Xero vs Zoho Books | TrustRadius

What users are saying about

Score 8.8 out of 10

Based on 474 reviews and ratings

Score 8.7 out of 10

Based on 83 reviews and ratings

Feature Rating Comparison

Xero

Zoho Books

Pay calculation

Benefit plan administration

Direct deposit files

Salary revision and increment management

Reimbursement management

Xero

Zoho Books

API for custom integration

Plug-ins

Xero

Zoho Books

Single sign-on capability

Role-based user permissions

Xero

Zoho Books

Dashboards

Standard reports

Custom reports

Xero

Zoho Books

Accounts payable

Accounts receivable

Cash management

Bank reconciliation

Expense management

Time tracking

Fixed asset management

Multi-currency support

Multi-division support

Regulations compliance

Electronic tax filing

Self-service portal

Global Financial Support

Primary and Secondary Ledgers

Intercompany Accounting

Localizations

Journals and Reconciliations

Enterprise Accounting

Configurable Accounting

Centralized Rules Framework

Standardized Processes

Xero

Zoho Books

Inventory tracking

Automatic reordering

Location management

Manufacturing module

Xero

Zoho Books

Pricing

Order entry

Credit card processing

Cost of goods sold

Order Orchestration

End-to-end order visibility

Order exception Resolution

Pros

Easy to set-up/use. It took me only 15-minutes for the initial set-up.
Provide necessary integration with other applications we use. We integrate Xero with Expensify and JustWorks.
Cost-effective and therefore much cheaper than other plans out there.
Real-time link with our bank, which provides real-time account balances of what's in our bank account.
Standard reports already built-in.

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Verified User

Administrator in Finance and Accounting

Non-profit Organization Management Company, 11-50 employees

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Zoho Books invoicing and receipting features are second to none. We find it easy to quickly invoice clients and add items to their bills and also for our own receipting internally.
The accounting features are great for our accounting team to be able to see where we are financially and how the business is doing.
The ability to add contacts and run a mini CRM channel with clients within Zoho is invaluable. Since we use this in conjunction with our other CRM channels, it helps to have a centralized place to follow up and see through a sales funnel.
Zoho Books allows us to take payments from clients around the globe a feature we didn't have when we used another accounting system.
The pricing for Zoho Books is fairly reasonable for an SME organization which is a great for us as it pays itself back many times over every month.

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Nathan Sichilongo

Digital Marketing Manager

Dotcom ZambiaConsumer Services, 11-50 employees

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Cons

Overall it is a great platform and quite comprehensive for US based users.
However, if we focus on multinational companies that want to integrate the information of different companies in several countries within the same solution, we find the need to carry out reports outside the platform to provide the accounting structure and compliance necessary in countries outside the US.

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Verified User

Manager in Professional Services

Accounting Company, 51-200 employees

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When converting to Zoho Books from another accounting software, this seemed a bit difficult but this process is never easy.
There are certain restrictions within modules (estimates/sales orders/invoices/payments) that make it difficult to edit transactions. In many ways this is good, but different from what we have experienced with other accounting software solutions.

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Verified User

Administrator in Customer Service

Renewables & Environment Company, 1-10 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

Xero 2.1

Based on 26 answers

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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Consultant - Cloud accounting integration, Real Time Accounting

FuturebooksAccounting, 1-10 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Usability

Xero 9.0

Based on 50 answers

Xero has a very clean design and a pleasant, easy-to-navigate GUI. It was immediately understandable how to reconcile book charges without a tutorial. Creating and sending invoices are fairly straight forward; and financial reports are easily customizable. Xero also has a support database that gives quick solutions to most issues.

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Verified User

Executive in Corporate

Biotechnology Company, 1-10 employees

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Zoho Books 7.2

Based on 4 answers

Some features lack of depth in its functionalities as they give the impression that they are incomplete or half-way developed, so it is necessary to optimize some features already present in the software so that it can provide maximum performance and provide a real value to the software. It should be noted that there is a steep in the learning curve when using Zoho Books especially if you are a user who comes from using another accounting software, so you will have to get used to its workflow and operation.

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Project Manager

PRECISION ELECTRIC CONTRACTORS, LLCConstruction, 11-50 employees

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Reliability and Availability

Xero 9.0

Based on 10 answers

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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Co-Founder

Catching CloudsAccounting, 1-10 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Performance

Xero 10.0

Based on 8 answers

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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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Corporate

Information Technology and Services Company, 11-50 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Support Rating

Xero 4.4

Based on 19 answers

Support has always been responsive and quickly resolved any questions I have. The only reason I don't give full points is because there's no way to call for immediate help. I'm fine with this because I don't need it badly enough to pay for it

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CFO

RenewableTech VenturesVenture Capital & Private Equity, 11-50 employees

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Zoho Books 5.7

Based on 4 answers

The people are great. They follow the party line when working with us. There is clearly no intent to provide integration to the employee expenseThere is no intent to make the bank reconciliations system work in a manner consistent with US Accounting principles. There is no intent make the payroll system one that can easily cut a paycheck. Which brings up the fact that adjusting the printing on a check is very laborious and you only get close. You cannot get perfect

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CEO (Chief Executive Officer)

James Environmental MgmtManagement Consulting, 11-50 employees

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Online Training

Xero 10.0

Based on 5 answers

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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Co-Founder

Catching CloudsAccounting, 1-10 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Implementation Rating

Xero 9.7

Based on 10 answers

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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Owner / Head Trainer

When Hounds FlyConsumer Services, 1-10 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

For the purpose of which we use Xero, I have not used any alternative systems. However, for certain aspects of it such as expense management, we decided to go with Webexpenses to replace the expense management features of Xero. This was because Xero lacked the automation, control and visibility we needed to correctly manage our company's expenses.

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Verified User

Analyst in Finance and Accounting

Information Technology & Services Company, 51-200 employees

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We had a lot of problems with Exact Online, support-wise and price-wise. So Zoho Books wins on every point there. While Exact offers way more options, it tends to be really slow... and complex. Again Zoho Books wins. If you want an easy-to-use tool and not pay a lot of money, or if you are a small administration office with a few clients, this tool will be perfect for you.

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SEO Specialist | MA consultant

Klantenfabriek.nlMarketing & Advertising, 1-10 employees

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Scalability

Xero 10.0

Based on 6 answers

Over 600 plus apps available for integration and easy to create standard charts of account and report templates to implement across multiple entities. Same pricing regardless of number of transactions or users. Real benefit is variety of integrated apps that allow you to automate processes and have functionality that 10 years ago was only available in ERP systems costing hundreds of thousands.

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Verified User

Partner in Finance and Accounting

Accounting Company, 1-10 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Return on Investment

Excellent positive impact on ROI - easy to use, saves time related to bookkeeping
Improved access to financial information - excellent reports
Improved bill payment time - can easily see what bills are due and the amounts
Improved accounts receivables collection time - can easily see when invoices are coming due

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Nicola (Nicki) Morris

CEO | Management Consultant

The Neoteric GroupManagement Consulting, 1-10 employees

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Integration: Zoho Books offers out of the box integrations to extend the functionality and connect with the applications you love like MailChimp, Microsoft Outlook, PandaDoc, and Quickbooks, etc.
Flexibility makes Zoho Books great!
Since I can use forecast reports, I can create customizable sales forecast data from the dashboard to accurately measure revenue forecasts and establish sales quotas.

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Owner

Lonell Multimedia/Strong Beach MediaOnline Media, 1-10 employees

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Screenshots

See All (6) Xero Screenshots

See All (6) Zoho Books Screenshots

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Xero Editions & Modules

Edition

Early	$11¹
Growing	$32¹
Established	$62¹

per month

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

Yes

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

Optional

$15

Zoho Books Editions & Modules

Edition

Standard	$15¹
Professional	$40¹
Premium	$60¹
Free	$0²

Per Organization/Month, Billed Annually
For businesses with turnover <50K USD per annum

Additional Pricing Details

Zoho Books is available for both monthly and yearly plans. Users who sign up for the annual plan get a discount.

Rating Summary

Xero

Zoho Books

Xero

Zoho Books

Xero

Zoho Books

Xero

Zoho Books

Xero

Zoho Books

Xero

Zoho Books

Xero

Zoho Books

Xero

Zoho Books

Xero

Zoho Books

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