Xero

Score8.3 out of 10

850 Reviews and Ratings

What is Xero?

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.

Categories & Use Cases

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Pricing
Users can set up complex and unique pricing requirements.
Category average: 8
Order entry
Users can enter an order once, and the data flows to all the necessary units such as fulfillment and billing.
Category average: 8
Intercompany Accounting
Automatically balance and reconcile GL for intercompany transactions
Category average: 8.3

Manufacturing module
The software helps track and manage raw materials, work-in-progress items, and finished goods.
Category average: 6.6
Centralized Rules Framework
Integrate disparate ERP and transactional systems into single ERP instance
Category average: 7.7
Single sign-on capability
The software system supports a centralized authentication mechanism allowing the user to access multiple systems with a single, centrally managed password.
Category average: 8.5

Jane Morin

Senior Accountant in Finance and Accounting at STORIES designed for consumers (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Xero has been very resourceful when it comes to handling our business accounting needs including invoicing and managing all our accounts receivable and payable. It comes with automation features to boost accuracy and save time. With Xero, categorizing our business expenses has been easy and it also handles expense management where teams can scan and upload receipts for approval.

Pros

Invoicing and quote is easy. Creating invoices, sending and tracking them is easy with this tool.
It makes expenses tracking easy. Capturing receipts and uploading them for approval is fast.
The bank reconciliation feature works well - Importing and matching bank transactions with statements is easy.
It comes with payroll features that makes processing salaries easy.
Reporting and analytics features are also very helpful.

Cons

Slow reporting and this needs to be improved to make the tool better.
It offers limited inventory tracking features.

Return on Investment

With expenses management features and ease of categorizing expenditure, Xero ensures transparency.
It comes with automation features thus boosting accuracy and this helps avoid costly financial errors while saving time.
Reporting and analytics features helps in decision making.

Usability

Other Software Used

Zoho Forms, Webex Connect, Accounting Seed

Clinton Jiggetts View profile

Owner in Corporate at Best Fit Digital (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it to manage our multiple business accounts, and reconcile transactions. We were using spreadsheets prior and it was hard to organize financial information for our bookkeeper. Also, we do internal organizational reviews. Xero makes it much easier to strategize and build a plan to implement. Overall Xero is intuitive and easy to manage which makes it helpful overall.

Pros

Reconcile Transactions
Organize multiple accounts in one place
Easy to Navigate

Cons

Auto reconcile is wrong sometimes
Syncing broke and had to be reconnected

Return on Investment

Reduced Errors
More Consistent reporting

Usability

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online

Other Software Used

HubSpot CRM, ClickUp, Twilio

Mahima Asopa View profile

Assistant team leader in Finance and Accounting at Mindspace Outsourcing (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Xero in our organisation for managing accounting and track errors in cash flow. Cash flow accounting, incurred expense, tax reporting, AP project and AR project. Timesheet updates, invoice posting, Bank reconciliation, vendor reconciliation. If we have NGOs related work we can track funds or donations very easily on cash basis and accrual basis. It is very time consuming and we can bulk upload the invoices at a time.

Pros

Timesheet tracker
Connect 800 banks at a time
AP and AR bills and invoices tracker
Payroll Reconciliation
Bank reconciliation

Cons

Payroll setup
Pre built reports
Donation and funds tracker
Inventory Management

Return on Investment

Positive - Reduced errors
Negative - Training cost is very high
Positive - Cash flow visibility
Negative - Need cash flow support more

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Zoho Books, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks and BILL

Other Software Used

Hubdoc, Shopify, Gusto, Sage Intacct

Faith Eyene

Accounting Manager in Finance and Accounting at btpafrique (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Xero for all our business accounting needs and it has been a great addition to our business. It is a cloud platform that helps in automating our business bookkeeping as well as simplifying financial management. The tool ensures that we have a clear visibility of our cash flow, it handles invoicing, payroll, and business bills. The ability to integrate Xero with other apps including Salesforce and Expensify makes it irresistible.

Pros

Automates most accounting processes to speed up processes while ensuring no human errors.
Accessing Xero is easy no matter location or device as it is a cloud platform.
It handles invoice, payroll, bookkeeping, and financial management easily.
Supports integration with other apps including Expensify and Salesforce.
It ensures data security and backup.
Supports collaboration.

Cons

Incorrect categorization of expenses leads to financial errors.
Everthing else works fine.

Return on Investment

With Xero, managing and handling our accounting is always easy.
Thanks to reports and ease of expense reconciliation and categorization, we make best decisions.
It handles financial management really well and the automation helps in ensuring error free accounting.

Usability

Other Software Used

Salesforce CRM Analytics, Expensify, Slack

Lisa A Lewis View profile

Owner in Finance and Accounting at Money Matters Bookkeeping, LLC (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I had been using Xero for my business however, similar to QuickBooks, it has been declining in the recent past. There have been outages, errors and other issues. It seems like the more the companies try to improve their software, the more the products go downhill. The old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." should apply to all software products.

Pros

user friendly
easy reporting
very customizable

Cons

errors
outages
slowness

Return on Investment

None. I have since moved all businesses out of Xero into other software.
n/a
n/a

Usability

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Online Advanced

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Online Advanced, Quickbooks Online Payroll, OnPay, Gusto

Xero

What is Xero?

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Key Features

Top Performing Features

Pricing

Order entry

Intercompany Accounting

Areas for Improvement

Manufacturing module

Centralized Rules Framework

Single sign-on capability

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