LexisNexis Juris vs. Xero

LexisNexis Juris is well suited for our firm because of the case management integration (Time Matters). The ability to keep track of your time within a specific case without having to switch between applications is a huge timesaver.

Incentivized

It has been my experience that software is only as good as the people behind the scenes supporting it. Xero seems far more interested in making things better for my customers than they do for their customers - their users. Most enhancements since I've been a user have been geared toward making it easier for my customers to pay their bills, allowing my customers to interact directly with the software with, what I feel, an eye toward bypassing me in favor of my customers dealing directly with Xero. This is something I'm very uncomfortable with.

• Timers are available within each new time entry.
• LexisNexis Juris can quickly look up client matter information and billing details.
• Attorneys are assigned timekeepers, which allow them to monitor associates' hours billed.

Incentivized

• Their method of moving between screens was very logical and intuitive which is not a "given" attribute among software packages.
• Finding transactions was relatively easy with just common sense.
• The use of this software was generally well received in that the accountants did not discredit the software as cheap, poorly organized, or timely to learn. No one at Corporate had a vendetta against using Xero.
• It does a good job of allowing the users to drill down to the final detail of an account balance - which is fundamental to the accounting department's needs.

Incentivized

• LexisNexis Juris could allow for more time entry filters, such as filters for specific entries that include the same matter name.
• Task and activity codes could be more streamlined.
• LexisNexis Juris could provide more reporting options.

Incentivized

• Add offline version (very important for third world countries like Vanuatu)
• Payment portals (add more and add WordPress integration)
• Duplicates during bank reconciliation imports
• Allow customers to create an online account from which they can access all their past transactions (invoices, quotes and bills) on the Portal
• Allow more dashboard customization (more graphs)

In addition to the matters covered in this review, my reason for renewing this product is that Xero's functionality and the constant updates that the company provides, makes the software even more business friendly. The software therefore builds a brand loyalty among customers.

Xero is very user friendly, however, there are some features that can be more time consuming or features that I find are not exactly what I am looking for ie. not being able to pull a report in a certain way, or not being able to do a bank recon in a certain way.

We have been actively using and 100% Xero based for our ecommerce accounting practice for over 4 years. There has on been one real outage for more than 5 minutes. Xero was open and transparent about the outage, what they were doing to resolve the issue, and provided 15 minute updates. Showing how they care about their customers and partners. Plus, showing that their customers care too, were understanding, and went surfing or in our case took a nap. Couldn't run our business without Xero as a partner.

Pages generally load quickly, but it's a fairly common occurrence to have pages taking a bit longer than I'd like to load (as in, 4+ seconds). Occasionally I have to refresh a page to get it to work. Bank feed and integrations tend to be slow in general, but that could easily be due to API latency on the side of the other parties. Most of the time, though, the bank feeds refresh before I login so it's not a huge problem. Not necessarily good performance compared to a local app like QuickBooks desktop, but definitely good performance for a cloud application. Room for growth? yes.

Incentivized

Always respond and keep issues open until you are satisfied with the result. Generally good responses, in the past, I had some support responses that were really basic and really annoying. They type where "have your tried restarting your computer" style of answers. Well, of course, I went through all the basics before contacting them. Duh, but I suppose not everyone does. Otherwise, it would be a 10. The last year has shown a marked improvement in the support responses however.

The format was great; someone was there to ask questions or help if you were stuck.

Incentivized

All of Xero's training is online and available for anyone (business owner or accountants) to learn and become experts in their system. There is a range of content from product training to real world webinars from their partners. Xero is beautiful accounting software and their training is the same.

If it can be done, time the implementation near a new fiscal year so you can start clean. Otherwise, you have to go back and do historical data from the beginning of the fiscal year, which can be brain draining.

Incentivized

Wow, I have used so many accounting systems over the last 30 years! Your above options don't even list them. I've used systems like AccPac, TurboCash, WaveApps, and more. The answer to the first question explains why I prefer Xero.

I have yet to fully stress test the product given the size of the company where I am using it. I am sure as we scale to more customers, more vendors and more reporting requirements, I will have a better understanding of what it is capable of in terms of bandwidth and processing

Incentivized

• Invoices and bills are generated easily

Incentivized

• We have saved 1 hour per month on reporting on one of our not-for-profits, which is 12 hours a year at minimum from an investment of 30 minutes on initial setup.
• On cleanup files, we are able to save at minimum half the time we would spend and be able to get them cleaned up and moved to a monthly file quicker
• Using cash coding on one client as an example it would take us a week to do their bookkeeping last year it took me 8 hours from start to finish.