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Xero

Xero

Overview

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…

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Recent Reviews

Xero to Hero

8 out of 10
March 18, 2024
Incentivized
My business uses Xero as a gauge for all financial optics. It helps manage monies in and out, account visibility and solves invoicing …
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Xero the Hero

10 out of 10
March 04, 2024
Incentivized
I use Xero for invoicing, reconciling our monthly revenue and spending, and providing our accountants with the information they need for …
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Xero or Zero

1 out of 10
March 01, 2024
I use it as an accounting program. <br>The program constantly loses the ability to connect to my bank. When reported this problem takes …
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Xero

4 out of 10
February 02, 2024
It is an accounting system we use for billing, paying bills, and producing financial reports. It also has payroll capabilities, but I am …
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Efficient User

8 out of 10
January 11, 2024
Incentivized
Xero caters excellently to businesses of various sizes, offering a remarkably clean interface that's incredibly user-friendly, even for …
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Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 44 features
  • Bank reconciliation (188)
    9.1
    91%
  • Accounts receivable (181)
    9.0
    90%
  • Standard reports (183)
    8.3
    83%
  • Dashboards (180)
    8.0
    80%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons

Video Reviews

1 video

"Straight-Forward" Accounting. How Xero Helped a Business Owner Manage Expenses
03:08
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Pricing

View all pricing

Early

$13

Cloud
per month

Growing

$37

Cloud
per month

Established

$70

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $13 per month
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Features

Payroll Management

Provides for pay calculation and benefit plan administration, in addition to managing direct deposit, salary revisions and payroll tracking.

7.8
Avg 7.5

Customization

This addresses a company’s ability to configure the software to fit its specific use case and workflow.

7.5
Avg 7.1

Security

This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.

8
Avg 8.0

Reporting & Analytics

Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.

8.1
Avg 7.6

General Ledger and Configurable Accounting

Financial management solution, including capabilities for general ledger and configurable accounting

7.4
Avg 7.4

Inventory Management

The ability to track and manage the flow of goods or materials into and out of an inventory.

6.5
Avg 7.0

Order Management

The ability to process orders, and track them from quote to cash.

6.8
Avg 7.4
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Product Details

What is Xero?

Xero is an online accounting software platform for small businesses and their advisors, as well as for personal finance. Xero competes most often with QuickBooks Online. Its features, beyond the ubiquitous general ledger and double-entry bookkeeping support, include invoicing with quotes, bank reconciliation, purchase order and expense management, tax management, and it is mobile-accessible. Xero integrates with over 800 third-party applications, covering everything from inventory and logistics to cash flow, project management, customer relationship management, and e-commerce.

The product is sold by subscription (a distribution model commonly known as software as a service or SaaS) requiring the payment of a monthly fee. This charge is proportionate to the number (and type) of company entities managed by the subscriber. The lowest tiered pricing option is the $9 per month Starter pack, which supports unlimited users but a limited number of transactions. The $30 Standard pack breaks open usage limits and adds e-filing and payroll options. The $70 Premium package doubles the number of supported employees on payroll from 5 to 10, and supports multiple currencies.

Xero Features

General Ledger and Configurable Accounting Features

  • Supported: Accounts payable
  • Supported: Accounts receivable
  • Supported: Cash management
  • Supported: Bank reconciliation
  • Supported: Expense management
  • Supported: Time tracking
  • Supported: Fixed asset management
  • Supported: Multi-currency support
  • Supported: Multi-division support
  • Supported: Regulations compliance
  • Supported: Electronic tax filing
  • Supported: Self-service portal
  • Supported: Global Financial Support
  • Supported: Primary and Secondary Ledgers

Inventory Management Features

  • Supported: Inventory tracking

Reporting & Analytics Features

  • Supported: Dashboards
  • Supported: Standard reports
  • Supported: Custom reports

Customization Features

  • Supported: Plug-ins

Security Features

  • Supported: Role-based user permissions
  • Supported: Multi-factor authentication

Xero Screenshots

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

Xero Video

Xero is accounting software for small businesses and their advisors. It reveals a business's cashflow in real-time with online accounting, invoicing, payroll, billing & banking.

Xero Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Xero starts at $13.

Priority AccountEdge, QuickBooks Online, and Sage 50cloud Accounting are common alternatives for Xero.

Reviewers rate Journals and Reconciliations highest, with a score of 9.2.

The most common users of Xero are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(720)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(101-125 of 208)
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Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently, we use Xero across the whole organization. At the department level, it's used to generate budget variance reports for various department heads to track and monitor the annual budget and actual spend to date. Organization-wide, it's our primary accounting system. We use it to create IS, BS, CF, etc., and to generate GL, JE, etc. for our auditors and tax preparers. The application is also synced with our bank accounts so we get real-time account balances. It's also integrated with other systems we use, including Expensify (used for employee reimbursement and corporate card purchases).
  • Easy to set up/use. It took me only 15-minutes for the initial setup.
  • 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.
  • Customized reports - allow more customization of reports to meet the specific needs of users.
  • Allow multiple journal entries at one time.
  • Create more free integrations with other software applications, like SAP Concur.
Xero is well suited for small companies/organizations that don't have very large transaction volumes and whose accounting is fairly simple and straightforward. It's also suited for entities that only require some basic/intermediate reporting needs. Xero is less appropriate for companies/organizations that require more advanced reports, have large transaction volumes, or if there are many accounting/finance professionals who will be using the platform at any given time.
Michael Koslowski | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Xero for all sales and bills, with assistance from a Xero skilled remote accountant.
  • Links to the Australian tax office.
  • Links to bank accounts.
  • UX is simple and clean.
  • Search experience isn't great, too often linked to unhelpful info.
Good for those hesitant to learn new software. I would recommend having an accountant/bookkeeper help set you up properly for the features you need to use. I probably only use a fraction of Xero's capabilities, but enough to do everything our startup needs to do.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Xero in our business for invoicing and tracking expenses.
  • Simple and easy to use.
  • Great for reconciling bank statements.
  • Great Marketplace of add-ons.
  • One of the more expensive systems.
  • Very difficult to send deposit invoices.
  • For the price of Xero there aren't many improvements and updates.
In South Africa, it is the best option for us as we don't have Stripe. It works well and is easy to use. We are now using extra add-ons to Xero from the marketplace like Xero projects which adds a whole feature list.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used by the finance team. We use it for all accounting purposes for our United Kingdom company and all the international subsidiaries.
  • It's very user friendly and intuitive.
  • Does well what it's supposed to do.
  • Integrates easily with other apps.
  • Can't work with two different companies at the same time, on a different tab for example.
  • It doesn't allow to do a one off address change or contact person change in a sales invoice.
  • [I feel] it could use a cashflow function
It's very good for it's price, so very convenient for small businesses. But it's not the most practical when working with different companies at the same time.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Xero for both a practice management tool, a tax tool and to track our own transactions. We refer our clients to use Xero cloud software above MYOB or Quickbooks as we find it is way more user-friendly, secure, it has more options and it is reasonably priced.
  • Data collection: The fields and customization are very useful.
  • Small amount of down time compared to other software
  • Support: Their support team is very helpful.
  • Reporting: The system is missing a report for when new clients were set up.
  • Duplicates: We see duplicates come through XPM with file set up. I would like to see a notification function for this.
  • Some validation errors are not clear.
If you are a small business that would like to maintain your bookkeeping and accounting in one place, have access to all your financial reports, and work online from anywhere, I would recommend that Xero is well suited to your needs. If you prefer to keep physical data backups, you will not have that ability with Xero but it is saved to the cloud.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Xero software for tax computation, bookkeeping, and financial reporting for our Australian clients. It can import bank statements and other related feeds in this software easily. It tracks revenue and expenses with invoices, and we also use it for payroll, accounts receivable, payable reconciliation, etc. It's the best choice for financial reporting and very user friendly.
  • Customized reports
  • Easy to use
  • Importing bank statement
  • Slowness while generating reports
  • Could not see the opening balance for no-movement balance sheet accounts in account transactions report
  • Minimal sorting and reporting options
Well suited for bookkeeping
Jez John | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The entire organization uses Xero, and we love it! In 2008 we were using an apple mac solution called MYOB, it needed us to email 14mb data files from our bookkeeper, to me and our accountant. It got so confusing we had to build a tool to manage who had the file and allow it to be uploaded and downloaded. I found c. 6 online solutions and asked my bookkeeper to choose 1. She came back and said Xero, new to the UK would be a good fit. It is really easy to use, always up to date and is so well designed it's a pleasure to use.
  • Allowing the entire team to issue invoices as a project reaches a milestone or is singed off.
  • Amazing profit and loss reports
  • Super easy UK vat returns.
  • Possibly payroll, it was a late addition and we had already gone with another vendor.
  • They offer a project management tool called Work Flow Max and we had hoped this would be a useful addition but were underwhelmed. More of a negative for WFM than Xero though
Perfect bookkeeping and accounts package for small and medium businesses, I genuinely can't think of anyone who wouldn't find this valuable. It's so easy to use it hurts and decreases our reliance on bookkeeping staff. It integrates with our bank account and transactions appear to reconcile. I really think it saves hours every week.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero is used by our micro-business across the whole organisation, but primarily from the fulfilment and financial reporting requirements. Our business is located in several different countries, and staff frequently work offsite (including at home). Xero allows us to do our accounting in the cloud. We have other SaaS apps that integrate into Xero; customer CRM (WORKetc) and product fulfilment (TradeGecko).
  • Ability to access and manage accounting data from non-head office locations
  • Superb integration with other SAAS apps
  • Secure document system to hold scans and photographs of documents (receipts, invoices, statements)
  • In an attempt to make Xero more "touch-screen" friendly, the GUI has become larger which takes up more screen space.
  • Some work-paths are a little repetitive
  • Lack of "skin" customisation and personalisation
Xero is excellent for small businesses (or those who are not office-centric). The ability to access the information and conduct business processing is the best advantage. Previously we used the MYOB system that was not internet-savvy. Xero enables us greater freedom. It also works well for our accountant. No longer do we need to print and email reports; the accountant simply logs on to Xero!
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As an academic turned business owner, I had a really hard time learning the QuickBook system. But I was able to set up Xero and use it for all of my expense reconciliation almost immediately. Now, we use Xero for all of our companies bookkeeping, project cost tracking, and accounting activities.
  • A user friendly and clean interface.
  • Accounting and bookkeeping functionalities are easily accessible.
  • Automatic bank and credit card feeds reduce reconciliation work time.
  • Check templates don't always align with physical checks.
  • Location of buttons aren't always obvious.
  • Does not have as extensive [of a] list of external integration as QuickBooks.
Xero is perfect for new business owner[s] and people without [an] accounting background. While having the same functions as QuickBooks, Xero has [an] intuitive, user-friendly interface, clean design, and everything can be done within two buttons. Since Xero is still relatively new in the U.S., traditional bookkeeper[s] and accountant[ing] firms are not as [familiar] with the program, so it requires some time for them to learn the new system.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
At the firm we use it to be able to recommend its use to our clients in their day-to-day operations. We take care of being able to review your financial information and integrate it with your Mexican compliance obligations. An important part of our operation is based on the generation of information from the systems used by the company, so knowing the use of this platform is essential for us.
  • Be completely a cloud-based program.
  • The cost is very affordable for small-sized companies.
  • Ease of integration with other systems or reports outside of your ecosystem.
  • 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.
It works wonderfully in companies with a regular operation in which several people are users of the information; either from who feeds the information by capturing analysis or auditing users or only the management and direction that interprets the figures for their decision making. Where it is least suitable is for extremely large companies with particular or very detailed needs.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero has been used at our company for a number of years and is still currently being used. It is managed and controlled by the Finance department for a number of different purposes such as account reconciliation, invoice management, financial reporting and payroll. Users of the organization do not have access to Xero other than the Finance team and a few select individuals.
  • Payroll
  • Account Reconcilliation
  • Financial Reporting
  • More user friendly management reports
  • Better expense management
  • Cleaner user interface
I would recommend Xero very highly to a colleague with a rating of 8. This is because it is a single system which serves a variety of purposes and functions which allows us as a finance team to work efficiently. It has many benefits which make our day to day responsibilities much easier.
Mark Sinclair | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Xero to manage our accounting and reporting requirements. Xero also integrates with other applications we use including Chargebee, Bank accounts[,] and Stripe.
  • Synchronises transactions with bank account for easy reconciliation
  • Automates BAS and GST reporting
  • Automates transaction allocation to accounts based on banking transaction codes
  • Provides all financial reports
  • Reconciles transactions from our subscription system, Paypal and Stripe
  • None come to mind. Xero meets all our needs.
Xero is great at reconciling transactions between bank accounts, our subscription system, and payment integrators. Also, the automated BAS and GST reporting functionality saves significant time.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero is being used to manage all business transactions from multiple accounts and currencies. It gives us a great overview of the company cash position and is essential in planning budgets and forecasting sales and revenue.
  • Customized reports
  • Multiple bank accounts support
  • Expenses support
  • Payroll
  • Design, UI
Xero works great for smaller companies and is easy to use and adapt. However, for larger scale companies I imagine a more sophisticated solution would be needed with much more automation and custom functions.
May 01, 2021

Xero Review

Joe Salas | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
To create and send POs, as well as some accounting. It is being used by multiple departments.
  • Accounting purposes
  • Creating POs
  • Sending & logging invoices (via POs)
  • Sent POs don’t include item numbers from the POs created in Xero. Would recommend a fix there.
  • Lack of integrations with inventory management platforms
Good for online-based companies, especially retail.
CiCi Reagan Twining 👑 | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's used across my entire organisation. It's used to keep up with accounts, invoice clients, and receive payments. Because it integrates with multiple payment platforms, it's easier for clients to pay their invoices. It also allows us to implement payment plans for our clients with repeating invoices and auto payment.
  • Auto matching transactions
  • Easily convert quotes to invoices (one click)
  • Automatic invoice payment reminders
  • Not a lot of room for customisation of invoice/quote templates
  • Complicated to add new accounts
Xero is great for my business. As a sole trader with multiple income streams and the ability to link to my bank account, it's easy to stay organised. I can quickly create quotes and convert them to invoices. I know that a lot of accountants recommend this software and I can imagine that I'm only using it to a small percentage of it's ability as I find a lot of the functionality difficult to even locate. It does make it easier to do taxes at the end of the year, etc due to its reporting functionality.
Jeremy Grant | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero is used across our organization. Aside from the standard accounting functionality that it offers, we use it extensively for quotes. The simple, intuitive nature of the user interface allows for a range of user skills, whilst at the same time providing an efficient tool for our business. Its integration with Insightly CRM allows our sales team to easily stay on top of their clients' account status as well. All employees make use of the Expense Claims module, allowing them all to track claims from time of entry through to payment.
  • Xero does the accounting and bookkeeping basics very well, and it also caters for the more experienced users to report comprehensively on the current status of their business.
  • Xero is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), therefore we don't worry about backups. Our friends at Xero do that for us. It's also available 99.99% of the time.
  • Xero is accessible on any machine. We don't need to manage databases, VPNs etc. It's all done for us, securely!
  • Reporting on the Quotes modules. It is very difficult to manage large volumes of quotes.
  • Access levels could be more granular. Certain areas of the package allow for great flexibility, however there are times when you do need to restrict certain functionality. This is not a deal breaker however!
Xero is very well suited to the small-medium sized business. I am comfortable saying this as this is where our business is positioned. I cannot comment on its suitability to larger businesses with many users. From the ease-of-setup, to designing and generating more complex reports, there is not much that is not relatively straightforward to do. Add to this the wealth of knowledge available online, we're very self sufficient with Xero, as opposed to our older system, which required constant interventions by our consultant and days of waiting for any modifications required. With Xero, the system update responsibility is taken out of our hands. More reason to switch to a SaaS product.
Jerry Pett | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use XERO across the organisation. I also have clients who use XERO and we have provided integration of systems for this.

It simplifies business administration, and being a cloud company ourselves, we love cloud solutions. It comes with a full range of out of the box reporting and tools (statements, VAT returns, P&L, balance sheets, bank feeds), has plug ins for areas such as eCommerce or payment gateways, and a fully developed API for integration.
  • Quick and simple to do the basic tasks, i.e. billing, statements.
  • Our of the box formatting is clean and usable. Easy to tweak for branding.
  • Great API.
  • Dashboard customisation could be improved. It can be done but we did not find it intuitive.
Small businesses, it is ideal. Low or high transactions work equally well, for high transaction you would want to use the API.
Nicola (Nicki) Morris | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero is being used across the organization for sales invoicing, accounts receivables management, expense reconciliation, accounts payable, bookkeeping functions and financial reporting. It addresses all of our accounting and financial management needs. It is a comprehensive application that allows manual journal entries, integrates well with other applications, and is very user friendly.
  • Sales invoices - can be customized, default due dates set up and reminders sent to facilitate payment
  • Integrates well with other applications (Dext/Receiptbank) - makes expense reconciliation very efficient and accurate.
  • Excellent reports - can be customized and valuable for simple or detailed reporting and analysis
  • Easy to use for those with no accounting background (also suitable for those with advanced accounting knowledge)
  • Improvements are always being made but nothing currently needs improvement
[Xero is well suited for] Small business, bookkeeping, for those with limited accounting skills (and also appropriate for those with advanced accounting knowledge).
Any business that needs a comprehensive, well integrated accounting platform with excellent support resources and technical support.
March 22, 2021

Best XERO

Krunal Thakkar | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Xero for our clients. It is used by the accounting department. It almost solves every problem like balance sheet, profit and loss account, and ledger statements.
  • It creates accounting statements automatic.
  • It also gives very good facility for Payroll.
  • We can easily access our bank with the Xero.
Xero is a very good accounting tool for bookkeeping activities where you just have to pass the journal entry and every other thing will be done by XERO. It also gives the facilities to upload the Budget data so it is easy for the client to check actual vs budget.
Marc-André Lapierre | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Xero for my personal accounting to manage the different buildings I own (rent, expenses, etc.). It is a fairly basic use of the product I must say. The software is in general ok to use, reporting is enough and easy to work with. My accountant knows that software as well so this is very convenient.
  • Easy to use
  • Web based
  • API
  • Pricing is a joke in Canada. 45% exchange rate on USD when it's 20%.
  • Customer service is almost absent and slow to respond.
  • Software is slow many times a week.
  • Software crash and they are not even aware.
The most negative aspect of Xero is that it might be slow to use, generate reports, or during general use. The interface crashes a few times a year for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, the customer service is not very "responsive" since you can only chat or email them. Most of the time, going through Facebook is the best way to interact. Weird thing is that most of the time when it crashes and I communicate with them they don't even know it's crashed! If you can rely on Cloud-based software, Xero is ok in general. There's an API that you can use to link it with other software.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Xero is used for quotations (some of them) and all invoicing across our company.
  • Quote converts to invoice.
  • Design templates can be uploaded for documents.
  • Email templates can be added.
  • They can't be contacted so if you have a problem, you'll have it for a long time (or maybe forever).
  • VAT return period can't be closed. So, someone can amend an invoice or bill or add one in to a previous VAT period, which of course screws everything up.
  • You can't set a date for stock to arrive. When you make the order, the system assumes that it's now in stock!
  • You can't save two customers with the same name! They will tell you to add a special character to duplicate names! Unbelievable but true!
  • There are no delivery notes/packing slips. They tout a "workaround" but be warned, it's exactly 10 extra clicks so it's really not an option if you need this feature.
  • If you want to send a document after preparing it, first you have to save it, wait for it to save, it takes you out to a main screen, you have to click back into it and then send it (if you send directly, it will send a draft document only).
  • There's loads more negatives but that's all I can think of now.
Worst software experience that I have ever had, bar none. I have consistently felt this way for 2 years now and am in the process of moving 2 companies away from Xero. We would have moved ages ago but it's just such a hassle and takes so much time.
Jennifer Hess | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We switched from QuickBooks Online to Xero at the beginning of 2019, so we've been using it as our primary bookkeeping system for just over a year. I was attracted to it for its pricing, interface and integrations — specifically with my time tracking solution (Everhour) and credit card processor (Stripe). With QBO, it felt like all their new product development was just bolted on to an existing structure, but not well thought-out or easily navigable. Every year it seemed they were increasing the cost of my plan for services that were more difficult to use and poorly executed. With Xero, I was able to set up not only credit card options for my clients (which QBO also offers), but autopay solutions, PayPal (much easier to use & reconcile than in QBO) and ACH transfer options. While those take a fee, it helps to reduce the amount of time spent hunting down client payments.

We also began using Earth Class Mail (virtual mailbox) a few years ago, which automatically deposits any received checks to our bank, and has a Xero integration so I can record the deposit directly from the ECM interface (it has limitations, but that's an ECM issue not a Xero issue, though Xero may benefit from improving / expanding their API).
  • Simpler, more streamlined interface
  • Easy integration with payment services like Stripe, PayPal & GoCardless
  • Customizable email templates with merge tag support, including reminder emails and recurring invoice email templates
  • Recurring invoices are easier to setup, manage & modify (as compared to QBO)
  • Integration with time tracking solution (Everhour) is easy to manage, and doesn't create any invoice numbering issues due to the generation of invoices from two platforms (e.g., recurring Xero invoices and Everhour time tracking invoices). The system just uses the next sequential Xero invoice number regardless of which platform the invoice comes from. This was a problem on QBO + Harvest.
  • Vendors and clients are all lumped into a giant 'Contacts' pile, which makes it easier to manage contacts who fall into both categories (QBO gets confused about that), as I have clients who are also sometimes vendors.
  • The reporting options are VERY limited, especially as compared to QBO. Minimal support for filters, and it can be tricky to refine some reports by client.
  • Vendors and clients are all lumped into a giant 'Contacts' list, which can make management & organization there difficult. Especially considering the limited reporting options. You can group them, and it has some 'smart grouping' options, but if you don't create an official 'bill' for every expense, or generate an invoice for every past client on your books, the system won't auto-identify 'suppliers' or 'customers'. So, basically, the groups have to be set up manually.
  • All of the digital payment solutions are paid platforms. There is no free bank-to-bank option like with QBO. Likely due to the use of 3rd party vendors for its payment services.
  • There's a 'classic' and 'new' interface, and users can switch between them. But they don't offer the same features, so I find myself using the 'classic' (less pretty) more often. Though I periodically check the 'new' interface, which seems to be improving.
  • Limited support by accounting professionals (in the US at least). My CPA hates it. But I do most of the day-to-day management myself anyway.
  • You can assign billable expenses to a customer, however, sometimes you want to assign it to a customer without actually billing it on their invoice (e.g., it's included in a flat project rate). The system doesn't allow for that. You either have to assign & bill it to the client, or just list it as a regular expense (I add a manual note as to which client it was used for).
Xero is great for small businesses who don't need a lot of complex features, or who will be managing accounting internally. It has robust integration capability that can grow with you (more so than, say FreshBooks), but won't break the bank.

It's not as well suited for larger organizations or those with more complex reporting needs. For example, I acquired another business several years ago, and needed to pull quarterly reports of income from specific clients in order to calculate my pay-out for that quarter. I did that in QBO fairly easily, and had a saved template that I could use to generate it. Luckily I made the switch to Xero after the final pay-out because it would be very difficult to generate such a report now, since there aren't any report filters where you can select only specific customers from your contact list. Xero does support customized report templates that can be saved, the filtering options are just very limited. Essentially, you have to export all of the data to a CSV and then manipulate the spreadsheet locally.
Genie Forkner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have used Xero across our whole organization as an affordable alternative to QuickBooks. With little to no bookkeeping experience, It's user-friendly interface allowed me to effectively and efficiently reconcile my payables and receivables and generate dynamic reports to track our overall financial performance and identify areas of opportunity.
  • Integrates perfectly with PayPal and Traditional Banks
  • Allows a novice to generate detailed reports and analytics
  • Easy to use visual interface
  • Affordable alternative to Quickbooks
  • Sorting and grouping invoices when reconciling payables
  • Payment interface integration with PayPal
  • Streamlining the banking history import features.
Xero is an ideal solution for Freelancers or Micro Agencies. It's easy to use, and you don't have to have a degree in finance to reconcile your books, keep accurate records, and generate reports.
It may or may not be as effective if multiple users were needed with various permission roles.
Lori Feldman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
After 10+ years with QuickBooks, I was ready for a change to accounting software that was designed for non-accounting types and didn't require me spending 5 hours a month to reconcile. (To be fair, we were on the desktop version and Xero's online version is what appealed to me.) The user interface in Xero was simple to understand because each screen only gives you so many choices. I only have 5 employees and only 2 on payroll. The rest are 1099s. Three of us have access, but I'm the only one with admin access.
  • Beautiful proposals compared to QuickBooks.
  • Easy reconciliation through the bank feed.
  • Customer service ALWAYS responds, although it may take them a day or so. I never feel abandoned by support.
  • Active and helpful community forum.
  • Even after 3 years, they never added Missouri to payroll, so I had to hire an outside payroll company, then reconcile their records with Xero.
  • The bank feed broke when my bank changed their authorization to a 2-step verification. Xero said it was out of their control, but I ended up having to export/import several times a month to stay up to date. Bummer.
  • Custom reporting is limited. There were many reports I would like to see and there's no way to create them unless Xero gives you something similar to customize.
I couldn't believe how little time I spent reconciling, compared to when I used to use QB. Xero is perfect for small businesses that don't have many transactions. I'm not sure if a larger company, with a CFO type role would find it detailed enough...not saying they wouldn't. But I have ZERO (no pun intended) expertise in accounting, so use a minimal amount of the firepower it seems to have. Reporting is not very detailed, so that would not be acceptable if I were more numbers oriented. As it is, I get that detail from my CPA, outside of Xero.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • The Robby Group is a Consultant/Advisory Accounting Firm that uses Xero, and all of our clients use Xero.
  • Our client base is small businesses with ten or fewer employees that need a reliable accounting, cloud-based application.
  • On the lowest level, easy to start using
  • On a higher level, it provides useful accounting reports that both accountants and non-accountants can read and understand.
  • Excellent Integration with other applications
  • Journal Entries - Accountants need to be able to entry to any Cash Accounts rather than always using "Spend" or Receive" Money.
  • Xero is suitable for small to mid-size companies
  • Large Corporations would most likely need a more advanced package
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