I’ve had a love of video games from a very young age. My first system was an Atari 2600 and I had the classics such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug and California Games to name a few. As the systems evolved the games got more complex and with better sound and graphics. I really enjoyed playing puzzle games, side-scrollers like Super Mario Brothers and sports games.

In the mid-2000s I started playing Final Fantasy XI, a massive multiplayer online role playing video game through my PlayStation 2. What made this game different and extremely addictive was the online collaboration with other players to accomplish tasks. As well, the game had its own economy through places of trade known as auction houses. Players could sell items they collected in these houses at a minimum price they set. Supply and demand was in full effect. The auction houses even spawned a black market where players were purchasing in-game money using real money from players whose sole purpose was to make money in-game.

The Xero bank reconciliation screen feels like you are playing a video game. You are able to eliminate outstanding transactions with a single click when a match has been found or a bank rule has been applied. Machine learning has truly allowed accounting software to evolve from entering every single piece of data for a transaction to only a single click to validate a journal entry.  As well, cloud accounting software allows for increased collaboration with your accountant. This was all made possible due to placing the software on a server online instead keeping it in a silo on a desktop.