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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Tropic

    Score9.4 out of 10
    N/ATropic is a procurement intelligence platform that automatically finds ways to reduce and control costs. By combining procurement workflows, supplier management, and benchmark pricing data together in one place, Tropic brings visibility, control, and leverage to company spend.N/A

    Xero

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AXero 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
    TropicXero
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Early
    $13
    per month
    Growing
    $37
    per month
    Established
    $70
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    TropicXero
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—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
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    TropicXero
    Considered Both Products
    Tropic
    No answer on this topic
    Xero
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Would buy again
    161 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    154 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    161 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    132 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Implementation went as expected
    150 Answers
    Features
    TropicXero
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Tropic and Xero
    Feature
    Tropic
    -
    Ratings
    Xero
    7.5
    73 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Pay calculation00 Ratings8.065 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration00 Ratings8.023 Ratings
    Direct deposit files00 Ratings7.249 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings7.141 Ratings
    Reimbursement management00 Ratings7.054 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of Tropic and Xero
    Feature
    Tropic
    -
    Ratings
    Xero
    8.0
    170 Ratings
    5% above category average
    API for custom integration00 Ratings7.979 Ratings
    Plug-ins00 Ratings8.1157 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Tropic and Xero
    Feature
    Tropic
    -
    Ratings
    Xero
    7.1
    214 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Single sign-on capability00 Ratings5.572 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.7212 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Tropic and Xero
    Feature
    Tropic
    -
    Ratings
    Xero
    8.4
    242 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings8.3238 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings8.9240 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings7.9213 Ratings
    General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
    Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Tropic and Xero
    Feature
    Tropic
    -
    Ratings
    Xero
    8.3
    252 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Accounts payable00 Ratings8.0230 Ratings
    Accounts receivable00 Ratings8.1235 Ratings
    Cash management00 Ratings7.7218 Ratings
    Bank reconciliation00 Ratings8.7245 Ratings
    Expense management00 Ratings7.8225 Ratings
    Time tracking00 Ratings6.288 Ratings
    Fixed asset management00 Ratings7.6153 Ratings
    Multi-currency support00 Ratings7.8150 Ratings
    Multi-division support00 Ratings7.5130 Ratings
    Regulations compliance00 Ratings8.3132 Ratings
    Electronic tax filing00 Ratings8.6135 Ratings
    Self-service portal00 Ratings7.5154 Ratings
    Global Financial Support00 Ratings7.685 Ratings
    Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings7.882 Ratings
    Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings10.040 Ratings
    Localizations00 Ratings10.039 Ratings
    Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings10.090 Ratings
    Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings10.033 Ratings
    Configurable Accounting00 Ratings10.059 Ratings
    Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings6.033 Ratings
    Standardized Processes00 Ratings8.059 Ratings
    Inventory Management
    Comparison of Inventory Management features of Tropic and Xero
    Feature
    Tropic
    -
    Ratings
    Xero
    6.3
    120 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Inventory tracking00 Ratings7.2116 Ratings
    Automatic reordering00 Ratings6.224 Ratings
    Location management00 Ratings6.229 Ratings
    Manufacturing module00 Ratings6.016 Ratings
    Order Management
    Comparison of Order Management features of Tropic and Xero
    Feature
    Tropic
    -
    Ratings
    Xero
    7.3
    89 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Pricing00 Ratings10.062 Ratings
    Order entry00 Ratings10.056 Ratings
    Credit card processing00 Ratings6.358 Ratings
    Cost of goods sold00 Ratings6.366 Ratings
    Order Orchestration00 Ratings6.121 Ratings
    End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings6.124 Ratings
    Order exception Resolution00 Ratings6.117 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    TropicXero
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    MYOB
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft Dynamics GP
    Score5.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    TropicXero
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    8.3
    (267 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.6
    (38 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.3
    (193 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    3.1
    (12 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (10 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.7
    (40 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.6
    (13 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.1
    (3 ratings)
    CPA Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (10 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.5
    (151 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (8 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.5
    (4 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.5
    (4 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    TropicXero
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Tropic
    Tropic is not ideal if you only have contracts below $5k. There isn't sufficient room to successfully negotiate those down. However, if you have sizable and or multi-year contracts, this is where they excel because they have a lot of real life data points to pull from. They are also tough negotiators. One of our reps owned an exhausting negotiation process with a data aggregator and saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Xero
    The only time I wouldn't be suggesting it is to consultants or solopreneurs. I think it's too overwhelming unless you are experienced or have a background related to finance. So it's not that the product isn't powerful, it's that it can be too powerful. For all other size businesses it really is what you need to use to make life simple to track everything in your business. It definitely saves me time by having it all in one place and not multiple spreadsheets etc
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Tropic
    • Contract negotiation
    • Contract visibility
    • Benchmarking
    • Current contract usage
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Xero
    • The bank feed integration makes reconciling transactions easy
    • Once you load a template for your invoices, every client gets a professional looking invoice
    • Bill paying and tracking of payments is also easy; you load your bill into Xero, pay it through the bank, and when the transaction is completed it comes through on bank feeds. If you need to query when a bill was paid, it is all there in Xero
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Tropic
    • Their platform could be improved a bit to do a better job of shadow IT tracking (licenses being used or expenses).
    • Lowering prices for folks who may only want their platform without negotiation services.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Xero
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Tropic
    No answers on this topic
    Xero
    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.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Tropic
    No answers on this topic
    Xero
    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.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Tropic
    No answers on this topic
    Xero
    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.
    Read full review
    Performance
    Tropic
    No answers on this topic
    Xero
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Tropic
    No answers on this topic
    Xero
    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.
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    In-Person Training
    Tropic
    No answers on this topic
    Xero
    The format was great; someone was there to ask questions or help if you were stuck.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Tropic
    No answers on this topic
    Xero
    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.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Tropic
    No answers on this topic
    Xero
    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
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Tropic
    We reviewed other provides for automated bill entry, but not for contract negotiation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Xero
    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.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Tropic
    No answers on this topic
    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
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    Return on Investment
    Tropic
    • They returned savings for us that was greater than the cost of their service.
    • The company has better hygiene in terms of being on top of our contracts - from negotiating terms that finance cares about to ensuring we don't let a contract auto-renew.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Xero
    • 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.
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    ScreenShots

    Xero Screenshots

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