Xero has announced a reimagined version of Xero Me, its employee self-service app, which now comes with integrated expenses technology.

By integrating the Xero Expenses technology into Xero Me, employees of small businesses using Xero Payroll in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK can benefit from submitting expense claims in the same place they access payslips and submit timesheets and manage leave requests.

"The Xero Me app is evolving to become Xero's central place for employees to manage critical people processes themselves, with more functionality being built into the experience now and into the future," the company says.

A single Xero Me app removes the need for employees to switch between multiple apps or navigate disparate systems and work flows for critical employee processes, creating a more seamless employee experience. Meanwhile, employers can ensure data is easily entered and stored in a single place.

"Processes like onboarding, leave, and expense management are time-consuming but critical to the optimal performance of any small business," says Xero executive general manager of Business Products, Simona Turin.

"The Xero platform is designed to make life easier for small business owners - so we wanted to give them and their staff an even easier way to manage those fundamental employee processes.

"With the new Xero Me app functionality, business owners will be able to get the data and information they need to manage employee expenses, leave, pay and timesheets while creating an enhanced employee experience."

She says they're bringing together the award-winning Expenses and popular Payroll, used to pay more than 2.4 million employees each month, as part of the company's commitment to help make lives better for small businesses and their advisors, empower employees and help businesses thrive.

The new Xero Me experience is rolling out in stages to all Xero's global customers. In countries outside Australia, New Zealand and the UK, this will be with Expenses-only functionality.

Small business employees can therefore use Xero Me to quickly submit expense claims and will soon have the ability to complete a self-service setup for expense management.

From this month, existing Xero Expenses app users with a 'Submitter' role will be able to download and transition across to the Xero Me app to submit their expense claims. Xero Expenses approvers and admins will still need to use the standalone Xero Expenses app to check and approve any claims.

Rebecca Baldwin, an employee using Xero Me at Fiasco, a desk manufacturing business in New Zealand, says, "My experience of Xero Me has been great.

"It's straightforward to access and use on the go since it has its own app - so for timesheets, all I need to do is enter the hours I've worked each day and submit, and then it's done," she says.

"That's the same for submitting a leave request - it's really easy to request time off, wherever I am. Being able to access payslips in Xero Me has also been super useful."