Overall Satisfaction with Xero
Xero is one of the more popular options among our clients (along with QuickBooks). Xero is reliable, user-friendly (for non-accountants i.e. business owners), and doesn't cost an arm and leg. It has most of the major features that small and medium business owners need from cloud accounting software. The Xero ledger and Cashbook options are a great offering for accounting firms for clients who don't want to spend a lot of money on subscriptions or no money at all.
- Reporting (customizing look and contents and the ability to add multiple comparative periods is brilliant and not found in many other competitors.
- Bank feeds. The way they organize bank feed and subsequent matching or coding is very user-friendly for non-accountants and fast for accountants.
- Can file VAT returns and is MTD compliant in UK.
- Customer support has been helpful (at least in my experience).
- Bank reconciliations. I would like them to try something like QBO where reconciled transactions are marked and then locked, so when editing or deleting those transactions, you are shown an extra warning.
- Vendor and customer pages. It should be easier to see a list of activities and then access those transactions from there. Again QBO does it better, in my opinion.
- Search feature. Once again their main competitor does that better, you can search an invoice number, amount, date, vendor name, and account head in QBO and it will show relevant results. Xero global search functionality is pretty basic.
- Increased efficiency due to automation: due to automatic bank feeds, third party and official integrations, banking rules, recurring journals, custom reports, etc.
- Time-saving and increased accuracy due to bank feeds, cash coding, and native bank reconciliations which also reduces room for human error.
- Support for multiple platforms: works across all major browsers on both Windows and macOS and has android and iOS apps.
- Very business owner-oriented UI and friendly feel, removing all accounting jargon where possible. Easy to train clients to operate it themselves compared to, say, Sage.
- Dashboard isn't overwhelming and nice on eyes.
Ignoring pricing, Xero is among the best options available. It has the most complete feature set along with Quickbooks. It is more user-friendly compared to most of its competitors. It has well-designed mobile apps that can actually do something in contrast with most competitors except a few who either don't have these or have very limited functionality. My experience with their support has been good to great.
Do you think Xero delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Xero's feature set?
Yes
Did Xero live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Xero go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Xero again?
Yes
Xero Feature Ratings
Using Xero
20 - Accountants and bookkeepers. We handle over 100 clients using Xero for accounting and sales tax filing purposes.
1 - We have an IT guy who sets up Xero for new clients but it's nothing too technical, we can always call their support if we need any help or are stuck on something.
- Bookkeeping for small businesses.
- VAT filing for UK businesses.
- Management reports for owners and directors.
- Use different integrations available to automate certain elements (like connecting with Dext or A2X).
Evaluating Xero and Competitors
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Prior Experience with the Product
Price, many small businesses are cautious of their subscription costs, so cost is a very important factor in choosing Xero or any other accounting software.