Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Vista
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Viewpoint’s Vista is a construction accounting software. Vista’s core accounting features include accounts receivable and payable, general ledger, payroll and time management, and cash management. It also provides tools for document management, including document templates and reporting.N/A
Xero
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
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
Viewpoint VistaXero
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Early
$13
per month
Growing
$37
per month
Established
$70
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
VistaXero
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPrices 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
Features
Viewpoint VistaXero
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Viewpoint Vista
8.2
25 Ratings
13% above category average
Xero
7.5
73 Ratings
2% above category average
Pay calculation8.424 Ratings8.065 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.518 Ratings8.023 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.524 Ratings7.249 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings7.241 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings7.154 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Viewpoint Vista
7.6
6 Ratings
1% above category average
Xero
8.1
153 Ratings
8% above category average
API for custom integration7.46 Ratings7.979 Ratings
Plug-ins7.75 Ratings8.3140 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Viewpoint Vista
8.4
13 Ratings
3% above category average
Xero
7.3
191 Ratings
12% below category average
Single sign-on capability8.411 Ratings5.772 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.513 Ratings8.9189 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Viewpoint Vista
8.2
29 Ratings
13% above category average
Xero
8.5
215 Ratings
9% above category average
Dashboards8.424 Ratings8.4211 Ratings
Standard reports8.029 Ratings8.7213 Ratings
Custom reports7.926 Ratings8.3189 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Viewpoint Vista
8.0
18 Ratings
4% above category average
Xero
7.2
225 Ratings
6% below category average
Accounts payable8.318 Ratings8.7205 Ratings
Accounts receivable8.215 Ratings8.9211 Ratings
Global Financial Support7.31 Ratings6.969 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers8.21 Ratings8.567 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations8.313 Ratings9.890 Ratings
Configurable Accounting8.414 Ratings3.059 Ratings
Standardized Processes7.517 Ratings3.859 Ratings
Cash management00 Ratings8.3193 Ratings
Bank reconciliation00 Ratings8.9218 Ratings
Expense management00 Ratings8.2199 Ratings
Time tracking00 Ratings8.275 Ratings
Fixed asset management00 Ratings8.5139 Ratings
Multi-currency support00 Ratings7.9132 Ratings
Multi-division support00 Ratings8.2114 Ratings
Regulations compliance00 Ratings8.6114 Ratings
Electronic tax filing00 Ratings9.3118 Ratings
Self-service portal00 Ratings8.2132 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings4.540 Ratings
Localizations00 Ratings8.039 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings2.533 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings3.433 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Viewpoint Vista
7.5
6 Ratings
5% below category average
Xero
6.4
103 Ratings
10% below category average
Inventory tracking7.56 Ratings7.599 Ratings
Automatic reordering7.32 Ratings6.224 Ratings
Location management7.64 Ratings6.229 Ratings
Manufacturing module00 Ratings6.116 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Viewpoint Vista
7.7
8 Ratings
2% below category average
Xero
6.2
89 Ratings
20% below category average
Pricing7.36 Ratings6.262 Ratings
Order entry7.78 Ratings6.256 Ratings
Cost of goods sold7.88 Ratings6.366 Ratings
Order Orchestration7.85 Ratings6.121 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings6.458 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings6.124 Ratings
Order exception Resolution00 Ratings6.117 Ratings
Subledger and Financial Process
Comparison of Subledger and Financial Process features of Product A and Product B
Viewpoint Vista
7.6
16 Ratings
2% above category average
Xero
-
Ratings
Billing Management8.013 Ratings00 Ratings
Cash and Asset Management7.813 Ratings00 Ratings
Travel & Expense Management6.77 Ratings00 Ratings
Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting6.88 Ratings00 Ratings
Period Close8.011 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Financial Management
Comparison of Project Financial Management features of Product A and Product B
Viewpoint Vista
8.0
1 Ratings
5% above category average
Xero
-
Ratings
Budgeting and Forecasting7.31 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Costing9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
Cost Capture9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer Contract Compliance7.31 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Revenue Recognition7.31 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Execution Management
Comparison of Project Execution Management features of Product A and Product B
Viewpoint Vista
6.8
9 Ratings
1% below category average
Xero
-
Ratings
Task Insight for Project Managers7.77 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Mobile Functionality7.28 Ratings00 Ratings
Procurement
Comparison of Procurement features of Product A and Product B
Viewpoint Vista
7.4
8 Ratings
6% above category average
Xero
-
Ratings
Contract Authoring7.66 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract Repository7.96 Ratings00 Ratings
Requisitions-to-Purchase Orders Integrated7.27 Ratings00 Ratings
Supplier Management7.15 Ratings00 Ratings
Supply Chain
Comparison of Supply Chain features of Product A and Product B
Viewpoint Vista
7.7
4 Ratings
8% above category average
Xero
-
Ratings
Inventory Planning7.74 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Viewpoint VistaXero
Small Businesses
Acumatica
Acumatica
Score 8.7 out of 10
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Infor VISUAL
Infor VISUAL
Score 7.4 out of 10
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 7.4 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP Business ByDesign
SAP Business ByDesign
Score 8.5 out of 10
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 6.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Viewpoint VistaXero
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(76 ratings)
8.4
(240 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.7
(17 ratings)
8.5
(35 ratings)
Usability
7.8
(21 ratings)
8.5
(165 ratings)
Availability
8.7
(4 ratings)
9.0
(10 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(4 ratings)
10.0
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
6.5
(28 ratings)
9.3
(36 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(2 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Online Training
8.7
(2 ratings)
10.0
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.6
(8 ratings)
7.3
(10 ratings)
Configurability
8.2
(4 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.2
(41 ratings)
7.1
(124 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.7
(4 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
Professional Services
8.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.6
(2 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.6
(2 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Viewpoint VistaXero
Likelihood to Recommend
Trimble Viewpoint
The company has made a commitment to the use of the Vista products and continue to move forward trying to implement more with the Vista HR Management. From timekeeping to onboarding in the near future we strive to look for better ways to utilize the products for our accounting and payroll purposes.
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Xero
Xero is loaded with exceptional features that make it a perfect fit for all accounting and financial management needs. It makes it easy to budget for our financial resources and to track how they are spent, which helps ensure no spending beyond the budget. Xero also has analytics that help determine our financial health position.
Read full review
Pros
Trimble Viewpoint
  • New employee on-boarding and personnel management
  • Full spectrum accounting management (AP/AR/Payroll)
  • Project management from contract award through project close-out
  • Data security management, reporting and anlysis
  • Equipment full lifespan management for costs, revenue and location tracking
  • User Database allows for built-in customization capabilities to fit the most unique business requirements
Read full review
Xero
  • 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.
Read full review
Cons
Trimble Viewpoint
  • Their payroll module is terribly slow and very clunky.
  • Job costing parameters are very strict and limited.
  • Each module interface has too many forms and screens.
  • There is too much flexibility regarding where to put information into the system. There isn't one place to do anything, which creates confusion for staff.
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.
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Likelihood to Renew
Trimble Viewpoint
It is extremely customizable and tracks so many complicated costs very well, more-so than other construction software programs out there that we've used in the past. It is also not an easy program to use for those even slightly not comfortable with a computer. The help sections/knowledge base could be better organized and updated more. It is a very powerful software program for our business and we rely on it hugely to see how our projects are running in real-time.
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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.
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Usability
Trimble Viewpoint
I think that Vista's is an easy program to use very user friendly with lots of help features to allow the user to fix an issue without having to put a support call into Vista. The reporting and exporting capability's are strong.
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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.
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Reliability and Availability
Trimble Viewpoint
Only issue is when there is an upgrade - it takes several times to get back logged in. Otherwise no issues with getting on to the program. We are set up on lap top or on the remote desk top. Works 90% of the time
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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.
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Performance
Trimble Viewpoint
No issue downloading the reports - I do find sometimes it is easier to export and save than it is to print to a pdf. Options on the different reports not consistent. You can print a couple projects on the JC Contract Status Report - but you have to do each project for the JC Cost by contract item - when neither one is a drill down - not a big deal
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Xero
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.
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Support Rating
Trimble Viewpoint
When privately owned, it was very good, then dropped when owned by Bane Capital Investments. Now that it has been bought by Trimble and has a home, support is back up again. Response time is better than most software companies, and the information provided is good. They have Chat support for quick answers, and a good Knowledge Base and video libraries.
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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
Trimble Viewpoint
I was not part of the in person training. I am assuming the training went well - but I did all my training through viewpoint academy.
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Xero
The format was great; someone was there to ask questions or help if you were stuck.
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Online Training
Trimble Viewpoint
Excellent training! They keep you on track to insure your implementation is going as planned. There are ample ways to receive additional training and training can be provided by position type. If you put on the effort, the training is there.
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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.
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Implementation Rating
Trimble Viewpoint
The trainer Viewpoint sent did not understand the processes, he only knew where the modules were located. He had no understanding of the actual process itself.
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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.
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Alternatives Considered
Trimble Viewpoint
I personally have not used another ERP system other than Viewpoint Vista. I am sure there are others out there, but from listening to my managers experiences before Great Basin Industrial implemented Viewpoint, the other options were less superior to what Viewpoint offers. I think if you are looking for an ERP system in the construction industry, then Viewpoint is the way to go
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.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Trimble Viewpoint
I wasn't part of the integration.
Read full review
Xero
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Trimble Viewpoint
For a small business - this program is well used in the accounting and operations. The two different work plans are set up for success. Alot of the programs we do not use - but like the reports that are generated - one disadvantage if you do not know crystal reports you cannot edit your form to meet your needs so there is a lot of printing different several forms to get all the information you need.
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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
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Professional Services
Trimble Viewpoint
I wasn't part of the integration.
Read full review
Xero
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Trimble Viewpoint
  • Not sure I can speak to this as the company moved to Viewpoint before I began here. I think it is helpful for the Project Management and Superintendent staff to easily review how specific job items went, which we do in the PM contract drilldown analysis
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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

Vista Screenshots

Screenshot of Job Cost AccountingScreenshot of Equipment ManagementScreenshot of Service ManagementScreenshot of Service Management Dispatch Board

Xero Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of