SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a modular ERP that enables users to run mission-critical operations in real time from anywhere, introduce new business models in any industry, and expand globally. SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a SaaS product and can also be deployed in a hybrid landscape for quicker time to value. SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a foundational component of the SAP…
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Xero
Score 8.3 out of 10
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Xero is an online accounting software product for small businesses and personal finance. Its features beyond general ledger and double-bookkeeping include quotable invoicing, bank reconciliation, purchase order and expense management, and tax management. Third party apps can extend its features further.
$13
per month
Pricing
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Xero
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Early
$13
per month
Growing
$37
per month
Established
$70
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Xero
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
Required
No setup fee
Additional Details
Per user, per month
Prices in table are in USD and just apply to the US - other markets & prices are listed below:
Canada - Starter $18 CAD/month, Standard $45 CAD/month, Premium 5 $58 CAD/month
UK - Starter £14/month, Standard £28/month, Premium £36/month
AU - Starter $29 AUD/month, Standard $59 AUD/month, Premium 5 $76 AUD/month
NZ - Starter $31 NZD/month, Standard $66 NZD/month, Premium $84 NZD/month
SAP has a bigger ecosystem, and because of it, I would better go for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Moreover, SAP has its own BI tool SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence which can be used to data visualization, and reporting which can be integrated with SAP S/4HANA Cloud smoothly.
The software reduces the stress of managing multiple departments in the supply chain sector. It offers great performance for both small and large businesses. With the built-in AI, it improves the overall efficiency of the organization and helps in reducing maintenance. The product customer care and support services are available 24/7.
I am a massage and physical therapist. We are not a fancy business but business admin can take a lot of time and effort. Xero came recommended to me by colleagues in the sector. You raise invoices, you get paid. and you pay your bills. These are all daily scenarios for most businesses and Xero does this particularly well. Since my accountant can query my records directly, this greatly saves on bookkeeping time when it is time to do the company returns.
Repeating invoices (most of my business is monthly recurring invoices) - it does these very well.
Reporting - particularly being able to dig into the different lines of the P&L statement.
Tracking categories - I assign a category to every line of every invoice so it's easy to see how much has been sold of each type of service every month and year, and compare them to previous periods.
Having different email addresses for different parts of a customer's business (eg invoices and statements to different places)
Easily seeing the text of emails that have been sent through Xero
More easily archiving old pay items. Our HR software updates rates when awards are updated which means a lot of old pay rates are in the system and they have multiple clicks to archive each one. Clicking the ones to archive in bulk and then just click archive for all would be much more efficient.
The cost of SAP as an ERP is quite high and the switching costs associated with ERP systems are even higher. That being said moving from one ERP to another only happens once in a great while for large organizations. Those switching costs include retraining, IT hardware requirements, outside consultants and more
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.
Day to day data insight is more accurate for manufacturing industry to procure as per forecasted from supplier. Supply and fulfillment cycle becomes more easier. I would say more about performance as we are using this new server so we can see clear difference between SAP S/4HANA Cloud and ECC. Also it has customized business extensions for rapid development.
As a standalone software, it allows users to fulfill most of the basic functions (e.g. transaction input and report generation) simply and conveniently. It also allows for multiple APIs to help augment various tasks that accounting-adjacent (e.g. claims processing). The cloud based model and portability to mobile devices allows tasks to be carried out in a more convenient way.
I would rate SAP S/4HANA Cloud’s availability as 10 out of 10. The system is generally reliable and accessible whenever needed, with minimal unplanned outages. Occasional minor application errors or brief maintenance windows can occur, but overall the platform provides a high level of uptime and stability, which supports continuous business operations effectively.
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.
I would rate SAP S/4HANA Cloud’s performance as 10 out of 10. Most pages load quickly, and reports generally complete in a reasonable time frame, even for complex queries. The system handles integrations with other software smoothly, though in a few high-volume scenarios, certain reports or dashboards may take slightly longer to process. Overall, performance is strong and meets the needs of most business operations effectively.
On a good day, things worked but after upgrades, things began to slow and or not work at all at times. I coined the moving circle while I waited as the "Xero Wheel of Death". Sometimes it never stopped and force quitting was necessary.
The support system I find great as whenever I run into problems they rectify them quickly as possible they never reacted late the support is just up to the mark for me. They provide many solutions to the problems I faced the [technical] team support is always amazing they [listen] to mean work accordingly.
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.
I gave this rating because the SAP S/4HANA Cloud trainings were well-structured, comprehensive, and practical. They provided clear guidance on system functionality, hands-on exercises, and real-world scenarios that made it easier for our team to understand and adopt the platform. At the same time, there’s room for improvement in providing more role-specific or advanced scenario trainings, which would further enhance learning for specialized users.
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.
SAP requires a lot of internal and external resources to complete its successful implementation. The cloud version requires a deeper understanding of the different capabilities of the local systems (hardware) and the connection towards your local IT team. We found several problems on our systems that we couldn't foresee before the implementation and roll out.
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.
In our quest for an ERP solution, we evaluated alternatives such as Oracle ERP Cloud and Microsoft Dynamics 365. However, SAP S/4HANA Cloud's reputation for advanced analytics, scalability, and seamless integration with other SAP solutions made it the natural choice for our organization's digital journey.
Each of the products I listed had their own list of drawbacks, but the one thing they all had in common, which was right on top of that list of drawbacks, was ease of use. I struggled to get myself accustomed to each system and struggled, but when it came to getting a client to even try and use it was when the true struggle started. Just found it easier to make use of Xero from the very beginning.
The platform is highly flexible and cloud-based, allowing deployment across multiple departments, locations, and business units with minimal infrastructure constraints. It supports growth, additional users, and new business processes efficiently. The only reason for a 10 that it’s a perfect that certain highly specialized integrations or legacy system migrations can require extra planning to scale seamlessly, but overall the platform handles expansion very well.
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
I would rate the professional services for SAP S/4HANA Cloud as 10 out of 10. The team was highly knowledgeable, responsive, and provided valuable guidance throughout the implementation process. They helped with system configuration, best practices, and troubleshooting, ensuring a smoother deployment and faster user adoption. The only minor area for improvement would be slightly faster turnaround on certain non-critical queries, but overall, the services greatly contributed to the project’s success.
Xero is a basic accounting system that performs basic accounting tasks easily and accurately. For that, it provides a positive impact on our day to day accounting operations.
Because of Xero's basic structure, I feel it lacks some of the sophistication that some users want and need. The ability to create unique custom reports would enhance the impact Xero would have on meeting business objectives by providing current and useful accounting information.
In my opinion, Xero's lack of focus on their customers - their users - is a real issue with me. In my opinion, those of us that are in the trenches that work with the system on a daily basis have to deal with the shortcomings of the system with the knowledge that Xero support refuses to address the operational issues that make their user's lives difficult. I feel if Xero would focus on truly making their software better from a users point of view, it has the potential to be a great system.
