Bob Success Story:

Xref’s Time-Saving Admin and Rapid Reporting with Bob

Xref's Journey

Xref develops software that streamlines the talent journey, enabling organisations to make confident, people-centered decisions.

Their tools simplify collecting pre-employment references, engagement surveys, and exit feedback, saving HR and hiring managers hours.

Headquartered in Sydney with offices and remote teams across multiple countries, Xref needed an HCM solution that delivered accurate, real-time data for regulatory reporting, while offering flexibility and easy customisation.

CFO James Solomons prioritised a platform with intuitive usability, insisting it be learnable within 20 minutes.

This focus has paid off: unlike their old HRIS, Bob is widely embraced and actively used across the company.

Driving Collaboration & Culture Across Borders Post-Launch

As a publicly-listed company, Xref must provide accurate data, such as leave balances, for financial reporting to the ASX.

Previously, data was scattered across Excel and a disconnected HRIS, making reporting slow and at risk of human error.

With Bob, the finance team now accesses accurate data quickly, eliminating tedious manual checks.

Bob also supports emerging ESG reporting needs by providing demographic insights like gender and ethnicity.

These reports help Xref identify trends that inform retention and recruitment strategies.

What once took hours can now be generated in minutes, including reports on hires, budgets, leave liability, and diversity metrics.

This empowers line managers with self-service data access and has been vital as Xref grows from startup to multinational tech company.

Xref's favourite Bob features

Payroll Hub
Analtyics
Compensation

Xref's favourite Bob integrations

Smart Recruiters
Xero
Deel

"We required a platform that could scale with us, integrate with our current software, and was customizable to our business needs. We needed to push more responsibility down to line managers but be able to see, from a helicopter view, how our biggest investment - our people - were being managed day to day."

James Solomons

Global CFO/COO

3 Hours

Saved monthly on payroll

Cutting Payroll & Leave

Before Bob, Xref’s finance team spent hours manually transferring payroll and leave data across multiple systems in three regions, a major pain point for both finance and people teams.

Now, Bob’s integration with Xero AU automates leave calculations and payroll processing, saving 2–3 hours monthly, adding up to a full workweek annually.

Bob also connects seamlessly with tools like SmartRecruiters, Deel, and Docusign, streamlining workflows across the business.

This integration capability is now a key factor in Xref’s HR tech purchases. Since adopting Bob, payroll data is accurate and reliable, ensuring CEO Lee-Martin Seymour’s rule is met: everyone gets paid correctly and on time.

Key Takeaways

Xref saves 2–3 hours monthly on payroll through Bob’s integration with Xero.
Bob’s Analytics delivers reliable data for Xref’s public company reporting.
Managers access vital metrics on tenure and salaries to support strategic decisions.
The finance team easily generates reports on demographics and projected hires using Bob.