that models price rises, cost increases and hiring against real ledger data.
One more thing worth noting: Ignition was named Global Practice App of the Year. We run our proposals and engagements through Ignition, so that one got a cheer from our table.
Zoholics USA — Houston, May 12–13, 2026
Who went: George Wilson and Jennifer Sanford (Director of Client Success & Operations).
Two days of finance deep-dives. The headline was the launch of Zoho ERP for the US market, aimed initially at manufacturing, retail, distribution and nonprofits. Alongside it: Zoho Cards, Zoho Travel, more AI in Zoho Expense, and Zia Agents and Zoho MCP embedded across the suite rather than bolted on as a separate AI product.
The announcement most relevant to us: Zoho Payroll now supports all 50 US states. We process payroll in all 50 states, so a second platform reaching full national coverage genuinely widens what we can recommend to a client rather than work around.
Zoholics Manila — July 3, 2026
Who went: Girard Santos (Systems Manager) and Johanna Prila (AI Enablement Lead).
Zoho has been investing heavily in the Philippines, and the Manila event leaned hard into agentic AI — software that takes action rather than just reporting. Sending our Systems Manager and our AI Enablement Lead to that particular conversation was deliberate: they are the two people who turn what gets announced on a stage into something that actually runs inside our workflows.
It also says something about how we are built. Our team spans two continents, and we would rather have our people in the room where their part of the stack is being discussed than watch a recording afterwards.
What this means for our clients
The through-line across all three events was the same, and it matches what we have been building toward for two years: the software is moving from recording what happened to acting on it — and every credible vendor is keeping a human in the loop by design.
That is exactly how we run our own AI work. The agents gather; our accountants decide. Nothing reaches a client without a person reviewing it.
We are evaluating several of the releases above against our current stack now. When something earns a place in how we serve clients, we will roll it out deliberately and tell you why — not because it was announced with a keynote slide behind it.
Questions about Xero, Gusto, Zoho, or which combination actually fits your business? We work with companies in all 50 states from our office in Chattanooga. Book a call with us.
Product announcements above are as publicly reported from Xerocon Denver 2026 and Zoholics USA 2026. Availability and timing are set by Xero, Gusto and Zoho, not by Southern Payroll & Bookkeeping.
