Liston Newton automates Xero subscription billing with Rechargly and Practice Connect

Liston Newton Advisory is a South Melbourne–based accounting and advisory firm with offices across Australia. With a 50-strong team spanning Australia, India and the Philippines, they provide a one-stop shop for clients’ financial needs, from accounting, tax and compliance to advisory, financial planning, and lending.

The challenge: manual processes, missed charges

As Liston Newton grew, managing client subscriptions became increasingly complex. They handle six-figure spend in Xero subscriptions on behalf of clients, but were using Ignition to manage billing, which meant every price change had to be updated manually.

“Before Rechargly came into the picture, it was problematic in a way that Xero would typically have their annual pricing increase. I would have to manually go into the system and then go to each proposal and then update each service manually.”

— Darriel Mendoza, HR Manager and Business Innovation Specialist, Liston Newton

It wasn’t just time-consuming. Price changes, client upgrades or downgrades, and human error meant clients weren’t always being billed correctly.

“It was an issue where maybe perhaps we were not charging the clients accurately due to potential human error we were not recording the charges efficiently.”

Spreadsheets were used to track annual-billed subscriptions, which made reconciling charges difficult and slow, especially when Xero prices changed.

“There was a point in time where there was a Xero price increase but we didn’t have time to update the pricing in the background so we lost a couple of hundreds that time.”

The solution: automating with Rechargly and Practice Connect

Liston Newton’s Group CEO, Peter Antonius, came across Rechargly through other firms and recommended a review. After a thorough due diligence process with support from Rechargly’s team, the firm rolled it out to overhaul how they manage subscription billing. “We didn’t want to make a decision based on just what we hear from other people. We needed to do our due diligence and at Liston Newton we always make sure that we do that to provide better customer service to our clients.”

1. Automated subscription billing

Rechargly replaced Ignition for handling subscriptions, automatically updating pricing as Xero invoices changed, removing the need to manually update each proposal. “With Rechargly, that’s already automated in the background. And that’s what we like most about it.” They now issue separate subscription invoices, rather than bundling them inside compliance or advisory engagements, reducing the risk of missed charges.

2. Practice Connect and XPM integration

Liston Newton also adopted Practice Connect, which pushes subscription costs into Xero Practice Manager (XPM) for accurate WIP tracking and client profitability. Previously, Darriel tracked everything in a massive spreadsheet using VLOOKUP, which often broke if clients changed names or cancelled subscriptions. “Say I have manually charged clients that I wasn’t tracking the cost in XPM and then I would have to run VLOOKUP. When a client actually changed their organisation name, I can’t run my VLOOKUP.”

3. Smoother communications and client experience

Previously, communicating price changes to clients was a manual, disruptive process handled by client services administrators. Rechargly has streamlined this by ensuring prices are updated automatically and invoices are accurate.

How Rechargly fits into the Liston Newton tech stack

Liston Newton runs on Xero as its central platform, alongside Xero Tax, My Xero and other applications. Rechargly integrates seamlessly with this ecosystem, acting as the layer that connects vendor invoices, client billing, and XPM cost tracking.

“It makes sense for us if we do have a software where you can automate that process of charging the clients.”

What would you say to someone considering Rechargly?

Since implementing Rechargly and Practice Connect, Liston Newton has:

• Automated Xero subscription billing and eliminated manual proposal edits
• Synced subscription costs into XPM for accurate WIP tracking
• Reduced lost revenue from missed or delayed price updates
• Saved significant admin time managing subscriptions

“Efficiency wise, I believe I am now able to save 50% of my time using Rechargly… Rechargly is a great tool. I can vouch that it can help firms.”

— Darriel Mendoza